Abram's Daughters 01 The Covenant (18 page)

"I 'spect once the place was built." Dawdi sighed, as if he was becoming restless. "Your pop and his brothers set to huildin' it for her."

"So she could live near Mamma?"

Dawdi rubbed his long gray beard. "Most maidels want a hit of independence, I 'spect. As I recall, Lizzie wanted that, jah. Yet here she could still be close enough for family activities and whatnot."

She thought on this. Aunt Lizzie was awful fond of them, which was mighty nice. And they loved her, too, same as all (heir aunts and uncles. "I'm glad Lizzie lives near us."

"Well, now, I am too," Dawdi declared.

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His coffee needed warming up, so she got up from the table and poured some more for him without asking. "It's nice you've come to live here," she said.

"This way I can get to know my granddaughters better over in this part of the world."

She had to smile at that. Surely Dawdi must feel as if his children and grandchildren were scattered all round Lancaster County. And they were, come to think of it. Which was the reason Dat and Mamma hardly ever made the trip over to see Aunt Becky and Uncle Noah and all those cousins. Such a long way it was.

Suddenly she said, "You're the last of my Grosseldere grandparents." Oh my! She hadn't meant to say it out in the open thataway. Still, she'd been thinking pondering, really the fact that both Dawdi and Mammi Ebersol had gone to heaven, and Mammi Brenneman, too. "So you're all I have left."

Dawdi smiled the kindest smile and reached out his hand

to her. "Don't fret over such things or I'll hafta name you a worrywart. I've got lots of living to do yet, Lord willing."

Right away, she felt bad. "Mamma says I worry over things that will never come true."

Dawdi nodded. "Guess we all do, to some degree or 'nother."

"Still, we oughta enjoy every single day the Good Lord gives us, ain't so?" she replied.

Still holding her hand in his, Dawdi chuckled. "Don't be feeling sorry for me, Hannah. Living here is gonna be right fine. Already 'tis." There was a twinkle in his eyes. " 'Specially with so many interesting folk to talk to."

She felt better now. So Dawdi found her to be an inter-

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csl'ing granddaughter. He didn't consider her to be a chatterliox, which he'd remarked in jest about Mary Ruth at the supper table last night. "We'll have us another chat here perty soon," she said, hearing Mamma calling to her from the other side of the house.

"Jah, I'd like that." He grinned up at her.

With that, she leaned down and kissed Dawdi's crinkly lorehead.

Mary Ruth was glad for the near ceaseless flow of customers at the roadside stand all afternoon. She enjoyed selling a basketful of decorative gourds to Mrs. Ferguson, one of their many faithful customers. Then Mrs. Esbenshade arrived, almost before Mrs. Ferguson could get her spanking new green Nash sedan out of the way.

"I hear there's to be a wedding coming up soon in your family," Mrs. Esbenshade said.

The only family wedding she knew of was the Masts', and she mentioned Anna's name to the woman. "Do you know my second cousin, then?"

"Oh my,-yes. I buy apples every year from Fannie and her girls." The woman's plump face brightened. "My neighbors' second son works for Peter Mast, doing odd jobs."

"We pick all our apples over there," Mary Ruth said, making small talk, what she loved doing best.

"When is Anna's wedding?"

"Third Tuesday in November. Anna and her beau were published in church right after the fall communion. That's our custom."

"So Amish weddings occur only in November and December?"

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"Around Lancaster, jah . . . and once in a while late Octo' ber or early January, if need be. There are only so many Tuesdays and Thursdays in a two-month period, ya know."

Mrs. Esbenshade smiled. "Well, I can't pretend to know much about your ways, Mary Ruth. I suppose I'll wait for a written invitation from Anna."

"A gut idea, I'd say." And with that, she tried to interest the English woman in some pumpkins, which were coming on real gut now.

"Oh, I'll come back tomorrow and pick out a nice big one for my nephew. He's seven this year and wants to carve a jack-o'-lantern all by himself."

