Living in Harmony

by Mary Ellis

  John shook his head.

  “With Sally?”

  His brother’s head snapped up. “Of course not. Sally made tea and took hers upstairs to drink while she readied the kinner for bed.” He pointed toward the stove, where another mug steeped. “She said you shouldn’t tarry.”

  Thomas carried his tea to the table, relaxing his tight shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong if this can’t wait until morning.”

  John glanced up with the eyes of a cornered animal. “When I returned from the counseling session, I lost my temper with Nora for not cooking. I told her when the other women are away, she must stand in their place.” He rattled off his two sentences as though the words tasted bitter from the second chewing.

  Thomas reflected before speaking. “If you had simply asked for more assistance without allowing your temper to enter the discussion, it would have been a reasonable request.” He sipped his cooling tea.

  John downed the contents of his mug with another frown. “Jah, I came to that conclusion while eating this dry bologna-and-cheese.”

  “Would you like some mustard or mayonnaise?” Thomas consulted his pocket watch, ready to put the interminable day behind him.

  “Nothing will help my parched mouth.” John pushed away his plate. “I lost my patience with her.”

  “That much I gathered.”

  “She is so dreamy and unfocused, content to stroll through life as though it were a summer garden.” He gritted out the words through clenched teeth.

  “She does have more maturing to do before all is said and done.”

  “That’s an understatement. I don’t like the way she takes advantage of Sally and Amy, letting them do the lion’s share of the work.”

  “I haven’t observed that to be the case, John, but if it is, I believe my wife and your wife-to-be won’t put up with it for long.”

  John crossed his arms, shaking his head. “There’s more. I’d better tell you everything.” He sucked in air as though preparing for a deep-sea dive. “I told Nora that if she doesn’t straighten out, I will send her back to Pennsylvania. Amy overheard me and said I had no right to deliver such an ultimatum.”

  Thomas allowed a few moments to pass. “Amy is right. You don’t.”

  John’s face clouded with confusion and resentment. “But I brought the women here from Lancaster. I feel they are my responsibility.”

  “They are not.” Thomas rose to his feet. “At least, they’re not under your authority. You shouldn’t have threatened her in such a fashion. You need to deal with Nora with patience and kindness or not at all.” He rinsed out his empty mug.

  John struggled up and carried his dishes to the sink. He glanced around to make sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “Frankly, I’m confused. Didn’t the bishop tell you to give Elam just such an ultimatum? He must conform to our ways or leave by Christmas.” He peered up with earnestness.

  Thomas knew he was treading along a slippery slope, so he chose his words carefully. “Indeed he did, but the situations aren’t the same. As his brother and minister, I have been patient and tolerant for years. I’ve overlooked his refusal to follow the Ordnung, hoping he’ll join the church family and commit his life to God. But it never happened. Now that he’s led another to stray—to sin with drunkenness—I must draw a line in the sand. Such is not the case with Nora. She’s been here only a few months and is still learning our ways. She’s younger than Elam, and the recent deaths of her parents have no doubt affected her judgment. We need a far gentler hand with her than with our wayward bruder.”

  John ran a hand through his tangled hair. “What should I do?”

  “Reach out with love as the Savior taught us. Maybe Nora will adjust and conform, or maybe she’ll return to Pennsylvania. But either way, your anger is just as onerous a sin as her willfulness.”

  John gazed out the window. Darkness offered nothing to look at as he mulled things over. “It’s true she hasn’t been here that long.”

  “And, I must add, if and when Nora’s behavior needs correction, it should come from me as her pastor, not from you.”

  John’s brows lowered to the bridge of his nose while a muscle jumped in his neck. “Nora will become part of my immediate family, not yours. Won’t her actions reflect on Amy?”

  Thomas placed a hand on John’s shoulder. “Go to bed. Tomorrow life might not seem so grim. Fatigue always magnifies our anxieties.” Thomas walked wearily to the stairs and climbed them with the gait of a seventy-year-old man.

