An Amish Proposal

by Jo Ann Brown

  As if she’d said that aloud, Micah mused, “If it keeps snowing, at least we can see other people’s footprints and follow them.”

  She trudged after Micah, holding Jayden close and hating the sound of Olivia’s coughs. Keeping her head down, she resisted peeking out from under her eyelashes to look for any plain folk.

  A sweet and spicy aroma tickled her senses, and she said, “Micah, wait! Don’t you smell it?” As Micah sniffed, she added, “The guy at the entrance said when we smelled pumpkin pie, we’d be close to the exit.”

  “Right close. We need to keep going right until we find the way out.”

  “I hope you’re right... I mean, correct.”

  He didn’t smile at her attempt to ease the tension. She hadn’t expected he’d laugh out loud, but she thought his scowl might ease.

  In a couple more turns, they reached the exit. Sean rushed forward to take Olivia, who was coughing hard again. As Gemma pulled out the kind’s inhaler, Katie Kay felt the overwhelming urge to say something, but she wasn’t sure for which mistake she should apologize first.

  Chapter Eleven

  As the week started out, Katie Kay kept herself busy with work at the Donnellys’ house. Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, she oversaw breakfast, getting DJ ready and out the door in time to get on the bus, cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry. For the first time since she’d come back to Paradise Springs, she hadn’t lost her breakfast within an hour of eating it. Her stomach was queasy but didn’t roil as it had since she’d become pregnant. The fear she’d have morning sickness for the full nine months eased.

  Though Katie Kay’s nausea had lessened, as each day passed, Gemma seemed to have a tougher time moving because she was gaining weight at a surprising speed. Her doctor had suggested she do less and rest more, a fact she hadn’t mentioned.

  Katie Kay knew only because Sean had explained what Gemma’s obstetrician had said. “Can you keep an eye on her, Katie Kay, and suggest she stay in bed?”

  “Ja.” She didn’t add that she intended to do more for the generous woman who had welcomed her into her home as if she were a long-lost sister. In fact, Gemma was more accepting of Katie Kay than her real older sister had been.

  She didn’t need Sean’s hints that she would have to be subtle or Gemma would keep working as she had...to prove she could, despite the burgeoning belly that suggested she was carrying more than one boppli. Tests had said otherwise, but Katie Kay knew they weren’t always right.

  By midmorning, Gemma had gone into the bedroom she shared with Sean to rest.

  Katie Kay decided to make cookies so the kinder could help. That way she could keep an eye on them and they’d stay quiet. Maybe Gemma would be able to sleep.

  However, Olivia, who’d had a runny nose and a hacking cough until yesterday, acted as if climbing onto a chair took too much energy. She made one attempt, slipped and began crying.

  Hushing the little girl, Katie Kay assured her that she didn’t have to help bake the cookies. Olivia agreed, shocking her. The little girl was usually the first one to volunteer whenever something was baked. Now, the kind continued to cry on and off until Jayden looked at his big sister with the same anxiety Katie Kay felt.

  Katie Kay realized Olivia might be sicker than she’d been the night before. Her own younger sisters had made the same sounds that were halfway between a sob and a whine when they hadn’t been feeling well. Putting her hand on the little girl’s forehead, she frowned when she felt the unmistakable heat of a fever. She’d thought Olivia was getting better this morning. The kind hadn’t coughed once during breakfast.

  Picking Olivia up, Katie Kay placed her on the sofa. She set a pillow behind the little girl’s head before taking a bright blue afghan off the back and spreading it over the fussy kind. Olivia turned her face toward the cushion and continued to sob. No, she wasn’t crying, Katie Kay realized, appalled. Olivia was gasping for breath.

  When two applications from Olivia’s inhaler didn’t help, Katie Kay looked from the little girl to the stairs. Should she disturb Gemma? If Olivia had a cold, as they’d suspected earlier in the week, keeping her mamm away would be wise.

  But Katie Kay’s mind was made up for her when Olivia coughed so hard she almost vomited. After giving the little girl a spoonful of honey to ease her sore throat, she ran up the stairs, taking two at a time.

  She opened the door but didn’t wait for Gemma to reply. Throwing it open, she said, “Gemma, I’m sorry to disturb you.”

  Pushing herself awkwardly to sit on the mussed bed, Gemma rubbed her eyes as if she were no older than her daughter. “You don’t need to apologize. What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Olivia. She’s feeling worse than yesterday.”

  “There’s another bug going around the school. DJ probably brought it home to her, and with her resistance down, she caught it. Let me check her.”

  “If it’s contagious, maybe you should stay away from her. You don’t want to get sick, too. Not at this point in your pregnancy.”

  “I’ve been exposed already.”

  Katie Kay nodded, realizing Gemma was right. She helped Gemma out of bed and then followed her into the living room. Locking her fingers together in front of her, Katie Kay murmured an almost-silent prayer that Olivia was already taking a turn for the better.

  She knew her prayer hadn’t been answered when Gemma put her hand on the little girl’s forehead and gasped. “She’s burning up.”

  “We need to call your doktor. What’s his name?”

  Without looking up, Gemma said, “Dr. Stafford! His number is on the wall by the phone.”

  Rushing into the kitchen—which was splattered everywhere with the eggs, sugar and flour Jayden was continuing to stir on the table—Katie Kay grabbed the phone and punched in the number circled in red on the paper tacked to a bulletin board. The phone was answered on the second ring, and a computerized voice asked her to choose a prompt. The first choice was to push three if it were an emergency. She pressed the button.

  Another voice came on the phone. This time a real woman’s voice.

