She almost tripped on her own feet as her heart began to race. What did he think he was doing, acting all charming and enthusiastic like he was really looking forward to this evening? Wasn’t he dreading this as much as she was? Of course he was dreading it. He didn’t want to be seen with Esther at the gathering. She was dreading it because it was a huge imposition on Levi, and she hated the thought of being an annoyance, like a cocklebur stuck to your stocking. Men! She just couldn’t figure them out.
He opened the door for her, then jumped in on his side. There was a single purple wildflower lying on the seat between them. He picked it up. “May I?” he said.
Esther frowned at him. “May you what?”
“Put this behind your ear. I noticed you don’t have anything there today, and I thought a flower might look nice.”
Esther’s heart palpitated wildly. Maybe she really was as old as Levi thought, because she was definitely having a heart attack. “Okay,” she murmured. The word came out more like a question. Did she want Levi to get close enough to slide a flower behind her ear? Did she need a flower behind her ear? Was it inappropriate to show up to a gathering with a flower behind her ear? Did she look good in purple?
Levi didn’t seem worried about any of those things. He sort of caressed the side of her head with his left hand while sliding the wildflower behind her ear with the other. It wasn’t any big to-do. His fingers barely grazed the curve of her cheek. She still felt her face get warm and her breath go shallow. She was definitely having a heart attack.
Levi drew back, studied her face, and gave her a wide smile. “There. You look more like yourself with something behind your ear, and that purple brings out the blue in your eyes.”
Ach, vell. That answered the purple question.
Levi jiggled the reins, prodding the horse to a trot. “This is going to be so much fun.”
Esther eyed him suspiciously. “You seem unusually excited to get to that gathering.”
He laughed as if he’d been holding it in for hours. “Esther, I don’t want to go to the gathering.”
Esther’s heart sank, even though she had known that was how Levi was really feeling all along. For goodness’ sake, it was how she was feeling too. Why did the thought of not going make her sort of sad all of a sudden? “Ach,” she said, waiting for some appropriate reply to fall out of her mouth, but she couldn’t think of anything. Did he want to go somewhere else to be with his friends? Did he want to drive around in the buggy until a certain amount of time had passed and Nanna would be satisfied? She’d rather not waste her time. There was a half-finished quilt waiting for her at home. “If you drop me off here, I can just walk home.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Don’t even joke about that. Mammi would feed me to the ants.”
“Well . . . then . . . what? What do you want me to do?” He’d personally tucked a flower behind her ear. Did he have some sort of plan?
He laughed again. The joke was on her somehow. She wanted to rip his hat in two. “I knew you wouldn’t have fun at the gathering, but Mammi never listens to me. But she’s right that you needed to get away from the haus. I don’t want you to go crazy. You might start throwing my power tools.”
“You won’t let me touch your power tools.”
“That’s what I mean. Crazy people don’t follow rules. So I thought of something that we’d both enjoy more than a gathering.”
Esther cocked an eyebrow. “Ach, vell. That doesn’t seem like a very hard thing to find.” She shifted in her seat and smoothed an imaginary crease from her dress. “Denki for the flowers. I love honeysuckle.”
“Me too. It smells so gute.”
“Where did you find it? I hope you didn’t steal it from someone’s yard.”
He chuckled. “I told you, I got it from the side of the road.”
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t in someone’s yard.”
His smile only got wider. “If you must know, Mary Jane has a huge bush on the east side of her house. I nearly got stung. There are about a thousand bees buzzing around that bush this time of year.”
“Denki for risking your life. And I’m glad to know you didn’t steal someone’s honeysuckle.”
He gave her a strange, slightly bemused look. “It would have been worth it.” Levi pulled up to his own house, drove the buggy around to the barn, and set the brake. “Okay. Let’s go,” he said, opening the door and jumping out.
“Your house?”
He shrugged. “Mamm needs us to clean bathrooms.”
“Uh. Okay.” She didn’t want to go to the gathering, but cleaning bathrooms was not her idea of a night away, especially with a flower tucked behind her ear. The presence of the flower made her feel like she needed to do something fancy.
