Abram's Daughters 05 The Revelation (30 page)

Leah enjoyed the serene talk, listening as Adah spoke of tinthings to be done before she planted her vegetable garden.

When she had poured hot chamomile tea for both of them and offered honey to Adah, who preferred it to sugar, they settled down to visiting in earnest.

"So how are you doin'?" Adah asked with a mischievous look.

Leah assumed she wanted to talk about the prospects for a wedding. "You're askin' when I'm gonna be Jonas's bride, ain't?"261

Adah's face reddened slightly at her admission. "Oh, I'm so lhlp|iy lor ya, Leah! Can it be that you two will be husband and wife ,1 in .ill?"

"Well, the Lord willin' and the creek don't rise," Leah joked, goniji mi to say that she and Jonas had already decided they'd like t lines 10 be one of the first weddings of the season.

"When's the date?" Adah rose to look at the calendar on the I tin k ol the cellar steps.

" November third."

With her finger, Adah found the month and day. Her eyes -Imiklcd as she turned and came back to the table, wearing the I'l^csl smile as she sat down. "What a wonderful-gut day that'll It," Adah frowned suddenly. "Seems there's a goings-on amongst I uglishcrs that day, isn't there?"

I,call nodded. "When I told Mary Ruth the date, she said she mil Robert would have to get out and vote for America's next presi ItiH right quick after the weddin' feast."

"Jah, I heard there's a man from Arizona who's runnin' against I'resident Johnson. My Mennonite cousin keeps sayin' we need this ( ioklwater for president, since he's very conservative, but I daresay we should let the English fret over all of that."

"Prob'ly so." Leah raised her teacup and thought back over all I lie happy years she'd had with her best friend, Adah, and here they were, calking at last of Leah and Jonas's wedding, months away i hough it was. "*

Adah stirred more honey into her tea and sighed. She eyed Leah. You're still young enough to have babies."

I ,eah had contemplated that very notion, especially lately. Beim|> she would turn thirty-four in October, she could still hope to

1'irih several children before the change crept up on her. "If I'm iiiyihing like the Brenneman women, surely I will, but who's to I now, really."

"Your dearest dream, jah?"

I ,eah agreed. "Jonas and I will trust the Lord for our family."

Adah nodded, and Leah felt warmed by the sweet and knowing look on her dearest friend's face.

262

Abram was jubilant over his and Peter's plan for a family re union on this, the third Sunday in April. Peter, Fannie, and as many of their family as could make it had come for dinner, which meant all but two of the married Mast daughters Katie and Martha had come from Grasshopper Level for the feast on this no-church day.

Abram supervised as Gid and Abe, and Jonas and his brother Eli set up two long extra tables in the kitchen, as well as a medium-sized one in the room next to the front room for the children. Lizzie, Sadie, Lydiann, and Mary Ruth had done most all of the cooking, with Leah pitching in as much as she could, even though she was still moving a bit cautiously.

Abram and Peter stood outside talking and watching the dogs romp back and forth over the yard while Peter puffed on his pipe. "Seems Fannie's taken right up with Lizzie, and vice versa," Peter was saying.

"Oh jah, the women folk have no trouble pickin' up where they left off." Abram could hear the chatter coming from the house; the happy sound of kinfolk was downright pleasing to his ears.

"And it looks like Jake and Lydiann hardly even notice each other. A gut sign." Abram had taken note of this the moment the Mast family arrived.

"Jah, I have a feelin' he might be lookin' for a new girl. . . heard he's goin' to singings again." Peter drew on his pipe for a moment, ;i faraway look in his eye, as if he had something else on his mind. "Say, I've been thinkin' . . . wouldn't ya like to meet Jake officially? I mean, as your grandson?"

"Why, sure. When's a gut time?"

Before Abram could stop him, Peter hurried to the house, returning in less than a minute with Jake following him.

"Hullo," Jake said warmly, extending his hand.

Abram nodded, firmly gripping the lad's hand. "Willkumm, Jake. Mighty nice to meet ya." 263

|nl

Peter grinned and placed his hand on Jake's shoulder. "That you liuvr. Two of everything, I daresay."

"Best" of all is us comin' back together on a day like this, ain't?" Juke* said, smiling at both men.

Abram agreed, aware of a growing sense of satisfaction as he looked at his handsome and mannerly grandson. "Can't think of iittylhing better!"

