Around five, Lexie called Marta “just to touch base.”
She listened for a moment and then said, “So you’ve left the airport?”
She listened again and then said, “All right. See you in an hour or two.” She turned to me as she hung up and explained. “Giselle is with her but traffic on the Blue Route is bumper to bumper. They’ll be here as soon as they can, and they’ll pick up pizza.”
She slipped her phone back into her pocket. “I’ll go tell Aunt Klara. And let Ada know to come back over around seven.”
I felt sympathetic toward Lexie, but I knew there was nothing I could do except prepare for the imminent crowd of people. I cleared off the counters to make room for a buffet and then rummaged through Frannie’s cupboards and found a stack of paper plates and enough paper cups for everyone. Then I pulled a handful of napkins from the drawer and put them on the counter too. Marta had brought fresh veggies the day before—carrots, celery, cucumbers, and broccoli—just for me, but I cut those up to share with everyone and then heated some soup for Frannie, even though she was sleeping. Then I sat back down and waited.
When Lexie returned I gave her my chair and went into the kitchen, deciding to scrub the cupboard doors to keep busy. But soon after she retreated to Frannie’s room, probably to count off the minutes in private.
At seven fifteen footsteps were heard on the porch. I froze, anticipating the moment I’d waited for, even though I had no right to witness it and no actual connection to it. I was just relieved Lexie would get to meet her birth mother without the whole family gathered around. Even Frannie, though here, was asleep.
The door swung open and Marta walked in, carrying three large, flat boxes. I stepped forward and took the pizzas from her.
“This is Giselle,” Marta said. “Giselle, Izzy.”
A woman appeared in the doorway. Thin and short, she looked nothing like either Marta or Klara, and not just because her uncovered hair was red with gold highlights and spiked. She wore skinny jeans and boots, a long leather coat, and the most beautiful scarf I’d ever seen. It was orange and fuchsia and scarlet and looked as if it had been hand knit by a child, but perfectly so.
There was something intelligent about her that reminded me of both Ada and Lexie, but she didn’t necessarily look like them, either.
“I’m pleased to meet you,” I managed to say, nodding my head over the pizza boxes.
“Likewise,” Giselle answered, but I could see her eyes moving from me to her mother across the room. If she hadn’t seen the woman in twenty-eight years, she was probably quite shocked at how old Frannie looked now. Giselle managed to hide her reaction well, but I could tell the sight had thrown her.
Before we could wake the sleeping woman, the door to the bedroom swung open and Lexie came walking out, talking on the phone as she did. When she reached the living room, she looked up and then froze, her eyes locked on Giselle.
“I have to go,” she managed to murmur into the phone, and then she turned it off and slid it in her pocket.
Looking far more confident than she was probably feeling on the inside, she stepped toward the startled redhead. They stood there for a long moment, Lexie towering over her more diminutive mother.
Then the two of them did an uncomfortable sort of dance, each starting to shake hands, then not, and then finally meeting in an awkward embrace.
When they pulled apart, Lexie said, “I’m so pleased to finally meet you.”
I swallowed hard to keep the lump from rising in my throat. Marta dabbed at her eyes.
Before they could say or do anything else, the door opened again and in came Klara, followed by Alexander. Again I practically held my breath as Klara simply said, “Hello, Giselle.”
She hugged her sister quickly and then stepped aside. Alexander extended his hand, saying he was pleased to see her.
“Likewise,” was her reply.
It was all so stiff and awkward that I was glad at the moment Frannie began to stir. The entire group shifted toward her. I put the pizzas on the kitchen counter and then hurried to the raise Frannie’s bed so she could see Giselle. As I did, her eyes opened and then quickly filled with tears.
“She’s here,” Frannie whispered.
“Ya,” I said, releasing the button once the bed was high enough.
Then I stepped away from the bed, making room for the daughter who had finally come home.
