Huckleberry Summer (Huckleberry Hill)

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  Mammi looked genuinely puzzled. “What’s she doing that for when she’s going to marry you?”

  Aden raked his fingers through his hair. Did he really believe this would do any good? “She’s not going to marry me, Mammi.” He took her hands in his and pinned her with a serious look. “Matching us up was a good idea, but some things don’t work out.” He felt horrible just saying the words.

  Dawdi smiled sympathetically. “If you weren’t leaving, we could couple you with Erla Glick. She’s a nice little thing.”

  Mammi’s jaw dropped to the floor and her eyes flamed with indignation. “Felty, how could you say such a thing? Aden is meant for Lily and no one else. I’m saving Erla Glick for somebody else.”

  “Who?”

  Mammi folded her arms. “I’m not telling. I can only work on one match at a time. I leave the miracles to God.”

  Aden looked to Dawdi for help, but Dawdi shrugged his shoulders and looked up as if the ceiling held all the answers. He obviously knew from sixty years of experience not to argue with Mammi.

  “Margaret Schrock is having a quilting bee at her house next week. Lily is bound to be there since she and Treva are such good friends. I think I’ll invite myself.”

  Aden shook his head in resignation. No use trying to convince Mammi. Mammi and Dawdi were the only people in Bonduel who loved him. He wouldn’t alienate them just because Mammi held on to a fantasy.

  He would have liked to hold on to that fantasy himself. “Do you have to go back to Ohio so soon?” Dawdi asked. “If you stay until January, you can help us collect sap from the sugar maples.”

  “I’m sorry, Dawdi, but I’m leaving in three weeks.” Three days after they lifted the bann and the day of Lily’s wedding. “But I’ve chopped enough wood to last through spring, and the coal is in the basement, and the potato cellar is full of potatoes and pumpkins. Moses will be here once a week too, and some of the other cousins.”

  “You’ve been busy as a bee,” Dawdi said. “And that’s just the work you done on our farm. You’ve been buzzing about doing all sorts of good works.”

  “Everybody went to the barn raising, Dawdi.”

  “But not everybody helped with Enos Kanagy’s fence.”

  Mammi patted his arm. “Then you’d better get busy with Lily. You don’t have time to lollygag.”

  Aden gave Mammi his most affectionate smile even as he cried inside. His time for lollygagging had completely run out.

  Treva watched as Lily’s needle bobbed up and down through the fabric, securing the top of the quilt to the bottom with tiny, even stitches. Treva seldom attempted a stitch. She had pricked a finger or tangled her thread often enough that quilting held no pleasure for her. Instead, she contented herself sitting next to Lily, talking about kittens and thunderstorms while Lily quilted.

  Treva could talk about kittens for hours. She loved animals, especially piglets, puppies, and kittens. She and Aden had that in common.

  Lily sighed. If she had a penny for every time Aden crossed her mind during the day, she’d be a wealthy girl.

  She didn’t love Tyler—that much she could freely admit to herself. She’d practically confessed that fact to Estee the night she got engaged. But couldn’t she at least turn her thoughts to her future groom once in a while? Tyler would be concerned at how little she thought of him. Would he cancel the wedding if he knew that she didn’t return his affection? Why couldn’t she muster more tenderness? Tyler was everything any girl in her right mind could want.

  “You bleeding,” Treva said.

  Lily examined the small triangle of fabric she had been working on. A spot of blood marred the clean white shape. “Oh, dear. I didn’t even notice.”

  Always prepared, Treva’s mother Margaret handed Lily a bandage and a damp cloth. “It’s not a true quilt unless there is a little blood on it.”

  “That’s right,” said Millie Burkholder, who sat opposite Lily and Treva. “Even with a thimble, there will always be a little blood.”

  Lily dabbed at the bloodstain with the damp cloth until it disappeared. “Look, Treva. All better.”

  Treva smiled and leaned her head on Lily’s shoulder.

  Someone knocked at the door and opened it before anyone had a chance to answer it. Lily’s heart thumped on her rib cage as Anna Helmuth glided into the room.

