The Amish Baby Finds a Home

by Barbara Cameron

  He hurried back there and took John as the boy reached out his arms to him.

  Hannah looked relieved. She placed items in a shopping bag, tied a scrap of fabric around the handles, and beamed at her customer. The woman thanked her then stepped aside so another customer could be rung up.

  “Holler if you need my help,” he told Hannah before he walked away with John.

  He was stopped often as he wandered the shop. Sometimes a customer had a question. Sometimes someone just wanted to interact with John.

  It seemed John charmed the ladies like his dat.

  “Gideon!”

  He turned and saw Hannah waving at him. “Sounds like someone needs our help,” he told John.

  They returned to the shop counter. “I need to cut some fabric,” Hannah said. “Could you handle the cash register for me?”

  “Schur.”

  “John can sit in his stroller if you need both hands.”

  He’d watched her handle things while holding John. What made her think he couldn’t do the same?

  “We’ll be fine.”

  But it didn’t take long for him to discover that doing cashier duty while holding John was easier said than done.

  “She’s just had more practice,” he told John after he fumbled with the cash register. “Look, how about you take a seat in this handsome vehicle here for a few minutes and let me take care of business?”

  John protested for a moment but when Gideon pushed the stroller out where he could see the ladies moving about and was able to get their attention again, he was all smiles.

  Working the counter at the quilt shop wasn’t much different from working the one at his toy shop, he mused. Well, his customers often played with the toys he created and sold. And most of the things sold here weren’t already made. The ladies bought material and yarn and such and turned them into quilts and garments. But the things sold at both shops seemed to provide a lot of pleasure to their customers.

  The women began filing out of the shop, and gradually it emptied.

  “Wow, that was interesting,” Hannah said as she walked over. “Well, for some of us.”

  She gestured at John. He’d fallen asleep in the stroller and his head was bent at an awkward angle.

  “I’m going to put him in his crib so he’ll be more comfortable.” She lifted him carefully, and he didn’t wake as she carried him over to the crib and laid him down in it.

  “Danki for your help,” she said when she returned. “But that wasn’t fair of me to let you help while you had your shop closed.”

  “Eli stopped in, so I took advantage of him. I thought you might like a break. Be right back.”

  Gideon went to the back of the shop and got the pastries and drinks. “I’m afraid the iced coffee isn’t anymore.” He handed her one then opened the box of pastries.

  She smiled as she chose a whoopie pie, took a sip of her drink, and sat down on a stool behind the counter. “Delicious. And it’s so gut to get off my feet.”

  “So what’s Emma’s familye emergency?” he asked as he bit into a whoopie pie. “I thought her familye wasn’t speaking to her.”

  “Emma’s mudder called. Her dat had a heart attack. Emma went to the hospital.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope he’s going to be allrecht.” He finished the whoopie pie in two bites. “Well, I’d best get back to the shop and let Eli go on about his day.”

  “Maybe he could go by the hospital and see if Emma needs a ride back here.”

  “That’s a very gut idea.” He stood. “I’ll see you later.”

  Hannah stood as well. “Danki again. I don’t know what I’d have done without your help. You were so gut with the ladies.”

  He glanced over at John asleep in his crib. “John did a lot of charming the ladies. Runs in the familye,” he said wryly.

  “Tell Eli danki for me.”

  He sighed, wishing he could stay longer. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek. “See you later.”

  She nodded. “Later.”

  * * *

  Shop traffic was light the rest of the afternoon. After Hannah walked around returning bolts of fabric to their assigned places on shelves and display tables and doing general straightening up she sat at the quilt table and worked on the wedding ring quilt.

  When John slept an hour past his usual time she leaned over and touched his forehead. He felt warm. A few minutes later he woke and cried out irritably.

  “I’m right here,” she crooned. “Did you have a nice nap?”

  He rubbed his eyes and frowned.

