A Mother's Gift

by Charlotte Hubbard

  Stevie’s face lit up like Christmas. He nodded eagerly and did exactly as Leah had told him. He was too excited to talk as he used a metal scoop to fill the raised trough with the green alfalfa pellets. Leah opened the bag of supplement and walked behind Stevie, scooping the powder onto the alfalfa he’d spread. Immediately after they stepped through the gate, the four young calves walked under the board toward their feed while their mothers looked on from outside the fence.

  Stevie was so excited that he gripped the board as he watched them. “They like it! Look how they’re diggin’ in!” he said in a husky whisper.

  “They like you, too, Stevie,” Leah said fondly. “And see how the other cows are sticking around rather than skittering off? They know you won’t hurt them or make loud noises to scare them away.”

  Grinning, the boy looked around at the small herd gathered near the enclosure. “So how come those cows don’t come inside? Coz they’re bigger?” he asked, pointing at them.

  “They’re a year older,” Leah explained. “Those six steers are the ones we’re feeding to sell for their meat. We keep the heifers—the girls—so we can get calves from them when they’re old enough.”

  Stevie thought about what she’d said. “So you raise these cows to make money?”

  “Jah, just like I raise my chickens and ducks and goats. If farmers are to make a living, they have to sell most of what they raise and eat the rest.”

  Stevie’s face brightened with expectation as he looked up at Leah. “Will I get to help with your cows, too? Like I’m helpin’ with the goats now?”

  Leah’s heart swelled and her eyes stung with sudden tears. “That would be awesome, Stevie,” she managed to whisper. “I’d love to have your help.”

  He beamed at her, really looking her in the eye, and for a moment Leah was speechless. As they returned to the house after they finished the animal chores, she realized that her day had taken a very positive turn, considering the way Adeline and Alice had gotten the family off to such a difficult start. After three months of Stevie’s merely enduring her presence, Leah felt a first flicker of hope that she might have a real relationship with Jude’s son—if she could maintain the rapport they’d established this morning.

  Chapter 7

  Jude was eating his noon meal at the auction barn, so Leah made a simple lunch of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Stevie loved home-canned peaches, so she opened a quart jar of them—and wished their supply of fruits and vegetables, which either Frieda or Margaret had canned, wasn’t dwindling so quickly.

  Although Leah had worked in Mama’s garden all her life, and had assisted with preparing their produce for canning, she hadn’t paid attention to the recipes her mother had used, or the time required for each canner load of jars, or any of the other pertinent details. Mama had been so grateful to her for taking the sterilized jars from the boiling water bath before they were filled, and then lifting the hot, heavy pressure canner from the stove burner when a batch was finished, she hadn’t insisted on Leah’s learning the finer points of preserving the produce that saw them through the winters.

  I should ask Mama to can with me this summer, Leah thought as she bit into her gooey grilled cheese sandwich. It makes sense for us to preserve our produce together anyway, now that she lives alone.

  When she glanced at the clock, however, thoughts about canning slipped away. Alice and Adeline had left home more than five hours earlier—which was a lot longer than they usually stayed away.

  “The girls’re really missin’ out,” Stevie said as he chewed a big bite of his sandwich. “They love grilled cheese sandwiches with peaches.”

  Leah smiled at him from across the kitchen table, a worm of worry curling in her stomach. “Where do you suppose they go?” she asked, fishing for information. “Do they have jobs that they haven’t told us about?”

  Stevie shrugged. “I dunno. I kinda like it when they’re not around, makin’ me do their chores, and tellin’ me what to . . .” His expression clouded over. “Is it true that Dat’s not really my dat?”

  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry you had to hear that,” Leah blurted as her heart rose into her throat. She didn’t want to lose him to the mournful mood that had so often shrouded his days—but she didn’t want to lie to him, either, because then he’d have to decide whether he believed his sisters, or her and Jude.