Frannie reached for Giselle’s hand and held on to it. Neither said anything, but Giselle leaned forward, burying her head against Frannie’s neck. Marta and Lexie stood at the end of the bed, hands on the railing, watching the two. Klara and Alexander stood behind them. I retreated to the kitchen, overcome with emotion. My mamm and I had our share of problems, and she didn’t understand me, but I couldn’t imagine going twenty-eight years without seeing her.
As Ada, Will, and the children entered the daadi haus, I grabbed one of the napkins off the counter and wiped my eyes.
Giselle pulled herself away from her mother, turned to look toward the door, and darted across the room to her youngest daughter, taking her in her arms and hugging Abe at the same time.
Ada introduced the twins, Mel and Mat, and then Giselle hugged Christy warmly—they had obviously bonded when the girl had traveled to Switzerland with Ada. Then she wrapped her arms around Will. He’d been there too, and it was evident Giselle felt safe with him.
Cramming so many people into the little house felt a bit ridiculous, considering Klara’s big home was just a few feet away. But that’s what we did as Ada and her crew hung up their coats and came inside.
I suggested we all eat before the pizza grew cold. Alexander led us in a silent prayer and then Christy put a piece of cheese pizza on a plate for Abe, followed by the twins helping themselves, as I dished up soup for Frannie.
“I’m too excited to eat,” she said when I sat down beside her with the bowl. “I just want to watch everyone.” I gave her water to drink and put the soup on the table, hoping she would change her mind.
“If only Ella and Zed were here,” she said.
“They’ll be here tomorrow.” Marta stepped closer. “Which means we’ll be even more crowded. I think we should move your bed into Klara’s living room.”
“Oh, but I like it here,” Frannie responded.
“It’s so small, though.” Marta gestured to the kids crowded around the table and then to Giselle sitting in Frannie’s recliner and Lexie on the floor.
Klara, who stood at the end of the bed, stiffened but then said, “Can we do it tomorrow morning? I don’t think I’m up to it tonight.”
“Of course,” Marta answered.
Frannie didn’t reply. I asked again if she wanted her soup. She assured me she did not.
I took the bowl into the kitchen and poured it back into the pot to keep it warm. I started to take a piece of pizza for myself but realized I wasn’t hungry. The twins laughed loudly about something. Abe kicked the table leg. Christy ordered him to stop.
As Klara, in the living room with Giselle, Lexie, Will, and Alexander, described her back injury, I slipped from the kitchen and down the hall to my room, leaving the door cracked open in case anyone called for me. As much as I appreciated being allowed to witness this reunion, I knew this family needed their space.
After so much drama, so did I.
Finally, everyone left and I readied Frannie for bed. Exhausted, she fell asleep immediately. That left Giselle and me awake in the daadi haus. I hoped to show her the fabric we found, but when I started to mention it, she cut me off.
“It’s straight to bed for me,” she said. “I’ve never been so tired in my life.”
As I watched her go, I had to wonder, between her and Lexie, what it was about flying that made people so tired. The plane did all the work, yet the two of them had acted exhausted, as though they had flown here on the power of their own flapping arms.
I was feeling pretty tired myself, so I got ready for bed too. As I did, my mind kept go
ing to Giselle, and I couldn’t help but think what an odd woman she was. Hot and cold, sweet one minute and curt the next, treating each person in a completely different way, some nice, some mean, some in between. She was like no one I had ever met before.
No doubt, she had “issues,” as Zed would say, perhaps the lingering results of having had an abusive father. Just the thought broke my heart—and made me even more determined to be a friend to her, no matter which of her many ways she treated me in return.
I awoke the next morning, thrilled that I would soon be seeing Zed. He and Ella would arrive, God willing, by nightfall.
Despite the Shelly-related incident, I’d missed him desperately and couldn’t wait to see him. I took extra care getting ready that morning, even though it would be hours and hours before he arrived.
I made extra oatmeal for breakfast, thinking Giselle might want some, but she kept sleeping. Frannie slept most of the morning too and into the early afternoon. She awoke around two, and I had just managed to get a small bit of soup down her when Will arrived with Alexander to move the hospital bed into the main house.
