The Divine Secrets of the Whoopie Pie Sisters: The Complete Trilogy

by Sarah Price

  “This is all just too much,” he mumbled, removing his battered straw hat and wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his arm.

  A sigh escaped her lips. “Nee, bruder. What is too much is that we just survived a tornado and you are following me around, fretting like a washwoman instead of helping! Now I suggest you get those kinner to help you with the collapsed side of the barn while I tend to this mess in the house!” Before he had a chance to argue, she added, “We can attend to the other mess later!”

  Her temper was shorter than usual; no doubt about that. She’d pray to God for forgiveness later.

  It seemed like hours passed since Thomas drove off to check on their neighbors and her sisters. The longer he was gone, the more she felt her stomach twist into a knot with worry. To keep her mind occupied, she focused on assigning tasks to everyone. Inside the house, Esther swept the broken shards of glass from blown out windows while the kinner picked up debris from the yard and road. While both houses suffered damage, Leah’s side seemed the easiest to handle for the moment.

  “What a disaster!” Sadie said when Leah approached her.

  The kitchen table rested on its side, surrounded by glass from the windows. The torn green shades flapped in the gentle breeze that was blowing through the openings.

  Esther stopped sweeping and rested her chin on her hands. “My side of the house is much worse,” she sighed. Shutting her eyes, she shook her head and clicked her tongue.

  “What are we to do with all of this?” Leah asked to herself looking around. The mess was overwhelming.

  “I’ve started a pile. Over there,” Sadie said, pointing toward the door.

  The mound of garbage contained wood, fabric, paper, shards of glass, and other little things that Leah couldn’t quite identify. A pile, Leah thought. That pile represented things in her life that, until an hour or so ago, seemed so important. Now, they were merely objects, garbage to be bundled up and thrown away. Her family’s survival meant more than jagged shards of broken glass. God’s gift to her was the safety of her kinner during one of the worst storms that passed their home in decades. What more could she expect?

  “Sure do wish Thomas would get back,” Leah said, more to herself than to Sadie. “Worried about the others.”

  They heard the sound of tires on the gravel and, simultaneously, looked toward the door. The barn blocked their view and Leah stepped over the pile of rubble and crossed the front yard, sidestepping some branches that had yet to be cleared.

  To her surprise, she saw a police car pulling down the lane. It stopped in front of the remains of Whoopie Pie Place. After a brief delay, the door opened and an officer stepped out, whistling under his breath as he assessed the damage. When she rounded the corner of the barn and lifted her hand to wave, he greeted Leah with a sad smile. Besides being an officer of the law, he was also a familiar face at Whoopie Pie Place. Both Leah and Thomas considered him a friend.

  “You folks made out all right?” he called out.

  “Ja,” she replied, nodding her head. “Nothing that can’t be replaced, I reckon.” Her eyes fell upon the damaged store and her heart dropped. No matter how many times she looked at it, she felt the same thing: shock. She forced herself to look away, the pain too great to keep looking at it. “Thomas is out checking on the others. Haven’t heard back from him so I’m a bit anxious. You hear anything?”

  The officer shook his head. “It traveled north and cut east. There are lots of uprooted trees down, roads blocked. But, judging from the direction it went, I sure don’t suspect your sisters’ had much damage, Leah.”

  That was good news. She breathed a sigh of relief. Still, she knew that the tornado must have destroyed other people’s homes. “And the other communities? Lots of damage? Any injuries?”

  He shrugged, removing his hat and running his hand across the brim. “Reports just coming in now. One community was damaged about three miles from here. An Englische neighborhood. Haven’t heard of casualties yet.” The look in his eye told her what his words didn’t: casualties were expected, even if not reported yet.

  “I’ll pray for them,” Leah whispered. God may have spared the Miller family, but she knew His protection to her loved ones did not mean protection for everyone. Whether they liked it or not, God had His own plan for His people. Surely some had been called home. It wasn’t her place to question His reasons, merely to accept the facts. “We all will.”

