Sisters of the Quilt

by Cindy Woodsmall

  And, pass or fail, she’d have to see him tonight. Zabeth woke with a bit of energy and wanted to be at tonight’s music gathering at Martin’s place. There would be fifteen or so people Hannah didn’t know, all playing musical instruments and singing songs she’d never heard. She’d hoped to get out of going by being on call, but Dr. Lehman had insisted she take the night off.

  The world she now lived in and the one she’d been raised in seemed to battle within her constantly. Each pulled her in an opposite direction, as if she were the rope in a tug of war. She wanted to experience new things, and yet the moment she did, she questioned if it was the right thing to do. Sometimes her only reprieve was during the Bible study time with Zabeth each morning and evening.

  When she read the Word, life made sense. When she went out to live it, confusion dogged her. Among the Englischers, everything was subjective: modesty, stewardship, needs, wants, and even honesty. Nothing seemed to be black and white—just a hodgepodge of folks trying to figure things out as they went, depending on the situation.

  “Next,” a man called without looking up.

  The person in front of Hannah stepped forward. A nervous tingle ran through her. She would need to move forward in a few minutes. If she passed, it’d be another step into the stress-filled world of the Englischers, but there always seemed to be a bit of hopeful news along the way. Like the fact that North Lincoln Educational Center also had a School of Practical Nursing right there in the same building as the GED studies and pretests.

  In Rhonda’s words, that was way cool.

  The man behind the counter gestured for her. His face was void of anything resembling friendliness. Martin and Gideon had both warned her about the DMV staff.

  She laid her stack of papers on the counter. “I’m here to get my learner’s permit.”

  He took the papers and read through them. “Do you live at this address?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you registered to vote?”

  “No.”

  “We can do that here.”

  “No thank you.”

  He scowled and slid a paper toward her. “Fill in your Social Security number here.”

  Hannah wiped her sweaty palm down her dress before taking the pen in hand and following his order.

  The moment she was done, he took the paper back. “Look through the eyepiece and read the bottom line.” His voice was as empty of emotion as his face.

  She stepped over to the vision-testing device. Reading the letters aloud one by one, she wondered if the man was paying any attention to her accuracy or was just going through the motions.

  “You pass.” He pointed to the sidewall. “Fifth computer. Just follow the prompts.”

  “The prompts?”

  “The screen will tell you what to do. Just do it. It’ll make sense once you get in front of it.”

  Hannah reached for her papers.

  He put his hand over them. “I’ll keep these for now.”

  She crossed the room and sat in front of computer number five, hoping she knew enough to operate it without asking for assistance. Following the prompts, she was soon reading questions and clicking on answers. The questions had blanks and multiple-choice answers.

  “A broken_________line separates …”

  A broken harness line separates the horse from its buggy, leaving the driver unable to steer the buggy and yet moving onward, horseless.

  She read the question again, chose an answer, and clicked Next.

  “If your car stalls on railroad tracks, you should …”

  … have been in a horse and buggy. A horse would never stall on a railroad track. It might bolt at the sound of a train whistle and not slow for a good mile. But stall? Never.

  Trying to stop the instantaneous visualization of horses and buggies and think instead about cars and highways, Hannah realized her biggest problem wasn’t operating this computer but rather controlling her internal wiring.

  Staying on the trodden path surrounded by the ever-growing grasses of the hayfields between Esh and Yoder property, Mary hurried to find Luke. The long-awaited meeting with the bishop was supposed to have begun some thirty minutes ago, so it was probably over by now. She wiped a bead of sweat off her neck, fussing at herself for sitting down in her cushioned rocker, feeling as sleepy as she did. She had fallen sound asleep and had awakened with a start. If she hadn’t been so uptight about today and unable to rest well for weeks, she wouldn’t have fallen asleep unexpectedly.

  As she topped the grassy hill, she spotted Luke, facing away from her with his forearms on the split-rail fence. The bishop stood beside him, talking. Luke nodded, but his stance—with his shoulders drooped—was not that of a man receiving a favorable decision.

