Abram's Daughters 04 The Prodigal (25 page)

"Mandie was born a few minutes before midnight on April ninth . . . and Jake came along in the wee hours the next day, so his birthday is April tenth." Lydiann laughed softly. "Now, what do ya think of that? Bein' twins but not havin' the same birthday."

April ninth?

"Are ya awful sure of this?" Leah asked, her pulse pounding in her temples.

Lydiann appeared confused. "I have no reason to thinkMandie's lyin'." ... , .

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"No ... I didn't mean . . ."

So . . . isAandie and Jake were born mere hours after Sadie'sfirst baby. The thought tormented Leah, and she couldn't stop her brain from spinning, her mind on her encounter with Cousin Fannie's twins yesterday afternoon how she'd fixed her gaze on Jake, nearly staring a hole in him. He did not resemble Mandie; she recalled he never had, even as an infant. In fact, he didn't much resemble any of his brothers or sisters, though he did remind her of Peter Mast. . . but only if she thought enough about it.

Helplessly she thought of Jake's nearly black eyes . . . identical to the eyes that haunted her from a recently framed photo of Derek Schwartz as a teen, a favorite of Lorraine's she'd pulled out of an old scrapbook. Leah had dusted it weekly for the past few months, aware of her resentment each lime she considered again what he'd done to Sadie ... to all (if them.

The news of Sadie's baby that he was our grandson would have caused Lorraine tremendous sadness . . . even embarrassment, Dr. Schwartz had told Leah years before.

Once agstin she contemplated Jake's dark eyes and shock of hair. But she shook herself and hoped she was imagining things.

That night Leah lay still in her bed, reliving the meeting with the Mast twins. She thought of the striking similarities between Jake and the new photo of Derek, as well as those of his childhood photos she'd been dusting in the front room of I he Schwartz home these years.

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Tired as she was, she let her mind wander into a whirl. Lyddie's comments about the Mast twins' birthdays had gotten her all stirred up.

In her drowsy yet troubled state, Leah suddenly recalled the butterfly handkerchief Sadie had used to cover her dead baby's face after his premature delivery and the strange cornments Dottie Nolt had made about it years ago, upon its return to Sadie. Hannah had made only one such cutwork embroidered handkerchief, yet Dottie had said she'd seen Fannie Mast with one exactly like it. Was there in fact only one handkerchief. . . and had Fannie dropped it at the clinic, where it was retrieved by Leah?

Was it possible Sadie's baby had not died at all? Could it be that he was actually alive7. She had seen his lifeless blue body with her own eyes. Had she been deceived? But Dr. Schwartz had left so quickly. . . and why was that?

Leah knew she must pay a private visit to Dr. Schwartz at the next opportunity there would be no getting around the truth this time. She would not budge from his clinic all night if it took that to get his attention ... or Lorraine's. She would do what she had to in order to drag an honest answer out of the doctor. She would give it her Amish best.

She tossed about in bed, dreadfully aware of Sadie, probably asleep now in the Dawdi Haus. If any of what she suspected was true . . . Poor, dear Sadie ....

On the other hand, Leah thought, what if she were cornpletely wrong? Until she knew the truth, she dared not share her misgivings with anyone, even in speculation.

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Prom time to time, Jonas ventured out and away from his woodworking shop, especially on auction days like today or hen stifling afternoon temperatures and high humidity made ii nearly impossible to keep his mind on his work. Today he'd

1.1ken himself off to the neighboring town of Berlin, where, due to the sale in town, he knew there'd be plenty of farmers i in^'regating at Boyd and Worthman's Restaurant and Gen-

1'iul Store for a grand slice of pie, if not a generous lunch to i'o with it. A|. breakfast he had kindly asked Emma not to I ml her packing him a sack lunch as he'd had it in his mind i lin! he wanted a chance to chew the fat a bit, needing some mule- companionship.

I \v paid the Mennonite driver quickly when he was let i nit ill the stoplight on the main street, and then he headed i ill on foot toward the old restaurant that looked out onto the i' mil. Inside he found a good many Amishmen already feeding ihcir faces. Glancing about, he happened to see young I'readier Solomon Raber, or Sol for short. At only thirtyiliree, the newly ordained preacher was as pleasant a man as

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any he knew, with a contagious smile and big brown eyes.

