The Amish Seasons Collection: Contains An Amish Spring, An Amish Summer, An Amish Autumn, and An Amish Winter

by Sarah Price

  “She’s…” Rather than say the words, Drusilla glanced over her shoulder at the closed door of the master bedroom.

  The muscles in her father’s jawline twitched and she knew, at once, that he was angry. If only she could persuade him to take Esther to the doctor. But Amos would hear nothing of it. Their last discussion, which was nothing more than Drusilla asking if he had given any thought to a doctor appointment for Esther, ended with Amos tight-lipped and leaving the kitchen.

  “Supper’s not ready then.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement. He took a deep breath, his chest rising as he inhaled, and started to the bedroom.

  Drusilla glanced at Caleb, not surprised that he wore a blank expression. He was not one to pry into others business, especially when it came to issues between a husband and wife. However, Drusilla felt as if she should respond to defend her mother in a time when she was suffering such prolonged depression. “Nee, Daed,” she called after him. “I have supper ready. Squash soup, boiled potatoes, green bean casserole, and fresh bread!”

  While she was fairly certain her father had heard her, he still continued into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Just a few moments later, Drusilla could hear his voice talking to her maem, but she couldn’t understand the words.

  “Ach, if he’d only let her go to a doctor,” she said in a low voice so the other children wouldn't hear.

  Caleb may have agreed with her but he didn’t say anything to that effect. Instead, he looked around the room as if searching for something. Or, as the case would have it, someone. “Where’s Elsie?’ he asked to no one in particular.

  Hannah looked up. She had been playing peek-a-boo with Ana. “Over playing Scrabble in the grossdawdihaus.”

  Without being asked, Caleb started toward the doorway that led to the adjourning large and empty room between the two houses. “I’ll fetch them for supper,” he said before he opened the door and slipped into the darkness on the other side.

  Focusing her attention on setting the table, Drusilla’s mind drifted back to whatever was bothering Caleb. She couldn’t help but wonder whether someone was ill at his parents’ farm or if something had happened to one of the members of his g’may. She hadn’t heard of any news about injuries or illnesses. That type of news tended to travel rapidly among the Amish grapevine.

  The door to her parents bedroom opened and Amos followed Esther into the kitchen. Esther looked calm but distant while Amos appeared tense and distracted. Drusilla exhaled and turned around to finish slicing the bread for supper. There was nothing that she could do to help her parents. She had already done what she could by talking to Amos, and even that was more than she had felt comfortable doing. What happened between a husband and wife stayed between the husband and wife.

  When Jacob returned, Elsie clinging to his back and Jacob shuffling behind him, Hannah arose and carried baby Anna to the table. Drusilla started to reach for Anna but, to her surprise, Esther said, “I’ll hold her during the meal, Drusilla.”

  “You sure, Maem?” she asked her mother.

  “Ja, it’s fine.” She took the baby from Hannah and propped Anna on her lap facing the table.

  Jacob walked around the corner. Every night before supper, he checked on Ana. And after supper, he would sit with her for a while, usually reading from the Bible.

  “She eat anything today?” he asked as he sat down next to Amos.

  “A little soup, ja.” Drusilla smiled at her grandfather. “More than yesterday, I think.”

  Without another word, everyone lowered their head and said a silent prayer, thanking God for the food that blessed their table.

  Chapter Two

  Drusilla watched as Esther helped Barbara with organizing the food on the different tables that Jake and his sons had already set up in the large side room the previous day. Esther, Drusilla, and Elsie had helped all day, cleaning and setting up for the wedding. Hannah had grumbled about having to watch the baby and Ana, although Jacob sat with his wife for most of the day.

  Drusilla noticed that her mother seemed in brighter spirits in the company of her sister-in-law. For the first time in weeks, perhaps months, Drusilla heard her mother actually laugh softly as something Barbara said. Between yesterday and this morning, Esther seemed to carry less of a burden on her shoulders.

  For that, Drusilla silently prayed her gratitude to God.

