“After we deal with the tomatoes, we’ll see what we can do with the zucchini.”
“There’s always too much zucchini,” Rose Anna said. “We end up making a million things from them. I think Mamm snuck some into fudge last year.”
“I doubt that,” Waneta said, chuckling. “But the men schur don’t notice it when I put zucchini in a cake.” She glanced around quickly to make sure she hadn’t been overheard. “I’m taking these inside and bringing us more baskets.”
Mary Elizabeth looked over at the fields.
“Checking to see how Ben and Sam are getting along?” Rose Anna asked her. She grinned.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Lavina asked.
“Mary Elizabeth’s seeing Ben,” Rose Anna reminded her.
“So?”
“So Rose Anna’s been reading historical romances again. I think she’s hoping they’ll engage in a duel.”
“It could happen. Joseph Miller and Mark Yoder got into a fistfight over a maedel last year. Remember?”
“Ya. But it was hardly a duel.”
“Same difference,” Rose Anna said with a sniff.
“What?” Lavina stared at her.
“Never mind,” Mary Elizabeth told her. “Rose Anna lives in her own little world.”
“Oh, you two think you’re so superior because you’re older. I’m taking these inside, and then maybe I’ll fix some cold drinks for the men. I’m schur they’ll appreciate me more than you two do.”
“We do have to stop treating her like the boppli of the family,” Lavina mused as she watched Rose Anna flounce off toward the house.
“Not yet,” Mary Elizabeth said. “It’s just too much fun teasing her.”
“You’re right.” Lavina giggled. “Shame on us.”
* * *
So this was the new guy Mary Elizabeth was seeing.
Sam watched Ben talk to his brother David. There was no need for introductions—the two men knew each other from church. The church Sam no longer attended.
He told himself he wasn’t curious about the man. Not at all. He stood to one side as David talked with Ben for a few minutes. The guy seemed nice enough—he sure wanted him to be. He cared about Mary Elizabeth even if they weren’t together any more. And Ben was here helping on what could have been a day off. The Amish helped each other all the time. But this man was new to the community, so he couldn’t know David all that well.
Sam wondered if Mary Elizabeth had asked him to come since she was here most Saturdays helping Lavina.
He glanced back at the house. “John came with me. Don’t know what’s taking him so long to come out here.”
“You didn’t leave the keys in your truck, did you?”
“No way. Besides, he doesn’t have a license.” He frowned. “What? Why the funny look?”
“He told me he’s studying to get one.”
“Oh.” He wondered why John hadn’t said anything to him. “Where’s Dad?”
“He hasn’t come out yet.”
“I hope they’re not inside arguing.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Sam hesitated, wondering if he should go inside and see. Then he shrugged. Time was too valuable to be mediating between the two of them.
The men set to work. David was still farming the way their father had done all his life. Sam knew that wasn’t just a way of keeping the peace and being grateful that their father had turned the farm over to him but also because seed had already been ordered and it was too late to change it.
So there was a lot of variety to what they’d been harvesting, and Sam felt it made for more work for David. But he wasn’t about to say anything to their father. Not when things were still strained between them. David and their dat had made peace with each other, but that still hadn’t happened with Amos and his two younger sohns.
John sauntered up.
“What took you so long?”
“I carried some baskets into the house for Lavina and Mary Elizabeth.”
“Danki,” David said. “She won’t listen to me about lifting, and I can’t be in two places at once.”
John shot Sam a look that said, “So there.”
But Sam couldn’t help wondering if that was the real reason John appeared out here at least ten minutes after he had. He didn’t think John had been flirting with Rose Anna. That relationship appeared well over. John was enjoying seeing other women—Englisch women—and partying.
They harvested corn for hours. It was hot, sweaty work under a blazing summer sun but mindless. Sam could let his mind wander to think about how he and Peter would be finishing up the work in Leah’s new shop on Monday.
Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna brought cold drinks and oatmeal raisin cookies out midway through the morning. He took off his straw hat and used a bandanna to wipe the sweat from his forehead while he waited for them to serve the others. Mary Elizabeth handed him a tall plastic glass of iced tea, and their gazes met.
“Thank you.”
She nodded before moving on to serve Ben, and he stood to one side trying to look like he wasn’t watching the two of them.
“So is this the new guy she’s supposed to be seeing?” John asked in a low tone.
Sam shrugged. “Yes.” He gave his brother a sharp look. “How’d you know?”
“I still hear things.”
He gulped down the tea and walked over for more. Rose Anna poured it with a cool glance. Mary Elizabeth held out the plate with cookies, and John took two and strolled back to Sam. As soon as he was several steps from them, she whispered something to Rose Anna that had her wiping the sulky expression from her face.
David walked over. “Looks like the rain’s going to hold off until later today.”
Sam watched their father load corn onto a wagon and straighten awkwardly. When Amos took off his straw hat to fan himself, Sam frowned when he saw how red the older man’s face looked.
“Have a look at Dad,” he said quietly.
“Time for him to go in.”
“You gonna tell him that?”
David sighed. “It’s not going to be easy.”
