Phoebe's Gift

by Jerry S. Eicher

  “I didn’t. Mamm dropped me off.” He grinned. “She had to run a quick errand, and she’ll pick me up afterward. You must be really into something not to have heard the buggy.”

  She let out her breath and almost gathered him into her arms. It was so goot to see him. “Two girls from Guatemala are here,” she said instead. “I was told they don’t speak a word of English.”

  “Oh!” He appeared amused. “Can I see them?”

  Phoebe nodded, and they approached the kitchen together. Other than his bandaged arm, he showed little sign of his injury.

  “Hi,” he greeted the girls.

  They smiled back.

  “Would you like to eat with us?” Phoebe asked him.

  Delight flooded his face. “Why not? I’ve had breakfast, but how can I pass up your cooking?”

  “Sit yourself down.”

  He complied, and they bowed their heads for the prayer of thanks.

  “So no English?” David asked the girls once the amen was said.

  “Try the dictionary.” Phoebe handed the book to David. “That’s what I’ve been using.”

  David chuckled but made no move to open the pages. She passed the food around, and David waited until the girls had filled their plates. The man was as kind and gentle and wunderbah as always. For a while they all simply ate in silence.

  “What’s the word for cute?” David asked.

  “You’re not telling them that word in Spanish. I’m sure the girls have been told that often enough.”

  “I meant you.”

  Her eyes must have flashed because he laughed. “I mean it.”

  “I will ignore that comment. How is your daett?”

  David’s grin didn’t go away. “Daett will find his way back eventually.” He was obviously unrepentant to the core.

  She changed the subject. “You really shouldn’t have come up here. You might pull a stitch in your arm.”

  His grin turned into a sweet smile. “I couldn’t stay away from you.”

  Her face filled with warmth, and she kept her gaze away from him.

  “I guess I shouldn’t tease you so much,” he allowed. “I’m sorry, but I meant what I said, and I needed to get out of the house. I guess Daett’s attitude gets to me after a while, and I’m sorry I can’t be of help with your farm today.”

  “It’s okay,” she assured him. “I’ll manage. You can stay in the house and learn Spanish.”

  He made a face. “I’m not good at languages, but that will give me something to do.”

  “There you go.” She got up to clear the table, and his gaze followed her. She ignored him and asked the girls, “Do you want to go out and play?”

  They smiled but obviously didn’t understand. “Find the word for play,” she ordered David.

  He did, mouthing the strange sound. “Jugar. Ju, ju…”

  Phoebe giggled. “You sound worse than I do.”

  The girls seemed to understand, though, and they cautiously left the table and went outside.

  David closed the dictionary. “This will be an interesting week, I’m thinking.”

  “Try a few weeks. Ethan said they are staying until other quarters can be found, and it may be a while.”

  “Then I’ll have plenty of time to learn Spanish.” He grinned.

  She gave him a quick smile as she heard the sound of buggy wheels outside. “Your mamm?” Phoebe glanced toward the kitchen window.

  “I suppose so.” He got to his feet and came closer.

  “You should be going, David. She will wonder why two little Spanish girls are in the yard.”

  He studied her face for a long time before he turned to go. She followed him to the door but stayed there until he had climbed in the buggy and was driving away with a wave of his hand.

  FORTY-ONE

  David strode north toward Grandma Lapp’s farm. The road had become intimately familiar to him after many years of traveling the short distance. The stitches in his arm would come out next week, but it was time he spent a full day on the farm with Phoebe. She had plenty on her hands with the two little Guatemalan girls. Not that he could do much with one arm, but he could try. Phoebe would protest, but she would also be pleased.

  His gaze swept over the surrounding countryside. Summer would soon be past, and another fall would arrive in all its brief glory of gold and yellow trees before the land settled in for its long winter sleep. His own life stood on the brink of spring, or so it seemed. Grandma Lapp had done so much for him and opened so many doors. Phoebe’s heart had been the most precious gift of them all. Her love was a jewel of value incomparable to anything else in his life. If Grandma Lapp were still here, he would visit her this morning and express his heartfelt and perhaps tearful thanks.

