The Amish Quiltmaker's Unruly In-Law

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with him? Ach, vell, she would have had to compete with Mary Ann, and Mary Ann was prettier and more deserving.

  Ben had not attended church this morning, and because he was the bishop’s son, there was gossip. Everyone felt sorry for the bishop and his wife. What a misfortune to have a son like Ben! The rumor was that the bishop had finally kicked Ben out of his house. Nobody was sure where he was staying now, except Linda, who was certain that Esther and Levi had taken him in. Levi was a faithful bruder, and Esther had a soft spot for Ben. Esther’s own wayward sister had lived with her for many weeks.

  But if Ben was living with Esther and Levi, they were keeping it a big secret. They probably wanted to avoid the gossip and the condemnation they would surely get if people knew that someone as bad as Ben Kiem was sheltered in their home. But Linda suspected that’s where Ben was by the stiff way Levi held himself during services and the way Esther avoided everyone’s gaze and tried to act normal. It was hard to believe everything was normal at Esther’s house when she had showed up to church with a celery stick tucked behind her ear.

  There were rumors that Ben and Wally got drunk every night and went around looking for mischief. Angry, profane words had been spray-painted on the Palmers’ barn a few days ago. The Gregersons’ house had been broken into last week, but nothing had been stolen but some food from the fridge. Of course no one knew for sure if Ben and Wally were responsible, but when things went bad in the community, they were the first ones blamed. Most people, even Linda, had no doubt Ben and Wally were the culprits for everything bad that went on. Who else could it be? It wasn’t like Ben was hiding his wickedness. He wanted people to think he was the worst kind of person.

  Well, he’d succeeded.

  Linda lay back down and pounded her pillow to soften it up. Oh, how she wished she didn’t care. How she wished her heart didn’t ache every time she heard Ben’s name or saw a red truck. Ach, how she wanted to be that practical, unfeeling girl she had always believed she was. But as Mamm said, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” She had to quit wishing for things to be different than they were and start trying to change them. And that meant no more crying into her pillow at night or thinking about Ben during the day. That meant dating a boy she could actually marry and moving on with her life.

  Linda bolted upright when someone tapped softly on her bedroom window. What in the world? Pulse racing wildly, Linda glanced at Nora sleeping peacefully, got out of bed again, and pulled the curtains aside.

  She wasn’t sure what she was expecting on the other side of the pane, but it wasn’t this. Cathy held the flashlight of her phone pointing upward below her chin, and the effect was terrifying. She looked like a ghost or some sort of eerie spirit. She turned her phone around so Linda could read the screen. “Come with me right now,” it said.

  Linda paused and glanced behind her. Was she dreaming? It didn’t feel like she was dreaming. The wood floor was cool on her feet, and she could still smell the freshly laundered pillowcase she’d been resting her head on.

  Cathy turned her phone around and typed something else. She wasn’t very fast, but Linda couldn’t complain. Linda didn’t know how to text at all. Cathy showed Linda the screen again. “Ben is in trouble. We need to help him.”

  Linda’s heart lodged in her throat. She swallowed hard three times, but she couldn’t get rid of that suffocating feeling. How did Cathy know Ben was in trouble? Was there really anything they could do to help? Was Linda going to start being realistic and practical or not? Because if she was, that meant forgetting any feelings she ever had for Ben and letting him suffer the consequences of his own actions. He was just another boy in the gmayna, and he should go to his family and friends for help, not a girl he barely knew.

  Linda stood at the window in her nightgown, struggling to breath and struggling to be sensible. She didn’t owe Ben anything, and he had no hold over her.

  Ach. If only that was true. Ben had an iron-fisted grip on her heart. It was why she cried herself to sleep every night and why she would go and help him now. Ben might hate her, but she couldn’t refuse help to someone who needed her. She could sort out the consequences and the heartache later.

  Linda nodded at Cathy and shut the curtain. Her pulse pounded savagely in her ears as she got dressed, being careful not to wake Nora. In a moment of good sense, she jotted off a quick note to Mamm in case she wasn’t back before morning. That was the responsible and practical thing to do. Ben might not care how many people he hurt, but Linda did. Mamm would be worried sick if she woke up and Linda had disappeared.

