AR01 - A Road Unknow

by Barbara Cameron

  “Sure.”

  “Have you ever wanted to wear Englisch clothes?”

  “Yes. Jeans,” Elizabeth confessed. “They look so comfortable.”

  “They are! What size do you wear?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never bought clothes.”

  “I bet you’re around my size,” Paula said. “C’mon.”

  Before she knew what was happening, Paula had grabbed her hand and dragged her, laughing and protesting, into her bedroom. “Sit down, I’ll find a pair for you to try.”

  She pawed through a closet crammed with more clothes than Elizabeth had ever seen and tossed her a pair of jeans.

  “Hmm. You need a top, too.” She gave Elizabeth a critical look over. “The blue fabric you got was a good choice. It’s a good color for you.” She found a blue cardigan sweater and tossed it at her as well.

  “They’re yours if they fit and ever want to wear them.”

  Elizabeth took them to her room to try on, then returned to Paula’s room to look at herself in her full-length mirror. She’d never seen herself in such a mirror before. Mirrors hung over bathroom vanities in Amish homes and she’d used a small mirror for grooming in her bedroom but she’d only seen these full-length ones in store changing rooms.

  The jeans fit a little tight—she must be a size bigger than Paula—but felt so strange she wasn’t sure she’d ever wear them.

  “They look great on you,” Paula said. “What do you think?”

  Elizabeth bit her lip. “They’ll take some getting used to. I love the sweater. Thank you.”

  Paula nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  Elizabeth changed back into her dress and returned to the dining room table. Paula watched her sew for a few minutes and then went to check her e-mail.

  “Nothing from Jason tonight,” she said and frowned. “I hope he’s okay. When he came home from his last deployment I tried to get him to talk to me about what he did, what was going on, but he didn’t want to. Said I’d just worry. Well, I watch the news, I read things on the Internet. I already know, so, of course, I worry.”

  Elizabeth couldn’t imagine being separated from someone she was in love with the way Paula seemed to be with Jason. People in her own community stayed so close to home. Jason was thousands of miles away.

  She’d be happy when he was home for the holidays to see Paula.

  She glanced at the clock on the wall and decided she could sew for another half hour or so and then should be getting to bed. It was another work day tomorrow.

  Paula looked up from her laptop. “Say, did you know there’s a bunch of dating websites for the Amish on the Internet?”

  “No, really?”

  “Yeah. Maybe you should take a look at it.”

  Elizabeth wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think so.”

  Paula became absorbed in it. “Oh honestly!” she said after a few minutes. “They have a photo of a supposed Amish guy and he’s wearing a mustache! Amish men don’t wear mustaches!”

  She glanced over at Elizabeth. “I don’t know why, I just know they’re either clean-shaven when they’re single or they wear a beard when they’re married. But I’ve never seen an Amish man with a mustache. Why don’t they wear them.”

  She removed a pin from her mouth. “Mustaches are forbidden because they’re too reminiscent of what soldiers wore many, many years ago.”

  “Hmm. Didn’t know that.”

  Elizabeth shook her head and smiled as she continued to sew. She finished the seams of the main part of the bodice, set it beside the sewing machine, and rolled her shoulders. They felt a little stiff from bending over the machine.

  She felt a sense of accomplishment she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Oh, she knew she was good at her job at the store. Saul had let her know he was pleased with her work the first day. She knew she was good at taking care of her brothers and sisters, too.

  But sewing the dress—she’d seldom had time to sew back home and yet here she was creating—well, she’d been raised not to show pride but surely feeling a sense of accomplishment at a job well done wasn’t wrong . . .

  And while she didn’t envy Paula her closet full of fancy Englisch clothes, she was girl enough to want to have a beautiful new modest dress to wear. She got ready for bed and smiled when she put her head on the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

  13

  Jenny sounds really sweet,” Paula told Elizabeth. “I certainly didn’t expect to be invited to a family meal just because you’re my roommate.”

