“But your grandmother is your biological grandmother, right?”
“Yes. Giselle’s sister Klara and her husband, Alexander, legally adopted me. They are my parents.”
He sighed in relief. “I was afraid maybe you weren’t a blood descendant of Abraham Sommers.”
I wasn’t sure why that mattered but didn’t take the time to ask, because, speaking of blood, I had something else I needed to tell him.
“There’s another thing you should know,” I said. “I have a blood disorder. Hereditary spherocytosis.” If he wanted to get closer to me, he might as well know the biggies to start with.
“Excuse me?” Daniel turned his head toward me, the box clutched tightly to his chest.
“It’s abnormally-shaped blood cells. It causes hemolytic anemia.”
“Is it fatal?” His voice was hesitant.
I chuckled. “No. I used to have transfusions, that sort of thing. But I’ve been much better the last several months.”
“But it’s hereditary?”
I nodded.
“So kids are out?”
“Not necessarily.”
“But you wouldn’t want to pass it on.” We’d reached the sidewalk, and he was moving more quickly. A woman sweeping her front steps froze as we passed by, her eyes glued to me.
Ignoring her, I struggled to keep up with Daniel’s pace. “My life hasn’t been so bad…” My voice dropped in volume with each word. I was really thankful I’d been born, regardless of my disorder. That was when it dawned on me. Daniel would be happy not to have children at all.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Two hours later we caravanned up to Amielbach in the two cars. Daniel sat in the front of Morgan’s car, and I sat in the back with Giselle, whose badly broken ankle was now set in a fresh cast.
She held the box in her hands but gave it back to me when we approached the estate. “Will you come inside while we look for Abraham’s last letter?” I asked her.
She said she would as long as she had help up the stairs.
When George arrived with Will, Alice, and Christy, Will assisted Giselle up the steps. In no time she was inside Amielbach, using the crutches from the hospital to make her way down the entryway. I stayed back and walked with Alice, who took it slowly but seemed steady on her feet. Even so I held her good elbow as we walked. The nurses had had her out in the halls the last few days, and she seemed to be regaining her strength.
Morgan had called Oskar to tell him we were all coming, and he’d prepared lunch, a traditional Swiss meal of Raclette cheese with potatoes, pickled onions, and prosciutto. I settled Alice in a chair, while Daniel hurried down the hall to Herr Lauten’s office. He appeared a few minutes later with the box from Mammi, the one with the farm scene from Indiana, in his hands. Herr Lauten was at his side.
Once they reached us, Daniel turned the box over, searching for a false bottom I presumed. When he found none, he put the box on the table where I was sitting and took out all the letters, handing them to me. Then he picked at the floor of the box.
Morgan pulled a file from her purse and handed it to him. With it he pried up a thin piece of wood. Though the box did, indeed, have a false bottom, I could tell by the way his face fell that the small space inside was empty.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he whispered, dumbstruck.
Then he looked straight me. “Where do you think the letter could be?”
I shrugged. Perhaps at Mammi’s. Maybe in Indiana. But most likely it was long gone. “We should try the other box,” I said, pushing away from the table. “I’ll go get it.”
I hurried through the entryway and down the front steps to the pathway, and then to the cottage. Rushing to my things, I opened my suitcase and dug out the carved box, quickly lifting Christy’s schoolwork from it.
“Ada?” Will called my name. “Do you need some help?”
I went quickly from the room, the box in my hand. He was standing in the open doorway.
My fingernails were long enough to pry up the false bottom. As I lifted it, Will reached in and took the thin piece of wood from me. There was no agreement inside, but there was a letter, safe and sound. I snatched it, wondering if it could possibly have the clue we needed.
Will smiled and took the box, slipping the bottom piece back into place. As we hurried up the pathway he said, his voice flat, “Your Daniel will be so pleased.”
I winced at the word “your.” What had Will observed?
I must have given him a confused look because he continued, “Daniel told me last night that you two are thinking about courting when you come back to Switzerland.”
“He said that?”
Will nodded toward Amielbach. I shifted my gaze. Daniel was coming toward us.
We all settled back down at the table. In no time Daniel spread out the letter, but Herr Lauten nudged in beside him, saying, “Would you allow me? I may be an old man, but I believe I might be a tad faster at translating.”
Daniel agreed, but I suspected it was with reluctance.
After a few minutes, Herr Lauten’s face broke into a broad grin. Pulling the glasses from his nose, he looked up at us and said that while we would be very interested in the entire letter, for right now the ending was the most important part.
Sliding his glasses back on his nose, he translated as he read:
Herr Lauten looked up in triumph, taking off his glasses. Alice gasped, Morgan began to clap, and Christy put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, a skill I had no idea she possessed.
“Finally!” George exclaimed.
“The waterfall is on the Kesslers’ property.” Daniel’s voice was full of enthusiasm. “And we know for sure that goats did graze there.”
“Abraham must have hidden the contract there, in the house,” Morgan said.
“The house that was torn down?” I asked, unable to keep the dismay from my voice. If anything of importance had been hidden somewhere inside, it no doubt would have gone unnoticed amid the rubble when it came down. I said as much to everyone now.
