“I’m sorry to hear your mother isn’t feeling well.”
“Do you know when I told Mammi Anna about it, she just clapped her hands and laughed. I don’t think that was very nice.”
“My mother gets excited when she learns...company is coming.” Luke chuckled, refusing to be drawn into the conversation on what morning sickness indicated.
By this time, they had reached the one-room schoolhouse set back from the road in a clearing. A young woman was standing on the step with a bell in her hand. Lillian Keim wore the typical Amish kapp and a long green dress beneath her coat and apron. Around her, a dozen children of all ages were walking in quietly. Hannah darted away, but stopped and turned to wave. “Bye, Onkel Luke.”
“Study hard, Hannah.”
“I will. Come on Bella. My teacher says Bella is the best scholar she’s ever had.”
The child and the dog loped toward the building. Bella would spend the day on the front steps of the school until the children came out for recess. When they went back to class, Bella would wait there until school was out and follow Hannah home. She wouldn’t leave without her girl.
Hannah took Bella to her rug and stayed at her side after the others went in. The teacher went inside just as Alvin came tearing down the road. He jumped the split-rail fence at the edge of the school yard and hurried to the door. Hannah hopped up from her place beside Bella and stood squarely in front of him, blocking the doorway.
She smiled brightly. “Guder mariye, Alvin.”
“Good morning, squirt. Morning, Bella.” He stopped to pet the dog.
Hannah smiled shyly. “You sure can jump high. My aunt is having a cookie exchange party, and you’re invited,” she finished in a rush.
“Danki. We better go in. We’re gonna be late.” He slipped past her.
She sighed and followed him with a look of bliss on her face. Luke smiled. He would definitely have to warn Joshua that she was going to be a heartbreaker. A lot like another young woman who had attended school there. A woman he wouldn’t stop thinking about even today. His heart grew light at the thought of seeing her soon, but he had something else to take care of first.
A quarter mile past the school, he turned into the snow-covered drive that led to Jim Morgan’s place. Luke heard the engine of the snowmobile. He followed the sound to the pasture where Jim and Brian were unloading bales of hay from a small sled behind the machine and breaking them open for a group of hungry steers. Luke stayed by the gate until the brothers were finished. He opened it so they could drive through and then he closed it behind them.
“Thanks, Luke.” Jim stepped off his machine. Brian stayed on the seat.
Luke gestured toward the snowmobile. “I’m glad to see you got her running.”
Jim smiled. “It just took a little love.”
“And some new spark plugs,” Brian added.
“Which is coming out of your allowance. Are we still on for Friday?” Jim pulled off his gloves.
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about.” On even months, Luke had to report in with his parole officer at the agency in the city. It was a two-and-a-half-hour trip by car. Too far for a horse and buggy. On odd months, Officer Merlin came to Luke’s home to check on his progress.
Jim pulled the pin holding the sled to the back of his snowmobile. When he had it free, he moved the sled to the side. “You don’t have to ask. You know I’ll always drive you.”
“It’s a big imposition. I hate to take advantage of you. I can call Sheriff Bradley. He’ll take me if you’re busy.”
“I enjoy the trip.”
“Can I go with you this time? I don’t have school on Friday. It’s in-service day for the teachers.” Brian looked hopeful.
Jim considered it and nodded. “Okay. We can get some Christmas shopping done while we’re in the city. Now, get going or you’ll be late for school.”
“Can I take the snowmobile?”
“I guess.”
“Great! Thanks, bro.” Brian slipped into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine before tearing out of the yard and down the lane.
“He’s growing up fast.” Luke watched him until he rounded a curve and was lost from sight.
“Just as fast as we did. You’re almost finished with your sentence. That has to feel good.”
“It does. Two more visits with my parole officer and then I’m a free man.”
“This Friday and then when is your last visit?”
“The day before Christmas.”
“Is he coming here?”
Luke shook his head. “I’ll have to go into the office for my final visit, too.” Then the English law said his debt to society had been paid in full. Maybe when that day came, he would be free of the guilt he carried in his heart like a weighty stone.
“What will you do then?”
Luke knew what Jim was asking. Was he going to remain Amish or was he going back into the world. “I don’t know. I never really fit in here.”
“Yes, you did. You didn’t want to believe that, but I could see it. I’m sorry I got you into so much trouble. I didn’t have my head on straight after my parents were killed. Doing drugs was stupid, but I couldn’t face the responsibility of raising Brian. I tried to party myself into oblivion. I didn’t mean to drag you down with me. I never should have offered that stuff to you.”
“I made my own choices, Jim. I didn’t have my head on straight, either. I got hooked, and you got your act together.”
“Do you ever think about using again?”
“Every day. Thankfully, there’s not much drug traffic in Bowmans Crossing.”
“Luke, if you wanted to use again, you’d find a way, even in Bowmans Crossing. You’re stronger than you know.”
“Am I? I’m not so sure. How do you stay clean?”
“I think about what I stand to lose. The day we got busted together was the day I saw the light, Luke.”
