Love Finds a Home (Anthologies) (18 page)

“No … no, not at all.” Judith held the tree steady as, one by one, he dropped the rocks into the bucket.

“There, that oughta do it. You can let go now.”

Judith eased her fingers off the trunk and stepped slowly away. Ernie was right—the tree stayed in place. “It looks good.” She moved to one side and appraised their efforts. “Tomorrow the students can decorate it with paper chains and strings of popcorn.”

Ernie added water to the bucket, then pointed to the floor where he’d dumped the rocks. “Sorry ’bout the mess. If you’ll tell me where ya keep the mop, I’ll clean it up.”

“Oh, that’s all right. I was in the process of cleaning anyhow.”

He glanced around the room. “Looks like you’re purty well done.”

She reached up to push aside a wayward strand of hair that had escaped her bun and nodded. “Yes, I was almost done, but I’ll just mop up the mess and be on my way home.”

Ernie opened his mouth, like he might argue with her, but then he clamped it shut and moved toward the door. Instead of opening it, however, he dragged the toe of his boot across the floor, making a scraping sound.

“Will you be free to come to the school program tomorrow evening?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’m aimin’ to.”

“I’m sure your children will be glad. Andy is one of the shepherds, and Grace has the part of an angel.”

“So I heard.”

Judith was tempted to open the door and order the man out so she could finish cleaning and have a chance to calm down before heading to the Jacobses’, but she knew that would be rude. Instead, she stood off to one side with her arms folded, waiting to see what he would do or say next.

Ernie finally grabbed hold of the doorknob. “Guess I’d best be gettin’ home. The kids will start to worry if I ain’t there soon.” After a long pause, he added, “I’ll be makin’ Andy’s favorite meal—fried potatoes and ham. Don’t make it nearly as well as my wife used to, but it fills the hole.” With that, he stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and ambled out the door.

“Thanks for the tree,” Judith called to his retreating form.

His only response was a backward wave.

She closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh. “That man is so hard to figure out. One thing I do know is he cares about his children.”

“You need to calm yourselves down some,” Ernie said to his kids as they headed to the schoolhouse the following night for the program. “You two have been jumpin’ around like a couple of squirrels ever since we left home.”

“I’m scared I’ll mess up my part,” Andy told his father.

“Well, there’s nothin’ to be nervous about,” Ernie asserted. “You’ve been practicin’ your lines for weeks, and not once have ya messed up.”

“Didn’t have no audience at home,” the boy muttered.

“You’ll do fine, just wait and see.”

“I ain’t nervous,” Grace put in. “But I am excited ’bout the candy Miss King is gonna give everyone after the play.”

Ernie smiled. Judith certainly liked her pupils, and from what he could tell, they liked her, too.

By the time they got to the schoolhouse, Andy and Grace had calmed down. The room was full of parents—some who’d crammed into their children’s desks—others who stood at the back of the room, prepared to watch the play.

“Where’s all the kids?” Ernie asked his son.

“Must be in the coatroom. That’s where Miss King said we was supposed to put our costumes on over our clothes.”

“Guess you’d better get in there.” Ernie found a place at the back of the room, and his children disappeared into the coatroom.

A short time later, Judith appeared wearing a long red skirt and a white blouse with lace around the cuffs. Ernie thought she’d never looked more beautiful, and he couldn’t help but stare.

Judith welcomed everyone and introduced each child who had a speaking part. Next came the pageant, complete with Nativity scene.

Ernie felt a sense of pride when his kids said their parts without missing a word. They might not be as smart or be dressed as well as some of the other students, but at least they hadn’t done or said anything to make them look stupid.

All the parents seemed to enjoy the program, and afterward, during a time of refreshments, Ernie poured a glass of punch and handed it to his son. “Give this to your teacher, would ya?”

Andy’s forehead wrinkled. “Why don’t ya take it to her yourself, Papa?”

Ernie shook his head. “Naw. It’d be better comin’ from you.”

Andy shrugged, took the glass, and started across the room.

Ernie stood beside the Christmas tree, now decorated from top to bottom, and watched as the boy handed his teacher the punch. Judith smiled, said something to Andy, and then looked Ernie’s way. He felt the heat of a blush creep up his neck and sweep onto his cheeks, so he quickly averted his gaze. Had Andy told his teacher the punch was his dad’s idea?
Naw. My boy knows better than to say somethin’ like that
.

