She’d come here to give of her time, but it seemed to her that she was seeing how other people gave of themselves to each other. She might never have known if she hadn’t left her home, her community, her own idea of safety and security, and ventured here.
This day, the class, was an unexpected gift. It seemed to her that she should find a way to thank Kate for inviting her to help with the class.
***
On his way home from work David passed the restaurant where he and Lavina had eaten supper last night. He found himself smiling as he remembered what a wonderful evening he’d had. He hoped Lavina had enjoyed it, too. She’d seemed to.
The meal and tip had taken quite a bite out of his wallet, but they’d both deserved it after miserly dates at coffee shops and that sort of thing for years.
A couple near their table had obviously been celebrating a special occasion. David remembered how the man had red roses delivered to the table, and the waiter had served champagne that had made the woman giggle.
He’d persuaded Lavina to go to supper with him on the spur of the moment so there had been no chance of getting her flowers. There was a small florist shop a mile or so ahead. He could stop for some now. Supper had cost a lot but he’d seen signs outside the florist advertising something called a “fun bunch” for $5.95. He could afford that.
The shop was bright and cheerful and there, just inside the door, were the bunches of flowers that were “fun”—he wasn’t sure what kind they were but he’d never seen flowers of fluorescent pinks and lime green and purple.
Then he spotted a bunch of dried pussy willows sticking out of an earthenware jar. They reminded him of a time when he and Lavina had been taking a leisurely buggy ride one day, and she spotted a stand of them growing in a pool of water beside the road. Lavina had always had a fondness for them. He’d climbed down an embankment and landed in muddy water and scared her, and then delighted her with an armful of the branches with the gray catkins that she said looked so much like kittens climbing a tree.
He checked the price and found he could afford them so he carried them to the counter to pay. As he carried the jar out to his truck and carefully set it on the floorboard of the passenger side, he wondered if she’d remember how he’d landed in the muddy water when he went to cut some for her.
Last night they hadn’t talked about the past. But they had one and he hoped this would remind her of it.
He stopped by her house and Linda, Lavina’s mother, opened the door. “Why, David, what a nice surprise. Kumm, I’ll tell Lavina you’re here.”
David stood, shifting from one foot to the other. He hadn’t really known what to expect from her. The Amish were forgiving, but he’d hurt her daughter, and this was the first time he’d seen Linda since he came back.
Lavina appeared and she looked as surprised as her mudder had been minutes before. “David? Is everything allrecht? Your dat?”
“He’s still with us,” he said quickly. “I wanted to bring you these.” He held out the jar.
“Pussy willows!” She smiled. “I love these.”
“They’re dried. I got them from the florist.”
“So they’ll last a long time.”
He nodded. “They’re not roses but—”
“I like them better. Always have.”
“Lavina, ask David if he’d like to stay for supper,” Linda called out from the kitchen.
“I shouldn’t,” he said. “Today Daed had chemo, and I should be home in case Mamm needs help with him.”
He’d rather stay. He was sure he’d get a lecture from his mudder about his being rude to the bishop.
“At least take home one of the pies we baked today.”
He brightened. “I can do that.”
She smiled. “You didn’t ask what kind it is.”
“It’s pie. That’s all I need to know.”
“Men,” she said, shaking her head. But he heard the smile in her voice as she turned and headed for the kitchen.
He headed home in a better mood, the pumpkin pie sitting on the passenger seat filling the truck cabin with its spicy scent.
When he walked into the house, it felt strangely quiet. That shouldn’t have surprised him. It had been since he and his big, noisy bruders had left. But usually at this time of day he heard the sounds of his mother preparing supper. Delicious aromas met him at the door.
He started for the kitchen and as he neared it he heard the sound of quiet weeping. His mudder sat at the table, her face buried in her hands, her shoulders bent.
“Mamm?”
He set the pie on a counter and rushed to her, kneeling beside her chair. “What’s wrong?” When she didn’t respond fear swept over him. “Daed. Is Daed gone?”
She lifted her face. “Gone? Where would he go?” Then a look of understanding came over her face. “Nee, he’s resting.”
“Then what’s wrong?” He rose and pulled out a chair to sit.
She wiped her eyes with a paper napkin. “He didn’t have a good doctor’s visit today. He’s losing weight and his counts are still down. He’s been so tired and sick. I think he just wants to give up.”
“He’s too stubborn to give up.”
Her breath hitched. “I used to think so. But this is a battle sheer will won’t win.”
David could see it was taking a huge toll on her as well. He remembered how Saul Miller’s parents had traveled the terrible road of cancer years ago. First his mother had fought breast cancer and then a year later, his father had gotten colon cancer. Both had survived, but it had been such an ordeal for both of them. It wasn’t that cancer was contagious, Saul had told him one day when David visited Saul’s store. It was that the spouse of the person with cancer became so burdened physically and emotionally that their own immune systems ran down and became susceptible to the terrible disease.
He started to tell his mother she needed to take better care of herself or she’d get sick, too, and remind her of what had happened to Saul’s dat.
