The Bridge of Peace

by Cindy Woodsmall

  “Personally,” Allen said, having followed Lena from the garden, “I think she’s had a rough day at school.” With a glint in his eyes, he continued to brush dirt off his shirt, clearly letting Lena know he was telling Deborah as a payback for rubbing dirt on him. “Lennie, I’m going on home.”

  “By all means, go home.” She kept a straight face as he chuckled.

  Deborah guided her toward the house. “You need to try this cake. It’ll make me happy if you do.”

  “I’m really not the least bit hungry. I’ll have some later tonight. May I cut a slice for you two?”

  Deborah and Cara glanced at each other and shook their heads.

  “We’ve already had plenty of the other one. Some of the scholars giving you trouble at school?” Deborah asked.

  “Scholars?” Cara’s brows scrunched. “I know you are not talking about a class full of Rhodes scholars, so what is it?”

  “That’s what you call students,” Deborah said. “We call them that too sometimes, but mostly we call them scholars. So are they being difficult, Lena?”

  “A few.” They walked up the porch steps and into the house. Nicky zipped past them, heading for her doggy bed next to the stove.

  Once they were in the kitchen, Cara took a seat at the island. “It’s a one-room schoolhouse with Amish kids. How bad can they be?”

  Lena set the box on the counter. “Just because we dress plain and live simple doesn’t mean some of our youth don’t push every boundary there is.” She scrubbed her hands, taking note that her Daed had washed the dishes. After grabbing a kitchen towel out of a drawer, she sat on a barstool across from Deborah and Cara. Lena settled in, enjoying the banter.

  After they’d talked for a while, Deborah gestured toward the cake. “You sure you don’t want to try a bite?”

  “I’ll use the cake as a treat when the hard parts of the day are over.”

  “What else needs to be done?” Cara asked.

  “I have to see Aaron about his bull. It’s getting into the field nearest the school.”

  Deborah made a face. “Again?”

  “Ya.”

  Deborah splayed her hands against the countertop. “We’d better go. You have things to do, and Cara didn’t travel for an hour with me just to spend her evening waiting to see when you’re going to eat that cake.”

  “Again with the cake. What is it with you tonight?” Lena rose.

  Cara brushed wisps of hair out of her face as she got up. “Lena, about that ca—”

  “Cara.” Deborah jumped up. “We need to go.” She took Cara by the hand and pulled her toward the door. “We only had a minute to stop by. We went by Ephraim’s first, and I gave him my word I’d have Cara back real quicklike.”

  Lena followed them onto the porch. Deborah shooed Cara to the rig and then gave Lena a quick hug. “Good to see you.”

  If Lena didn’t know better, she’d be convinced Deborah was pulling some sort of prank on her. And it’d be a welcome relief if she felt up to pulling pranks again. “You didn’t even let me and Cara say a proper good-bye. Have you been spending too much time in a hot kitchen lately?”

  “Maybe. But come see us in Hope Crossing this weekend if you can. Then you can say anything you wish to either of us. Bye.”

  Perplexed, Lena remained on the porch. Maybe Deborah just realized it was getting late. “Bye.”

  After watching Deborah and Cara’s buggy pull onto the road, Lena knew she couldn’t delay going to Aaron’s any longer. She went inside and washed her face before putting on a clean apron. After hurrying to the barn, she hitched her horse to the carriage. But before she left, she went back inside and grabbed the box containing the cake. She knew that talking to Aaron for the third time about his bull being in the wrong pasture would be easier if she had a gift in hand. Passing him one of Deborah’s desserts was a perfect plan, and surely Deborah wouldn’t mind the cake being used as a peace offering.

  When she pulled into the Blanks’ lane, she noticed three rigs with horses tied to a couple of hitching posts. Clearly the Blanks had company, but all she needed to do was speak to Aaron for a moment. She looped Happy Girl’s reins around a small tree, grabbed the box containing the cake, and headed for the house. She knocked on the front door and waited.

  Dora Blank opened the door. “Lena.” The fifty-something woman glanced behind her as if unsure what to do. “Were we expecting you?”

