Several days later it was mid afternoon, and Hal had just finished cleaning the kitchen. Not much else she could think to do for the moment. Though the kitchen smelled delicious because of Emma’s two loaves of bread baking in the oven, the room was miserably hot. Hal wanted away from the heat for a bit to cool down so she went to the living room. She flopped down into John’s rocker and leaned back against the soft, folded quilt behind her. Letting out a gusty sigh, she decided she was content with the world around her. Trying to get comfortable and cooler, she gathered her long skirt up to her knees before she placed Emma’s recipe book on her lap. For a moment, she longed for her shorts instead of the cumbersome, hot skirt.
Thoughts of cool shorts made her sigh in regret. Quickly, that emotion turned to guilt, because she had such thoughts. She excused she was bound to miss English comforts she’d taken for granted for so many years. Guess she could miss them all she wanted if she didn’t say so out loud in front of Plain people. She couldn’t get excommunicated if she kept the thought to herself. Anyway, she guessed she was safe as long as she didn’t run into a Plain person that was a mind reader.
Hal laid her head back on the rocker, closed her eyes and listened to the silence. For the first time in days, she was alone in her home. Strange to think of the Lapp house as her home. Somehow it always felt more like Emma’s domain. Not that Hal thought that was a bad thing. She didn’t know sometimes how she’d manage without Emma to guide her. Housekeeping and cooking wasn’t talents she was born with. She thought her lot in life was to be a nurse. She’d never have time to be domestic. Boy, was she wrong. Now she was going to have to learn how to cook and clean. Skills she’d ignored all these years for that was exactly what being a homemaker was to Amish women. A talented skill perfected from when they were little girls.
Hal’s parents had left early that morning, headed on a six hour drive home. She missed them already. To her surprise, more than she thought she would. She heard the sounds of a buggy. John must be home from helping Samuel Nisely in his corn field. He thought they would be finished with the Nisely corn harvest before chore time.
The kids had gone fishing for the afternoon. The house was quiet, but that was a good thing. A very good thing to be able to sit down for a moment and enjoy the peace by herself. Hal picked up the spiraled notebook filled with handwritten recipes passed down from Lapp relatives to help Emma cook. She turned the pages. What she was looking for was one of Emma’s recipes she might do without flubbing it up. If she had supper ready before the children came home, wouldn’t Emma be surprised? Besides, Hal felt she should be doing more to help Emma.
The back door slammed. Hal jumped. The kids must be back early. As usual, Daniel made it to the door first. Quickly, she threw her skirt down over her legs before she got caught doing something considered wrong. She didn’t want to set a bad example for the kids.
Instead, it was John who lunged into the living room. He shouted breathlessly, “Hal, come quick. The kitchen is on fire.” A cloud of smoke floated around John.
“Oh my, Emma’s bread!” Hal shot out of the rocker, letting the recipe book flop onto the board floor. She raced past John into the smoke and grabbed a couple pot holders off the stack on the counter. White smoke wavered upward as the wisps leaked from the top of the oven. Hal jerked open the door. A contained mass of smoke billowed out of the oven and puffed into her face. She breathed it in and choked. Coughing, she lifted out one loaf pan of black bread. She dropped it on the table then grabbed the other one.
“Oh, this is so very awful,” Hal cried. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at John through the smoke. She grabbed a dish towel and flapped it in the air one direction than the other, trying to disperse the smoke toward the open window and back door.
“You forgot to watch for the bread to get done?” John asked.
“I thought I’d just sit down a minute. I didn’t think it was that long ago I put the bread in to bake.” Hal’s voice trembled. She blinked her burning smoke filled eyes and wiped tears off her cheeks with her sleeve. “I’m too used to depending on the stove timer in the apartment and the one on the microwave. They beeped when the food was ready. There isn’t a timer on this old wood cookstove to help me out.”
“Ach nah, I have never seen a timer on the stove,” John said, trying to commiserate with his upset wife.
“John, before Emma leaves home, could we have a gas stove installed? It would be so much easier for me to learn how to cook on,” pleaded Hal, snapping the dish towel in his direction.
John dodged as he agreed, “Sure enough, if the boys and me are not to starve to death that would be a gute idea.”
Quickly, she added, “And a gas refrigerator too.” Before John had time to think about her rushed request, she demanded, “Now quick, go get a shovel!”