  He nodded his head and glanced at his watch. “Best get moving on to check on others. I’ll spread the word about Whoopie Pie Place,” he added, gesturing toward the ruined building. “I’m sure you don’t need people descending upon you in the next few days, unless it’s to offer a hand.”

  She watched as the officer backed the car out of the parking lot and turned left onto the road. She shut her eyes and prayed to God that He would comfort those in need. Surely there were other people who suffered greater losses than she had.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Whoopie Pie Place. Destroyed or not, she’d have to rebuild it. It was the lifeblood of their family, the thread that kept her schwesters connected, whether they would admit it or not. Whatever happened next, Whoopie Pie Place needed to remain at the core of the family. Her mamm and daed had built it once. Their dochders would rebuild it again. Somehow, Leah would find the strength to make it happen.

  Susie

  Susie sat beside her husband in the buggy, a heavy silence hanging over them. There was not much to say. They both dealt with their inner feelings their own way. As the horse pulled the buggy along the road, Susie stared outside the window at the path of destruction that surrounded her. Trees were downed, fields were leveled, and there were buildings that lay in piles of rubble along the hills. She caught her breath when she saw a large tree limb that had crushed a barn and a buggy just parked at the entrance of a neighbor’s farm.

  “I sure do hope that everyone’s all right at Leah’s,” she whispered.

  For once, Merv was trying to take charge. When the storm had hit, Merv reacted by grabbing her arm and pulling her inside the house. He had dragged her as fast as he could to the storm cellar, using the inside staircase to descend into the darkness.

  It had happened so fast. Too fast for Susie to comprehend that her kinner were at their grossmammi’s house and she had no idea how they fared through the storm. The path of the tornado appeared to have come from a different direction and Susie prayed that God had placed His hands upon their heads, protecting them from the storm. Still, she didn’t know what to expect and the not knowing pained her.

  One thing that she did know was Merv had saved her. He had pulled her to safety. In the dark, she trembled in fright, listening to the howling winds as the tornado passed nearby. His arms protected her, the arguments of the past forgotten as she wept on his shoulder. His presence comforted her, his sobriety a blessing in more ways than one.

  Now, he held the reins of the horse in one hand and reached out to clasp hers. His touch reassured her and she squeezed his hand in response.

  “Mein Gott!”

  Susie looked over at her husband and saw that he was staring ahead at the road. There was a large tree blocking the way, its massive roots having been lifted out of the ground and the trunk covering a ditch alongside the road. As they neared it, she could see what Merv had seen: a colored cloth that resembled the fabric of a dress. It was tangled within the branches and indicated that someone might have gotten caught up in the disaster after all.

  “Whoa!” Merv pulled back on the reins and stopped the horse at a safe distance from the tree. The last thing that they needed was for the horse to spook. Already it pranced nervously, obviously jittery and skittish from the passing tornado.

  “Stay here, Susie,” he commanded as he handed her the reins and jumped down from the buggy.

  She watched from the window, her heart pounding inside of her chest as he approached the tree. His feet moved slowly as he strained his neck to see what was wrapped within the tree. />
  “What is it?” she called out through the open window of the buggy, her hand resting on the front sill as she tried to see around him.

  Merv didn’t answer right away. Instead, he knelt down and reached over to push aside some of the brambles from the tree. Time seemed to hang in the air, endless and stale, as she waited. It was clear that he saw something but it was also clear that he had no idea what, exactly, he saw. She pressed her lips together and made a quick decision to jump out of the buggy. It would do no good to just sit there and wait, she rationalized.

  “Don’t come any closer!” His shout caused her to freeze at the halfway point between the buggy and the tree.

  “You’re scaring me, Merv,” she heard herself say. The tremble in her own voice startled her and she took a slow step forward.

  Merv stood up and turned to Susie, his face pale and his eyes wide. “Get back in that buggy and go to the closest farm! We need help! There’s someone under this tree, Susie! I can’t move it myself to get to her!”

  “Oh dear Lord,” she whispered and, without another word, she ran back to the buggy. Within seconds, she had turned the buggy around and slapped the reins on the horse’s back, getting the mare to pick up speed along the road to the closest farm.

