An Amish Homecoming

by Rosalind Lauer

  “I know that.” He touched the brim of his hat. “Horses would be so much easier.”

  Epilogue

  Tomorrow was the day.

  Amid the commotion and noise of setting up the large barn that would house tomorrow’s reception, Essie Lapp lifted her head from her task of laying out spoons and took in a breath of gratitude. The sight of so many women buzzing around tables decked in Christmassy tablecloths, preparing the room for the festive celebration of her own wedding, overwhelmed Essie with joy.

  Her dreams were coming true. Tomorrow morning she and Harlan would marry and begin their lives as husband and wife. Friends and family had been planning and preparing for weeks. Mem had managed to get the main rooms of the house painted for the ceremony, and relatives had come from other Amish communities as far away as Michigan to attend the wedding.

  Early this morning the buggy barn had been cleared out for the occasion. Webs and dust had been knocked from the exposed beams in the ceiling, the floors swept and mopped, so that the helpers who pitched in to work on the wedding could set up seating for nearly three hundred. They had unloaded long tables from the wedding wagon and set them up in seven rows so that each table would seat forty. Then the long tables had been covered with tablecloths, alternating green and red for each table. Essie had chosen the colors for the Christmas season, and the cloths matched the dresses of her attendants.

  Now the tables were being set, and the women working in the room were like a patchwork quilt of her life. Mem was off in the corner, showing some of her cousins how they should set up the Eck, the special table for the bridal party. At one end of the Eck, Harlan’s mem and sister sat folding white paper napkins. Essie’s Aunt Greta pushed a rolling cart of china plates as Annie sat each plate on the table, facedown and perfectly spaced. They were followed by small teams comprised of her friends Sadie and Laura, and her English and Amish cousins, who placed silverware and water glasses on the table. Mammi moved along the table, straightening forks and smoothing creases in the tablecloth so that everything was neat as a pin. With so many people working together, they’d have 280 place settings neatly set in no time.

  Of course, with dozens of women in the room, the chatter throughout the barn rivaled the birdsong in the riverbank trees on a summer morning. It was a scene that warmed Essie’s heart.

  “Doesn’t it look great?” asked Serena as she unloaded one of the last coffee cups from a tray her twin Megan was holding.

  “It looks very inviting,” Essie agreed. “Thank you for helping.”

  “It’s not every day you get to set up a party for three hundred people,” Megan said.

  Three hundred . . . how the guest list had grown!

  “Are you nervous?” asked Grace, who was taking a break from setting out knives. “I mean, will you be with all these people watching you tomorrow?”

  “I’ve been too busy to get nervous,” Essie said. “Which is a good thing. You know I’m shy in front of strangers, but there’ll be no strangers here. Everyone who’s coming is either a friend or family.”

  “People who love you,” Serena said, her face puckering briefly with emotion. “Aw. We love you, too, Essie, and we’re so happy for you.” She shoved the empty tray in her sister’s arms so that she could lean over and give Essie a hug.

  “She’s not married yet,” Grace said. “Save some of that for tomorrow.”

  “She’ll be getting plenty of well wishes tomorrow,” Annie called from one of the rolling carts. “Better get your moment while you can.”

  As they chatted Lizzie popped in the door and hurried toward them, the cold seeping from her coat. “Dat sent me,” she said breathlessly. “Harlan is here, and he wants to talk to Essie.”

  “Ooh,” Serena said. “The groom is in the house.”

  “And Dat wants Annie to come help with the evening milking.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Annie said as Lizzie took Essie’s hand.

  “Come,” Lizzie said. “I promised Harlan I wouldn’t come back without you.”

  Essie smiled at the young women gathered around her. “Come to the house when you’re finished setting up . . . everyone. Aunt Greta and Mammi brought sandwiches and soup for supper.”

  Lizzie took Essie’s hand and led her out the door. A blustery December wind rippled the skirt of her dress and her apron as Essie stepped out of the buggy barn. Beside her, Lizzie let out a whoop, and Essie put an arm around her sister and held her close as they hurried down the path to the house.

  “Don’t go blowing away from me before the wedding,” Essie teased.

  “I won’t! I don’t want to miss a minute of it,” Lizzie said. “Mem keeps calling it secret vows. If it’s a secret, how come everyone can watch?”

  “Sacred vows,” Essie corrected. “That means it’s blessed by Gott.”

  “That’s what she’s been saying?” Lizzie rolled her eyes. “That changes everything.”

  They skirted around the wedding wagon, the RV where helpers were using one of the six ovens to bake bread and make other preparations for tomorrow’s wedding. Lizzie led Essie to the house, where the door and shades were open and the inside lights seemed bright against the gathering dusk. The first floor was a hub of activity as men carried furniture out to the storage shed and worked on dismantling the temporary wall between the kitchen and the living room. The space was being cleared so that they could hold the wedding ceremony here, and then move the celebration to the buggy barn for the dinner.

  Although there were at least a dozen men moving furniture, Essie spotted Harlan immediately; the heart had its way of finding its match. He was hoisting one end of the sofa, carrying it out with her cousin Isaac Lapp. Isaac was a good friend of her brother Sam, one of a handful of young men in Sam’s buddy bunch, most of whom were still not baptized or married.

