Seasons in Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  He shrugged. “Leah was happy with it.”

  “I imagine so. And it sounds like you’re going to meet the deadline for finishing.” She sat on a bucket and pulled the subs and soft drink cans from the paper bag she carried.

  They paused to give thanks for the meal and then unwrapped their sandwiches. Mary Elizabeth looked around. “This shop is going to mean so much to the women at the shelter. They have a way to make money. It’s probably not going to be enough for them to support themselves, but it gives them a way to build their confidence, save for their own places. Even the kinner have gotten into the spirit of it and made pin cushions and other crafts.”

  “It sounds like it’s been good for you, too,” he said quietly.

  “Me?”

  “You like to help.”

  “We all do.”

  “Not all.” He bit into his sandwich.

  “I just love quilting and showing other women how to do it. And it’s hard to turn Kate down. She does a lot for all of us in the community, and if she can find the time I can, too.”

  She ate her sandwich—a half not a whole like she’d gotten him—and remembered what John had said about Sam helping next Saturday. “David said he’d really appreciate your help Saturday,” she told him.

  “I’ve missed helping.”

  “Do you have more work lined up after you finish here? Part-time work, I mean.”

  He grinned. “Schur, as this is a new, rising business, Peter’s scheduling work as we speak. He’s very ambitious.”

  “The two of you have done a gut job here. I can’t wait to help stock the shop when you finish.”

  “Maybe I can help.”

  “You?”

  “Well, nothing creative, but I can help lug boxes, put stuff on high shelves, that sort of thing.”

  “You’re right. I’m sure we’d be grateful for any help you can give us.” She wrapped up the remains of her sub. She’d eaten her half sub in the time he ate the whole one she’d bought him. He must have been very hungry indeed. Then again, when wasn’t a man hungry? She smiled as she got up to put the wrapping in a nearby trash can.

  “What’s funny?”

  She shook her head. “I was thinking of how fast you ate just now. How much.”

  “I remember a time I got us a pizza and you ate half.”

  She shrugged. “Half.”

  “Half of a large pizza. A little thing like you ate as much pizza as a big guy like me.”

  She colored. “I like pizza. And I hadn’t eaten all day.”

  Minutes ticked by on the wall clock as they talked. He was reminded of countless picnics they’d shared outdoors in the sunlight, Mary Elizabeth sitting on a quilt on the grass in a park, her eyes full of love.

  Now she looked at him like a friend, and they only had a short time in the middle of a workday seated here on upturned buckets at a cardboard table in the middle of an empty shop that smelled of paint and turpentine.

  A shadow fell over the shop. He looked up and saw a gray cloud obscuring the skylight.

  “I should go. It’s going to rain soon.” She knew she should get on the road but strangely felt reluctant to leave. She forced herself to her feet, took a last sip of her drink, and tossed the can in the trash.

  “Be careful on the way home.” He got up and followed her to the door. “Looks like you might make it before it starts.”

  “I will.”

  “Danki for lunch. I enjoyed it.”

  She looked at him and smiled slightly. “I did, too.”

  Then she slipped out the door and he was left to stare after her.

  Finally, he walked back to the makeshift lunch table and sat on one of the buckets. The sandwich, chips, and drink had filled his stomach. But somehow he felt dissatisfied.

  When Peter walked in a few minutes later he was still sitting there, staring at the remains of his lunch.

  * * *

  When Mary Elizabeth pulled into the driveway of her house, she saw that Ben’s buggy was parked to one side.

  He and her dat walked out of the barn to help unhitch the horse.

  Ben smiled at her. “Got here a little early for supper.”

  “I see.”

  “You’re all wet,” he said.

  “I stopped by to see Lavina on the way from town and got caught in the rain.” She glanced around. “You didn’t get any here?”

  “Nee,” her dat said. “You know how it is. Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes in Pennsylvania and it’ll be different.”

  “Same thing in Indiana,” Ben told him as he pulled the buggy over to one side of the barn. He scanned the sky. “I’d say we’re going to get some rain here within the hour.”

