by Mary Davis
Since his vater’s heart attack last summer, nine months ago, Eli had been entrusted with more responsibilities around the farm. Fortunately, his vater had decided to rent out the fields this year on the recommendation of the community’s new doctor, Dr. Kathleen. Eli could have handled running the farm himself with his younger brothers. It wouldn’t have been too much for him to manage, but Vater thought otherwise, scared after nearly dying.
Though Eli didn’t like witnessing Vater’s vulnerability, he secretly delighted in the lighter workload. This would give him an opportunity to design more original ironwork pieces in his blacksmith shop behind the barn. He’d consigned a few items in town but hoped to have enough creations to start his own business. Farming was gut and honorable work, but he liked making things with his hands, with hot metal and a hammer. He had ideas for new pieces he wanted to create.
If he could figure out how, this was his chance to get his business going. He knew it would take all the time he’d been afforded in lieu of planting and harvesting. He would need to learn all about selling on the internet, creating a website and proving to the church leaders—his vater being one of them—that his was a viable business worthy of internet access and use. He wouldn’t have another opportunity like this. If he didn’t make a go of this by the fall, he would need to give up his dream.
Rainbow Girl broke into his thoughts. “You need to have a website. You could sell a lot more of your work. Englishers love buying Amish-made stuff. A website can do that for you.”
Ja, he knew he needed a website in order to make money from the Englishers. “I plan to hire an Englisher to do that for me.” So much to do and learn to get started. A bit overwhelming.
“I can do it.”
“Ne. I’ll hire someone.” He couldn’t be beholden to her.
“That would be a waste of money. There are so many programs out there to help you build a site. And they’re easy to use.”
He could make his own site? Ne. “It would be better if I don’t fiddle in Englisher things and let an Englisher do them.”
“So you’re going to pay an Englisher to monitor your website after it’s built and tell you when you have orders? You aren’t going to make any money that way. You need to monitor your own site. I can build you a site and teach you how to maintain it.”
“Ne. I’ll hire an Englisher.” An Englisher who wasn’t her.
“But you can do this. You’ll pick it up fast. I know you will. You always were the smartest boy in class. If I could learn how to do it, then you can.”
She thought he was smart? He liked that. He wanted her to help him, but that wouldn’t be wise. He couldn’t let her do work for him. She wasn’t staying. Or at least she didn’t know if she was staying. How could she not know? She simply needed to make a choice. The right choice. He wouldn’t let her get under his skin to just have her leave again. “Ne. I need to get back to work.” He headed for the back door.
“Eli, wait.”
He turned and resisted the urge to cross over to her. To stand next to her. To stare at her.
She dug a ten-dollar bill from her backpack. “Here. I never had a chance to buy any food with this.” She held it out to him.
He waved it away. “Keep it.” He strode out the door. She probably needed it more than he did.
Once in the yard again, he picked up the shovel and jabbed it into the ground. The trench would stabilize the concrete blocks of the foundation. But what would stabilize him?
He wished he’d grabbed the pick. Swinging it would have been similar to the rhythm of swinging his hammer in his forge. An action that helped him think. An action that could replace thoughts of Rainbow Girl. Instead, he was stuck with her image drifting in the front of his mind.
Chapter Five
Midafternoon, Dori sat in the shade of the front porch of the dawdy haus. Just about time for her younger siblings to return from school. Which ones were still school-age? John, the youngest at age ten, for sure attended school. Luke and Mark at eleven and thirteen would, as well. Sixteen-year-old Matthew had likely gone off to work with Vater. Nearly a man. Ruth, the second oldest, was eighteen now. Where had she spent her day? Inside the big haus, having been told not to talk to Dori? And the oldest at twenty-two, Dori was the biggest disappointment to her family.
An open buggy drove into the yard with Ruth at the reins. Mark sat next to her, with Luke and John in the rear seat, jostling each other.