  “There you are!” Harlan called, smiling the moment he laid eyes on Essie. “I have something for you. Give me a minute to get this out to the shed.”

  “I got it.” Sam edged close to Harlan and took his end of the couch. “We don’t want the groom to strain himself the night before the wedding.”

  “I’d carry two couches on my back if they’d let me,” Harlan joked, and the guys around them chuckled.

  As Harlan motioned Essie and Lizzie over to the shelves in the living room, Essie noticed how relaxed he seemed. A good, healthy pink had returned to his skin tone, and the lines of worry had dissolved from his face. The strains of the past few months seemed behind them now, and she was ever so hopeful for their future together.

  “Here’s your quarter for fetching your sister,” he said, handing Lizzie a silver coin.

  “Denki.” She beamed up at him. “It’s going in my piggy bank.” Lizzie was always saving up for some book or art supplies. She touched Essie’s arm. “Wait ’til you see what he made for you!”

  Harlan took something else from the shelf and presented it to Essie. It was a chunk of wood smoothed and finished to a rich sheen, with a carving on one side. “Another bookend.”

  Essie’s breath caught in her throat as she accepted the well-crafted wooden sculpture. “And now my books can stand on their own. The set is complete.” Just as Harlan would complete her life as her husband.

  The gift hit an emotional cord within her. The thoughtful simplicity of it, the meaning of it, made her throat tighten up. She hadn’t expected this, but here, on the eve of her wedding, she was being reminded of the big step she was about to take, and the goodness of the man she’d fallen in love with.

  “What’s the matter?” Lizzie asked. “Don’t you like it?”

  “I like it so very much.” Essie’s fingers smoothed over the engraving in the smooth oval—a sheaf of wheat. “It’s solid and delicate at the same time.”

  “Just like you,” Harlan said. “The wheat stands for love and charity. That’s you, Essie. You have such a big heart.”

  She waved the notion off as her eyes misted with tears. “You make it so easy to l
ove you.”

  “Good grief,” Lizzie said. “This is getting too corny for a kid like me.”

  Harlan’s laugh was deep and rich as he touched Lizzie’s shoulder. “You’d best get used to it.”

  Essie ran her hand over the carving once more, and then handed it to her younger sister. “Will you take this upstairs for me? Put it in a safe place, maybe on the dresser.”

  Lizzie nodded, accepting the important task with reverence.

  Once Lizzie turned away, Harlan grabbed Essie’s hand, and they stole out the door and around the side of the porch, away from the hustle and bustle of the setup. Cold swirled around them, but they found a spot in a nook sheltered from the wind, and Harlan’s hands rubbed some heat into Essie’s arms and shoulders.

  “Essie . . .” The warmth of his smile reached his amber eyes. It was the special way he looked at her, the light in his eyes that told her time and again that she was the woman he truly loved.

  Glancing up at him, she felt her knees soften like warm candle wax. “Will it always be this way when you’re near?” she whispered. “My heart is thumping like a rabbit, and my legs feel weak.”

  One of his dark brows lifted. “Your legs might turn to jelly, but you’re the strongest woman I know. You held me up when the world seemed to be falling around me. The buggy accident. My mem wanting to leave. Me thinking I had to go with her.” He shook his head. “Through it all, you were there, my rock.”

  “Gott was there,” she said.

  “And you, Essie. You work in humble ways, but your love and support hold up so many folks. Not just me. I see how you take care of your brothers and sisters and cousins. My mem, and yours, too. Your mem keeps saying she doesn’t know what she’ll do without you at home.”

  “My mem . . .” The thought of her dear mother choked Essie up all over again. Her parents had raised her in a home of love and faith, and now it was time for Harlan and her to make such a home of their own. “Did you tell my mem she’s not losing a daughter but gaining a son?”

  When he smiled, the shifting light of dusk caught his handsome face. “Your family has always welcomed me with open arms, and that’s been important to me. Growing up with just Mem and Suzie, I’ve always wanted the noise and love of a big family.”

  “Now you’ll have the loud and loving Lapps,” Essie said.

  “And you.” He moved closer, and she rested her hands on his shoulders, thinking of how right this was, to be warmed by Harlan’s embrace. This was where she belonged. “I can’t wait to be married to you, Essie. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.”

  She nodded slowly, all the while basking in the light of his amber eyes. “Just the two of us, on our own. No more waiting for youth events or Saturday night so that we can be together. And with Gott’s blessings, we’ll soon start a family of our own.”

  A new light sparked in his eyes. “Children would make me the happiest man on earth. And you’ll be such a good mother. Loving and caring. And a good cook, too.”

  “And now, my family is yours. And our children . . .”

  “Will have their mother’s beautiful smile and strong heart, Gott willing.”

  “And their father’s golden eyes and talent for woodworking.”

  “And a loving Amish home,” he said.

  “A home bursting with love.” It was the last thing she said before rising onto her toes, pressing into his warm embrace, and losing herself in his kiss.