Levi laughed harder. He was really starting to annoy her. She looked for a pile of manure to throw at him. “I’m teasing, Esther. The driver should be here any minute.”
“Driver?”
He nodded. “You’ve only been here a couple of months. I want to show you the most exciting place in the valley, and it’s too far to go by buggy.”
Esther couldn’t keep a smile from taking over her face. “That sounds interesting. What is the most exciting place in the valley?”
“You’ll see.”
Esther scrunched her lips together. “I’m not going to have to jump out of an airplane, am I?”
“Nae, but that sounds like another fun activity.”
“What are the chances of me dying or getting seriously injured on this exciting adventure?”
His enthusiasm didn’t dampen one little bit. He looked up at the sky as if he was thinking about it very hard. “There’s maybe a little chance. That’s all I’m going to say.”
She rolled her eyes. “I feel so much better.”
They walked around to the front of Levi’s house just as a car pulled up. Two women sat in the front seat. “Hi, Levi,” the driver said.
“Hallo, Mrs. Kemp. This is Esther.”
Both Mrs. Kemp and the woman in the passenger seat turned around as Esther and Levi slid into the back. “Hi, Esther,” Mrs. Kemp said. “I’m Colleen, and this is my sister, Marie. We sometimes drive the Amish around when we have some free time, and I was really excited when Levi said we were going up to Alamosa.”
“What’s in Alamosa?” Esther asked.
“Well, lots of things, but I promised Levi I wouldn’t tell where we’re going until we get there. I guess he didn’t want you jumping out of the car when you found out.”
Esther wasn’t the timid type, and the thought of doing something that might make other girls jump out of the car and run for their lives got her pulse racing. She buckled her seat belt and looked at Levi. “You’ve got my full attention.”
Levi just laughed, but this time Esther wasn’t annoyed. Maybe the joke wasn’t on her after all.
About half an hour later, Colleen pulled off the highway and turned down what looked like a deserted road. Up ahead, there was a huge truck trailer on the side of the road that was impossible to miss. It was painted bright lemon yellow and had green lettering on the side. COLORADO GATORS REPTILE PARK, it said.
Esther looked at Levi. “Umm. Where are we going?”
Levi pointed out the window at a wooden alligator standing upright on a fence post. His smile was so big, Esther could have counted all his fillings if he’d had any, which he didn’t. “To see the biggest alligators west of the Mississippi.”
Esther nearly squealed with delight, except she wasn’t a squealer, so she kept her mouth shut and simply smiled. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, but the Colorado Gators Reptile Park was not it. Levi was a genius. “I’ve never even seen the biggest alligators east of the Mississippi.”
His eyes flashed with excitement. “Then you’re going to love it. I brought extra money in case you want to take alligator wrestling lessons.”
Esther’s heart all but leaped out of her chest. “How likely am I to get my hand chewed off?
I can’t change diapers with one hand.”
Levi shrugged. “Ben changes diapers with one hand. With practice, you’d get pretty gute at it. Wrestling alligators is probably a lot like getting Lydi to hold still long enough to change her diaper. You kind of need two people.”
Colleen parked the car in the makeshift parking lot, and all four of them got out. “You’re staying?” Esther asked.
Colleen nodded. “We love this place. They let you hold a baby alligator. Our dad loved it too.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Last year we scattered our dad’s ashes in the garden here. But don’t tell anybody. I think it’s illegal.”
Marie shook her head. “It’s only illegal in Disneyland.”
They walked down a little dirt path, where they encountered a gorgeous lilac bush and a huge green sign that Marie read out loud. Maybe she wasn’t sure Esther and Levi could read English. “‘Colorado Gators is not responsible for accidents, theft, injuries, death, or damage to personal items. This is a dangerous place. Please be careful.’” Marie glanced at Colleen. “People die here all the time. I’m sure they didn’t mind Dad’s ashes in their azaleas.”
