The Missing (30 page)
Judah moved toward the barn entrance, more curious now as Grace strolled back toward the road with the girl, the two of them just talking up a storm.
“How did ya know I want to go to Ohio?” Grace asked as she and Heather walked back toward the Riehls’. Her heart had sped up at the Englischer’s words.
“I need to level with you.” Heather admitted to overhearing Grace and Yonnie’s conversation. “My guess is you probably wouldn’t think of traveling alone to see your mom, right?”
Grace agreed it was out of the question. “My father made that clear days ago.”
Heather was staring at the road ahead. “You’ve got to be having a difficult time of it,” she said quietly. “With your mom being gone.”
Grace’s heart warmed to Heather’s remark. “I guess we both know what that’s like.”
Heather gave a slow nod. “Well, would you like to go?” she asked. “I’d be glad to drive you.”
Grace looked curiously at her. “Do you honestly want to?”
“It’ll help me take my mind off my own issues,” Heather said. The afternoon humidity hung around them like a veil, heavy and still.
“This is such a surprise!” Grace wanted to hug her. “You’re an answer to my prayers. Truly you are.”
Heather hung back, her eyes blinking rapidly. “Well, uh, how soon can you leave?”
Grace considered that, knowing nothing stood in her way except her father. “If I can get Dat’s permission, I s’pose we can go right away.”
They walked farther, the sunlight turning the kudzu vines into a shining green cloak that nearly concealed the woodshed to their right.
Spreading nearly faster than the Amish grapevine.
But today Grace had no complaints whatsoever about that.
“Okay, I’ll wait to hear back from you.”
“Denki . . . I’ll see what Dat says, then come over and let you know either way.” Grace walked with her to Marian’s kitchen door. For some odd reason, it was hard to part ways. And she hoped she might get even better acquainted with Heather on the long ride to Ohio.
Hopefully, Dat will let me go.
Judah steadied the ewe during her intense labor. He recalled Yonnie’s way with the birthing ewes, how he talked softly to them after the labor was past . . . when the young lamb wobbled to its scrawny legs. That boy seemed to know more about God’s creation than Judah had ever given a second thought to. But recently he’d shown too much interest in Lettie’s absence, even asking him guardedly if Lettie had ever tried to tell him why she wanted to go.
“Before she left.”
Since Yonnie’s first day helping, Judah had been telling the lad things he hadn’t found the ability in his heart to tell even Adam. Things a man might only share privately with a preacher, really—someone with a powerful sense of understanding. Not with a mere boy who, while he was still wet behind the ears, seemed wiser than Judah himself in the area of relationships.
Mandy had informed him that Yonnie and Grace were seen on the road before the noon meal today, walking and talking together.
Maybe he’s got Gracie figured out at last.
Heather assumed her father had checked out of the inn hours ago, since she hadn’t heard anything more from him. She’d forfeited her usual stint at the coffee shop that afternoon, afraid it would present too much of a temptation, and was now nibbling on a few almonds from her vantage point on the front porch, where she sat. She was surprised to see her dad’s car pull into the driveway.
“You’re still here?” She hurried down the steps to meet him.
He kissed her cheek. “Come walk with me,” he said, eyes smiling. “I need some exercise before my long drive.”
“I bet you want to go over to the house site, right?”
Where
else!
He nodded. “Okay if I leave my car parked here?”
“Sure, as long as there’s still room for the team to come and go.”
He looked momentarily puzzled. “Oh, you mean the horse and buggy.”
“Hey, you catch on fast!”
They headed north on Beechdale Road; a warm, gentle breeze came up as they walked. Delicate clouds played on the horizon, near the green hills to the far north.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the place where they had parked yesterday and debated Dad’s side of things. “You sure know how to pick a pretty spot, Dad,” she admitted. “But I still don’t quite understand why you chose this area to build.”
His eyes caught hers, searching her face. “I’m ready for a change.”
She weighed that, confused. “But . . . Dad, at the height of your career? I mean, you’re leaving everything behind. Everything you’ve built to get where you are.”
“It might appear that way.” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his khakis.
“Isn’t it a gamble?”