"Hullo, Jonas!" Sol called to him, leaning up out of his chair a bit at a table not so far from the long wooden counter. "Come 'n' join us."

Jonas nodded and hurried to take the only vacant seat with the preacher and two of his friends, Gravy Dan Miller and Peach Orchard Levi Troyer, their nicknames distinguishing them from the dozens of other Dan Millers and Levi Troyers in the area. "Hullo," Jonas said, removing his straw hat. "What's gut on the menu today?"

"Oh, just everything." Sol tapped the sandwich section of the menu. "Like hot beef with some broth to dip it in?" He fairly grinned at the suggestion.

"Sounds fine to me." Jonas put down the menu, not bothering to look at the price or even what came with the sandwich.

They began to talk of the weather and local happenings, but when Sol commented, "I've heard tell of more than a handful of our young men volunteering to move to Pennsylvania," Jonas paid close attention.

"Just what do ya mean?" he asked.

"Well, now," Preacher Sol explained, "I guess one of the old bishops back east got this crazy idea to trade some of his boys with ours."

Jonas scratched his head, trying to recall if ever he'd heard of such a thing. "Whatever for?"

"Guess there's been too much intermarrying the blood's gettin' weak or something, and it's affecting babies."

Gravy Dan nodded and spoke up. "Same thing's goin' on in some places out here, too. That's what happens when a fella falls for his first cousin and marries her, I 'spect."

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"|:ili, makes sense to me," Peach Orchard Levi said, his l.u > I'lushing red at the sensitivity of the topic, no doubt.

Innas hardly knew what to make of the idea. "So a few of i mi icon boys plan to go to Pennsylvania and marry and settle down, in exchange for the same number of fellas from back

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"More than a dozen are comin' here," Sol said, "from .tiinrplace in Lancaster County."

/.(Oleaster . . . The mere mention of the area set his mind in iinning. So many years had come and gone since he'd laid rye:, on Leah Ebersol. . . Abram's Leah. And his parents and i|i-;u old grandparents were they even still alive? His brothers and sisters... all the happy days, growing up and helping liis father in the apple orchard, working the soil, preparing for market day week after week in the summer, the harvest and ipi'lc cider making. Remembering the beckoning smell of homemade applesauce, he felt he was right back in his mother's kitchen at this moment, even while he sat here in i he heart of Holmes County, Ohio, in this wonderful-good u-staurant catering to Plain folk.

I le retraced the steps of his boyhood and teen years. Leah had been such a big part of those growing-up days, and for I nsi a moment, he found himself reflecting on her warm and pleasing laugh, her gentle smile nearly constant, it had 'H'cined.

Although such memories were not improper, he refused to dwell on the past. His life was more than happy here. He had made the best choice for his future.

Still, the thought of young men passing between the states as a way to bring in fresh blood struck him as downright i range, yet he guessed he could see the need for it. He was

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just glad the Grasshopper Level bishop hadn't thought up this idea back when he was sixteen or seventeen. It would have meant having to leave behind his family and the girl he planned to court and marry. He had been quite young then; he and Leah both were. Just how would he have felt if the brethren had decided to start switching men around back then? He might have had even fewer years with his former beloved.

When the waitress came with his sandwich platter, Jonas felt strangely relieved, glad to dive into his lunch and abandon futile memories.

Saturday, July 6 Dear Diary,

Today, while the girls took turns tending the roadside stand with Lydiann, I headed over to see Old Lady Henner. It's been a few weeks since my last visit, but 1 wanted to check in on her, see how she was feeling, especially since I think she might be dying. She's the oldest person living in the county at the present time, and she looks it, too. When I saw her pale face and frail condition, I asked if there was anything I could do maybe call on another Amish healer. I wish she might live on forever, though 1 know that's impossible. She's only human, after all.

Another reason I went to visit her was to make sure all my ailments, physical and mental, were tended to, in case she should die in her sleep here before too long. That might seem selfish, but I've come to depend on her and don't see how I'll manage when she goes. The dear thing has been such a cornfort.

