by E A Lake
Sara froze just before she reached the back door. A sudden motion caught her eye, and she gasped when she saw three axe-carrying young men. All faces wore serious expressions. All were dressed in the traditional Amish blue. With all of her courage, she turned and called out for the adults. “Sister!” she screamed a little louder than she had planned. “Hunter, help!” Sara jumped from the step, sprinting toward the older pair, Matty clutched tightly in her arms.
Theresa grabbed Hunter’s arm and squeezed as tight as she could. Hunter spun hearing the commotion and frowned. “Hunter, what’s going on?” Theresa asked, breathless. “What do those men want, and why are they carrying axes?” She snuck a quick peek back at Hunter, as she embraced the frightened Sara. Hunter’s frown turned to a scowl as he studied each of the men.
“Let me deal with this,” he said quietly, prying Theresa’s fingers from his arm. He shook his head and stepped forward, more focused on the back door than the men.
Theresa took a small step forward. “Be careful, Hunter. They’re all armed.” He stopped suddenly and turned back to the nun. His face wore obvious confusion.
“I’m not worried about those boys, Sister.” A small grin crept in the corners of his mouth. “I’m going to get Emily. Her dream dates have arrived.” He laughed and shook his head at the confused pair of Theresa and Sara. “Those are Amish boys, locals. They’re here to chop wood and show off for the girls. They just each brought their own axe.”
Hunter turned, chuckling and wandered past the trio of now smiling older teens. “The wood piles out back, boys. Get at it, and I’ll let the girls all know they have visitors.” The young men turned and quickly ran for the back of the house. Each wanted to be the first with his jacket off so their admirers could see their bulging biceps.
Turning as he opened the back door, Hunter called out to Theresa one last time. “They’re just showing off, Sister. Nothing to be scared of. Let’s just get all the work out of them we can today.” Theresa let up lightly on Sara and frowned at Matty.
“That was a mean trick that nasty old Hunter played on us, Matty. He is such a mean, mean man.” Matty grinned toothless at the nun’s playful tone. Sara grinned as she handed Matty to Theresa and ran for the house.
“I need to put something a little nicer on, Sister,” she called out just before disappearing into the house. “Just in case.”
Chapter Twenty
Theresa and Hunter decided to start their kettle search in the barn. Hunter thought they might find a large container used to feed or water livestock there. Theresa agreed. The barn was dark, the windows covered with years of unattended dirt and grime. What little light that found its way in was filtered, as if through light brown glass.
Hunter found several basins that might work. Unfortunately, they were either too rusty or the bottoms had holes. Theresa went to the back of the barn and found a smaller container that she held up for Hunter’s inspection.
“It could work,” he said, giving it a momentary glance. “I was hoping for something a little larger though.” Theresa agreed tossing the item aside for the time being. Hunter glanced at the seemingly happy nun wondering what was going through her mind.
“I can almost see my father’s barn years ago. We had all kinds of feeders for calves and horses that would be perfect.” She stared far off as if she was back in her childhood. “I remember one year we had sheep. Well, probably a couple of years. But Dad said they were too much work for too little money.” She sighed and shook off the memories. “If we were back there right now, I’d know exactly where to find what we’re looking for.”
Hunter kept searching. “I’m sure there has to be something somewhere around here,” he said. “This was a working farm six years ago. Everything can’t be rusted out. There must be something that’s been spared.” Hunter slid toward the door while Theresa followed. “Maybe over in the pig shed or the chicken coop we’ll have better luck.”
The pickings were just as slim in the pig shed; almost as bad as the barn. Hunter became frustrated with their lack of results. Sister Theresa continued undeterred.
“You know Sister, I was glad to hear you say what you did to Sara. Shows me you have some sort of idea of what you might run into out here.” Theresa listened but continued her search. “I was afraid given your background, you might be too optimistic about strangers.” Hunter stopped and eyed the nun.
