Miriam and the Stranger

by Jerry S. Eicher

  “Howdy there,” Deacon Phillips’s oldest daughter, Ruth, called out as she stepped away from the game to run toward Miriam.

  “Hi,” Miriam greeted her, trying to keep her wits about her.

  Ruth reached out for Miriam’s hand as she exclaimed, “You must be late from working at the schoolhouse! We’re glad you made it.”

  “Well, I’m here,” Miriam managed. She glanced down the line of buggies. “Why is the Englisha car here?”

  “Oh, that.” Ruth’s face lit up. “Daett invited Tyler Johnson to attend a youth function. He’s very interested in the Amish community, Daett said. But come.” Ruth pulled on Miriam’s hand. “We have a spot still open for you right beside me.” Ruth’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And the Englisha man is playing on the other side of me. Isn’t that exciting?”

  Miriam nodded and followed Ruth across the field. She couldn’t blame Ruth for her excitement. The community didn’t believe in rumspringa, so Ruth rarely spoke with handsome Englisha men. And look how her own feelings responded to Tyler’s attentions. She was the one who should be ashamed, not Ruth.

  “Hi, Miriam.” A chorus of voices greeted her as the two approached the group.

  “Hi, everyone,” Miriam managed.

  “Right over here.” Ruth pulled on Miriam’s hand again.

  Miriam kept her gaze averted, but she had to look up when Tyler called out, “Look who’s here. The pretty Amish schoolteacher herself.”

  Smiles spread on the faces around them. No one seemed to wonder how Tyler knew her sufficiently for such an intimate greeting. Shame gripped Miriam. These people trusted her, while her heart wasn’t pure.

  “Hi, Tyler.” Miriam got the words out, wishing at once she had called him Mr. Johnson instead of Tyler. She looked away at once and placed Ruth between them.

  “Did you have to spank one of the children? Is that why you look so disturbed?” Tyler leaned around Ruth to tease.

  Several of the youth chuckled as the ball was served. Miriam concentrated on its flight and didn’t answer.

  But Ruth had no compunctions about a talk with Tyler. “Miriam is such a gut teacher, she’s never had to spank any of the children in the three years she’s taught here.”

  “I see,” Tyler mused. “Has she overwhelmed the evil with her holy presence?”

  Ruth seemed puzzled by the statement. “I suppose so,” Ruth allowed.

  Tyler hid his grin, Miriam noticed. Amish young people obviously had a different sense of humor from what he was used to. That she had understood was to her own discredit. The ability must have come from the years she had taken care of the elderly Mr. Bland. What would Mose say when he took her as his frau and found out she had picked up Englisha ways?

  “Did you ever spank a scholar?” Tyler interrupted Miriam’s thoughts to ask. Ruth had stepped forward to set the volleyball up for the front row, and their view of each other was unobstructed.

  Miriam answered without looking at him. “Maybe I’m shirking my duty.”

  Tyler laughed. “I doubt that. I’ll stick with my theory. And thanks for the supper invitation the other night.”

  “Shhhhh,” Miriam said, and wished at once she hadn’t. Ruth had returned from the successful play with her face flushed but with her ears obviously wide open. “That was very gut,” Miriam encouraged. She hoped that would distract the girl.

  “Thanks,” Ruth responded. She glanced between the two of them. “You invited Tyler to supper, Miriam?”

  “At Aunt Fannie’s, yah, he…” Miriam stopped. Excuses wouldn’t help. Ruth might be young, but she wouldn’t be fooled.

  “Tyler was at our place for supper too, but Daett invited him,” Ruth said.

  Miriam tried again to make her innocence known. “Uncle William invited him the first time, and he had an article I wanted to show Aunt Fannie, so…” It was no use, Miriam decided. Ruth would have to think what she wanted to.

  “It was a very good supper,” Tyler offered. “I had a long conversation with Mr. Byler afterward. He’s going to get some information I need.”

  Thank you, Miriam almost said aloud. Ruth appeared satisfied, but how had Tyler known he should help her out?

