by Sarah Price
“Ooo, I think this is the farm,” Drusilla said as they neared a driveway off the main road. She peered out the window and pointed toward the beat-up mailbox. “Is that 208?”
Miriam leaned forward. “Ja, 208. Didn’t she give you directions, then?”
Drusilla made a face. “She did, but I lost them. Maem looked it up in the directory, though. She said this was the address.”
With a gentle tug on the right rein, Daniel directed the horse down the driveway. Several buggies lined the turnaround near the house, including four or five open-topped buggies. “Looks about right,” he said, gesturing with his hand toward the buggies. “Courtin’ buggies.”
Naomi tapped Daniel on the shoulder and pointed toward one of them. “How ‘bout that one? That’s a fancy ride, ja?”
Miriam and Drusilla looked in the direction she pointed. Drusilla clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Why, that looks brand new!” she said. “And top of the line! How ostentatious!”
Daniel chuckled. “Ostentatious!”
“Well, it is!” she defended herself.
Naomi tossed her hands into the air in jest. “Don’t count me in! I’ll ride home in that buggy!”
Miriam nudged her. “You best not!”
Daniel stopped the horse at the end of the line of buggies and stepped on the brake. He dropped the ends of the reins onto the floor and slid out the open doorway. “I reckon I’d be one lucky man if all three of you rode home in that buggy,” he teased as he unlatched his seat and flipped it forward so that Naomi and Miriam could crawl out. “Give me some peace and quiet on the ride home!”
Both of his cousins playfully shoved his arms and he laughed, delighted by their attention and playfulness.
A group of young adults stood on the other side of the barn. They gathered around an old wooden picnic table. Drusilla glanced around quickly, noticing the Glicks’ house, so neatly tucked back among the trees on their flagpole shaped property. If they had needed room to accommodate a growing family, they certainly had it now. However, it did not escape her attention that it wasn’t a farm. Drusilla simply could not imagine living anywhere else but on a n actual farm.
The driveway ran between two corn fields, hiding the volleyball area from the street. Already two teams played, an even mixture of both men and women competing in a friendly game of volleyball. Drusilla stopped walking for a second, lifting her hand to shield her eyes from the glow of the setting sun on the horizon. She enjoyed watching the young adults, not just because they were working together as a team but also because it was a pretty sight. The men wore black trousers and white pants while the women wore a variety of colorful dresses: green, dark blue, pink, burgundy, and purple. She felt as if she watched a rainbow in action as the women worked just as hard as the men to ensure the volleyball did not touch the ground.
“Hullo Drusilla!”
She turned to greet Edna, a smile on her lips and her hand outstretched in greeting. Shaking hands with Edna, Drusilla turned toward her brother. “You remember Daniel, ja?”
“From school,” Edna said. “I sure do!”
“And my cousins…”
Edna greeted them with the same warm, welcoming smile. “It’s wunderbarr gut to see you! Not certain why we haven’t been back to visit. Just busy like the rest of us, ja?”
Drusilla couldn’t argue otherwise. During spring, summer, and fall, there was never a shortage of chores on a farm. And winter’s brutal cold kept most people indoors as much as possible.
“Did you have any problems finding the place then? My directions were gut?”
Naomi used her elbow to knock Drusilla’s arm. “Someone couldn’t find the directions.”
“Oh?”
Drusilla looked at Edna and shrugged. “I lost the paper, I suppose. But Maem pulled out the old directory and found the house.” She felt sheepish. Not only had she lost the envelope with the money for the replacement handle; she had misplaced Edna’s slip of paper, too. “Well, we got here anyway. That’s what’s important, ja?”
Edna walked with them toward the picnic table, taking the time to introduce the newcomers to the other people already gathered there. While most of them were strangers, Drusilla was pleased that she recognized a few of the young women from attending quilting bees with her mother last winter. No matter how far apart the Amish lived, there always seemed to be a connection between the families when they gathered.
But it was the blond woman who caught Drusilla off-guard: Jane Lapp.