We transferred Frannie to her recliner and then Will and Alexander wheeled the bed toward the door. I couldn’t believe Giselle could sleep through the commotion, but there wasn’t a peep from her room. I knew her body was adjusting to a new time zone, but was she going to sleep all day?
Once Will and Alexander made it out the door, I managed to get Frannie dressed in her robe and then slid her slippers on her feet. Next, I grabbed her favorite quilt, maneuvered her to a standing position, and then wrapped it around her as if she were a baby before lowering her back into the chair.
When Alexander returned, he asked if I would go make up the bed because Klara couldn’t handle it, thanks to her back. Frannie seemed relieved that it wasn’t yet time to leave her little home.
I passed Will on the walkway as he was coming back to the daadi haus.
As I made the bed, Klara told me that Will had brought over a whole meal from his grandmother, Alice, to serve as a welcome home supper later for Ella and Zed.
“Looks like lasagna,” she added, “so I put it in the fridge for now.”
“Sounds yummy,” I said as I pulled the clean sheets taut over the mattress and then folded the corners.
“Lexie and Ada will drive over tonight after we eat,” she added, “and bring dessert. Will’s going to stay home with the kids and get them to bed.”
Listening to her talk, I decided it sounded much like last night, another pulled-together party at the Rupps’.
Then I had to smile again when I recognized my own reaction. At home, with my own family, I usually dreaded such things. But here, among these people, I was eager for all of us to be together again, even though we’d just done the pizza thing with Giselle the night before. That had to say a lot not just about what nice and interesting folks these people were, but also how well I fit in with them. Daring to dream, I decided that perhaps someday they would be not just my friends but my in-laws.
In the living room, I spread a soft cotton blanket on the hospital bed, followed by a quilt, and then I told Klara we’d be right in with her mother.
At the daadi haus, I opened the door and said, “All set.”
Will asked Frannie if she was ready to go.
“I suppose,” she sighed, and I realized that this could well be the last time she would ever cross the threshold of her beloved little home.
The thought brought a tear to my eye, especially when I saw Will take off his stocking cap and gently put it on Frannie’s head. Then the two men made a chair with their hands, lifted her up, and carried her out the front door. I dried my eyes as I followed behind.
We settled her into the bed, and then Alexander built up the fire as Will returned to the daadi haus for the battery and Klara and I fussed with the covers. Soon Will was back, the bed was fully wired for power, and Frannie was all set.
Finally, around four, Giselle came through the back door of the main house. “Goodness,” she said. “I’m feeling so much better.” Without saying hello to Klara or to me, she sat down beside hospital bed, taking her mother’s hand in hers.
Frannie opened her eyes at her daughter’s touch and for the next hour, although she wasn’t very talkative, she stayed awake.
By five o’clock I had managed to coax Frannie into taking a meager supper of no more than half a cup of chicken noodle soup, after which she had fallen asleep, Giselle by her side. Now, Giselle was just watching her mother as she dozed. Klara was up in her room with the door closed, and I assumed she’d been resting her back and had fallen asleep as well.
Checking the time, I went into Klara’s kitchen to finish getting the food ready for Zed and Ella’s arrival. The meal Alice had sent included a big lasagna, which I’d been heating for the past half hour, a salad, and a fresh loaf of bread.
I set the table for seven—Klara, Alexander, Giselle, Marta, Zed, Ella, and me—though I also set a stack of nine smaller plates to the side, knowing Ada and Lexie would be joining us later and bringing dessert when they came.
When I finally heard the front door swing open, it was all I could do not to race across the living room and fling myself into Zed’s arms.
Then I realized that it wasn’t Zed and Ella who had arrived. It was their mother.
“Zed called,” Marta said, taking off her cape. “They’ve been delayed by car trouble.”
My heart sank as I watched her move into the room.
“They made it all the way to Carlisle before it happened, so if worse comes to worst, Zed can leave the car in a shop there and either Lexie or I can drive over and get them. In the meantime, there’s no need to hold dinner. They could be several hours.”