“I remember. We were coming back from a party and we got pulled over for a busted headlight.”
“With a pound of marijuana in a backpack on the backseat. Man, I was so stupid.”
“We both were.”
“You told the cops that the drugs were yours when they were mine so they let me go. I watched them cart you off to jail, and I knew if it had been me, there wouldn’t be anyone to take care of my brother. I owe you plenty for that.”
It had been Luke’s first arrest. He’d spent two nights in jail before his father paid his bail. Jim had helped Luke’s father hire a lawyer. The lawyer got Luke released on probation because it was his first offense, but Luke had been too ashamed to go home. Instead, he had Jim take him to the bus station.
“You’ve more than made up for it these past months.” If Luke had someone to love and care for like Jim did with his younger brother, would he be strong enough to withstand temptation, too? Maybe.
“Hope so. I heard Zachariah Swartzentruber might be opening a hardware store. Is that true?”
“It is. I’m helping him get ready. He wants to open the Monday after Christmas.”
“This area could use one that doesn’t gouge prices like the one the other side of Berlin does, but I’m afraid I can’t see Zachariah successfully running a business. Now, Emma—that would be a different story.”
“How so?”
“She knows how to drive a bargain. She buys a side of beef from me every year, and I end up almost giving it to her. Lots of the non-Amish I know get their eggs and vegetables from her. She’s well-known for fair dealing. Her dad’s well-known for collecting junk.”
Luke chuckled. “That he is. Emma always had a good head on her shoulders.” Except for the night she tried to run away with him. That night he had been the responsible one—for the first time in his life.
“You and
Emma were an item at one time. I see that flame has been rekindled.”
“Nee, what makes you say that?” He denied it to his friend, but he couldn’t deny it to himself.
“The way your eyes light up when you say her name. You can’t fool me. I see the signs. Does she feel the same?”
Luke shook his head. “She can barely stand the sight of me.”
“Maybe that was the reason she was always asking about you when you were in jail.”
“Emma asked about me?” Luke couldn’t believe that.
“Every time I stopped in to get eggs, she wanted to know if I had heard from you. If you were doing okay. Three measly letters from you was all I had to share, but she never stopped asking until the day you got out.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” Why had Emma begged news from Jim and not from Luke’s parents? Then the answer occurred to him. She had been ashamed of her relationship with him and didn’t want members of her church to know she had been dating a drug user.
Still, that she had asked about him at all meant she had continued to care about him. She hadn’t gone on with her life and forgotten about him as he told her to do.
Did any of those feelings for him remain?
* * *
Emma discovered she didn’t need to worry about Luke being under foot while he was working for her father. By his second day on the job, he had perfected the art of staying out of her way. Roy was the one who told her Luke would be bringing his lunches and not to plan on feeding him. If her unappetizing meal hadn’t driven him from her table, her sharp tongue had. It should have made her happy, but it didn’t.
By late afternoon, she couldn’t stand it any longer. When she heard a lull in the hammering, she opened the door that led from the porch to the new store.
She paused in surprise. Luke had gotten a lot done. The walls of the store were up and insulation was pressed into the spaces between the studs. A coal stove sat glowing red in the center of the room, its chimney already in place. Sheetrock panels sat at the rear of the room waiting to go up on the ceiling. A large bay window at the front allowed in plenty of natural light and would make the perfect place to showcase the goods her father planned to sell. Maybe some of the gourd birdhouses that Luke painted could hang there. It was truly beginning to look like a store. Maybe this idea of her father’s was a good one, after all.
Zachariah looked up from measuring a plank. “Emma, come see what we’ve gotten done. Luke is a hard taskmaster.”
She glanced at Roy. He shook his head. At least her father wasn’t being allowed to overdo it. He looked a bit better today. There was a sparkle in his eyes that had been missing for a while.
Luke was strapping on a pair of drywall stilts. He nodded to acknowledge her, but didn’t pause. When he was ready, Roy lifted one end of the sheet and Luke grabbed the other. Using crosspieces on long poles, they wedged the sheet into position. Luke secured it with screws using a battery-operated drill. Outside, her father’s gasoline generator hummed away as it supplied the electricity for a bank of lights and a battery-charging station.
“What do you think?” her father asked.
She thought Luke’s muscular shoulders and arms were showing to advantage as they bulged beneath the fabric of his blue shirt, but she didn’t say that. Instead, she turned to her father. “It looks like you’re getting a lot done. You are taking it easy, aren’t you? You know the doctor said you should.”
He scowled at her. “Don’t fuss. I’m fine. Luke and Roy aren’t letting me lift anything heavier than a pencil.”
When Luke finished fastening the sheet, he turned toward her. “Measure twice, cut once. Making sure the measurements are accurate is the most important part of the job, Zachariah. If the walls are as crooked as a dog’s hind leg, it will be your fault.”
She folded her arms together. “They look straight to me. Can I help?”
Luke lifted the next sheet of drywall. “We’re almost done for the day.”
