Something Old Read Online Free Page A

I want this to work.” Katy met their hopeful gazes. “But I planned all along to use my income to sell Dad on the idea. And now …” She shrugged.
    Lil crossed her arms. “You’re of legal age. You can do whatever you want.”
    Katy shot her a stern look. “I won’t go against their wishes.”
    Raising a palm, Megan stepped between them. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll talk to the Millers first. My folks won’t agree to anything until I graduate and find a job. But out of all our parents, they are the easiest to persuade. If your parents agree, I’m sure they will, too.”
    “I guess we’ll see if it’s the Lord’s will. I just can’t go through with it if my folks are against it,” Katy reiterated.
    Lil snatched Katy’s hand. “I want this so much. Come on. Let’s go get warm.”

    Later when Katy left the Millers, it was with the assurance that Lil would get the construction bids. Katy needed to obtain her parents’ permission and find another job. Not easy feats. Generally speaking, girls from her congregation didn’t leave home until they married, unless they attended Bible college. Over the years, her parents had often snickered at her dream, but they had never forbidden it. She had the impression they thought she would outgrow it.
    When she reached home, Katy hung up her coat. In the kitchen, her mom poked a long-handled fork into an oblong roasting pan of pork tenderloin done to perfection. Katy’s mouth watered. Stepping up to the sink, she washed her hands. “Hi, Mom. I’m home.”
    “Just in time to help.”
    Katy took a stack of plates and set one at each place setting: for her parents, herself, and the three siblings who still lived at home. “Just the family tonight?” Often her married brothers joined them.
    “Just us. Guess everybody’s staying put since Christmas is over.”
    Katy maneuvered around the pine table her grandfather had crafted in the woodworking shop he’d passed down to her dad. If they didn’t have company tonight, it would be a good time to approach her parents about the doddy house. She silently prayed for God to direct her future.
    Placing the forks on the left and the knives and spoons on the right of her mom’s pink Depression-glass plates, she thought about the renovations and how they would eat up her savings account. When they had first discovered the little house was up for rent, it had seemed like a divine gift. Now she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was too soon. They could wait another five months until after Megan graduated. It wasn’t like they planned to get married right away.
    If they missed the doddy house opportunity, though, they might need to take a city apartment. Already working for outsiders, she fought off a constant onslaught of worldly ideas and temptations. Sometimes at night in the bed she shared with her fourteen-year-old sister, Karen, the darkness would pull up disturbing images from Mrs. Beverly’s paperback novel covers. Katy’s pulse raced with shame. She tried not to glance at them when she dusted, but inevitably her gaze would photograph the detestable images. Her cheeks burned, and she moved to the other side of the table.
    And hadn’t the outsiders’ Christmas decorations enthralled her? She pressed her lips together and straightened a fork. She hadn’t even felt ashamed. Then she relaxed. Her mind was just occupied with this doddy house problem. But she didn’t want to live among the outsiders, too. She liked the idea of a safe little place tucked in among her own people. She wished she could find a job with another Mennonite family.
    “Katy!” Her mother’s sharp tone invaded her rambling thoughts.
    “What?”
    “I asked you before. Do you want to mash the potatoes or go round up your siblings?”
    “Oh.” She glanced about confused.
    “Karen helped me get supper started and took some clean laundry upstairs. She was going to work on a school report. Your brothers are out in the shop with your dad.”