But she looked worn out. The last thing she needed was a lecture, however well-phrased or well-intended it might be.
“What can I do?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “It’s enough that you took over your dat’s chores.” She glanced around the kitchen. “I need to start supper. See if I can get him to eat something. He didn’t eat much lunch.”
“Is there any of that stew left that Lavina brought over yesterday?”
“That’s right, there’s plenty since you didn’t eat with us last night and your dat wasn’t very hungerich,” she said, getting up to pull it out of the refrigerator. “It won’t take long for it to warm.”
“Lavina sent a pie,” he told her, gesturing at it sitting on the counter. “Daed loves pumpkin pie. Bet he’ll eat some of that.”
“So did you eat at Lavina’s last night?” she asked as she put the stew in the oven.
“I took her out to eat.”
When she continued to stand there, looking at him, he told her where they’d gone. Her brows went up at the name of the restaurant.
“Heard that’s pricey.”
“It was. But I’ve never had the money to take her anywhere special.”
“Was it a special occasion?”
David shook his head. “Just a spur of the moment thing.” He frowned. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be close again,” he said slowly. “I hurt her a lot when I left. I’m trying to make it up to her. Not with fancy dinners but just trying to be friends with her again.”
“She’s a nice young maedel. I always liked her.”
“I know.” He grabbed an apple from a bowl on the counter and reached for his hat on the peg on the wall. “I’ll go take care of Nellie and be back as quick as I can.”
“Gut. Oh, and David?”
“Ya?”
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you talked to the bishop last night.”
He crammed his hat on his head and started for the back door.
; “And don’t think I didn’t see you roll your eyes at me, young man!”
He grinned as he went out the door. She might have said stern words, but he’d heard the humor under them. She was already sounding better than she had when he’d come home.
***
Lavina spread the orders out on the table in the sewing room. Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna and their mother gathered around.
“Which ones do you want?” she asked them. “There are enough orders for each of us to choose two. Rose Anna, you really like doing the Around the World quilt.”
“Ya, and I’ll take the Sunshine and Shadow unless you want it.”
“That’s fine. Mamm? Want the wedding ring quilt?”
She nodded and picked up the order. “Then maybe the crazy quilt?”
“Mary Elizabeth?”
“I’d like to do the crazy quilt.” She bit her lip as she studied the orders. “And maybe the nine patch.”
“That leaves me with the mariner’s compass and a crib quilt,” Lavina said, picking them up.
“Are you allrecht with that?” Rose Anna asked her. “You always let us choose first.”
Lavina grinned. “I feel like I get the ones I’m supposed to have. And it makes for a challenge. I’ve only done a mariner’s compass once. This will give me a chance to do another.”
They spent the afternoon going through their fabric stash, sometimes arguing who got which fat quarter, but in the end they were satisfied with their choices. Taking turns at the big table they started planning their first quilt and cut their fabric. The afternoon passed quickly and Lavina regretted volunteering to make supper. She loved the start of a project.
She put macaroni on to boil for the macaroni and cheese with chunks of ham left over from Sunday’s supper. It was a simple meal but warm and filling on a chilly night. The three pumpkin pies Rose Anna had made the other day had already been eaten—one had gone to David and his family. Lavina stood at the pantry looking for inspiration for dessert and wondered if David’s family had enjoyed the pie. And she wondered what he was doing right now. She had taken the earthenware vase with the pussy willows he brought her up to her room and set it on her dresser. Perhaps she should have set it on the kitchen table so her family could have enjoyed it, too, but she didn’t want to answer all the questions she’d get from her schweschders—especially Mary Elizabeth.
Jars of fruit they’d harvested from their kitchen garden and canned at the end of summer were lined up on the top shelf—bright orange peaches that had dripped with juice when peeled, plump blackberries the size of a man’s thumb, delicate pears, and round little crabapples. They’d frozen a bounty of strawberries and raspberries and rhubarb. Growing and harvesting hadn’t been easy, and canning in the late summer heat had been taxing, but God had been so gut to provide a bounty of delicious fruits—and vegetables, too—that they would eat and enjoy as winter came and snow piled up outside the house.
She chose the blackberries and decided to make a cobbler. It would bake at the same time as the macaroni dish and bring a reminder of a hot summer day when she and her schweschders had braved the thorns of the blackberry bushes and tried not to eat more than they put in their buckets.
Mary Elizabeth wandered into the kitchen to make herself a cup of peppermint tea and watched Lavina work as she sipped and ate a couple of cookies. She liked to watch others work, Lavina thought with a smile.
“So how is David?” she asked as Lavina drained the macaroni and poured it into a baking pan. “I hear he took you to supper at my favorite place.”
Lavina raised her brows. “You’ve decided it’s your favorite place after one time there?”
Mary Elizabeth nodded vigorously. “You’re lucky you got to go there twice.”
“David shouldn’t have insisted,” Lavina told her. “I know he doesn’t have much money. But he said we always just went for coffee on our dates.”
“He’s right.”
“How would you know?” Lavina got cheese from the refrigerator and found the metal grater. “Here, grate me two cups.”