Ruth glanced Dori’s way as she drove to the barn and parked. “You boys take care of the buggy and horse. And no dillydallying.” She climbed down and crossed the yard to the dawdy haus.
Dori squirmed in her chair. She wished she hadn’t sat out in the open.
Ruth stopped at the bottom of the two steps. “Dorcas? Is that really you?”
“Ja. I go by Dori now.” She didn’t know what else to say, so she gave her sister a tight smile.
“Dori.” Ruth’s mouth curved up in a big grin. She set her tote bag on the steps as she climbed them. “You’re home.”
Dori automatically stood.
Though a bit hesitant, her sister hugged her. “I’m so happy you’ve returned. I’ve missed having meine sister around.”
“I haven’t exactly returned. This is only temporary.”
“Then why is Grossvater building you a room?”
How many times would she have to tell people the room was the bishop’s idea? “You know how he can be when he sets his mind to something. I told him I’m here only temporarily.”
“Please stay. Do you know what it’s like living in a haus with all boys? Mutter and I are overrun with them.”
Dori understood. The haus had been pretty boisterous before she left. She had enjoyed time in the kitchen with her mutter and sister. “I don’t fit in here. And I don’t think Vater would approve of you talking to me.”
“What is he going to do? Shun me? Let him. I’ve prayed for you to return. Mutter wants to come talk to you, but Vater forbade her.”
“Didn’t he forbid you, as well?”
Ruth shrugged. “Not in so many words. He said you were an Englisher now, and talking to Englishers was not a gut idea. Then glared at each one of us. I took his warning as a suggestion.”
Oh, dear. Was her sister as defiant as Dori had been? She hoped not.
Had Vater told Ruth and the others about the baby? “What did Vater tell you about me being here?”
“That you came home because you had no place else to go, and...”
“And what?”
“He doesn’t think you’re going to stay. He thinks you’re too English now. But I don’t.”
Dori couldn’t help but to laugh. “You don’t think I’m too English? Have you looked at me?” She held her hands out to the sides.
“All this on the outside isn’t you. It’s what’s in your heart. And I know in mine that you are still Amish in yours.”
Her sweet sister deserved the truth, even if it meant she too would reject Dori. “Ruth, the reason I’ve come—and it is just temporary—is because my boyfriend kicked me out of our apartment.”
“How mean. It’s gut you’re not with him anymore.”
“That’s not all. He kicked me out because...because I’m pregnant. That’s why Vater won’t talk to me.”
Ruth’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
“Craig doesn’t want the baby, but I won’t get rid of it.” Dori caressed her lower abdomen.
A smile slowly took over Ruth’s face. “I’m going to be a tante.”
That was what her sister got out of this? No condemnation? “Don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t. Does Grossvater know?”
“Ja. I think that’s why he’s so set on building rooms for me and the baby in the dawdy haus. I wish he wouldn’t.”
Ruth took hold of one of Dori’s hands. “Don’t leave.
You can’t let your baby—meine little nephew or niece—grow up in a place where people discard what they don’t want. You’re staying, that’s all there is to it.” As stubborn as the bishop, and as willful as her.
Time to change the topic. “Did you pick the boys up after school?”
“Ne. I’m the teacher. If they don’t behave, I make them walk home.”
“I’m happy for you.” Her sister was probably a very gut teacher. “You always did like school and teaching the farm animals. You would go into the chicken enclosure with your schoolbooks and try to make them learn their letters and numbers.”
With an impish smile, Ruth tilted her head. “Even animals could do with a little education.”
“You almost had me believing they could count.”
“I still say that Claudia Clucker could count.” She laughed.
Dori joined her. It felt so gut to laugh. How long had it been? Leave it to Ruth to make her forget her troubles if only for a brief moment.
Mark, Luke and John came out of the barn and ran over to the dawdy haus. They stopped short of climbing the steps and eyed Dori. Mark spoke for his younger brothers. “Can we go see how the construction is going and help out until supper?”
