Plain Proposal (16 page)

Ten minutes later, as she was pulling up her driveway with Saul right behind her, she gasped at the light on in the den downstairs. Maybe Shelby was up. Or one of her brothers, which wouldn’t be good. Her brothers would tattle on her.

She slowed the buggy, jumped out as soon as it stopped, then ran to Saul’s buggy. “
Danki
for supper. I have to go!” She turned to run toward the house, then he called her name. She turned around, her heart pounding in her chest. “I’m sorry. I have to go.” She looked over her shoulder toward the house, then back at Saul.

“Do you want to do something again?”

Miriam wanted to stay in the moment and talk to him more, especially since Saul had clearly avoided her question about being baptized. But the longer she stayed outside talking to Saul, the worse things were going to be when she went inside. “I’ll call you from our barn phone tomorrow at”—she thought for a moment, remembering that it was an off-Sunday for church service—“at ten in the morning.”

“Okay.”

Saul sounded confused, but Miriam ran toward the house, knowing she’d been caught. She waited until Saul rounded the corner before she reached for the screen door, glad that the wooden door was closed. Maybe her parents hadn’t seen Saul. She pulled the screen door toward her and was just about to turn the knob on the main door when she heard the sound of car tires on their driveway. She pulled her hand back, turned around, and waited to see who it was. Her stomach knotted inside her at the thought of what faced her on the other side of the door, but she couldn’t imagine who would be visiting them at midnight.

She waited. The car wasn’t even parked before another car turned into their driveway. Miriam held her hand up to block the headlights from both vehicles. She turned around when she heard the front door open. Her mother stepped onto the front porch, supported by her father, and she was sobbing uncontrollably. They were followed by her brothers, who were also crying. Shelby appeared behind them, and Miriam wasn’t sure, but it looked like Shelby had been crying too.

“
Mamm!
What is it?” Miriam clutched her mother’s arm when it appeared she might fall. Her father lifted his wife into his arms and held her close as a tear ran down his face. “
Daed
, what’s wrong? Someone tell me.”

Her mother pulled herself from
Daed’s
arms, then stumbled down the porch steps. She fell into her brother Noah’s arms.
Mamm’s
sister Mary Ellen stepped out of the other car and ran to her mother and Noah. Miriam watched the scene unfolding and began to cry herself. She didn’t know what had happened, but it was bad, and it clearly didn’t have anything to do with her sneaking out to meet Saul.

8

M
IRIAM TRIED TO CALM HER BREATHING AND HER
crying as they moved into the house. She couldn’t believe it— her Uncle Ivan was dead. She’d just seen him at the market on Friday. Shelby kept her arm around Miriam as they moved into the house. Noah’s wife, Carley, was doing her best to comfort Miriam’s brothers, but all three boys couldn’t stop crying.

It was bad enough that Uncle Ivan was in a car accident that killed him, but their loss felt even worse because he had been shunned recently, banned by his family for his recent choices. No one knew why her uncle was in a car so late at night.

Once Miriam was settled on the couch next to her aunts, Mary Ellen and Carley, Shelby offered to go make everyone some tea, but no one took her up on it. Shelby didn’t even know Ivan, had only met him that one time, but yet she cried along with the rest of them.

“The policeman said he went quickly.” Noah choked out the words as he ran a hand through his hair. “Never suffered. The other car hit the car Ivan was riding in head-on.” Noah paused. “The driver of that car was also killed instantly, but the person who hit them survived. He’s at Lancaster General in a coma.”

“Oh no.”
Mamm
wailed from the rocker across the room. Miriam’s father leaned down beside the chair and clutched her hand, then
Mamm
said, “Poor Katie Ann. . . and their baby. Oh no, Aaron. As far as I know, Ivan still didn’t know about the baby.”
Mamm
dropped her head into her hands and sobbed.

They all knew Katie Ann was pregnant, but her aunt had chosen to keep her pregnancy a secret from Uncle Ivan, fearful he would return to Katie Ann out of obligation. Miriam’s family had promised Katie Ann that they wouldn’t mention anything to Ivan—at least for a while. Now he would never know, and Miriam wondered if they had done the right thing.

Mamm
raised her head and continued, “Someone will have to call Katie Ann.”
Mamm
dabbed at her eyes. “And we will need to call Samuel and Lillian.”

Miriam tried to make sense of everything as she counted the other Stoltzfus siblings in her head. There was her mother, Samuel, Noah, and Mary Ellen. Everyone lived here in Lancaster County except for her Uncle Samuel, his wife, Lillian, and Ivan’s wife, Katie Ann. Miriam missed her aunts and uncles, and she’d hoped to see them soon—but not like this.