She stopped as well, and turned to speak. “Oh, I am well aware of the dangers that are all around us out here, Hunter. Mother Margaret spoke to each of us at length about the trials we may face on a daily basis.” She stepped closer to Hunter to continue. “You do realize we faced many similar issues even at our parish, don’t you?”
Hunter shrugged. He didn’t know what the cities were like any more.
“We had all sorts of people coming to us daily there. Some were good people with nowhere to turn. Some of them were just plain evil. You could tell the difference. After five years, a person gets pretty good at spotting the best and the worst of them.” They exited the pig shed and continued their search in the chicken coop. Both hoped for better results. “Have you had much trouble out here before?” Theresa stopped and waited for Hunter’s reply.
He nodded slightly. “The first couple years weren’t bad. Mostly people passing through. The last few years have been tougher, though. People want food, Sister; they need it.” His face sank as he continued his tale. “Desperate people, Sister. Real desperate.”
“Have you had to use force to protect yourself, Hunter?”
“I’ve had to fire a few warning shots to scare some off. Nothing too serious I suppose.” Hunter became serious. “I haven’t had to kill anyone, if that’s what you’re asking.” The Sister nodded at him.
Theresa spoke somberly. “I worry about deadly force, Hunter. That’s the thing that worries me the most.”
“I was thinking of bringing over a shotgun for you, Sister. Something you could have around for safety.” Hunter focused on the nun, now shaking her head vigorously at him.
“No, I could never use that. I’m against violence of any sort. I couldn’t do that, and I wouldn’t allow any of the girls to either. That goes against everything I know, everything I’ve ever been taught, everything I believe.” She looked back at Hunter serious again. Hunter was quiet for a moment and carefully approached the subject from his side.
“But I could, right Sister?” Theresa thought hard after hearing his words. This was the big question.
“I assume you would do whatever you had to if the time came Hunter.” She shook her head slightly. “I just couldn’t.” Hunter now shook his head back.
“So that ‘Thou shalt not kill’ only applies to you and the girls then, not me. I see.” Hunter thought she probably felt this way, but wondered if she would ever say it out loud.
“Hunter, I would hope you would use force just to scare people off, to keep us safe. Sometimes the threat of violence is enough to stop something from happening.” She gazed at him and spoke with complete honesty. “But if something life threatening was happening, I could see where you may have to harm another person. Is that how you see it as well?” She wasn’t sure what he was thinking. He seemed to look away, far off into space.
“What do you want me to say? There may come a time where it’s kill or be killed. Am I supposed to have some magic solution for that where no one gets hurt? That ain’t possible, Sister.” Hunter shook his head for the tenth time in the last two minutes. He approached Theresa staring almost through her. “I’m not your knight in shining armor. I ain’t no hero. But I’m going to kill someone if they try to hurt you, any of you. I won’t lie and tell you otherwise just so you can feel better.” Hunter stoically waited for her reaction.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that Hunter. But I guess if it does, I’d rather have you on our side than any other. You have to do what your mind tells you is right. I just can’t be part of it. Please don’t judge me as weak. Don’t look at me like I’m som
e kind of martyr. I just couldn’t kill another human being. I don’t think I have it in me.” Sister Theresa couldn’t read Hunter’s reaction. He raised his eyebrows and turned to continue his search.
“Well, look at this.” Hunter picked up a large steel basin, just what they were looking for. “This will work just great.” Finally, he smiled at the nun. “I won’t judge you, Sister. Just don’t be too quick to judge me if the time ever comes. That’s all I ask.” They exchanged a quick nod and strolled out into the warm May sunshine. “Let’s get this filled with water and set it on the cook stove. By evening, everyone should be able to clean up all they want.”
As they walked silently across the yard and back to the house, Theresa took Hunter by the arm. She stopped, and he stopped. Her eyes met his.
“Thank you, Hunter. I know this isn’t what you had planned for your life, but it’s good of you to pick up this burden. I just hope we can all live peacefully. That’s all I hope for. Peace and safety. If we have that, we’ll all be fine I’m sure.” Theresa studied his face anticipating his reply.
