Free Growing Up in Lancaster County by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Rachel.
    “What do you think?” she asked.
    “I didn’t realize your glasses would be so thick.” Jacob’s lips turned up at the corners. “Ha! Now you have four eyes instead of two!”
    “What?” Rachel’s chin trembled, and her eyes filled with tears.
    Mom frowned at Jacob. “Apologize to your sister for saying such a mean thing.”
    “Your mamm’s right,” Pap put in. “That remark was uncalled for and not even true.”
    “Sorry, Rachel,” Jacob mumbled.
    Rachel didn’t reply. She raced to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.
Do I really look like I have four eyes? If I do, I don’t see how I can go to school tomorrow. I’ll have to come up with a good reason to stay home
.

Chapter 8
Jacob’s Promise

    B am! Bam! Bam!
“Mom wants you downstairs for breakfast!” Jacob called as he banged on Rachel’s bedroom door. “If we don’t eat now, we’ll be late for school!”
    Rachel pulled the covers over her head.
    “Schnell, Rachel! Schnell!”
    “Okay, okay. I’ll be there soon.” Rachel climbed out of bed and hurried to get dressed. She still hadn’t come up with a good reason to stay home from school today, but she hoped she could think of something during breakfast.
    Or maybe
, she thought as she slipped into her shoes,
I won’t wear my glasses at school
.
    Rachel left her glasses lying on her dresser, hurried from her room, and rushed downstairs.
    “
Guder mariye
[Good morning],” Mom said when Rachel entered the kitchen. “We’re ready to eat, so have a seat at the table.”
    Rachel pulled out the chair beside Grandpa and sat down.
    Pap looked at Rachel and frowned. “Where are your glasses?”
    “I—I left them in my room.”
    Mom placed a bowl of oatmeal in front of Rachel. “Be sure you get them right after breakfast.”
    Rachel fiddled with the edge of her napkin. “Maybe I—uh—shouldn’t wear them today.”
    “Why not?” Pap asked. “You’re supposed to wear them all the time, right?”
    “Jah, but—” Rachel could barely speak around the lump in her throat. She took a drink of milk. “What if the kinner laugh at me the way Jacob did last night? What if someone calls me ‘four eyes’?”
    “I’m sure no one at school will tease you about your glasses,” Mom said, sitting on the other side of Rachel. “Elizabeth would never allow such a thing.” She looked at Jacob and frowned. “You’d better not tease your sister about wearing glasses again.”
    “Okay, Mom,” Jacob said with a nod.
    “What if someone teases me during recess when Elizabeth’s not there to hear?” Rachel asked.
    “Then you should find the teacher and tell her what was said,” Henry spoke up.
    “If I do that, the kinner will call me a
retschbeddi
[tattletale].”
    Jacob looked at Rachel and wrinkled his nose. “That’s because you
are
a retschbeddi.”
    “Am not.”
    “Are so.”
    “Am not.”
    “Are so.”
    “Am—”
    “That will be enough!” Pap said loudly. “Now bow your heads for silent prayer, and be sure when you pray that you make things right with God for arguing with each other this morning.”
    As Rachel headed to school wearing her glasses, she noticed the colorful flowers along the way. She wished she had time to stop and pick a few.
    She looked at the fluffy clouds floating lazily overhead. It would be nice to lie in the grass and study the shapes of the clouds.
    When they came to a tree where some birds were singing, Rachel stopped and listened to their melody.
    Jacob nudged her arm. “Hurry up, slowpoke. You’re gonna make us late to school if you don’t keep walking.”
    “I am walking.”
    “No you’re not. You’ve been looking at the sky and stopping every few minutes to smell the flowers.”
    “I haven’t been smelling the flowers; I’ve only looked at them.”
    “Whatever you say, little bensel.”
    Rachel frowned. “Mom said you weren’t supposed to tease me.”
    “I wasn’t teasing.” Jacob kicked a pebble with the toe of his boot.