Until I Love Again (19 page)

Joey hurried down the other side of the aisle and nearly ran into the girl at the corner. “I'm so sorry,” he said, while his feet found solid footing. “But may I speak to you for a minute?”

“Speak to me here?” she squeaked. The girl looked up and down the aisle as if she might flee.

“I'm Susanna Miller's friend,” Joey blurted out. It was sink or swim.

“Susanna's friend! Oh,
yah
, I know.” The girl stared at him. “You are Joey then.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “And I need your help.”

She hesitated. “Someone might see us, and that would not be
goot
now that Susanna—” She stopped.

“What's your name?” He attempted a disarming smile.

The effort seemed to bear fruit, but her words were still terse. “I'm Luella Mast, but why do you want to speak with me about Susanna? She's not supposed to have contact with you.”

He hesitated and searched for words. “I know that,” he began. “But I don't know why. Can you tell me?”

Luella's words were clipped. “She's through with her
rumspringa
time.”

Joey wrinkled his brow. “I don't understand exactly what that means, but can you explain why she's not working here any longer?”

Alarm showed on Luella's face. “Susanna's taking baptismal classes with several others. More than that, I'd best not say.”

Joey looked around. He felt like a dancer who didn't know his next move. One mishap and there would be a terrible tangle of feet. Luella would bolt before he could blink.

“I had best be going,” Luella said. She began to move away.

Joey made one last desperate stab. “Maybe you could tell me how to find someone who can help me find out what I want to know. Some friend perhaps?” He didn't dare add anything further.

Luella shrugged. “I doubt it. We take care of our own problems, you know.”

He put on his best smile. “I'm not trying to…” He searched for words again. “Please, just tell me where can I find someone.”

Luella hesitated and then said, “I shouldn't be telling you this, but you could ask Emma Yutzy. I feel sorry for Susanna, and so do several of us. Emma's in the baptismal class with Susanna. Emma hasn't told me anything, and she may not tell you, but it's not right what's happening between Susanna and—” Luella clamped her lips shut. “I've said too much already. Go speak with Emma and see what she tells you. But leave my name out of it.”

“How can I find Emma?”

A slight smile played on Luella's face. “I suppose you wouldn't know. The family lives on Maple Ridge Road, a few miles past Susanna's place. They have a roadside stand, and Emma works there each day except Wednesdays and Sundays, of course.” Luella gave him a sharp look and closed her mouth. She hurried off without a backward glance.

Joey waited until Luella was out of sight before he retreated in the other direction. He had come into the building supply after
something, but he couldn't remember what. Whatever it was could wait. A visit to this Emma's roadside stand likely would bear no more fruit than this conversation, but he must try—and the sooner the better. He didn't understand Susanna's situation, and the conversation with Luella had done nothing to assuage his fears. The whole community apparently knew something he didn't.

Joey hurried out to his car and headed north toward Maple Ridge Road. He risked a drive past the Millers' place, but surely no one would recognize his vehicle in the middle of the day. He didn't slow down, so hopefully they would think nothing of it even if he was spotted. He turned left onto Maple Ridge Road, and soon the Millers' homeplace came into view ahead of him. Joey kept an even pace. A wagon with a team of horses bounced out of the barnyard as Joey zipped past, and the young man on the flatbed looked his way to wave. Joey kept his face turned, but lifted his hand in a return wave. A woman's form appeared in the front window for a moment, but the profile was too heavyset for Susanna. He would go home by a longer route. He had best stay away from the Millers' place in the daylight hours. The risk was simply too great.

A mile farther down the road, Joey slowed and began to watch for signs of a roadside stand. The first one came into view, and the sign stated simply Yutzy's Fresh Fruit and Vegetables. The words were hand drawn onto a piece of plywood, which was nailed to a tree. The stand appeared around the next bend, and Joey came to a stop a few car lengths away. No house could be seen, but a lane ran past the stand and into the trees nearby. A girl around Susanna's age was standing behind the wooden counter, where the vegetables appeared fresh and plentiful.
The Yutzys must have a greenhouse,
Joey decided. He couldn't imagine a regular garden producing so much bounty this early in the season.

Joey opened his car door and stepped out.

The girl greeted him with a bright smile. “Hi, can I help you?” Her quick glance took in the rows of vegetables set up along the counter.

Joey smiled back. “Your produce appears excellent, ma'am, but that's not why I'm here. Are you Emma?”

She hesitated. “
Yah
. And you are…?” Recognition filled her face. “You must be Joey.”

Joey winced. “That I am. I hope that's not a problem.”

Emma lowered her head. “It's not with me, but with some it would be.”

“That's what I need to speak to you about.” He leaned on the counter. “Someone who wished to remain anonymous told me to ask you. I need information about what's going on with Susanna.”

She tilted her head. “I don't know about this. It doesn't seem right.”

“Please,” he begged. “I need to know.”

“Then why don't you speak directly with Susanna?” she asked.

“You know why,” he said. “I don't need to explain the ways of your people to you, do I?”

A smile flitted on her face. “
Yah
, I know. We are strange sometimes. But you really don't know about Susanna?” Emma regarded him with a steady gaze.

Joey kept his response simple. “No, I don't. Can you tell me?”

“But if Susanna hasn't told you…” Her gaze was still on him.