  “Your mudder will be back soon.” She dug into the diaper bag and took out the thermometer—one of those fancy ones that you touched to the forehead. She frowned. It read one hundred. She talked to him while she did a diaper change, cleaned her hands with sanitizer, then dug out a bottle of juice. John sat on her lap and drank it but he continued to be cranky.

  So she carried him around the shop and talked to him and watched the door, hoping Emma would return soon. She remembered how Emma had told her she occasionally felt less than confident taking care of John.

  The shop phone rang. “Maybe that’s your mamm now.”

  It was, but the news wasn’t gut. “My dat’s in surgery,” Emma said, her voice filled with tears. “I want to stay with Mamm if I can. Can you watch John for a while longer so I can be with her?”

  “Schur. Don’t you worry about a thing.” Hannah bit her lip and debated whether to tell Emma that John had woken up feeling warm. But she pressed her lips to his forehead the way she’d seen her mudder do and found it cool. No need to worry Emma, she decided.

  So when it came time to close the shop she locked the door, turned the sign from Open to Closed, and put John in his stroller so she could make up her bank deposit.

  After a few minutes, Gideon knocked on her door. She walked over to let him in.

  “Emma’s still at the hospital,” she told him as she locked the door again after he’d entered. “Her dat’s in surgery and she wanted to stay with her mudder. I said I’d watch John.”

  “It’s gut that she stays,” he told her. “Maybe they can heal their relationship. Eli is there with them. All I had to do was tell him what happened and he said he was going to join Emma at the hospital.”

  Gideon had been the support she’d needed that afternoon. It was nice to hear that his bruder was with Emma.

  They waited outside for their ride, since the days were getting a little warmer. John sat in his stroller and stared wide-eyed at the cars driving past on the road in front of him.

  When Liz pulled up in front of the shop in her van, he waved his hands in excitement. Hannah picked him up out of the stroller and had trouble holding on to the wriggling little bundle.

  “I think John remembers riding in the van with us,” Gideon said.

  “Well, look who’s here!” Liz exclaimed as she leaned over the seat to greet them. “I put the child seat in right after you called me, Hannah.”

  “Thank you so much. John’s been helping me since you took Emma to the hospital.”

  “How’s her father doing?”

  “Emma called and said he was going into surgery, but I haven’t heard anything since.”

  Hannah climbed into the van, set her purse and diaper bag on the floor, and got John settled into the car seat in the middle. It wasn’t easy buckling him in when he was so excited, but she finally managed and then fastened her own seat belt. Gideon folded the stroller and put it in the back of the van with their lunch totes. Then he got in and buckled his seat belt.

  With her passengers safely secured, Liz checked for traffic and then pulled out onto the road. “I told Emma I’d pray for him. My Hank had a stent put in last September and he’s good as new. They’re doing wonders catching heart problems early and fixing them these days.”

  As they rode home Hannah couldn’t help thinking about her own dat. He hadn’t met John yet. What would he say when she walked in with him?

  Sh
e glanced at Gideon and it was as if he read her mind. “Liz, I’m getting out with Hannah at her house.”

  Liz nodded. “No problem.”

  Hannah and Gideon kept their conversation confined to small talk about their day until Liz let them out at their stop. Gideon got the stroller and their lunch totes out while Hannah took care of getting John from his seat.

  She waited until the van was on its way down the road before she turned to Gideon. “Staying for supper?” she asked wryly.

  “Last time I didn’t want you facing your mudder by yourself,” he said as they walked up to the house. “I’m schur your dat is going to have some questions about John. You shouldn’t have to face him alone.”

  “Daed’s not going to give me a hard time. He’s not like Emma’s dat.”

  “Then maybe I’ll get lucky and your mudder will have made biscuits.”

  “I knew you had an ulterior motive.”

  He chuckled as he parked the stroller on the front porch. He watched her pick John up, and he opened the door for her. He followed her inside and gathered his courage as they walked to the kitchen.

