Return to Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  “I just wanted to know where we could drop you.” Lavina made her tone mild.

  “Oh.” She named a restaurant about a mile ahead. “Is that on your way?”

  “It’s on our way,” Mary Elizabeth leaned forward to say from the back seat. “Lavina is treating me to lunch.”

  “So she had to pick the most expensive one in town,” Lavina pretended to complain. “It’s a reward for her getting her quilt done early.”

  Carrie’s eyebrows went up. “So quilts do that well for you, huh?”

  “We do okay,” Mary Elizabeth said. “We’re so grateful we can do what we love and bring money into the family.”

  “I don’t like to sew,” Carrie said. “I don’t know why I went to the class.”

  “I think the class is something Kate thought would be fun and maybe help the ladies learn a skill so they can find a job.” Lavina stopped and bit her lip. She didn’t need to defend Kate or the class. “Quilting isn’t for everyone though as a hobby or a job. What kind of job are you looking for?”

  “I liked my job bartending, but my old man got jealous of the other men.”

  It took Lavina a moment to remember that some women called their husbands “old man.”

  “So you should get to do the job you like, and he needs to trust you,” Mary Elizabeth said.

  “Mary Elizabeth, it’s not our business to tell other people what to do!” Lavina chided her.

  “Well, it’s not right.”

  “You’re not like any Amish woman I know,” Carrie told Mary Elizabeth. “You’re not like your sister at all.”

  “We’re not all alike anymore than the Englisch are all alike,” Mary Elizabeth said tartly.

  “I just mean you’re more outspoken.”

  “She is that,” Lavina agreed. She pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. “How are you going to get back?”

  Carrie shrugged. “I’ll walk if I can’t get a ride. It’s not far.”

  She got out and walked away without saying thanks. Mary Elizabeth returned to her seat in the front.

  As Lavina turned her attention to leaving the parking lot Mary Elizabeth touched her hand. “Look!”

  Lavina looked in the direction her sister pointed. A man got out of a pickup truck and kissed Carrie.

  “Do you think that’s her boyfriend?”

  She felt a chill race over her skin. “I hope not. You should have seen how bruised her face was the first week I went to the class.”

  They watched the two walk into the restaurant. Lavina sighed as she guided the buggy onto the road. “Kate said some of the women go back to their husbands and boyfriends, sometimes several times.”

  “Even when they beat them? Why would they do that?”

  “There’s a lot of reasons, I guess. Kate said it’s a hard cycle to break.”

  “If I had a mann and he hit me . . . well, he just better never,” Mary Elizabeth said, frowning fiercely.

  They rode in silence to the restaurant. Lavina wondered if she should tell Kate about Carrie meeting the man. Would that be the right thing to do? Or was it being what they used to call a tattletale in schul?

  ***

  David came out of work to find his bruder Sam leaning against his truck, his arms folded across his chest.

  “Sam.” He came to a halt. “What brings you here? Is something wrong?”

  “I’m not happy with you.”

  “What’d I do?”

  Sam glared at him. “You know very well. You drove Mary Elizabeth to see me. Without any warning.”

  “It’s cold out here. Let’s go get some coffee.”

  “Fine. Then you can give me a ride home.”

  “Schur.” He unlocked the truck, and they climbed inside. David started the engine and turned the heater on.

  Sam fastened his seat belt and looked around. “You still happy with the truck?”

  “Runs great. It’ll take a minute to warm up.” He drove them to the same coffee shop he’d visited with Lavina and tried not to think about how that had gone. “You want your usual?” When Sam nodded he went to place their order.

  “Look, I’m sorry I sprang Mary Elizabeth on you,” he began as he sat down at the table. “But she wanted to see you.”

  “She wants me to come back.” Frowning, Sam dumped sugar and creamer in his coffee. “I can’t do that. Not even for her.”

  “Not even for Mamm?”

  “Low blow. You talk like that, and I’m leaving.”

  “Stay put. I’m sorry. I got you a piece of pie. Your favorite.”

