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

by Sarah Price

  Esther stood with her back against the counter, her face covered with her hands. Her shoulders moved, ever so slightly, as she sobbed. Jacob knelt before her, his hand clinging to her apron with tears streaming down his face. The pathetic image of Jacob so desperate and Esther so upset startled Sadie.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered, her eyes darting from the distraught couple to Leah then back to her brother.

  “You best be going to check on the kinner,” Leah said. “I’ll handle this.”

  And, for once, Sadie shook her head, defiant in her response. “No!” She shook off Leah’s touch on her arm and stared at her. “I have a right to know. This is my family, too!”

  Esther looked up and, through red, swollen eyes, stared at the two women standing before her. Her cheeks looked shallow and pale. In just minutes, she had aged. “You want to know?” she said, her voice shaking.

  “Esther, don’t…” Leah warned gently.

  “You want to know?” This time, Esther screamed it. “Jacob is not my true husband! He knew another woman before me!”

  The words didn’t register with Sadie. She looked at Leah who merely stared ahead, stoic as ever in the face of family problems. “Is this true?” Sadie whispered, not believing what Esther had shouted but not comprehending the lack of response on anyone’s part. Why wasn’t Jacob telling her to stop lying? Why was Leah acting as if she had known?’

  Esther grabbed her apron and yanked it free from Jacob’s hands. “Don’t touch me, you sinner! Don’t touch me ever again!”

  “Calm down, Esther.” Leah spoke through clenched teeth, her voice, normally so calm and soothing, stern and direct. “This will not solve the problem.”

  Sadie shook her head. Nothing made sense. “I…I don’t understand.”

  Esther jerked her head to look at Sadie, anger blazing behind her tired eyes. “Tobias isn’t your bruder, Sadie,” she snapped, the words harsh and spoken with contempt. “He’s your nephew!” She turned her eyes to glare at her husband, a broken man on his knees at her feet. Still, she showed no mercy. “And Jacob is his daed!”

  Part Two

  Why does it come to pass

  That the opposite befalls me?

  When I want to live in joy,

  Much distress enters in,

  That I can never, wholeheartedly,

  Anywhere in this time,

  Observe a joyful feast,

  I am hindered by sorrow.

  Ausbund Song 105, Verse 3

  When the wicked advance against me

  to devour[a] me,

  it is my enemies and my foes

  who will stumble and fall.

  Though an army besiege me,

  my heart will not fear;

  though war break out against me,

  even then I will be confident.

  Psalm 27:2-3 NIV

  The Back Stab

  Her hands shook and she clenched them into fists, burying them into the folds of her dress. Her jagged nails cut her palms, but she ignored the pain. It was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. She still couldn’t shake the feeling of disbelief over everything that had happened.

  It had been a long day. Nee, she thought as she stared at the fresh lumber piled on the driveway, the soft glow from the lantern casting shadows around it. A long week. Had it only been two days ago when the tornado had ripped through their community? God had been good to them, indeed. While plenty of people were injured and dozens of homes damaged, the only casualties were a few people with broken bones. No traumatic injuries. No one died and, for that, Leah gave thanks.

  Still, not even the tornado had prepared her for what followed.

  “There you are,” Thomas said as he walked around the side of the barn. He handed her a steaming mug of coffee and reached down for the lantern. Lifting it over his head, he walked around the supplies that would soon be used to rebuild the store. “Elias was awful kind to get this for us so soon,” he commented when he returned to her side. “Lots of people are in need of beams, boards, and nails.”

  Leah nodded, appreciative that Thomas’ friend had managed to deliver the supplies, especially when so many others had suffered similar damage to their homes and outbuildings. Despite her gratitude, she remained silent. There were no words that she could say. Inside, she was still seething from the events of the day. Once again, life distracted her from the things that she needed to do: confront Sadie, deal with Esther, and talk to Jacob. Instead, Whoopie Pie Place consumed all of her time. If only she didn't need to rebuild it, she thought bitterly. If only they didn’t need the income to survive.

