A Wedding for Julia (31 page)

O
n Mondays the café was closed, same as the cabins. Sharon was relieved to have the extra day of rest and time to help with the household chores, but she was also worried. Too much free time wasn’t good. With too much free time her mind drifted back and dwelled on things that had happened at home.

So she was relieved when Julia asked her to search for any remaining elderberries in the bushes by the creek. Most had been harvested already, but some could usually be found that had ripened late. The day was sunny, though there was a hint of coolness in the air. Sharon eagerly pulled on her wrap and headed out the back door.

She liked to stay busy. Busy was better.

Besides, she sensed Julia and Caleb would like an hour alone. Ada was napping, and it wasn’t difficult to pick up on the looks passing between them. What was it like to have that sort of romance when you were so old? Maybe it was because they were recently married. Or maybe it was that they truly were in love. Did she even believe in such a thing?

Her thoughts traveled down that path—thinking of married couples she knew who seemed happy, like Julia and Caleb, Miriam and Gabe, and Lydia and Aaron. Lydia was now so close to the delivery date of her baby that she looked terribly uncomfortable and shifted from side to side when she walked. Still, Aaron’s eyes filled with adoration whenever he glanced her way.

She’d also watched Lydia’s parents at the picnic the day before. Menno was having a good day, or so everyone said, but his good days seemed pretty poor to Sharon. Ella watched over him like a mama cat over a newborn kitten. For one moment, when he’d gone off with the men, Sharon had thought Ella might follow. Was that the kind of love a woman and man shared? Did it include a protective sort of love? She had thought about men protecting women by providing for their needs. Men planted and cleared the fields. They cut and brought in the wood. But she’d never thought to really consider that time in life when a woman might need to take care of a man.

What she had felt for James was nothing like that, and she didn’t think he’d felt anything for her.

Sharon walked the path along the creek, past the new bridge, and past the fishing spot Caleb loved. She found the elderberry bushes on the edge of a small clearing, exactly as Julia had described. Setting her pail down, she spied the dark berries that had yet to be harvested in the middle toward the back of the clump of bushes.

She craned her head back. The bushes themselves were quite tall—easily ten to twelve feet in places. As they had grown up, their branches had lengthened over the years and become heavy until they draped all the way to the ground. If she crawled underneath, she could probably stand up inside the circle of bushes and reach the ripe clusters of berries.

She’d certainly soil her dress in the process, but it was an old one—the one she’d brought specifically for cleaning day. Dropping to her knees, she pushed the pail in front of her and inched under the bush. Once inside, she found that the group of bushes acted much like a willow tree. The ground was smooth underneath, and the long branches formed a canopy she could see through. She could also stand up. Her head popped out through some of the lower branches when she did.

Pulling her
kapp
back into place, she began gathering the nearly black berries and dropping them into her pail. They would make a fine dessert filling. There was enough for several pies.

She’d filled more than half of her pail when she heard voices. Company was the last thing she wanted, but there wasn’t a quick exit. Maybe if she held perfectly still, whoever it was wouldn’t see her.

Who would be on their property anyway? The cabins were closed today. This should be her time alone.

Then Wess stepped into the clearing, and Sharon felt her pulse trip. Following close behind him were Victoria, Zoey, and Bandit. The dog was sniffing everything in his path. Both girls were consumed by a fit of giggles.

“Stop!” Zoey screamed as she danced away from her big brother. “No tickling!”

“I’m not tickling. That was a zche-zche bird.”

“Uh-uh.” Victoria declared. “There’s no such thing.”

“What?”

“Mom showed us how to look it up.”

“You’re believing a computer over—” Wess stopped midsentence. He froze in place as he stared into the bushes. “Look at what I found.”

“A zche-zche bird?” Victoria grabbed his hand and attempted to pull him farther along the trail. “Come on. You make that up all the time so you can tickle us.”

“I’m not making this up.” Wess’s grin spread. “Look in those bushes, girls.”

Sharon wanted to disappear. She wanted to sit on the ground underneath the elderberries and hide, but then Bandit noticed her and began to bark. Zoey turned around to see why Bandit was excited, spotted her, and began to hop from foot to foot.

“Sharon! How did you get in there?”

Before she could offer an explanation, they were all crawling under the bushes to join her. She ducked down to speak to the girls and give Bandit a pat on his head, which earned her a sloppy lick on the back of her hand. Sun danced in through the branches, marking a quilted pattern of light and dark on the smooth dirt.

“This is so cool!” Zoey was holding her doll, and she danced it around on the ground.

It was easier for Sharon to sit on the ground than bend over, not that she welcomed the interruption, but she wanted to speak with the girls. They were quite excited with the hidden area and with finding her, throwing their arms around her neck before bounding off.

“We could play here. It’s like a perfect little hidden house.” Victoria’s voice took on a reverent tone. “It’s like the secret garden in the book Mom was reading to us.”

“Probably your mom wouldn’t want you to be so dirty,” Sharon reminded them. Bandit lay on the ground beside her, his head resting on his paws.

Wess was standing straight up, looking out over the top of the elderberry bushes. All she could see of him was his legs. She could, however, hear his voice loud and clear.

“Hey, girls. Want to try some of these berries?”

“
Nein
. Wess—” Sharon scrambled to her feet, but she was too late. She heard him coughing and sputtering, and then he crumpled to the ground, holding his throat as if he were choking. Bandit jumped on him and began licking his hands, ears, and face.

“Did the zche-zche bird get you?” Victoria asked.

“Maybe you need to hold this.” Zoey tried tucking her doll into his hands, which were still clutching his throat. He smiled at his little sister as he took it from her.

Both girls began a game of running in and out of the branches—from sunlight to shadow, flitting between the two like fall butterflies.