I took in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. At least they were close. By car, Carlisle couldn’t be more than an hour and a half away.
Giselle stood. “In that case, I’m going out to Mamm’s little house and scramble myself some eggs. Maybe take a little nap after that.”
“Won’t you eat with us?” Marta asked.
Giselle shook her head, moving toward the kitchen. “My body clock is all messed up. No offense to Alice, but as far as my stomach knows, it’s time for breakfast, not supper.”
Marta and I smiled at each other as Giselle continued out the back door. Neither one of us could know what jet lag felt like, so we would have to take her word for it.
“Should I wake you up once they get here?” I asked.
“No, that’s okay,” she replied as she headed for the door, “I’ll check back later.” With that, she left.
I removed Giselle’s place setting from the table as Marta headed upstairs to wake her sister. Ten minutes later, Marta, Klara, Alexander, and I were sitting down to eat while Frannie continued to sleep. Halfway through the meal, footsteps fell on the back porch followed by voices. Could that be who I thought it was, already?
Then the door opened, revealing Ella, who looked as if she’d doubled in size in the last three weeks. Zed followed her, flicking his bangs from his eyes, a shy smile on his face, something about him seeming both vulnerable and tender to me.
I’d been anxious about seeing him, but now my heart pounded at his appearance. Reaching up, I smoothed my hair under my kapp and drank in the sight of his handsome face.
“You got the car fixed!” Marta pushed back her chair and hurried toward her children. She gave Ella a big hug, a look of pure joy on her face.
Once they had pulled apart, Ella said, “Ya.” She poked Zed with her elbow. “After the nice man who stopped to help us figure out what was wrong.”
Zed’s face reddened.
“Tell ’em, little bro.”
He hung his head. “I ran out of gas.”
Ella laughed. “And he’s supposed to be the smart one in the family!”
“Well,” Marta said, hugging her son. “That can happen to—” she paused. “To the best of us.” I was pretty sure it had never happened to her.
Zed laughed. “It’s okay. I know I can be a little absentminded.”
“Absentminded?” Ella hooted. “How many times did I ask if we didn’t need to stop for gas and you kept saying, ‘We’re fine’? I think denial is your problem.”
Zed shrugged. “My gauge is a little off.” Finally, he looked around, but instead of giving me a smile, he avoided my eyes entirely and said to his mother, “Where’s Giselle?”
“She’s out in the daadi haus.”
“She’ll be back,” I added in a cheery, too-loud voice, assuming he just hadn’t noticed me.
That still didn’t make him look, though Ella gave me a broad smile and said, “Hey, Izzy.”
“Hello,” I answered as I rose and moved around the table.
I gave Ella a long hug, realizing I had missed her.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Gut.”
“Me too,” she replied, affection in her voice.
Unable to help myself, I turned and gave Zed a hug as well. He had just taken off his coat, and he felt solid and warm and strong. I inhaled deeply, looking into his eyes as we pulled apart, disappointed to see that he would not return my gaze.
What was going on?
Klara and Alexander had followed me from the table and now they greeted their niece and nephew too. Alexander had already finished eating, so after that he excused himself to go outside to finish up his chores.
“Are you hungry?” Marta asked her children as she gestured toward the two waiting places at the table.
“Famished,” Zed said, taking a seat, scooping up a huge serving of lasagna, and plopping it on his plate.
Ella was about to sit down too when she spotted Frannie across the room in her bed.
“When did you move Mammi in there?” Ella whispered, startled.
“This morning,” Marta answered. “Now that everyone’s home, it’s easier for all of us this way.”
“How is she?”
“Not so gut,” Marta answered. “She sleeps, mostly, although she was alert for a while yesterday.”
They both moved into the living room, and, to be polite, I followed, although I noticed Klara sitting back down at the table to resume her meal. The three of us stepped toward the side of the bed as Marta said, “She’s been looking forward to you two coming.”
The Amish Seamstress Page 28