  “I’m sure she wouldn’t have invited you if she didn’t want to.” She held the directions to Jenny’s house in her hand as Paula drove. “Are you sure you don’t need to look at the directions?”

  Paula shook her head. “I recognized the address when you told me.” She glanced over. “Your dress turned out really nice.”

  Elizabeth smoothed the skirt of the new dress she’d finished a couple of nights ago. Being invited to dinner with a local family seemed a good occasion to wear it the first time.

  “The color’s pretty on you.”

  Elizabeth pulled down the visor on the car and checked her appearance in the mirror. She smiled, refusing to think it was wrong to feel pretty in something new. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d made herself a new dress. Some might hate hand-me-downs, but as the eldest in the family she never got them, so when money was tight as it frequently was, she had to make do with what she had.

  They pulled into the drive of the address Jenny had given them. Several buggies were parked outside. Elizabeth wondered how many people were inside. A couple of butterflies fluttered around in her empty stomach.

  “You coming?” Paula asked her when Elizabeth hesitated about getting out of the car. Then she tilted her head and studied her. “You okay?”

  “I’m just a little nervous,” Elizabeth confessed. “I don’t know anyone here but Jenny.”

  “Well, you’re about to meet some of your family. I’m sure they’re nice. You said Jenny is.”

  “Families aren’t always friendly.”

  “I know.” Paula patted her hand. “You just say the word if you want to go home early.”

  “What word?”

  Paula’s forehead wrinkled as she thought about it. “Party girl.”

  Elizabeth laughed. How lucky she was to have a friend like Paula. “That’s two words. But they’re as good as any.”

  As they walked up to the front door, Elizabeth couldn’t help thinking how close she’d grown to Paula in such a short time.

  Jenny greeted them at the door and introduced them to Matthew, her husband and Elizabeth’s second—or was it third?—cousin. He stood more than a head taller than his wife and his strong features and blue eyes reminded her so much of her family back home. His face bore the signs of a farmer: traces of the tan from late summer harvesting and a crinkling around the eyes from facing the sun in the fields nearly every day.

  “Wilkumm to our home!” he said and he enveloped her hand in both of his. “How nice to meet one of the Goshen Bontragers.”

  “I hope you don’t mind—I invited some of the family,” Jenny said. “They wanted to meet you after I told them about you.”

  “I’d like to meet them, too,” Elizabeth said. She wasn’t just being polite. She did want to meet them—she was just nervous about it.

  “My grossmudder Phoebe wanted to meet you, but she’s been called away to take care of a sick friend,” Jenny said.

  Jenny and Matthew had four children. They ranged in age from what Elizabeth estimated was late thirties down to teenage: Joshua, Annie, and Johnny. Mary walked in carrying Rosanna. Interesting, thought Elizabeth. Mary was the name of one of her sisters.

  “Rosanna!” Jenny plucked her from her mother’s arms.

  Matthew chucked her under the chin and held out his arms, but Jenny refused to part with her.

  “Mine,” she said, and then teased him by holding out Rosanna and then leaning back with her.

/>   “Don’t you need to go put supper on the table?” Matthew asked her.

  “Mary, would you mind putting everything on the table?”

  Mary turned to Joshua and Johnny. “You two can help me.” She frowned at her daughter in her mother’s arms. “She’s been so fussy this afternoon, I’m wondering if she’s getting another tooth.”

  “Your mamm is telling tales about you,” Jenny chided. She smiled at Rosanna, then Elizabeth. “Would you like to hold her?”

  There didn’t seem to be any graceful way out of it, so Elizabeth held her for a few moments and then handed her back saying, “I should help.”

  Several leaves had been inserted in the kitchen table to make room for them all. One of the walls—a moveable partition really—had been pushed back the way it was so often done to make room for large groups for church. When Jenny’s family left, the partition could be returned to its position for a cozier kitchen.