So urgently commanding was Hal’s order John obeyed. He got as far as the outside door in the mud room and came back. “What do you want a shovel for?”
“I’ve got to bury this bread before Emma gets home,” Hal insisted frantically.
John shoved his hands in his pockets and quizzed. “Why?”
“I remember my mother telling me a story about a cake she baked when she was first married. The cake fell. Aunt Tootie and Uncle Frank were coming for lunch. She didn’t want them to see how awful the cake was so she threw it under the front porch and baked another one.”
John couldn’t figure out where this story was headed. He scratched his sideburn as he said slowly, “Hal, our front porch is boxed in at the bottom. You cannot throw a cake or the bread loaves under there.”
“I know that. That’s why I intend to bury the bread, because throwing the cake away idea didn’t work for Mom. You see our dog, Trouble, dragged Mom’s half eaten cake out and dropped it at Aunt Tootie and Uncle Frank’s feet. Of course, they had questions, and Mom had to confess. Uncle Frank has teased the daylights out of her ever since, and that happened years ago. Uncle Frank never lets up if he gets something on you. Remember that from now on.”
“I will, but I do not think your Uncle Frank will be coming to visit any time soon. If he did, you are not to worry Hal. We do not have a dog anymore. Remember?” John asked in a quiet tone, sounding much too patronizing to suit her.
Hal paced around the kitchen, waving the dish towel and darting glances out the window to make sure the kids weren’t in sight. “Please stay with me on this, John. Burying the bread has nothing to do with a dog.”
“But I thought you just said –-,” John began, looking more confused if that were possible.
Hal interrupted, “I don’t want Emma to come home and see the bread she worked so hard on looking like two lumps of coal. She’s not going to be happy with me.”
“I think it would be better to cut the black crust off and save the insides. Maybe Emma can figure out a use for the middles,” John said sensibly.
Hal scrunched up her face as she stared at the black loaves and wavered. “You think so? I don’t see how she could use brunt bread.”
“Jah, I think it would not hurt to ask her.”
Hal hesitated then declared, “Oh no, I’m not waiting for her to come home and see the mess I’ve made of her bread. Take these two pot holders.”
As she thrust the pot holders in his hands, John raised one eyebrow. “Why?”
“If you won’t help me bury the bread, you’re going to help me dump these loaf pans behind the hen house out of sight. We can only hope the chickens get rid of the evidence before Emma gets home. Be careful the pan is very hot yet,” Hal said, putting one pan in John’s hands and taking the other. “Hurry up now. The chickens won’t have long to get rid of this mess before Emma gets back.” She backed out the screen door and held it open until John came out.
John asked, “Where is Emma?”
“I sent her fishing with the boys. They were going to the creek. Emma hasn’t had free time to have fun for so long. I thought if I could get the hang of cooking, which at this point I admit looks hopeless, maybe Emma could relax just a little and have fun.”
“Maybe you should keep Emma home as much as possible while you still can,” John said, eying the burnt bread as he dumped it. He watched the loaf bounce and roll across the ground.
“Emma’s going to have the same thought I’m afraid if she thinks she can’t trust me to do such a simple thing as bake bread,” groaned Hal.
John nodded. “That maybe, but Emma will be sixteen in three weeks.”
“She will? You should have said something before this. That information couldn’t come at a worse time. I don’t know how to bake a cake from scratch yet for her birthday,” Hal moaned.
John put his arm around her shoulders and tried to sympathize. “It’s not so important that she has a cake. “
Hal pulled away from him. “It is too important Emma has a cake for her birthday. Do you know I don’t know any of your birthdays? The boys will need one, too. I’ll bet none of you have had a birthday cake in years. I want to change that. You have to tell me all your birthdays.” Hal rambled more to herself than to John. “I don’t know where my head has been. I should have thought to ask about birthdays sooner. Well, I have no other choice. Until I learn to bake a cake from scratch, I’ll buy a cake for Emma this one time.” She glanced at John to see if he was listening. He had crossed his arms over his chest and was giving her a look that said she’d gone haywire. “Oh okay, I know that’s cheating. All right, I’ll get a cake mix and make the cake myself. Mixes are practically fool proof these days.” Then she muttered on the verge of tears, “I hope anyway. Of course, I’ll have to babysit that dragon belching stove until the cake is done so I don’t burn it, too.”