  “It’s going to be all right,” Thomas said softly, a concerned look on his face. He reached out and gently rubbed the side of her arm.

  “You say that but you don’t know it!” Instinctively, she brushed his hand away and regretted it as soon as she did. He was only trying to comfort her. Still, her foul mood dictated her actions. She’d apologize later.

  Arching an eyebrow, Thomas tilted his head. “That’s not my Leah,” he commented slowly. In the glow from the lantern, Leah could see the sorrowful expression on his face. She looked away when he continued. “You know that God will provide. God will see us through this storm. And I’m not talking about the tornado.”

  Oh, she knew what he meant. In hindsight, the tornado had been the easy part. Dealing with what she had learned today, the betrayal from a friend and the fear from a community, had sent her into a tailspin: During her entire life, she never had to deal with deception. The human nature of the Amish community was no different than the Englische, that was for sure and certain. But deceit?

  “Has Esther calmed down at all?” Leah asked, changing the subject to one that she could handle better.

  He merely shrugged his shoulders.

  “Sadie come down from her room yet?”

  Another shrug.

  Time, Leah thought. That was what they all needed. Time to heal the injuries of the past few days. After all, wounds were still open. It dawned on her that, despite the different circumstances, Esther felt the pain of deceit as deeply as she did. The only difference was that Jacob had not deceived his fraa on purpose. When he learned of the situation, he confessed to Esther.

  As for Sadie, not another day could go by without the inevitable confrontation. Leah knew that much was true. The distractions from the previous days could no longer delay the inevitable for, unlike Jacob, Leah sensed that no confession was coming her way. Not this time.

  Earlier That Day

  “There’s a match,” Dr. Bodine exclaimed, a smile reaching from ear to ear on his face. “I can’t believe it! A complete stranger stepped forward, was tested, and matched!”

  Leah smiled but said nothing.

  “A miracle!”

  She nodded her head, too afraid to open her mouth and say what she really felt.

  Oh, Jacob had told her what had happened the afternoon of the tornado when they visited Lydia in her hospital room. When he slipped away to visit Tobias, he had not taken the elevator to the other floor. Instead, he sought out his past.

  “I saw her,” Jacob confided in Leah just the previous day. “She’s working at that hospital. I’m positive it was her.”

  “At the hospital?”

  Jacob nodded, lowering his voice to a whisper. “The other day. Remember? I saw her walk by when we were all waiting to get our blood tests. I’m sure she recognized me.”

  The plan was easy. When Leah visited Lydia, Jacob would search out the woman. They both knew it would not be an easy conversation. Unfortunately, it was a matter of life or death: Tobias’.

  Cheryl Weaver. Leah couldn’t believe that God led them to this woman. It was a miracle that she worked at the hospital, the very hospital where Tobias awaited the bone marrow transplant. Only she wasn’t Cheryl Weaver anymore. She had married a young man and had her own family now.

  That had been two days ago. And only the previous night, Jacob shared his news with Leah in a hu
shed voice so that Esther would not overhear. His fraa was still reeling in shock, barely able to function. Ever since she heard Jacob’s confession, she refused visitors, choosing to stay in bed, her blank eyes staring at the wall. Reluctantly, Leah took over responsibility for the distraught woman’s kinner during the day, one more burden that she did not need but was forced to accept.

  “I heard she went to get tested yesterday,” he whispered to Leah as they stood a safe distance from the house. “I reckon she got over the shock.”

  Leah didn’t ask how he knew. She presumed that Jacob saw Cheryl earlier that day when they went to visit Tobias. Only Jacob had slipped away, refusing to see the sick boy. He simply wasn’t ready to face the boy he had known as his brother for so many years and now knew was, indeed, his son.

  Later that night, Leah had dropped to her knees, pressing her hands together and shutting her eyes. She prayed as hard as she could, begging God to protect Tobias and to let this woman be a match. Thomas had walked in on her and, seeing that she was praying, quickly backtracked out of the room, leaving her alone to share her innermost thoughts with God. She heard him close the door, appreciating his respect for the time she needed to be alone and unburden her cares and worries. Put them in a box and stick it in a closet, she used to tell the kinner. That’s what she was doing now: letting God hear her needs. He would know what she needed and He would carry her through whatever troubles still remained unseen.

