Lydia's Charm

by Wanda E. Brunstetter

“You’re right about parenting not being easy. Fact is, nothing’s been easy for me since Sadie died.” Menno’s face contorted. “It’s been six months since her death, and I wonder if the pain of losing her will ever subside.”

  “Since I’m not married I don’t know how it would feel to lose a mate, but I do know that when my grossmammi died, my grossdaadi found joy again by spending time with his kinnskinner.”

  Menno nodded. “It’ll be a long time before I have any grandchildren, but your point’s well taken. I should enjoy whatever time I have to spend with my boys.” He gave his left earlobe a tug. “Just wish they’d learn to behave themselves.”

  Levi glanced over his shoulder. “Changing the subject, I wonder if we’re ever going to get waited on. Someone should have been here by now to take our order, don’t you think?”

  “I think they may be shorthanded.”

  “Guess I ought to be more patient,” Levi said, “but Mom and my sisters are the only ones working in the store right now, and I don’t want to leave ’em alone too long.”

  “Where’s your daed and brieder today?”

  “Pop and my brother Peter went fishing. Mom said Pop’s been working too hard lately, and she insisted that he take the day off. And if Andy’s up and dressed by now, he’s probably at the store or home doing his chores.”

  “How come you didn’t join ’em at the fishing hole?”

  “I had some errands to run in Berlin this morning and figured Mom would need me in the store this afternoon.” Levi fingered his silverware as he stared out the window. “Can’t remember the last time I went fishing. Sure would be nice to spend a few hours at the pond.”

  Just then, a waitress finally came and took their order.

  When their soup and sandwiches arrived, they ate while they talked about the warm spring weather, and discussed some safety issues folks had been having with their horse and buggies lately.

  “It scares me the way some Englishers drive their cars around here,” Menno said. “With all the dips and turns on the back roads, it’s hard to see when one of our buggies is up ahead. If a car’s going too fast there’s just no way they can stop in time once they realize a buggy’s at the bottom of one of those dips.”

  He lifted his glass of water, and someone bumped his arm. The cold liquid sloshed out of his glass and trickled down the front of his shirt.

  “I–I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bump you.”

  Menno looked up and recognized Lydia King. “It’s okay. No harm’s been done,” he said, blotting his shirt with a napkin.

  “Would you like me to see if I can find you a towel?”

  “I’m fine. It’s just a little wasser.”

  “Do you work here, Lydia?” Levi spoke up.

  She nodded then shook her head. “Not yet. I’ll be starting here tomorrow, though.”

  “Then I’ll probably see you again, because I come in for lunch quite often,” Menno said.

  She smiled. “I’ll try not to make a habit of spilling water on you.”

  “Might feel kind of good if it’s a real hot day.” Levi chuckled, then looked over at Menno and said, “Have you met Lydia King? She and her son just moved here from Illinois. Lydia is Wilbur Hershberger’s granddaughter.”

  “Jah, I know.” Menno smiled at Lydia. “You and your son were talkin’ to one of my boys at Carpenter’s Café yesterday. He told me who you were.” Menno extended his hand. “I’m Menno Troyer. I own the woodshop here in town.”

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Her cheeks flushed as she shook Menno’s hand. “I’d better go so you two can finish your lunch. It was good seeing you both again.”

  “So how’d you meet her?” Menno asked Levi after Lydia walked away.

  “Met her briefly when she and her little boy came into our store yesterday,” Levi replied. “Didn’t say a whole lot to her, though.”

  Menno gulped down what was left of his water. “When Kevin came back to our table after talking to her son at Carpenter’s Café, he said the boy’s daed had died.”

  Levi nodded. “When Lydia and Josh were in our store, she mentioned that she was a widow and had lost her job in Illinois.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  “Sure hope she’s not as clumsy as she was today,” Levi said, “or she won’t keep the job very long.”

  Menno nodded and pushed away from the table. “Whelp, guess it’s time for me to pay my bill. I need to get back to work.”

  Levi stood. “Same here.”

  “Mom, look out!”