  Elizabeth watched the way brothers and sisters cheerfully squabbled with each other as they placed serving dishes on the table and took seats. It reminded her of her own brothers and sisters although they were younger . . .

  Annie glanced at the lock. “Aaron said he might run a little late.”

  “Wish my mann didn’t have to be out of town,” Mary said. She looked over at her mother cradling her daughter in her arms and smiled. “He got the chance for a little extra carpentry work and wanted to take it.”

  They prayed over the meal and then began passing the serving dishes.

  “Elizabeth, I thought I’d let each of us tell you a little about ourselves, so you could get to know us. Joshua, why don’t you start since you’re the oldest?”

  “Uh, that would be Daed,” he said and they all laughed.

  “Eldest child,” Jenny emphasized, sending him a mother’s look. “And head jester of the family.”

  “I have a small horse-breeding business and I’m engaged,” he said and he reddened a bit.

  “Finally,” Mary said and Joshua stopped in the act of handing her the basket of bread and turned to give it to Johnny instead. “Hey!” She looked at Elizabeth. “The family thought Joshua was going to marry one of his horses for a while there.”

  “It wasn’t my fault,” Joshua defended himself. “God took a long time to set my intended before me. Now it’s your turn to tell Elizabeth about yourself.”

  “I’m a new mamm as you can see,” Mary told Elizabeth and Paula. “I used to be a teacher before I got married.”

  “Annie?”

  “Hmm?” She looked up from scribbling a note on the back of an envelope. “Sorry, I just got an idea I needed to jot down. I’m a writer, like Mamm,” she explained. “My first book is out later this year. It’s about—”

  Groans went up around the table.

  “Just because you all have heard about it doesn’t mean Elizabeth and Paula don’t want to hear about it,” she said in an aggrieved tone. But she grinned. “Writers get no respect. Anyway, it’s about the Amish and their changing world.”

  Johnny made quick work of his introduction, mumbling about working at his first job with his brother, Joshua. Then he went back to eating, as if he hadn’t seen food for a week. He reminded Elizabeth of her brothers who she always wondered if they had hollow legs because they ate so much.

  “And now you, Elizabeth?” Jenny prompted.

  “I work at Saul’s store and I came here from Goshen, Indiana. Jenny came in one day and asked if I was related to your family and we are and it’s why I’m here,” she said all in a rush.

  “And, last but not least, Paula, please tell us about yourself,” Jenny invited.

  “I’m finishing up my studies for a bachelor’s degree in nursing,” Paula told them as she helped herself to the bowl of mashed potatoes with browned butter on top.

  “I’m a writer and Matthew is a farmer,” Jenny said. “And Rosanna is our first grandchild.”

  “Let me hold her for you so you can eat,” Matthew suggested.

  “In a minute,” Jenny told him and she looked around the table at her family. “I’m not in a hurry to eat. Supper’s not just about eating. It’s also about enjoying family and making memories.”

  Saul found a surprise on the store doorstep when he opened the door for business the next day.

  Elizabeth walked in wearing a dress that reminded him of a morning glory blooming on a vine.

  “You look very nice this morning,” he told her and she beamed.

  “Danki.”

  “Harumph!”

  Elizabeth turned and they both saw the bishop stood on the doorstep behind her.

  He looked past her to Saul. “I’d like to speak to you.”

  Saul experienced a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Could the man look any more stern and forbidding? He glanced at Elizabeth and she looked stricken.

  “Certainly. We can go in the back room. Elizabeth, would you like to put your things up first?”

  She nodded and walked ahead of them to store her jacket, purse, and lunch.

  “Call me if you need anything,” he told her and then he turned and gestured for the bishop to precede him into the back room.

  “I’d offer you coffee, but I haven’t made any yet,” Saul said as he sat down at the head of the table.

  The bishop appeared momentarily disconcerted at his action and glanced, frowning, at the percolator sitting on the cold stove, but Saul didn’t care. This didn’t look like a friendly visit so better the man say what he had to say and be gone.