“It’s late, Rebecca.” Her father squeezed
Mamm’s
hand. “We’ll call them at daylight.”

Mamm
nodded, and then Miriam’s eyes met with her father’s. His scowl caused Miriam to look away from him. She felt as low as a serpent slithering on the ground. She wanted to run across the room and comfort her mother, but her father’s eyes kept her planted on the couch.

After about an hour, the group began to part ways, following more hugs and tears. Miriam couldn’t stop thinking about her uncle, all the times she’d spent with him over the years, and how she’d been praying for him to come back to the church.

Once everyone was gone, Miriam cautiously eased toward her mother. “What would you like for me to do,
Mamm
?”

Her mother dabbed at her eyes, then glared at Miriam. “What would I like for you to do, Miriam?” She paused as her eyes narrowed with anger. “I would like for you not to sneak out of our home to go and meet a boy.” She put both hands to her forehead and wept. “I can’t talk about this right now.” She turned to go up the stairs but turned around. “I don’t want you seeing that boy.”

“Let’s go upstairs, Rebecca.” Miriam’s father coaxed her up the stairs, leaving the rest of them in the den. Shelby reached for John’s hand and offered to take him back up to bed, but Miriam’s eight-year-old brother wiped his eyes and said he didn’t need her to. Ben and Elam eased past them, and Ben motioned for little John to follow them. Miriam stood in the middle of the den with Shelby, watching her family go upstairs. Then she cupped her face in her hands and cried. She felt Shelby’s arms go around her, and she buried her face in her cousin’s shoulder and wept.

Saul held the piece of plywood against the barn wall and nailed it firmly in place. It wasn’t the best repair job, but it would keep things dry until he could fix it permanently. He released the breath he was holding, only to have his nostrils take in a full load of stench. Their mule, Gus, had kicked the siding in her stall yesterday after she got spooked by a skunk, which caused the skunk to spray everything in the stall. Saul pinched his nose and thought about how he was going to get the smell out of the barn—and off of Gus.

He glanced at the phone on
Daed’s
workbench and figured it to be close to ten o’clock. Miriam would be calling soon, and thoughts about her had kept him up last night.
Daed
and James were working in the fields, and Ruben went to town for supplies they needed. Saul was glad to be alone with his thoughts this morning.

His father topped the list, and Saul fought to keep the worries from his heart. He knew that everything was the will of God, but he prayed constantly that God would see fit to cure his father of his drinking. It was like living with two different people—the man he admired and loved, and a strange being he didn’t recognize when he drank. Once, in a drunken fit, his father had folded onto the floor like a small child and said that
Mamm’s
and Hannah’s deaths had left his soul without a spirit. It was a strange thing to say, but for some reason it stuck in Saul’s mind. His father had never gotten over their deaths.
Daed
tried hard to stay focused for Saul and his brothers, but the alcohol seemed to just intensify his loss and turn him into a crazy man.

Saul fretted about Ruben and James. And his father. If he continued to see Miriam Raber, he’d only be adding her to his list of worries, and all this anxiety would drag a man down.

He picked up some tools that Ruben had left out on the workbench and began putting them in the proper storage bins. Then he glanced at the clock again.

Rebecca looked in the mirror hanging on a small chain in their bedroom. Even though they’d agreed to sleep late this morning, her eyes were puffy and red. She took a deep breath, then finished dressing. The thought of cooking breakfast made her feel sick to her stomach, but everyone had to eat.

“I shouldn’t have been so hard on Miriam last night,” she said to Aaron when he walked into their bedroom already dressed in a dark-blue shirt and black slacks. Rebecca had chosen a dark-brown dress and black apron to wear to the funeral home.

“Miriam shouldn’t have snuck out to see the Fisher boy.” Aaron pulled a pair of suspenders from the chest of drawers. “We will talk to Miriam about this after we’ve made Ivan’s arrangements.”

Rebecca sat down on the bed and pulled on a pair of black socks. “Ivan was Miriam’s
onkel
, though, and I spoke cruelly to her even though I knew she was hurting.” She reached for her black shoes and pulled them closer. With one shoe in her hand, she rose up and looked at Aaron. “It wasn’t even Miriam’s fault, I’m sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“Miriam would never disobey us, and Shelby has a history of being disobedient.” She leaned down and pulled her shoe on. “I’m sure Shelby convinced her to go against our wishes. Miriam would never do that.”

“You don’t know that, Rebecca.” Aaron raked a hand through his dark hair. “It ain’t fair to blame Miriam’s choices on Shelby.”

Rebecca stood up, but she didn’t say anything.

“Shelby seems like a
gut
girl. She tried to help last night when we found out about Ivan, and she shed tears along with the rest of us, even though she didn’t know him.”