  Naomi lingered by the foot of the stairs, staring absentmindedly into space.

  “What’s the matter, Naomi?”

  She turned to look at Drusilla and tried to smile. “Can you believe Miriam’s getting married?”

  “Irvin seems like a right gut man,” Drusilla said, hoping that her words would help Naomi feel better. “And I think it’s wunderbarr that they’ll be staying here every other Sunday until Wednesday when they are needed at market. I never thought that there was much benefit to working such hours but that is a nice schedule for a newly married couple, don’t you think?”

  Naomi responded with an uninterested shrug.

  “Now Naomi,” Drusilla said in a soft tone. “Today’s her wedding day. You can’t be grumpy faced on her wedding day.”

  Another shrug.

  “Aw, come now, Naomi.” She reached out and took her cousin’s hand. “Let’s go upstairs and check on how she’s doing with getting ready. Besides, you need to put on your dress to be her attendant. People will be arriving in the next thirty minutes or so.”

  Reluctantly, Naomi followed Drusilla up the stairs and down the long hallway to the bedroom that she had always shared with her twin sister. That was, they always shared the bedroom until tonight.

  The previous day, when Barbara announced that Miriam and Irvin would be taking the spare room in the future, the one down the hallway and just beyond the second floor bathroom, Naomi had gasped and dropped a bowl that shattered when it hit the floor. Drusilla had helped to clean it and, when she knelt beside her cousin, she thought she saw tears in her eyes.

  “I just never thought about that,” she had whispered to Drusilla. “I’ve never slept alone in my life!”

  Drusilla had tried to comfort Naomi as best as she could. But there was no way that she could fully understand what Naomi was feeling. After all, Drusilla had her own bedroom at home as did Daniel. Hannah and Elsie shared a bedroom while Henry and Elam slept in the same room. Drusilla had never given it much thought until Naomi mentioned it while they cleaned up the broken shards of the bowl.

  Now, as they stood at the bedroom door, Naomi hesitated before raising her hand and knocking at it. “Can we come in?”

  The door opened and Miriam stood there in her blue wedding dress, smiling at her sister and cousin. “Don’t be silly, Naomi. Of course you can. Here,” she said and turned around, turning so that the back of her dress faced her sister. “Could you fix my apron. I think I pinned it incorrectly. I can’t be lopsided on my wedding day.”

  “That’s a really pretty fabric,” Drusilla said, reaching out her hand to touch her sleeve. “So soft!”

  Miriam smiled even broader as she nodded her head. “Ja, it is. Irvin’s maem bought it for me! Wasn’t that nice of her? Said she found it at a small fabric store one day in Maryland.”

  “How thoughtful!” Drusilla wished that she felt more comfortable around Caleb’s parents. It wasn’t that she wanted gifts. No, that wasn’t it at all. She just wished she felt as if she fit in more, as if she was part of the family. Perhaps it was because she was so close in age to Caleb’s sister, Jane, that Drusilla felt so awkward in the Lapp house. She was dreading Christmas when she would not be with her own parents but celebrate the wonderful birth of baby Jesus with her husband and his family, all fifty of them: uncles, aunts, cousins, and their families.

  Miriam finished fussing with her prayer kapp, pausing to look into the mirror and pinch her cheeks.

  “Oh help,” Naomi groaned. “Now you’ve become vain!”

  “Oh hush now,” Miriam chided. “On your wedding day, you’ll w
ant rosy cheeks, too!”

  “I doubt that very much.”

  Drusilla laughed. “Don’t doubt too hard. I did the same thing!”

  Miriam laughed with her. But it was an inside joke that kept Naomi out of the conversation. Realizing that, Drusilla changed the topic of conversation. “And just think, in two days, it will be Thanksgiving. What a wunderbarr time of year!”

  Sighing, Miriam sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at Naomi and Drusilla. “Probably our last together, I reckon.”

  Naomi groaned and turned away from her.

  “What’s wrong?” Miriam asked.

  It was Drusilla who responded. “Mayhaps all of these changes that bring us such joy, Miriam, are not doing the same to others.”