We were all silent for a moment, lost in thought.
“Perhaps a man who was fond of false bottoms and such would have created a way to hide it in the foundation itself,” Herr Lauten finally offered.
It sounded like a stretch to me, but the others were more optimistic.
“There are shovels in the shed,” Oskar said. “I’ll get the key.” I was surprised at his interest but pleased just the same.
Will stayed with Giselle and Alice while the rest of us hurried to the shed, then crossed the creek, and marched up to the foundation. It was much easier traveling than it had been the night before. The sun was shining. The snow had all melted. The Bernese Alps range glistened in the afternoon light.
Daniel and Oskar started by digging up the corner stones, while Morgan, Christy, and I turned over river rock that had been part of the foundation. I couldn’t comprehend why Abraham Sommers would leave it here, not when he seemed to be so exact about other things.
“Past where the goats graze, below the waterfall and mountain peak,” I recited.
“You can’t even see a peak from here,” Morgan said. “Just the range. I think it’s somewhere else.”
Soon, the sun slipped behind a cloud and the afternoon grew chilly. Christy hadn’t worn her coat and said she was going back. I didn’t want her to cross the creek by herself and said I’d go with her.
When we reached the dining room, Alice was telling Will about the ballroom on the third floor, saying that Christy had shared how much fun she’d had up there a few afternoons ago.
“Do you want to see it?” Christy asked her daed.
“Sure,” Will ventured, and Christy took his hand, pulling him to his feet.
I sat down as they left the dining room, imagining the two of them sliding across the wood floor. After a while there was the sound of footsteps in the great room.
“It’s worth checking out.” It was Morgan’s voice.
G
iselle hobbled out of the dining room and Alice, Herr Lauten, and I followed.
Morgan was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling carving. “Look. There are goats. The waterfall. And a mountain peak.” She was right. The mountain looked like the one above Frutigen, not like any near here.
Daniel got down on the floor and ran his hand along the base of the carving. “I don’t feel anything,” he said.
Past where goats graze, beneath the waterfall and mountain peak.
Heart suddenly pounding in my chest, I turned on my heel and hurried toward the open staircase, racing up it and then down the hall to the third-floor stairs. By the time I reached the carved door, with the goats and shepherdess, to the ballroom, I was certain I was right. When I opened the door, Will and Christy were sliding in their socks across the floor.
Will froze when he saw me. “What’s wrong?”
“I have a wild idea.” I fixed my eyes on the waterfall out the window and then to the carving of the mountain.
Will followed my eyes and then started to laugh. “I bet you’re right,” he said.
He motioned me to the carving, and I began running my hand along the bottom of it. Sure enough, there was a latch. I opened it quickly and I reached inside, pulling out a packet. “Let’s take it down to Alice.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
Christy held the packet high as she sashayed through the great room on the way to the dining room.
“What do you have?” Morgan asked.
“What Daniel’s looking for,” Christy teased.
He was still on the floor, and he jerked his head up, bumping it on the carving.
“Come on,” Christy said. “Grossmammi gets to open it.”
Alice’s eyes filled with tears as she took it. “Could it be?” she whispered. She carefully slid her finger under the seal and pulled out a document, handing it to Herr Lauten.
He read it quickly and then kissed the paper.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said with a grand sweep of his hands, “I present to you the original signed agreement between Abraham Sommers and Ulrich Kessler.”
We all cheered, clapping and whistling and praising the Lord.
But the clock was still ticking, and we knew it. Now that we were in possession of the one thing that would save the day, we had less than an hour to get it to the judge, have the title cleared, and present it to the land and property commission. I wasn’t sure we could pull it off.
Our cheering turned into a frenzy as Daniel and Morgan and Oskar tried to figure out who would ride with whom and what was the quickest way to get there. Then Herr Lauten quieted them with a loud whistle and a wave of his hand, saying, “Please, folks, settle down. I’ve got it all worked out.” Once the noise died down, he went on to explain that he’d contacted the lawyer the moment we found the clue about the agreement, and that she’d rounded up the judge and the notary and they were all on standby, ready to come out here to Amielbach the moment we gave them the word.
“But why?” Oskar asked. “I can’t imagine that those people make a habit of paying house calls.”
Herr Lauten smiled. “That is true, Oskar. This is not exactly the norm. But given the frail state of Alice’s health,” he said, giving her a wink, “compounded by poor Giselle’s injury, it was not hard to convince them that these were special circumstances indeed. As I told Betsy Holt on the phone, our Amish friends came thousands of miles to clear this title. Surely she could convince the judge to drive ten miles up here from Langnau to see it through.”
As we waited nervously for everyone to arrive, Herr Lauten asked if we’d like to hear the rest of Abraham’s message, the letter from the hidden bottom of the box that had given us our final clue. I felt bad that in our mad search for the agreement we had forgotten all about that. We settled in around Herr Lauten now as he pulled it out and carefully unfolded it. Then he slipped a pair of glasses onto his nose, cleared his throat, and began reading, translating for us as he went.
