by Jo Ann Brown
Very quietly, but with a firmness in her tone, she said, “Joseph, you will do exactly as the doctors tell you.”
“But who will take care of the cows and the crops?”
Paul and a tall man dressed in Plain clothes entered their room. Lizzie recognized Amos Yoder, one of the elders in their church district. He stood at the foot of her father’s bed, wearing dark pants and a crisp white shirt tucked beneath his black suspenders. On his head he wore a dark brimmed hat with a black band.
“Joseph,” he said, his deep voice resonating throughout the space. “You will not worry about your crops or your cows. The men and I can each spare a son to help out until you are well enough. The boys will rotate their days.”
Her vader sighed. He avoided making eye contact with her. “See, this mess has already brought the two of you away from your work.”
“It was nothing, Joseph. I was at the house, visiting already, and didn’t mind coming with Lizzie to the hospital,” Paul said.
Taking her mamm aside, Lizzie knew she and Paul had stayed past their time. And she didn’t want to be the cause of any more stress for her vader.
“Mamm, I think I’ll go home. I’ve kept Paul here long enough, and I have much to tend to back at the house.”
“Ja, Lizzie, you go home. If there are men working at our fields and in our barns, they will eventually need to be fed. You must cook for them.”
“Ja. Of course.” Her mamm led her back to her vader’s bedside so she could say goodbye. “Vader, I don’t want you to worry about the farm. I can help keep things running.” Lizzie tried her best to put on a brave front. But the truth was she was worried.
“Ach!” Her vader half raised a hand off the bed, swishing it in the air as if swatting at a fly. “You go home and do your chores, Dochder. I’ll be fine.”
Though she wanted with all her heart to believe him, she couldn’t be certain how much damage his heart had sustained. Lizzie bent to kiss him on the cheek, but he turned his head, avoiding her touch. Fighting back the tears, she simply patted him on the shoulder and left the emergency room. She walked back down the long corridor with Paul. The stale antiseptic smells receded with each step she took. Lizzie made it to the main waiting room and exhaled.
She turned to Paul and said, “Take me home, please.”
They stepped out of the sterile air of the hospital into the fresh air and fading sunlight of another hot summer day. Lizzie stood looking at the golden light, thankful to God above that her vader had survived. While she waited, Paul found them a cab to take them home.
Lizzie settled into the back seat, relieved to be going home. Paul got in and sat next to her. The car was small, and their shoulders bumped. Lizzie could feel the warmth coming from Paul’s body. He’d been so kind to her today. But she couldn’t allow him to be away from his own work. They both needed to get back to Miller’s Crossing. She couldn’t bear to be away from home for too long; even the short time away today left her feeling uneasy. She worried about what she was going to find when she got back to the farm. There was livestock to be fed and cows to be milked. She had no idea where her vader had left the tractor or who was going to see to the remainder of the cutting in the field he’d been harvesting this morning.
Lizzie felt the uncertainty creeping in like fog on a cool morning. She tried with all her might to bolster her confidence, thinking she could do this for her father. She owed him all the help she could give him. She could run things while he was in the hospital, couldn’t she? Lizzy breathed a sigh of relief as the cab turned onto the road that led to the Miller farm.
And then she gasped in surprise at the sight that greeted her.
Copyright © 2019 by Tracey J. Lyons
ISBN-13: 9781488042928
The Amish Widower’s Twins
Copyright © 2019 by Jo Ann Ferguson
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