  In the meantime, Daett was still Daett. Family was still family, and he was still David Fisher. Perhaps his courage had grown, though, and the community was kinder and more understanding. They had been that way for some time, ever since the Lapp family had allowed Grandma Lapp’s dream to unfold. Likely many of them had always hoped that the Fisher children would turn out okay, but it had taken Grandma Lapp to nudge everyone in the right direction.

  So much could have gone wrong in the journey. Ruth could have jumped the fence. David paused and waited as her buggy pulled out of the driveway behind him. He stepped off the road, his injured arm wrapped to his side, and waved a greeting as Ruth approached in the buggy.

  She pulled up and stopped. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride?”

  “I want to walk.” He smiled up at her. “I wish to arrive on my own two feet.”

  She laughed. “Males are so stubborn.”

  “Speak for yourself.”

  “Okay.” She chuckled. “Shall I pick you up after school?”

  He nodded. “That I can handle.”

  She jiggled the reins and took off. Ruth was much happier of late. Perhaps she had made peace with her loss of Ethan. Ruth had never planned to settle down as an old maid teaching other people’s children, but she seemed to be making the best of it.

  David grimaced. That was better than jumping the fence and being married to an Englisha man. Much had hung on Ruth’s decision. If Ruth had turned her back on what had been offered to her, the community might have reconsidered their opinion of Grandma Lapp’s outreach to the Fisher children.

  But Ruth hadn’t, and he was thankful. He wanted Ruth to be happy. Maybe marriage was still on the horizon for her. He couldn’t imagine with whom, but perhaps down the road some widower would present Ruth with a marriage offer. Whether his sister would accept was another matter. Ruth could laugh at him for his stubborn ways, but she was the most stubborn one of the family.

  David continued north and hastened his footsteps the closer he came to Grandma Lapp’s lane. The two girls were out on the front porch when he arrived, and they waved and giggled. He should go straight to the barn, but he wanted to see Phoebe before he made an attempt at the chores. She would come out otherwise, fussing over him like a mother hen. Phoebe cared for him from the bottom of her heart as no other woman had ever cared for him. When was he going to make the final leap and ask her if she would be his frau? The moment never seemed right, or his nerve was never high enough. Then Daett had created that awful scene the other evening when Phoebe had visited. David had wanted to hide his face in shame, but Phoebe’s love kept him out of the despair that called from the distance.

  He waved when she appeared in the front doorway and hollered, “Goot morning!”

  The girls said something in Spanish he couldn’t understand. “Buenos días,” he sent their way, and they giggled again.

  His accent was way off. He had tried to listen to their pronunciation on Monday, but it was difficult. The tongue needed to perform maneuvers for which neither the English nor the German language had given him preparations. Phoebe fared little better, but her voice was sweet by itself, so that helped.

  He approached the house and smiled up at Phoebe from the bottom of
the porch steps. “How are you doing?”

  “You didn’t walk up, did you?” she demanded.

  “Ruth offered me a ride, but I need to be on my feet. I’m not an invalid.”

  “You still have stitches in your arm! You are not doing chores this morning. I’ll do them myself later.”

  “I can do some of them. Please don’t make a fuss, Phoebe.”

  She glared at him, but she also gave in at the same time. “Men! Well, don’t hurt your arm.”

  “I won’t,” he assured her, seating himself on the porch edge.

  “See, you’re tired already.” The front door slammed as she sat down beside him.

  The girls raced around in front of them, jabbering away in Spanish, playing some game they must have learned in their childhood.

  “Have you had breakfast?” Phoebe gently laid her hand on his uninjured arm.

  “Yep.”

  Her gaze lingered on the playing girls. “I don’t think Ethan is coming to pick them up today. If he is, he hasn’t told me.”