  As Nona turned to see what Levi was yelling about, the ladder she stood on wobbled, and she hung on tight. “Don’t scare me like that! You nearly made me fall.”

  Levi’s eyebrows furrowed. “You shouldn’t be up there at all. You should’ve called me if you needed something that was too high for you to reach.”

  “You can’t always do everything for me.” Nona climbed down the ladder, holding a small box of cleaning rags in one hand.

  “But Mom…”

  “Just stop it, Levi. What’s it going to take for you to realize that your daed and I are just as capable as you? We can pretty much do what everyone else does, just in a different way.”

  “But there’s no reason for you to be climbing ladders when I’m right here.” Levi exhaled with a grunt. “You and Pop work too hard and do many things that I could easily do for you.”

  “If we didn’t work, we’d get fat and lazy.” She winked at him. “Laziness is the habit of resting before you get tired, you know.”

  He snickered, despite his obvious attempt at maintaining a straight face.

  “Just remember one thing. Your daed and I may be small, but we’re not lazy, and we’re not incapable.” Nona brushed past him and moved toward the front of the store. “I think you should have gone fishing with your daed and Peter this morning,” she called over her shoulder.

  “I had errands to run,” he said, catching up to her. “Besides, I wasn’t about to leave you alone in the store this afternoon.”

  She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I’m not alone. Betty and Andy are in the back room, unpacking that new shipment of dishes we got in yesterday.” She motioned to the front counter. “And Selma’s right there, ready to wait on customers.”

  “But since Betty and Andy are…”

  “Short and incapable? Is that what you were going to say?”

  Levi shook his head. “I was going to say that since Betty and Andy are busy in the back room, you might need my help out here.”

  She motioned to the broom leaning against the wall. “If you want to make yourself useful, why don’t you sweep the floor?”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’d planned on dusting the shelves and cleaning fingerprints off the front counter. Is that okay with you, or is it your intent to hover over me the rest of the day?”

  “Didn’t plan to hover, but I will sweep the floor.”

  “Danki.”

  As Nona picked up her dust rag, Levi grabbed the broom. She appreciated all that he did around here, but sometimes he got on her nerves with his overprotectiveness. If it weren’t for the fact that Levi was her only normal-size child, Nona might have thought he was overprotective because he was her oldest child and believed it was his duty to look out for his parents, but Levi’s concerns went deeper than that. He saw their short stature as a handicap, and thought because he could do some things easier than they could, he had to hover around and do everything for them. Nona wished there was some way she could get through to Levi, but he seemed determined not to make a life of his own.

  Just then, eight-year-old Andy skittered in from the back room. “I’m bored, Mom. Sure wish I could’ve gone fishin’ with Pop and Peter.”

  “You could have if you hadn’t slept so late. By the time you got up, your daed and bruder were long gone.”

  The skin around Andy’s pale blue eyes crinkled as he wrinkled his freckled nose. “Somebody’s shoulda woke me.”
>
  “I called you twice.” Gently, she pinched his cheek. “Somebody should have listened when they were told that they’d need to get up early if they wanted to go fishing.”

  Andy turned and tipped his head up to look at Levi. “Will ya take me to the pond so I can do some fishin’?”

  “Not today.”

  “How come?”

  “There’s too much work here to be done.”

  “How ’bout tomorrow?”

  Levi bent down so he was eye level with Andy. The boy’s hair and eyes were the same color as his, but that’s where the similarity ended. Andy would never be tall like his oldest brother. “I don’t think tomorrow will work, either,” Levi said.

  “How come?”

  “I’ll be busy then, too.”

  “Your daed and Peter will be helping in the store tomorrow,” Nona interjected. “So you’re free to take Andy fishing in the morning.”

  “Oh, good! I can hardly wait.” Andy bounced up and down on his toes. “Think I’ll dig me some worms as soon as we go home tonight. That way I’ll be sure to have plenty of bait.” He grinned up at Levi, then turned and trotted into the back room.

  Levi looked at Nona and his eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t have time to go fishing.”

