“Wow!” Danika let it all sink in. “So there's nothing that I can do?”
“Just believe. Simply place your trust in the blood that Jesus shed for you when he died on the cross. He promises to wash away all your sins and give you eternal life,” Philip offered. “If you could work your way to Heaven, then Jesus would have died for no reason at all.”
“Dude, that's heavy,” Danika commented as Philip and Naomi briefly locked eyes again.
“The only question is now that you know, what will you do about it?” Naomi questioned.
“I'll have to think about it, that's for sure...and for certain.” She looked teasingly at Naomi and Philip and they smiled. “I'm going up to my room now. I'll think about it, I promise. Good night.” She started up the stairs.
“Danika,” Naomi called. Dani stopped and turned to face her aunt. “Please, don't put this decision off. It determines your eternal destiny,” she pressed, with an urgent pleading tone in her voice.
In her room, Danika thought it over. I'd like to go to Heaven. God, why did Mom and Dad have to die? Danika waited, but the answer never came. I don’t understand. I wish I could talk to them right now! She frowned as tears welled up in her eyes. She thought about her parents' deaths and the unfairness of it all, and the tears threatened to spill onto her cheeks. God, if You really loved me, You wouldn't have taken my mom and dad away. It's just not fair.
Danika threw herself on her bed and cried until she couldn't cry anymore. She stared stonily at the door and allowed bitterness to creep into her heart and take root. Why should I have to do things His way? I hate God. And I won't ever forgive Him for taking Mom and Dad! Never. Exhausted, she fell into a troubled sleep.
<><><>
Chapter 4 – Chores
“The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.” Proverbs 16:23
“Danika, wake up. Danika.” Naomi firmly shook Dani's shoulder.
Danika moaned. “Who... where... wha...” She looked at Naomi who held up a lantern. Aside from the light emanating from Naomi's hand, Danika's room was completely dark. It was pitch-black outside her window as well, and cold.
“Danika, it's 5:15 already. Do you plan to sleep all day?” Naomi gently chided her.
“Five-fifteen? In the morning? Oh, leave me alone!” Danika murmured as she sank back onto her bed.
Naomi walked out of the room muttering, “You leave me no choice.”
It seemed like only a minute had passed before Danika felt ice cold water being splashed in her face. “What the...” She sprang up out of bed, now fully awake.
“Good morning, bright eyes!” Naomi grinned with a dripping cup in her hand. “Works every time. All right, first of all, you'll make your bed. Next, you'll be helping Philip and Katie milk the goats and feed the chickens – after you get dressed, of course. And then you'll be helping me make breakfast, and afterward you and Katie will do the dishes,” Naomi replied with a twinkle in her eyes.
“You know, you can be pretty bossy sometimes,” Danika accused, rubbing the water from her face.
Naomi took this thought into consideration. “That's quite possible, but talking about it isn't going to do you any good – Amish life isn't exactly easy. You'd be hard-pressed to find a lazy Amish person.” She smiled and announced, “All right, let's hurry now. You're burning daylight.”
Danika grabbed her dress and quickly put it on. “I'm trying to hurry. It's more like I'm burning nightlight, five fifteen in the morning,” she mumbled to herself as she put her stockings and shoes on. She hurried downstairs struggling with her prayer kapp, her hair flowing around her shoulders. Naomi saw Danika and rushed to her aid.
“Here, let me help you with that.” Naomi quickly wrapped Danika's hair into a tight bun and fastened it with five stainless-steel hairpins. “You have incredibly thick hair, Danika. It's so beautiful and dark,” Naomi commented as she helped Danika fasten her white prayer kapp over her hair.
“Dad said I have his hair and his eyes, but I have Mom's face.”
“Well, you have your mother's nose for sure and for certain. Philip said that he and your mother had the same nose, and yours matches your uncle's. Kumm.” She motioned. “Take this lantern.” Naomi thrust a lantern in Danika's left hand. “And a bucket.” Naomi picked up a bucket and gave it to Danika who took it in her other hand. “There, now go out to the barn. Philip and Katie are waiting for you. They will show you how to milk the goats.” Naomi shooed her out the door.