  With the telephone lines still down, Leah had not received the doctor’s message right away. Instead, Thomas found out when the neighbor ran down the lane with the message from the hospital on their voice mail, the secondary number Leah had left in case of emergency. Without delay, Leah arranged for Michelle to take her to the hospital.

  After inquiring about Michelle’s family and praising God when she learned that they had suffered no damage from the tornado, Leah fell quiet, deep in thought as her mind raced. Michelle respected her silence and focused on driving. They both knew whatever the doctor was going to share with Leah would change a lot of lives, whether for the better or worse.

  The entire ride, a whole twenty minutes, felt as though it were an hour. The dragging of time didn’t matter for Leah knew what the doctor was going to say. She smiled as she tapped her fingers against her knee, staring out the window, oblivious to the pockets of damage that still remained untended after the tornado. Yes, she knew all right. It was as if God spoke to her, placing His hand upon her head and telling her: Be still and know that I am God. She hurried to the doctor’s office, knowing that her prayers had been answered long before he actually shared the news with her.

  “What happens next?” Leah asked, leaning forward, anxious for the doctor to explain the next steps in the long-awaited treatment phase of Tobias’ illness.

  On her way home from the hospital, she shared the good news with Michelle, trying her hardest to perfect her story before being faced with the rest of the family. If anyone was going to tell others about Jacob’s indiscretion so many years ago, it wasn’t going to be her.

  “They’re starting treatment!” Leah gushed. “A donor was found!”

  Michelle took her eyes off the road, just for a second, to glance at Leah in surprise. “How is that possible? I thought…”

  Leah interrupted her. “Isn’t it wonderful? Just right gut news! Why, he should be home in no time now!”

  Nothing further was said about the donor, the focus of their discussion shifting to Tobias.

  Whoopie Pie Place

  Standing before Leah, Mattie looked about nervously as she waited for her reaction to the news. Leah knew what the older woman saw: the expression of a person who had just heard something horrible. For a moment, Leah thought Mattie was mistaken. Was it possible that one of the very people Leah thought was such a good friend, and not just to her but to the entire Miller family, had done something so outrageously horrible? Leah was left speechless.

  She had returned from the hospital only two hours earlier. During that time, she focused on trying to figure out a way, any way possible, to still meet the deadlines for those two big orders. Now, more than ever, they would need the money. It was absolutely crucial. Without insurance, paying for the repairs to the store, or rebuilding it if necessary, would need to come out of pocket. And there was no money tree growing in the back paddock, that was for sure and certain.

  Plus, there were the medical bills. Oh, she knew the community would chip in. They always did. But it would not cover all of the expenses. While she thanked God over and over again that Tobias’ biological mother had not only been found and agreed to be tested but was also a match, that was the extent of her involvement with the boy. No one would rescue the Miller family from the debt that was headed their way.

  And now this news. This dreadful, awful, unbelievable news that Mattie just shared with her.

  Indeed, Leah was dumbstruck for one of the few times of her life.

  “I’m so terribly sorry.”

  It was all that Leah could do to simply nod her head, knowing that Mattie meant those four words: the sorrowful expression on her tired face said more than her words. Certainly she felt as though she were between a rock and hard place.

  “Danke, Mattie,” Leah sighed, biting her tongue so that she didn’t blurt out what she truly wanted to say. “I’m sure telling me was hard for you.”

  Her friend, an older woman from a stricter church district, shrugged her stooped shoulders. While Leah had grown up with Mattie and her family, Mattie’s marriage to a former Swartzentruber Amish man had changed her life so that she had less time for socializing and more time to work toward being as Plain as possible. However, between her and her dochders, they made beautiful crafts that, in the past, Leah sold in Whoopie Pie Place to help Mattie and her husband support their family of eight children. Leah always welcomed the handmade items from the Amish women in the g’may. Selling their crafts on consignment helped increase the business at Whoopie Pie Place.