  “Jah, you do.” She gave his shirtsleeve a quick shake. “You’ll go, and you’ll have a good time.”

  CHAPTER 5

  As Lydia walked along the shoulder of the road toward Grandma’s Restaurant the following day, she drew in a breath of damp, earthy air. It had rained during the night, but now the sun was out, and a vivid rainbow glistened in the sky. A bird twittered from a nearby tree, adding to the joy of the moment. She was glad Grandpa’s house was within walking distance of the restaurant so she could enjoy the beauty of God’s creation in a more personal way.

  Today would be Lydia’s first day on the job, and she’d been given the late morning/early afternoon shift. She hoped everything would go well. The last thing she needed was to bump someone’s arm like she’d done yesterday when she’d spilled water on Menno Troyer. He must have thought she was a clumsy fool. Lydia’s only excuse for not watching where she was going was that she’d been anxious to get home and tell Mom and Josh that she’d gotten a job. She’d make sure to stay focused today and watch what she was doing.

  Lydia was surprised when she stepped into the parking lot and saw all the cars, not to mention several horse and buggies tied to the hitching rail. She figured the lunch crowd must be here already.

  She hurried into the restaurant and had just put on her apron when she spotted an Amish man with light brown hair sitting at a table on the side of the room that she’d been assigned to work. It was Menno Troyer.

  Drawing in a deep breath to help steady her nerves, she stepped up to him and smiled. “I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.”

  “I come here often because the food is real good.” He returned her smile, although it never quite reached his hazel eyes. From the slump of his shoulders, he appeared tired. “So how are things going with your new job?”

  “You’re my first customer, but so far, so good.” She motioned to the menu in front of him. “Have you decided what you’d like to order?”

  He tapped his fingers on the table. “Guess I’ll have my favorite—a Rueben sandwich and a glass of iced tea.”

  “I promise I’ll be careful not to bump you this time.” She shifted her ordering pad to the other hand. “I’m usually not as clumsy as I was yesterday. Guess I was so excited about getting the job that I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  His mouth moved in a slight slant when he smiled. “Not to worry. With four rowdy boys, I’ve had a lot worse things than water dumped on me.”

  She chuckled. “I know what you mean. My son can be accident prone at times, too.”

  “Is Josh your only child?”

  She nodded, surprised that he remembered Josh’s name.

  “My youngest boy, Kevin, mentioned that Josh had told him you’re a widow and that you moved here from Illinois.”

  “That’s right.”

  “What part of Illinois?”

  “We lived near Arthur, but the restaurant where I worked there wasn’t doing well, so I lost my job.”

  “Do you miss Illinois?”

  “I miss my friends there. I was born in Ohio, but my folks moved to Wisconsin when I was a year old, so that’s actually where I grew up. Soon after I married, my husband and I moved to Illinois.”

  “So what brought you back here?”

  “My mamm, Mae Weaver, moved here a year ago to care for my grossdaadi, and when she heard I was out of a job, she suggested Josh and I move to Charm to live with her and Grandpa.”

  He handed her the menu. “I’m a transplant, too. I moved my family here from Pennsylvania about a year ago to open a woodshop.” His eyes darkened, and he dropped his gaze to the table. “But my wife died six months ago, so my boys and I have been on our own ever since.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure it’s not easy raising four boys alone.”

  “No, it’s—”

  “How’s everything going here?” Lydia’s boss asked as she stepped up to the table.

  Lydia’s faced heated. She was taking much longer to turn in Menno’s order than she should have. Talking too much was a fault of hers, and she hoped Edith wouldn’t think she was slow.

  “Everything’s fine,” Menno spoke up. “I’ve just finished placing my order, and your new waitress was about to turn it in.”

  A sense of relief swept over Lydia. He was covering for her so she wouldn’t get in trouble with her boss. What a nice man.

  Edith pushed an unruly strand of curly dark hair back under her Mennonite head covering and motioned to the table behind them. “Those people have been sitting there awhile. As soon as you’re done here, could you please wait on them?”