  For a second, Miriam pondered what Drusilla had said. When she realized what she meant, Miriam caught her breath. “Oh, I see,” she whispered. Getting up and walking toward Naomi, Miriam placed her hands on her sister’s shoulders. “Now Schwester, don’t fret. Change is good. It’s how we move to the next stage of life the way God wanted us to do. Be happy for me, Naomi. I know that I would be happy for you.”

  Naomi sighed, her shoulders slouching forward. She turned to look at her sister and tried to smile. “I am happy, Schwester. I am happy for you. But I am still sad for me. I’ll have no one here.”

  “Naomi!” Drusilla said, half-teasingly in the hopes of lightening her mood. “I’m still here.”

  With a dismissive wave of her hand, Naomi rolled her eyes. “Only for a matter of weeks, maybe months if I’m lucky. But come spring, I’ll be here alone and working this farm with Daed.” She paused and then saucily added, “And we all know what a lousy farmer he is!”

  That did the trick and the three young women started to laugh. Unlike the previous inside joke, this was one that they all knew far too well.

  When the laughter subsided, Naomi glanced at the small wind-up clock on the tall dresser. “Oh help! Look at the time!” This time, her cheeks did not need pinching as the color rose to her cheeks. “People are probably arriving! We best get downstairs.” She glanced at Naomi. “Ach, and you haven’t even changed your dress yet!”

  Once again, Naomi rolled her eyes.

  Miriam and Drusilla left Naomi alone to change. As they walked down the stairs, Miriam reached out to touch Drusilla’s shoulder. Pausing in the middle of the staircase, Miriam leaned forward and whispered into her cousin’s ear. “How is married life, Drusilla? Really?”

  She tried to hold back her smile as she thought of Caleb and his attention toward her, the way he smiled and his eyes seemed to dance when he saw her, the way he embraced her in the privacy of their bedroom, the way he whispered in her ear when he thought no one was looking. “Oh Miriam,” she whispered back, “it’s the most wunderbarr thing in the world!”

  Later that evening, in the glow from the moon, Caleb and Drusilla walked home from the wedding. Despite the cold temperature of the night air, neither one seemed to mind. They were just happy to be together and alone. With no one else around, they held hands as they walked.

  “Seems right odd, doesn’t it?” Drusilla said. “Just three weeks ago, that was us!”

  “Nothing odd about it.” As always, he responded with complete confidence. “In fact, it’s rather natural to me.”

  She turned her head to look at him. In the darkness, she could barely make out his facial features. But the moonlight was enough so that she could see he was staring straight ahead. “How so, Caleb?”

  “Vell,” he started. “God made man and, when he realized how lonely man was, he created woman. After all, every creature needs a mate. So it’s only natural that people find each other and get married.”

  “Not all people,” she said, thinking of one or two of the older women in their church district who never married.

  “True. But, when two people find each other and feel a connection, the next natural step is to get married. God wants it that way. So I do not find it odd that, three weeks ago, you and I were married. It was part of God’s plan.” He stopped walking and turned toward her. “And I thank him every night for having led you to me, that you chose to pour lemonade all over me last spring, Drusilla Lapp.”

  She laughed. “I’m sure you don’t actually thank him for that!”

  Caleb held her at arms length and knelt down so that he was on eye-level with her. “I do, Drusilla. I actually do.”

  Still laughing, she leaned forward and kissed the tip of his nose. “I believe you,” she said. “I actually do.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her toward him, their chests pressed together under the dark sky with twinkling lights and the partial moon that gently illuminated the empty fields around them. “I love you, Drusilla Lapp,” he said, his breath forming a cloud in the cold air.

  She smiled and shut her eyes, her cheek pressed against his shoulder. She listened to the gentle sound of an approaching horse and buggy. She knew that he would pull away as it neared, so she waited just until she saw the glow of the battery-operated light before she whispered, “Caleb?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I love you, too.”