Esther didn’t really believe people died here all the time, but the sign was impressive. For sure and certain, it added to the excitement of the outing. Another sign greeted them outside the fence. CAUTION. THIS IS A WORKING FARM. IT DOES SMELL. Esther pointed it out to Levi, and they both laughed. The Amish were well aware of the realities of smelly animals. They lived with smells every day.
Levi kindly paid the entrance fee for both of them. Esther would have paid, but she hadn’t brought any money with her, and Levi wouldn’t have let her anyway. He was thoughtful like that. Esther liked that about him. Her brothers were notoriously stingy. It was nice when someone didn’t purse his lips and make a sour face over the cost of a pound of apples or a gallon of milk. Frugality was a gute quality. Stinginess was nothing but unpleasant.
Colleen and Marie went in one direction, saying something about emus and snakes. Levi and Esther followed the signs straight to the alligators.
“Are you scared?” Levi asked.
Esther snorted. “Nae. Are you?”
“Terrified.”
The look on his face made Esther laugh. “I’m sure you are.”
He winked at her again. Boys should not wink at girls like that. Alligators didn’t make her legs turn to jelly, but apparently a little attention from Levi Kiem did. “I’m just trying to make you feel better. I know you’re just pretending to be brave because you don’t want to embarrass yourself.”
“Ach, we both know I have no trouble embarrassing myself no matter who’s watching. You don’t have to spare my feelings.”
He put an extra spring in his step. “Ach, vell then. I’m froh I no longer have to worry about your feelings.” He stopped short and slumped his shoulders in mock dejection. “But I still have to worry about you throwing things at my head. Or stabbing me with your seam ripper.”
Esther widened her eyes. “You know about the seam ripper?”
“You were wearing it behind your ear that day at the quilting group. After I pulled it out of your doorjamb, I realized where it had come from and who had skewered it into the wood. At least you didn’t stab it into my arm. Or my face.”
Esther giggled. “I was tempted. You were aggravating and arrogant and said some dumm things.”
He motioned to her ear. “That’s why I gave you the flower. If you stab me with that, you probably won’t draw blood.”
“You needn’t worry. I don’t take my temper out on people or animals. But I make no such promise with apricots or brick walls.”
He grinned and nodded. “That is very gute news, unless you’re an apricot.”
“The gute news is that you never have to guess. I’ll always tell you when I’m angry. I’m not a pouter.”
“I can’t stand a pouter.”
Esther had never seen anything like the gator farm. There were several pens surrounded by chain-link fencing where the gators sunned on the sand or floated about in the water like submerged logs. It was an unusual place to take a girl who’d been expecting to go to a gathering, but a wonderful gute place to take a girl who needed some time away from her hard life. Of course, in a world full of problems, Esther had to admit that her life wasn’t all that hard. She hadn’t had cancer like Nanna Kiem or liver disease like her dat. She hadn’t lost a child like her cousin Perry or been paralyzed in a buggy accident like her neighbor Marta in Pennsylvania. She didn’t have an abusive boyfriend like Ivy or any kind of the life like the one Ivy must be living. And she had a beautiful little baby who was fussy and kept her up at night but was also cuddly and innocent and lovable. Esther couldn’t complain, but it was still nice to get a break.
Levi bought some alligator food, and they fed the alligators. Then they strolled among the tortoises and petted their rock-hard shells. Esther loved the tortoises. They didn’t seem to be ruffled by anything, including people, and the pattern on their shells could have been made into an interesting geometric quilt. Levi and Esther saw too many snakes, lizards, and birds to count. Levi’s favorite was the emus. They were huge birds, so big they couldn’t fly, with long legs and brownish-gray feathers that were so fine they looked like fur, especially on the tops of their heads.
When they got hot, Levi suggested they go inside. They sat on a bench while they looked at the snakes. “I’m afraid we’re not going to be able to wrestle alligators today. It costs a hundred dollars for a class, and the man said it would be really hard to do in your dress.”