  Sam smiled at the young Englisch woman who brought it to the table, but his smile faded when he looked at David. “If Daed hasn’t changed—and you said he hadn’t the last time we talked—why should I put myself through it all again?”

  When David opened his mouth to speak Sam raised his hand. “Let’s not talk about it. I just wanted to tell you not to do that again.”

  Ignoring the pie, he bent his head and stared into his coffee cup. “All I did was hurt her,” he said in a low voice David could barely hear.

  He raised his head. “Is she allrecht now? She was crying when she left.”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Lavina since that day.”

  “So you two haven’t patched things up yet?”

  David shook his head. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to.”

  Sam leaned back in his chair. “Women.”

  “Yeah.” But David knew he was to blame, not Lavina. Sam did, too.

  A cell phone rang. Several people around him—Englisch and Amish—checked to see if it was theirs. Lancaster county bishops were more lenient about their flocks owning a cell phone for their work. David pulled his out and saw the number of his mamm’s phone in the outdoor shanty.

  “It’s Mamm,” he told Sam as he took the call.

  “David! You have to come now! Your dat’s fallen, and I can’t lift him.”

  “Be right there.” He stood. “Come on, we have to go. Mamm said Daed fell.”

  “You go. I’ll get a ride home.”

  “Sam, come on! Do you want her to strain herself helping me?”

  Groaning, Sam stood and followed him out to the truck. “This better not be a trick,” he said as he stood waiting for David to unlock the truck.

  “Oh, schur, I sit around and think up tricks to get you home.” Disgusted, David started the truck and backed out of the parking lot.

  “Hey, slow down! You don’t want to get us killed.”

  David looked at the speedometer and lifted his foot from the accelerator. Sam was right. He didn’t want to get into an accident or get his first speeding ticket. If his mamm had thought his dat was in an emergency situation she’d have said so or called 911.

  They found their mother upstairs kneeling by their father, her face pale and pinched with worry. Her eyes lit up when she saw Sam, but she rose and stood back to let them help her mann back to bed.

  Amos stared at Sam. “What are you doing here?”

  “Helping you.”

  “Don’t need your help!” he snapped.

  “Well, you’re getting it,” Sam said without rancor as he and David eased him into bed.

  “You schur you shouldn’t go to the hospital to get checked out?” David asked him as his mother covered Amos with a quilt.

  “Just got up too quick, had a weak spell, and my knees wouldn’t let me get up,” he muttered, looking embarrassed.

  “Get some rest and I’ll bring your supper up here,” Waneta said.

  The fact that he didn’t argue with her, that he’d actually agree to eat in bed, which he’d always seen as a sign of weakness, told David he was hurting more than he’d admit. His eyes met his mudder’s, and she nodded. They’d talk downstairs.

  He turned his back on them. They left the room, and the minute they got downstairs to the kitchen Waneta threw her arms around Sam. “Oh, thank God, you came back!” she cried.

  Sam looked at David over her he
ad, seeking help. But he didn’t push her away; he simply stood and held her and let her cry.

  “Mamm, Sam’s not coming back,” David said after a long moment. “We were having coffee when you called, and I asked him to come help me with Daed.”

  Looking stricken, Waneta backed away and stared up at Sam. “You’re not?”

  He shook his head.

  She burst into tears and fled the room.

  Sam closed his eyes and shook his head. “I shouldn’t have let you talk me into coming here.”

  David sank into one of the kitchen chairs. “Does she look strong enough to have helped me? He was dead weight lying there on the floor.”

  Sam pulled out a chair and sat. “She looks almost as bad as he does.”

  “Cancer has more than one victim.” David felt a hundred years old sitting there. “Let me make sure she’s allrecht and then I’ll drive you home.”

  Sam nodded.

  When Waneta walked in a few minutes later her eyes were red from crying, but she was composed. “I’m sorry, Sam. I shouldn’t have said that to you. I don’t have the right to put pressure on you.”

