He shook his head. “No. Do you think she has a concussion?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t try to get up, Naomi,” Kate said, pressing Naomi’s shoulder with her hand to keep her seated.
“Don’t be silly. I’m fine.” She struggled to get to her feet.
Kate tried to help her up but they both slipped on the wet grass and landed on their fannies.
Nick got to his feet and assisted them in standing.
“Don’t go trying to get out of it,” Naomi warned as Nick wrapped his arm around her waist and they made it up the slope.
“Can we hold off on making plans for a wedding until we get you safely home?” Kate groused as she pulled a blanket from the trunk of her car and got Naomi settled in the backseat.
But Nick saw her hiding her smile.
“Just happy we had a good ending here,” she told them, casting a steely glance at cars passing them. “People aren’t careful about passing cars on the side of the road. Too busy gawking or not realizing that the force of the air from their vehicle can cause problems.”
Nick located the boards and the lug wrench and set about changing the tire.
Once he climbed into the van and Naomi was in the passenger seat, Kate leaned in the open window on Nick’s side.
“Sometimes adrenaline carries people through but they wake up the next day and realize they’re hurt. If that happens, you get yourself to a doctor, hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Nick thrust out his hand. “Thanks so much.”
A car sped by going considerably faster than the speed limit. Nick watched Kate brighten.
“Gotta go,” she said, sounding almost gleeful. “Gonna go catch me a speeder.”
“You’re sure you didn’t hit your head against a rock?”
“You’ve asked me that twice,” Naomi complained.
She looked into the mirror and winced. One cheek was bruised, her kapp had gone missing, and her dress looked so tattered she was certain it would end up as cleaning rags.
Nick hadn’t fared much better. His tie had been ripped as well as his shirt and pants. Some green, slimy substance matted his hair. She didn’t have the heart to tell him to look in his own mirror. It didn’t matter. He had never looked dearer to her and she didn’t want to let him go.
“I need my hands to drive,” he said, but he didn’t pull them away. “If we’re not out of here soon, Kate is going to come back and give us a ticket for loitering.”
“She’s not going to do that.”
“Well, let’s not take any chances. Besides, we’ve already seen it’s not safe to be on the side of the road.”
She looked at the green goo in his hair. “You’re safe from my advances.”
“You’re not from mine,” he warned.
With a sigh, she let go of his hands with some reluctance and gathered her blanket around her.
“We need to talk,” she said as he started the engine.
“Ich liebe dich.”
She stared at him. “I love you too.”
He laughed. “Why are you so surprised? I’ve been studying German and Pennsylvania Dietsch for the past few years. Your grandmother and a few of my clients have helped me.”
He checked for traffic and accelerated out onto the road. They rode in silence. Pulling into Leah’s driveway, he stopped the van and shut off the engine.
“Let’s get you inside and cleaned up, then I’ll run home and do the same. Then we’ll talk to Leah.”
Naomi bit her lip, tasted mud, and made a face.
“I know. She’s not going to be happy—”
“She’s very fond of you,” Naomi rushed to say. “She—”
“But she wasn’t encouraging about my having a relationship with you. I don’t blame her. Becoming Amish and marrying someone—well, it’s not done very often. We’re going to have some opposition, if not from her, then from the bishop.”
He tilted his head and studied her. “What? Did you think I’d ask you to give up your church? Your family and your friends?”
She pressed her fingers against her temples. “Be sure this is what you want,” she whispered. “It’s a big decision.”
He took her hands and started to press them to his lips but she wouldn’t let him. “Who knows what you’ll catch if you do that!” she laughed.
Then, as he continued to gaze intently at her, she sobered.
“It’s the easiest decision ever, loving you,” he told her slowly. “The easiest decision ever.”
“Watching the clock never made time move faster.”
Naomi tried to smile at her grandmother. “I know.”
“Maybe Nick got called out for an emergency.”
“He’d have phoned. I just checked the machine in the shanty.”
“Yes, he would have,” Leah agreed.
“Maybe he had an accident—”
“I’m sure he didn’t,” Leah soothed. “Don’t go jumping to conclusions. Something probably just happened. Not anything bad,” she said quickly. “Just something that held him up. He’ll be here. You know how much Nick likes my cooking.”
Naomi went to peer out the front window again. She’d wanted Nick with her when she told her grandmother they were getting married, so she hadn’t told her yet—just said that Nick was coming back for supper after he cleaned up.
Her grandmother had been upset when Naomi walked in bedraggled and filthy. She’d run a hot bath and helped her shed her clothes and then carried them out with two fingers, tsk-tsking and saying they were going straight to the trash—forget washing them and using them as cleaning rags.
So Naomi had soaked and scrubbed and showered to make sure she was squeaky clean, then scrubbed the tub before she dressed. Then she went downstairs and set the table and even made a pan of biscuits to go along with the stew her grandmother had made. Nick always complimented her biscuits.