  Her dat did the same scan, took a deep breath and nodded. “Takes a farmer to sniff out rain.”

  “I’m going to go in and change,” she told them.

  They were both still staring up at the sky and didn’t appear to have heard her.

  She said hello to her mudder on the way through the kitchen to go upstairs. “I got wet. I’ll change my dress and then help you with supper.”

  “Take your time,” Linda told her.

  Mary Elizabeth hung her wet dress in the bathroom, pulled on her favorite cornflower blue dress, and unpinned her kapp. She smoothed her center-parted hair before finding another kapp and pinning it on. As she placed it on her head and began inserting pins to hold it, she found herself thinking about sitting with Sam in the shop earlier that day as they ate lunch.

  It was just lunch with a friend. But it had schur reminded her of other lunches, other picnics with Sam. Had it reminded him of the same? She stared into the mirror, her eyes serious. She wasn’t sorry she’d gone by to apologize. It was past time she’d forgiven him. Past time that she moved on.

  But there had been something about sitting there with him that had felt different. Special. They had so many shared memories of such times.

  She shook her head as if to push away those memories. Things had changed between them. She’d never really liked change, but there wasn’t much you could do about it, and when there wasn’t, she tried to accept God’s will.

  Taking a deep breath, she left the room and went downstairs to help with supper.

  Her mudder was the only person in the kitchen. She didn’t hear anyone in the living room. Mary Elizabeth glanced at the door. “Daed and Ben still outside?”

  “Ya. They schur do talk a lot.”

  Mary Elizabeth got dishes from the cupboard and began setting the table. “Mamm? Do you think Daed missed having a sohn?”

  “Oh, my, nee!” she said quickly. “He was so happy when each of you was born healthy.”

  She glanced out the window and saw the two men talking.

  “Why do you ask such a thing?” She came over to touch Mary Elizabeth’s face and make her look at her.

  “I just wondered. He seems to enjoy talking to Ben so much.”

  “They share an interest in farming. That’s all.”

  “I guess.”

  “He talked a lot to Sam when he came to supper, too,” Linda reminded her. “You remember that, don’t you?”

  “Ya, I guess.”

  Her mudder moved back to the stove to stir something in a pot. “How was your day?”

  “Gut. I took some things over to the shop. It’s nearly finished.”

  “How is Leah?”

  Mary Elizabeth set the last of the flatware beside a plate. “I didn’t see her. I just took the box and put it in the back storeroom.”

  She bit her lip, then blurted out, “I saw Sam.”

  Linda turned. “And?”

  “I apologized to him. I was angry the last time I saw him, and I said some things . . .”

  “Your heart’s been hurting for a long time,” she said quietly. Her eyes were kind.

  She nodded. “He didn’t realize how much he hurt me and he tried to make amends, but I wouldn’t let him. I realized that wasn’t right.”

  “Then I�
�m glad you went to apologize to him.” She walked over and put her arms around her. “Do you feel better now?”

  “Ya. We even had lunch.”

  “Gut.”

  “Mamm, your pot’s boiling over.”

  Linda rushed back to the stove and stirred the contents with a big wooden spoon. “So, did you stop at Lavina’s on the way home?”

  “Ya. I’m worried about her. The heat and all the work harvesting and canning are too much for her. I want to go over and help her tomorrow. Not just with watering the kitchen garden. With whatever she needs. If it doesn’t leave you short with our chores, that is.”

  “I have Rose Anna,” Linda reminded her. “She’s getting better with it.”

  If she said so, Mary Elizabeth couldn’t help thinking, then chided herself for such an uncharitable thought. Rose Anna preferred easier chores than working in the kitchen garden in the heat, but she did what was needed. And she seemed to enjoy the canning even though it was hot work.

  The men came in then, laughing about something.

  “What’s for supper?” Jacob asked Linda.

  “As if you didn’t check that out the last time you came inside for a cold drink,” she said tartly. “Don’t go opening that oven door and heating the kitchen up more than it is.”