  Tinges of nervousness rippled through her as she took in the scene. Without having heard the conversation, she was sure the bishop’s decision was no.

  Of course he hadn’t made a decision they wanted to hear. The marriage bed was about trusting God, not about man deciding the timing and delivery of a family’s future. This she knew deep within her, and the truth of God’s sovereignty within the marriage bed sat well with her, except she intended to marry Luke this coming wedding season—doctor’s permission or not.

  Paul had lost Hannah—at least for now, maybe forever.

  Elle might never return to wed Matthew.

  Mary wasn’t going to wait and see what lay ahead that might cause Luke and her to suffer the same fate—no matter what it took.

  But could she lie to him? The whole idea of lying made her queasy. Surely there was another way.

  Bishop Eli caught a glimpse of her as she came near. He smiled. “Hi, Mary.”

  Luke turned around, his eyes carrying a distant look even though he, too, smiled at her.

  The bishop nodded as he used his bony hand to point toward Yoder property. “If I’d realized you were planning to walk the fields in this heat, we’d have met at your place.”

  Mary eyed Luke, wondering what he was thinking. “It didn’t make sense for Luke to lose any more work time than necessary, Eli. How are you today?”

  “I’m doing right well. It’s my fervent prayer that you do well with the news I brought to Luke.” The man paused, watching her intently.

  He wasn’t a bad man, even if his decision over Hannah had been harsh. The church leaders had no way of knowing that making Hannah spend a night alone would have such consequences. Eli could be strict and sometimes wrong, but Mary never doubted his heart in the matters. Besides, what happened with Hannah … Well, she was quite pregnant and had kept it a secret. Nobody could put that on the bishop’s shoulders.

  Eli removed his hat, wiped his brow, and put his hat back on. “I was telling Luke that none of us, the church leaders or the community, can allow a marriage, knowing you’re too weak to carry a child.”

  She wondered why it’d taken him so long to say the very thing he’d known from the beginning—the Old Ways did not tolerate birth control. It’d been nearly five full months since Hannah had left. Maybe he’d waited until Luke was calm about the reasons for Hannah’s departure and had no desire to blame anyone for the way events had played out.

  Eli looped his fingers through the triangle where his suspenders attached to his pants. “Luke’s request is a serious matter that goes deep into the heart of trusting God beyond our own understanding.”

  That was it!

  She didn’t have to lie. She just needed to trust God.

  Luke offered her a lopsided smile before looking at Eli. “I … think you’re right. Conceiving a child should be left in God’s hands. It’s the way things should be, but I appreciate that you considered it.”

  Eli studied him, as if he’d expected a bit of an argument. She knew better. Luke was asking because she wanted him to. He’d mentioned several times over the last few months that it might be right to wait rather than use some intervention to not conceive …

  Eli held out his hand. “You’ve taken this like a man
who’s submitted to God. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see such maturity.”

  Luke shook his hand.

  Eli focused on Mary. “I’ll see you during instruction …”

  He left the sentence unfinished, and Mary knew it was more of a question than a statement. He wanted to know if she’d choose to stop going to class. Without the instruction classes, she couldn’t be baptized. Without the baptism, she couldn’t be wed.

  Without Luke, none of it mattered.

  “Yes, I’ll be there each Sunday until time for the baptism, and …” She stared at the ground, unable to look Luke in the eyes. “And soon after, Luke and I will marry. I … I spoke to the doctor, and … I mean …” She could feel Luke’s gaze boring into her. “He said the results of the last CT scan, along with my other progress, shows that I’m all healed.” She held on to as much honesty as possible and hoped they didn’t hear what she wasn’t saying. She hadn’t talked to the doctor recently, but the last time he’d read the CT scan, he did tell her she was healed and everything looked good.

  “Well, how do you like that?” Eli chuckled. “That’s why you were late. You were talking to the doctor?”