“Oh help!”
Jane looked at her quizzically. “That’s not the greeting I would expect,” she said lightly, a sparkle in her eyes.
“Seeing you just reminded me that I forgot to send something to your bruder.”
The looks on Naomi, Miriam, and Jane’s faces made Drusilla sputter and stammer. “I mean…that didn’t come out right…I…”
Jane smiled and glanced toward the volleyball area. “Why a simple ‘hello’ and ‘nice to see you again’ would have sufficed,” she teased, “if you are looking for Caleb, he’s over there.”
“I’m so sorry,” Drusilla managed to say, finally sounding like herself. Gathering her wits about her, she hoped that her cheeks hadn’t flared brilliant red. What was it about Caleb Lapp that made her so flustered? “I just didn’t expect to run into you here and that reminded me that I owe your bruder some money.” She glanced at her cousins. Naomi lifted her eyebrows in silent curiosity. “For a replacement handle to the garden hoe,” Drusilla explained.
“Oh ja! He mentioned he ran into you the day after the barn raisin’,” Jane said. “Daed was none too happy that Caleb helped at the hardware store when there was so much to do on the farm.”
Naomi’s curiosity lingered on her face. “And he bought you a hoe handle?”
Drusilla shot her a look, begging her to drop the subject. “Hannah broke it,” she replied, her voice flat and emotionless. “And I lost Maem’s envelope on the way to the store.”
To Drusilla’s relief, good-hearted Miriam laughed and, in the way that only Miriam could do, changed the subject. “Lost an envelope, lost the directions. You’re just becoming addle-brained with age, Dru! And Naomi was wondering about Old Man Wilmer? I reckon you should be the one we’re worried about! Aging before your time, I reckon!”
At this comment, everyone laughed and the issue of Drusilla owing Caleb money was forgotten, much to Drusilla’s relief. She dreaded having to talk to him and explain why she never mailed the money. She knew that honesty was the best policy so she decided to just tell him the truth: she forgot. Plain and simple.
The previous week, when Drusilla had returned home from her errands, her siblings had already descended upon the house. Esther looked miserable with dark circles under her eyes and ankles that looked far too swollen for an otherwise petite woman. Drusilla insisted that her mother return to bed and spent the rest of the afternoon overseeing the chores. With Henry and Elam assigned to help in the barn, Drusilla took Hannah and Elsie to the garden, putting them to work at weeding while she fixed the hoe. And then, after battling Hannah’s grumbles and complaints, Drusilla hurried back inside to fix a nice meal for supper.
The following two days flew by. On Saturday, as she had suspected might happen, Drusilla’s chore list included all of the baking for the next day’s visitors. Luckily, Hannah’s mood and level of cooperation improved so that the two sisters worked side-by-side. Despite their age difference, when Hannah was in a good mood, Drusilla found her company to be rather tolerable. In fact, as they talked and laughed, it was Elsie who looked on, envy written on her face, especially when Esther asked her to help clean the downstairs bathroom.
By Sunday, Drusilla had forgotten about Caleb and his generous loan for the replacement hoe handle. Too much company had distracted her. When Amos got together with his older brothers, Eli and Jake, excitement hung in the air. Eli loved to tell jokes, sometimes repeating them to the same captive audience. But his delivery with loud, guffa
wing laughter, so entertaining by itself, endeared him to everyone.
“You know why Amish don’t kiss in buggies, Drusilla?”
She had smiled and shook her head.
“Because horses carry tales!”
Everyone had laughed, including Drusilla…even though it was at least the tenth time she had heard that joke over the years. She didn’t mind. Seeing the sparkle in her uncle’s face and hearing the other people laughing made Drusilla happy. Bringing joy to others is one of God’s gifts, Drusilla thought as she listened to the laughter from her relatives. And if giving joy was a gift, so was receiving it.