  Tyler had a big grin on his face when she glanced at him. The man knew way too much, that was for sure. And it was no use protesting. Her face had betrayed her.

  “Are you going back again for supper?” Ruth asked Tyler.

  Tyler kept the grin on his face. “I haven’t received an invitation from Mr. Byler, but maybe you could give me one. Your mother served excellent cherry pie… or was that your handiwork?”

  Ruth appeared puzzled for a moment. “Oh, you mean, did I make the pie?” Ruth laughed. “I’m afraid not. But I’m going to learn soon. Piecrust in an art all to itself, Mamm says.”

  “I’m sure it is.” Tyler gave Ruth a smile. “You’ll have to let me know when you’ve learned.”

  Ruth turned bright red but nodded with vigor. “I will if you’re still around. Are you staying long in the community?”

  “I don’t know.” Tyler focused on the ball that was flying in a high arch above his head. A moment later he stepped forward to whack the ball back to the other side of the net.

  “You should have set it up,” Ruth reprimanded him, her earlier question apparently forgotten.

  Tyler chuckled. “I suppose I should have. You’ll have to teach me how. I didn’t play much volleyball in school.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Ruth said. “We just learn what little we know in the youth group. And I think you already know how.”

  Tyler reached over to squeeze Ruth’s arm. “Thanks for the confidence.”

  Ruth smiled but said nothing more as the game continued.

  Surely she wasn’t jealous of Ruth, was she? Miriam thought. This had become completely ridiculous. What was wrong with her? Beside her Ruth kept up a friendly chatter with Tyler. From the sounds of things, the two had spoken freely with each other when Tyler had been in Deacon Phillips’s home. Their conversation was innocent, though, unlike her thoughts. Several of the other girls joined in with Ruth’s easy banter. Miriam tried to stay a step back whenever the ball came her way. Ruth seemed more than happy to take the play. That was fine with Miriam. It helped keep the focus off her.

  Darkness soon crept across the horizon, and gas lanterns were lit. Ruth’s mamm, Katie, appeared around the corner of the barn near the end of the third game. She called, “The ice cream is out. Come before it all melts.”

  This brought the game to an end and produced a stampede from the boys toward the house. The girls followed at a more dignified pace. Miriam hung even further back but quickened her steps when she noticed that Tyler wasn’t in front with the other young men.

  Before Miriam got too far, Tyler’s voice called out from behind her. “Growing older, are we?”

  “Speak for yourself,” Miriam snapped. “I don’t see you in the front of the pack.”

  “That’s because I want to speak with you.”

  Miriam rolled her eyes. He apparently didn’t understand her predicament as well as she hoped he had.

  “You heard right,” Tyler said. “I can’t stay quiet about this. Surely you’re not marrying that man from out of town—the minister. How can a lovely girl like you do something like that? Tell me I didn’t hear something right the other night.”

  Miriam didn’t know what to say. What if the others heard her conversation? Oh, this was so wrong!

  “Is he handsome perhaps?” Tyler probed. “Or does he come with tons of money? Is that what’s driving this?”

  “This is none of your business,” Miriam squeaked. “And shhhh!”

  “Let’s say I’m making it my business,” Tyler shot back. “Maybe I can do one good thing for you before I leave. Because this isn’t right, you know.”

  “Tyler… Mister Johnson… this is really none of your business!” No further words would come out, and Miriam focused on breathing.

  Tyler regarded
her for a moment before he continued. “I asked your uncle some questions and also Deacon Phillips, all in the guise of my admiration for how the community does things, and I don’t like what I’m hearing. This man arrives and spends all week investigating you. Does the man even love you, Miriam? Or you him for that matter?”

  Miriam’s face blazed red. Was it embarrassment or anger? Probably both, she thought as she turned to face Tyler. “How we do our marriages is none of your business. I think I made that clear already.”

  Tyler’s hand waved in the air as he exclaimed, “But this is so medieval! So feudal! So archaic! And hello… so very wrong. You must know this is true, Miriam. You’re a teacher. You can’t be completely uneducated.”