  Lena held up the cake. “I need to see Aaron.”

  “Oh.” She took a step back.

  The moment Lena walked inside she understood Dora’s cool reception. The members of the school board—Michael Blank, Enos Beiler, Jake Fisher, and Grey Graber—were sitting at the large kitchen table. Three wives, including Dora, were with their husbands. Grey’s wife, who was Dora and Michael’s daughter, wasn’t there. For reasons Lena could only guess at, Elsie always avoided the school board gatherings. Maybe the meetings were too high-spirited for her more gentle nature.

  The group appeared to be engaged in a serious conversation with Peter’s Mamm and Daed—Crist and Mollie Bender—and with Sylvan and Lillian Detweiler. She wouldn’t blame the Detweilers for being set against her. Her brief lapse in judgment last May could have cost them their oldest son’s life. Their son John and his three siblings had left their lunches at home. If she’d had enough food from her lunch as well as other scholars’ to feed them, as she’d done in the past, she’d have given it to them. But that day she’d only brought an apple, and she’d given it to the youngest Detweiler. No one else had extra in their pails either, so rather than letting them go hungry, she’d hitched her horse to its rig and told John to go back for the lunches. The Detweiler place is only a short distance from the school. But he must have been daydreaming, because her horse took over and automatically headed for home, her home, which meant the rig came to a four-way stop. Once at the four-way stop, John realized he’d gone the wrong way and slapped the reins on the horse’s back without realizing that he didn’t have the right of way and that a vehicle was coming. The car almost slid sideways trying to stop, and it nipped the back of the buggy, toppling the rig. Her horse came loose from the buggy and ran on home. John had a few bumps and bruises, and the people in the car took him home. It’d been a foolish mistake on her part, and the board had put her on probation for this school year, but surely they weren’t still reviewing that incident.

  “She’s not fit, and every one of you know it,” Peter’s Mamm said.

  “Michael,” Dora called, stopping the conversation cold.

  In only a brief moment the looks on their faces turned from one of studious consideration to awkward remorse. “Lena.” Michael stood. “Would you care to join us?”

  Join them? If they’d wanted her here, they would have invited her. Besides, she needed fresh air. She was good at her job, and she loved teaching. That was all she’d ever wanted to do, and no one had ever taken a teaching position at a younger age than she had. Would they take it from her because of Peter’s nonsense and her one mistake with John Detweiler? “No … no thank you. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was looking for Aaron.”

  Michael placed his hands on the table, looking stiff and in pain. “I think he’s still at the barn. We almost never see him before bedtime anymore, not since I hurt my back and can’t do much farm work.”

  “He … he’s”—Dora stammered—“sleeping there some nights. But you’re free to go down and look for him.”

  “Denki.” Shaken, Lena hurried outside, still holding the box with the cake in it. She drew in air, trying to fill her lungs. It wasn’t so much that they were having a meeting but that they were having it behind her back. Couldn’t they have told her about it and said she didn’t need to come? Still determined to do what she’d come here for, she strode toward the barn. It only took a few seconds to figure out Aaron wasn’t there. She went back to her horse, removed the reins from the small tree, and climbed into the buggy.

  “Lennie?” Grey’s smooth voice c
aused her to stop. He hurried over to the buggy. “You okay?”

  She tried to swallow her embarrassment. “I’ve certainly been better.”

  “Michael saw no reason to upset you with these complaints. We’re just hearing them out. If we have any concerns when tonight’s over, we’ll talk to you.”

  “It seems I should get a say in front of my accusers.”

  “You will, if it comes to that.”

  “It has come to that, Grey. Don’t you think I need someone in there to defend me?”

  He studied her, as if waiting for her to answer her own question.

