The Stranger

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The Stranger Page 6

by Linda Maran


  Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Jonas exchanged quick glances. Kristen was flattered that John spoke up about Jacob in her defense, but she said nothing. All that mattered to her right now was that John had noticed. She almost broke a smile but decided to suppress it, given the serious expressions on everyone’s faces.

  “Not to worry, John. It’s likely that Kristen won’t be seeing Jacob for a long spell, if at all,” Uncle Jonas assured.

  “Maybe so, but if you were there, Daed, you might be expecting Jacob to offer an apology to Kristen. I had to stop myself from speaking to him about his behavior. I’m sure everyone at the table noticed it.”

  Kristen imitated Aunt Elizabeth’s earlier wave-of-the-hand gesture. “It’s fine, John. Just weird, that’s all.” Weirder than weird. It was as if Jacob drank in her every move and word.

  “It was downright rude.” John slapped a hunk of ham onto his bread as if to emphasize his point.

  She’d better lighten things up, even though she agreed fully with John about the man.

  “I had my eye on that piece of ham you took. Since I started eating meat again, I like a nice thick sandwich.”

  John looked up at her and then down at the fat slice of fresh ham on his bread.

  Kristen fought to keep a straight face.

  “So, you want this piece, then?”

  Kristen nodded. Just as he was about to relinquish it to her, her lips began to quiver in an effort to hold back her laughter. John caught her eye and smirked. Then he began to chuckle, as did the rest of the family.

  “I was ready to hand it over to you.”

  “I know you were. You’re a true gentleman, John. Pout and all.”

  “I was not pouting!”

  “Yes, you were. Wasn’t John pouting when he was about to give up his ham?”

  “Jah. That you were,” Aunt Elizabeth said as the others nodded and laughed.

  “Ach, vell, I’ll still be a gentleman and give you my thick piece of ham on my extra thick slice of crusty bread.” He placed it on Kristen’s plate and then proceeded to make himself another sandwich, wearing an ear to ear grin.

  “Thank you, John. And you’re not even pouting this time.”

  He gave her another smirk and passed the relish and mustard to her.

  All eyes were upon them.

  All ears listened intently to their banter.

  What were they thinking? Did it look as though she and John were…too friendly? No, it was a known fact that they both had feelings for someone else. He for Sadie, and she for Derick. No matter if Derick no longer felt the same. She still cried herself to sleep over him.

  Kristen bit into her sandwich. Time to end the show. First Jacob Mast’s prying eyes, and now her family’s curious glances. She’d had enough introspection to last her a lifetime.

  Something told her that this was just the beginning.

  ~*~

  John tried not to be affected by Kristen’s teasing and his family’s raised eyebrows. Did the part of his heart that now held a special place for Kristen show through? He was still officially courting Sadie even though he saw no resolution to their different wishes for a future together. If he truly loved her, would he be so quick to dismiss her suggestion of going to Lancaster? Could they not go after the general store got on its feet? Would not a man in love give in to the kind of home that would bring his frau-to-be happiness and peace? On the other hand, would not Sadie want her husband to do the work he was best suited to do?

  This had been a trying day. Best he wind it down on an ordinary note.

  “I better finish up my sandwich and head up to bed. We have a busy week ahead, especially with it being our turn to host Preaching on Sunday.”

  “Jah. I have the meal already planned out. Aenti Miriam, Rachel Miller, Katie Mast, and Lucy Krantz will be here to help clean and prepare some of the food.”

  “And Sadie,” Mary reminded Mamm. Sadie always came to help.

  “Nee, not this time. Lucy said she’d be busy.” Mamm’s eyes turned upon John as she said it, waiting for him to elaborate on that piece of news. He just kept eating as quickly as his jaw would chew, so he could leave the table.

  And this conversation.

  “So, Kristen. You’ll get to attend Preaching and meet some of our neighbors and friends on Sunday,” Mary said.

  Kristen merely nodded with a strained smile. She was not exactly excited about it. That was obvious, especially since many eyes would be upon her. After the staring sessions she’d gotten from Jacob Mast, John wondered if she could take any more.

