by Jo Ann Brown
“Bees?” The bishop leaned against the stainless steel tank. “Doesn’t Hannah Lambright keep bees? The bridge is close to her house, ain’t so? Maybe she’ll be willing to help.”
“I’ve already spoken with her. She’ll take care of the bees if I help her with a few things.”
“Sounds like an excellent solution.” Reuben folded his arms over the ends of his gray beard. He shifted and plucked out the piece of hay. Tossing it aside, he went on, “But from your face, Daniel, and the fact you want to talk with me, I’d guess there’s more to the story.”
“A lot.” In terse detail, Daniel outlined how he’d found the kind after she escaped from the basket. He told the bishop about the note from Hannah’s daed. “Hannah will take care of Shelby, of course, until her daed can be found.”
“Hannah already carries a heavy load of responsibilities with her great-grandmother. Some days, the old woman seems to lose her way, and Hannah must keep a very close watch on her.”
“I offered to help with Shelby.”
The bishop nodded. “A gut neighbor helps when the load becomes onerous.”
“And I also told Hannah I’d come to ask you about whether we should contact the police to get help in finding her daed. If you’re all right with her talking to the police, she agreed that she will.”
Reuben didn’t say anything for several minutes, and Daniel knew the bishop was pondering the problem and its ramifications. It was too big and important a decision to make without considering everything that could happen as a result.
Daniel wished his thoughts could focus on finding Hannah’s missing daed. Instead, his mind kept returning to the woman herself. Not just her beauty, though he’d been beguiled by it. No, he couldn’t keep from thinking how gentle and solicitous she was of the kind and her great-grandmother.
Some had whispered years ago Hannah was too self-centered, like her daed who hadn’t spared a thought for his daughter when he jumped the fence and joined the Englisch world. Daniel had never seen signs of Hannah being selfish when they were walking out. In fact, it’d been the opposite, because he found she cared too much about him. He hadn’t wanted her to get serious about him.
Getting married then, he’d believed, would have made a jumble of his plans to open a construction business. That spring, he’d hoped to submit the paperwork within a few weeks, and he thought being distracted by pretty Hannah might be a problem. In retrospect, it’d been the worst decision he could have made.
He hadn’t wanted to hurt Hannah. He’d thought she’d turn her attention to someone who could love her as she deserved to be loved. But he’d miscalculated. Instead of flirting with other young men, she’d stopped attending gatherings, sending word she needed to take care of her great-grandmother. At the time, he’d considered it an excuse, but now wondered if she’d been honest.
But whether she’d been or not, he knew one thing for sure. He’d hurt her, and he’d never forgiven himself. Nor had he asked for her forgiveness as he should have. Days had passed becoming weeks, then months and years, and his opportunity had passed.
“I thought we’d seen the last of Isaac Lambright,” Reuben said quietly as if he were talking to himself.
“That’s Hannah’s daed?”
The bishop nodded. “Isaac was the last one I guessed would go into the Englisch world. He was a gut man, a devout man who prized his neighbors and his plain life. But when his wife sickened, he changed. He began drinking away his pain. After Saloma died, he refused to attend the funeral and he left within days.”
“Without Hannah.” He didn’t make it a question. “But Isaac has come to Paradise Springs and left another daughter behind.”
“So it would seem.” The bishop sighed. “I see no choice in the matter. The Englisch authorities must be notified. Abandoning a kind is not only an abomination, but a crime. Has the kind said anything to help?”
“Shelby makes sounds she seems to think are words, because she looks at you as if you should know what she’s saying. It’s babbling.”
He nodded. “That was a foolish question. A kind without Down syndrome uses only a few words at her age. An old grossdawdi at my age forgets such things.” His grin came and went swiftly. “But that doesn’t change anything as far as going to the police.” Again he paused, weighing his next words. “Waiting until tomorrow to contact them shouldn’t be a problem. I’d like to take tonight to pray for God’s guidance.”
“Hannah may be hesitant about talking to the cops because she doesn’t want to get her daed into trouble.”