  And then she knew. He’d do a better job defending her than she would. Where she might get riled and make matters worse, he wouldn’t. He’d never failed to stand up for her since becoming a member of the school board a few years ago. It was possible he defended her out of pity. She’d certainly overheard him saying he felt sorry for her on more than one occasion when they were young. The thought stung. Maybe Peter was more right than she was willing to admit. She took a deep breath, refusing to allow her fears and insecurity to get the best of her. Whatever Grey’s motivation, he wouldn’t let rumors or nonsense cloud the school board’s judgment. She hoped he took her side because he trusted and respected her as a teacher, but she couldn’t ask. If that wasn’t his reasoning, what answer could he possibly give except denial? She drew a deep breath and decided to tease. “You better do a good job in there, Grey, or I’m tellin’ Daed.”

  He laughed and tipped his hat. “No doubts on that one, Lennie.”

  She slapped the horse’s back, trying to assure herself she wouldn’t lose her job.

  Before she got to the end of the lane, she spotted an Amish man in a nearby field. She watched as he walked with purpose toward a large patch of woods. She directed the rig off the beaten path and toward where the man was headed. She soon saw what he saw—a cabin, one that used to be for farmhands. He went inside. It was on Blank property, so Aaron might be there. She’d forgotten about the old cabin sitting in the woods, just out of sight. An Englischer family had owned this farm about seven years ago, before the Blanks moved from Ohio. And then Grey met his future wife—Elsie Blank.

  Lena’s rig groaned as she went down the rough path and stopped in front of the place. Music blared, and electric lights shined through the windows. Four or five horses grazed nearby, but an old, half-rusted car sat in the dirt driveway.

  A hangout.

  Since there were no electric lines running to the place, she assumed a generator provided the power. Its existence as a hangout was news to her. Probably a secret from all the parents too.

  She took the cake with her and knocked on the screen door. “Hello?” She raised her voice over the din of music.

  From the door she could see the living room, where young men lounged in chairs and couches or sat on the floor. One guy, with a beer in hand, turned toward the screen door. “No one in Amish costume welcome. Thanks anyway.”

  “I’m looking for Aaron Blank. Is he here?”

  A girl in a tank top and jeans came to the door. Lena didn’t recognize her, so she could be a rumschpringe Amish from another community, but more than likely she was an Englischer girl.

  “Hi.” She unlatched the screen door. “Come on in.”

  “Is Aaron around?”

  “Uh, well.” She turned back toward the others. “Come on, guys. Stop goofing off and help the woman.”

  One of the guys stood and took a long drink of beer before belching. “I’ll get him.” He went to a door and pounded on it. “Aaron! Somebody’s here to see ya.”

  The group returned to their lounging around as if Lena weren’t standing there. Aaron came out, rubbing his eyes like he’d been asleep. She couldn’t imagine sleeping with all this noise. He staggered a few times, but he made his way to her. “Lena, hi. What’s up?”

  “Lena?” a man’s voice boomed. “As in Kauffman?” Disbelief and sarcasm marked his voice as he stood up so he could see her better. When he rose, something small and metallic fell from his lap and onto the floor, but he didn’t notice. “It is you. Has to be.” He wiped his cheek several times as if trying to remove her birthmark from his face. “You fit the description.”

  Unsure who he was but quite confident he was drunk, Lena ignored the man. “Aaron, we talked about this before, but we still have a problem.”

  “What?” The drunk scowled at her. “Making my brother miserable during school ain’t enough? Now you’re gonna come here and pick on my friend Aaron?”

  The drunk had to be Peter’s brother. She knew all her other scholars’ families. She stayed focused on Aaron. “The bull was in the field next to the schoolhouse.”

  “So?” the drunk barked.

  Lena didn’t answer him. “Aaron, surely you know how dangerous that is. The Nicols owned this farm for generations and always kept bulls and steers out of the pasture closest to the school.” She held the cake out to him. “Please.”

  Aaron stared at the box.

  “It’s a cake.”

  He smelled of stale beer as he took it from her. “Ya, ya, you’re right. I’m sure a fence needs mending. I’ll see to it that it doesn’t happen again.”

  “What?” Peter’s brother took a step, sending the object he’d dropped earlier skidding across the linoleum floor. Lena looked down when it bumped her shoe.

  A pocket watch?

  He came toward the doorway. “You are kidding me. There’s a fence there, right?”

  “Of course,” Aaron said, “but sometimes the boys hit their baseballs or volleyballs into that field during recess.”