  “Gut-n-owed, Gideon,” Lester boomed as they walked into the kitchen. He looked at John. “Well, well, who’s this?”

  “This is John, my bruder’s boppli,” Gideon said before Hannah could. “Eli and Emma are at the hospital. Emma’s dat had a heart attack today.”

  “I hope he’s allrecht,” Mary said.

  Hannah nodded. “Emma’s mudder wanted her there so I said I’d take care of John.”

  Lester raised an eyebrow as he took a seat at the head of the table. “Well, gut-n-owed, John. So nice of you to join us for supper.”

  “Hello, Gideon,” Mary said as she carried a platter heaped with fried chicken to the table and then set it down. “Are you staying for supper?”

  “Ya, please,” he said looking at the dish.

  Hannah saw him glance at the stove. She knew what he was looking for.

  Mary held out her arms to take John. “Hi, sweet kind! We’re having fried chicken. Do you like it as much as your onkel Gideon does??”

  Hannah laughed. “John has some strained vegetables for supper. He didn’t do too well with carrots earlier,” she told her, remembering how John had spit them up earlier that day. “He’s had an ear infection and was a little warm but I think he’s allrecht now.”

  “Lester, why don’t you go get the highchair for John?”

  “Let me do that,” Gideon said. “Hannah can show me where it is.”

  “Suits me. I’ll just sit here and get acquainted with John,” Lester said easily.

  “It was nice of you to offer to help with the chair,” Hannah said as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

  “I don’t want your dat carrying it and tripping on the stairs.”

  “Good point. But don’t say that in front of him.”

  He looked at her. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

  Hannah laughed and shook her head. “Nee.” She opened the door to her schweschder Linda’s old room. “It’s right there—” she began and found herself swept into Gideon’s arms.

  He kissed her, then grinned as he stepped back.

  “Nee, not stupid,” she murmured. “Sneaky but not stupid.”

  Gideon picked up the highchair and headed for the stairs. “It’ll be interesting to see what your dat has to say about John.”

  “I’m telling you, he isn’t like Emma’s dat.”

  “We’ll see.”

  When they returned to the kitchen Lester glanced at them. “Found it allrecht, did you?”

  Hannah felt herself blushing.

  “Where shall I set this?” Gideon asked Mary.

  “Put it right there where Hannah sits,” she said, gesturing at a chair.

  He set it down then took the basket of biscuits she held. “Let me take that for you, Mary. It looks heavy.” He grinned at Hannah. “Looks like this is my lucky night. I can’t resist your biscuits, Mary.”

  “Seems that’s not all you can’t resist,” Lester said.

  Hannah felt her blush deepen as she saw his mouth twitch at the corners.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Emma sat in the hospital waiting room with her mudder and couldn’t help thinking how strange it felt. She couldn’t have been more surprised when her mudder called Hannah’s shop and asked to speak to her.

  It didn’t make any sense to her that her mudder would want her at the hospital, not after her eldres turned her away when she first came back to town. Emma wondered if it was because, as she was the eldest kind, her mudder had always relied on her help. Deep in her heart Emma hoped her mudder was softening about John, although if her dat recovered and still didn’t accept him that could change.

  In any event it just wasn’t in Emma to refuse her mudder when she sounded so terrified. Now as they sat in the hospital’s surgical waiting room and waited to hear news she was glad she’d come. Her dat was a man of such strong will she couldn’t envision him being felled by anything. Why, she couldn’t remember him being sick a day in her life.

  But here they were, watching the minutes tick by so slowly on the clock on the wall. A 100 percent blockage in one artery, the doctor had told her mudder as she sat with her. Surgery had to be performed immediately, and he was worried about her dat’s high blood pressure. The doctor had talked of something called a stent, and her mudder had just stared at him, looking bewildered. So Emma focused hard on the doctor’s words, and she’d been the one to ask the questions. And after he’d rushed out of the room to do the surgery, she’d felt like they’d reversed the usual eldre/kind roles as she explained things to her mudder.