“As long as we can get most others to leave us alone, we’ll be fine I would think. I just need us to be ready if any trouble comes our way. We can’t be sheep led to slaughter. We can’t allow ourselves to be unprepared for hard times. This isn’t going to be an easy life, Sister. For anyone. You, me, those girls, especially those babies. We need to be ready for whatever this rotten world throws our way.” Hunter turned and headed for the pump out front. Theresa watched him walk away.
She still wasn’t sure how much she liked this man. She certainly wasn’t ready to trust him 100 percent. But, she felt a little better about things for the time being. Not a lot, just a little. That was better than two weeks ago.
The teens watched carefully as the three young men split wood. Each young man had his own method, according to the five onlookers. And each of the wood splitters had admirers. While none of the boys were overly handsome, each had muscles upon muscles in his chest and arms. What would have taken the girls weeks to chop, the boys made quick work of.
The action slowly churned to a stop when the trio noticed Hunter standing, watching them silently. With folded arms and a furrowed brow, Hunter gave the impression something was wrong.
Seth Mueller braved the first try at the unhappy man. “Something bothering you, Hunter?” he asked.
Hunter stepped forward shaking his head. “I guess you think that wood is gonna stack itself, right?” Hunter kicked at a piece of light brown oak. “Or maybe…” he looked up at Seth, “…maybe you think those girls are gonna come out and stack it for you, I suppose.” Hunter focused on the other two now. “Is that what you’re thinking, Jacob? Harley?”
The boys jumped into action and hastily began piling the wood in perfect rows. Hunter grinned as he left them to their chore and headed inside to speak with the teens.
“I bet they’d like some water,” Hunter said, as the girls jumped away from the viewing post by the back window. “And they don’t bite. They’re just regular boys, ya’ know.” He watched as Karen grabbed a stack of glasses and Sheila lifted the almost empty drinking pail.
Hunter shook his head, as Sheila did circles in the tiny kitchen. “I guess you’re going to have to go fill it up. Take Mary with you to the pump.” As the pair disappeared out the back door, Hunter chuckled at Emily and Sara. “They’d probably like a snack, too. Got any crackers left from your supplies? Or maybe some of those cookies Rebecca brought yesterday?”
Sara and Emily ran for the pantry as Hunter studied Karen’s smiling face. “Is this how it goes around boys, Karen?”
Still smiling, she shook her head at the man. “Not all boys,” Karen replied. “Just new ones.” Hunter and Karen turned to go meet the others in the driveway so they could reward their new friends together.
Chapter Twenty-one
The rest of the morning, Hunter worked on Sister Theresa’s new pet project – re-screening the front porch of the old farmhouse. Hunter didn’t think it could be repaired, but Theresa saw better possibilities for it.
“This is a dumb idea, I mean your dumbest yet, Sister,” he said. “I think that roof may leak even once I get new screen up on the windows. And that center pole you want me to take out may be the only thing holding the roof in place.” Hunter inspected the porch thoroughly as he, Theresa, and now Sheila stood outside together. Sheila was his assigned helper for this project.
“I just think it has so much potential.” Theresa gazed at the porch that had honestly seen its better days. “Even if the roof leaks, so what? It can be fixed, or we just won’t use it much when it rains. With screen up, we can get a nice cross breeze through the house, and it will be a nice place for the girls and the babies on hot summer nights.” Theresa obviously saw potential that Hunter missed.
“Whatever, you’re the boss. I saw some screen still in wrappers out in the shed. Hope there’s enough to do it all.” He studied Sheila carefully. He considered having her fetch it for him while he stripped off the lathes that would hold the new screen in place. But he knew she wasn’t tall enough to be able to get at it. And if something unknown fell on her, she’d probably have a heart attack. He shook his head and spoke to Sheila. “Come on shrimp, help me get that screen.”
Within an hour, progress was made. Emily even decided to come out and help. Hunter seemed somewhat perturbed at her yet, so Theresa avoided him for a while. He did as she asked, he just wasn’t happy about it.