  “Yes, of course.” Lydia glanced at Menno. “Will there be anything else?”

  He shook his head. “Just the Rueben sandwich and a glass of iced tea.”

  Lydia hurried toward the kitchen to turn in his order. After Edith’s reminder to wait on the couple sitting behind Menno, she’d have to stick to business.

  As Mae lifted a loaf of warm bread from the oven, tears spilled onto her hot cheeks. She’d been so busy all morning caring for Dad’s needs and trying to keep Josh out of trouble that she still hadn’t had time to paint the kitchen, much less take a few minutes out for herself. She felt drained most of the time from caring for Dad, and now that she had Josh to watch, she had even more responsibility on her shoulders.

  She loved to quilt and wished she could spend her days doing that, but it wasn’t likely to happen. Not when she was stuck taking care of other people’s needs instead of her own. It wasn’t fair that Abe and Dan, her two older brothers, had moved to Missouri several years ago and weren’t available to help Dad.

  She placed the bread on a cooling rack and flopped into a chair at the table, as a wave of guilt washed over her. She had no right to be thinking this way. Abe and Dan were both struggling financially, and each of them had several children still living at home. It was her responsibility to care for Dad, and she was doing Lydia a favor by allowing her and Josh to live here.

  When Mae first heard that Lydia had lost her job at the restaurant in Arthur, she’d known it was only a matter of time until she was forced to move out of the house she rented. At least now Lydia and Josh had a roof over their heads, which was one less worry for Mae.

  Since Lydia was working at Grandma’s Restaurant, she could help with some of the household expenses. With all of Dad’s doctor bills and the medicine he had to take, bills added up. Mae wasn’t sure how long the money in Dad’s bank account would last. She could ask for help from their church district if necessary, but she preferred to make it on her own.

  Mae reached for the teapot on the table and poured herself a cup of chamomile tea, hoping it might help her relax. She was about to take a drink
when Josh raced into the room, red-faced and sweaty.

  With all the enthusiasm of a four-year-old, he hollered, “Kichli, Grossmammi? Sei so gut!”

  Mae frowned and put her finger to her lips. “I know that a cookie is good, but you need to keep your voice down, because your urgrossvadder is sleeping.”

  “Kichli! Kichli!” Josh darted across the room and pointed at the cookie jar on the counter.

  Mae jumped up, grabbed his arm roughly, and pulled him to her side. “You need to be quiet.”

  Tears welled in Josh’s eyes, and his chin quivered like a leaf blowing in the wind.

  Mae let go of his arm. He probably thought she was mean, but he needed to understand that he couldn’t yell in the house. “Take a seat and I’ll get you some cookies and milk.”

  Josh, a bit calmer now, climbed into a chair, folded his hands, and watched as she took three chocolate chip cookies from the cookie jar and placed them on a napkin in front of him. Then she poured a glass of milk and set that on the table, too.

  “Danki.” Josh smiled up at her, his eyes bright and cheerful again.

  She patted his head and returned to her seat on the other side of the table.

  Josh ate the first cookie then washed it down with a gulp of milk. He dunked the second cookie in the milk until it broke in two and fell to the bottom of the glass. Before Mae had a chance to offer him a spoon, he stuck his fingers inside the glass.

  “Nee, not like that,” she scolded. “If you’re not careful, you’ll…”

  Thunk! The glass toppled over, and the milk spilled onto the tablecloth and trickled on the floor.

  Mae jumped up and grabbed the sponge from the sink. “You’ve been nothing but trouble for me all day!” She shook her finger at Josh and drew in a shaky breath, trying to compose herself.

  “Keep your temper; nobody wants it.” Mae remembered Dad saying that to her plenty of times when she was a girl. Well, it had been easier to keep her temper before she’d had a noisy child in the house.

  Josh sat several seconds, blinking his eyes. Then he opened his mouth and let out a piercing wail.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Dad shouted from his room. “Don’tcha know I was tryin’ to sleep? Just stop hollerin’ at the boy!”