  “We live as the Lord decrees,” Miriam barely whispered. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

  “Answer my question, then,” Tyler demanded. “Do you love the man?”

  When Miriam remained silent, he continued. “That’s what I thought. You’ll just marry him in cold blood. How can you do something so chilling when you have such a warm personality?”

  Miriam gathered herself together and took a deep breath. “What I am is also none of your business, Tyler. Now can we stop this conversation before someone hears us?”

  A look of triumph filled his face. “See what I mean. You are a captive. That’s why you can’t talk with me.”

  “I just did talk to you,” Miriam said. “I have been more than free with you. But this has gone far enough.”

  He studied her face for a second. “Well, I don’t like any of this. You can’t marry a man you don’t love… and who doesn’t love you.”

  “Would you please go away and leave all of us alone?” Miriam pleaded.

  Tyler sobered but shook his head. “I’ve heard that line before, and it doesn’t work on me.”

  “But I beg of you.” Miriam reached out to grasp Tyler’s arm. “My future is my own to choose. Isn’t that what you Englisha say? Why won’t you let me choose mine?”

  “But marriage to an old fogy? Do you really want this, Miriam?”

  “Mose is not old,” Miriam’s voice trembled.

  “But do you want this? Really want this?” Tyler stepped closer. “Tell me the truth, and I’ll leave you alone.”

  Miriam met his blue eyes as they pierced hers. She tried to speak but failed.

  “Aha! That’s what I thought,” Tyler mumbled. “God help us all.”

  Miriam struggled to get a protest out, but Ruth cut off her efforts as she raced around the corner of the barn. “Oh, there you two are. Are you coming?”

  “Right away.” Tyler smiled in Ruth’s direction.

  Miriam fell in step behind him. Thankfully, Tyler didn’t take her arm. That was what he wanted to do, she was sure. Still, Ruth looked suspiciously at them.

  Miriam forced a laugh instead. “Tyler and I were just having a disagreement about a matter. I think he should conclude his investigation of the community pretty soon and move on. Don’t you think so?”

  Ruth wrinkled up her face. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think it’s nice to have him around.”

  “Thatta girl!” Tyler reached over to squeeze Ruth’s arm, and the two walked on ahead of Miriam. She hung back as the thought struck her. Once more she had a secret, and the shame burned deep inside of her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was Sunday afternoon, and Miriam laid Mose’s letter on her upstairs bedroom dresser. She had read the letter twice. With a trembling hand, she walked over to the window and fingered the dark drapes. Outside she could see the slanting sunlight flooding the plants set near the greenhouse with a soft glow. Autumn was nearly over, but winter didn’t arrive as quickly on the prairie as it did in Possum Valley. Sometime before Christmas Uncle William would move everything inside. The only plants that could stay outside as the cold set in were Christmas trees, and Uncle William didn’t sell those. Once in a while an Englisha customer asked for Christmas trees, and Uncle William would smile and say, “We don’t handle those.”

  The message would be transmitted in a gentle way that the Amish didn’t celebrate the birth of Christ like their Englisha neighbors did. Eventually the questions would stop when everyone in the area had learned the young community’s ways.

  Now if Tyler Johnson would only interest himself in questions about Christmas trees, how much better her situation would be. Miriam sighed and turned away from the window. She hoped Tyler’s continued conversations this past week with Uncle William were about other matters. Surely Tyler wouldn’t ask more questions about Mose and herself. But what else was Tyler interested in? She couldn’t imagine. Whatever the subject was, Tyler might have invented it so he could continue to hang around. Yet what would he gain by such actions? Did Tyler really think she was a prisoner in the community? He seemed to, but how could he think that? She was no princess in an Englisha fairy tale. She was an old maid, while Tyler was handsome enough to qualify as a prince. Miriam groaned out loud. This attraction between them must come to an end. She could not fall for an Englisha man’s charms, nor he for his need to rescue a princess.

  Surely Tyler would soon leave the area, or perhaps she could leave early for Shirley’s wedding. That would place an extra burden on Betsy, her substitute. Betsy had already been a bundle of nerves when they spoke today after the services about the upcoming week of substitute teaching. But somehow Betsy would manage the schoolhouse just fine. The children were good students and wouldn’t make her job harder.