  So she sat beside the woman she hadn’t thought she’d ever speak to again and prayed with her while they waited. She fixed her cups of tea from the beverage station set up on a table on one side of the room and worried over how pale and thin and…old her mudder looked. There were so many gray hairs on her head, so many lines etched on her pale face. How was it possible that she had aged so much in the time that Emma had been in Ohio?

  “Mamm, you need to eat something. You’ve been here all day.”

  Lillian shook her head. “I couldn’t. Go get something if you want it.”

  “Nee, I’ll wait. The doctor should be out soon.”

  She hoped.

  Finally the doctor came in and sank into a chair in front of them. “Your husband came through the surgery just fine, Mrs. Graber. He’s in recovery now. A nurse will come for you when you can see him.”

  “He’s going to be all right?” she asked as if she couldn’t believe what he was saying.

  He nodded. “You got him here in time. If he does what we tell him he should be around for a good, long time.”

  “He’s awfully stubborn.”

  The doctor chuckled and patted her hand. “I saw that. He tried to argue with me about having the angiogram. Said he was feeling better and he wanted to go home. I said he could do that. But I told him that generally the patients who did that came back later the same day and they were in worse shape. So he decided he’d stay for the test. When he heard the results—that an artery was a hundred percent blocked and he was lucky to be here, he apologized for giving me a hard time.”

  “I’d like to have seen that,” Lillian blurted out. “The man’s never apologized to me once in all the years we’ve been married.”

  Then she glanced at Emma and bit her lip. “I shouldn’t have said that. It’s wrong for a wife to speak ill about her husband.”

  “But it’s true,” Emma told her.

  Lillian nodded and sighed.

  “Well, hopefully he’ll use that stubborn will to follow our instructions for cardiac recovery,” the doctor said.

  He looked at Emma. “After you both see him, I suggest you take your mother home and make her take care of herself. I expect that your father will be able to go home tomorrow or the next day, and she’ll need every ounce of energy to see that he doesn’t overdo
it. You both have a good evening.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” they said in unison.

  “You’re very welcome.” He rose and left the room.

  Lillian stared at the empty doorway for a long moment and then burst into tears.

  It was the first time that Emma had ever seen her mudder break down.

  So she’d gathered her mudder’s frail body against her and let her cry. Finally, the storm passed. Emma reached for the box of tissues on the table beside her and handed it to her mudder. Then Emma used some tissues to dry her own tears.

  “Your dat scared me to death collapsing like he did. He was in such pain and he had trouble breathing. I was so afraid to leave him. Your bruder Ike was still at the kitchen table. I sent him out to the phone shanty to call nine-one-one. He did and when he came back in he said the woman on the phone told him to tell me what to do, to keep your dat quiet, do CPR if he stopped breathing, and stay calm. And then Ike said he was going to go stand in the front of the house to flag down the ambulance when it came.” She glanced at Emma. “Ike’s a bright bu. I’ve been able to trust him to help with the kinner since you’ve been gone.”

  “He is.” Emma blew her nose, rose to toss the used tissues in the wastepaper basket, then returned to her chair.

  “I’ve sat in the emergency room waiting room with one or another of my kinner so many times,” Lillian said. “Never once had to come here for something for your dat.”

  “Ike was always breaking something.”

  “Where’s your boppli?”

  “Hannah’s watching him for me. Listen, Mamm, really, you need to eat something.”

  Lillian shook her head. “I couldn’t. The nurse should be here soon.”

  The room was so quiet Emma could hear the minutes ticking by on the wall clock.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Lillian asked suddenly.

  “What?”

  Lillian turned to her. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were pregnant?”

  Emma stared at her. She knew she should have expected the question but when it hadn’t come in the first hour she’d been here and she’d seen how worried her mudder had been, she’d figured it wouldn’t be asked.