These people are psycho, she decided. Danika hurried toward the other building behind the house. She heard some goats crying inside and a girl's voice hushing and scolding them. “Hush up now, Buttercup. There's no need to cause a bunch of ruckus, you silly old goat.”
“That's it, Katie – you're gettin' the hang of it. My little helper will soon be able to milk the goats all by herself,” Philip praised Katie. “Kumm, Danika. Have a seat. Did you sleep all right?” Philip pulled up a small wooden stool for her.
She huffed and sat down. “Well, I was sleeping fine until –”
“Let me guess. The old water trick?” Philip laughed, smiling mischievously. Danika nodded in confirmation. “So, have you ever milked goats?” Danika shook her head. “Well, that's all right. You get to learn something new today. First of all...” he continued to explain all the steps and then showed her how to milk a goat.
“Okay, I'd like to give it a try now.” Danika took one of the teats in her hand and started squeezing, not pulling, the way Philip had shown her.
“That's good. Just keep doing it the same way,” Philip encouraged. When he wasn't looking, she pointed the teat at Philip and squirted some milk in his face.
“Oops! Sorry.” Dani laughed, and Katie giggled too.
Philip responded with a smile, “An accident, huh?”
“Yeah, just like this,” she proceeded to shoot him with a steady stream of goat's milk.
“Hey, now, let's not waste too much of that. We'll need it for breakfast and to make cheese later. Not to mention my customers who come in to the health food store to buy it,” Philip cautioned, as milk flew onto his face and in his beard.
“Okay, okay.” Danika resigned to milking the goats carefully.
<><><>
Danika proudly carried the goats' milk into the house and Katie followed behind her with a basket of eggs. Naomi was kneading dough in the kitchen when she noticed Philip coming in through the back door. He still had a little milk dripping from his beard.
“What happened to you?” Naomi asked Philip.
Philip just nodded his head toward Danika who was wearing a mischievous grin.
“She got him good, Mama!” Katie divulged, and they all burst into laughter.
<><><>
Danika heard a knock at the door. She called, “Naomi, there's someone at the door.”
From the kitchen she heard Naomi reply, “Oh, that must be Joanna and Chloe.”
“Don't worry, I'll get it.” Dani stood up from the sofa, put down the book she was reading, and swiftly walked to the door. She opened it and saw two girls about her age standing outside the door. Both of the girls looked surprised at first, but quickly composed themselves. “Come in.” Danika motioned with her hands.
As both of the girls came inside, one of them asked, “Is Naomi here?”
Danika nodded. “Yeah, she's here. Let me get her real quick.” Naomi strode into the room with paper in hand.
“Good morning, Joanna. Good morning, Chloe.”
“Good morning, Naomi,” they replied in unison.
Joanna glanced at Danika and said to Naomi, “You have company, jah? I hope we didn't interrupt.”
“Oh,” Naomi replied. “No, this is Danika. She's Philip's niece. She's living with us now.”
“Hello, Danika. I'm Joanna Fisher,” She held out her hand.
“And I'm Chloe Esh. Nice to meet you.”
“Where are you from?” Joanna asked curiously, noting she hadn't seen
her around the area before.
“California,” Dani stated.
“I didn't know there were any Amish settlements in California,” Chloe piped in, eyeing her Amish garb.
“Danika was an Englischer before she came here,” Naomi added. “But we can discuss that over lunch. Right now, you girls should be off.” She handed a list to one of the girls and they hurried out the door.
Danika turned to Naomi, “What are they doing?”
“Oh, the girls deliver honey for me. They've been working for me for a couple of years now.”
Danika appeared to be thinking. “Where did they get those scooters from?”
“There's an Amish man that owns a shop in town; it's called Beiler's Hardware. He's kin to the Fishers. Joanna's uncle, in fact. He makes them and sells them to the Amish and English.”