He led her to the edge of the property.
She studied him, this man who rarely acted on impulse. “I don’t get it, Dad. Why?”
He faced his four acres and squinted. “There are things your mother and I never told you.” His voice was suddenly ragged.
“What things?”
He shielded his eyes with one hand. “After Mom died, I started thinking we needed a change of scenery, you and I. Everything in the house reminded me of her . . . everywhere I looked.”
Which is why I love it.
“We came here to Lancaster County so often as a family ‘to soak up the peace,’ as your mother liked to say. But she and I came for another reason, too.” His eyes bore a new softness when he turned to look at her.
“What reason?”
“We wanted to build a house here someday. Your mom and I thought it might be fun for you to experience something . . . of your family roots.” He paused, jingling the coins in his pants pocket. “Actually, kiddo, I’m talking about your
Amish
roots.”
“My . . .
what
?” she sputtered.
In that moment, Dad’s eyes registered the gravity of the years. Everything around them slowed to a stop—even the breeze seemed to die down. “Your birth mother was a young Amish girl, Heather.”
“You can’t be serious.” She locked eyes with him. “Did you say Amish?”
“That’s a
gut
thing, jah?” He offered a smile.
“You have to be joking.”
“Well, when we first heard about you from friends of ours in Ohio, your mom said it was the sweetest thing.”
Sweet?
“And when we flew out to see you, we fell instantly in love with the most beautiful baby girl we’d ever seen.”
She tried to wrap her mind around his words.
“We had to make you ours.” He explained that although they were approved for an in-state adoption with a local Richmond agency, the two of them had started to feel discouraged . . . nearly given up hope. “We’d waited so long. Your mom had begun to pray every day.”
Heather had heard most of the rest of this story before, but never about the prayers. “Really, Mom prayed?”
“Let’s just say she made frequent appeals to God.”
“Wow, I didn’t know.”
Dad looked proud suddenly, like the rooster that owned Andy Riehl’s barnyard.
“Why didn’t you tell me before? Why didn’t Mom?”
“It didn’t seem important until now.” He slipped his arm around her as they walked. “From the moment we brought you home, you felt so much a part of our lives. Frankly, it was difficult to think of you as coming from anyone else apart from your mother and me. We truly adored you. Still do.”
She leaned against his arm. “Oh, Dad . . .”
“I’m telling you now only because it clarifies why I want to settle here. Ohio would have been truer to your roots, but since Lancaster County’s closer, this is where we liked to visit—the place where our family really connected with one another.”
She swallowed hard. “You know, it doesn’t make any difference to me who my birth parents were. It was so great growing up as your little girl . . . yours and Mom’s.”
“And a thoroughly modern girl, no less.”
With Amish blood coursing through my veins . . .
They’d reached the middle of the plot. Sunshine spread across the cornfields and grazing land beyond. “I want you to have this land and the house we’re building someday.”
“Not for a long, long time, though, right?”
He sighed, reaching for her hand. “You’re going to beat this disease, right, honey?”
“Sure, Dad.” Heather smiled up at him, tears falling down her cheeks. “That’s the plan.”
By the time they walked back to the Riehls’, Heather’s dad was starting to make noises about getting on the road. She kissed and hugged him in response to his wholehearted promise to return early next week. Watching his car creep down the lane, Heather was still surprised at her parents’ long-held secret. All the same, knowing it changed absolutely nothing about her feelings for either of them.
She noticed Becky and her mother tossing feed to the chickens across the barnyard . . . and Becky’s barefooted sisters squealing with glee as they played at the well pump. She was seeing them in an astonishing new light. Heather glanced down at her attire, mentally comparing her sleeveless blouse and faded jeans to the Amish cape dresses.
The way I might’ve
been raised . . .
She wandered around to the front of the Riehls’ roomy old house and sat on the porch steps. Looking to the south, she watched the littlest lambs
ba-a-a
and bleat as they followed their mothers on the other side of the fence. And not far from where she sat, four young finches chirped happily in a birdbath.
“Unbelievable,” Heather whispered, leaning her chin on her hands. She reveled in the spread of the immense front yard before her and the flat, fertile fields on either side, gazing in all directions.