Whatever he said got the old man shambling along to the farmhouse.
“What did you say to him?”
“You have to make whatever you want his idea,” David said with a grin. “That or convince him that Lavina needs him for something. I told him I needed him to check that she wasn’t overdoing. And ask when lunch would be ready.”
Together they walked the fields, finishing up. “You planning on trying out some of your revolutionary ideas next spring?”
“Ya.”
“It’ll be interesting to see what he has to say about that.”
“True.”
“Old man’ll never change,” John said as he piled corn into the wagon. “I’ll take this into the barn and then go see when we’re having lunch.”
“Or young ones,” Sam muttered and David nodded.
“Seems like we were both more mature at his age.”
“I was,” Sam said. “Not you.”
The next thing he knew he was being doused with a bucket of water. He ripped off his hat, shaking the water from it, and stared at David. “Have you lost your mind?”
David roared with laughter. “That’s for saying I wasn’t mature at John’s age.”
Sam shook like a dog, splashing his brother with the drops. “I think that proves my point.”
When David started to turn, Sam tackled him. They wrestled in the mud from the water- soaked earth like the two boys they’d been, laughing like maniacs, dodging elbows, and struggling to get the better of each other.
“Get off me, you big oaf!” Sam yelled when David bested him and sat on him,
“Who you calling an oaf?” David asked, bouncing on him for good measure.
Sam laughed and got a mouthful of mud. “Can’t breathe!” he gasped with as much drama as he could muster.
David stood and Sam grabbed him around the ankles and d
ragged him down again.
“What on earth?”
They fell apart and stared up at Mary Elizabeth and Ben.
“Hi!” Sam grinned up at her.
“What are you two doing?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.
“What does it look like?” Sam got to his feet and reached a hand down to David, but his older bruder ignored it and scrambled up.
“It looks like the two of you are acting like kinner! What if the bishop drove past and saw the two of you?”
David winced. “She’s right.”
“And I rang the dinner bell!”
Sam slapped his hat on his leg and put it on his head. “David? Hungry?”
“Ya. Let’s go.” He threw his arm around Sam and they walked toward the house.
“Men!” Sam heard her mutter behind them. “Ben, why didn’t you stop them?”
“Get in the middle of two guys fighting?” he asked skeptically. “Do I look ab im kop?”
“We weren’t fighting,” David turned to tell her. He swiped dirt from his cheek with his hand. “We were just having a brotherly disagreement. Right, Sam?”
“Right.”
“I’ve never known them to behave this way,” she told Ben. “The heat must have gotten to them.”
Sam just chuckled. He’d enjoyed tussling with David. It brought back a lot of memories of them growing up. Later, when they’d gotten older, things hadn’t been so happy with their dat constantly criticizing them when they worked so hard for his approval.
Mary Elizabeth hurried ahead of them and slapped open the kitchen screen door. “Well, Lavina, you’ll never believe what I found David and Sam doing!”
* * *
“So let me drive you home.”
Mary Elizabeth stared at Ben. “You know I came with Rose Anna.”
“Can’t she drive home by herself?” he asked, giving her a big smile. “Come on, Mary Elizabeth, I haven’t seen you all week.”
She hesitated. He was right. And she wanted to see him, she really did.
“Ben? I’m glad I caught you,” David called from the door. He walked toward them carrying a plastic container. “Lavina wanted you to have a piece of pie to take home since you said you enjoyed it.”
“Danki. That’s very nice.”
“It’s the least we could do after you helped today. Danki again.”
“You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.”
She watched Ben set the container on the back seat with as much care as if it was a small kind.
“Let me go ask Rose Anna if she’d mind driving home by herself.”
“I’ll do that. Why don’t you just get inside and rest until I come back?”
“Oh. Allrecht.”
She climbed inside and sighed. It felt gut to get off her feet. While the men worked in the fields, the women had cleaned and canned bushels of tomatoes and tomato sauce. Right now she felt like she smelled like a big tomato and couldn’t wait to get home to shower.
A few minutes later Ben reappeared and got into the buggy. Rose Anna drove out and waved to them before she pulled out onto the road.
“Danki again for helping today,” she said.
He glanced over and grinned. “It was . . . entertaining.”
She winced. “David and Sam never behave like that. I don’t know what got into them.”
“They’re bruders.”
“Do bruders behave differently with each other than schweschders?”
“Of course. When’s the last time you got into a tussle like that with your schweschders?”
“Um. Never. Well, just once, with Rose Anna.”
He chuckled. “They weren’t fighting. They were just fooling around.”
“I know. They’re just kind of old for that.”
“So, this Sam is the one you dated?”
Surprised, she stared at him. “Ya,” she said finally. “How did you know?”
“You hear things.”
She considered that. It was a surprise. She and Sam hadn’t gone out for a long time and like most Amish couples were very private about seeing each other.
“He’s working on the renovations on the shop you’ve been helping with so much?”
“Ya.”
“I would like it if you wouldn’t see him.”
She frowned. “I’m not seeing him. I take boxes of crafts to the shop. Sometimes Rose Anna is with me.”