“Come with me.” John insisted firmly as he got her by the elbow and led her back into the house. “Hal, please sit and talk to me. You have to calm down. Emma will be back soon to help you. I cannot figure what is the matter with you, but you have not been acting like yourself for days. I think you are sick, or you would not be so upset. What is wrong? You go from being sick at your stomach in the morning to flighty as a nervous filly at the least little thing the rest of the day.”
“That’s the way it is for women expecting,” Hal admitted, wiping her sweaty face on a potholder.
“What are you expecting?”
Hal’s gaze shifted to his face as she whispered, “A baby, John Lapp.”
John took her face in his hands. “We are having a baby! How long have you known?”
Hal paused to think. “I knew a few weeks after that night when that bundling idea of yours failed. For your information if Emma ever mentions bundling in a bed with a boy, I’m going to tell her to say no. Although I can’t be sure. Maybe this happened on our all night camping.”
John looked worried. “Why did you not say something before? Do you not want a baby?”
“Sure I want a baby, but I’ve been really worried about telling you. I wasn’t exactly sure how you would take the news. It seems I get in trouble so easy with everyone around here. If I am in trouble about this I’m warning you right now, you should stick up for me. Me being pregnant is half your fault.”
“Why would anyone not like you having our baby?” John said, confused.
“Do Amish people spend much time counting back if a baby comes seven months after a wedding?”
John grinned. “Nah, it happens, and no one seems to notice once the couple is married. I am glad and voonderball relieved. This news helps me know why you have been so ferhoodled.”
Hal studied the potholder in front of her, thinking about the burnt bread again. “You know you may be right about keeping Emma around here as long as we can. I have a lot to learn and taking care of a baby is one. I don’t expect Emma to know much about that at her age, but perhaps, Margaret or Jane can give me advice while Emma makes a cook out of me. That is if Emma isn’t too upset at me after today. She just might be ready to give up on me as a temperamental failure.” Hal winced.
“Now stop worrying about Emma. She is more than willing to help you learn to cook, and you did right to let her go fishing. It is gute the boys have her to watch them even though they can swim. Daniel might try to catch another frog and fall in a hole. The creek is deep in spots,” John said.
“Emma has help with that job. Levi is with them. He certainly has a level head on his shoulders for a young man, and he can swim. I asked him just to make sure,” declared Hal.
“Now it is you that is missing the point. Sixteen is when Plain girls start dating. Emma will be able to come and go as she pleases soon. You will have to figure out how to manage in the kitchen when she is not here. Levi is around so much. He may be thinking about becoming more than just a fishing friend sooner than we would like,” John warned.
“Oh, you’re sounding like a father. Levi is just a friend Emma grew up with. She thinks of him as another brother. He’s –-,” she searched for the right word. “Harmless.”
John shook his head. “I was a teenager once. Trust me. No boy Levi’s age is harmless.”
“Relax. Emma has never shown any interest in boys. She’s been too busy taking care of you and her brothers to even think about dating, and now she has me added to her workload,” Hal declared, wondering if she was trying to convince herself as much as John. As if somehow she could put off the inevitable. She sure hoped Emma leaving home was not going to happen any time soon.
“That can change mighty fast, Hal. There are several eligible young men in this community that will be paying attention to Emma one of these days. She is a good catch,” John warned, trying to prepare her.
Hal said, “Spoken like a proud father. Don’t worry. I’ll learn to do the kitchen duties and especially don’t worry this time. If I know Emma the only thing on her mind is besting the boys at fishing.”
Daniel’s excited voice interrupted from outside. “Mama Hal, come here.” The four children were on the porch steps. “Look at our fish,” Daniel said as he and Noah held up stringers lined with bullheads and bluegills.
“You had a good afternoon,” Hal praised them.
Grinning, Levi teased, “Ach nah, Emma did. We were about ready to send her home or not give her any more worms. That recht, Noah and Daniel?”
“Jah.” Noah nodded.
Daniel agreed as he glared at Emma, “That is recht.”
Emma quietly grinned from ear to ear.
Hal elbowed John in the ribs and whispered, “What did I tell you? We worry too much.”
“We?”
“That’s what I said. Now my problems about what to fix for supper have been solved, too. Care to stay and help us eat fried fish and biscuits, Levi? It’s the least Emma can do. Feed all of you hard working fishermen her catch.”