A Promise for Miriam (15 page)

“Miriam, stop focusing on what you don’t know.” Abigail stood to finish covering the pillows with fresh cases. “Grace is a lovely child.”

“You said that already,
mamm
.” Miriam gave her mother a baffled look.

“Did I? She has the most expressive eyes. During church last week, it almost seemed as if she was trying to tell me something simply with the way she looked at me.” Gathering the dirty linen in her arms, she turned and walked out of the room.

As Miriam wrote the children’s lessons on the board Monday morning, she smiled, recalling her mother’s gentle powers of persuasion. She wasn’t one to actually make suggestions. No. She guided your thoughts in a more roundabout way. Miriam had spent the rest of the weekend focusing on what she did know about children and what she’d learned about Grace.

By the time she’d arrived at the schoolhouse on Monday, she had an idea. Before she could write Gabe about it, though, she’d need to contact Doc Hanson. Glancing at the clock, she saw she had fifteen minutes until classes were scheduled to begin. Hurrying to her desk, she sat and wrote the note she’d penned several times in her mind.

Eli would deliver it for her.

With any luck, she’d have an answer by midweek. In the meantime, she’d begin working with Grace for ten minutes each lunch break. As Esther bustled in with a “Good morning” and students began to file into their seats, Miriam said a silent prayer that Gabe hadn’t experienced a change of heart. They would need everyone’s full participation in order for her plan to work—Grace’s most of all.

Throwing on her coat, she whispered to Esther that she would be back quick as a stitch. As she hurried out the school’s front door, Eli was just pulling up. Children tumbled out, reminding Miriam of different leaves falling from the maple tree. She’d heard
Englischers
comment on how Amish children all looked alike, but personally she didn’t see it. Yes, the dresses which reached past knees were similar in style, but they varied in color—though all were dark according to the standards of their community. The youngest girls wore black
kapps
while the older ones wore white, all covered by a dark outer bonnet. Some wore black overcoats and some wore dark gray.

As for the boys, they varied so in height, build, and facial characteristics she had no trouble telling them apart. Different color shirts—brown, blue, and green—peeked out from the tops of their black coats as they shuffled past her murmuring “
gudemariye
.”

They were good children, good students, and she enjoyed her job very much, which was part of the reason she didn’t regret not marrying. Part of the reason she kept putting off Aden Schmucker. How could she ever leave all these children? Gabe Miller’s face popped into her mind, probably because she held a note about him in her hand, but she shook her head, cleared her thoughts, and hurried toward Eli’s buggy.

She ignored two of the older boys, who happened to be putting snow down one another’s backs. They would be squirming from their wet shirts for the next hour. That should be punishment enough. No need for her to get involved.

Two minutes later she was back inside, ringing the school bell and watching the children sit up and come to attention.

Esther read the morning devotional—a short verse from the Psalms. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the L
ORD
surrounds his people both now and forevermore.” It was one of Miriam’s favorite verses. A nice positive focus for their week. Simple enough for the younger ones to understand, and yet with enough wisdom for the older students.

After she’d waited an appropriate amount of time, Esther nodded to her students, who filed to the front of the room for the singing.

Miriam kept a close eye on the younger ones, who followed along but didn’t know enough
Englisch
yet to sing the more difficult hymns. After the older children had sung the two songs they had picked out last Thursday, Miriam clapped her hands and the younger classes scrambled forward.

Once in place, she guided them through “Christmas Hymn,” which they had been practicing for the last week, and then they all sang “
Stille Nacht
” in German—which everyone was quite good at because they had sung it in church. It sounded particularly good with only children’s voices proclaiming “
Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht
!” Good practice for the Christmas program to come.

Satisfied that everyone was awake and focused for their day, Miriam signaled they could sit down. That was when she noticed that little Sadie Stutzman was holding Grace’s hand. That wasn’t unusual among the younger girls, but she hadn’t realized they had become such fast friends. She smiled at them as they took their seats.

Because it was Monday, she directed the younger children to complete their arithmetic lesson as Esther worked with the older children on grading their math homework. One of the things Miriam enjoyed about teaching was how well their classroom worked
together
—her children often pausing in their lessons to listen while one of Esther’s students stopped to ask questions regarding a more difficult problem or to help another student who didn’t understand one of the assignments. She thought it was part of the learning process and helped to teach them every bit as much as she did.

The morning flew by, and at lunch they allowed the children to go outside in spite of the snow that still remained on the ground.

“Remember to bundle up,” Esther cautioned them. She pulled out her sandwich and sat down beside Miriam. “It’s amazing to me that they want to be out in the cold. I’m happy right here beside the stove.”

“
Ya
. I feel the same. Though I understand the need to go outside and make some snow angels.”

The young girls sitting around them glanced up from the game of Uno they were playing.

Sadie stared at her cards another minute, and then she set them down and grabbed Grace’s hand. “Let’s do it. Let’s go make snow angels.”

Grace’s eyes widened, but she didn’t answer yes or no.

“Sadie’s right, Grace.” Lily also put down her cards. “Making snow angels is fun.”

Both girls stood now, pulling on Grace’s hands. Grace allowed herself to be coaxed over to where their coats hung. As Lily and Sadie giggled, they all managed to put on their outer gear and then escaped into the sunshine.

“She seems to be doing well,” Esther said.

“So you heard?”

“
Ya
. Joseph was one of the ones who helped to look for her.”

“That’s right. I’d forgotten.”

“What a miracle she was found. Joseph said Pepper is the one who found her in a snow cave.”

