by Jo Ann Brown
“Curiosity—”
“Has nothing to do with it. They recognized the sound of your steps. They don’t want anything to do with me. They want you.”
“They’re bopplin. They want everything.”
Juanita shook her head. “No, they didn’t want anything but you. Nothing I tried would convince them to quit crying. As soon as you put a single toe on the porch, they stopped.”
Knowing she wouldn’t get anywhere arguing with her sister when Juanita was so definite, Leanna squatted next to the kinder. “Was iss letz, lieblings?”
Of course, the twins didn’t answer her and tell her what was wrong, but Heidi reached out and handed her one of the blocks she’d been clenching in her tiny hands.
Leanna didn’t take it as she noticed Harley gasping for breath as he had the day before. She picked up the little boy and cuddled him. His uneven breathing eased, and some color returned to his face. When she held him up to her shoulder, his breaths, quick and shallow, brushed her neck. She murmured nonsense words until he calmed and wasn’t shuddering with each inhalation.
He didn’t cry much, she realized. She’d considered him the most content boppli she’d ever seen, but a sliver of worry pierced her mind. Could it be that he didn’t cry because he’d come to realize how he struggled to breathe when he sobbed?
She couldn’t ask a boppli such a question, but there was one she could ask her sister.
“Juanita, how did you call Mrs. Duchamps’s house?”
With guilt blossoming on her face, her sister reached into a pocket under her apron and pulled out a cell phone.
“Where did you get that?” Leanna asked.
Her sister’s cheeks grew bright red. “From Eugene. He got it because he’s working in Salem with his uncle now that he’s graduated from school.”
“But why do you have it?” She made sure her voice was gentler, guessing her sister had a crush on Eugene Yoder.
“He thought I might need it on my first day of work here, and he was right, ain’t so?”
Leanna started to answer, then halted when the back door opened. As Gabriel walked in, her sister shoved the cell phone back into her pocket.
His hair was laced with sawdust, and a swath of dirt on the right side of his face emphasized his high cheekbones. “Leanna?” he asked, halting in midstep.
“Gute mariye,” she said as if the past twenty-four hours hadn’t happened. What gut would it do to rehash what had happened? She should be thinking of the bopplin and what was best for them.
“What are you doing here? I thought you had houses to clean today.”
“I did. I mean, I do.” She put Harley on the quilt. Getting a banana off the counter, she peeled and sliced it while she said, “Juanita couldn’t stop the twins from crying, so she sent for me.” There was no reason to bring the cell phone into the discussion. She handed each of the bopplin two pieces of the fruit.
“Are they okay?” He rushed to where his kinder were happily eating and making a mess with the banana. Looking at Leanna, he asked, “What happened?”
“Like I said, Juanita couldn’t calm them. She called me to come and help.”
“I see you’ve done that.” His shoulders relaxed, and the wild expression of dismay faded. “Danki, Leanna, for helping.”
“I’m glad I could.” Smiling at her sister, she said, “It looks as if everything is under control. I need to get back to Mrs. Duchamps’s house.”
Gabriel walked with her out of the house, explaining he’d come to get some tools they hadn’t realized they’d need this morning. “Mrs. Fenton keeps adding small details for the job, and Michael didn’t have what he needed. When I got here and saw the buggy in the drive, I wanted to check what was going on.”
“It doesn’t seem to have been anything other than jitters from Juanita.” She forced a smile. “I don’t think there will be any other problems.”
A shriek sent a shiver down her spine, and she spun to look at the house. Another followed. She heard Gabriel shout something, but didn’t pay attention to his words as she rushed into the kitchen. As if someone had flipped a switch, the screaming stopped.
Tears rolled down small faces, and bananas were squashed between tiny fingers as the twins stared at her. Again Heidi held up her arms. Harley did as well, trying to lift himself off the floor as he did whenever he wanted her to pick him up. Beside them, Juanita looked as pale as fresh milch.
Coming to her feet at the same time Gabriel burst into the kitchen, Juanita raised her hands in a pose of surrender. “I told you. As soon as you leave, Leanna, they go into fire siren mode. As soon as you come back, they’re okay again.”
“I didn’t expect this,” Gabriel said.
“Me, either.” Leanna knelt on the quilt. “This is a problem.” She couldn’t imagine leaving again when she knew Harley might choke again on his own sobs. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“They miss you.” Juanita shrugged. “Well, it’s true. They’ve never had a mamm that they remember, so you’re the only mamm they’ve known. Isn’t that right, Gabriel?”
* * *
Watching color drain from Leanna’s face, Gabriel sighed. Once Juanita had spoken, it was obvious to him that the teenager had seen what he and Leanna had ignored. The kinder adored her. Not as a babysitter, but as a replacement for the mamm they’d never known.
“How old were the twins when your wife died?” asked Juanita when nobody else spoke.
“Five weeks old.”
Both Waglers gasped at his answer.
“So young,” murmured Leanna. “And such a short time with Freda.”