“Check to see if Mutter needs anything first.”
The trio ran for the big haus.
Dori shook her head. “I can’t believe how grown-up you are.”
Ruth lifted one shoulder, then gave a mischievous smile. “Who does Grossvater have working on the addition besides Eli Hochstetler?”
“Benjamin Yoder and Daniel Burkholder.”
Ruth’s eyes widened and gleamed. “I’ll have to go see how they’re doing.” She pranced off the porch.
Dori caught up to her. “Is there something going on between you and Daniel?”
“Me? Why would you say that?”
“Because you lit up at the mention of his name.”
Ruth stopped at the side of the haus. “There’s nothing between me and Daniel.”
“But...?”
Ruth bit her bottom lip. “I wouldn’t mind if there was. But you can’t tell anyone.”
“My lips are sealed.” Dori enjoyed chatting with her sister. She’d missed moments like this. She hooked her arm with Ruth’s. “Let’s go see how the men are doing.”
In the backyard, all four men wielded hammers, putting the last boards on the wall-stud frames that lay in the grass, ready to be raised into place when the time came. Each one lay on the ground on the side of the wall trench where it would be put up. They’d already dug the trench and poured the footing concrete in the bottom of it.
Ruth spoke up. “Grossvater, you’ll have three more eager workers here in a minute.”
All four hammers stilled, and four heads turned. Daniel’s mouth cocked up a tad on one side. Ruth’s interest in the young man wasn’t one-sided, it seemed.
The bishop put a hand on his lumbar region and straightened. “Gut. They can help us lay out the boards for the roof trusses.”
Dori had a hard time thinking of the bishop as her grossvater. He’d seemed very much the bishop before she left. But now he did seem more like a grossvater, like her grossvater. She turned her attention to Eli, who was focused on her. Her insides wiggled, and it wasn’t the baby. She resisted the smile that was tickling her mouth.
The three younger boys ran up, clamoring to help.
The bishop put them to work.
Dori leaned closer to her sister and spoke softly. “So why Daniel and not Benjamin? He’s closer to your age.”
“Benjamin is nice enough, but he’s...he’s just not...”
“Daniel?”
Ruth’s smile stretched. “Ja.”
“Well, from the look Daniel gave you, I’d say the interest is mutual.”
“You think so?”
“Ja.” So what did that say for Eli? And for that matter, herself?
Mutter appeared from around the corner. “I’ve brought cookies.” Her gaze sought out Dori and rested on her.
Dori stared back. She’d missed Mutter. She wished she could go up to her and get a hug. She wished she could sit with her on the porch. She wished Mutter could tell her what it was like to have a baby and give her advice on how to be a gut mutter.
The men and boys grabbed cookies. When the plate was nearly empty, Mutter crossed to Dori and Ruth. Three oatmeal-raisin cookies remained. Ruth took one. Mutter held the plate out to her eldest daughter.
Dori took a cookie. “Danki.”
Mutter took the last cookie with a smile and faced the men. “It is gut to have meine children together.” She stood between her daughters.
Dori knew that Mutter was including her, and she welcomed the inclusion. She’d felt like an outsider with Craig ever since she told him she was pregnant two months ago. Truth be told, she’d always felt as though she didn’t quite belong in the English world, a world she hadn’t been raised in. References to TV shows and movies that everyone seemed to have seen. She’d tried to catch up, but there was so much. Some of the shows were so ridiculous, she’d given up. She feared Craig would grow tired of her not quite fitting in and send her away, so she changed her appearance as much as possible to prove to him and others she wasn’t Amish.
And prove to herself.
But Craig had sent her away anyway. And she’d ended up at the shelter, where fear ruled her thoughts. But here, she didn’t fear for herself or her belongings. Being here served as a sort of comfort that she didn’t like. This was not the place for her, so she shouldn’t find comfort here.
And yet...