Miriam nodded, pushing away the fears that still crowded into her dreams at night. “The best part is that Gabe wants to try therapy for her speech problem now. I believe it frightened him that she couldn’t call out for help.”

“How terrifying.”

Esther and Miriam ate in silence.

“But how—”

“I’m not sure.”

Outside, Sadie tapped on the window and then ran forward a few yards. Holding Lily’s hand on one side, and Grace’s on the other, all three girls fell backward. They reminded Miriam of a string of paper dolls she’d had as a child. When they began scissoring their arms up and down, Esther started to giggle.

“They’re making their snow angels a bit deep. I’m not sure they will be able to stand up now.” But just then Hannah happened along, and she helped each little girl to her feet.

“You know, maybe there isn’t a solution to Grace’s problem.”

“Huh?” Esther frowned as she unwrapped two oatmeal cookies and offered Miriam one.

“Maybe there isn’t
one
solution. Maybe there are several.”

Taking the cookie to her desk, Miriam sat down, pulled out a sheet of paper, and began writing out Grace’s new lesson plan.

Chapter 19

G
abe checked Grace’s lunch box after school on Monday, but there was no note.

He would check it again as soon as she arrived home on Tuesday, but he was worried that Miriam had given up on the both of them. She’d seemed confused by his request.

Maybe she didn’t know what to do with Grace.

Maybe he’d been so rude when he’d confronted her that day in her father’s barn that she didn’t want to help them.

Maybe she was busy, being a teacher to all those children he’d seen in the schoolhouse.

He scolded himself for thinking she could drop everything and put his needs—Grace’s needs—first. He drove the nail into a two by four with one slam of the hammer.

“Did that board personally offend you, or are you just feeling particularly energetic this morning?” Eli Stutzman passed another two by four his way.

Four of the men from their church district had shown up Monday morning to help reframe the barn. Gabe had been stunned—because of the weather, because surely they had their own work to do, and because this wasn’t exactly the season for a barn raising.

“Not raising it,” Efram had noted, pulling away a rotted board.

“Patching it.” Joseph had climbed up on the roof as if the weather weren’t biting cold and the barn wasn’t covered in snow. Sometimes younger men had an energy that irritated Gabe, but he wasn’t going to point it out right then.

They had finished the patch on the roof to the barn this morning with the help of Miriam’s father, Joshua. This afternoon Joshua was attending to things on his own farm, and Joseph and Efram had errands in town, but Eli had returned to help with the side wall that was caving in.

“Maybe being around those younger guys had a positive effect on you—or maybe you like swinging that hammer as if it’s a wrecking ball.” Eli grinned as he spoke. Gabe was learning that the man didn’t own a bad mood, which was probably a good thing since he drove a buggy full of kids and needed more than a bushel of patience.

“Guess I was worrying, is all.” Gabe continued to hammer in the nails that would hold the board into place. He’d been amazed at how much faster the work went when he wasn’t doing it alone. Of course, he should have known that, but somehow his pride had helped him forget.

“Anything you want to talk about?”

“Don’t know that it would help.”

“Will it hurt?”

Gabe thought about it for a few moments, and then he reached down and took a long drink from the jug of water at his feet. “I asked Miriam to help me with Grace. Help find a way to…” He stumbled over the history and the hurt. “Help her find her voice again. I thought I would have heard from her by now.”

Eli nodded, not answering immediately.

They added two more boards to the wall before he enlightened Gabe with what he knew. “Maybe that’s why she had me go over to Doc Hanson’s yesterday.”

“Doc Hanson?”

“
Ya
. It was about something very important. She came running out of the schoolhouse like it was on fire with a note she needed him to have that morning, so I said I’d take it. But Doc isn’t in his office on Mondays—only the nurse is. I guess Miriam forgot that.”

“He wasn’t in?”

“That’s what I said.”

“But you still took the note?”

Eli removed his hat and then repositioned it on his head. “Maybe you need to take a break, son.”

“What happened then?”

“When?”

Gabe set his hammer down on a sawhorse and took a step back from the wall. “After you took the note in.”

“Nothing happened. He wasn’t there.”

“Did you read it?”

“’Course not. It wasn’t to me.”

“Right. Okay. So you took it in, but he wasn’t there.”

“
Ya
.”

Gabe waited, but Eli had already picked up another board and seemed to be done with the conversation.

“So I guess he’d be in today.”

“Doc?”

“Who else?” Now Gabe suspected the man was messing with him, especially when he started grinning so that his beard took an upturn.

“Why, sure.” Eli scratched at his beard. “Doc’s always in the office during the week.”

“Except Mondays.”

“
Ya
. Except Mondays.”

They moved down the wall, replacing boards, with the December sunshine stealing the chill from the afternoon.

“Good man?” Gabe asked. Now the boards seemed lighter, and he wasn’t worried anymore. At least he knew Miriam’s silence wasn’t because she was angry at him.

“Doc Hanson? Oh, yes. A very good man. Seen him a few times myself.”

The rest of the day went quickly. By the time Eli left, the barn was starting to actually resemble something that might withstand a winter’s storm, or even a spring one for that matter.

When Grace hopped out of Eli’s buggy an hour later, she waved her lunch box.

“Something in there you want me to see?”

Grace was walking backward, staying a few steps in front of him as they headed toward the house. Her cheeks were beginning to peel from the slight frostbite she’d suffered, but he still thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

When they reached the house, she thrust the lunch box in his hands and then dashed ahead. He resisted the urge to open it and read the note while he stood there in the cold.