Reuben put his hand on Daniel’s arm. “We must assume Isaac is already in trouble. I can’t imagine any other reason for a daed to leave another one of his daughters as he has.” He sighed. “We’d hoped when Isaac was put under the bann that he’d see the errors of his ways. He told me after Saloma’s death he’d never come back, not even for Hannah. Now he’s done the same thing with another daughter.”
“If Shelby is his daughter and not someone’s idea of a cruel prank.”
“And that, Daniel, is why I’ll be talking with the police tomorrow morning. They’ll know be the best way to find out what’s true and what isn’t.”
“What will happen if Shelby isn’t Hannah’s sister?”
The bishop clasped Daniel’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Let’s not seek. The future is in God’s hands, so let’s let Him lead us where we need to go.”
Daniel nodded, bowing his head when the bishop asked him to join him in prayer. He wished a small part of his heart didn’t rebel at the idea of handing over the problem to God. That part longed to do something now. Something he—Daniel himself—could do to make a difference and help Hannah.
After all, he owed her that much.
Didn’t he?
Chapter Three
As the sun rose the next morning, Hannah wondered how she was going to survive the coming day...and the ones to follow. During the night, which had stretched interminably, Shelby had been inconsolable. Her cries from the room across the upstairs hall from Hannah’s had kept Grossmammi Ella awake, too, on the first floor. Hannah had spent the night trying to get them—and herself—back to sleep. She’d managed the latter an hour before dawn.
Then she’d been awoken what seemed seconds later by the sound of her neighbors working in the field between her house and theirs. The Jones family were Englischers, which meant Barry Jones used rumbling tractors and other mechanized equipment in his fields. Usually Hannah was up long before he started work, but not after a night of walking the floor with an anguished toddler and calming her great-grandmother who was outraged at the suggestion her beloved grandson had left another kind on her doorstep.
Hannah dressed and brushed her hair into place. She reached for a bandana to cover it, then picked up her kapp. Daniel had said he was going to talk to Reuben Lapp before he came back this morning. It was possible the bishop might visit to discuss Shelby’s situation. She hoped he would have some sage advice to offer her.
Lots of sage advice...or any sort of advice. She could use every tidbit to raise a toddler who screamed at the sight of her.
“Keeping my eyes open instead of falling asleep on my feet is the smartest thing I can do,” she murmured as she slipped down the stairs.
Passing her great-grandmother’s bedroom door, she was relieved it was closed. Grossmammi Ella had been soothed about Shelby’s arrival because Hannah assured her great-grandmother the kind wouldn’t be with them long. She let Grossmammi Ella believe that Hannah’s daed would return straightaway to collect Shelby.
The situation wasn’t made easier because the elderly woman’s hearing was failing as fast as her memory. The toddler’s cries could slice through concrete, so the noise must be extra jarring for Grossmammi Ella who missed many quieter sounds. No wonder her nerves were on edge.
Hannah whispered an almost silent prayer of gratitude that Grossmammi Ella and the kind were still asleep. She doubted the peace would last long, and she needed to figure out what she absolutely had to do that day. She guessed most of her day would be focused on her abruptly expanded family. For the first time in a week, it wasn’t raining, so Daniel would want her to check the hive.
She sighed. That would be difficult because she couldn’t leave either her great-grandmother or the toddler alone. Though the covered bridge was down the road only a couple hundred feet, going would mean taking Grossmammi Ella and Shelby with her unless someone was at the house to keep an eye on them. She’d ask Daniel to do that while she went to figure out what she’d need to move the bees.
Maybe Daniel would have answers about her daed when he returned. His brother Amos ran the grocery store, and he may have heard something. It was even possible Daed had stopped at the store at the Stoltzfus Family Shops. No, that was unlikely. Why would he go where someone might recognize him?
Oh, Daed, why didn’t you knock on our door? I would have listened to you, and perhaps Shelby wouldn’t be distressed with me if she’d seen you and me together.