“Naomi, when do I get my allowance?” Danika asked innocently.
“What do you mean?”
“Allowance. The money for doing my chores.”
“Money for doing chores? Why, I've never heard of such a thing.” Naomi laughed.
Danika frowned. “You've got to be kidding me, right?”
Naomi shook her head. “No, I'm quite serious.”
“You mean, I've been doing all this work and I'm not even going to get paid for it.” Danika's temper was visibly rising.
“You get to live in this house, eat all of your meals, and you have clothes to wear,” Naomi reminded her.
“But I'm a kid, you guys are supposed to give me that stuff! How am I going to buy anything for myself?” Danika stated selfishly.
“We Amish live very simple lives. We don't need fancy things to make us happy. God provides for our needs, and that is sufficient,” Naomi said contently.
“Oh, that's just great,” Danika declared sarcastically. “I thought I was coming to Paradise, instead I end up in Amish Hell!” She spun herself around and startled when Philip stood directly in front of her. His arms crossed over his chest.
“Danika!” With calmness he didn’t feel, Philip tried to choose his words carefully, “I am glad that you've come here to live with us. But I will not tolerate that kind of speech. You have spoken disrespectfully to Naomi and you will apologize to her.”
“No, I will not!” Danika shouted, as she ran out the back door.
Exasperated, Naomi threw up her hands. “Philip, I've never been spoken to that way before. I'm afraid I don't know how to deal with an Englisch young person.”
Philip embraced his trembling wife. Knowing this incident was causing undue stress for her pregnancy, he attempted to comfort her. “It will get easier, Liewe, I promise.”
<><><>
Danika ran until she could run no more. Tears streamed down her face, as she sat in the grass against a tall pine tree in a dense wooded area. Her energy spent, she lay down using her folded hands as a pillow and fell into an exhausted asleep.
Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. Danika shot up at the sound of the hoof beats, and looked around. Before her stood a young Amish man about her own age. He was dressed in suspenders and wearing a straw hat over what looked like a blond surfer haircut. Wow, this guy’s a babe! she thought. He stared at her curiously.
“Hello,” he said timidly.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.
“I guess I should ask you the same thing. My name is Eli – Eli Yoder.” He held out his hand.
“Danika,” she answered, purposely withholding her last name.
“I haven't seen you around here before,” he stated, questions evident on his handsome face.
“Well, I'm kinda new to the area. I live with the Kings. Just got here a few days ago.”
“Welcome.” He smiled. “You live with Philip King, the herb dokter?”
“Uncle Philip's a doctor?” Danika was amazed by this new-found information.
“For these parts, jah...He's your uncle and ya didn't know?” Eli asked in disbelief.
“Well, I thought he just owned a health food store. Nobody bothered to tell me anything about him being a doctor. How was I supposed to know?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“There's no need for you to get all upset about it.”
“I'm sorry, I'm just a little on-edge right now,” she apologized.
“Jah, I could sorta tell. Do you mind me asking what for?”
“It's kind of a long story.”
“I have some time, I don't mind,” he said, offering his ear. He plopped down next to her.
Danika sighed. “I don't really know where to start. My mom died when I was eight years old. She was giving birth to my baby brother, and there were complications. We ended up losing my baby brother too.” Eli looked at her with compassion in his light-blue eyes, but said nothing. She continued, “My Dad got cancer about six months ago, and now I've lost him too,” she choked out the last words.
“I'm really sorry you had to go through all that, Danika,” Eli sympathized.
“Now, I'm stuck here in Amishville. I had to leave my friends, my school, my home, and not to mention the beach in California to come to the middle of nowhere. Everybody here tells me what to do and when to do it, and I'm tired of it.” She felt better after getting all of that off her chest.
Eli wasn't sure just what to say to her. Her story didn't relate to his at all. “Well, we all have things that we have to do whether we want to or not.”
“What do you mean by that?” Danika lowered her eyebrows in question.