  “Sometimes a child’s dat isn’t the man who fathered him—and sometimes women raise kids another mamm brought into the world,” Leah replied carefully. “I can think of a couple of other families in our district—Jimmy Nissley’s, and Sarah Beachy’s—that became blended when one of their birth parents died and the other parent remarried. So Jimmy has a new mamm and Sarah has a new dat, jah?”

  Stevie nodded, yet he was still thinking about the ramifications of what his sisters had blurted out at breakfast. “So was Mama married to another man and he died, and then she married Dat? And then Mama died and Dat married you?”

  Leah’s stomach tightened around the sandwich she’d just eaten. If Stevie could ask such a complicated yet logical string of questions, he was far from mentally deficient. How much information was she supposed to give a five-year-old about a tangled situation—especially when Jude wasn’t around? Ask your Dat came to mind, but it wasn’t a fair response to the little boy’s urgent question.

  “Sometimes people make babies before they’re married,” she explained—and they make trouble for their families when they do, her thoughts taunted her. “If they’re lucky, those babies are born into a family with a man and a woman who love them anyway. No matter what Alice and Adeline said when they were upset this morning, your dat has always loved you, Stevie. He loves your sisters, too—even when they spout off like teakettles and say mean things that hurt his feelings.”

  “He’s a gut dat,” Stevie whispered with a hitch in his voice. “He works really hard and he plays with me even when he’s busy.”

  “He takes gut care of all of us,” Leah put in quickly. As she rose to gather their dishes, she came to a decision. Jude wouldn’t be home for a few more hours, and the longer the girls stayed away from home, the more potential they had for finding trouble they couldn’t get out of. “I think if your dat was here right now, he’d be getting worried about where Alice and Adeline have been since breakfast.”

  “He’d go lookin’ for ’em,” Stevie said earnestly. His eyes widened with concern. “I should saddle up my pony and ride around town—”

  “How about if we ride over to Uncle Jeremiah’s on Mose?” Leah interrupted him quickly. “You can visit with him and your Mammi Margaret while I look for your sisters.”

  “Jah! Uncle Jeremiah will know what to do,” Stevie agreed enthusiastically. “He’s the bishop, so he knows everything.”

  Leah smiled as she quickly rinsed their dishes and put the leftover peaches in the refrigerator. Stevie’s childlike faith in his uncle confirmed her plan of action, and within fifteen minutes she was seated on her gelding with Stevie riding behind her. At four, Mose was still a spirited mount, so when he cantered along the roadside in his eagerness for exercise, Stevie laughed and wrapped his arms around Leah’s waist.

  Once again Leah’s heart beat with excitement because the boy was losing his fear of her. Had her mission not been so urgent, she would’ve gladly ridden around Morning Star and the countryside all afternoon so she could share Stevie’s happiness longer. As they reached the main street of town, however, the increase in car traffic forced her to slow Mose to a walk along the shoulder. They passed the Dutch bulk store and the pizza place, across the street from the large city park.

  “Look at all those kids playin’!” Stevie said wistfully. “They go to the Mennonite school, huh? I wish I could go there, come September—to play in the park every day!”

  “Jah, they’re out for recess,” Leah replied. She decided not to suggest that maybe his mammi would bring him to the park. Why disappoint him, if Margaret was too busy for that? “But at the Amish sch
ool, you’ll have a ball diamond and a place to play volleyball, as well as the swings. That’ll be fun, too.”

  A few moments later they’d left the business district and Jeremiah’s tall white house came into view. Leah guided Mose onto the long dirt lane, hoping the bishop would have some words of wisdom—or some ideas about where to look for his teenage nieces. When she halted her gelding at the side of the house by the hitching post, Stevie quickly clambered down and hurried up the steps to the front porch.

  “Uncle Jeremiah!” he shouted as he ran. “We gotta find the girls! They’ve run away from home!”

  So much for the subtle approach, Leah thought as the screen door banged behind him. After she tethered Mose, she jogged up the stairs and entered the house a few steps behind the boy, who was talking excitedly back in the kitchen. She hesitantly poked her head in the kitchen doorway, wondering if Margaret would be the one listening to Stevie’s animated story.