  Linda sneaked out the back door and around to the front of the house where Cathy was parked in her car with the engine running and the lights turned off. “I’m sorry to wake you,” Cathy said, sounding extraordinarily annoyed, “but Ben woke me up, and I wanted to share the joy.”

  “What happened? Where is he?”

  Cathy put the car in drive, turned on her headlights, and pulled onto the road. “His chickens have finally come home to roost.”

  “What? What about chickens?”

  “He’s at some house in Monte Vista. A friend of Zoe’s. He didn’t say, but it sounds like things there are getting out of control. Zoe won’t leave, so he asked me to come and get him.”

  Linda couldn’t understand it. Ben usually would have simply walked home. That’s what he did from the sand dunes. “Is he hurt?”

  “I don’t know, but don’t get your hopes up. He sounded slightly drunk.”

  Linda folded her arms and stared out the window. “My hopes up about what?”

  “Hopes that he’s changed or suddenly grown a brain.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve given up hope where Ben is concerned.”

  Cathy nodded. “It’s best to be realistic.”

  Realistic. That’s exactly what Linda wanted to be. Still, the thought of him in trouble felt like a hundred-pound weight around her neck. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “I agree. I get precious little sleep already as it is.”

  “Why did Ben call you?” Linda said.

  Cathy shrugged and squinted into the darkness. “He has my number memorized, and I might be the only reasonable person he knows who also owns a car.”

  Linda frowned. “Why did you invite me?”

  Cathy glanced at her phone and turned onto a side road. “That was pretty clever of me, don’t you think, using my phone to communicate through the window? I didn’t want to wake your mom. She never would have let you come.”

  “But why me?”

  “Well,” Cathy said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, “of course I asked you. We’re a team, like Sonny and Cher or Siegfried and Roy. I saw them in Vegas, though I don’t usually talk about that dark time.” She scrunched her lips to one side of her face. “My husband offered to come, but it takes thirty minutes to get his walker and him in the car, and Ben would have been waiting until Christmas. Lon used to be an EMT, and he has his very own police scanner. He agreed to listen on the scanner and let us know if there’s trouble.”

  A police scanner? Surely Ben wasn’t in that kind of trouble.

  Cathy turned down another street. “I didn’t want to go alone because an eighty-three-year-old woman should not be on the road by herself after midnight. I came to you because I didn’t want to burden Ben’s family with this. Esther and Levi need their sleep, and Ben’s dad would probably do a lot of yelling. Ben doesn’t need more yelling.” Cathy gave Linda a grumpy, sleepy smile. “I want Ben to see a friendly face.”

  Linda felt the compliment thread its way up her spine. “I don’t know if Ben wants to see me.”

  “He doesn’t think he does,” Cathy said. “But you are truly the only person he wants to see. I still don’t think he’s good enough for you, but he does have good taste.”

  Cathy glanced at her phone one more time. Linda didn’t like that it took her attention from the road, but she wasn’t about to
tell Cathy how to drive. Lord willing, they wouldn’t get into an accident.

  They came to a house with a waist-high hedge lining the front and sides of the yard and an orange mailbox to the side of the driveway. Four cars were parked on the street side of the hedge. It looked like a party.

  Linda gasped. Cathy’s headlights shone on a solitary figure sitting on the ground next to the mailbox, holding his head in his hands. “I think it’s Ben,” she said, pointing out the window.

  Linda jumped like water on a hot skillet when Cathy’s phone rang. Cathy pulled up next to Ben and answered her phone. Linda rolled down her window. “Ben?” she said.

  Ben looked up, revealing a bloody lip and a huge purple bruise on his swollen cheek. His eyes narrowed to slits. “What are you doing here?”

  Linda tamped down her anger and reminded herself she was only here because Cathy shouldn’t be out on the road by herself at night. It had nothing to do with Ben. She gave him her fakest smile. “Nice to see you too.”

