Sisters of the Quilt Trilogy (54 page)

G
ideon got out of the car at the same time Hannah did.

“You’re staying?” Hannah’s nerves were bad enough without an audience.

Gideon shut the car door. “Last time I dropped you off at some unfamiliar building, you wound up in an intensive care unit, fighting for your life.”

That thought did nothing to calm her nerves. She headed for the DMV building. What she wanted to do was stand in the middle of the DMV parking lot and just scream at the sheer frustration of constantly battling to catch up with everyone else her age in this Englischer world.

Well, that was silly. She’d never stand somewhere and scream. That’d be downright useless—not to mention embarrassing, although her boundaries of what was embarrassing kept expanding.

Ignoring the rogue thoughts, she entered the building with Gideon right behind her. She had all her papers in order, including a statement from her doctor that she was in good health. Martin had explained that not everyone needed papers from a physician, just those who’d been hospitalized or unconscious in the past six months. He’d wasted no time bringing a driver’s manual by Zabeth’s place for Hannah to study. She had to wonder how many rituals she’d go through before the events of each day stopped molding her into someone unrecognizable.

Gideon took a seat. Hannah stepped behind the last person in the shortest line, hoping she would leave here with her learner’s permit.

Sometimes she missed the routine of everyday life among her people. Aside from her garden at Zabeth’s, nothing in her life was similar to before. Right now a day of doing laundry by a wringer washer and rinsing the items by hand sounded like a pleasant escape. It was what came with those tasks that kept her rooted in this constant storm of newness—that and the fact she’d never leave Zabeth.

When it came to being pushed into the fullness of the Englischers’ life, Martin was the one behind her, shoving. She hadn’t been there when he’d dropped off the driver’s booklet, but that didn’t stop him from making it clear he wanted her learning how to drive—yesterday.

That’d been nearly two weeks ago, and she’d been at North Lincoln, talking to Rhonda, the office manager, about what had to be done to earn a GED. North Lincoln was an old elementary school, a three-story, redbrick building snuggled in the midst of an older neighborhood—not nearly as intimidating as she’d expected.

Rhonda was probably twenty years older than Hannah and really nice. By the time Hannah had toured the building and asked way too many questions, she didn’t feel so hesitant about trying to get her GED. It was all a matter of taking one step at a time and studying until she was ready for the next step. There was no set timetable for achieving her goal. Rhonda said whether it took her two years or two months was nobody’s business but Hannah’s—and her instructor’s. There was no way Rhonda could know how much her words meant. For a brief spell in her life, Hannah had stopped feeling like an oddball—until Gideon pulled in front of the DMV building. She drew a deep breath, hoping she wouldn’t have to face Martin tonight and tell him she’d failed her first test in the Englischers’ world.

And, pass or fail, she’d have to see him tonight. Zabeth woke with a bit of energy and wanted to be at tonight’s music gathering at Martin’s place. There would be fifteen or so people Hannah didn’t know, all playing musical instruments and singing songs she’d never heard. She’d hoped to get out of going by being on call, but Dr. Lehman had insisted she take the night off.

The world she now lived in and the one she’d been raised in seemed to battle within her constantly. Each pulled her in an opposite direction, as if she were the rope in a tug of war. She wanted to experience new things, and yet the moment she did, she questioned if it was the right thing to do. Sometimes her only reprieve was during the Bible study time with Zabeth each morning and evening.

When she read the Word, life made sense. When she went out to live it, confusion dogged her. Among the Englischers, everything was subjective: modesty, stewardship, needs, wants, and even honesty. Nothing seemed to be black and white—just a hodgepodge of folks trying to figure things out as they went, depending on the situation.

“Next,” a man called without looking up.

The person in front of Hannah stepped forward. A nervous tingle ran through her. She would need to move forward in a few minutes. If she passed, it’d be another step into the stress-filled world of the Englischers, but there always seemed to be a bit of hopeful news along the way. Like the fact that North Lincoln Educational Center also had a School of Practical Nursing right there in the same building as the GED studies and pretests.

In Rhonda’s words, that was way cool.

The man behind the counter gestured for her. His face was void of anything resembling friendliness. Martin and Gideon had both warned her about the DMV staff.

She laid her stack of papers on the counter. “I’m here to get my learner’s permit.”

He took the papers and read through them. “Do you live at this address?”

“Yes.”

“Are you registered to vote?”

“No.”

“We can do that here.”

“No thank you.”

He scowled and slid a paper toward her. “Fill in your Social Security number here.”

Hannah wiped her sweaty palm down her dress before taking the pen in hand and following his order.

The moment she was done, he took the paper back. “Look through the eyepiece and read the bottom line.” His voice was as empty of emotion as his face.

She stepped over to the vision-testing device. Reading the letters aloud one by one, she wondered if the man was paying any attention to her accuracy or was just going through the motions.

“You pass.” He pointed to the sidewall. “Fifth computer. Just follow the prompts.”

“The prompts?”

“The screen will tell you what to do. Just do it. It’ll make sense once you get in front of it.”

Hannah reached for her papers.

He put his hand over them. “I’ll keep these for now.”