11 was much later, in the midst of pie serving and coffee pourinp,, when Hannah leaned over and whispered to Lizzie at the table, ilit* usual roses in Hannah's cheeks fading. As if he sensed something, Gid immediately got up from the table, helping Hannah do

11 if same. "We best be heading home right quick."

I ,i/,zie told Abe to ride to summon the midwife, and Gid agreed. No hex doctor."

Sadie rose to assist Hannah out the back door, followed by I .i/zie and Gid, who told his girls to "stay put with Dawdi Abram." I lie girls seemed glad for a chance to enjoy their newfound cousins ,ilid indulge in mfere dessert.

About the time Abe was getting ready to head out for afternoon milking, word came back from the log house that yet another baby p.irl Peachey had made her entrance into the world.

Abram was relieved to learn Hannah had not insisted on a hex doctor for this baby. It was becoming apparent Gid was having his way on that issue. A mighty good thing for them all, he felt.

"We named her Ada, without an h," Gid told them.

I ,eah spoke up. "Named after your sister?"

(lid nodded and chuckled a bit. "I s'pose if we keep on havin' CJils, both my sisters' names and all of Hannah's will end up in our l.iniily Bible."

264

Abram took the comment humorously, even though he cauglii the slightest hint of disappointment, which flickered . . . then faded, on Gid's face.

Jake certainly hadn't been staring, or at least he didn't think so. Still, he could not ignore the way Abram gestured as he spoke even now with a measure of tenderness about Gid and Hannah's newe.si baby girl up yonder. Jake had been fascinated to meet the ruddy faced man his father had despised for Jake's entire lifetime his own grandfather.

This day the blood association brought with it a tangible sense of happiness, especially because Jake wanted to believe that his existence and the acknowledgment of his identity was in some way responsible for bringing the two families together. And for this, he was glad to have borne the pain of rejection.

A peculiar way to mend fences, he thought as he helped his older brother Eli carry the extra tables from the kitchen to a storage shed behind the henhouse.

Returning to the yard, he saw Mandie and Lydiann walking on the mule road a short distance away, talking and laughing. His eye caught Lydiann's, but he felt only the slightest pull of discontentmore regret than anything. No getting around it, she was the prettiest girl he'd ever known, which was in her favor. Any young man would take a shine to her, and as long as she wore that winning smile, she need never worry about being a maidel. He hoped for her sake that she would find a beau who would treat her with the love and kindness he observed in Jonas's interactions with Leah.

Continuing on, he saw Sadie waving to him from the well, and he hurried to her to insist on pumping the water for her glass, moved again by her sweetness and obvious fondness for him.

"There's a volleyball game 'bout to start," she said, her blue eyes shining.

He could hear the voices drifting from the other side of the house and nodded, tipping his straw hat. "You gonna come play, too?" he asked.

"I'll catch up in a bit." <

He found Jonas and Abe setting up a net amidst a group of ea- j

265

( players on the narrow stretch of yard along the lane. When i iked to join in the game of boys against girls, Jake removed his

huw li:it and hung it on a low branch, aware of Dat and Abram !' tiniiij', against the tree's trunk, still deep in conversation, Abram's

ipii'ssivc hands moving like slow waves in a wheat field as he ulknl.

|;tke forced his attention back to the players, amazed afresh at the a^ht ol his newly extended family enjoying one another's company hrrc on Ebersol soil, as if the partition of years had fully collapsed.

266Upiijiji'lljl : . . .; .: : . :; V

i

in . '

, ,|j ..'.', ' . '

\ ' \ ' ' . ' ,:.' . '

i ' " ' ' : . -':' ' '. ' . . ''267T^'M'

&--t-

-t'-t-

7

*&

l\ lull month had come and gone since the Ebersol and Mast family reunion, and Lizzie was anxious to plant the charity garden in the '.nuill plot of land offered by Abram. She, Sadie, Leah, and Lydiann ,ill settled in for a long morning of work, laughing and talking as i hey planted lettuce, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, endive, eggplant, ,md carrots. Come July, they would be planting three hundred celery ',(*CS in another garden plot set aside for that vegetable, creamed celny being a traditional necessity for wedding feasts. At times Lizzie it ad to pinch herself to believe things were happening as they were (or her darling gift. Long time comin. . . .