Her father patted her shoulder. “Some kaffi would be wunderbar.”
“I can manage that easy enough.” She left the room feeling better about her father’s project. Luke seemed to know what he was doing.
She returned fifteen minutes later with four mugs of coffee on a tray. The warm, pungent aroma mixed with the smell of sawdust and plaster.
“Danki, child.” Her father took a cup and sat on a sawhorse.
Roy took his and squatted nearby. Luke accepted a cup, walked away to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall still on his stilts. He was making it clear that he could avoid her. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it? So why did it hurt to be ignored?
“What’s next after this?” Emma surveyed the space.
“I’m not rightly sure.” Her father glanced around, seemingly at a loss.
“We’ll start building the shelves,” Roy said. “Luke suggested we put the counters on casters so we can move them aside and hold church services in here.”
“There is plenty of space for that.” More space than her living room and kitchen combined. The walls in the downstairs part of the house could be moved back to open the area for services. She usually only had to ready the place once or twice a year. The cleaning and preparation was a major undertaking. Everyone in the congregation took their turn at hosting the meeting so that no one family had the burden.
Her father rose. “Roy, where did I put that box of casters?”
“Beats me, Daed.”
“I think I put them in the barn, or maybe on the back porch.”
Roy took another sip and then put his half-empty mug on Emma’s tray. “I’ll help you look for them.”
The two men went out, leaving Emma waiting in awkward silence for Luke to finish his drink. She wound the ribbon of her kapp around her finger and tried to look anywhere but at him.
“You make goot coffee.”
“Danki.” She picked up her mug to give her hands something to do.
“What’s your secret?”
She scowled at him. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“What’s your secret to such good coffee?”
Of course he wasn’t talking about her father’s illness. She relaxed and took a sip. “I buy the expensive brand and I only use spring water. That and I add a teaspoon of sugar to the grounds.”
He sat on the sawhorse and unbuckled his stilts. “I knew something was different about yours. Mamm makes good coffee but yours is better. I’m not trying to give you a gross feelich.”
“Nee, you wouldn’t want to do that.” He would never want to make her feel special because she wasn’t special to him.
He laid the stilts aside. “I have an invitation from Hannah. Rebecca and Mamm are having a cookie exchange on December 20, and I was told I could invite my friends.”
His words triggered a surge of warmth in her midsection. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could be friends again?
“Danki, cookie exchanges are always fun. Tell, Hannah, Rebecca and your mother I can make it.”
“Goot.” He looked around. “What are your father’s plans for this place when we get it done?”
The business was a safer subject. “I’m not sure. Will it be ready to open by the week after Christmas?”
“Even if we work night and day, I doubt we’ll have it done by then.”
“He has dreamed about having a hardware store for years, but until recently, he hasn’t found the time to actually open it. He wants a business Roy can grow into.”
“I hope it works out for him, and for you. And right on cue, here comes Wayne.” He gestured toward the window and she saw Wayne getting out of his buggy. He paused and surveyed the outside of the building.
Luke came toward her and put his mug on her tray. “I’ll leave you two alone. I’m sure he has
n’t come to see me.”
Emma realized with a start that she didn’t want to be left alone with Wayne. She started to set the tray aside, but a half-empty mug tipped over and spilled on her white apron. She hissed in displeasure, whipped it off, rolled it into a bundle and tossed it onto a box on the window seat. “There’s no need to run away.”
Luke glanced at her sharply. “Then I’ll start taping the drywall joints. The sooner we get them done, the sooner we can get some paint on the walls. Have you chosen a color?”
Wayne came through the plastic sheet that was covering the doorway. “Good day.”
Emma smiled at him. “Good day, Wayne. What can I help you with?”
“I just stopped by to see the progress. After seeing the half-finished shell sitting here for years, it’s quite a change to see the walls up.”
“I wonder what paint color would look good. What do you think?” she asked.
Wayne glanced around. “Gray or green would look businesslike.”
She nodded. “It would have to be a pale gray or a nice mint green to keep the place bright on cloudy days.”
“A few well-placed ceiling lights will do that. It’s a shame I don’t know more about the solar panels your father has. Lighting without the cost of propane or oil would be an advantage,” Luke said.
Wayne crossed his arms. “A man only needs the light of the sun to work by. God provides all we need. Such technology is not fitting for us. We must remain apart from the world.”
“Using solar power is using God’s power grid. Some Amish communities have already embraced it,” Luke said.
Wayne scowled deeply at him. “And many have not.”
The two men glared at each other. Luke glanced at her, and his face softened. “I should be getting home. It was nice chatting with you, Wayne. Get Emma to fix you a cup of coffee. You’ll enjoy it. See you tomorrow, Emma.”
She watched him leave and couldn’t help comparing the two men. Luke was much better looking, but looks weren’t everything. Hadn’t she learned that lesson? A handsome face could hide an insincere heart. A steady, reliable, devout man was much more desirable in a mate. If only Wayne’s smile set her pulse racing the way Luke’s did.
An Amish Noel Page 7