  Nora drew the quilt over her head and pretended to be asleep when Amy came into their room after her bath. She didn’t know what had been said between John and her sister because after John left Nora had fled to their room like a scared rabbit. Feeling as though she’d been slapped, she undressed quickly and hid under the covers. Never before in her life had she been spoken to in such a way—not by mamm or even daed. Daed had waited for a cooler head before correcting his children’s bad behavior.

  Mamm and daed…why did you have to go and die? Now the family has been split apart and our lives surely ruined.

  At least hers was ruined here in Waldo County, Maine, where she was nothing but a thorn in everyone’s side. How could she face John tomorrow at breakfast, or at supper, or any other time after causing trouble with Amy? She should have stayed home with Rachel and Beth and not come to the land of tall pines and long winters.

  The next morning she stayed in bed while Amy dressed, pinned up her hair under a fresh kapp, and went downstairs. Nora watched by the window until John and Thomas headed to the barn before she ventured below to the kitchen. She preferred to encounter no males until she had a chance to talk with her sister. Amy and Sally were eating creamed wheat with smoked sausages when she entered the warm room.

  “How are you feeling?” asked Amy, immediately rising to pour her sister some coffee. “I hope your migraine hasn’t returned.” She set the cup next to Nora’s place at the table.

  “No, I feel okay. Just a little hungry. I’ll fix lunch today by myself since I didn’t help with breakfast.” Nora sipped her coffee, believing the beverage had never tasted so good.

  Sally placed a mounded bowl of hot cereal in front of Nora that had been liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. “We’ll worry about lunch when it gets here. You just eat and don’t give another thought to my cranky brother-in-law.” Sally patted Nora’s back fondly.

  Amy scooted her chair closer. “No one will send you anywhere you don’t wish to go, Nora. Sally is right. John was cranky due to hunger and because of something I said at the marriage meeting.” Amy patted her arm.

  Nora felt like a pampered lapdog instead of a sister from all the petting. “Dinner should have occurred to me. You told me we were in charge, and I saw you leave with John. But I got caught up in housework and let time slip away.”

  “It happens to all of us,” said Sally from her position next to Aden. She kept watch to make sure food reached his stomach and not the floor.

  “I don’t do my share.” Nora ate one bite, followed by a second, and then she began to gobble up her breakfast. After yesterday’s spat with John, she’d skipped dinner altogether.

  “You often don’t feel well. Besides, it’s not John’s place to correct you.” Amy reached again for the coffeepot on the stove.

  “And Thomas told him exactly that when he came inside last night. You were already upstairs.”

  Nora looked from one to the other and smiled. “Danki. You are both very sweet to stick up for me.”

  “What are sisters for?” Amy filled the sink with sudsy water to do dishes.

  Although Nora appreciated their kindness, it also filled her with shame. I am causing nothing but problems in Amy’s life. Defending me last night may have driven an irreparable wedge between her and John. Why should she be forced to choose between us?

  Nora performed her chores that day as though in a fog. Even Aden’s and Jeremiah’s amusing antics couldn’t dislodge the sorrow that had settled arou
nd her heart. She was no longer a traveler from another state—a houseguest recovering from the painful loss of her parents. She was a pariah who had overstayed her welcome…like Elam. Not for the first time, she felt a kinship with the youngest Detweiler brother.

  That night, while Amy slept, Nora took up her vigil at the bedroom window. She watched the moonlit backyard for any sign of movement while wearing her socks and tennis shoes. Deep within her heart she knew her footwear wasn’t for protection from chilly floorboards. For hours Nora stared into the darkness, waiting, hoping, fantasizing.

  Her patience finally found its reward.

  Elam appeared on the lawn beneath her window. He paused to light a cigarette, pull up the collar of his coat, and tug his hat down over his ears. During his brief hesitation, Nora flew from their bedroom like a bat and crept down the steps. She lifted her outer bonnet and full-length cloak from the peg and closed the back door behind her, careful not to make a sound.

  She decided to follow him simply to see where he went.