  I can’t move it myself to get to her. Merv’s words rang in her ears. Without knowing the truth, she suspected that she knew exactly who was under that tree: Lydia. But, why would Lydia be out on this road during the storm? Nee, she told herself, it can’t be Lydia. Yet, try as she might, her suspicions grew.

  The Yoder farm was the first one along the road and Susie raced down the driveway, her heart in her throat and fear building within her head. She fought the urge to cry as she slowed the horse down and pulled the buggy to a stop by the house.

  “Wie gehts, Susie?”

  Elmer Yoder stood in the door, his fraa, Jenny, behind him. They must have heard the horse coming down the lane for Susie didn’t need to get out of the buggy.

  “There’s a tree…” She gasped for air, feeling as if she ran the half-mile rather than rode in the buggy. “A person is caught under it! Merv can’t budge it by himself.” She paused and glanced at Jenny. “I don’t know why, but I have a terrible feeling that it’s Lydia!”

  “Oh help!”

  Elmer said something to his wife before hurrying out of the house and getting into the buggy with Susie. “Let’s go! Jenny will get the boys to join us with tools.”

  She hadn’t even been gone for five minutes. To her relief, she saw another buggy parked on the other side of the tree. Thomas stood beside Merv, both of them struggling as they tried to figure out the best way to move the tree branches to free the person beneath the trunk.

  “It’s Lydia, isn’t it?” Susie whispered to Thomas as Elmer conferred with Merv. “I just know it is.”

  Thomas glanced at her. “She must be knocked unconscious. It appears she’s stuck in the ditch but unharmed.”

  His words didn’t register with her. How could Lydia be trapped under a massive tree and still be unharmed? How did he know? And why was Lydia here?

  Susie stood behind the men, watching as the men removed a few of the smaller branches. “Lord, give them the strength they need to move that tree and keep safe the person under it.” Susie whispered to herself and God.

  In the distance, a horse and buggy approached, the rhythm of the horse’s hooves fast and furious against the pavement. When she glanced up, she saw Manny in the driver side, slapping the reins against the horse’s back as if the horse could possibly gallop faster.

  Manny and two of his younger brothers emerged from the buggy and ran over to the tree. They carried handsaws and axes. Without being asked, they immediately hacked at the thicker branches while the other men grabbed and pulled. Slowly, an opening cleared and Susie saw the limp body that lay trapped underneath its massive branches: Lydia.

  “I can’t get this one to budge” Merv yelled, tugging at a branch.

  Rushing to his aid, Thomas and Elmer grabbed pieces of it, pulling as Manny continued hacking at the base. Pieces of wood flew through the air. Susie ducked as one hit the side of her face, just missing her eye. She continued to pray, willing God to give the men the strength to save her schwester.

  “That’s working!” Thomas shouted. “Keep going! “

  Susie clasped her hands to her chest, watching as the men worked relentlessly to free her schwester. They pulled at the branches, snapping them off while Manny used the ax on the larger ones. Together, they worked to clear a path to the tree trunk in order to free the limp form that was trapped beneath it. As they worked, Susie fought the urge to cry; knowing that whatever happened was God’s Will. She only prayed that God Will chose to let Lydia live.

  “That should do it!” Thomas called out. “I think I can get to her.”

  With the branches removed, the tree appeared less threatening. Susie clearly saw the ditch now and Lydia laying in it. By God’s grace alone, she was alive. A split second later, Thomas pulled her from beneath the massive tree trunk, bringing her safely to rest on the grass.

  “She’s still unconscious,” Thomas said as he tried to rouse her. Lightly, he tapped her cheeks and called her name. “Lydia? Lydia?” There was no response. “Did Jenny call the ambulance?” he asked, looking directly at Manny.

  “Ja, ja.” Nodding his head, Manny’s eyes never left the limp figure of Lydia. He looked frightened, his face pale as he swallowed. “She’ll be all right, though?”