  Miriam seated herself on the bed and focused on the letter from Mose. She would be his frau soon, and from then on there would be no further questions of where her loyalties lay.

  Miriam reached over to retrieve Mose’s letter from the dresser. She opened the pages and read the greeting again, “Dear Miriam…”

  Miriam looked away from the page. How was she even worthy to date this man? Mose was a minister, and perhaps soon would be a bishop, and all while she had awful things hidden in her heart. Perhaps Mose would soon suspect something. Wouldn’t a holy man see right through her? That hadn’t happened when Mose was here. But it might when she saw him again at Shirley’s wedding.

  Miriam continued to read,

  Greetings in the name of the Lord. I trust you have kept yourself in the fear of God since we have seen each other. There is much in this world that tempts us and draws us away from all that is pure and holy. I comfort my heart that you are a woman who seeks only what is right, and rejects evil in all its ways.

  Miriam laid the page down to stare out of the window. Mose was correct on one point; she did try to live right, even if she wasn’t doing very well right at the moment. Of course, she hadn’t exactly done anything wrong yet, Miriam comforted herself. Perhaps Mose would find a little mercy in his heart if he knew the full story. She had not gone looking for this temptation called Tyler Johnson.

  Miriam looked down to read again,

  I looked into your face often while I visited in Oklahoma, and I told myself you are both beautiful and holy. It’s not often that a man is given such a gift, Miriam. I don’t wish to speak too boldly, but you have been greatly blessed of the Lord. I find my heart lifted in gratitude to God that I have been allowed to live to see this day. I never would have wanted Rachel to leave me and this earth, but the Lord decides such things. His grace also supplies our needs, and in this area great grace has been given me in that I have met you.

  Calmness crept over Miriam’s heart. Mose’s words were what she needed. He spoke both rebuke and comfort. Miriam got to her feet. She would not think about Tyler anymore. Mose and she would stand together against the world and all that threatened them. That was the end of the matter.

  Miriam approached the dresser again and took out a tablet. She should have written Mose earlier, but she hadn’t. She would write now. She would thank him for his kind thoughts toward her, and for words that both rebuked and comforted.

  Miriam began to write,

  Dear Mose,

>   Greetings in the name of Jesus. I received your letter on Friday, and I have read it through several times now.

  Miriam paused to study the words. Were those too plainspoken? Mose might think her forward. Still, it was best that Mose see her heart and know that she did long for him. What woman wouldn’t want to long for her future husband?

  Miriam continued to write,

  I should have written sooner, but I did want to wait until I received your first letter. I’m hoping you had a decent trip back home on the Greyhound. I couldn’t see you through the window when you left Coalgate, but I was waving. I’ve thought of you often since then and pray that the Lord will keep watch over you. Thank you so much for your kind words and also for the words of rebuke and warning. I know that I am a creature subject to failure, and often ask the Lord to keep me on the straight and narrow. Your concern is much appreciated.

  I spoke with my substitute teacher again today about my visit to Possum Valley for Shirley’s wedding. A longing has come over me to travel there sooner, but I don’t know if I should indulge myself or not. It doesn’t seem quite right to impose a greater burden on Betsy than she already carries…

  Miriam wrote for twenty minutes before she folded the pages and slipped them into an envelope.

  There, she had written her first love letter. Ivan, when he was after her money, had once written to her and she had responded, but those hadn’t been love letters. Not in this way. Mose would be her husband next year unless something terrible happened again.

  Miriam laid the letter on the dresser and slipped out into the hall and down the stairs. Aunt Fannie looked up from her rocker with a smile. From the other rocker Uncle William’s gentle snore filled the living room. Miriam tiptoed across the floor.

  Aunt Fannie’s smile broadened. “Don’t worry. He’s slept long enough for a Sunday afternoon.”

  “I heard that,” Uncle William muttered, straightening up in his rocker. “Is the popcorn ready?”