  At any time he could have turned around and spotted her because the harvested fields provided few hiding places. But he didn’t turn. Elam strode through rows where corn had recently stood, hopped a fence, and then crossed the pasture where goats and cows happily comingled. Only darkness hid Nora’s stealthy trail as she climbed the fence with far less grace.

  Exhilaration kept her from noticing the cold gusts that cut through her wool cloak. Sheer determination kept her moving when one mile dragged into two.

  Finally Elam jogged down a slope, ducked between fence rails, and jumped a ditch. He landed on a dirt-and-gravel lane that led into the wooded hills. As Nora watched from the high ground, he lit another cigarette. But before he’d smoked barely half, a vehicle approached from the main road. The driver slowed and flashed his headlights, illuminating Elam’s broad shoulders and straight profile. Elam stepped forward, waving his hat as the car came to a stop.

  Nora observed from her vantage point behind a bush, transfixed by the mystery of a late night rendezvous. Elam climbed not into the passenger side of the car, but the driver’s side. He turned the vehicle around with only two jockeying maneuvers as though he’d been driving for years. The taillights soon disappeared into the night as the car exited at a far faster speed than its arrival.

  Nora trekked back to the house unaware of hidden puddles soaking her shoes and dampening the hem of her dress. Her head whirred with questions. Where was he going? How did he learn to drive like that? Who moved over on the seat and gave him the wheel? She felt neither the November wind whipping down from frozen Canada, nor the droplets of rain starting to fall. Catching Elam in his clandestine activity had distracted her from the foul weather. Even crossing unfamiliar, alien land in total darkness didn’t frighten her.

  Nora slipped in the back door and crept through the kitchen like a mouse. The possibility that someone—Thomas, John, Amy, or Sally—might be waiting for her, expecting an explanation, had never occurred to her. What could she have said? Oh, I saw Elam leave like a thief in the night, so I decided to sneak out after him. She couldn’t face another scene like yesterday’s and didn’t want to make more trouble for her sister.

  But no one lurked, ready to pounce, in the kitchen. The house’s occupants slumbered peacefully as Nora dripped on the floor mat, considering what to do next. A sane woman would have hung up her wet garments and returned to bed, satisfied with the late night adventure.

  Apparently, Nora King didn’t fit that description.

  Leaning on the countertop on both elbows, she waited at the kitchen window for the secretive man to return. Sometimes she dozed, only to be awakened by her head bobbing to her chest. Other times her tired eyes spotted imaginary phantoms drifting across the frost-kissed fields. But when Elam finally approached the outside entrance to his cellar bedroom, Nora was neither asleep nor daydreaming. She sprang out the door, went around the corner of the house, and landed directly in his path.

  “Holy cow, Nora, you almost gave me a heart attack!” Elam clutched his chest with both hands. “What are you doing out here? It’s the middle of the night.”

  “I know what time it is. What are you doing?” Nora purred soft as a cat with her hands clasped behind her back.

  He stared at her, mystified. Then the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile. “You were spying on me.” His expression of confusion changed to pleasure.

  “True. After all, what else is there to do around the farm for entertainment?”

  “You’re the only woman I know who wouldn’t lie about spying on a man.” He glanced up at the second-floor windows.

  “I see no reason to lie about anything.” Nora lifted and dropped her shoulders. “I saw you get into that Englischer’s car.”

  Judging by his face, this information shocked him. “You followed me that far?” Elam pulled her down a few steps so they wouldn’t be seen or overheard. “You’d better keep mum about that unless you want me run out of town on a rail.”

  “I’ll keep quiet if you tell me where you went,” she whispered with newfound boldness.

  “Nowhere, really. We just cruise around. My friend taught me to drive and lets me practice with his car. I memorized the English booklet of rules and regulations from cover to cover. We don’t go far—only to the shopping center lot so I can practice maneuvering around cones. I already have my temporary permit and I’ll take the test next week.” Elam’s black eyes danced in his head.

  Nora didn’t understand about “temporary permit” or “cones,” but that hardly mattered. Elam was taking the English driver’s test. She’d known only one Amish man ever to do that. “Whatever for?” she asked, peering up at him. “All you have is a buggy and a fast horse.”