  The women sitting around the quilt greeted Anna as if she were their long-lost cousin they hadn’t seen in ages.

  “Anna,” Margaret said, “how nice of you to come such a long way for our quilting bee.”

  Anna’s eyes twinkled and her cheeks, pinched by the cold outside, glowed rosy red. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. My grandson Aden drove me over. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

  Lily’s heartbeat pounded in her ears. Aden was outside in Anna’s buggy, almost close enough to touch. Holding her breath, she sat with her needle halfway through the fabric and didn’t move a muscle. If she sat perfectly still, the overwhelming longing in her chest was sure to pass.

  Anna reached in her bag and handed Margaret a bottle of huckleberry jam. “This is for you. Lily helped me put it up.”

  “Denki,” Margaret said. “Lily said you had a bumper crop this year.”

  “Lily and Aden were such a help. We never could have done it on our own.”

  Lily couldn’t be comfortable. Every mention of Aden’s name felt like a prick at her heart.

  Anna plunged her hand into her bag again and retrieved a thimble. She deposited the bag in a corner, hung her coat on the stand, and made a beeline for Lily’s side of the quilt. Grinning with her entire face, Anna pulled a chair next to Lily and threaded a needle. “Oh, my, Lily dear. How we have missed you! Aden is so mopey, I think he’s shrunk three inches from all the slouching.”

  “I’m . . . I’ve missed you too.”

  “Tell me about your wedding plans. Will you be visiting faraway relatives on your honeymoon trip?”

  “We are going to La Crosse and Cashton.”

  “Are you excited?”

  “Um, very excited.”

  “I saw Estee at the market. I expected her to float off the ground. She was like to burst with happiness.”

  In Lily’s mind, Estee behaved like a true bride. She talked of nothing but Floyd and wedding plans. She’d taken way too much time making her dress because she’d redesigned and measured and picked until she felt satisfied. The family had eaten celery stuffing every night for a week because Estee wanted to get the recipe just right before the wedding.

  Anna cut herself a length of thread and lowered her voice. “Estee doesn’t stop smiling, but your frown is better suited to a funeral. Are you that unhappy?”

  “I didn’t realize I was frowning.”

  Anna started working on a burgundy square. “Do you know why the Amish don’t arrange marriages?”

  Lily jabbed the needle into the quilt. “Nae, I don’t.”

  “Neither do I, but whoever decided against arranged marriages was very wise. Marriage is hard work. If you’re not crazy in love with the boy before the wedding, afterward can be rough. I remember a spat Felty and I had three weeks after our wedding day. I was so angry, I refused to even look at him. He gave me a big hug and said, ‘Annie, I’m mad as a hornet right now, but I love you, and that’s all we got.’ I hugged him back after that.”

  Lily couldn’t speak. How did Anna know so much?

  Lily thought she might disintegrate into a pile of dust with all the confusion swirling about her head. Could she marry Tyler when she didn’t love him? Was she making the biggest mistake of her life? Her vision blurred, and she gave up on her needle altogether.

  Anna lowered her voice further so no one but Lily could hear. “I know that Tyler is your dat’s choice. Such a nice young man from a gute family, but Lily, if he isn’t your choice, you won’t be truly happy.”

  Treva patted Lily’s hand. “She love Ayen.” An attack from both sides.

  Anna’s face lit
up. “That’s right, Treva,” she whispered. “She loves Aden. But how long is she going to wait before she sets everything to rights?”

  Anna’s gaze pierced Lily’s skull and rendered her speechless. Lily lowered her eyes to the quilt and tried to stitch in a straight line.

  Anna slid her arm around Lily and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “Oh, Lily. You are a wonderful-gute girl. I know why Aden loves you so much.” She stabbed her needle through the fabric and left it there. Rising to her feet, she said, “Margaret, this has been a lovely afternoon.”

  Margaret raised an eyebrow. “You’re going?”

  “Aden is waiting outside, and I must get home to fix Felty his supper. Please invite me again, and I promise to stay longer.”

