Chapter 9
— chapter nine
Katie was happy that school was out for the summer. Jenna was too. She loved these lazy days with her daughter, especially since her five-year-old was such a busy girl. Each morning, she jumped out of bed when the sun rose and hurried into the living room to play with the kitten.
After Jenna got up with her the first morning of summer vacation, she realized that Katie preferred having some time to herself. Her little girl had her own routine. After waking up Blue, she would go to the cookie jar, grab an oatmeal cookie, and then play in the living room with that silly cat.
When the kitten was ready for a break, she’d eat her cookie and look at her library books or color pictures.
After spending the last year rushing to make sure Katie’s lunch pail was full and her schoolwork was done before walking her to school, Jenna appreciated these lazy mornings very much.
She would have a cup of coffee, get dressed, and make them both a good breakfast. After that, they did a few chores in the house.
And after that?
Well, Katie wanted to run and play outside, go exploring, help water plants, and generally be a busy little girl.
She was a joy. A muddy, dirty joy, but a joy, without a doubt.
She was also interested in everything. Which, at the moment, was a toad that had been happily resting in a patch of mud on the edge of the garden before Katie spied it.
“Mamm! It hopped!”
Indeed it had. Its big eyes were actively looking for an escape route.
“Goodness, child. It’s just a toad, and it’s likely its suppertime.
Let the poor thing get on its way to its family.
” Sure, she was making up a whole life for this toad, but since it was almost their suppertime as well, Jenna figured the storytelling was warranted.
“But it’s ginormous!” Katie started jumping up and down, her little hands grasping the skirt of her dress and lifting it high over her ankles.
The poor toad looked petrified. It was obvious that it didn’t know where to go but that it would do most anything to escape as soon as possible. When it hopped, Katie squealed, scaring the poor creature half to death.
Jenna couldn’t help it. She started laughing. And then she couldn’t stop. Not even as she watched Nelson park his truck and hurry over to join them.
“What’s going on?” he called out. “Are you two okay?”
“We’re fine,” Jenna said as she continued to try to stop laughing. “It’s a toad you should be worried about.”
“A what?”
“That!” Katie pointed to the now rather disgruntled-looking toad sitting in the middle of all of them.
Nelson tilted his head to one side, then looked down. “Katie Graber, are you squealing at this toad?”
“Jah!” She jumped up and down, then shrieked again when the poor thing attempted to hop toward freedom. “He was in our garden and now he wants to hop on me!”
Shaking her head, Jenna said, “I’m afraid all he’s trying to do is escape. My darling daughter is making poor Mr. Toad’s efforts mighty difficult.”
“Nee, Mamm, he’s trying to hop on my foot.”
“If he is, it’s because your foot is a muddy mess, child.”
Nelson bent closer to the toad. “I think Mr. Toad regrets his decision to hop in your garden, Kitty. What do you think, Jenna?”
“I think so too,” she replied as she attempted to catch her breath. “Kitty is being so silly, though. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard her raise such a fuss about a frog.”
“It’s slimy and ugly and huge, Mamm.” She lifted her chin. “It’s also a toad, not a frog. Right, Nelson?”
“Well, now, I can’t say that I agree with your description,” he said slowly as he bent down to look at the toad more closely. “He is a toad, but he’s not slimy or ugly. I think he is a very handsome toad.”
Katie wrinkled her nose. “Toads canna be handsome.”
“Of course they can. Otherwise they’d never find themselves a toad wife, true?” He lowered his voice. “You see, I reckon he’s a right good-looking toad to all the female toads around here.”
“He was trying to get the zucchini.” Katie pointed to the zucchini patch in the garden.
“I don’t know about that. I reckon he’d rather have a fly than a zucchini, don’t you think?” When Katie shrugged, Nelson smiled. “I agree with your mamm—he’s trying to escape.” Nelson looked around, found a sturdy twig, and picked it up. “How about we help him move along?”
Katie’s eyes widened. “Are you going to kill him?”
“Not at all. Just give him a nudge.” Nelson glanced at her. “Is that okay with you, Jenna?”
“It’s more than okay. I agree that Mr. Toad would like nothing better than to move on.” She reached for Katie. “Step over here, child, so Nelson can help our visitor hop away.”
Carefully, Nelson nudged the toad. To everyone’s surprise, the toad didn’t budge.
Katie frowned. “Is he hurt?”
“I don’t think so.” Nelson bent down, scooped up the toad in his hands, walked a few feet, and then deposited it on the edge of the neighbor’s yard. “Here you go, buddy. Have a good evening.”