  “Don’t be a little goose. I don’t plan to stay in Harmony forever, especially if another logging job doesn’t open up soon. And I can’t very well walk or take a buggy where I’m going.” He lifted her chin with the gentlest of touches. “Now go on inside. You’re starting to shiver. And you don’t want to get caught with a no-good man like me.”

  Before she could argue, he grabbed her hand and pulled her up the steps to the lawn. “Good night, Nora. Sweet dreams,” he whispered. After a courtly tip of his hat, he disappeared back down into his subterranean cave.

  Nora stood in the dark with a racing heart and skin tingling where he had touched it. Elam didn’t need to remind her to keep quiet. Wild mustangs couldn’t have dragged the secret from her.

  Amy sat at the kitchen table with her second cup of coffee, trying to understand how her life had tangled into such a snarl. Every mental avenue she traveled down appeared to be a dead end. In her state of turmoil, she wasn’t aware that Sally had entered the room until she spoke.

  “What are you doing up? It’s not yet five a.m. Even the rooster hasn’t crowed.”

  “I couldn’t sleep. I’m trying to figure out how to patch up things with John. Just because he lost his head doesn’t mean I should have lost mine. You know what they say about two wrongs.”

  Sally reached for her favorite mug and the coffeepot. “First, you need to decide what you want, Amy King.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why did you come here? Spell it out for me. I have plenty of time. Both boys are still asleep.”

  Amy considered the question carefully. “I came to make a new life for myself with John.”

  “And Maine is where you wish that new life to be?” Sally squinted as though in bright sunlight.

  “Definitely. I’ve fallen in love with Harmony.”

  “And John is the man you want to marry?” Sally added two heaping spoonfuls of sugar to her mug and stirred her coffee slowly.

  “Jah. I can’t imagine my life without John in it.”

  “Then why do you keep fighting him at every turn?” The teaspoon clattered onto the table.

  Amy flinched—annoyed, then frightened, and then saddened by the question. After an uncomfortable minute she answered, “I don’t
know why. I suppose I’m afraid to surrender to him and give up my independence. I need to maintain control, especially for Nora’s sake.”

  Sally tilted her head, looking genuinely perplexed. “What do you suppose would happen to Nora if you let down your guard?”

  “I’m afraid to think about it. I know she doesn’t want to return to Lancaster,” she whispered, ashamed she might be betraying a confidence. “I must make things work for her here.”

  “You’re capable of doing that?” Sally stared without blinking. “You can make another person’s life run smoothly?”

  Amy fussed with her paper napkin. “I must try, Sally. I’m her only confidant since our parents died. Although, John is right about one thing—my pampering and overprotecting will only cripple her. I might have done that already. This morning when I shook her so we could talk, she snapped at me. She said she needed to sleep and that I should leave her alone.” Amy gulped her coffee black, needing all the fortification she could get.

  “No one would describe her as a morning person.” Sally’s giggle dissipated some of the tension.

  “Nora pays lip service to helping around the house more, but then she sleeps in until ten o’clock.” Amy leaned her head back and shut her eyes. “But we’ve gotten off track. I need to fix things with John, not map out my sister’s future.”

  Sally finished her drink before speaking. “Okay, you wish to make a life here with John. What else is important to you?”

  “I love having family around me. That’s why I want Nora to stay in Maine and the house we purchase to be near you and Thomas and your boys…” She heard the childish tone in her voice and stopped herself.

  “Go on,” prodded Sally. “It’s just you and me and God. Get this off your chest. There’s nothing you can’t admit to me, not with my checkered past.”

  Amy wiped her eyes, moist with unshed tears. “That’s one reason I wanted to reconnect with Aunt Prudence. She was so much like my mother back in Lancaster. Mamm is gone, but I still could have Aunt Prudence if she would only move to Harmony. In some odd way I need her in my life, and she turned her back on me. I wonder if she really did write two letters or if she just said that to cover her tracks. Why wouldn’t I have received them?” Her voice trembled, betraying her insecurity.