  He sniffed the air. “Smells like baked chicken to me.” He winked at Mary Elizabeth. “Your mudder’s the best cook there is.”

  “Now don’t be saying that,” she told him, trying to look modest. After all, they didn’t believe in hochmut—pride. But she smiled as she picked up potholders and pulled a big pan with two golden baked chickens from the oven.

  “One for today, one for another time,” she said, pulling off the potholders and waving her hand to cool her face from the oven heat. “Might as well make the oven do double duty on a hot day.” She turned it off and went to the cupboard for a platter.

  Ben returned from washing up and took a chair opposite Mary Elizabeth’s. “You look pretty,” he mouthed and winked at her before responding to her dat’s quiet blessing for the meal.

  Jacob carved the chicken and started the platter moving around the table after serving himself.

  “Did you have a gut day?” Ben asked her.

  “Very gut. I had quilting class this morning then dropped off more crafts at the new shop.”

  She left out how she’d had lunch with Sam.

  “Where’s Rose Anna?” Jacob asked.

  “Having supper with David and Lavina. She took your parents.”

  He nodded. “It’s gut for them to get out. I need to remember to make sure their rental home is reserved for them in Pinecraft for the winter.”

  “My grosseldres go there for the winter as well,” Ben said. “I’ll have to let them know to look yours up, Mary Elizabeth.”

  She nodded. “One of the things mine love about being in Pinecraft is meeting new people.” She smiled as she helped herself to coleslaw. “That and how warm it is. Ever since a friend of theirs sent them a postcard saying she could pick an orange in her front yard, they wanted to go. I wasn’t sure they’d come back home last spring.”

  Just like the first night he’d come to supper, Ben spent most of his time talking farming with her dat. Mary Elizabeth exchanged a look with her mudder and asked Ben about his job.

  He made a brief response and shifted the conversation back to farming. “I miss it,” he said simply.

  “David could always use some help this time of year,” she said. “Would you be interested in helping for a few hours on Saturday?” The minute she said it she remembered Sam would be there . . .

  “Schur,” he said. “Just tell me where.” He grinned when Linda brought a pie to the table to slice for dessert.

  Later, after he’d gone, the dishes were done and the kitchen was spic and span, Mary Elizabeth wandered out to the front porch and sat in one of the chairs.

  “Nice night,” her mudder said as she poked her head out the front door. “Want company?”

  “Would love some.”

  “Something bothering you?”

  “Nee.” She looked out at the trees. “Look! Fireflies!”

  “Mary Elizabeth?”

  She sighed. “I just realized I invited Ben to David and Lavina’s on Saturday. And Sam will be there.”

  “Why is that a problem?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know that it will be. I just wouldn’t want Sam to be hurt by meeting the new man I’m seeing.”

  “It has to happen sometime,” Linda said practically. “This is a small community. Even if Sam stays in town a lot, they are schur to meet sometime.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “I’m going in. See you in the morning.” She leaned down to kiss Mary Elizabeth’s cheek.

  “Gut nacht.” She lingered, watching the fireflies, remembering past summers when she’d sit here with Sam watching them, not objecting when he’d occasionally steal a kiss.

  She sighed and went in to go to bed.

  10

  Mary Elizabeth’s week was long, each day starting with helping Lavina with her kitchen garden, then hours sewing her quilts and spending a few days at quilting class, then delivering crafts to the new shop.

  Now she was showing up early on a Saturday to work some more. But tomorrow would be a day of rest after church. Besides, Saturday at David and Lavina’s was fun work.

  She just hoped Lavina didn’t faint on her again. That had been nerve-wracking.

  Ben was just arriving as she pulled in with Rose Anna.

  “Danki for coming,” she told him as he walked over to help her unload a basket of food she’d brought to make the day a little easier.

  “It was the only way I could see you this week.”

  She frowned at the faint note of complaint in his voice.

  “It’s been a busy week.” And it wasn’t likely that it would be any less so for the foreseeable future, but now wasn’t the time to say so.