  “Ruth should come up and stay with you for the weekend.”

  A pleased look filled her face. “Would she? That would be great!”

  “She’s picking me up tonight so I don’t have to walk home. See? I have some sense. I can ask her then. You’ll need help getting the girls ready for the Sunday services and other things.”

  “You always have such wunderbah ideas, David. And lots of sense.” She laughed as her hand moved on his arm.

  “I haven’t learned Spanish yet.”

  “You’ve only had one week.”

  He laughed. “I know, but I doubt if I’ll make much progress. How long do you think they will leave the girls?”

  Phoebe shrugged. “I don’t know, but they grow closer to my heart every day. I don’t mind. I imagine someone will give them a home before too long.”

  David took a deep breath and reached for her hand. “I’m sorry about last Saturday, about my trying to impress people. It was all so unnecessary, but we learn bad habits, I guess. Now I have this.” He motioned toward the bandage. “I’m so glad it will come off next week.”

  Her hand tightened in his. “You don’t have to apologize to me, David. You have done well so far with what you’ve had to work with, and no one blames you. I am very grateful for all the help you give me on the farm. Grandma was right, you know.” She leaned against him and sighed contently. “Do you think we are out of all the rough spots with our new venture and your daett?”

  “There will always be rough spots, but the Lord will be with us.”

  “As He has been,” she agreed. Silence fell between them, broken only by the rustle of the wind in the trees and the chatter of the girls as they played.

  “We have not officially dated, Phoebe,” he began. “But—”

  “It’s okay. Not everyone has to do things the same way.”

  He hung his head for a moment. “I know we haven’t, but I like what has happened.”

  “Yah, I agree. The farm has been all that Grandma could wish for.”

  He cleared his throat. “What I’m trying to say is that I have grown very fond of you, Phoebe. In fact, I’ve been…”

  She smiled and squeezed his uninjured arm. “You are very dear to me, David.”

  He rallied. “I’m still a Fisher, yet I want to marry you. I don’t have a farm or a place to move to, but will you?”

  Her face glowed. “You know I will. I would have agreed a long time ago.” She gave his arm a pat. “You didn’t have to go proving yourself.”

  He tried to breathe. “You will be my frau then?”

  “Yah,” she said, her eyes fixed on his.

  He trembled but pulled her close. She didn’t protest as he kissed her. He caught the movement of the girls out of the corner of his eye, but they didn’t slow their play. To them it seemed that a couple kissing on the front porch was a common enough sight.

  “I love you, Phoebe,” he whispered after he let her go.

  She nestled against him, and they watched the girls playing in silence.

  Phoebe finally spoke. “I want to say something, David. Some people must step down, and others must step up. Yours is a step up in the eyes of the community, but you’ve always been upstanding. That’s what Grandma saw, and I have always been the woman who could love you with my whole heart.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” he murmured. “You are the one who speaks wunderbah things.”

  She smiled up at him. “You know we couldn’t have gone on much longer like this. We have to wed this fall, and you have to move up to the farm. You’re here every day—well, almost, and the community…” She raised her eyebrows. “They already know we are sweet on each other.”

  “You have such a way with words.”

  “I just speak my heart. Would you have it otherwise?”

  “No. So when is this to happen?”

  “We can plan the wedding. Pick out a date, and Aunt Millie will help me until Mamm can come up to the valley. I can’t leave the farm, so the wedding can’t be in Lancaster. Don’t you like that better anyway?”

  He paused for a moment. “We haven’t done anything by the book so far.”

  “Should we have?”

  “No. This works for me.”

  “Then it’s settled!”

  He couldn’t take his gaze off her face. This had been too easy, too sudden, and yet it was as if it had always been. She and he, meant to be by some divine decree. They had been brought together by a dream, and yet Grandma Lapp had only seen what already was when others were blind. Phoebe had been reserved for him, to walk by his side, to be his frau.