  So it surprised Leah…and weighed heavily on her heart…to hear that Laverne who ran a fairly popular, if not overpriced, tour of the Amish country in Holmes County, a woman whom Leah considered to be a right gut friend, had approached Mattie behind Leah’s back.

  “What will you do then?” The question was spoken with a heavy sigh. Leah already knew the answer. After all, Mattie had eight children and one more on the way. Selling her crafts was of paramount importance to the survival of their family. Without Whoopie Pie Place, Leah knew that Mattie had but only one other option: selling to the tourists that Laverne bought to her home each week.

  “I told her that you and I had an arrangement,” Mattie admitted. Still, her eyes looked weary and the dark circles that shadowed them spoke of sleepless nights and long days. “But she told me that she has another farm to take the tours if she can’t have an exclusive on my crafts.” She lowered her eyes. “I need those tours, Leah. It’s constant income and…”

  Leah interrupted her by placing her hand on Mattie’s arm. She forced a smile and nodded her head. “I understand, Mattie.” Steady income from the tours trumped items sold on consignment. Since she made more money with the tours, Mattie’s back was against the wall. Leah sighed. “While I confess to being confused by Laverne’s change of heart and the direction she wants to take her business, I do understand the difficult situation she has put you into. I’m just sorry that she put you in this position. Laverne should have come to me.”

  Mattie continued looking at the floor.

  There was something else. Something left unspoken. Leah noticed that immediately from the way Mattie hesitated and refused to look her in the eyes. Putting her hands on her hips, Leah focused her gaze on the woman. “Mattie? What else aren’t you telling me?”

  Her question was greeted with silence.

  “Mattie?”

  “It’s not just me!” Mattie blurted out the news, the pressure too much for her to bear. The expression of pain on the older woman’s face hurt Leah for, w
ithout even being told, she knew. She suddenly knew why so few people had stopped in to see how they fared or to drop off their goods. She knew the truth and it hurt. Still, she needed to hear it for herself.

  “What do you mean that it’s not just you?”

  Mattie shuffled her feet, the ripped black sneakers making a strange noise on the dirt of the Miller’s unpaved driveway. “Laverne has talked to the other Amish women who promised to bake for you for that convention and the wedding. She said that you can’t do it now, not without Whoopie Pie Place so she is going to deliver the goods to the convention and to the Glick farm for Mary’s wedding.”

  “How does she think she can do that?” Leah exclaimed. “She doesn’t have commercial equipment!”

  Mattie shook her head, looking ashamed. “She’s asked several of the Amish women in our church district to help her. Or, should I say, to cook it all for her.”

  Leah’s heart skipped a beat and the heat rushed to her brain. It took her a few seconds to comprehend exactly what Mattie was telling her. Of all the people in the community to betray her trust, to attempt to ruin her business, Laverne was the most shocking.

  Or was she?

  Leah took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. In her entire life, Leah had never heard of such a thing being done among the Amish. Of course, Laverne was not an Amish woman. In fact, she was anything but Amish. Her tours were well known but there were many places in Holmes County that banned Laverne from bringing her tours to their farms, homes, and stores. In fact, her lack of respect for the Amish customs, including posting photos of Swartzentruber children on the Internet, caused her to be completely shunned by one community.

  It started during a tour. While the Englische tourists looked through the stacks of baskets made by the Troyer family, Laverne pointed her camera at the children, sneaking a photo of their dirty feet. The family had learned of this transgression, a photo of the children’s feet that the mamm had told Laverne not to take. She hadn’t listened but took it anyway. Word had it that David Troyer warned her to remove it from the Internet and never do such a sinful, deceitful thing again. However, when Laverne posted a photo of his dochder in the garden on an Internet group for Englischer people, the Amish grapevine learned of it from an Englische farmer who immediately informed David. Laverne’s tour career among the Troyer family’s farms ended after that second transgression.