There weren’t answers, which is why, during the night while she walked the floor with Shelby, trying to get the little girl to go to sleep, Hannah had known Daniel’s suggestion to get Reuben’s advice about contacting the police was gut. The police had ways of obtaining information no plain person did. She had to concentrate on what was best for Shelby.
With a sigh as she put ground kaffi into the pot on the propane stove, she reminded herself, until she learned how to take care of the toddler and removed the bees from the covered bridge, Daniel would be part of her life. That should last only a few days; then he’d be gone again. Gut, because she didn’t want to let herself or her great-grandmother or Shelby become dependent upon him. She’d do as she promised Daniel, and then she’d go on with her life without him.
As she had before.
A cup of fresh kaffi did little to wake Hannah. She was halfway through her second one when she heard faint cries upstairs. Putting the cup on the counter, she hurried to the toddler’s room.
Shelby was standing in the crib Hannah had wrestled down from the attic last night. Grossmammi Ella kept everything, and Hannah was glad the old crib was still in the house. Shelby’s diaper was half-off, and big tears washed down her face. The sight of the forlorn kind made Hannah want to weep, too. Again she had to fight her exasperation with her daed. Being angry wouldn’t help her or Shelby.
“Hush, little one,” she crooned as she gathered the kind into her arms, hoping Shelby would throw her tiny arms around Hannah’s neck.
Instead the toddler stiffened and screeched out her fury. Hannah longed to tell her everything would be okay, but she wouldn’t lie to her little sister, though she doubted the toddler understood her. So far, it seemed Shelby comprehended simple words and phrases in Englisch. Nothing more, and Hannah hadn’t been able to decipher her babblings.
Daed probably wouldn’t have spoken to her in Deitsch, and it was unlikely Shelby’s mamm knew the language. Or would she? Who was Shelby’s mamm?
In the chaos of yesterday, Hannah hadn’t given the toddler’s mamm much thought. Where was she? Did she know her kind had been left alone on the front porch? Most important, Hannah thought as the little girl leaned her face against her shoulder, would Shelby’s mamm want her back?
All questions she couldn’t answer. What she could do was get Shelby cleaned and fed.
Hannah soon had the little girl, despite Shelby’s attempts to escape, in a fresh diaper and clothes. Another pair of pink overalls. She wondered if those were all Shelby wore. Her white shirt today had pink and blue turtles on it. Hannah needed to make clothes for the little girl, but the pressing matter was diapers. She had only about a half dozen on the dresser.
She came down the stairs with Shelby and saw Grossmammi Ella was awake and in the kitchen waiting for her breakfast. Exactly as she did every morning, but this day was different.
Putting Shelby in the high chair she’d found in the cellar, Hannah handed the toddler some crackers to keep her busy while she scrambled eggs for them. That seemed to quiet the kind who focused her attention on breaking crackers into the tiniest possible pieces.
Hannah gave her great-grandmother a kiss on her wizened cheek. “Gute mariye, Grossmammi Ella,” she said with a smile. “I hope you got some sleep.”
“Some.” She stared at the table.
“Let me get you some kaffi and toast while I make a gut breakfast for us.”
The old woman frowned at Shelby who was dropping minuscule pieces of cracker on the floor. “How long will that kind be here?”
“I told you last night. I’m not sure. I’m sorry she kept you awake.” She went to the stove and pulled a cast-iron frying pan from beneath the oven.
“She doesn’t belong here.”
“What?” Hannah turned, shocked. Grossmammi Ella had always been fond of kinder. Many church Sundays, her great-grandmother was the first to volunteer to hold a fussy boppli on her lap or watch over a little one so older siblings could join in a game after the service. “She may be my sister.”
“I don’t believe you! Your daed would never cast away his daughter like that.”
“He did me.” The words came out before she could halt them.