“Still, it wouldn’t do for people to talk.”
Mary Elizabeth didn’t like the direction this conversation was going in. “No one is talking, Ben. And I’ve done nothing to be talked about.”
He glanced back at a car behind them, waved his hand for it to go around as he pulled the buggy over onto the shoulder of the road. He muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t understand. “You have rude drivers here. We don’t have this kind of thing as much back in Indiana.”
Mary Elizabeth squinted to see the tag on the car ahead. “They’re from out of state. Tourists, probably. They don’t know to share the road with buggies.”
“Well, it’s not right.” He checked for traffic and eased the buggy back onto the road.
She watched him, surprised to see that he glowered at the road ahead for the next few miles. Everyone she knew took such a thing in stride. Well, perhaps it was just that he was new to the area. He’d learn to adjust.
“When is the shop opening?”
“Next weekend.”
“Gut.”
“Gut?”
He nodded. “Then there’ll be no need to see him after this week.”
She opened her mouth to say something and then realized he was entering the driveway to her house. It had been a long, hard, hot day for both of them. There was no way she wanted to get into an argument with him. Perhaps he was a tad jealous, she thought. He didn’t know that Sam wasn’t interested in her or her in him.
“Danki for bringing me home,” she said quickly and turned to get out.
He touched her arm. “Mary Elizabeth, I’m sorry if I’ve offended you.”
She turned back to look at him and saw sincerity in his expression. “You have nothing to worry about. Sam and I haven’t seen each other—dated—for more than a year. He’s left the community and doesn’t plan to return.”
“Gut,” he said and he smiled. “Can we have supper one night this week?”
She nodded. “Maybe Wednesday. We’ll see.”
“Allrecht. Have a gut night.”
“You, too.” She got out quickly and strode up the walk to her house. She couldn’t wait to get inside and shower.
When she walked in, though, she saw her parents sitting on the sofa. Her dat had his arm around her mudder, and she was weeping.
“Mamm, Daed, what’s wrong?”
Her mudder glanced up. “Your grossmudder has gone to be with God,” she said quietly.
Mary Elizabeth sank down onto the sofa and put her arm around her. “Nee, Mamm, what happened?”
“She said she was tired and went to take a nap.” Linda wiped her eyes with a tissue. “When your grossdaadi went to wake her for lunch, she’d passed.”
“The doctor—”
“There was nothing he could do, kind.”
“How is Grossdaadi?”
“He’s sitting with her.”
“Why didn’t you call us at Lavina’s? We’d have come right home.”
“We knew you’d be home soon.” Linda looked at Jacob. “We honestly have been so shocked, we haven’t done much but call the doctor.”
Rose Anna walked in from the kitchen. She stopped and stared at them. “What’s wrong?”
“Grossmudder is gone.”
She grinned. “Oh, gut, she got out of the house for a while. She loved it when I took her and Grossdaadi out for a drive last week. Where’d she go?”
“She passed, Rose Anna.”
Huge tears welled up in her eyes. “Not Grossmudder.”
Mary Elizabeth rose and went to hug her. Everyone
loved Grossmudder, but Rose Anna and the older lady had had a special bond. Rose Anna was still the boppli of the family, and no one had spoiled her as much as Grossmudder.
“Can we go in and see her?” Mary Elizabeth asked their mudder.
“Schur.”
Rose Anna hung back, looking frightened. “I don’t want to see her!”
Linda got to her feet and gathered her youngest in her arms. “You don’t have to, but Grossdaadi could use a hug. He’s taking it hard.”
Mary Elizabeth walked into the room and teared up when she saw the old man holding his fraa’s hand as he sat in a chair beside the bed. She hugged him and looked at her grossmudder. She looked so peaceful. “I will miss her smile so much.”
He nodded. “So many years and still not enough.” He sighed. “We must be content with what God wills.”
She knelt at his feet. “Remember how she loved singing her favorite hymn?”
Rose Anna appeared in the doorway, hesitant, and then she walked in slowly, singing the hymn.
11
Mary Elizabeth and her mudder gently washed and dressed Grossmudder after the funeral home returned her body a day later.
Many Lancaster County Amish used a funeral home although Mary Elizabeth had heard some Amish communities didn’t.
Her dat took Grossdaadi into the kitchen for coffee and a quiet talk.
Rose Anna couldn’t handle the task of preparing her grossmudder for burial, but after they finished she came into the room carrying a quilt the older woman had sewn her when she was a little girl and tucked it around her. “I know she doesn’t need it now to keep her warm,” she said, her lips trembling. “But I want her to have it.”
Mary Elizabeth hugged her. “It’s perfect.”
Family and friends came to pay their respects later that day. And then, the following day, they laid Grossmudder to rest in the Amish cemetery. Mary Elizabeth placed a bunch of wildflowers tied with a ribbon on the simple wooden casket and then stood with her schweschders and mudder and dat and David as she was laid to rest.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Ben came and stood at the rear of those attending. Sam, too. Mary Elizabeth was touched by Sam coming and remembered how he’d been fond of Grossmudder when he came to supper.
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