“They were in the hospital for the first three weeks after they were born, but they seemed to be thriving,” he said, staring out the window because he couldn’t bear to look at Leanna when he revealed his part of the sad story. “I was so focused on them that I didn’t notice Freda wasn’t.”
Leanna stood, but didn’t move toward him. “I’m sorry, Gabriel.”
“So what do we do for them?” he asked, desperate to change the subject to anything but his failure to see what Freda had needed. “Leanna has her jobs, and they’re too young to understand they’ll see her a lot less anyhow.”
“I don’t know.” Leanna seemed about to add something more, but must have thought better of it.
“The answer is simple.” Juanita gave them an easy smile.
Leanna frowned. “The answer to what is simple?”
“Making sure the bopplin don’t work themselves into a tizzy as they have this morning.”
“Go ahead,” Gabriel said, though he had a gut idea what Juanita would say next.
“Leanna needs to take care of them while I do her cleaning jobs.”
“Have you lost your mind?” asked Leanna in astonishment as she picked up Heidi and carried her to the sink to wash crushed banana off her hands.
“No, it’s a brilliant idea.” Juanita’s grin broadened. “What do you think, Gabriel? Doesn’t it make sense for Leanna and me to switch jobs?”
He wanted to check and make sure his ears weren’t clogged or had stopped working. Or was it his brain that wasn’t functioning?
“Switch jobs?” he repeated. “Are you saying Leanna would stay as the babysitter for the twins?”
“And she’d take over my cleaning jobs.” Leanna didn’t look at him.
Juanita did, though, and she was smiling with delight at what she thought was a simple solution. “So what do you say, Gabriel? Are you okay with it?”
Okay? He was torn between jumping up and down with gratitude or shouting out that it was the stupidest idea that had ever been conceived. Nothing he was experiencing at that moment was as tepid as an okay.
“If we take a week or two and wean them off my being here all day each day,” Leanna said, “then they should be fine with Juanita.”
“It’s worth a try.” He ignored how his heart did a dance at the thought of seeing her each morning and evening. “Will your cleaning clients agree?”
“They have so far,” Juanita interjected. “If everyone here is fine with this, I should get over to Mrs. Duchamps’s house and finish up, Leanna.”
With a weary wave, Leanna motioned for her to go.
Why hadn’t he thought how tough this was for Leanna, too? He’d seen her face when Michael blurted out about the twins’ upcoming birthday. She had figured out that Freda was pregnant when they took their vows, but without knowing the whole story, Leanna could only assume he’d cheated on her while they were walking out together.
If only Aden hadn’t asked him to promise not to reveal the truth—
He silenced the thought before it could play out in his mind. “I’m sorry for making things difficult for you.”
“I know, but we’ll work this out.”
Was that an acceptance of his apology? He doubted she had any idea how much he craved her forgiveness.
And how is she supposed to offer that when you haven’t been honest with her?
He’d lost count of the number of times that question had rippled through his mind, but he knew how many times he’d answered it.
Not once.
Chapter Twelve
When Leanna walked into the bustling Salem Volunteer Fire Department building on Saturday morning, she couldn’t utter a single word. Her throat clogged with tears of gratitude when she saw the long line of people waiting to check in for the blood drive that was being held in honor of Grossmammi Inez, though it wasn’t certain yet that Grossmammi Inez would have to have surgery. Several of the men in the Leit, including Miriam’s husband and brother, were volunteer firefighters who’d helped arrange it.
Her grossmammi had protested being singled out, but their minister had assured her it was common practice to give the blood drive a human face. Eli had added that was important because it brought in more people to donate the pints of blood that were always in short supply. At that, Grossmammi Inez had relented.
Leanna had entered the firehouse from the back and walked through the multipurpose room. She’d been there before for fund-raising suppers. At those, folding tables and chairs had been arranged the length of the room, and the firefighters, along with the volunteer EMTs, had been busy in the kitchen area. Today they were checking people in and escorting them to where they could wait on chairs in neat rows in the bay where the ambulance usually parked. In the neighboring area, the spot where the pumper was stored, screens divided the gurneys where volunteers were already donating pints of blood.
She recognized many of the volunteer firefighters who were assisting the blood bank personnel. Not only her plain neighbors, but Englischers who’d participated in events with the fire department. Some of them had worked at a mud sale earlier in the spring. She was sure she recognized the tall, mustached man. He had served as the auctioneer who’d sold the quilt she’d donated.
She waved to Sarah. Her friend had taken the rigorous training last fall and was now the first plain female volunteer EMT. She didn’t wear trousers and T-shirts as the others did, but she’d put masking tape across the front of her black apron and written the words “blood drive volunteer” on it.
Sarah hurried over, her red hair aglow in the bright lights hanging from metal beams across the ceiling. “I was wondering when you’d get here. The volunteers from the blood service have been looking forward to meeting someone from your family.”
“Isn’t Lyndon here already?” Her older brother was an enthusiastic volunteer firefighter.
“I haven’t seen him.”
Leanna rolled her eyes. “I forgot. He had to go to Greenwich to pick up a part for his baler. He figured he could get there and back without missing too much of the blood drive.”