She crossed the room and sat in front of computer number five, hoping she knew enough to operate it without asking for assistance. Following the prompts, she was soon reading questions and clicking on answers. The questions had blanks and multiple-choice answers.

“A broken_________line separates …”

A broken harness line separates the horse from its buggy, leaving the driver unable to steer the buggy and yet moving onward, horseless
.

She read the question again, chose an answer, and clicked Next.

“If your car stalls on railroad tracks, you should …”

…
have been in a horse and buggy. A horse would never stall on a railroad track. It might bolt at the sound of a train whistle and not slow for a good mile. But stall? Never
.

Trying to stop the instantaneous visualization of horses and buggies and think instead about cars and highways, Hannah realized her biggest problem wasn’t operating this computer but rather controlling her internal wiring.

Staying on the trodden path surrounded by the ever-growing grasses of the hayfields between Esh and Yoder property, Mary hurried to find Luke. The long-awaited meeting with the bishop was supposed to have begun some thirty minutes ago, so it was probably over by now. She wiped a bead of sweat off her neck, fussing at herself for sitting down in her cushioned rocker, feeling as sleepy as she did. She had fallen sound asleep and had awakened with a start. If she hadn’t been so uptight about today and unable to rest well for weeks, she wouldn’t have fallen asleep unexpectedly.

As she topped the grassy hill, she spotted Luke, facing away from her with his forearms on the split-rail fence. The bishop stood beside him, talking. Luke nodded, but his stance—with his shoulders drooped—was not that of a man receiving a favorable decision.

Tinges of nervousness rippled through her as she took in the scene. Without having heard the conversation, she was sure the bishop’s decision was no.

Of course he hadn’t made a decision they wanted to hear. The marriage bed was about trusting God, not about man deciding the timing and delivery of a family’s future. This she knew deep within her, and the truth of God’s sovereignty within the marriage bed sat well with her, except she intended to marry Luke this coming wedding season—doctor’s permission or not.

Paul had lost Hannah—at least for now, maybe forever.

Elle might never return to wed Matthew.

Mary wasn’t going to wait and see what lay ahead that might cause Luke and her to suffer the same fate—no matter what it took.

But could she lie to him? The whole idea of lying made her queasy. Surely there was another way.

Bishop Eli caught a glimpse of her as she came near. He smiled. “Hi, Mary.”

Luke turned around, his eyes carrying a distant look even though he, too, smiled at her.

The bishop nodded as he used his bony hand to point toward Yoder property. “If I’d realized you were planning to walk the fields in this heat, we’d have met at your place.”

Mary eyed Luke, wondering what he was thinking. “It didn’t make sense for Luke to lose any more work time than necessary, Eli. How are you today?”

“I’m doing right well. It’s my fervent prayer that you do well with the news I brought to Luke.” The man paused, watching her intently.

He wasn’t a bad man, even if his decision over Hannah had been harsh. The church leaders had no way of knowing that making Hannah spend a night alone would have such consequences. Eli could be strict and sometimes wrong, but Mary never doubted his heart in the matters. Besides, what happened with Hannah … Well, she was quite pregnant and had kept it a secret. Nobody could put that on the bishop’s shoulders.

Eli removed his hat, wiped his brow, and put his hat back on. “I was telling Luke that none of us, the church leaders or the community, can allow a marriage, knowing you’re too weak to carry a child.”

She wondered why it’d taken him so long to say the very thing he’d known from the beginning—the Old Ways did not tolerate birth control. It’d been nearly five full months since Hannah had left. Maybe he’d waited until Luke was calm about the reasons for Hannah’s departure and had no desire to blame anyone for the way events had played out.

Eli looped his fingers through the triangle where his suspenders attached to his pants. “Luke’s request is a serious matter that goes deep into the heart of trusting God beyond our own understanding.”

That was it!

She didn’t have to lie. She just needed to trust God.

Luke offered her a lopsided smile before looking at Eli. “I … think you’re right. Conceiving a child should be left in God’s hands. It’s the way things should be, but I appreciate that you considered it.”

Eli studied him, as if he’d expected a bit of an argument. She knew better. Luke was asking because she wanted him to. He’d mentioned several times over the last few months that it might be right to wait rather than use some intervention to not conceive …

Eli held out his hand. “You’ve taken this like a man who’s submitted to God. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see such maturity.”

Luke shook his hand.

Eli focused on Mary. “I’ll see you during instruction …”

He left the sentence unfinished, and Mary knew it was more of a question than a statement. He wanted to know if she’d choose to stop going to class. Without the instruction classes, she couldn’t be baptized. Without the baptism, she couldn’t be wed.

Without Luke, none of it mattered.

“Yes, I’ll be there each Sunday until time for the baptism, and …” She stared at the ground, unable to look Luke in the eyes. “And soon after, Luke and I will marry. I … I spoke to the doctor, and … I mean …” She could feel Luke’s gaze boring into her. “He said the results of the last CT scan, along with my other progress, shows that I’m all healed.” She held on to as much honesty as possible and hoped they didn’t hear what she
wasn’t
saying. She hadn’t talked to the doctor recently, but the last time he’d read the CT scan, he did tell her she was healed and everything looked good.

“Well, how do you like that?” Eli chuckled. “That’s why you were late. You were talking to the doctor?”