  Chapter Three

  The large table was set up, extending from the kitchen into the large gathering room that was usually kept reserved for worship service and weddings. The last time Drusilla had sat there had been almost four weeks ago at her wedding. She took comfort in thinking of all the moments of her life that had been spent in that room, special moments that made the house much more than a home to her. She would miss her parents’ farm and, deep down, wished that there was a way for them to stay in Lancaster County. How she would miss showing her own children all of the places of her youth.

  Since Jake and Barbara had just hosted Miriam’s wedding, Amos had volunteered his home for the Thanksgiving meal. The kitchen table and three folding tables were lined up through the room and covered with different white linens. Drusilla had spent much of the morning washing her mother’s old family china and setting the table, not trusting the younger girls to handle the fragile dishes.

  Now, Hannah oversaw Elsie in making certain that there was a chair at each setting. With Jake’s family and Eli’s family coming, there would be close to thirty people seated around the long table. “We’re missing four chairs, Dru.”

  “Oh help,” she muttered. “Daed. Daniel. Might you run down to the basement and pull out four more folding chairs? Be certain to dust them off before you bring them upstairs.”

  Neither one said anything as they got up from where they sat near the windows and where Mammi Ana normally was. For the day, because of all the noise and commotion, they had moved her bed into the master bedroom. It would be quieter in there and everyone could visit her after they ate.

  Drusilla bent down to open the oven and, as she did, the smell of roasting turkey filled the room.

  “Is that thing done yet? I’m getting hungry!” Elam complained from where he stood near the counter.

  “Oh hush now,” Hannah snapped. “You know it won’t be ready for eating until everyone is here.”

  Elam made a face at her. “Well, they best hurry up and arrive!”

  Drusilla took a deep breath. The two of them had been badgering each other all morning. “Elam,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t shed light on her irritation. “Why don’t you go get the applesauce poured into those bowls over on the counter.” She pointed to where she had set four large bowls for just that purpose. “That would be helpful. And you can place one in the center of each of the four tables.”

  Esther walked out of the bedroom, carrying Anna in her arms. She wore her dark green dress with her black apron and black stockings on her legs. For a moment, when Drusilla looked at her, she wondered if her mother was feeling better. She appeared more like herself and Drusilla wondered if the tide other depression was turning at last.

  “Maem, why don’t you give the boppli to Elsie and go sit a spell with Mammi Ana,” Drusilla said. “I think eve
rything is almost done for now over here.”

  Her mother gave the baby to Elsie but, instead of walking over to visit with her mother-in-law, she joined Drusilla in the kitchen. Her eyes scanned the counter top and she nodded in approval. “What on earth would I do without you, Drusilla?” She forced a thin smile. “You really took charge of the preparation for today.”

  Drusilla lowered her eyes and shook her head. “Nee, Maem. You helped, too. We did it together.”

  The truth was that Drusilla had taken charge. She had sent Daniel to buy a large turkey and a ham from the butcher on Saturday and, during her visits with family, she asked Caleb to stop at the market to pick up extra items that they needed for the gathering. While she had devoted Monday to helping Miriam prepare for the wedding on Tuesday, Drusilla spent all day Wednesday baking bread and rolls, making fresh butter with the help of Elsie, and directing Hannah in organizing the canned goods that would be used. Her mother had disappeared for a part of the day and, only later, Drusilla learned that her mother had volunteered to help Barbara with the clean-up from the previous day’s wedding.

  Esther raised her eyebrow and looked at Drusilla. “Now Drusilla Lapp,” she said. It was the first time her mother had called her by her married name “You know that is not true. We did not do it together.”

  There was something about her mother’s voice that gave Drusilla a moment’s pause. Something had changed in her mother.

  Drusilla thought back over the past few days and realized that her mother was not delegating so much of baby Anna’s care to Hannah or Elsie. Instead, Esther was handling the baby much more and delegating other chores to her two other daughters. Drusilla spent a lot of time with Mammi Ana and, on more than one occasion, Esther had joined her, sitting on a chair and crocheting a blanket.