Growing Up in Lancaster County (50 page)

“I—I don’t think so. I might mess it up.”

“I’m sure you won’t. You’ve seen Mom do it many times. Please, Rachel, it can’t be that hard.”

“I don’t know—”

Jacob touched her arm. “It’s just a simple cut. Maybe you could put a bowl on my head and cut around it.”

Rachel snickered. “Jah, right, Jacob. Now that would really be
dumm
[dumb].”

He chuckled. “Maybe so, but I’m sure if you just take your time, you can cut my hair with no trouble at all.”

“I have trouble with almost everything these days,” Rachel said. “I think you should wait until Mom has time to cut your hair.”

“She may never have the time,” Jacob argued. “Between taking care of Hannah, helping Esther with Ben, and keeping things going around here, she’s busier than a bird building a nest.”

Rachel couldn’t argue with that. Mom was busier than ever these days, and Rachel had been given a lot more chores to do since Hannah came along.

Jacob shook Rachel’s arm. “Will you cut my hair or not?”

“No.”

“I’ll pay you a quarter.” “That’s not enough.” “How about fifty cents?” “Make it a dollar and I’ll do it.” Jacob frowned. “You drive a hard bargain, Rachel. Are you sure you won’t do it for less?”

She folded her arms and shook her head.

“Okay, I’ll pay you one dollar for cutting my hair.” Jacob jumped up. “I’ll get the scissors and meet you in the kitchen,” he called as he raced out the door.

Rachel groaned and rose to her feet. “I sure hope I don’t mess up Jacob’s hair.”

When Rachel entered the kitchen a few minutes later, she found Jacob sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. A pair of scissors and a comb lay on the counter. He smiled up at her. “Ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Rachel picked up the comb and ran it through the sides of Jacob’s hair.

“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be cutting my hair, not combing it,” he grumbled.

“I know, but I need to make sure all the ends are straight before I begin.” Truthfully, that was only part of the reason Rachel had combed Jacob’s hair. She was really stalling for time. “I—uh—need to clean my glasses so I can see clearly what I’m doing.”

“Your glasses don’t look dirty to me.” Jacob grunted. “Just hurry up and get this done. I don’t have all day!”

Rachel gritted her teeth and picked up the scissors. It would serve Jacob right if she cut all his hair off and he ended up bald like baby Ben.
Snip! Snip!
She cut one side, and then she moved to the other.
Snip! Snip!

“Oops!”

“Oops, what?” Jacob’s forehead wrinkled. “What’d you do to my hair, Rachel?”

“Uh—the left side looks a little shorter than the right side.”

Jacob raced to the mirror hanging on the wall. “It’s not so bad,” he said, pulling his fingers through the left side of his hair. “All you need to do is cut a little more hair off the right side of my head and everything will be fine.”

Rachel wasn’t so sure about that, but she nodded and said, “Take a seat.”

Jacob plunked down in his chair and turned his head so the right side was facing Rachel.

She picked up the scissors.
Snip! Snip!

“Oh, oh.”

Jacob’s eyes widened. “‘Oh, oh,’ what, Rachel?”

“Now the right side looks shorter.”

“Then take a little more off the left side.” Jacob glanced at the clock on the wall. “And hurry up. I don’t want to be sitting here all day.”

Rachel studied the left side of Jacob’s hair; then she studied the right side. She snipped a little here and a little there. Finally, she smiled and said, “I think both sides are even now.”

“What about the back? You haven’t cut any of that yet,” Jacob said.

Rachel moved behind Jacob and lifted the scissors.
Snip! Snip! Snip!

“‘Oh no!” she groaned.

“‘Oh no,’ what?” Jacob frowned. “What’d you do to my hair, Rachel?”

Rachel shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, I—uh—”

“Just say it, Rachel! Tell me what you did!”

Rachel’s chin quivered, and her eyes filled with tears. “Th–there’s a chunk of hair missing, and—and it looks real bad.”

Jacob touched the back of his head and winced. “Can’t you fix it?”

She shook her head. “Not unless you want me to glue it back on.”

“Very funny, Rachel.” He scowled at her. “Wait until Mom sees what you’ve done!”

Rachel gulped, wondering what kind of punishment Mom would dish out for this.

“This is what I get for listening to you,” she said, pointing at Jacob. “You begged me to cut your hair, and you said it wouldn’t be hard.” She slowly shook her head. “You gave me some very bad advice!”