Mary Elizabeth cut a corner off the block of cheese and nibbled on it.
“You keep on eating and you won’t want supper.”
“That’s an hour away. I’ll be hungerich.” She began grating the cheese. “I’d remember if you’d told me you went someplace special.”
“Any place is special with the right person.”
Lavina set a skillet on the stove and turned the gas burner on under it. She put butter in and watched it melt and found herself remembering how it felt to talk and laugh with David last night.
“And a special place makes it even more special, ya?”
Lavina glanced away from the melting butter and saw her schweschder grinning at her. “I’ve never had supper by candlelight before.”
“How romantic,” Rose Anna said.
She’d come into the room so quietly Lavina hadn’t noticed her.
“Tell us more.” Rose Anna sat at the table and looked at her expectantly.
“The Englisch couple at the next table was obviously celebrating some special occasion.” Lavina told them about the red roses, the champagne.
“We don’t care about them,” Mary Elizabeth said. “How was it to be there with David?”
Lavina turned her attention back to the skillet. She pulled a canister over and sprinkled several tablespoons of flour over the butter, then began whisking it.
“Where did you go?” Rose Anna asked her as she handed her a carton of milk.
“I’m right here, trying to concentrate so I don’t burn this,” she told her. She poured some milk into the skillet—no need to measure since she’d made the dish so often—and continued whisking until the flour and butter and milk became a smooth white sauce. Turning, she took the bowl of cheese Mary Elizabeth had grated and saw her two schweschders watching her.
“It was very nice,” she said carefully. “But it’s too early to know if we can even be friends again. He broke my trust.” She touched her fingers to her trembling lips. “He broke my heart.”
Lavina turned back to the skillet, stirring in the cheese a handful at a time, stirring more vigorously than she had to. “Rose Anna, butter that baking pan, would you? And Mary Elizabeth, could you get the ham from the refrigerator and cut up about two cups in bite-sized pieces for me? I need to get this in the oven so I can put together the blackberry cobbler.”
She poured the macaroni into the buttered pan and then used a rubber spatula to scoop the cheese sauce out of the skillet over it. Mary Elizabeth dumped the ham into the mixture, and Lavina stirred it all together. She set it in the oven and got out a bowl to start the cobbler topping.
“Do you remember the day we picked the blackberries?” she asked them, hoping to turn their attention from the topic of her and David at supper. “I didn’t think we’d bring home enough of them to make anything. Rose Anna, you ate more than Mary Elizabeth and me.”
“Did not.”
“Did too,” said Mary Elizabeth.
And they were off, arguing amiably as they always did.
“What’s all the racket?” their mother asked as she walked into the room.
“They’re arguing over who ate the most blackberries the day we went picking them.”
“As I remember it, all three of you came home with purple juice dripping down your chins,” Linda said with a smile. “Just like when you were kind.” She lifted the cheese covered spatula to her lips and licked it. “Mmm. This is gut. Can’t wait for supper.”
“Now look who’s got something on her chin,” Rose Anna cried, laughing and pointing at their mudder.
Lavina grabbed a paper napkin from the holder on the table to wipe her mother’s chin. “What manners,” she teased.
Her dat walked in the back door, his cheeks ruddy, bringing with him a rush of cold air. “What’s so funny?” he asked, smiling at them as he hung up his hat and shrugged out of his jacket.
“Mamm’s been
licking the spatula and getting cheese all over her chin,” Rose Anna said.
He reached for his frau and kissed her, then smacked his lips. “Right tasty,” he said with a grin.
Linda’s cheeks pinked and she pushed him away. “Enough of such silliness,” she told him. But she was smiling as she picked up the skillet and took it to the sink to wash it.
Their parents didn’t often do such in front of them, but Lavina had always felt the warmth, the love between them. She looked at Rose Anna and Mary Elizabeth, and they were smiling, too.
A gust of wind shook the kitchen window, but inside it was warm and rich with the aroma of the casserole baking. Lavina opened the jar of dark purple fruit and the scent of summer’s blackberries filled the air.
12
Lavina hated running late.
She almost never ran late. As the oldest, she’d often had to help her mother get her schweschders ready for church and for schul, so she was used to getting up early and being on time.
Not today. She’d set her alarm, and it hadn’t gone off so she’d overslept. In a rush to get ready to leave the house, she’d stubbed her toe on the foot of her bed, so she’d been a boppli and had to sit down and cry from the pain for a few minutes.
Then she was so distracted she managed to stick herself in the side as she inserted a straight pin at the waist of her dress. That led to having to find a bandage. Then, when she tried to rush through breakfast, she’d burned her mouth on her oatmeal.
It just isn’t my day, she thought, then chided herself. It was the day God had given her, and it wasn’t like her to not be grateful.
Since she was running late she decided to take the box of completed quilt orders by Leah’s shop after the class. Before she went into the shelter she threw the buggy blanket over the box on the back seat and hurried inside.
“I’m so sorry,” she told Kate when she rushed into the room.
“Relax, you’re helping us,” Kate said. “You’re not punching in at work. Sit down and catch your breath.”
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