  Both Jeremiah and his mother were at the kitchen table, with coffee and a plate of fresh cinnamon rolls between them. Their questioning glances made Leah swallow hard. Did they believe she’d been negligent for allowing Alice and Adeline to leave—let alone for waiting so long to start looking for them?

  Jeremiah’s face creased with a smile as he motioned Leah toward the chair nearest him. He placed the plate of rolls near her after Stevie had taken one. “Stevie seems very excited today,” he remarked, as though pleased that his nephew had come out from under his dark cloud of mourning. “I think he rather enjoys not having his sisters around to pick on him, jah?”

  Leah laughed nervously, appreciating his levelheaded point of view. The rolls smelled heavenly, but she wasn’t staying long enough to enjoy one. “Lately the girls have taken to dressing English and driving off in their rig, shortly after Jude leaves for work,” she explained with a shake of her head. “They scooted their dresser against their bedroom door, shimmied down the tree outside their room, and ran toward the stable without telling me where they were going—and that was after breakfast. They’re usually back by now, so I’m getting concerned about—”

  “They certainly never did such a thing while I was living there!” Margaret said archly. “They were very respectful and prompt. If they left the farm, they told me where they were going and when they’d be back.”

  Leah pressed her lips together, again suspecting that Margaret had either been unaware of her granddaughters’ escapades or unwilling to admit to their absences. “They didn’t exactly run away,” she clarified, smiling at Stevie. “They didn’t have any luggage with them, so sooner or later they’ll be returning for clean clothes. I brought Stevie here for a visit so I can look for them.”

  “I’ve heard the twins have been seen at various places around town,” Jeremiah said calmly. “I spoke to them not long ago about the dangers of spending their time with English boys. I also suggested they start working at the bulk store or other Plain businesses, so they’d at least be earning some money—and be easier to keep track of,” he added with a purposeful glance at his mother. “Wish I could give you more concrete clues about where to look for them, Leah. If you spot that buggy with the Tinker Bell decal on the back, they won’t be far away.”

  “Tinker Bell’s a fairy,” Stevie said with wide eyes. He focused again on his cinnamon roll, peeling away the outer layer and pinching off a bite. “Alice and Adeline like Tink because she can fly! She likes to stir up trouble, and then flies away before she gets caught.”

  Leah blinked. She’d seen children’s books with Tinker Bell on the cover, but her conservative parents hadn’t allowed her to read them. “Have your sisters been telling you stories about Tinker Bell?” she asked carefully. Maybe, if the twins were sharing their adoration of a fictional fairy with Stevie, they were also telling him about their adventures.

  “I watched a little movie about Tink on their cell phone,” Stevie replied—and then he clapped his hand over his mouth. “But I’m not s’posed to tell about that, or they’ll get really mad at me.”

  “After Frieda died, Jude allowed the girls to have a Plain cell phone, without any Internet connection on it,” Jeremiah mused aloud. “While I’m not wild about our kids having such English temptations at their disposal during their rumspringa, I went along with his reasoning that the phone would allow the girls to get ahold of him at an auction barn faster if a problem came up when they were away from home.”

  “I didn’t see any cell phone,” Margaret muttered. She glanced at the clock on the wall, as if wishing Leah would leave so this uncomfortable conversation would end.

  “But if you could watch a movie on that phone,” Jeremiah continued, gazing at Stevie, “I’m thinking Adeline and Alice have gotten ahold of a fancier phone than I agreed to let them have—which means I’ll be speaking with them soon about overstepping their boundaries.”

  The more Leah heard, the more concerned she grew. How would Alice and Adeline pay the monthly charges for a cell phone? Or had Jude agreed to pay the fee—without realizing he was now paying for an English phone? “I’ll be on my way,” she said, rising from her chair. “Denki for your help and ideas, Jeremiah.”