Katie scurried over to Nelson’s side and grabbed his leg as they watched the toad sit for a second, then hop away. Thirty seconds later, he was out of sight.
“Danke, Nelson,” Jenna murmured with a small smile. “You surely came to our rescue today.”
“Are your hands yucky?” Katie asked. “Do you have toad slime on them?”
He held up his hands. “Not at all. Obviously, you need to hold a toad one day soon. Just because he’s not a cute furball like your kitten doesn’t mean he’s an awful creature.” Leaning down, he added, “Not all of God’s creatures are beautiful, but that doesn’t mean that they are bad.”
“Mamm?”
“I must agree with Nelson, dear.”
“Next time he comes to the garden, I’ll try not to scream at him,” Katie pronounced.
“I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’ll ever venture this way again,” Jenna said. Pointing to the four zucchini that she’d picked and laid on the ground, she said to Katie, “Go rinse off your feet in the hose, then put these zucchini on the kitchen counter.”
“I’m gonna take a shower too.”
Thankful that her daughter had been taking showers on her own for several months, Jenna nodded. “I think that’s a gut idea. Be sure you put on a fresh dress. I’ll be in soon.”
“Are you coming inside too, Nelson?”
“It depends on your mamm. She might have something else planned for the evening.”
“Do we, Mamm?”
She knew Nelson had given her a way out on purpose. Katie might think that they had plans, but what Nelson was really asking was if she was going to allow him to visit.
She had pushed him away but regretted that decision almost immediately, and she realized that she didn’t want to push him away again.
“We have time for a visit,” she answered at last. “Nelson, would you like to stay for supper?”
“Thank you. I would.” He smiled over at Katie, who was rinsing her feet with the hose. “I mean, I would as long as Katie isn’t covered in mud.”
“I’m going into the shower now!” she called out, completely forgetting the vegetables on the ground as she shut off the hose and hurried inside.
Nelson laughed. “I’m afraid the hose didn’t clean her feet too well. You’re going to have footprints on your floor.”
Jenna shrugged. “There are worse things to worry about.”
As she hoped, his gaze warmed. “Jenna, the truth now. I came over because I didn’t want another week to go by without checking on you two. But are you sure you want me to stay for supper?”
“You’d be doing me a favor if you did. I made meatballs. With it, we’re having buttered noodles and pan-fried zucchini.”
He blinked. “All that?”
“It’s nothing too special, though I did make fresh bread and some shortbread cookies. The cookies are delicious.”
“It all sounds delicious.”
“So you’ll stay?”
“You forget that I’m a bachelor, right? You had me at supper. I would’ve said yes to a sandwich.”
“Sometimes I think you are too easy to please,” she chided as she led the way inside.
Nelson hurried forward, scooped up the zucchini, and reached for the door. “Funny, I’ve thought the same thing about you from time to time.”
Jenna was taken aback by his words. She was eager to ask him what he meant, but she also didn’t want to press him for an explanation. It would surely seem as if she was begging for compliments, and Jimmy had never liked her to do that.
The random thought caught her off guard.
At least a week had passed since the last time she’d thought of Jimmy.
It was far longer than that since she’d recalled something so specific.
Most of the time, whenever she thought of him now, it was in vague, general terms, such as how long it had been since he’d passed, or how he loved warm summer days so very much.
Hardly ever did she allow herself to think anything negative about him. But the truth was that sometimes he had gotten impatient with her or would blurt something that she would take the wrong way.
She walked through the open doorway, hurried to the kitchen sink, and washed her hands. If Nelson hadn’t been following, she would have splashed some cold water on her cheeks as well.
“Hey, are you having second thoughts?”
She turned off the faucet. “Nee. Why do you ask?”
“Because you look like you’ve just seen a ghost. If the thought of me sharing a meal with you makes you uncomfortable, then I will leave. No hard feelings.”
She noticed then that Nelson was still standing near the door, like he was prepared to exit immediately the second she told him to.
“I don’t want you to leave. I’m not uncomfortable.”
Realizing that he was still staring at her, waiting for her to give him an inkling of what was on her mind, she met his gaze. “I had just thought of something that Jimmy would have said to me. It took me by surprise.”
“Ah. Does that happen often?”
She shook her head, wondering if she should feel guilty about that. “Not really. I mean, sometimes I’ll remember something about Jimmy, but it’s nothing specific. Just now, I was reacting to something that he would’ve said.” She opened a cabinet, pulled out a plate, and carried it to the table.
“How can I help?”