  “Will you be wearing one of the dresses I made for you?” Mary almost looked as excited about it as Anna would be.

  “Yes, I guess so. I don’t really have any dresses long enough like the ones the women here wear.”

  “I have a kapp for you to wear, too. Your hair is just long enough for putting into a bun. I’ll be glad to help you get ready.”

  Kristen gave Mary another of her strained polite smiles.

  John knew she was dying to bolt from the room. He didn’t have to wait very long.

  “This was a nice meal. Thanks, Aunt Elizabeth. I need to get some sleep so I’ll say good night.” Kristen stood, took her plate and fork, washed them quickly, and headed toward the stairs. She looked weary for her almost eighteen years. He wished he could give her the happiness she’d lost so soon in life. Maybe Gott had led her to him for that very reason.

  ~*~

  The next morning Kristen surprised herself by waking earlier than anyone in the house. Her denim skirt needed to be laundered. She had no other skirt or dress that covered her knees. After she’d freshened up in the washroom, she went back upstairs and put on one of the dresses Mary had made for her. She chose a green one, pinned it where needed, slipped on her sandals, and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

  The sun wasn’t up yet, so she lit a kerosene lamp and began setting the table. The quiet was soothing, and she could hear the fabric of her dress swoosh as she walked. Imagine what Derick would say if he saw her now? But it wasn’t Derick who walked into the kitchen and looked at her with such quiet admiration that she thought she might melt right through the seams of the wooden planks of the floor. It was John.

  “Goede Mariye, Kristen. Mary will be pleased that you are making use of her dresses.”

  “It’s a little stiff and the pins pinch. I must have done it up wrong. But it was either this or jeans.”

  “Mamm will be glad for your choice. You set the table?”

  “Yes. This is the first time I got up before everyone else, so I figured I’d start breakfast.”

  John seemed to be appraising the table and that familiar smirk began to curve his lips.

  “What? Did I do something wrong?”

  John simply shrugged, but the smirk remained.

  Aunt Elizabeth walked in followed by Anna who ran out to the henhouse to collect some fresh eggs. The kitchen got busy in no time, and soon the scent of bacon and eggs filled the room. Mary walked in with a smile and morning greetings, and then did a double-take toward Kristen. “Ach, you’re wearing one of the dresses I made for you, and it’s not even Sunday. It fits perfect. I have a few with hooks and eyes, if that would be easier for you.”

  Oh! Thank goodness! “I think I’d like to try the hook and eye dresses next time.”

  Mary smiled, grabbed a biscuit, and explained that she was due at the diner extra early due to the other waitress being out sick for the morning shift.

  As soon as she left, Daniel and Uncle Jonas took their places at the table. John was already seated, and Kristen, Anna, and Aunt Elizabeth joined them. They bowed their heads for a silent grace, and then an awkward pause ensued.

  “Oh, no! The forks! I forgot to set them out.” Kristen jolted up, rushed to the flatware drawer and grabbed a handful of forks. She gave one to each of them, nearly jabbing John as she handed him his. He avoided her eyes, but those lips of his were curved once again.

  “Ach, I’ve forgotten
such things many a time myself,” Aunt Elizabeth told her as she passed the platter of eggs and bacon.

  “Remember that nacht when you were in such a hurry that you forgot all the utensils, Lizzie? I thought we were having Frogmore stew.” Everyone laughed along with Uncle Jonas, and Kristen’s embarrassment eased. But her disappointment remained. She’d wanted to do it right. Being on her own for the first time in the kitchen was an opportunity to give back a little of the hospitality she’d been given. Turned out that she couldn’t even properly set a table.

  “Kristen, denki for setting the table.” Aunt Elizabeth’s warm smile seeped into her words. She amazed Kristen with her ability to read a person’s heart.

  “You’re welcome.” Kristen kept her eyes low to be sure she didn’t look at John. She was still angry at him for not telling her she’d forgotten the forks. Normally, she’d think it was funny, too. But her emotions were so jumbled lately that anything could set her off and bring her down in seconds.