  Lily felt as if she balanced on a cliff and one movement would send her tumbling to the rocky bottom. She thought of Aden, just outside, and became as stiff as a statue.

  “Oh, okay,” Margaret stuttered. “It was kind of you to come.”

  Anna shrugged off the compliment and shrugged on her coat. “My pleasure. I always enjoy seeing friends. Good-bye, Lily. I hope we’ll see you very soon. Huckleberry Hill is not as sweet without you.”

  Anna blew out the door like a whirlwind, leaving all the quilters in her wake.

  Lily stiffly fingered the thread Anna had left behind. Anna had come to the bee to make three stitches in the quilt and an impression on Lily.

  She had accomplished both tasks.

  Aden pressed the buttons on Moses’s phone. Jamal answered in one ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Jamal, I got your message. What’s the emergency?”

  “The emergency is that you need to get a phone immediately, Aden. This primitive way of getting in touch with you is starting to get on my nerves.”

  “It doesn’t seem that primitive to me.”

  Jamal huffed loudly. Aden could practically see his frustration over the phone. “Oh yeah? I need to talk to you, so I spend an hour trying to track down the number for your cousin’s cheese factory. Then I call your cousin, who says he’ll give you the message. Then I wait two days for you to return my call. You’re still living in the nineteenth century. It drives me crazy.”

  “What’s the emergency?”

  “Trout Lake is my emergency. They’re dumping stuff there again, and I’ve got proof. Amish farms surround that whole area. I need someone to testify. I need someone to picket the company, and you’re my guy. I want you to put a face on the suffering of all the Amish people who don’t have a voice in this fight. You’ve always generated a lot of sympathy. We can use you to shut them down.”

  Aden rubbed the back of his neck and prepared himself for the headache that was sure to come. “Jamal, I can’t.”

  “Bring Lily along if you want.”

  “She’s getting married next week.” The words almost choked him.

  “You’re getting married? Congrats, man.”

  “She’s not marrying me.”

  Silence on the other end. “Was it because of the puppy mill thing? None of us meant for it to go south like that.”

  “It’s not because of the puppy mill, Jamal. She found a better man.”

  Jamal grunted.

  “I’m taking a bus back to Ohio next week,” Aden said.

  “That’s perfect. Just tell me when you’ll be here, and I’ll make sure the newspapers show up.”

  Aden took a deep breath and thought about all the people and wildlife affected by the dirty lake. He thought about what he wanted and about what God would want. Who would stop those polluters if not him?

  Be still and know that I am God.

  “Jamal, this is a great cause. My heart will be there with you every step of the way. But I won’t help you.”

  More silence. Aden didn’t usually possess the ability to shut Jamal up. “You’re still mad at me.”

  “No, I’m not mad at you. It’s my own fault Lily hates me.” Aden was surprised that he was able to say it without his voice cracking. “But I’ve pledged my life to God and this is His job, not mine.”

  “But it’s for the lake and your people.”

  “You can do this, Jamal. Nobody can move a group of ordinary citizens to action like you can. This is not my fight. I’m following Gelassenheit.”

  “I didn’t sneeze.”

  “Gelassenheit—the yielding to a higher authority. I’m yielding my life to God.”

  “How long does this Gelassenheit thing last?”

  “Forever.”

  Jamal’s voice lost its energy. “So, that’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  “The guys will be really disappointed.”

  Aden smiled weakly. “They’ll be okay.”

  “Maybe we’ll cross paths when you come back to Ohio.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “I guess I’ll go plan another strategy for the lake.” Jamal sighed. “And, Aden?”

  “Jah?”

  “I’m real sorry about what happened with Lily.”

  “Me too.”

  If only that were enough to bring Lily back.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Who would have thought we’d see a storm like this the day before the wedding?” Estee said. “The fourth of November. Who would have guessed? I hope all the relatives get into town okay.”

  “Most of the guests have already arrived, and the snow is supposed to stop later tonight,” Lily said.

  The snow fell in chunky tufts of cotton, heavy and thick, as Lily and Estee trudged up the country road in their snow boots.