"Tomorrow, then. Either Leah or Sadie will be here tending the stand, for sure." Mary Ruth knew nothing much about Halloween, only that it was a night English children went from door to door begging for candy. It wasn't a holiday the People had ever observed. The best thing about October was selling so many pumpkins, except the ones Mamma had already set aside to make pumpkin-nut cookies, pumpkinspice cake, and pumpkin-chiffon pie, her specialty. So pumpkins were awful gut for business, and it seemed the more they planted each year, the more they sold.

A few minutes after Mrs. Esbenshade drove away, young Elias Stoltzfus rode up in his father's market wagon. He pulled off the road a bit and gave the horse a sugar cube before walking over to the produce stand. "Hullo there, Mary Ruth," he called to her, taking his straw hat off his head and completely ignoring the lineup of fruits and vegetables. Seemed he had a talk on, and that was right fine with her. "My pop says we might be goin' over to the Mast wedding next month. Now, what do you think of that?"

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She liked the sound of it, sure did. And, so as not to be forward, she nodded her head slowly and smiled at the red' headed boy named for his father, a long-standing deacon in their church.

"What I'm getting to, Mary Ruth, is when it's time to sit down for the wedding feast, I hope you'll sit 'cross from me at the table."

"Jah, I'd like that, Elias." Her heart filled with joy at his invitation.

"I'll do all I can to make sure I'm lined up just right 'fore we sit down. Don'tcha worry none. We'll have us a wonderful-gut time."

Even though she was far from courting age Elias surely knew that, and so was he she liked the idea of being friendly anyways. Of course, she would be right sensible about boys, just as Leah had always been . . . and Mamma most surely had been back when. She wouldn't think of behaving the way Sadie had here the last year or so. Thank goodness her big sister had settled down and joined church. All for the better. ^

Elias didrft bother to purchase anything, just grinned, showing his teeth a little too much, and waved to her as he turned to go. "See ya tomorrow at school, jah?"

"Jah, at recess," she said, hoping he'd remember and come say hello to her maybe.

Running back to his horse and wagon, Elias got himself seated, then whistled loudly to alert the Belgian steed to pull out quickly. And he was on his way. Ach, and what a fast driver he was, Dat would surely say if he'd seen the way Elias handled the horse. But the Stoltzfus boy had always been like that, young and spirited, like his stallion. Yet there was

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something gentle and sweet about him, too, Mary Ruth knew. There was no getting round that.

She was mentally counting the years till her rumschpringe when another customer came calling. This time a fancy Englisher with the darkest hair and eyes she'd ever seen. A right handsome young man, really, as fancy boys go. His hair was groomed neatly and he wore pressed black trousers and a long-sleeved white shirt with a woolen red vest and black bow tie, as if he might be a Fuller Brush salesman. "How can I help you today?" she said, greeting him, thinking he'd surely have plenty of money to clean out the stand if he wanted to.

"I'm not interested in buying anything," he said bluntly. "I'm here to deliver a message to your sister. I assume you're related." He handed her an envelope.

"That depends on who you mean. I have three sisters, sir."

He smiled at her just then. "Please, you don't have to call me 'sir' . . . I'm not much older than you are."

She wasn't sure if he winked at her or not, but he was truly flirtatious. Glancing down at the letter in her hand, she saw it was addressed to Sadie Ebersol. "Jah, Sadie's my sister. I'll give it to her."

"I'd appreciate that." He nodded slightly, behaving again like a proper gentleman all of a sudden.

She slipped the letter into her pocket. "I'll see that Sadie gets it by suppertime, if that's all right with you."

"No hurry," he said. "So long." He turned and rushed back to his shiny gray car, then sped away like nobody's business.

She found it ever so curious that both boys had wanted to show off for her, one with a heavy hand on the reins, the other with a lead foot. Feeling for the letter in her dress

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pocket, she reminded herself to find Sadie as soon as she went inside, come suppertime.

It was well past dusk when they all sat down together for Bible reading and evening prayers in the kitchen. Sadie was i;lad to be keeping the glass chimneys on the oil lamps conMStently clean; so much better it was for Dat when he read long passages from the Scriptures, which he did this night.