  ~*~

  As Kristen made her way to weed the vegetable gardens, John seemed to appear out of nowhere. He stood before her so that she couldn’t walk any further.

  “Do you want something? Maybe you’ve placed some plastic vegetables in the garden for me to harvest as a joke?”

  “Kristen, I’m really sorry for not telling you about the forks. I was being a real dummkopf. I thought it would make for a gut laugh. Something we could all use to start the day. But it really wasn’t funny at all, especially for you.”

  “No, it wasn’t. I wanted to do it right, John. Do something nice for your mamm after all she’s done for me.” Her voice broke, and she looked away.

  John reached over and turned her face toward him again. His blue eyes glistened.

  She fell to her knees and sobbed.

  It wasn’t really about the forks. It was about everything. Her mom and Ross dying so tragically. Being uprooted out of her home by the ocean. Her friends not calling her…not a one. Derick, forgetting her like last week’s meal. Aunt Miriam’s dislike of her. The way she had to dress now. Restrictions about her cell phone and the whole electricity thing. Her mom never telling her she was Amish. The mystery notes. Jacob Mast’s deep stare. She just couldn’t take one more thing. The fork mishap put her over the edge.

  John knelt beside her. “I’m so sorry, Kristen. I’ll never be so inconsiderate again.” His voice was low and tender.

  “Oh, John. It’s isn’t you. It’s everything that’s happened. My whole life is turned upside down. The fork thing just set me off. That’s all. I just want…”

  “What do you want, Kristen?” John whispered, his face only inches from her own.

  “I want a normal life. But something new keeps popping up that takes me further away from that. I wake up afraid every day wondering what will happen next.”

  “When I dread the outcome of things, I remember the wise words your aenti Elizabeth often told me when I was growing up. To rejoice, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances.”

  “I don’t have the faith that you and Aunt Elizabeth have, John.”

  “Praying teaches us to have faith and to trust in Gott’s plan for each day. Might not always go the way we want it to go, but if we do our best just the same, then we follow the will of Gott.”

  “Why would it be the will of God to have my mother and Ross die in a terrible accident?”

  “It’s not for us to question the ways of Gott. It’s not always easy, I know. Pray more and trust.”

  “I never thought much about praying or trusting. It was hard to do that with things a tad unusual in my life.”

  John stood and Kristen followed suit. He stepped back as if to look at her more clearly. “What do you mean?”

  “It was an unconventional household. I was alone most of the time because my mom went to work at a hotel when she finished her chores at the house for Ross. Once I began school, I rarely saw my mother except on the alternating Sundays when she was off. She’d say that she needed to save money for us to get our own place one day and that the two jobs combined would make it happen all the sooner. Not that she disliked living in Ross’s home.

  “He was a great guy. He let us use the pool and have free range of the whole house. Never said a word when I’d watch his large flat screen TV with my friends in the living room. But Mom said it wouldn’t last forever. Ross was bound to get married or move as his business expanded to other areas. He was hardly ever home. So it was just me at the house most times.”

  “So, you spent a lot of time with your friends?”

  “Well, I’d eat dinner over at Cindy’s a couple of times a week and meet a friend or two at the pizza place on another night. The rest of the time, there’d be cooked dinners in the freezer that mom made for me and Ross. In summer, I’d walk over to the beach with my container of heated food and eat my dinner there most times.”

  “Are you saying you didn’t ever eat meals with your mom? Or even with Ross?”

  “They weren’t there to eat with.”

  “Ach. I’m sorry you’ve been so lonesome.”

  “I got used to it after a while.” She’d never admitted her loneliness until now. Maybe because the difference in family life was so different here, it was hard not to compare what she’d lacked to what she’d gained at the Waglers’.

  She walked toward the garden.

  “You won’t be lonely in this haus. I can promise you that. You’re with us now. And in Amish families, it’s unheard of for a person to be alone so much.”