  Ben stood up, but he looked a little unsteady on his feet. “Go away. I don’t want you here. I’ll walk.”

  She needed to hang out with Ben more often. This kind of behavior made her less and less likely to feel any sadness at all for what she had lost. “You can walk if you want, but in your state, you’ll probably get lost and fall in a ditch.”

  “I’m not drunk, if that’s what you think.”

  She looked straight ahead out the windshield. “I’m sure I don’t care.”

  “Just go away,” he said, tapping his hand on the roof of Cathy’s car.

  “We came all the way out here. You might as well get in. It would be silly to walk home when you have a perfectly gute ride.”

  “I don’t care what you think.”

  “Gute, because what I’m thinking isn’t very nice.”

  Ben walked in front of the car and stumbled into the street. Linda didn’t know if he was drunk or hurt, but he had to have been in a very bad way to call Cathy for a ride. Cathy said Ben needed to see a friendly face. She didn’t need to chastise him. He was already fully aware of how foolish he looked. Would it kill Linda to show him a little sympathy? Maybe a little kindness? Convinced that it actually might kill her but she should do it anyway, Linda heaved a sigh and jumped out of the car. “Ben, wait. Please come with us. We’ll take you home. We need to take a look at that ankle, and I’ve got some wonderful gute essential oils we can put on that lip.”

  Ben turned, and the lines around his eyes softened. For a brief moment, she saw the Ben she used to love. His lips twitched upward. “Don’t even think about it.”

  Cathy rolled down her window. “That was my husband. The police are on their way. They think someone is selling drugs in there. Get in, Ben, and let’s get out of here.”

  Ben caught his breath and snapped his gaze toward the house. “They are selling drugs in there. I knew I had to get out, and I made some people mad. Zoe wouldn’t take me home.”

  “Let’s go,” Cathy said. “Lon says we’ve got about ten minutes.”

  “I’ve got to get Wally first.”

  Cathy shook her head. “There’s no time.”

  Linda pressed her lips together. “Wally made his choice. He’ll learn from the consequences. We need to go.”

  Ben scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been stupid. Wally’s been stupid, but I can’t leave him. It would kill him to get arrested.”

  “Might do him some good,” Cathy said.

  “No!” Ben said, his eyes wild with fear. “We’ve got to get Wally out of there.”

  Linda thought she was going to be sick. “Ben . . .”

  Ben scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “If you have to go, go. I won’t leave without Wally.”

  Linda glanced doubtfully at Cathy. “Okay. Go get him. We’ll wait.”

  Ben sprinted toward the house, limping painfully as he went.

  Linda got back in the car. “We will wait, won’t we, Cathy?”

  Cathy grunted. “I suppose, but if I get arrested, I’m holding you responsible.”

  In horrible suspense, they watched the clock on Cathy’s dashboard. Dread grew like toxic mold in Linda’s chest. “It’s been five minutes.”

  Cathy checked her phone. “He said it was a party. Maybe he stopped to eat a piece of cake.”

  Linda wasn’t quite sure what came over her, but she jumped out of the car. “I’m going in,” she said.

  Cathy slid out her side, a little slower than Linda, but no less determined. “I’m going with you.”

  “No, Cathy. It’s not safe.”

  Cathy came around the car and started up the driveway. “I’ve been in worse situations.”

  When all this was over, Linda would love to hear all about those worse situations, but right now, she had to concentrate on not passing out from fright. Not waiting for Cathy, she marched up the driveway, climbed the front steps, and threw the door open. She definitely interrupted something. Maybe a dozen young people sat or stood in the front room, and they all turned when she burst through the door. A stocky, scowling man clutched Ben’s T-shirt collar, and Ben’s hands were likewise wrapped around the other man’s collar. Zoe looked as if she was trying to stop a fight, with her arm and shoulder sort of wedged between the two of them, but it wasn’t going to do much good when push came to shove.

  “Linda, get out of here,” Ben yelled.