Her daed was a sore subject between her and Grossmammi Ella. The old woman believed Isaac Lambright would return someday and confess his sins before the congregation. Hannah wondered how her great-grandmother could continue to believe that after fifteen years. Hannah’s anger and grief at being left behind herself had been brought to the forefront by Shelby’s abandonment.
Dear Lord, show me the way to forgive my daed as You taught us. I can’t find a way in my heart to grant him forgiveness after what he’s done.
“Don’t forget what’s in God’s Ten Commandments. A kind should honor her daed and mamm.” Her great-grandmother’s scowl deepened.
“Ja.” She broke eggs into the frying pan and took out her frustration on them by stirring them hard. She did her best to keep the commandments, but her daed’s selfish actions made respecting him difficult.
I’ll try harder, Lord. Help me remember what’s important. She glanced over her shoulder as Shelby flung out her hands. A shower of cracker crumbs went everywhere, into the little girl’s hair, onto the floor, onto the table...onto Grossmammi Ella who abruptly smiled and handed the toddler another cracker. That delighted Shelby who babbled with excitement.
Hannah wanted to wrap her arms around them both and hold them close. The days to come wouldn’t be easy, but for her family, she’d try her hardest.
* * *
“Komm in, young man,” called a wavering voice when Daniel peeked around the front door of the Lambrights’ house after no one responded to his knock. “Don’t just stand there.” The voice took on a reproving tone. “Komm in.”
Daniel did, giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the interior after the bright early morning sunshine. Unbuttoning his coat, he didn’t take it off. He doubted he’d be staying long. He shifted his hold on the bag holding the shampoo and diapers he’d bought at his brother’s store.
A very old woman sat by the window. She was almost gaunt, and her white hair was so thin he could see her scalp through her kapp. Her bony fingers looked like talons as she clasped them on her black apron over her dress of the same color. But her eyes drilled through him as if he were a naughty boy standing in front of his teacher.
“I’m Ella Lambright,” she said, “but you can call me Grossmammi Ella. Who are you?”
“Daniel Stoltzfus.”
She eyed him up and down. “You have the look of Paul Stoltzfus about you.”
“He was my daed.”
“No wonder you look like him then. Why
are you here? Are you courting our Hannah?”
Before he could reply, he heard a quick intake of breath beyond the old woman. Glancing toward the kitchen, he saw Hannah wiping her hands on a dish towel. Shelby was sitting in a high chair and eating what looked like toast covered with honey. The toddler would need another bath as soon as she was finished, because honey was smeared all over her face.
Hannah flipped the dish towel over the shoulder of her dark purple dress as her gaze locked with his. She didn’t move or look away. He found he couldn’t either when he saw the deep wells of sorrow in her emotive eyes. Had she believed he’d return with her daed this morning? No, she hadn’t believed that, but she’d hoped. How could he fault her for her faith that all would turn out well in the end? Now wasn’t the time to tell her he’d learned that, though God was a loving Father, He didn’t have time to take care of details. Daniel had decided years ago to handle those on his own.
“Gute mariye,” he said into the strained silence. Pulling out the shampoo bottle from among the packages of diapers, he added, “My sister-in-law uses this on her boppli because it’s gentle on little ones’ hair and doesn’t sting their eyes.”
“Danki.” Her hand trembled as she took the bag without letting her fingers brush his. Setting it on the counter by the sink, she said nothing when he came into the kitchen.
Shelby stretched out sticky fingers toward him. She began to chatter in nonsense sounds. She bounced on the hard high chair, excited to see him again. Honey dripped off her chin, and bits of bread were glued to her face and her hands.
He kissed the top of her head. “How are you doing, Shelby?”
Giggling, she offered him a tiny piece of toast. He ate it, pretending he was going to eat her fingers, as well. That made her laugh louder. He was astonished how deep and rich the sound was.
The toddler’s high spirits vanished when Hannah approached her with a washcloth to clean her hands and face. Shelby screwed up her face and opened her mouth to cry.
Daniel yanked the wet cloth from Hannah’s hand. When she protested, he said, “Let me do it. There’s no reason to upset her again.”