  Estee took Lily’s arm as they crossed the slushy road. “Floyd’s dat told me there would be snow. His knees ache right before a big storm.” Estee giggled. “Floyd says it’s just in time for my wedding present. I have a suspicion he’s gone and bought the sleigh yet.”

  Lily wouldn’t spoil the surprise. Floyd’s new sleigh sat in the barn tucked neatly behind a wall of hay bales under a canvas tarp.

  Estee’s eyes twinkled with a thousand different delights. “Won’t it be charming to ride off to our honeymoon visits in a sleigh? I’ll have to remember to pack plenty of blankets because Floyd will forget.” She squeezed Lily’s arm. “He can remember my favorite kind of chocolate and the date of our first kiss, but he forgets to pack a lunch for work. Or if he remembers to pack a lunch, he forgets to eat it. Oh, Lily, he’s so adorable. He’s going to make the best father.”

  Less than twenty-four hours until the wedding. The last three weeks had flown away from her even though she had tried to hold fast to her precious time. She felt as if she were marching to her own execution rather than her nuptial day.

  Nothing was right. None of this was right even though Dat couldn’t stop smiling. The absurdity of her situation had become more apparent to Lily every day as she prepared for an event that held no joy for her. She had dutifully sewn herself a new dress and packed for her honeymoon trip and helped Tyler ready the dawdi house, but nothing was right.

  She hadn’t slept well for days. Since her talk with Anna, the tension and anxiety had grown as one question ran through her head constantly: Should she go through with the wedding?

  But since her engagement, she’d had the overwhelming feeling that it was too late to turn back.

  Lily shook her head and tried to reassure herself before despair flattened her. Tyler was such a gute man. How could she not want to marry Tyler? Had she never heard of cold feet before? Every bride had doubts right before her wedding. Every bride panicked and wanted to run away at some point. Every bride had another boy who invaded her thoughts when she should be thinking about her groom.

  “Floyd won’t even let me see what he’s done to the house. I bet he’s put up curtains.”

  Well, every bride but Estee. She was so enamored with Floyd that they might as well be the only two people in the whole world.

  With her arm still hooked with Lily’s, Estee studied Lily’s face. “I’m talking too much again. Tell me about your hon
eymoon plans. Are you going to La Crosse?”

  “Jah. Tyler has an uncle there.”

  Estee didn’t seem to expect any more chitchat. They walked along the road in silence as white flakes continued to blanket the earth. Already the snow piled ankle-deep.

  “Denki for coming to Mrs. Deforest’s with me. I wanted to say good-bye one last time before she goes to that care center.”

  “Will she be to the wedding?”

  “No. She leaves tomorrow morning, and her son refuses to delay her trip even a few more hours.”

  Mrs. Deforest lived on a good piece of land in Bonduel not twenty minutes from Lily’s house. An ornamental iron fence with matching mailbox marked the south border of her property. Brown with rust, the fence stood almost four feet tall, and underneath the layer of new snow, yellow grass and dead leaves collected at the base of each post. Mrs. Deforest was too old to care for her property, and her son had no interest in upkeep.

  A jumbo “For Sale” sign accosted Lily and Estee before they came in sight of the house. “What a shame,” Estee said. “It’s a nice little place. Mrs. Deforest used to plant geraniums in the front.”

  Some nice neighbor was shoveling Mrs. Deforest’s sidewalk. Lily turned her face to the sky. They’d finish at one end and have to start again. The snow made down hard.

  Lily saw a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Pilot loping toward her.

  A bolt of lightning couldn’t have hit her more forcefully. She stumbled backward. Aden Helmuth was the neighbor shoveling Mrs. Deforest’s sidewalk.

  She couldn’t breathe. Someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the surrounding air.

  Estee tightened her grip on Lily’s arm and plunged ahead before Lily had a chance to back away.

  Pilot stopped at the edge of Mrs. Deforest’s property and ventured no closer. He tilted his head and examined Lily as if she were a stranger and then took two steps back and whined pathetically.

  She should have been pleased. At least that dog wouldn’t get snow all over her dress.