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Dat and Aunt Lizzie have not been privy to my frequent visits over the years, and I don't plan on telling them. They would not approve, though there are many amongst the People who do put great stock in our Amish hex doctors, Gid and the bishop included. Thankfully Dat has not been able to persuade iiiv husband differently.

Mary Ruth and Robert stopped in at Dat's the other day, mid Mary Ruth looks as healthy as I've ever seen her. When I 'ijncd them from the rose garden, I called to the girls, and all i >/ mx ran down for a nice visit under the shade of the linden five, where we sipped cold lemonade. It was such fun seeing the way Robert and Mary Ruth smiled so fondly at each other, (is if they share a special secret . . . which, of course, tfie^ do. (loodness, Dat has made it clear he's just itching for a grandson, holding out hope for Mary Ruth to give him his first. As for me, I've given up on having more than three children, and all girls at that. Seems to me the Lord God has closed up my womb, and probably a good thing, too, after what I went through with Mimi though, of course, following her first visit to Old Lady Henner, there was never another sleepless night due to colic. 1 know Gid and the older girls were ever so happy about thq . Gid came right out and asked if I'd taken Miriam off to the hex doctor, and 1 told him the truth. He probably wondered why I'd waited so long.

Well, it's an awful hot July, but 1 can't complain. Living up here with tall shade trees sheltering the whole back of the house, we enjoy our evening hours on the porch, looking out over the flower gardens and laughing at the girls' cute antics, enjoying one another's company like nobody's business.

Respectfully, Hannah

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Lydiann hung on Jake's every word as they rode slowly together beneath the dark covering of sky and trees. He had a big talk on tonight, telling about the times his mother would read to his twin and himself, both of them squashed into a single large hickory rocker by a flickering fire in the wood stove.

"Mostly she read Bible stories to us, but sometimes she would read poetry about animals and nature by one of Dat's Amish friends," Jake said.

She found that interesting. "A man who's a poet, ya say?"

"Jah, and a real gut one, too."

"What sort of poems . . . rhyming ones?"

Jake laughed a little. "What kinds of poems don't rhyme?"

She tried to explain that there were, indeed, poems where the phrases and lines rambled along without any rhyme at all. She had come across them one day when she and some of her school friends had taken themselves off to Strasburg to the library there and stayed for hours reading all different kinds of books. Mamma Leah had never known of it, but Lydiann had happened into Lorraine Schwartz out on the street, and Lydiann remembered feeling as if she'd been caught doing something wrong, even though Mrs. Schwartz had merely eyed her curiously.

Lydiann shared with Jake that she sometimes felt she craved books, just as Mary Ruth told her she had at this age. Sometimes she felt as if she had a little piece of each of her older sisters in her, and, all in all, she was mighty glad the Lord God had made her the way she was. She could scarcely wait to get on with her life, particularly when Jake was ever so near, as he was right this minute. "I love ya, Lyddie," he whispered, reaching for her hand.

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She wondered how much longer it would be before he mljjht kiss her cheek, though she knew courting days were a nine to "get to know one another," as Mamma always said, iiid not about smooching.

So when Jake leaned near, their heads almost touching, .In- held her breath, fearing she might fail Mamma tonight, lor sure and for certain.

Just at that moment a hoot owl startled her with its nociiinuil cry. "Ach, Jake!" she hollered.

"It's only a barn owl," he laughed.

Rut the sound from high in the tree had altered the intently of the moment, and in one way she was glad, thankful she Ii;kI been careful to stay pure during their courtship. On the ci her hand, she almost wished his lips had found her face. Who was to ever know, after all? In fact, from what she heard I mm girlfriends and distant cousins, some parents expected i heir teenagers to do a bit of necking now and then. "It leads in marriage," said one, "which is just what the deacons, preachers, and the bishop hope for."

More marriages mean more babies, she knew the way the Lord God intended them to populate the community of the I 'eople. Thoughts of marriage and babies made plenty of good sense to Lydiann, especially tonight. Except that now the romantic moment had passed and Jake was back to talking ; \ bout his twin sister.

Puh!

Leah decided to go on foot to visit Dr. Schwartz on Monday afternoon so that she could contemplate his answer all