Today, following noon dinner, she needed to run an errand over JjO Fishers' General Store for several bolts of fabric and sewing noons. She invited Leah to ride along, thinking it would be nice to Have a mother-daughter chat.

I When they were out on the road, a mile or so from the house, pizzie said, "Whenever you want to sit down and talk 'bout who to assign to the work on your wedding day, we can start makin' our lists."

"I've begun doin' some of that already," Leah admitted.

"Knowin' you, I figured as much. There's goin' to be plenty to do, what with three hundred and fifty or more folk comin'."

"Uncle Jesse and Aunt Mary's children and grandchildren alone

268

make for over sixty guests. And I want to invite all of Mamma's and your Brenneman side over in Hickory Hollow, too."

"Absolutely. Maybe we should plan for closer to four hundred guests. What do ya say?"

"Maybe so." Leah turned and looked at her. "Do ya think Uncle Noah and Aunt Becky will want to come?"

"Aw, I'm surprised you'd be askin', after all this time."

Leah nodded. "I'd like to invite them." She was silent for a while before adding, "And Jonas wants to send written invitations to several of his closest friends in Ohio, as well. Can you help me with that, too?"

Lizzie smiled, noticing the pure radiance on Leah's face. "Sadie might enjoy doin' some of the writing and addressing, too, since you both have a right nice hand."

"I 'spect she'll be thinkin' ahead to her own wedding here 'fore too long. She and Eli plan to wait till early December for that, though. Hannah says Gid thinks their waitin' till us first-timers are married is a very gut idea."

Lizzie laughed a little. "Well, then, it seems everyone knows everyone else's business, ain't so?" Of course, both girls' plans were quite different than those of the younger couples, who kept quiel about who they were even courting till the bishop published them two Sundays before the wedding day. Jonas and Leah, as well as Eli and Sadie, were certainly exceptions to the rule.

"Most of all, it's wonderful to know Peter and Fannie will be comin'. Jonas is 'specially glad."

"And havin' you as his bride-to-be makes him more than happy, I'd imagine." Lizzie leaned her shoulder against Leah, and they both laughed.

"My only challenge is choosing two single girls to be my wedding attendants," Leah said. "I truly wish Adah or Hannah or Sadie could be standin' up next to me, but, of course, that's impossible now." She was laughing again. "Everyone even close to my age has been long married."

"That's all right." Lizzie patted her hand. "You're havin' your special time just as our dear Lord planned it."

269' ,

"Do you honestly believe God picks out husbands and matches kt'in up with the tight woman?" "Well, now, I think I do, Leah."

^^^H , The Revelation : ' ,

^^^fl "Do you honestly believe God picks out husbands and matches ^^^fti'in up with the tight woman?" ^H "Well, now, I think I do, Leah."

^^^fl 1 ,cah listened as Aunt Lizzie explained hetself, saying she'd once ^^^fttul of" a mothet praying for the young man who would become her ^^^ft lighter's husband, even as the infant slept in her arms. "She asked ^^^ic 1 ,ord to protect him and keep him till such time as the two ^^Hvinild meet."

^HJP '" I hat's the sweetest thing," Leah said.

Mj At that Lizzie opened her heart in a most unexpected way. "You

I now, dear girl, since you're goin' to be a wife in the comin' months, I thought it might be the time to tell you . . . 'bout your natural failin." She seemed hesitant, yet her words had a ring of determination. "I know there was a time when you felt it wasn't important to know, but how do you feel now?"

Watching her lovely hazel eyes, Leah knew deep love for the woman who'd birthed her under such dreadful circumstances. " I lonestly ... I have been wonderin' again here lately." I a'zzie's eyes glistened. "You're sure?" "Jah, I'd like to know."

Slowly, quietly, Lizzie began to tell her the last piece in the story ol a rumschpringe gone reckless thankfully for Leah, skipping over many of the details. "It may be difficult to believe, but it was I Iciiry Schwartz who was the spruced-up young man drivin' his fast automobile that New Year's Eve . . . the day I was bound to hitchhike my way to town."

"What?" Leah could scarcely believe her ears. "Our doctor?" Lizzie bowed her head. "Sad, but true." "Never would I have thought this. . . . Oh, Aunt Lizzie." They sat without speaking for the longest time before Lizzie continued, "I s'pose he doesn't suspect who you are, neither."

The truth slowly trickled into Leah's brain. "Then he doesn't know about me at all?"