  “Yeah?” the drunk scoffed. “If she knew how to control a class, inside or outside the schoolhouse, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “I’m Lena Kauffman.” She held out her hand. “And you are?”

  “Not interested.” He walked off.

  “Sorry, Lena,” Aaron mumbled. “Dwayne’s had a case too many.”

  Lena reached for the watch and noticed it looked like the one her Daed had lost. But it couldn’t be. It’d been missing for months. She’d never really thought her Daed lost it. For a while she wondered if Cara entered their unlocked home and took it, along with a huge roll of tens. She’d been suspected of a few burglaries when she’d first arrived in Dry Lake, but she had proven the accusations were false.

  Lena picked up the watch, opened it, and read the inscription: To Israel with love.

  She held it out toward Dwayne. “This is my Daed’s watch.”

  “What?” Dwayne gawked at her.

  “My Daed lost his watch last spring. It was the last gift my mother gave him before she died.”

  “Well, that’s a real sad story and all, but I found it along the shoulder of a road when walking, and it’s mine now.” He reached for it, but Lena clutched it tightly and put her hand behind her back.

  “I’m glad you found it, and I’ll give you a reasonable reward, but it’s my Daed’s watch.”

  Dwayne hovered over her, swaying back and forth. What was it with these Bender men, Peter and Dwayne, that they liked to stand so close while peering down at her? Aaron set the cake on an end table. “Clearly it’s her Daed’s. Just let her have it.”

  “Oh, I’ll be more than glad to let her have it.”

  His words were as immature and threatening as Peter’s, but she wasn’t giving up the watch. It meant too much to her Daed, and he’d not stopped searching for it yet.

  Aaron stepped between them. “Kumm.” He motioned Lena to the door. “Keep the watch. But it’d be good if you didn’t come back here again. I’ll see to it the bull stays out of that field, okay?”

  “Denki, Aaron.” Clutching her Daed’s watch, she went to her carriage.

  Five

  Grey walked out of his bedroom at the same time Elsie walked out of hers. Startled and a bit curious what had kept her in her room past daylight, he stopped in his tracks. They stood in their small hallway, staring at each other under the soft glow
of early morn. His shirt was not yet buttoned, and his suspenders were attached to his pants and dangling near his knees. She stood as erect and graceful as a deer when watching for danger. Each part of her clothing was tended to as perfectly as women did on their wedding day.

  Sing for me, Grey. The memory of their earlier years echoed inside the emptiness of who they now were.

  She lowered her gaze. “May I fix you breakfast?”

  The question came at him most mornings, as if she were giving him a choice. It didn’t matter that he hated breakfast. A wife cooked each meal for her family. At one time he’d thought it was her way of showing respect, maybe even love, but he knew better now.

  “Ya.”

  While she moved about the kitchen, he sat at the table, reading the newspaper.

  Saturday. Regardless of what he did to use up the day, Saturdays were a reminder of the emptiness between them. The aroma of bacon frying filled the room. Sunlight and cool air streamed in through the open windows. He and Elsie were in the same room, about to sit at the same table. Those things made it look and smell as if normal life went on inside this house.

  The clock ticked louder by the minute, telling him time was moving, and yet he wasn’t. He and Elsie were in the same place they’d been for at least three years. With each week and month that passed, he was getting farther and farther from all chance of contentment. He’d let go of wanting happiness quite a while ago. But life was too long to live it like this, wasn’t it? He closed his newspaper and set it to the side. “Any plans for today?”

  “Usual. You?”

  The morning begged to be enjoyed, and he knew what they needed to do. “I’m taking Ivan fishing. Would you like to go?”

  “There’s work to be done.”

  “There always is, and it’ll still be waitin’ after we’ve caught a few fish.”

  Cracking another raw egg into a bowl, she shook her head. She beat the eggs mercilessly with the whisk, but one would have to know her well to notice the slight, sharp movements as she dumped them into the pan and set the glass bowl firmly, but not too loudly, into the sink. She didn’t let her movements reflect too much emotion. If she did, he could point it out and try to get her to open up.