Seasons in Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  They sat and stared at each other. Sam knew he wore a silly grin, and Mary Elizabeth couldn’t stop smiling even as tears poured down her cheeks. They were happy tears, he knew, and he wished he’d never been the cause of sad ones since he’d left the community with his bruders.

  After a time he started the truck up again and drove them to a nearby restaurant they liked. Sam ordered his favorite meatloaf, but later he’d barely remember eating it he was feeling so happy. Mary Elizabeth had her favorite broiled chicken but ended up asking for a take home container when she couldn’t finish it. Mostly they just sat there talking and staring at each other.

  “I’ve been thinking about the farm,” she said as they drank their coffee. “I remembered what it says in the Bible about a place for us. ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.’ If that’s not the home for us, I truly believe God will provide for us.”

  He studied her dear face. Yes, this was the woman he wanted by his side as his helpmate, as the mother of his children. He smiled at her and nodded. “I do, too.”

  “Do you want to come in?” she asked when he took her home. “We don’t have to tell the family tonight if you don’t want to.” She looked up into his face. “You’re not nervous, are you? You know my family has always loved you.”

  “I know. I think we should tell them,” he said after a moment. “When you think about all that’s happened these past few months with your family . . . and your grossdaadi getting sick yesterday and all.”

  “You’re right.” She smiled. “I’m not schur anyone will be surprised since you’ve been coming here so much lately.”

  “Maybe we should wait on telling them about the farm until I know more.”

  She nodded. “Allrecht.”

  “Mary Elizabeth.”

  “Ya?”

  “I love you.”

  Her smile was the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. “I know. I love you.”

  There were second chances, he thought as he started up the steps to the porch with her.

  Mary Elizabeth stopped suddenly, midstairs, and looked at him. “Are you going to tell your parents?”

  He frowned. “I haven’t seen them for a couple of weeks. Been too busy to help David.”

  She squeezed his hand. “There’s time.”

  “I’ll tell John tonight.”

  They started up the stairs again and went inside. Mary Elizabeth’s parents and her grossdaadi sat at the kitchen table having an evening snack. Sam smelled apple cider warming in a pot on the stove.

  Linda glanced over, saw him, and smiled. “You two are just in time for some hot cider and gingerbread.”

  Mary Elizabeth bent to kiss her grossdaadi’s cheek. “How’s the cider?”

  “Wunderbaar. Gut-n-owed, Sam. Join us.”

  He took off his jacket and hung it on a peg by the back door. “Danki.”

  “Where’s Rose Anna?” Mary Elizabeth asked her mudder as she took off her jacket and hung it beside Sam’s.

  “Up in her room.”

  “Be right back.” She winked at Sam as she headed for the stairs to the bedrooms.

  When she returned, Sam saw that Rose Anna followed her. They sat at the table, and Mary Elizabeth smiled at Sam and nodded.

  Suddenly Sam’s throat felt dry. He took a sip of his cider then looked around at the faces of Mary Elizabeth’s family. They had always felt as much—maybe more—his family than his own. “Mary Elizabeth and I are getting married.”

  Rose Anna squealed and jumped up to hug Mary Elizabeth. Abe thumped his mug on the table and grinned. Tears welled up in Linda’s eyes, and Sam saw Jacob’s Adam’s apple bob before he rose and shook his hand.

  “Have you set the date with the bishop yet?” Linda asked as she wiped away tears with a paper napkin from the basket on the table.

  “Nee. Sam just asked me. He hasn’t told his parents yet.”

  The family lingered over the hot apple cider and hot chocolate and gingerbread. But finally Jacob stood and excused himself. The day started early on a farm. Sam had to leave and get to bed early since a day working construction started almost as early.

  Mary Elizabeth walked Sam to his truck to say good-bye, and they shared a kiss before he left.

  As he drove home, Sam thought about how well the day had gone. He’d been nervous. What man wouldn’t be. Oh, not about the decision to ask Mary Elizabeth to marry him. He knew that was a good decision. But even though she had forgiven him for leaving her, he wasn’t sure she was ready to trust her heart to him enough to agree to marry him—and this season, not the next fall after a long engagement.