“Kind of like pickleball,” Esther said. Pickleball was not impossible in a dress, but it was a little hard to dive for a ball, though that didn’t stop her from trying. Esther was the only one in her pickleball group who dived for balls. Sometimes she fell down. Sometimes she made spectacular saves. The other women didn’t play that hard by choice. Cathy didn’t want to break a hip. Allison said winning wasn’t near as important as being able to get out of bed the next day. Esther watched as a bright yellow snake slowly coiled around itself and closed its eyes for a nap. “I would love to learn how to wrestle alligators, but a hundred dollars would be better spent on fabric, I think.”
Levi studied her face and smiled. “You’re the most unexpected girl I’ve ever met.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Snakes don’t scare you. Or spiders.”
Jah. She’d seen plenty of spiders when she pulled up that subfloor, even a black widow, which she had promptly squashed with her thumb. Levi had been astounded, but she’d been wearing her gloves, so she hadn’t seen it as anything to make a fuss about. Of course, black widow spiders were all gooey when you squished them, so she had to clean off her glove before getting back to tearing out the floor. “Spiders are helpful critters. Haven’t you ever read Charlotte’s Web?”
“Nae.”
“I don’t see how killing spiders makes me unexpected. Is that the word you used?”
He chuckled. “It’s just that . . . you always surprise me. You think alligator wrestling would be fun and you want to spend extra time laying fancy tile on your bathroom floor, but you also have a practical side that measures the temperature of Winnie’s bottles and prefers to spend money on fabric. And you have a very gute arm for throwing things.”
“Three years of softball on a city team. Mamm wasn’t happy about it, but Dat said girls had just as much right to have fun as boys.”
“Your dat was right. And those years of softball weren’t wasted. You can thin apricots with the best of them.”
Esther made a face at his teasing. “Jah, I can, and don’t you forget it.”
A man with an alligator tooth hanging around his neck stood in the doorway and clapped his hands. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be closing in ten minutes. Say one last goodbye to your favorite snake.”
Levi glanced at Esther. “Would you like to say one last goodbye to anything?”
“Let’s
go find a tortoise.”
By the time they’d finished petting the tortoises, Esther was wishing she’d brought a notepad. She would have liked to sketch the pattern from a tortoise shell. She and Levi strolled to Colleen’s car and waited for Colleen and Marie to return.
“That was a better time than being at the gathering,” Levi said. “Don’t you think?”
Esther nodded enthusiastically. “I like the sense of danger in the air. There’s not much danger at a gathering.”
“Unless you happen to eat one of Mayne Lapp’s cookies.” They both laughed. It had been a long time since Esther had gotten so much attention or had so much fun.
Unfortunately, the best part of the evening was being with Levi. He would only agree to let her hold the baby alligator after he’d held it to make sure it was safe. His concern was irritating and endearing at the same time. He’d exercised the same concern when she used the crowbar on the stubborn particleboard of her bathroom floor or the power drill to secure screws into place. She’d seen the careful way he played with Winnie and even how attentive he was to his mammi. He was much more nurturing than Esther was, but he didn’t make a big show of it or need constant recognition. It was just in his nature.
Esther was honest enough with herself to admit how much she enjoyed spending time with Levi. She liked him. She liked him a lot. That was the unfortunate part. Levi had made it clear he wasn’t interested in Esther. As an old maid with a baby, she would be deerich indeed to hold out any hope for him. He was young. He wanted a young, pretty, unencumbered fraa, probably preferring someone who was soft and delicate and didn’t throw things when she was angry. She couldn’t blame him.
Besides that, she’d told him right to his face that she didn’t want a husband. Levi was only being so nice because he thought he was safe—safe to show an old maid a little kindness without her building up all sorts of expectations. Esther had accepted her life and Levi’s place in it, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t sad about the way things would inevitably turn out. Levi would finish the bathroom too soon, and she and Winnie would only see him at gmay from then on. He’d go to Ohio, where he’d find a hundred girls more interesting and attractive than Esther, and Esther wouldn’t even be a pleasant memory by the time he got back.
The Amish Quiltmaker's Unexpected Baby Page 11