  “David, what are you thinking?”

  Heat rose rapidly into his face.

  She laughed and reached for him. “Just one more, okay? That’s all. I know we’ve already—”

  He silenced her with his kiss and then held her for a long moment before he let her go.

  “You are so handsome, David. You’re what I’ve always wanted even when I didn’t know it.”

  He moved close again, and she stopped him with a touch of her finger on his cheek. “I have lots of work to do in the house, but don’t do too many chores in the barn.”

  “I’m an invalid.”

  Her laughter rippled. “I’ll see you at lunchtime, then.” She stood to slip away.

  “I’ll talk with Ruth tonight!” he hollered after her, but she was already inside.

  He turned to watch the girls playing as the sun rose higher in the sky. He and Phoebe had been on the porch for a long time, and miles had been traveled in those short moments. He was a man with a promised frau. In a few short months he would have Phoebe by his side for the rest of his life on this earth—if the Lord so allowed things to happen. There would never be another woman he would love as much, nor could he. Phoebe had known him when he was merely David Fisher. He still was David Fisher, but he wasn’t. The impossibility of it all couldn’t be explained, and neither could the love Phoebe offered him. He would believe that Phoebe Lapp loved him, unworthy though he was.

  David stood up, and the girls stopped their play to look at him. “I’m going to the barn,” he told them. “You want to come along and see the ponies?”

  They couldn’t have understood him, but they raced toward him anyway. Together, they walked toward the barn. David glanced over his shoulder. The kitchen window drapes fluttered as if they had been released rapidly by an unseen hand. David grinned. The woman loved him, and somehow it was as if she should.

  FORTY-TWO

  After Ruth finished grading her school papers on Saturday morning, she drove her buggy down Peckville Road and turned north at the intersection. The bright sunlight made the shadows dance along the roadway, moved by each burst of breeze blowing up from the valley floor. Her horse whinnied as they pulled away from the junction, and Ruth took a quick backward glance through the open buggy door. She had planned to meet Ethan here that long ago evening. His rejection had stricken her de
eply. His apology, elicited at Phoebe’s insistence, had helped, but things would never be the same. Ruth pulled back on the reins to turn into Grandma Lapp’s driveway. She had promised to spend the weekend with Phoebe and her two young Guatemalan girls. David had asked last night with stars in his eyes, so she couldn’t say no. And neither did she want to. Phoebe was a kind person, just like her grandma had been, and Ruth was caught up with her schoolwork.

  Ruth pulled to a stop by Grandma Lapp’s barn as another buggy appeared from the north. Was Phoebe’s Aunt Millie visiting this morning? Perhaps Millie Yoder had come to check on her niece, not knowing Ruth was scheduled to help Phoebe for the weekend.

  Ruth swung out of the buggy door and had started unhitching her horse when she glanced over her shoulder at the sound of footsteps behind her. “Herman Yoder! What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same, but I already know. You’ve come to help Phoebe for the weekend.”

  “That I have.” Ruth shoved her nose in the air. “We’ll take care of things. You can go now.”

  Herman chuckled. “I was greatly relieved when Phoebe told me you would be coming.”

  “You’re welcome,” Ruth snapped. “Now I have to get my horse in the barn and help Phoebe.”

  “I can do that.” He reached for the tugs.

  She hesitated. “It’s not necessary. I’ve got it, and I know where the stalls are.”

  “Prickly, prickly. Are you always this way?”

  “Only when I’m around you.”

  He laughed. “That’s not very encouraging.”

  “I wasn’t trying to encourage you.”

  “How do you manage to teach school without snapping off the children’s heads?”

  Ruth couldn’t resist a smile. “They are sweet children, you know.”

  “Did I walk into a rattlesnake’s nest, perhaps?” He tilted his head toward her.

  The smile came again. “I might fit that description.”

  “I know about Ethan stopping by the schoolhouse the other morning, and I can imagine the rest.”