  He’d grown up with the belief that God set aside one woman for a man, and it had been the hardest thing he’d ever done to leave the community with his bruders. But living with his dat had become unbearable and—he stopped. That was done. Over. He had to forgive his dat, forgive the decision to leave. He was coming home to the place he’d missed more than he thought he would.

  He didn’t know if he’d be able to buy the farm. All he could do was pray and if he was meant to, his heavenly Father would provide. He remembered what Mary Elizabeth had said earlier as they’d sat in the truck parked in front of the farm and looked at it, about mansions and God preparing a place for them.

  The road was dark in the country and he could only see a short distance ahead with the truck’s headlights. But he was determined to step out in faith.

  * * *

  Mary Elizabeth stepped into her bedroom that night and realized someone was there, poking in the closet. She tiptoed up to it and saw her schweschder poking around items on the top shelf. “Boo!” she cried, startling Rose Anna.

  Rose Anna shrieked and spun around, clutching a pile of blue fabric to her chest. “You scared me to death!”

  “Haven’t you outgrown looking for your Christmas presents?” She took the fabric from her.

  “I wasn’t looking for my Christmas present,” Rose Anna said, looking indignant. “I haven’t done that for years. Well, not for a year or two,” she amended. “Look at what you have in your hands.”

  Mary Elizabeth glanced down and saw that she held several yards of a smooth, beautiful fabric. Her heart leaped up into her throat and she swallowed.

  “I bought this last year for my wedding dress,” she whispered, remembering. “Then, after Sam left I couldn’t bear looking at it so I hid it in the closet so I wouldn’t have to see it.”

  Rose Anna smiled. “I know. I was thinking it’s time to get it out and get started sewing your wedding dress. I’ll help.” Then she stopped and pressed her finger to her mouth. “Oh, unless you’ve changed your mind about using it.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe it brings back bad memories of Sam leaving and you not getting to use it last year for your wedding dress.”

  Mary Elizabeth shook her head. “It’s not the fabric’s fault.” She stroked it. “I can’t wait to cut and sew it. I love this.”

  “Then we’ll start first thing tomorrow.”

  They hugged and then Rose Anna went to her own room to get ready for bed.

  She started to put the fabric back in the closet and then something made her spread it out on her bed and gaze at it. The design would be simple, but the material, while not silk, held a luminous quality like a summer sky just before dusk. As she changed into a nightgown, unpinned her kapp, and brushed her hair, Mary Elizabeth thought how she’d look wearing the dress to marry Sam.

  She couldn’t wait to make it into her wedding dress. She folded the fabric lovingly and put it back on the top shelf of her closet.

  They began cutting out the dress the next day—she and Rose Anna with help from Mamm—and began stitching it up. Rose Anna found a small notebook in her room and began helping with planning. Amish weddings might look simpler than Englisch ones, but the bride’s family cooked all the food for two meals–midday and supper–for what
could be a couple of hundred church members. Since their home was the location for both the ceremony and the reception, there was a lot of cleaning and organizing that would have to be done.

  Lavina came about an hour after breakfast to sew on quilts as usual and was thrilled to hear Mary Elizabeth’s news.

  “I knew it would work out,” she said as she hugged her schweschder. “I prayed for you.”

  “Are you praying for me?” Rose Anna wanted to know.

  “Of course,” Lavina said, holding out an arm to enfold her in a hug. The three of them stood there for a long moment. “The Stoltzfus men can’t hold out against the Zook schweschders.”

  “Or God,” Mamm said mildly as she stitched on her quilt.

  Mary Elizabeth set the dress aside before they went downstairs for lunch. She needed to stay on schedule with her current quilt, after all.

  A short time after lunch, Lavina gave them a scare when she started having contractions. Mary Elizabeth got her to lie down in her old room, and their mudder went to call the clinic. When she returned, the contractions had stopped.