He read aloud in Pennsylvania Dutch from Luke chapter nine, beginning at verse twenty-three. " 'And he said to them nil, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and lake up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will Nave his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.' "

Dat continued to read, but Sadie's thoughts got stuck on the words "whosoever will save his life shall lose it." She wondered, was that what she'd done by making her kneeling vow before the bishop and the membership last month? Had she attempted to save her life . . . her very soul?

But what of the tiny life growing within her now? What was to becorrte of Derry's baby once it was born into the Plain community? Would he love Sadie enough to marry her? She bad no idea. She only knew that she was terrified and wished she might see Derry again very soon. She had to tell him that what she'd suspected for several weeks was absolutely true. And best she could calculate, by mid-June she'd be giving birth.

She could only imagine how hurt Dat and Mamma would be if they knew. Yet she couldn't bear to tell them today, not I Ins week either. She didn't rightly know just when she could bring herself to reveal such a disgraceful thing as this. She

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recalled the church community's stand and the consequences for the sinner when a young girl had become pregnant back two years ago. Such a time that had been. And now here she was in the same jam! How? How could such a thing have happened to her?

Her thoughts continued to whirl as Dat's voice droned on. More and more she was thinking that if she weren't in danger of being shunned would the bishop make an exception? she could marry Derry and go fancy if he refused to join the community of the People. Save her family from some embarrassment, maybe. Though such ideas were truly hogwash, she knew. There was no getting round the Ordnung. It would be craziness to think otherwise. All she really knew, without a doubt, was that she had to share her startling news with her beloved. She could only guess what he would say or do. Surely he'd convinced her of his love she could rely on that, couldn't she? He'd declared it outright so many times she dared not try and count. Truth was, her revelation might put them on dangerous ground. He could become angry at the least little thing.

She scarcely knew what to do first. Best keep this to herself for a while longer.

Mary Ruth rushed into the bedroom where Sadie and Leah were both in long cotton nightgowns, brushing their waist-length hair. "Ach, I forgot to tell you, Sadie," she exclaimed. "A young man all dressed up dropped by the roadside stand this afternoon. He asked me to give you this."

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Sadie wondered what on earth Mary Ruth was talking about, and so excitedly at that. She saw her name printed on I lie envelope and her heart leaped up. Was this a letter from I >erry? One of the very things she'd longed to see ... to keep in her treasured things. Could it be?

Well, now that Mary Ruth had made her delivery, she wasn't leaving the room, wasn't leaving Sadie alone with this precious letter from her dearest one. "May I have some privacy?" she said at last.

Both Leah and Mary Ruth took the hint and left together, closing the door behind them. Moving to the small oil lamp atop the dresser, she stood there, fingers trembling, and opened the envelope.

Dear Sadie,

1 hope you are well.

This may come as a surprise, but I hope you'll agree that the time has come for us to part. You are a baptized member of your church now, and I am preparing to enlist in the army, which will undoubtedly take me far away from Lancaster County. I realize we've discussed this already, that I promised to keep in constant touch with you during my military duty.

However, thinking about the potential problems of such a long-distance relationship, 1 have second thoughts about tying you down with no promise of marriage. I should not expect loyalty like that from you, and even if I did, it wouldn't be fair to either of us, would it?

1 hope you have a happy life.

Sincerely, Derek Schwartz

Sadie felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach. Was Derry saying good-bye to her for good? But how could

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that be? She couldn't begin to comprehend, after all they'd meant to each other. After everything. And now such a horrid letter when she needed him more than ever. Oh, she felt so ill ... as if she might lose all her supper.

The time has come for us to part. . . .

Staggering to the bed, she clutched the letter, not caring to repress her sobs. Not realizing that now, as she buried her head in the pillow, Leah had slipped into the room, closed the door silently, and was leaning over her. "Aw, Sadie . . . my dear sister. . ." And then she felt Leah beside her, lying ever so near, wrapping her arms around her, holding her as if she were a little child. "There, there," Leah whispered. "Weep if you must."

"Ach, I loved him so," she cried. "I truly loved him. . . ."

Leah said no more, and somewhere between the blackness of night and the veil of bitter tears, Sadie slept.