“I've asked,” Joey protested. “But she won't say, and now I don't have any contact with her, unless—” Joey stopped. He had best not mention the cell phone.

“I'm in the baptismal class with Susanna,” Emma said. “Doesn't that mean anything to you?”

Joey threw up his hands. “Not really. I don't understand the rules of your community.”

A smile played on Emma's face. “But you've found me. You're persistent, if nothing else.”

“Can you help me?” Joey tried again.

Emma didn't answer as the beat of a horse's hooves arose faintly from beyond the bend. Alarm filled her face.

Joey bent over to examine the vegetables as the buggy came into view. He turned his head enough to catch sight of the man's long, bearded face and hands firmly on the reins. Emma recovered sufficiently to smile and wave toward the man, who was obviously her father. Joey dug in his pocket for his billfold and lifted a sack of freshly dug potatoes to the countertop. He placed a twenty on the counter, and Emma reached for it as the man in the buggy drove past. Emma looked up to smile again as the man's gaze swept over them, but he didn't stop.

“Are you sure you want these potatoes?” Emma asked once the buggy had disappeared beyond the tree line.

“I'm not going to back out of this so easily,” Joey muttered. “We'll eat potatoes all week, I guess.”

To his surprise Emma giggled and gave him his change.

His hand hesitated on the potato bag. “Do I have to beg, Emma? I need help, and I'm thinking Susanna does too.”

She looked away for a moment. “I cannot tell you about…” She shook her head. “Susanna should tell you, and I will tell her she should.”

“But I—”

She interrupted, saying, “If you come back next Wednesday on my day off, I will pick up Susanna for a buggy ride. You can meet us beyond the stand about a mile down the road. There's a grove of trees there, and we won't be seen. I don't dare take her toward town, but out here no one seems to think we can get in trouble.”

“Thank you,” Joey whispered. “I cannot tell—”

She cut him off again. “Susanna is very unhappy, and my heart hurts for her. It's not right what's happening, and Susanna needs to…” She stopped again. “You just come, okay? You can speak with her then.” She hesitated and then added, “Don't think this is just for Susanna's sake. I have my own reasons too.”

The form of the buggy appeared in the trees again, the beat of the horse's hooves muffled.

“I'll be there,” Joey told her. He grabbed the bag of potatoes and beat a hasty retreat. The buggy with the stern-faced man in it stopped by the stand as Joey climbed in his car. The man jumped out to unload several boxes of vegetables, green stems hanging over the sides. Joey waved and drove off quickly.

Chapter Nineteen

S
usanna looked up from the supper table as the sound of buggy wheels floated in from the driveway.
Mamm
leaped to her feet to peer out the kitchen window. A big smile spread over
Mamm
's face. “It's Ernest!” she exclaimed. “He must have come to pay Susanna a special visit tonight. Now isn't that a great honor?”

“Why can't they act like normal couples and date on Sunday evenings?” Henry grumbled. “Isn't it about time for that? Now they'll be out on the porch all evening, and we'll have to tiptoe out the washroom door.”

“Now, Henry,”
Mamm
chided. “Remember whose side you're on.”

Henry faked a smile and went back to eating his pecan pie.

“Susanna,”
Mamm
continued, “you should go up and change. Ernest must see you at your best.”

Truth be told,
Mamm
had probably arranged this meeting. But
Mamm
always did what she thought best.

“Go!”
Mamm
waved her hand toward the stair door. “You can finish your pie later.”

“We should pray first,”
Daett
spoke up.

“Without finishing the meal, Ralph?”
Mamm
exclaimed.

“We can give thanks for all that is on the table,”
Daett
said, attempting a smile.

Mamm
gave in, and the rest of the family lay down their forks to bow their heads.

“Our Father who art in heaven,”
Daett
prayed. “We give You thanks for the supper we have eaten and for the strength given to our bodies. Bless now the rest of the evening, and especially Susanna and Ernest as they continue to seek Your will for their lives. Amen.”

Susanna made a quick dash for the stairway, but she slowed down once she was out of sight and took the steps one at a time. As she entered her bedroom, Susanna wiped her eyes and sat on her bed. For a minute she thought about what would happen if she refused to change into her Sunday dress and put on a torn apron instead. That would be an appropriate gesture. Then Ernest could see her as she really was. Only he wouldn't. He'd think no one had warned her of his arrival. No, she would prepare properly. Susanna plucked her best Sunday dress from the closet and quickly slipped into it. Ten minutes later the last pin was in place, and Susanna made her way back down the stairs.

“That was fast,”
Mamm
said, obviously pleased. “Just keep up your courage, dear. You will soon be in love with the man.”
Mamm
patted Susanna on the shoulder. “Go meet him on the front porch.
Daett
is talking with him out by his buggy. Just sit down and wait. He'll come.”

Susanna nodded and made her way out to the porch. The movement caught the attention of Ernest from where he stood, facing the house. His head jerked up, and his words to
Daett
stopped.
Daett
also turned, and Susanna quickly sat down with her back to them. Moments later, she heard Ernest's footsteps on the walk. She clutched the arms of the porch chair and waited. She would think of Ernest's two cute little girls, Lizzie and Martha. They were so
adorable—she couldn't help but love them. Maybe in the days and weeks ahead some of that natural affection would spill over into feelings toward Ernest. She had to keep up her courage.