  He reached out and squeezed her hand. “It’s allrecht, Mamm.”

  “Can you stay for supper?”

  Sam looked at David. “Schur.”

  David smiled at him.

  10

  Rose Anna set aside her quilt and stood and stretched. “Time for a break.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  When Rose Anna didn’t move Lavina looked up from her quilt. “What?”

  “You need to come now. It’s your turn to make supper for David’s family.”

  “It’s Mary Elizabeth’s.”

  “She’s lying down. I told you she thinks she’s coming down with a cold. Weren’t you listening?”

  Lavina knew she was a little distracted, but didn’t realize she hadn’t paid attention to Rose Anna. But her youngest sister loved to chatter as she sewed, and it was easy sometimes to let it wash over you, she thought.

  “Sorry.” She set aside her quilt and stood. “I’ll go check on her.”

  “Nee, you don’t want to wake her if she’s sleeping. Come on, I’ll help you.”

  “Danki.” She smiled and slipped her arm around her schweschder as they walked downstairs.

  “It’ll be nice having tea just the two of us today.” Rose Anna said as she put on the teakettle.

  “Ya, we don’t get enough time to talk,” Lavina said dryly.

  Rose Anna elbowed her.

  Lavina gathered together the vegetables she needed and sat down with a paring knife at the table.

  Rose Anna stared at the small mountains of potatoes, carrots, and onions. “That’s an awful lot.”

  “We might as well make two batches and have one for our supper.”

  “That’s a lot of peeling,” Rose Anna set two steaming mugs of tea on the table. “You know, Mary Elizabeth’s been quiet since she went to see Sam. I guess it didn’t go well? She won’t talk to me about it.”

  Lavina shook her head. “Sam doesn’t want to come home like David did. That’s all I know.”

  “What did you and David do while Mary Elizabeth and Sam were talking?” Rose Anna asked casually as she picked up a carrot.

  Lavina’s head came up. She’d had a suspicion that Mary Elizabeth had recruited Rose Anna in her matchmaking scheme.

  “We just went for coffee and talked.”

  “At that place you used to love? That must have been nice.”

  “Not exactly.” Lavina dumped a peeled potato in the pottery bowl in front of her. “It just brought back old memories that made me sad.” She focused her attention on a carrot and then put it down without peeling it. “David wants me to forget about this past year, and I’m not ready to do that yet.”

  She looked at Rose Anna. “You know, I have my suspicions that Mary Elizabeth asked me to go along with her as a way to throw me together with David.”

  “Really?” Rose Anna peeled a carrot quickly and efficiently.

  “Ya. I think she was playing matchmaker.”

  Rose Anna finished the carrot, tossed it into the bowl, and started on another. “Would that be a bad thing?”

  Lavina narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t tell if her schweschder was being careful of her fingers or avoiding her eyes.

  The back door opened, letting in a gust of cool air. Their mudder walked in, her cheeks pink from the cold.

  “You’re home early,” Rose Anna said, rising to help her mother take off her jacket. “Tea?”

  Linda untied her bonnet and hung it on a nearby peg. She rubbed her hands to warm them. “Ya, that would be nice. Hannah Miller wasn’t feeling well so I gave her a ride home.”

  “We’re cooking supper for David’s family and thought we’d make a double batch so it would be our supper as well.”

  “Make the oven work twice. I have two smart dochders. Where is Mary Elizabeth?”

  “Said she wasn’t feeling well, so she’s lying down.”

  “I’ll go check on her.” Linda started to get up, but Rose Anna jumped up, telling Linda to drink her tea and warm up.

  “Something going on?”

  Lavina looked at her. “I don’t know. They’ve both been acting odd lately.”

  “How?”

  “I think Mary Elizabeth’s been playing matchmaker, and Rose Anna knows about it but won’t tell me.” She told her about the visit into town so Mary Elizabeth could see Sam, and how she and David had ended up having coffee together.

  “Sounds harmless enough.”