  Her skin felt like it was on fire as she gave a slight nod.

  Eli slapped Luke on the back. “I guess this means you won’t be partnering with Stoltzfus’s Harness in Lancaster after all, eh?”

  Mary lifted her eyes, realizing all the rumors about this were true and wondering if Luke would ever straight out tell her of his plans.

  Eli smiled. “Well, I’ll just leave you two to talk, and I’ll see you both on Sunday.”

  She was still gawking at Luke when she heard the sounds of the buggy pulling onto the paved road.

  Suspicion covered Luke’s face. “You talked to the doc—”

  She gestured toward him, stopping him in midsentence. “What’s this about you partnering with somebody in Lancaster?”

  Luke’s countenance changed. “It was just an idea, a way of making extra money while we waited for your doctor’s okay to marry.”

  Determined to keep him right here in Owl’s Perch, Mary whispered, “We h … have permission.”

  Luke smiled. “So I heard.” He stepped forward and took her hand.

  The warmth of his touch spread through her. Like the bishop said, this matter went to the heart of trusting God. The CT scan said she was healed. The doctor had given her a clean bill of health, except he’d said …

  Never mind what he said.

  “Mary?” Luke placed his finger under her chin and lifted her head. She looked into his brown eyes.

  There was nothing wrong with trusting God in these matters.

  “We can get married this wedding season,” she whispered.

  Hannah squeezed the steering wheel as she pressed the brake.

  Gideon looked out the open window on the passenger’s side, acting like he wasn’t nervous about Hannah wrecking his older model Buick.

  From the backseat Zabeth tapped Hannah on the shoulder. “You think we’ll get to Martin’s sometime tonight?”

  Gideon and Zabeth both broke into laughter. Gideon drew a heavy breath. “I ain’t even sure we’re gonna get to the end of the lane before morning.”

  Hannah didn’t respond to their playful jests. This machine had real horsepower, about two hundred of them according to Gideon, which made no sense to Hannah. If she had two hundred horses hooked to a buggy, she couldn’t imagine it being able to go sixty or seventy miles per hour—although however fast it went, the trip would completely tear a buggy to pieces. She was fairly sure that stopping a vehicle at a red light would be easier than stopping two hundred horses.

  Coming to a stop at the end of the driveway, she pushed the lever for the blinker up and waited for a car to pass. Zabeth gave directions as they eased onto the road and sweat inched down Hannah’s back. It was quite a drive to Martin’s place, and the car seemed much hotter than a buggy.

  “We made it … before it’s over,” Zabeth chirped. “It’s that second house on the left. Right there.”

  The second …

  Hannah turned into a paved, circular driveway and stared at the two-story, smooth-stoned home with high arching windows and stacked-rock columns. “Zabeth?”

  Zabeth chuckled. “Yeah, we’re at the right place. His father taught him how to invest money and gave him a few thousand to invest each year for his birthday since he was twelve. Something about making some savvy choices in the stock market before he even graduated from high school.”

  She put the car in Park, set the brake, and turned the engine off. She pulled the keys out and passed them to Gideon. “You want to come in for a while?”

  “Nah, it’s been a long day of driving and … being driven.” He smiled. “Since Martin will see to it you guys get back, I’m ready to go on home.”

  Hannah paid him while Zabeth went to the front door. She made arrangements for Gideon to pick her up the next day and then went up the steps to Martin’s home.

  Soft, unfamiliar music pulsated through the room as she entered through the opened door. Zabeth was busy talking to people Hannah didn’t know. Martin was nowhere in sight as she closed the door behind her. Polished woods and colorful rugs covered the floors. Fancy lights with fans hung from the ceiling, and the walls were covered with photos. Seemed to her the place looked awfully shiny and clean for a single guy.