  “That’s nice to know. But I’m not Amish. The day I got here I knew I didn’t belong here by Aunt Miriam’s attitude toward me.”

  “She is not used to anyone different. That’s all that was about.”

  “My mom left the Amish and that makes me an outsider, related or not. I don’t fit in…anywhere. But soon, when I’m of legal age, I’ll get myself a job and make my own way.”

  “Where will you go? This is where your familye is. Don’t be minding Aenti Miriam. She’s been riled ever since I’ve known her. Not a happy soul, that one.”

  Kristen’s mind reeled, and she couldn’t give John any logical answer about where she’d go. Lately, she wasn’t sure she could go back to her beloved Jersey Shore with all the memories attached to the people who were no longer in her life. She wondered if she’d inherited Mom’s savings or anything from Ross. If so, she could easily get her own place and have money to fall back on until she found a decent job. Maybe even take an accounting course at night. But the loneliness would follow her back there.

  Right now, she needed to do the chores Aunt Elizabeth had given her for the day.

  ”Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder.”

  He nodded with a warmth in his blue eyes she’d never seen in anyone else’s before.

  “I better go do the weeding. See you later.”

  “Jah. Pick us some sweet peas for dinner if the deer left us any. You’ll like those.” He turned and walked toward the fields, his stride sure. He held his head erect and swung his arms just enough to give him a good pace.

  She walked the few more feet to the vegetable garden and knelt down on a clump of hay Aunt Elizabeth had placed there. Then it dawned on her.

  John really cared.

  8

  Kristen had never been inside a barn. She hadn’t imagined barns to be so large, then again, maybe the Amish built them with extra room for holding church services during the warm weather, as her family would be doing this Sunday.

  A mix of pungent odors enveloped her...the musty scent from the hay and a stronger one from the animals, but no one else seemed to notice. If they did, nothing was said about it. Must be a smell people with barns were used to. Like the fishy smell that the beach gave off on a low tide, foggy day. It didn’t bother her in the least. In fact, she liked it. It was the familiar scent of home. She wondered if the smell of a barn would ever invoke the same feeling.

  “It’s gut that the farm equipment
, harnesses, and tools were moved out of here at dawn. We have a nice early start now.” Aunt Elizabeth handed Kristen a broom.

  “Where are the other ladies?” Kristen asked as she began her dusty task.

  “In the kitchen baking bread, and then they’ll clean everything ’til it sparkles. We women tend to gather there after services, so it’s nice to have it all scrubbed up.”

  “It always looks clean to me.” Kristen had never seen a dish left unwashed or a smudge on the counter top. The sink nearly gleamed. Even the water pump had luster of its own.

  “It’s important for a frau to keep a tidy kitchen for her familye.”

  “What’s a frau?”

  “Ach, I forgot you don’t know the Pennsylvania Dutch we use. It means, a wife.”

  “What about an unmarried woman? Wouldn’t her kitchen be tidy, too?”

  “Jah, it would. Most Amish women marry, and those who are widowed or never marry, help other married women in their familye with chores and the kinner…children.”

  “Like Aunt Miriam?”

  “Jah, like your Aenti Miriam. And Katie Mast. They are both a help to me.”

  “Then John was right about not ever feeling lonely here?”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  “Yes. When I told him I often ate meals alone because my mom worked so much. He said I’d never feel lonesome in this house.”

  Aunt Elizabeth stopped sweeping, leaned on her broom and looked at Kristen with a deep crease in her brows.

  “Your mamm was raised Amish. I am surprised to hear this news of you eating alone.” She clicked her tongue and resumed sweeping.

  “I am not.” Aunt Miriam said, entering the barn.

  “You are not, what?” Aunt Elizabeth asked, not looking up from her sweeping.

  “I am not surprised that Emily did not raise Kristen with our ways. She left behind her Amish upbringing, or did you forget that?”

  “I did not forget that she lived an Englisch life. But I thought she’d hold on to some of our ways. Many Englisch families eat together. It’s a gut thing for Plain and fancy folk alike.”

  Kristen stopped sweeping and faced both her aunts.

 

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