  “Doctor said they might be Braxton-Hicks,” Linda said as she sat on the side of the bed and patted Lavina’s hand.

  “What’s that?”

  “The boppli wants to come early. You just rest for a while.”

  “I don’t think I’ll argue with you,” she told her mudder. She rubbed her baby bump.

  Mary Elizabeth got her quilt and sat sewing on it as she told her schweschder about how Sam had proposed. She didn’t mention the farm since she and Sam had agreed to wait until they heard whether he’d be able to buy it.

  Lavina smiled as she listened to Mary Elizabeth talk and then she frowned. “Where will you live?”

  “We’ll stay here until we get our own place. Most couples live with their parents until they do.”

  “I know but it doesn’t seem fair David got the farm and Sam has nothing,” Lavina fretted.

  “Sam and I talked about that,” Mary Elizabeth said slowly. “Sam felt David made a big sacrifice returning to help his mudder take care of his dat when he was going through chemotherapy and reconciled with him. He feels David deserves the farm. So don’t go worrying about that any more. You need to stay calm and think about the boppli.”

  She watched her schweschder shift on the bed and walked over to adjust pillows under her head. “Any more contractions?”

  Lavina shook her head. “I think I’ll get up in a minute and get back to sewing.”

  “Nee.”

  “Are you bossing me around?”

  “Ya. And you better listen or I’ll call Mamm.”

  She laughed. “I guess I have that coming. I did boss you around every once in a while, didn’t I?”

  “That’s what big schweschders do.”

  “What will happen to John? When Sam moves out of the apartment?”

  “I don’t know. I guess he’ll get a roommate if he can’t afford the apartment on his own. I wonder if he’ll get Sam’s truck?”

  Lavina grinned. “I bet he’s hoping to. Sam schur did when David joined the church and we got married.”

  Rose Anna popped in to ask if they wanted some tea and after she left, Lavina frowned. “Do you think she and John will get together?”

  Mary Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t think so. The last time Rose Anna and I talked about him, he’d hurt her feelings when she saw him. And she said he was enjoying rumschpringe a little too much. I don’t know if he’ll ever come home.”

  “We should pray for him.”

  So that’s what they did. And then they had tea and some cookies Rose Anna had arranged on a plate on the tray, and they sewed and laughed and talked about weddings for the rest of the afternoon.

  And Mary Elizabeth reflected on how blessed she was to have such a loving, happy family and work she loved and the comfort of her home.

  Soon she’d marry the man she’d loved for years and begin a new life as his fraa, and they’d have a home of their own and hopefully, raise their kinner.

  God was gut indeed.

  18

  Mary Elizabeth had to admit that Sam’s idea of sharing the news with her family that they were going to get married was a gut idea when she saw how Grossdaadi perked up.

  “It’ll be nice to have another man in the house,” he told her one day when she was doing the dishes. He was having a cup of decaf coffee before retiring to the dawdi haus to read before bed. “My sohn and I have been outnumbered in this house for too many years.”

  “And you’ve loved every minute of it,” Linda said as she walked into the room. “Every one of the women in this house has spoiled you. Don’t think I don’t know Mary Elizabeth slipped you another slice of pumpkin pie after I left the room.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he harrumphed.

  Linda picked up a paper napkin from the basket on the table and wiped at the corner of his mouth, then showed him the whipped cream on it.

  He looked at his second-oldest grossdochder and winked at her. “Guess I forgot to wipe my mouth after supper.”

  “Ya.” Linda said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She gave Mary Elizabeth a stern look. “No more giving him double desserts.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Gut food’s one of God’s pleasures for us on earth,” Grossdaadi said. He sipped his coffee. “I was hoping Sam would stop by for supper.”

  “Me, too,” Mary Elizabeth said, and she sighed as she dried the last dish and put it into the cupboard. “He had to work late.”

  “Maybe tomorrow night?”

  “He’s going to David and Lavina’s house. He hasn’t seen them or his parents in a long time.”