Jacob grunted. “You’re the one who messed up my hair, so don’t blame me. You should have held the scissors steadier and paid closer attention to what you were doing.”

Rachel dropped the scissors on the counter and held out her hand. “Where’s my money?”

“What money?”

“The money you said you’d pay me for cutting your hair.”

Jacob pulled his fingers through the back of his hair and grunted. “You expect me to pay you for messing up my hair?”

Rachel nodded. “You said you would.” She figured if she got paid, it might make her feel a little better. After Mom came home and looked at Jacob’s hair, Rachel knew she wouldn’t feel good about anything.

Jacob marched across the room to the mirror. He turned his head from side to side; then his face got red.

“I can’t see what you did to the back of my head,” he said, glaring at Rachel, “but I can see what you did to the sides, and they look baremlich!” He grabbed his straw hat from the wall peg and pushed it on his head. “I’ll never be able to take my hat off again!”

“Sure you will…as soon as your hair grows out.” Rachel held out her hand. “Are you going to pay me or not?”

“No, I’m definitely not!”

“You’d better keep your promise, Jacob Yoder.” By now, Rachel’s patience had ended. She hadn’t wanted to cut Jacob’s hair in the first place, but he’d insisted. She wished she hadn’t let him talk her into it. What a huge mistake.

“I won’t pay you one single cent!” Jacob shouted.

“What’s all the yelling about?” Mom asked as she came through the back door with Hannah. “I could hear you two hollering clear out by the buggy shed.”

Mom halted, and her mouth dropped open. “Ach, Jacob! What happened to your hair?”

Jacob pointed at Rachel. “She cut it, and now it’s ruined!”

Rachel gulped. How could she explain her way out of this? She couldn’t fix the mistake she’d made on Jacob’s hair, and she sure couldn’t hide it, either.
“Er hot mich verschwetzt
[He talked me into it],” she said, pointing at Jacob.

Mom squinted at Jacob as she shifted Hannah to her other arm. “You asked Rachel to cut your hair?”

Jacob’s face turned red as he nodded slowly.

“Why’d you do that, Jacob? Why didn’t you ask me to cut your hair?” Mom questioned.

“I did ask, but you always said you were too busy.” Jacob pointed to his hair. “I didn’t think it’d be that hard to cut, so I asked Rachel to do it.”

“Actually, he begged me to cut it,” Rachel said. “He even promised to give me a dollar if I cut it, but now he won’t pay what he owes.”

Mom’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Jacob. “I’m not happy that you asked Rachel to cut your hair. You should have waited until I had the time.”

Jacob hung his head. “I know that now.”

“But since you did ask her, and since you promised to pay her for doing it, then you need to make good on that promise.” Mom tipped Jacob’s chin up so he was looking at her. “I should make you go around with your hair like that until it grows out.”

Jacob’s eyes got real huge. “Aw, Mom, please, can’t you do something to make me look better?”

“I suppose I can try to even it up some.” Mom handed the baby to Rachel. “Hannah has a dirty windel, so I’d like you to change it while I trim Jacob’s hair.”

Rachel wrinkled her nose. “Eww…do I have to?”

Mom nodded. “You should be glad I’m not punishing you for cutting your bruder’s hair.”

“Changing a dirty windel is punishment to me,” Rachel mumbled as she carried Hannah out of the room.

On Saturday morning that week, Rachel was headed outside to feed her cats when a blond head appeared around the corner of the barn. It was her English friend Sherry.

“Hi, Rachel,” Sherry said. “I came over to see if you could play.”

Rachel smiled and lifted the sack of cat food in her hands. “As soon as I feed my cats, I’ll be free for the rest of the day.”

“Do you need to check with your folks first and see if they want you to do something else?” Sherry asked.

Rachel shook her head. “Mom took Hannah over to my sister Esther’s house awhile ago, and she’ll probably be gone for several hours. Pap, Henry, and Jacob are working in the fields, so they won’t need me.”

“What about your grandpa? Will he need your help in the greenhouse?”

Rachel shook her head again. “I don’t think so. He hasn’t had much for me to do there lately.”

“That’s too bad. I know how much you like working in the greenhouse,” Sherry said.

“I do,” Rachel agreed, “but I’ve been busy with schoolwork and other things.”

“I know what you mean. It seems like the older I get, the more homework I have.” Sherry shrugged. “Guess it’s all part of growing up.”