  “It should be up to me if I see David.”

  “True. Do you want me to speak to them?”

  “Nee. I’ll take care of it.” She finished the vegetables and rinsed them at the sink. “I thought I’d make some rice pudding. It might be a good bland dessert for David’s dat. David told me Amos has had some trouble with the chemo treatments.”

  “Gut idea. Maybe a double batch so your dat has some, too? He has a fondness for it especially if you put raisins in it.”

  Mary Elizabeth was still in bed when it came time to deliver supper to David’s haus, and Rose Anna had decided to make a pan of cornbread. So Lavina slipped on her jacket and bonnet and took the two hot carriers and set out on her own.

  David opened the door himself when she knocked. He took the carriers and invited her in.

  “I shouldn’t,” she said. “We’re about to eat supper.”

  “Mamm will be upset if she doesn’t get to thank you. She’s upstairs with Daed and will be right down.”

  “Allrecht.” She followed him into the kitchen and watched him put the carriers on the counter.

  “Have a seat,” he invited. “I’ll let her know you’re here.”

  But before he could move to the stairs that led to the bedrooms, there was a knock on the door.

  The bishop stood on the porch, dressed in a severe black coat that flapped in the wind like the wings of a great black bird.

  “Bishop,” David said as he swung the door open. “What can I do for you?”

  “The first thing is to invite me out of the cold,” the man said tartly. “I want to talk to you.”

  “It’s not a gut time.”

  The bishop stepped in, ignoring his words. “Is that because you’re entertaining a maedel without a chaperone?” he asked, fixing Lavina with a cold stare.

  ***

  David had been trained since he was a small kind to respect his elders—particularly the bishop.

  But rude was rude, and the man had no business entering someone’s home without being invited. He and the bishop had clashed before, and he had no patience with him invading the house.

  “You’ll have to come back another time,” he told him. “Call first.”

  “Mein Gott! David! What are you saying?” His mother rushed up and stared at him, aghast.

  “If someone wants to talk to me, he shouldn’t just show up without warning,” David told h
er. “We’ve had enough of his talks in the past that I know how this one would go. I thought you were upstairs tending to Daed.”

  “I was. He wants to come down to supper. Can you help him so I don’t worry about him falling on the stairs?”

  “Schur.” It was looking to be one of those nights.

  He walked into the kitchen and Lavina stood. “I should go.”

  “We both will,” he muttered. “Just let me help my dat down the stairs and I’ll drive you home.”

  “You don’t need to drive me—”

  “I do,” he interrupted her. “I need to get out of here for a while if the bishop is going to stay and talk to my parents. Please?”

  She looked at him for a long moment then she nodded. “Allrecht.”

  He started for the stairs and found his dat halfway down them. “Let me help you.”

  “Don’t need any help,” his dat said brusquely.

  “Allrecht, then I’ll stay a step down from you, and if you fall it’ll be a soft landing. Mamm asked me to help you and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  He heard a snort behind him as he turned and did what he’d said he would, moving down a stair below his dat. Once he’d been assured his dat made it down the stairs and was safely ensconced in his chair at the head of the kitchen table, he grabbed his jacket.

  The bishop was standing near the table taking off his coat. Waneta stood at the stove pouring coffee.

  David looked at Lavina. “Ready?”

  She nodded and stood.

  “You’re not staying for supper?”

  “Nee, danki, I have to get home. Gut-n-Owed, Amos, Bishop.”

  David handed Lavina her jacket and bonnet and wasn’t surprised when she put them on as she hurried to the front door. He could be wrong, but it seemed to him that she wanted out of there as badly as he did.

  “Danki,” he said as soon as they were safely inside his truck.

  “For what?”

  “You know very well. For getting me out of there before I had words with the bishop or my dat or both of them.”

  “Probably both of them,” she said seriously.

  He thought he saw the corners of her mouth lift in a faint smile.

  “Probably both,” he agreed as he started the truck. “Do you really have to get home?”