By the time Monday arrived, she had completely forgotten about Caleb Lapp and his loan. There was too much to do around the farm, especially since her mother seemed slower than usual. During the week, while the weather held up, Drusilla worked in the garden, transferring most of the seedlings that had been grown indoors over the past four weeks. The weather forecast predicted no frost, but every evening Drusilla covered each of the delicate seedlings with heavy layers of newspaper , just in case. Each morning, she’d retrieve the papers, neatly folding them and storing them in the storage room off the main barn until later that evening.
By Saturday afternoon, when Daniel had harnessed the horse and hitched it to the buggy, Drusilla was more focused on finding the slip of paper with Edna’s address and searched every nook and cranny of the house. Fortunately, Esther remembered when the Glick family had moved and knew the names of the previous owners. She had looked up the family in last year’s directory of Amish families living in the county, for the new directory had yet to be published, and had located the address.
Clearly, the last person Drusilla thought she’d encounter was Caleb Lapp or his sister, Jane. Now, however, she was faced with yet one more embarrassing situation involving the young man.
“I brought out my stamps,” Edna said to the group gathered near the picnic table. “Mayhaps we could make some stationery while the others play volleyball.”
“What a wunderbarr gut idea!” Miriam quickly agreed. She not only loved making stationery; she loved writing letters. At least once a week, she would send letters to her friends, including Drusilla. She always wrote a pretty Bible verse, usually from Psalms or Proverbs, on her handmade stationery. Every time Drusilla retrieved one of those letters, she wished for the time to be able to mirror her cousin’s steady stream of communication with others. Unfortunately, she always found that there was too much to do and too little time to do it.
With the volleyball game in progress and Drusilla hesitant to approach Caleb with an apology until after he finished that round, she sat at the picnic table between Miriam and Jane while Edna retrieved her supplies from a box that she had already brought out for her guests. With several other young women joining them, the small group chattered away, talking about who was taking their instructional that season, in preparation for the autumn baptism. As pieces of white paper began to emerge as pretty, unique stationery, ooo’s and ahh’s punctuated the light conversations.
“Looks like you missed a spot,” a voice said in her ear as a tanned hand reached over her shoulder and pointed to her paper.
Drusilla startled and spun around, only partially surprised to see Caleb behind her. “You scared me!” she said sharply.
He straightened up and smiled at her. “Nice to see you, too, Drusilla Riehl.”
Her mouth opened and she was about to respond to what was clearly sarcasm when she felt a sharp kick on her shin. Looking back across the table, she saw Naomi watching her, a mild look of curiosity on her face. Drusilla frowned at her and turned back to Caleb, taking a deep breath before she offered an apology. “I’m terribly sorry, Caleb,” she started. “My manners must have remained back at the farm.”
He rubbed his chin with his thumb and pointer finger, studying her for a few long, drawn out seconds, during which Drusilla realized that no one at the picnic table spoke. She felt uncomfortable under their scrutiny. Caleb, however, was clearly unperturbed. “Seems to me,” he said in a manner that gave the appearance of deep thought, “you and I have some unfinished business to discuss, ain’t so, Drusilla?”
Shutting her eyes, she took a deep breath and pressed her lips together. Please don’t let him say it out loud, she prayed. When he took a step backward, she used his cue to excuse herself from the picnic table and, placing both of her hands on the table, she quietly stood up and stepped over the seat. He offered his hand to help her, but she ignored it. His response was a simple half-smile and an amused look in his eyes.
He led her away from crowd which descended upon the picnic table. The volleyball game had ended and the players were rejoining the others, greeting the newcomers and admiring the young women’s stamp art.
“Where are we going?” she asked, too afraid that if he walked much further, tongues would wag and gossip would spread. That was the last thing Drusilla wanted.
With a casual glance over his shoulder, he frowned at her but did reply. Instead, he led her toward the side of the yard where the Glicks had a white picket fence around their garden. While the soil was tilled, it didn’t appear that any seedlings had been planted yet, even though April was ending in just a few days.
When he stopped walking, Drusilla almost bumped into him, her attention being focused on the garden and not Caleb. He reached out a hand to steady her and she immediately flushed at his touch.