“I suppose so.” Rachel started walking for the barn. After the chickens had made a mess on the back porch and had eaten the cats’ food, Mom had made Rachel keep the cats’ dishes in the barn. She guessed that made sense since Snowball and Cuddles liked to play and sleep in the barn.

“You can help me feed the cats if you want to,” Rachel said to Sherry. “When we’re done we can think of something fun to do.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Sherry ran ahead of Rachel and opened the barn door.

When they stepped inside, Cuddles and Snowball darted out from behind a bale of hay and ran toward Rachel.

“Are you hungry?” she asked, pouring food into their bowls.

Meow!
Cuddles stuck her head in the dish and started crunching away.

Meow!
Snowball did the same.

Sherry snickered. “They act like they haven’t been fed in days.”

“They’ve been fed all right.” Rachel shrugged. “They always act desperate, and Snowball is a regular sau.”

“What’s a sau?” Sherry asked.

“It means ‘pig.’” Rachel motioned to the cats’ dishes. “See what I mean? They’ve eaten almost all the food I put in.”

Sherry laughed. “My dog Bundles eats like a sau, too.”

Rachel moved toward the door. “Let’s leave these two alone to finish their meal while we find something fun to do.”

When they stepped outside, Sherry pointed to the horse and buggy tied to the hitching rail near the barn. “Whose rig is that?” she asked.

“It belongs to my oldest brother, Henry,” Rachel said. “He was planning to run to town for some supplies, but Pap asked him to go to the fields to help with something first.”

“You know,” said Sherry as she continued to stare at the buggy, “I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to ride in one of those.”

Rachel shrugged. “It’s nothing special to me, but I’ve ridden in buggies since I was a baby.”

“I’d sure like to take a ride in that buggy,” Sherry said wistfully. “Do you think I can?”

Rachel shook her head. “I don’t think so. When Henry gets back from helping Pap, he’ll be heading for town to run his errands, and I’m sure he won’t have time to give you a buggy ride.”

“It’s not fair,” Sherry said. “You got to ride in my brother’s car when we went to Hershey Park this summer. I’d really like a ride in that buggy.”

“Like I said, it’s not possible because—”

“You could give me a ride,” Sherry said. “If your brother went to help in the fields, it might be quite awhile before he gets back.”

Rachel shook her head vigorously. “No! I’ve never driven a buggy before.”

“Never?”

“Nope.”

“But I thought Amish kids learned how to drive a horse and buggy when they were young. That’s what my brother, Dave, told me he heard someone say.”

“Well, I did sort of drive the buggy once,” Rachel said. “It was last summer, and I was sitting on my dad’s lap, and he let me hold the reins. I’m not sure I could do it alone though.”

“You’ll never know until you try.” Sherry touched Rachel’s arm. “Would you do it as a favor to me?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Please, Rachel. I know you can do it, and we wouldn’t have to go very far…just to the end of your driveway and back.”

Rachel thought about that. Would it be okay to do as Sherry suggested? They wouldn’t go far, and she was pretty sure she could make the horse do what she wanted him to.

“Okay,” Rachel said. “I’ll take you for a ride down our driveway and back.”

“Yeah!” Sherry clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “I can hardly wait!” She tossed her sweater into the buggy and scrambled into the passenger’s side on the left.

Rachel untied the horse, backed him away from the hitching rail, and climbed into the buggy on the right side, where the driver was supposed to sit. Then she gathered the reins and clucked to the horse, the way she’d seen Pap do many times.

Clip-clop. Clip-clop
. The horse plodded along the driveway.
This is easy
, Rachel thought.
It’s actually kind of fun
.

“Can’t you make him go faster?” Sherry asked, nudging Rachel’s arm.

Rachel snapped the reins, and the horse picked up speed.

“Let’s go out on the road,” Sherry said.

Rachel shook her head. “No! That could be dangerous.”

“It won’t hurt anything, Rachel,” Sherry said. “You’re doing a good job driving the buggy, and we don’t have to go very far.”

Rachel bit her lower lip. If she could drive the buggy out on the road by herself, she would prove she was grown up.

“Okay, here we go.” Rachel guided the horse onto the road and smiled when he did as she directed.

Sherry nudged Rachel’s arm again and giggled. “This is sure fun, isn’t it?”

Rachel nodded and tried to concentrate on what she was doing.

They’d only gone a short distance when the buggy hit a rut in the road. Sherry’s sweater slid off the seat and landed on the floor by Rachel’s feet. Rachel leaned to pick it up, and then—
Beep! Beep!
—a car honked its horn as it sped past.