“Take Philip or my vadder, for example, they have to work hard at a job all day long to provide for their families. Mamm has to prepare meals for everyone and wash all the clothes. If you think about it, we have more freedom than they do,” Eli explained.
“I guess I never thought about it that way before.” Danika pondered his words.
“Danika, I can tell that losing your folks has been hard on you, and I'm sorry. But don't take it out on other people. Philip and Naomi are nice folks and I'm sure they just want what's best for you. Besides, I don't think they're used to having a stubborn Englisch girl living with them.” He hoped to coax a smile out of her.
“Hey, how did you know I was an Englischer?”
“I can just tell,” he simply replied.
“Is that bad or good?”
“Well...” He didn't dare answer that one. He looked at his horse and changed the subject. “Can I give you a ride home?”
“You didn't answer my question,” she protested.
“A wise man knows when some things are better left unsaid.” He smiled and hopped onto his horse. “Well, what do you say?” He patted the back of the horse and offered his hand.
“Sure, why not.” Danika smiled, as she took his hand and carefully swung her leg over the back end of the horse.
“You may hold on to my shirt if you need to,” he offered.
“Thanks for being a friend, Eli. I needed one. I'm glad I met you today,” Dani said as they neared the King residence.
“Me, too. Will I see you in school on Monday?”
“Yeah, I think I'll be there.”
“Danika, anytime you need someone to talk to...” Eli smiled.
“I'll remember that. Bye, Eli.” She waved as he rode off.
<><><>
As Danika walked into the house, she noticed the family was already sitting in the living room, as they did every evening after dinner. Philip and Naomi looked at one another, not knowing what to expect of Danika, before she came into the room. She ran to Naomi and wrapped her arms around her, tears streaming from her eyes. “I'm sorry, Naomi.” Philip nodded his head at Naomi and gave her a smile behind Danika's back. She then turned to Philip. “Sorry, Uncle Philip.”
“I kept some dinner warm for you, if you're hungry. It's on the stove,” Naomi offered.
“But I haven't done my chores yet,” Danika surprisingly responded.
“They have already been done. There will be plenty more tomorrow,” Philip stated. “You may eat now.�
��
Relieved, Danika scarfed down her food. She couldn't believe how hungry she was until she realized that she hadn't eaten since breakfast early this morning. When she had finished, she asked to retire to her room early where she collapsed on her bed, exhausted from the day's ordeal.
<><><>
Chapter 5 – Church
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another...” Hebrews 10:25a
“Everybody's gone surfin', surfin' U.S.A.” Danika sang reminiscently as she splashed water on herself in the bathtub. She heard a gentle knock on the door of the bathroom. “Just wait, please. I'm bathing right now.”
From the other side of the door she heard a soft, high-pitched voice say, “It's me, Katie. I gotta go potty bad!”
Danika sighed with relief and replied, “Okay, you may come in, Katie.”
The door opened and Katie walked in, quickly shutting the door behind her. Katie watched Danika curiously as she resumed her singing, “Inside, outside, U.S.A. Inside, outside, U.S.A. Everybody's gone surfin', surfin' U.S.A.” Danika noticed that Katie was watching her and stopped singing.
“Dani, what's surfin'?” Katie asked with large innocent eyes.
“You mean, you've never heard of surfing?”
Katie shook her head indicating she hadn't.
“Oh, yeah.” Danika remembered. “You've never been to the beach. You poor thing,” she sympathized and started to explain, “Well, okay, I guess the ocean is kind of like a big huge bathtub.”
“You mean like Miller's Pond?”
Danika shrugged her shoulders, never having been to Miller's Pond. “Yeah, I guess so, but it’s much bigger than a pond. You can't see the other side because it's thousands of miles away. It's so massive, it's unreal.”
“But if it's not real, how can you see it?”
“No, no. I just mean that it's so big, it's amazing. Not that it isn't real.”
“But you said –”
“Never mind what I said,” Danika answered. “It's just really big.”
“Wow, I think I'd be too scared to go in there.”
Danika's Journey (Amish Girls Series--Book 2) Page 3