No wonder I’m so at home here. . . .
G
race hurried inside and pulled down Mamma’s biggest kettle. Spaghetti sounded so good for supper! While she worked, it crossed her mind that she should cook ahead a couple days’ worth of meals for the family.
If Dat allows me to leave tomorrow.
Goodness, she could scarcely believe Heather had offered to drive her all that way. She filled the kettle with water, thinking how much easier it might be to simply write her father a note of explanation.
Just sneak away after dark like Mamma did
.
She carried the kettle to the stove and turned on the gas, knowing she couldn’t bear to hurt her father that way, nor the rest of her family. She went to the pantry and found the packages of noodles she’d purchased at Eli’s and resolved to talk to Dat immediately. She must be respectful and ask for his consent, praying his answer might reflect the Lord’s own will in this.
Judah heard Grace’s footsteps on the driveway. He’d come to check on Willow after eating too much again at supper. Grace had surprised him when she’d leaned over to whisper in his ear as she put dessert on the table, asking if she might talk to him. Now what was on her mind?
He patted Willow’s neck and back, feeling the strength of the mare’s muscles. The last thing he wanted was another rift with his eldest daughter. He almost wished it was Jakob asking to speak with him tonight. Far as he was concerned, the conversation they’d had was less than satisfying. Nothing had been accomplished—Jakob had thrown the wrench back at him.
When will I ever see Lettie again?
Judah wondered.
Grace arrived carrying a lit lantern, even though twilight was at least another hour away. He braced himself as she appeared and stood there before him.
“Ach, Dat . . . I have such
gut
news! I would’ve told you—and everyone—at supper. But the timing didn’t seem quite right.”
What the world was she babbling about?
“So I waited to tell you privately . . . first.”
He took the lantern from her and set it down, away from Willow’s bedding straw. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s Mamma.” Her voice wavered. “I know where she is.”
His breath caught in his throat. “How’s that?”
“Yonnie told me today.”
Judah was stunned. He hadn’t expected this.
“Yonnie heard it from a reliable source. And I’d like to go and visit her, Dat.”
“Where?”
“She’s staying with a friend in Baltic, Ohio.”
He rubbed his face, heart pounding. “You know this for certain?”
“The Fisher girls saw her this very morning at a work frolic.”
“In Baltic?” He’d been waiting . . . hoping for such news all along. And yet, hearing it now, Judah felt bewildered, like he didn’t know what to do first.
“Can I go, Dat? Heather Nelson, the young woman staying with Andy and Marian, asked if she could drive me. And since I know where Mamma is staying—I’ve got the woman’s name written down—we won’t be gone but two days.” Grace continued, reminding him that she’d met his earlier conditions. Sure, lambing season wasn’t quite over, but she wasn’t asking to take Adam or anyone else away from helping with the sheep. It was as if she’d rehearsed every word, at least in her mind.
The first thing that popped into his head was to put his foot down—simply refuse her again. But it was hard to overlook the fact this just might be a second chance for him. And wasn’t it a good idea to let Grace decide some things for herself, now she was twenty-one? All grown-up . . . nearly past courting age, too. Judah wanted her to know she could come to him and talk things through—like the adult she’d become.
She’s always been
such a steady and faithful daughter. . . .
“When would you want to go?” He looked at her standing there in the shadows, oh, so hopeful.
“As soon as possible, I’m thinkin’.”
“Well, then, so be it.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she touched his arm. “Dat . . . do ya mean it?”
“Go and visit your Mamma,” he eked out the words.
“Maybe she’ll want to come home at last.”
“Oh, I hope so.” She glanced at the lantern, then at Willow.
“Denki ever so much. You don’t know how happy I am.”
“By the look on your face, I’d have to say that I do.”
Grace smiled and turned to leave, her skirt swishing past the glowing lantern.
Judah watched her go with a twinge of sadness. Yet as protective as he’d always been of his girls, something felt different now. Standing taller, he sauntered out to look in on the newest lambs, feeling mighty proud of himself . . . in a humble sort of way.