“Komm mol, and I’ll introduce you around.”
“I want to donate, too.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t let you leave until you’ve got a pint less of blood inside you.” Hooking her arm through Leanna’s, she led her to the first table.
Leanna thanked the volunteers while she was being signed in and answering a health questionnaire. When she was shown to a gurney, she stretched out on it and followed the instructions given to her by a young Englischer. He asked questions about her grossmammi while he inserted the needle. He laughed when Leanna told him one of her favorite stories about Grossmammi Inez.
She’d been with the elderly woman a few years ago when they came across a skunk in the road. Grossmammi Inez had put her hands on her waist, given the skunk a stern look and said in the same tone she used with her kins-kinder when they were misbehaving, “If you know what’s gut for you, skunk, you’ll get out of here. Now!”
Chuckling, Leanna said, “And the wildest thing is that the skunk waddled off as if it’d understood her. Didn’t send a bit of nasty scent our way.”
“I guess we all learn to listen to our grandparents,” the young man said. “Even skunks.” He put tape over the needle to hold it and the IV in place.
“That hardly hurt,” Leanna said as he handed her a soft rubber ball shaped like a bright red heart to squeeze while the blood pumped into the donation bag. “I’ve pricked myself worse when I’m quilting.”
“Glad to hear it. Call for me if you need anything or if you feel woozy.”
“Woozy? Is that a medical term?”
He laughed. “One of the first they teach us in nursing school.”
Leaning back on the raised head of the table while she watched her blood ooze through the clear tube, she thanked God for the wisdom that had allowed medical professionals to know how to save lives with donated blood.
Less than a half hour later, Leanna sat at a small table enjoying some orange juice and chocolate chip and dried cranberry cookies that had been donated by the bakery where her twin worked. She smiled when Annie joined her, a small piece of gauze taped to the inside of her arm.
“Your cookies are delicious as always,” Leanna said.
“Not mine. Those are Caleb’s recipe. He’s always trying something new.” Annie’s nose, so like her own, crinkled. “Ask him sometime about the peanut-butter-and-banana cookies he tried making. Ask. Don’t try one!”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“What a great turnout!” Annie’s grin returned. “Wait until Grossmammi Inez hears about this.”
“She won’t have to hear about it,” replied a deeper voice from behind Leanna. “Not when she can see it with her own two eyes.”
Whirling in her chair, Leanna gaped at the sight of her grossmammi, weak but as determined as ever, standing with one hand on her cane and the other on Gabriel’s arm.
“Grossmammi Inez!” she gasped.
Everyone in the room seemed to turn at once and stare at the four of them. Volunteers rushed forward to greet her grossmammi. The older woman acted unabashed by the attention. She turned every comment into grateful words to each person who came up to thank her for being a part of the blood drive. She was urged to sit at the table. A fresh cup of kaffi appeared from somewhere, along with a plate topped by a generous selection of Caleb’s cookies.
Leanna stood quickly. Too quickly, because her head spun and the room seemed to telescope in on itself. Determined, she blinked to bring everything into focus as she stepped aside to let others have a chance to speak with her grossmammi.
She grabbed Gabriel’s arm and motioned with her head for him to follow her away from the crowd. As soon as she guessed they were out of anyone else’s earshot, she said, “She shouldn’t be here. The doktor wants her to avoid people so she doesn’t pick up some bug that could do more damage to her heart.”
“I didn’t plan to bring her, so don’t be angry with me.” He raised his hands in a pose of surrender. “She flagged me down when I was driving
past. If I hadn’t agreed to bring her, she would have walked.”
With a sigh, Leanna had to admit that Gabriel was right. Her grossmammi had been upset that her faulty heart valve was keeping her from visiting neighbors as she’d done the previous spring.
“Where are the twins?”
He pointed to a small door to the right. “There’s a room set up as a nursery. I left them there with a few other kinder. I should get in line to donate, too.”
“Gabriel?”
“Ja?”
“I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions about you bringing Grossmammi Inez here.”
“It’s okay. I know you’ve gotten used to assuming the worst of me.”
“I...” She wanted to deny his words, but she couldn’t. “I’ll try to change that.”
He looked surprised. “You’ve got every right to believe as you do after what’s happened between us.”
“Living in the past means not treasuring gifts of the future. Grossmammi Inez has said that more times than I can count.”
“Your grossmammi is a smart woman.”
“I agree.”
When he took her hand and squeezed it gently, she almost gasped. He strode away to go through the process of donating, and she stared at him. Had he meant to give her some sort of message by holding her hand?
If so, she didn’t have any idea what he’d meant to tell her.
* * *
Leanna joined the other volunteers and passed out glasses of juice and cookies to people who’d donated blood. When the Englisch donors saw her plain clothing, they asked about her grossmammi, and she shared more stories about Grossmammi Inez with them. She was touched by their solicitousness for a woman they’d never met before today.
When Michael sat at one of the tables, she smiled. She handed him some juice and offered him a choice of cookies. At the same time, she glanced around the firehouse. She didn’t see Gabriel, so he must be behind one of the screens in the donation area.