With bits and pieces of this and that, some old nails they found in the shed, and a couple new shingles for the roof, the project took less than two hours.
The teens found their three visitors to be somewhat shy. While skeptical enough for everyone, several of the girls attempted to engage the Amish youths in conversation. What they discovered was that these young men weren’t much for conversation, especially small talk. Still, the girls did their best to admire and take care of any needs their helpers might have.
Shortly before lunch, Hunter gruffly dismissed the boys. “Okay lads, show’s over. Head back home and get at your real chores.” Each of the three grinned shyly at the five assembled teens along with their babies. The young men bid their farewells and journeyed home.
Theresa stood next to Hunter watching the boys disappear across the back field. “Well, that was awfully nice of them. To come and cut wood like that.” She peeked at Hunter.
He turned and started for the house. “They were mostly showing off, Sister,” he said quietly. “But they saved me a day’s worth the work, so I suppose it was worth it.” He stopped and grinned at the nun. “And the girls all seemed to enjoy them being around. So I suppose it’s really a win-win for all.” Theresa agreed with Hunter and followed him into the house for lunch.
After lunch, all bodies assembled by the garden. Everyone was going to learn the proper way of watering the plot, whether they wanted to or not. Several of the girls didn’t see the reason to learn. Wouldn’t rain provide all the water it needed? Mary and Sheila were this afternoon’s skeptics. For their attitudes, they got to haul water first. Hunter found three five-gallon buckets. Emily pumped water into each bucket. Mary, Sheila and Karen hauled the buckets to the garden. There, Sister Theresa and Hunter had Sara take out smaller pails of water and place some of the liquid on each row. This undertaking was a total group effort. Everyone worked to make this go as quickly as possible. That was where the wheels finally started to come off.
On her second trip to the garden with the 40-pound bucket of water, Sheila tripped and fell, covering her and the ground around her with the contents. She sat in the puddle for just a second and then sprang to her feet and kicked the bucket with all her might. By accident, her foot slipped in the water, and she landed hard on her butt, square in the middle of the puddle again. In tears, she let out a string of profanity that almost shocked even Hunter. Theresa, hearing her language, raced over to where Sheila sat, still crying, to admonish the teen. The fight was only getting started.<
br />
Sheila sprang to her feet, as Theresa came closer. Fire filled her eyes. “Spare me the lecture, Sister,” Sheila spat at the nun. “I’m sick of this. This is a joke. What are we even doing here?” Theresa reached out for her, but Sheila slapped the nun away. “I don’t need your help. I don’t need you. And I sure as hell don’t need any of this. I’m out of here. I should have left DeepHaven when I had the chance. I’m going home and don’t try to stop me.”
Sheila’s four schoolmates surrounded her, worried. Hunter watched from the garden chuckling. “You’re all crazy if you think this is going anywhere. You’ll all be dead by winter along with every last one of those babies. Dead I tell you, dead. Well, I’m not sticking around to die with you.” Sheila strode purposely away from the house toward the road. Sara and Emily followed, begging her to return.
Theresa ran back to the garden to get Hunter’s help. He stood, smiling, watching Sheila storm away as the two others chased after her.
“Hunter, do something. She’s leaving.” Sister Theresa hoped he saw the true gravity of the situation. He waved at the departed and went back to work.
“Let her blow off some steam. About time someone did.” He glanced at the startled nun and continued. “She’s a hundred miles from home and she knows it. She’ll never get two miles down the road. She’ll be back in good time.” Hunter surveyed his remaining crew. “Okay, so Mary, Karen and I will fill buckets and bring them over to you Theresa, and you’ll water for the next little bit. Come on gang, we’ve got a lot to do yet.”
After three trips each, Hunter noticed the three girls coming back from the south. They hadn’t even made it a mile, he thought. He knew they’d come to their senses. After he set his bucket down and looked again, he saw trouble. He was just about to say something to Theresa when he noticed someone following the girls. He stared closer, three men. Theresa saw Hunter’s expression and reached out for his arm.