  “I’m not leaving without you,” Linda said, with more courage than she felt. Her knees wobbled, and she seriously thought she would fall over before she could find her way back out the door. She looked around the room. Wally stood against the far wall next to a painting of some trees, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there. “Wally,” Linda said. “We’re going. Come with us.”

  “Oh, look, it’s Wally’s Amish mommy come to fetch him home,” someone said. “Have you got to milk the cows, Wally?”

  Wally squared his shoulder and put on that bravado he wore like a tight pair of pants. “I already told Ben. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Zoe grunted and shoved the stocky man away from Ben. “Just let him go, Kevin. He doesn’t have to stay.”

  Ben’s breathing was labored and angry. He held out his hand to Wally. “Come on, Wally. Let’s go.”

  Wally folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. “I’m staying.”

  “Young man, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

  Linda turned around. Cathy stood in the threshold, fierce in her fluorescent purple sweat suit, glaring at Wally with all the force of her eighty-three-year-old stink eye.

  The room fell silent, either from fear or complete shock. “Linda and I went through all the inconvenience to come out here and pick you up, and you’re not going to give us any trouble.” She looked at each person in the room as if she was staring into their souls. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves. What would your mothers say about your behavior? God doesn’t take kindly to children who break their mothers’ hearts.”

  Still, nobody said anything. Cathy pointed at Wally. “You should be grateful you have friends who care enough about you to want to help. And you should be especially grateful to me. I had to walk all the way up the driveway on a sore bunion just because you’re too stubborn to know what’s good for you. Now, show some respect for an old lady, and get in my car.”

  Linda couldn’t hide her complete surprise when Wally lowered his head, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and shuffled to the front door. Cathy moved aside and let him out.

  Cathy pointed at Zoe. “You too, young lady. You’re too nice a girl to be caught up with this crowd.”

  Linda didn’t believe that Zoe was too nice a girl for anything, but Zoe bit her bottom lip, nodded at Cathy, and followed Wally out. Linda never would have believed it if she hadn’t seen it. Ben purposefully shoved his arm against the stocky man’s shoulder as he passed, but the stocky guy was probably too befuddled to take offense. Cathy had given quite a performance.

  Lin
da was already dumbfounded, but she was shocked to the point of dizziness when Ben took her hand and tugged her forcefully out of the house. But she didn’t have time to be irritated or confused or pleased or whatever she might have felt, because a police car with flashing lights pulled up to the house and parked directly in front of the driveway.

  Ben’s eyes went wide. “Wally, Zoe, go. Go!”

  Wally and Zoe took off down the porch steps and sprinted across the lawn in the opposite direction of the police car. Wally cleared the side yard hedge in a single bound. Zoe sort of shoved through it to the other side. Ouch. That had to hurt.

  Linda’s heart beat so fast, she could barely speak. She pushed the words out anyway. “Ben, you have to go.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” he said, a determined desperation in his voice.

  That declaration comforted and terrified her. Ben would somehow protect her. But that made no sense. He couldn’t protect her. He was going to get arrested, and it would be her fault. Thank Derr Herr, her practical side crashed through her fear. “We came all this way to help you. Go now!”

  Cathy came out of the house and shut the door behind her. She saw the police car. “Well, shoot.” She shoved Ben down the stairs. “Get out of here.”

  Ben’s eyes were wild with fear. “I won’t leave you.”

  “Run, Ben,” Cathy growled. “Linda is Amish. They won’t bother her. And the police do not arrest women my age. They don’t think we’re capable of committing crimes. It’s pure ageism, if you ask me.”

  The conflict on Ben’s face was heart wrenching. This was the Ben Kiem she had fallen in love with. The boy who was so loyal he willingly sacrificed everything for his friends. The boy who cared so deeply that it terrified him.

  Linda wrapped her fingers around Ben’s arm. “We’ll be okay. Please go.”

  In his eyes, she saw the painful moment when he made his decision. Despite his injured ankle, he took off across the yard and leaped over the hedge like Wally had done. Half a second later, the police got out of their car and headed up the driveway.

  Cathy nudged Linda. “Let me do the talking. I’ve always been able to negotiate myself out of a speeding ticket.”