* * *
Eli ate his second cookie slowly, not anxious to get back to work. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Rainbow Girl. Was it any wonder with her brightly colored clothes and hair? Her appearance was designed to attract attention and make people stare. He was no exception, but it was more than her appearance that held him captive.
When she smiled, his insides tumbled about.
He wouldn’t mind doing all this work on the dawdy haus if she were staying. That would give him hope. But would she even still be here by the time they completed this project in a week or two? Would all this be for nothing?
Andrew Bontrager and Matthew, his eldest son, arrived home and came around to the rear of the dawdy haus, surveying the activity. Andrew shook his head. Matthew glared at his oldest sister and walked away.
Rainbow Girl’s vater inclined his head toward his wife.
Leah Bontrager didn’t turn toward her eldest daughter, but when her lips moved with her whispered words, Eli guessed they were for Rainbow Girl because she nodded. Leah strode around the work area to her husband.
Andrew waved his arm toward Ruth. “Come on, Ruth. Leave the men to their work.”
Ruth stepped sideways and hooked her arm with her sister’s. “I’ll stay out of the way.”
Open defiance? What would Andrew do?
Rainbow Girl patted her sister’s arm. “Go. I don’t want you in trouble with him too.”
“Don’t worry. Vater is all bluster.”
Eli was grateful he stood on the side of the construction closest to the girls so he could hear their conversation. How nice of Rainbow Girl to try to protect her sister.
Andrew huffed away with Leah at his side. He allowed his three youngest boys to continue working.
The two remaining ladies sat on the back stoop, chattering. Rainbow Girl seemed happy. He liked seeing her happy. Now, instead of wondering what she was doing, he could glance her way.
Later, when as much work as possible had been completed until the footing concrete dried in the trench, Eli went over to Rainbow Girl. He motioned toward the ragtag bits of construction. “What do you think so far? I know it doesn’t look like much now, but in a day or two it’ll start resembling a building.”
; “You know what I think.”
Ja, he did. “That you’re not staying.” He folded his arms. “Well, I think you’re wrong.” Hoped she was wrong.
Ruth piped up. “I agree with you. She’s staying. She just has to.”
He liked the way Ruth thought. Between the bishop, Ruth and Rainbow Girl’s mutter, she wouldn’t be able to leave so easily.
With her mouth stretched wide, Ruth rose to her feet. “Hallo, Daniel.”
His friend gave a nod. “Ruth.” After staring for a moment, he turned to Eli. “Benjamin has your horse hitched to your trap.” His gaze returned to Ruth.
Eli nodded. “We should go. I’ll come back tomorrow to lay the concrete blocks for the foundation.”
Rainbow Girl squinted up at him. The sun on her face made her appear to be glowing. “What about your forge? You don’t want to neglect your work there.”
“If I’m needed, meine family knows where to find me, and I’ll do some work this evening after supper.”
“You work too hard. You should rest. Take tomorrow off.”
He knew what she was doing. She was trying to delay progress on the addition. She wouldn’t succeed.
He touched the brim of his straw hat. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned and left. He would see her again in about thirteen hours. He mentally shook his head. It wasn’t right for him to be thinking about when he would see Rainbow Girl again. He should think of other things. Like what to make this evening in his forge. Perhaps an herb chopper with a rainbow-arch handle. Or a cooking spoon with a rainbow. Would she like a candleholder?
There he went again, letting his thoughts get tangled up around her. He needed to do something drastic to clear her from his head.
After he’d dropped off Daniel and Benjamin at their respective houses, he pulled his two-wheeled trap into the Rosenbergs’ yard. Mary was as gut as any girl to court. He parked and knocked on the door.
Saul Rosenberg, Mary’s vater, opened the door. “Eli? What are you doing here? It’s almost suppertime.”
“I know. I’m on meine way home. May I speak to you a moment?” Eli took a step in retreat to indicate he wished to speak privately. No sense in the whole family knowing his business.