CHAPTER 9

A
s the weeks moved on, Judith was pleased that the letter box continued to work well and that the children asked more questions about things pertaining to their education. However, she was troubled by some of the unsigned letters she had received. She suspected that one of her students might have a crush on her. She’d taken it lightly at first, answering each of those letters with some comment about her being glad the student liked her. The letter she’d gotten this morning, however, was a bit harder to answer. It read:

Dear Teacher:

My heart beats like a hammer and my hands get all
sweaty whenever you’re near. If it were possible, I’d ask ya to marry me some day
.

Judith squinted at the letters on the page. She hadn’t been able to match the handwriting to any of her students, but she figured whoever wrote the letter was probably not using the hand he normally wrote with. She’d thought for a while it could be Andy, since his arm had been in a sling for a few days. But Andy was better now and had been using his right hand for several weeks.

She needed to call a halt to this before it went any further, so she picked up her pencil and wrote the following reply:

Dear Student:

I’m flattered that you wish you could marry me. However, I’m too old for you, and I’m your teacher, not your girlfriend. I think it would be best if you only wrote letters with questions about things we are learning in class
.

Miss King

The
splat
of a snowball hit the front window, and Judith knew it was time for the students to come in from their morning recess. She left her desk to open the front door, and a blast of frigid air hit her full in the face. How could the children stand to play in such cold weather?

Judith rang the bell, and her pupils filed into the room, talking, laughing, and shaking snow off their coats, hats, and mittens. After putting their wraps inside the coatroom, they took their seats.

Judith scrutinized the desks and realized one child was missing. Where was Grace Snyder? Had she gone to the outhouse or not heard the bell?

She opened the front door and peered into the schoolyard. Several feet from the porch, Grace was sprawled in the snow, moving her arms and legs up and down.

“Recess is over and you need to come inside,” Judith called to the child.

Grace hopped up and raced over to another untouched snowy area. “In a minute, Teacher. I’m makin’ twin snow angels.”

“You can do that at noon or during afternoon recess.”

Grace folded her arms and pouted. “I wanna do it now.”

The child had never carried on like this before, and Judith was taken by surprise. “I’m only going to say this once more. Come inside.”

Grace shook her head. “Not till the snow angels are done.”

Unmindful of her long skirt or the fact that she had no wrap on, Judith trudged through the snow and took hold of Grace’s arm. “Since you disobeyed, you’ll have to stay after school and clean the blackboard.”

Grace burst into tears. “I don’t wanna do that!”

“Then you should have come inside when I asked you to.”

The child sniffled all the way to the schoolhouse and even after she had removed her coat, hat, and mittens.

Judith knew she couldn’t allow any of her students to talk back or defy the rules. Hopefully by tomorrow, Grace would realize that her teacher was also her friend.

“You’ve gotta go to the schoolhouse with me tomorrow mornin’, Papa!” Grace shouted when Ernie arrived home from work and found his children huddled in front of the woodstove.

He bent over and scooped the little girl into his arms. “What’s all this about me needin’ to go to the schoolhouse?”

“I want ya to talk with Teacher. She’s mean, and I don’t like her no more.”

Ernie lifted his brows. “What’s the problem?”

“Aw, she’s just mad ’cause Miss King made her stay after school and clean the blackboard,” Andy said, stepping up to his father.

Ernie was puzzled. Grace had never been in trouble with the teacher before. In fact, ever since she’d received the sack of candy from Judith after the Christmas program, all Grace could talk about was how sweet her teacher was. “Tell me what happened, daughter.”

Tears pooled in the girl’s brown eyes. “She said I couldn’t make snow angels.”

Ernie clenched his teeth. Why would anyone deny a child the right to make an angel in the snow? This didn’t sound like something Judith would do, but he needed to find out.

He placed Grace on the floor. “I’ll take you and your brother to school tomorrow, and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Judith was surprised when she saw Ernie walk up the snowy path toward the schoolhouse with Grace and Andy at his side. He hadn’t accompanied them in quite a while, and she wondered if he’d come today because it was snowing hard again and he felt concern for their safety.

She lifted her hand in a friendly wave. “Good morning, Ernie. Good morning, children.”