  “Sam! Nice to see you!” Rose Anna said as he walked into the kitchen behind them.

  Mary Elizabeth turned. “I didn’t see you drive up.”

  “I’m not surprised,” he said, looking at Ben.

  “Ben, this is Sam. Sam, Ben just moved here from Indiana. He offered to help this morning.”

  “I’ll take you out to the fields and introduce you. I’m schur that’s where David and our dat are already.”

  Mary Elizabeth watched them walk outside.

  “Are you worried they’re going to duel each other for you?” Rose Anna asked her.

  She stared at her schweschder. “What? Have you been reading historical romances again?”

  Rose Anna giggled. “Ya. Wouldn’t it be romantic, the two of them facing off in the cornfield?”

  “What’s this about facing off in the cornfields?” Lavina walked into the kitchen carrying a basket of zucchini.

  Mary Elizabeth rushed to take the basket from her. “Don’t carry something this heavy. Ask for help.”

  “There was no one around. David was off in the fields. Now tell me what you two were talking about when I walked in.”

  Rose Anna opened her mouth, but Mary Elizabeth waved her off. “Don’t tell her until she gets off her feet.”

  Lavina sank into a chair. “You don’t have to ask me twice. I feel like I went to bed looking like I had a tummy the size of a small apple and today I look like I’m carrying a watermelon.”

  “You look wunderbaar,” Mary Elizabeth told her.

  She wanted to say it just looked like there was a cantaloupe under Lavina’s apron but didn’t know if she’d appreciate that. She was so relieved that her schweschder looked better than she had last week. On the other hand, they hadn’t started any work yet in the kitchen, and it was schur to be as warm as last Saturday.

  “So, what are we going to do today?” she asked Lavina.

  “Have something to drink first,” Rose Anna said firmly. She got a pitcher of tea from the refrigerator and fixed th
em glasses.

  “Mary Elizabeth, grab the cookie jar, will you? I made some oatmeal raisin last night after supper when it cooled off.”

  She brought the jar to the table and watched as Lavina polished off two of the large cookies.

  Lavina gave her a guilty look. “I can’t stop eating lately.”

  “I’m glad to see it. You couldn’t eat for so long when you were having morning sickness.”

  “Ya, but now I’m eating so much you’d think I was eating for three, not two.”

  “You don’t think . . .”

  “Think what?”

  “Zwillingbopplin,” Rose Anna said.

  “Oh, nee, I wasn’t even thinking of such a thing,” Lavina said, looking horrified. “I can barely think of taking care of one let alone two.”

  “It would be a gift,” Waneta said, coming into the kitchen. “A gift from God.”

  “Oh, I know, I know,” Lavina said quickly. “I just feel overwhelmed having one.”

  Waneta walked over and took a seat next to her. “Every woman does with her first. But you’ll manage. I’ll be here to help you, and you have your schweschders and your mudder.”

  “And David.”

  Waneta laughed. “Of course David. He’ll make a wunderbaar dat.”

  Lavina finished her tea and stood. “Wait until you see the tomatoes, Mary Elizabeth. All of a sudden a lot of them ripened. I’m thinking we’re going to be canning tomatoes today.”

  “Lucky us,” Rose Anna muttered as she followed them outside. “I like doing it, but a day without it wouldn’t be so bad.”

  “We’ll be glad of all that we’ve canned and preserved when winter comes.”

  Mary Elizabeth wiped the perspiration from her forehead with the back of her hand. “Oh, if I had my way, it would be winter now.”

  “When winter comes you’ll long for the summer.” Waneta told her with a smile.

  “Just think, when winter comes you’ll have a boppli in your arms,” Mary Elizabeth told her as they walked the rows of vegetables to where the tomatoes were planted. “Oh, my, you’re right. Look at how ripe they are!”

  So they gathered the tomatoes. Mary Elizabeth plucked them from the vines, drawing in the rich, ripe scent of them, the pungent odor of their leaves, and placed them in a wicker basket.