When Herr Lauten finished reading the letter, there wasn’t a dry eye among us. So much guilt, so much regret, so much pain. I was reminded, yet again, of all the suffering that had come before, and I was grateful for the life I had and the freedoms that came with it.
Our mood was somber as our guests arrived, and we all headed into the dining room for the clearing of the title and the sale of the land. Word had spread, calls had been made, and in the end even more people had come along than we had expected, including Herr Lauten’s banker, a notary, a transcriptionist, a newspaper reporter, three representatives of the land and property commission, members of the historical committee, and more.
The judge, the notary, and the transcriber sat on one side of the table, and Betsy Holt, Herr Lauten, Alice, and I sat on the other. Behind us stood everyone else, including the land and property commission officials, who had apparently agreed to come along so that if all went as planned, they could officially terminate their intentions to install a hydro plant on the property next door.
Fortunately, after reading through the agreement, both the judge and the lawyer felt it was sound. The other stipulations regarding the sale of the land were easily met by those of us who had gathered here, primarily having to do with order of inheritance, process of sale, and the intention that no expiration date be attached to the arrangement.
Finally, the judge looked up from all of the paperwork, focused in on Alice, and addressed her solemnly in English.
“As a direct descendant of Ulrich Kessler, how do you hereby exercise your rights with regards to the land described in these documents? Do you choose to purchase the property for the amount stipulated in the agreement?”
Alice nodded, but the transcriber asked for a verbal reply. Alice cleared her throat and said, “Yes. I would like to buy it.”
“Very good,” the judge said. “I am hereby clearing this title of all attachments and infringements. It may now be sold.”
That caused a flurry of activity as the necessary documents were gathered and slid in front of me and then her for us to sign. We signed and signed, and when all was said and done, Alice quipped, “Now that my name’s on the bottom line, I suppose I should ask how much I’m paying for it.”
Everyone laughed, and only then did I realize that one of the men behind us was tapping away furiously on a calculator. He had to convert currencies between Swiss francs and dollars, both in 1877 and now. “When all was said and done, he gave us the option of two prices. The agreement had specified that the property be sold back to the Kesslers for the same price Abraham had paid for it, but it didn’t say whether that amount was to be adjusted for inflation or not.
“Let’s hear both,” Daniel said, his eyes sparkling.
“Very well,” the banker replied. “If we adjust for inflation, Alice Beiler owes Frannie Lantz four hundred thousand eight hundred sixty-two dollars and fifty nine cents.”
“And if we don’t?” I asked, swallowing hard at such a massive amount of money.
“Then she owes you just sixteen thousand twelve dollars and four cents.”
For some reason, everyone looked to me as if I had a decision to make.
There was no decision here. I knew exactly what my grandmother’s intention was. She had all the money she needed, gained from the sale of Amielbach twenty-four years ago. Now it was Alice’s turn to secure a nest egg for herself and save her family’s business. Though her profits wouldn’t be nearly as large as Mammi’s had been, I felt sure the amount would be big enough to carry the Gundy family company through their current hardships and into brighter days.
Smiling at Alice, I held out a hand and said, “That’ll be sixteen thousand dollars, please.”
Again, they all laughed.
Once we’d finalized that sale in every way, it became Herr Lauten’s turn at the table.
“And now, dear Alice,” he said, “I would like to make you an offer for your land. Would you sell it to me, please? Against the advice of my Realtor, and despite the curren
t market value, for the sake of Amielbach and as compensation for all that you have been through, I am prepared to offer you five hundred thousand American dollars for the Kessler property.”
Tears filling her eyes, Alice looked over at him and smiled. “Herr Lauten,” she said, “you have yourself a deal.”
Everyone cheered, talking at once. Soon the property had been sold to Herr Lauten and the historical committee had secured a guarantee of the protection and improvements of the land as an important historic site. Beyond the fact that Herr Lauten had preserved forever the beauty and ambience of his inn, I knew Daniel and George were also winners, having made great strides in assuring the success of their future tour company that would take advantage of both.
My heart was very full. Overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the well-wishers that pressed in on me from every side, I sought out a friendly face in the crowd. I looked to Morgan, who was high-fiving Daniel. I looked to Christy, who was hugging her grandmother. I looked to Herr Lauten, who was shaking hands all around and then embracing his son. I even looked to Giselle, who was speaking animatedly with the reporter and clearly talking about herself.
Then I looked to Will, his gaze catching mine across the crowded room. In that moment, his gentle smile was filled with gratitude, even as his eyes were filled with tears.
THIRTY-NINE
Much later, after all of the guests were gone and Giselle and Alice were settled in the cottage, sitting in the living room with Christy and Will, I went looking for Daniel. It had been a crazy afternoon, but now that we’d all had time to recover a bit, the mood was calmer and happier than it had been since we’d first arrived five days before.
I finally found Daniel in the dining room with Herr Lauten, Oskar, and Morgan. Now that the waterfall had been protected, Herr Lauten was eager to finish the renovation and open his inn. At the moment, the four of them were talking about the gift shop and what they could add to emphasize its Anabaptist connection.
The Amish Nanny Page 34