“Don’t eat the berries,” Sharon called after them.

“We won’t,” Victoria promised.

“We ated lunch already,” Zoey assured her with a smile before darting back out onto the path.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Wess stared up at her with accusation and maybe amusement in his eyes.

“What?”

“Not to eat the berries.”

“You didn’t ask.” Sharon sat down beside him, and Bandit crawled into her lap.

Wess was trying to wipe his tongue on his shirtsleeve—a pretty funny sight. She would have offered him water if she had any. As it was, all she could do was watch and try not to laugh.

“Why are you even picking them? They’re terrible. Really awful. You could bottle that stuff and punish kids with it.”

“Elderberries are
wunderbaar
when you bake them with sugar.”

“I doubt it. My taste buds are permanently scarred.” Wess shook his head, causing his ponytail to jump back and forth across his back.

“Try some of Julia’s pie tomorrow. You’ll feel differently.”

Wess gave her a look that said
“I’m willing to wait and see, but I don’t think so.”
She recognized it from working with him for an entire week. It seemed as though she’d known him a lot longer. His grin, his eyes, and even his teasing were familiar now.

“Why are the girls out of school early?”

“Parent-teacher conferences. Both of theirs were right after lunch, so here we are, giving my mom some time to focus on her work.”

“Speaking of work, I need to finish what Julia sent me here to do.” Sharon removed the dog from her lap and popped up to resume pulling at the berries and dropping them in the pail.

Wess stood and stretched his arm past her to the darkest berries out of her reach. “I’ll help as long as I don’t have to eat them.”

They had filled the pail to full within five minutes. By the time they both crawled out from under the branches of the bush, the girls were drawing hopscotch squares into the dirt path with a stick.

“We need Bandit with us. He loves hopscotch.” Zoey picked up the dog’s leash and then she took the doll from Wess and shoved it into Sharon’s hands before racing off again.

“Ha!” Wess said. “You have doll duty.”

Sharon rolled her eyes. As if it was a problem to hold the small toy. Jeanette had knitted a blue sweater for the doll that matched Zoey’s, and Zoey had smeared pink, glittery lipstick on the doll’s mouth.

“They never used to do that.” Wess had sat down on a fallen tree and was studying his sisters.

Sharon glanced down the path to her right. She could excuse herself and head back to the house, but something in his voice caused her to turn, walk to the fallen tree, and sit beside him. “Do what?”

“Play and laugh. Before we moved here, I don’t remember them laughing much, and playing was something they did in front of the TV or in their bedroom.”

“You lived in the city?”

“Yeah. Chicago.”

Sharon didn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say. She’d never been to anywhere bigger than the outskirts of Indianapolis, but she’d heard about Chicago. She knew it was large with tall buildings, traffic jams, and a subway system.

“My parents took a chance when they moved here, but I’m glad they did.”

“Why was it a chance?”

Wess shrugged. “Jobs, for one thing. Look at my dad. He’s trying to be a farmer, but he doesn’t know how to do that.”

“He was an engineer before, right?”

“Yeah. That was part of the problem.”

Zoey and Victoria threw their place markers, then hopped and skipped—one, two, three, four. Zoey’s marker, a small rock, landed in the dirt with a tiny thud in front of Victoria’s plastic bracelet. She held her arms out to her side and hopped on her right foot. Bandit ran along beside her.

“Does your father enjoy farming?”

“I suppose. Some days, when he hitches things up right. You should hear him holler when he does it wrong.” Wess hung his head between his knees, and Sharon knew he was smiling. “He might not be a good farmer, but he’s better now. He laughs sometimes, and he’s there for my mom and me and the girls. He’s trying.”

Wess looked at her then, right at her, his green eyes searching. “That counts for something. You know?”

“You said he’s better. Was he sick before?”

“Kind of.”

“Country air sometimes helps people. That might sound like a folk remedy, but often we see people whose health improves when they move away from the city. The air is cleaner and—”

Wess laughed out loud then. “I don’t know if it’s the country air. It might be the country work. In the city he couldn’t sleep. He’d pace the house like a caged tiger. Now, some nights, he’s snoring in his chair before Victoria and Zoey are in bed.”

The girls tired of their hopscotch game and ran back to their brother’s side.

“You promised to take us to the bridge, Wess.” Victoria jiggled the plastic bracelet back onto her arm, shaking her head and causing her red ponytail to swing back and forth. Sharon could read the bracelet now. It said “Race 4 a Cure.”

“What about your game?” he asked.

“We’re done, and we want to walk across the bridge. You promised.” Victoria grabbed his hand and pulled with all her might.

“And my baby wants to see it.” Zoey claimed the doll from Sharon’s lap. “I already told her we would. Victoria, you hold Bandit’s leash. I’m tired.”

“Uh-uh. Wess, you hold it.”

Wess stood, took the leash, and reached for Sharon’s hand. “Go with us?”

When she hesitated, he added, “It’s on your way. Besides, it’ll make the girls happy.”

He’d figured her out already. Victoria and Zoey were a weakness. She liked their laughter. They were easy to please, and Zoey reminded her of Ruthie.

“All right.” She accepted his hand and allowed him to pull her from where she’d sat on the fallen tree.

With a squeal of delight, the girls took off running down the path in the direction of the bridge.

“Don’t run too far ahead,” Wess called out. He released her hand and picked up the pail of berries.

They walked a minute before she returned to the conversation about his parents. “Does your dad miss being an engineer?”

“I don’t think so. It…well, it was kind of the problem. Or maybe he was the problem. I’m not really sure. All I know is he was never home, and when he was he was on the phone. He worked for a big firm that was never satisfied, no matter how many hours he put in.”