And still he wasn’t here.
Maybe he’d changed his mind.
Her heart raced and her hands became clammy. He’d said the decision was easy because he loved her, but maybe he’d started thinking how much his life would change.
A lot of outsiders were intrigued by the idea of becoming Amish. In the last few years people had started looking to the Amish as if they had a solution to the problem of being over-stressed and consumed by materialism—like they had a magic answer.
But when those outsiders came here they saw that the life was simple but very hard and full of sacrifice, that it meant obeying the Ordnung—the rules that guided the life—which were strict and so different from their unstructured life, and that there was a closeness and interdependence they weren’t always comfortable with.
But Nick wasn’t like that, she reminded herself. He’d lived here for years and years and he knew the life, knew the hardships as well as the joys. He’d even revealed recently that he was studying German, and he already knew much Pennsylvania Dietsch from driving his clients around. She’d never seen his home—a small apartment, he’d said once—but he dressed simply and didn’t seem the type to think about material things much. He was known for quietly helping out those who had to stretch their pennies each month.
He’d been kind and generous and thoughtful to her—so concerned when he found that John had been hurting her. Her thoughts skidded to a stop. That was it. Once he’d thought it over, maybe he’d decided she was flawed, that she had made John hurt her. Or that she would be too needy.
His van pulled into the drive, shattering all the crazy thoughts.
She schooled her features. No need to let him know that she’d worried—obsessed, really—and imagined he didn’t want her anymore. She remembered how she’d attended that meeting of women who worked to overcome abuse. Allowing herself to feel unworthy, to be guided by someone else’s opinion—that had to stop. She’d been given a second chance with Nick.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, but he wasn’t standing on the porch. He was sitting in his van, looking deep in tho
ught. Then he looked up, and when he saw her, he shook his head slightly as if he suddenly realized where he was. He got out and strode up the walk.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” he said quickly as he climbed the front steps.
“I thought you’d changed your mind,” she blurted out in spite of herself.
He’d been bending to kiss her cheek but jerked back and stared at her.
When he didn’t immediately deny it, her heart sank.
“It’s not like that!”
“Naomi? Is that Nick?” Leah called.
“Tell her we need a minute,” he said tersely. “Please?”
Miserable, she shook her head. “It’s all right. You can just go. I’ll—”
“Tell her, Naomi. Then let me explain.”
Torn, she turned back to her grandmother. “We’ll be there in just a minute!”
She shut the door and stepped out onto the porch, wrapping her arms around herself. She’d forgotten how cool the weather had turned.
Nick pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her, then guided her to a rocking chair and gently pushed her into it. He drew up one next to it and reached for her hands.
“So cold,” he murmured, chafing them with his own strong, warm hands.
“I’m sorry I worried you,” he began, searching her eyes as he spoke. “I was standing in the shower and washing off all the mud—and green slimy stuff you didn’t tell me was in my hair—and suddenly, it hit me.”
“Reality,” she said in a leaden tone.
“Sort of,” he told her. “I thought I had figured it all out, but I was wrong.”
“Our differences—”
“Ssh, you don’t know where I’m going with this.”
Of course she did, she wanted to say. But she stayed silent and let him continue.
“Anyway, I was standing there and it suddenly hit me—I’d forgotten all about something very, very important. It’s big, Naomi. Really big. No, don’t look like that. Wait.”
He took a deep breath. “I hadn’t thought about how I was going to support us, lieb.”
She opened her mouth, but he waved a hand to silence her. “No, listen. I thought, the only thing I know how to do is drive for a living. I was panicked. I don’t want to be a farmer and even if I did, farmland is too dear in Lancaster County.”
“You don’t have to be a farmer to—”
“Let me finish,” he said. “I almost flunked shop class in high school. Handyman work? I tried changing out the toilet seat in my bathroom last year and when I couldn’t budge the hinge screw, I tapped it with a hammer to loosen it.”
He stopped and laughed as he shook his head. “A metal hammer. Just as I tapped it I realized what I was doing, but it was too late. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Cracked the porcelain base and had to get a plumber to put in a new toilet.”
“I can support us until you find something,” she said quickly. “And I have some money saved.”
He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. “Sweetheart, you don’t have to. I realized I was trying to work everything out and then it struck me that I don’t have to.”
He stopped. “I don’t want to,” he corrected himself. “One of the things that I’ve been trying to do is believe in God’s will. That He has a plan and purpose for us. So I sat down and prayed like I’ve never prayed, Naomi. And I gave it to God. I told Him that I needed His help, that I didn’t know what to do.”