  She meandered into the adjoining living room and stopped in front of a group of pictures on the wall. Her heart palpitated at the sight of photos of family events. Melancholy washed over her as she stared at a picture of Zabeth when she was a few years older than Hannah, holding a one-year-old in her arms and a little girl by the hand—probably Martin and Faye. Another frame had a man and woman standing behind a young boy and older girl. That had to be Martin and Faye with their parents. Several photos had Martin in sports uniforms; one showed Faye wearing a ballerina costume.

  “Hey, phone girl.” Martin spoke over her shoulder.

  She glanced at him before pointing to a photo. “Did Faye take ballet as a child?”

  Martin shook his head. “That’s a Halloween costume.”

  “Oh.” She touched the silver-framed picture of Zabeth holding a baby. “Is this you?”

  His confident nature seemed to melt as he nodded.

  Hannah looked around the room. “This isn’t how I thought a single man’s place would look.”

  A half smile crossed his lips. “I hired a decorator, who put everything that was worn, torn, or too guylike into the storage room. And I have a cleaning lady who keeps everything shiny and tidy—when I’m not baby-sitting Lissa and Kevin.” He rolled his eyes. “So, I heard you inched … I mean, drove here tonight.”

  She mimicked his roll of the eyes.

  He laughed. “Now if you practice that a little, you can tell a person off without ever opening your mouth.”

  From somewhere she heard Lissa chattering. “Is Faye here?”

  Martin shook his head. “The musicians always hire a sitter for our parties. And never underestimate the power of Faye to use any available sitter.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “How’d things go at North Lincoln?”

  She still chafed under the guilt of pursuing an education, and yet part of her was overjoyed at the opportunity—torn between the ways of her people and the choices offered in the Englischers’ world, without a hint of how to pray her way to peace.

  She cocked an eyebrow. “You and Zabeth talk too much.”

  “Nah. Not all that much, but she’s a tad interested in you getting on your feet ASAP …” He shook his head. “Sorry. I tend to think about things like they’re a business deal and what needs to be handled in what order, and I just saw concern for Zabeth’s health flicker through those brown eyes.”

  Hannah drew a deep breath. “The cancer is in remission. Even with the heart condition the treatments caused, she could live for …”

  “Yeah, I know.” He stepped closer. “And no one wants that
more than you and me, but she’d like to see progress made, okay?”

  She nodded and opened her purse. “You won’t believe this, but the Robert T. White School of Practical Nursing has a program that starts at the first of the year.” She pulled a small stack of informational papers out and passed them to him. “Admission testing takes place in time for me to begin the two-year program this January.”

  He read through the first page, not looking all that impressed. “Are you sure you want to go here?”

  “Ya. It’s perfect for me. It’s close; it’s part-time. The classes are at night, so you’d be available for Zabeth while I’m in class. And it’s even housed in the same building where I’ll study for my GED, so I’m pretty comfortable with it.” She pointed to the criteria for admissions. “This plan gives me a chance at passing my GED and getting everything in order to begin the two-year course without having to wait until next fall.”

  He flipped through the papers. “But you won’t finish with an associate’s degree, just a diploma. There are other schools, nursing schools where you’d have a degree at the end of two years and really good schools where you could earn a bachelor’s in four … or a little more.”

  She took the papers from him. “But I can do this one.” Clearing her throat, she shoved the stuff back into her purse. “It’s only part-time plus a clinical rotation every other weekend. Martin, I’ve never spent any time in a classroom that wasn’t a one-room schoolhouse. Maybe you stepped right into a college campus full-time, but this feels right for me.”

  His green eyes narrowed. “I didn’t mean to …” He held her gaze before offering a smile. “I apologize. This is a huge step, one that makes you happy, and I should’ve looked at it from your perspective, not mine. So let’s try again.” Martin pointed to her purse. “That school is perfect, and I think you’ll be comfortable there. If you want a better chance of passing the entrance exams, we’ll get you a tutor, the GED study book, and whatever else you need to prepare for nursing school. I’ll find you a car to drive by the time you get your license. And—”