  “I came to ask you to fire Elizabeth.”

  Of all the things Saul had expected him to say, that hadn’t been it.

  “Why would you ask?”

  “Obviously, if she has no job she’ll have to return to her family where she belongs.”

  “You don’t think she’ll just go find another job?”

  “If she does, I’ll know about it soon enough and go talk to whoever hires her.”

  Elizabeth had been hired to fill in for Miriam while she was on maternity leave, but the man didn’t need to know her employment was short-term.

  “You can’t do this sort of thing,” Saul said. “Not only is it wrong, because she’s been a good employee, but it’s against the law.”

  “Not our law.”

  “But one we have to follow. And I don’t agree in any case, because it has to be her choice if she goes back to her family.”

  “I saw how you looked at her when you opened the door,” the bishop said. “If you care about her, you should care about her soul. I’m not trying to punish Elizabeth. I’m trying to bring her back into the fold.”

  He stood with some stiffness, nodded at Saul, and left the room.

  Saul got to his feet and started the coffee. He stood staring out the window, listening to the blip of the coffee perking. When it stopped, he fixed two mugs and carried them out to the counter.

  Elizabeth handed a woman a shopping bag and thanked her, then as the woman walked to the door, she turned to him.

  He handed her a mug and indicated she should have a seat on the stool behind the counter.

  “So, what did he want? It was about me, wasn’t it?”

  “Everything’s not about you,” he teased.

  When she stared blankly at him, he shook his head. “It’s an Englisch expression. ‘It’s all about you.’ As if things are only about the other person. It has to be said with the appropriate amount of sarcasm.”

  Her face closed up. “I’m sorry,” she began stiffly and she set her mug down without drinking from it. “I thought he came to talk about me.”

  Saul touched her arm. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. He did come to talk to me about you.”

  “Why would he do that? What did he think you could do?”

  He hesitated, not sure how much he should say. “He thought I should fire you, so you’d have to go back home.”

  She’d picked up the mug and now she set it down so hard coffee slopped over the sides o
nto the counter.

  “Ow!” she cried and shoved her burned fingers into her mouth.

  Saul stood, grasped her other hand and led her into the back room. There, he turned on the cold water tap and persuaded her to put her burned hand under the cool stream of water.

  “Better?”

  She looked on the verge of tears, but she nodded. He found a plastic bag in the cupboard, filled it with ice and gave it to her to press against the burned hand.

  “Why don’t you sit in here for a few minutes and take care of that?” he said, drawing out a chair and waiting pointedly until she sat. “I’ll go get your coffee.”

  “No, thanks,” she said quickly.

  “Something cold?” he asked. “There are soft drinks in the refrigerator.”

  “I’m fine.” She cocked her head. “Sounds like someone just came in.”

  “I’ll take care of it. You stay here.”

  The visitor was the mail carrier with a handful of mail and a package. Saul followed him to the door and locked it, then turned the sign around which read “Back in five minutes.”

  Elizabeth looked up when he returned.

  “I put the sign up we’re taking a break,” he explained as he fixed himself another mug of coffee.

  He sat down at the table opposite of her and searched her face, trying to find the words. She met his gaze, looking confused.

  “Elizabeth, this isn’t easy for me to say—”

  “You are firing me!” she cried in disbelief.

  He held up his hand and shook his head. “No, I’m not firing you. It’s the furthest thing from my mind. The bishop said something to make me think. He said he saw how I looked at you when I opened the door.”

  She blushed and lowered her gaze for a moment, then looked up at him again. “That’s none of his business.”

  “No. But it’s ours. I’ve been attracted to you from the time I walked onto the bus and sat next to you. I haven’t said anything, because I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable working here. But I’d like to start seeing you outside of work. If you feel the same way. If you don’t, we can forget we ever had this conversation and I promise you I won’t say another word ever again.”