  Lavina had said she’d tell David about the engagement and promised they’d keep the news to themselves until Sam shared it with his parents—if he did. Sam and his dat didn’t get along at all, and he might not want to tell him. Anyway, couples often didn’t share such private matters with their parents or other family until they were ready to have the announcement made in church, so it was a little out of the ordinary to have told her family last night.

  “It’s nice to see you looking happy again.”

  She stopped and stared at him, surprised. “I didn’t know I’d been looking unhappy.”

  “Been looking more cheerful lately,” he allowed, taking a sip of his coffee. “But you lost your sparkle for a long time. Gut to see you got it back again.”

  “Why Grossdaadi, I didn’t know I had any sparkle,” she teased.

  “You remind me of my dear Miriam. Had such a kind heart, such a big smile. Able to talk to anyone about anything.”

  “That’s so sweet,” she said. Tears welled up into her eyes. “People always said she could light up a room.” She walked over and hugged him. “We were very lucky to have her in our lives, weren’t we?”

  He nodded and patted her hand. “Schur were. Well, guess I’ll be going off to read before bed. I don’t suppose—”

  “I put some cookies in the dawdi haus earlier when I changed the sheets on your bed. Don’t you dare tell Mamm.”

  “I won’t breathe a word,” he said, chuckling. “Did I ever tell you that you’re my favorite?”

  “Because Lavina and Rose Anna don’t slip you sweets?”

  His eyes twinkled behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “Well that, and because you look like my favorite fraa.”

  His only fraa. She watched him shuffle off and close the door to the dawdi haus, thinking about how she hoped she’d have the kind of marriage he’d had with her grossmudder for so many long, happy years.

  She climbed the stairs to her room and thought about sewing on her wedding dress, but her hands were tired. She’d spent many hours that day sewing on her latest quilt, then had helped with supper and the dishes. Rose Anna had been invited to a friend’s, so both chores had fallen on her tonight. She didn’t mind. There was nothing she liked better than cooking and keeping house. A maedel learned all about
such so that she could be a gut fraa, but Mary Elizabeth just plain loved taking care of those she loved, feeding them and making schur home was comfortable. It was she who’d helped Grossmudder take care of the dawdi haus when housekeeping became difficult, so she’d simply continued after Grossmudder died.

  Mamm didn’t need to know she kept the cookie jar filled on the kitchen counter there for Grossdaadi.

  She got ready for bed and climbed in, tucking the quilt around her before reaching for the small notebook she and Rose Anna were keeping to write down plans for the wedding. Rose Anna had made a list of the things they needed to buy and when they had to be bought or ordered. Mamm had taken the list for the food items needed—a familiar one since Lavina’s wedding hadn’t been that long ago. Tomorrow, after quilt class, Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna would be visiting Stitches in Time to buy the fabric needed for the dresses her newehockers would wear to her wedding. It was all coming together.

  It wasn’t a dream. Just weeks from now she’d be walking down the aisle with Sam to get married before all her family and friends and fellow church members right here in her home.

  She fell asleep with a smile on her lips, dreaming of her wedding.

  Leah kept smiling while she cut the fabric the next day. Their eyes met, and Mary Elizabeth knew that the older woman figured out why she was buying so much fabric—a dressy one at that—in one color. But the soul of discretion, she cut it quickly, rang it up, and had it in a shopping bag before anyone else in the store could remark on it.

  “She knows,” Rose Anna said as they walked over to Sewn in Hope.

  Mary Elizabeth grinned. “Of course she knows.”

  Carrie jumped up from the stool behind the cash register. “Hello! It’s good to see you!”

  “There’s no one here,” Rose Anna said, looking disappointed.

  “First chance I’ve had to give my feet a break all day,” she was told. “The traffic is pretty much nonstop.”

  “That’s good to know,” Mary Elizabeth said. “I think we’ll be bringing more things to you later in the week from the shelter.”

  “So, did you hear the good news?”