“Funny thing,” he said as he stared at his van. “Sometimes I’ve prayed and waited a very long time for an answer from God. Sometimes I haven’t gotten what I thought was an answer at all and just had to trust. But today? I nearly got run over by the answer.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I had to wait at a light for a buggy and everything fell into place. Naomi, I’m going to buy Abe Harshberger’s business. I heard last week that he wants to sell it and move to Ohio where he used to live.”
Naomi frowned and tried to take it all in. “He takes tourists for buggy rides.”
“I’ll still be in the transportation business.”
“But you’ve never even ridden in a buggy, let alone driven one, have you?”
“I think you should take me for a ride in one after supper.” His eyes gleamed with mischief. “A long, long buggy ride.”
She laughed and put her hand on his chest to stop him from leaning forward to kiss her. Someone had to keep a level head. “Sounds perfect.”
“Buying Abe’s business or the buggy ride?”
“Both,” she said shyly.
He stood and pulled her to her feet. “I think it’s time to go inside and tell Leah, don’t you?”
Naomi saw the curtain move at the front window. She smiled. “I think she might have guessed,” she told him, gesturing at the window.
He squared his shoulders. “I prayed for her approval too,” he admitted as he opened the door and escorted her inside.
She remembered the talk she’d had with her grandmother about Nick and squeezed his hand. “Me too.”
Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she suspected that her grandmother wasn’t going to have the objections to their marrying that Nick felt she had. Her grandmother had always acted fond of Nick, almost as if he was the son she hadn’t had.
Raising herself on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek.
“One step at a time,” she told him. “You remember when we were driving back home from Florida and I said it was so dark beyond the headlights? You quoted that writer. I forget his name.”
He smiled. “E. L. Doctorow. He said, ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’”
She touched his cheek. “We don’t have to figure everything out right now. We’ll take it one step at a time.”
“Starting now.”
Nodding, she leaned forward and embraced him. “Starting now.”
The End
Glossary
allrecht—all right
boppli—baby
bruder—brother daed—dad
danki—thank you
dat—father
Der Hochmut kummt vor dem Fall.—“Pride goeth before the fall.”
Englisch, Englischer—non-Amish person
fraa—wife
grossdochder—granddaughter
grossmudder—grandmother
guder mariye—good morning
gut—good
gut nacht—good night
gut-n-owed—good evening
Ich liebe dich—I love you
kaffe—coffee
kapp—prayer covering or cap worn by girls and women
kich—kitchen
kind, kinner—child, children
kumm—come
lieb—love
liebschen—dearest or dear one
maedel—young woman (maid)
mamm—mother
mann—husband
nee—no
onkel—uncle
Ordnung—The rules of the Amish, both written and unwritten. Certain behavior has been expected within the Amish community for many, many years. These rules vary from community to community, but the most common are to not have electricity in the home, to not own or drive an automobile, and to dress a certain way.
Pennsylvania Deitsch—Pennsylvania German
rotrieb—red beet
rumschpringe—time period when teenagers are allowed to experience the Englisch world while deciding if they should join the church. According to Amish sources, it is not the wild period so many Englisch imagine.
schul—school
schur—sure
schweschder—sister
sohn—son
wilkumm—welcome
wunderbaar—wonderful
ya—yes
Discussion Questions
Caution: Please don’t read before completing the book, as the questions contain spoilers!
1. At the beginning of the boo
k, Naomi begins to realize that the love her fiancé, John, claims to have for her may not be healthy. More young women than ever before are finding that their boyfriends, fiancés, or husbands are too controlling—sometimes even violent. Could you identify with her? How?
2. How do you recognize the danger signs in someone who may be a potential problem?
3. Do you believe that only women who suffer from poor self-esteem fall into this trap?
4. How can you help someone break free from an abusive relationship?
5. Sometimes it’s not easy to think that a man who looks like a rescuer will in fact be a problem himself. How can someone avoid this?
6. Nick wants to help Naomi but in a way complicates things for her. How does he do this?
7. Do you believe that people from different religions can forge a successful marriage? Do you know someone who has done this?
8. How long do you think someone should avoid getting into a new relationship after breaking off the old? How do you think people can avoid getting into a “rebound” relationship?
9. What would you give up to be with the person you love?
10. Naomi reads Gift from the Sea, a book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, in which the author maintains that a woman must have a time and place to herself in order to have something to give to her loved ones. What do you do to have a well of strength and love for your family?
11. The Amish—and many other people—believe that God has “set aside” a person for them. Do you believe that there is just one person for you, or do you think that there is more than one person for you to love?
12. How important is it for the person you love (as a husband, boyfriend, or significant other) to love God?
* * *
FLORIDA RECIPES
Yoder’s Amish Restaurant Famous Peanut Butter Pie
Pudding:
1 cup cold milk
½ cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 egg yolks
3 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2/3 cup sugar
Crumb mixture:
1 cup powdered (confectioners’) sugar
½ cup crunchy peanut butter
The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 Page 21