“This all seems a bit dramatic,” she said, extracting her arm from his.
“Dramatic, eh?” Once again, he seemed to study her face and she shifted her weight, uncomfortable under his steady gaze. “Reckon that’s easy for you to say. You aren’t the one that’s out the twelve dollars.”
“And tax!” she reminded him, immediately regretting her attempt at a jest.
He nodded his head and pointed at her. “And tax, exactly.”
Drusilla sighed and opened her hands, palm up, in front of her. There was no point in avoiding the eventual apology she owed him. So, without further hemming and hawing, she simple acquiesced. “Caleb, I truly am sorry,” she said, genuine remorse in her voice. “It just slipped my mind. And I know you don’t have any reason to trust me when I say that I’m a truly honest person, I really am. My intentions were not to deceive you, believe me.”
“Uh huh.”
“They weren’t!” she insisted. “My maem’s having a baby soon and…” Oh! How could she explain it? Even listening to her own words, Drusilla knew that nothing could excuse her forgetting to return the money to Caleb. “Ach, never mind!” She felt flustered and that would never do. “I was wrong and I apologize. What can I do to make it up to you?”
“Besides pay me?”
She couldn’t tell if he was serious or teasing her. “I left my purse at home,” she said, hating the meek sound of her own voice.
“I see.”
“But I can send you a check tomorrow!”
He shook his head. “Nee, won’t work, Drusilla Riehl. You already promised that, remember? Reckon there’s only one thing left that would make me trust you.”
Defeated, Drusilla felt her shoulders slump forward. Her parents would be flat out mortified if they knew that she had forgotten to repay this kind stranger. They did not raise their children to be perceived as anything other than upright and righteous people who followed God’s commandments. And one of those commandments was against stealing. By not paying back Caleb, she had basically stolen from him.
“And what would that be, Caleb?” she asked.
“Let me take you home after the gathering and you can pay me then.”
For the second time that night, Drusilla’s mouth dropped open and she stared at him, dumbfounded at his request. If she let him take her home in his buggy, people would think they were courting! “Caleb, but…”
He held up his hand, stopping her before she could continue speaking. “That’s the deal, Drusilla. Take it or leave it.”
“That’s almost a twenty mile round trip
for you!”
“Fifteen miles and my horse is a pacer.”
She laughed at how quickly he rebutted her argument. “All for twelve dollars?”
“Plus tax,” he reminded her.
“Oh help,” she said, still laughing. “You’re serious.”
He nodded his head, his curls brushing across his forehead. “That I am.”
“Well!”
“A man’s only as good as his word,” Caleb said so solemnly, his hand placed flat against his chest that she almost started laughing again. But, not knowing him well enough to tell if he was serious or not, she opted to refrain from laughter for which she was thankful when he leveled his gaze at her and added, “So are women.”
She pressed her lips together, refraining from comment. He was right, after all. She had promised and forgot. There was no excuse for her poor behavior and she knew it. Lowering her head, she nodded.
He reached out and touched her arm. “Let’s go back now, ja?” He seemed jovial again, as if he had forgotten the serious nature of their talk. “I think they are starting another set. And I should very much like to see whether you play volley ball better than you stamp stationery!”
Drusilla didn't have time to protest for Caleb started walking back toward the group, gently pulling her behind him. When they approached the group, he released her arm and headed toward the volleyball net, pausing, just once, to ensure that she was joining him.
The heat rose to her cheeks as she passed the picnic table. She didn’t have to look to know that Naomi watched her every move, a smirk on her face. While Drusilla doubted that her cousin would pointedly ask her about Caleb, she certainly knew that Naomi had already formed her own opinion. And that was something that bothered Drusilla.
Out on the designated volleyball court, Drusilla stood as far apart from Caleb as she could, hoping the physical distance would stop tongues from clicking and eyebrows from raising. But one glance at the picnic table area told Drusilla all she needed to know: Jane was whispering to both Naomi and Edna, while Miriam, sweet, dear Miriam, continued her stamping.