  In the distance, a siren wailed. With each passing second, it grew louder. Susie glanced in the direction of the noise, silently willing it to come faster. Thomas hovered over his sister-in-law and continued tapping her on the face. “Come on Lydia. Wake up. Are you hurt? Lydia, wake up.”

  Susie thought she saw a fluttering of eyelids in response to Thomas calling to Lydia. She leaned over his shoulder and tried to get a better view. “Is she waking?”

  “I think so.”

  Merv took a step back and stood beside Susie. He reached out a hand and touched her hand, a small gesture, but one that startled her. She realized that his touch felt foreign for months had passed, perhaps years, since his hand sought hers.

  “You all right?” he asked, his dark eyes searching her face.

  Compassion filled her and she nodded her head. Despite his shortcomings, the Merv she married so long ago still lived within this stranger before her. And he felt like a stranger to her. Yet, the way his eyes lingered on hers, she felt something akin to hope stir deep within her. Was it possible that their love might rekindle?

  “Ja, I’m fine, I reckon,” she replied softly.

  The ambulance came to a stop behind the horses and buggies. Within seconds, a gurney appeared and three men dressed in white raced over to the grassy spot where the Amish men and woman stood, beside the crumpled form.

  Susie watched as they carefully worked, checking her pulse and shining a light into her eyes before, as if she weighed no more than a feather, they lifted her into the air and gently placed her on the sheet-covered stretcher. Lydia’s mouth moved, just slightly, and she groaned.

  “Lydia!”

  Susie ran over to the stretcher, the men hurrying after her. Grabbing Lydia’s hand, Susie leaned over her. “We’re here, Lydia. They’re taking you to the hospital to make certain you’re not hurt.”

  Blinking her eyes, she looked around at the faces staring at her. “What…?” Her eyes stopped on Manny and a dark shadow crossed her face as she recognized him. Anger replaced her confusion. “You! You made Sadie pregnant!”

  Gasping, Susie released her hand and stepped away from the stretcher. The Amish men stood there, silent as the medics quickly released the wheels and lifted the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. No one spoke as one of the medics talked with Thomas about where they were taking Lydia.

  Once the ambulance pulled away, Elmer turned to his son. “What she said, Manny,” he managed to say, pain etched in his face. “That’s not tru
e, is it?”

  Susie felt her heartbeat from her head to her toes. She stared at the young man, noticing that all of the color had vanished from his face. With wide eyes and a trembling lip, he shook his head, vehemently denying the accusation. “I have never…” But he couldn’t even finish the words.

  “She’s talking crazy,” Susie whispered. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.” Despite her words, Susie couldn’t help but wonder. Sadie’s recent sickness jumped to mind. Was it possible that…? She shook her head, the thought so horrid that she couldn’t even finish thinking it. One look at Manny’s face, however, convinced Susie. Clearly Lydia was speaking nonsense.

  In the distance, another siren broke the silence, a reminder that they were amidst a disaster area that required their immediate attention.

  “Reckon it’s best if we get over to Abe’s,” Merv said softly, his hand on Susie’s shoulder. “He’ll be wanting to go to the hospital for sure, ja? And we need to get over to my mamm’s. Check on the kinner. They’ll be worried, I’m sure.”

  Manny remained stunned, completely silent as he stared at the pavement, his eyes devoid of emotion. Elmer started walking back to their buggy but paused when he realized his son did not follow.

  “Manny!”

  Slowly, Manny turned, a dazed look on his face as he stared at his daed. Wordlessly, he nodded. Without looking at anyone, and with hunched shoulders, he walked to where his father stood.

  Long after Elmer drove the buggy back toward their house, the remaining three adults stood there, silent and staring after it. Merv shuffled his feet, glancing toward the buggy. Susie knew that she wanted to leave, wanted to go to Lydia and Abe’s but she couldn’t move. The words from Lydia’s mouth still echoed in her ear: You made Sadie pregnant.

  Gently, he guided her toward the buggy and helped her climb inside the open door. She stared out the window, her eyes peeled on the road and her thoughts torn between worry for Lydia’s safety and this unbelievable accusation about Sadie. If only it wasn’t true, she thought. But only time would tell.