  As he nodded, Leah could almost see the thoughts turning like the cogs of a clock in his mind. “I’ll be out and about, as well,” he said vaguely. “We’ll need to talk with the twins when we’re all together, so they’ll know we adults are in agreement about enforcing their boundaries. Godspeed as you look for them, Leah.”

  Leah exited through the front room, feeling as relieved as Margaret probably did. She regretted that she’d not cultivated a closer relationship with her mother-in-law. It seemed apparent that Margaret disagreed with the way Leah was dealing with Jude’s girls, while she’d remained oblivious to their activities. As Leah mounted Mose and headed for town, she prayed for guidance and pondered what Stevie and Jeremiah had said about the twins’ phone.

  Leah knew of several Amish teens who openly used cell phones when they gathered after church services. It was Alice and Adeline’s sneakiness that bothered her. If she—and Margaret—had been unaware of the girls’ phone, what other secrets might the twins be keeping? And if they had overstepped the bishop’s boundaries concerning phones, what other rules might they be breaking while they were on the loose, possibly with English boys?

  When she reached the main street of Morning Star’s business district, she felt a moment of panic. Unlike her quiet hometown of Cedar Creek, the streets were lined with one English business after another, except for the Amish carriage shop and the bulk store and bakery operated by Mennonites. In most Amish settlements, folks operated their businesses on their own property, so shops were scattered along country roads rather than being part of an organized business district.

  Leah wondered how she was ever going to visit every business in Morning Star this afternoon. I could use a little help, Lord. Where would Alice and Adeline be spending so much time?

  “Let’s go this way, Mose,” she said after a moment. “We’ll start on this side of the road and then come back on the other side, until we spot them. It’s the only thing I know to do.”

  The gelding whickered, shaking his head as he kept to the shoulder of the busy street. Leah could feel the drivers of the cars gazing at her as though she was an oddity, riding on horseback rather than in a rig, as the other Plain folks did. Riding Mose gave her more flexibility, however—she could pass between the buildings to the parking lots behind them more easily than if she was driving a rig. As she studied the vehicles near the Laundromat, the post office, and the Goodwill store, she saw very few buggies—and why would the twins spend hours of their day at any of these places, anyway? She passed a car dealership and a hospital, which were near the end of the business district, where Main Street became the road that ran through the countryside. Should she turn back toward town?

  For all I know, the girls are in a car somewhere, joyriding with boys. And maybe I’ve been foolish to assume they would come home for clothes, Leah thoug
ht with a sigh. She knew Jude wouldn’t consider it her fault if his daughters were gallivanting around—probably to spite him—yet she felt responsible for their well-being.

  A white, single-story Mennonite church sat just ahead of her. The only building between the church and a long stretch of cornfield and countryside was a pool hall. Leah shook her head, ready to cross the road and head back toward town, except a twitch at the back of her neck persuaded her to walk Mose closer to the pool hall. Neon beer signs covered its windows and several cars and pickups were parked out front. As she walked her horse around to the back of the building, past a couple of overflowing Dumpsters, she suddenly sat up straight.

  A lone buggy was parked near a big self-service ice machine.

  When Mose whickered and walked faster, the rig’s horse perked up its ears. Leah scowled. Please don’t tell me you girls have left Minnie hitched out here all day without any water.

  The Tinker Bell sticker on the buggy made Leah nip her lip. Why on earth would Adeline and Alice come to a place where people spent their time playing pool? She wasn’t all that familiar with the game, but she suspected that anyone who’d be shooting pool and drinking beer this early in the afternoon didn’t have anything more constructive to do—and probably didn’t have a regular job. Dat hadn’t been a judgmental man, but he’d always given Leah the idea that men who frequented pool halls were shiftless and at loose ends.

  You have to go inside, Leah told herself as she heard the throb of music coming from the small building. You have to find out if the girls are in there, even if you’re the last person they want to see.

  As she wrapped Mose’s reins around the same post where Minnie was hitched, she wondered what she would say and do once Alice and Adeline spotted her. What if they ran off? What if they laughed at her—