  Katie Kay said as she hurried into the living room, “I’m calling for Gemma Donnelly. Her daughter, Olivia, is running a very high temperature. Here she is.” She thrust the phone in Gemma’s hand.

  Going to the sink, Katie Kay dampened a clean cloth. She placed it on Olivia’s head while Gemma spoke to the doktor’s office. The little girl was too quiet except for the rasps as she struggled to draw in another breath and let it out.

  Gemma ended the call and then made another. This one to Sean, Katie Kay guessed when Gemma said the doktor’s office had told her to get Olivia to the closest hospital’s emergency room right away.

  Everything became a blur as Katie Kay packed a small bag with snacks and drinks and Olivia’s favorite stuffed toy. Jayden kept asking what was wrong, and she paused long enough to open the bag of chocolate chips and tell him to pour them into the bowl. That occupied him while she bundled Olivia into her warmest coat, giving Gemma time to get her own on.

  Then the Plain and Simple Solutions van squealed into the driveway. Sean rushed in. He and Gemma took Olivia and left at a speed that wasn’t safe on the twisting road.

  Katie Kay sent prayers after them and closed the door. She kept praying while she helped Jayden stir the cookie dough and put the first tray into the oven. When she realized she’d forgotten to turn the oven on, she pulled out the sheet and set the oven to preheat. She turned on Sesame Street for Jayden; then she began trying to mitigate the damage a two-year-old with a spoon and a bowl of flour could do to a kitchen when nobody was supervising him.

  She was rinsing the dishcloth for the umpteenth time to get wet flour out of it when the front door opened. She wasn’t surprised when she heard Micah’s voice. Drying her hands on a dish towel, she hurried into th
e living room.

  Micah was giving Jayden a hug but looked at her and asked, “What’s happened? Sean got a call at the job site and left. He shouted that he’d explain later. He couldn’t then because it was an emergency. The next thing I know, the van is tearing up the road. What’s happened?” He glanced around the otherwise empty living room. “Is Gemma okay?”

  “She’s fine. Olivia’s sick. We called their doktor, and they told Gemma to take Olivia to the hospital.”

  “Hospital?” His face became ashen. “What happened?”

  Katie Kay shrugged. “I’m not sure. As you know, she’s been coughing the last couple of days, but it stopped late yesterday, so Gemma thought she was getting better. So did I until Olivia started having trouble breathing. That’s why Gemma was told to get her to the hospital as fast as possible.” She wrapped her arms around herself, wishing he’d hug her as he had Jayden. “Micah, they told her not to wait for 911 to respond because they were concerned there would be too much of a delay in the EMTs arriving.”

  “Ach!” He dropped to sit on the nearest chair. “I didn’t realize it was serious.”

  “Sean told you it was an emergency.”

  “I know, but...” He raked his fingers through his dark hair. “I guess I didn’t want to believe it.”

  * * *

  That was the truth. Micah hadn’t wanted to imagine something horrible happening to the family he felt as close to as his own. Having the doktor tell Gemma to get Olivia to the hospital faster than the ambulance could was frightening. No wonder Sean hadn’t paused to explain what was going on.

  Poor little Olivia.

  As Katie Kay had, he’d thought the little girl had caught a cold on Saturday. He smothered a shudder as he thought of how he, Katie Kay and the kinder had gotten lost in the corn maze for hours. If they’d gotten out faster, would Olivia now be playing with her little brother and asking her customary dozens of questions?

  God, be with her and with her family. And with those of us who love her, so we can be strong for her and her family. Please...

  “How did you get here?” Katie Kay asked, interrupting his prayer.

  Her face was so pale the flour on her cheek was barely visible. Her hands shook as if she were sick, too, but she guided Jayden to the sofa and gave him his favorite picture book to read.

  Standing, Micah followed her into the kitchen where she began to scrub the flour-sprinkled table with the dishcloth. “I hitched a ride with one of the men on the construction crew working on another house. He dropped me off at the crossroads, and I hoofed it here as fast as I could. What can I do to help?”

  She opened her mouth to reply but halted when the phone rang.

  Micah reached it in a pair of steps. Clicking it on, he said, “Hello. This is the Donnellys.”

  “Thank the good Lord, Micah!” came Sean’s voice through the phone. The connection was clear, so Micah could hear the quaver in his friend’s words. “I’m sorry I had to leave you—”

  “Don’t worry about it. How’s Olivia?”

  What Sean had to say was to the point. The doktors had diagnosed her with pneumonia, which was complicated by her asthma, but they wanted to run more tests. “From what we’re being told, they’ll be keeping her here overnight.”

  “Don’t worry,” he repeated. “Katie Kay and I will watch the boys. How are you and Gemma holding up?”

  “I wish she’d be more careful, but she’s refused to leave Olivia’s bedside. The staff has brought in a recliner so she can put up her feet because her ankles are swelling, and that’s a bad sign in a pregnant woman.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Pray, my friend. Pray.”

  “I’m already doing that.”

  “Don’t stop. We could use all the prayers we can get right now.”

  He hung up the phone after his friend told him that he’d call back with any updates. Micah felt helpless, but thanked the gut Lord for the doktors and their knowledge.

  By the time he’d finished telling Katie Kay what Sean had reported, the school bus was stopping in front of the house. DJ jumped out. She went to welcome the little boy home and explain his mamm had taken Olivia to see the doktor.

  Amazed how she shared enough of the truth so DJ wouldn’t panic, Micah watched while she listened to the boy talk about what he’d done at school. She acted as if nothing were more important than what he had to say. While she made lunch for them, Micah couldn’t stop pacing. The boys ate, but he couldn’t sit still.

  Katie Kay halted him by stepping directly into his path. In not much more than a whisper, she said, “Go and be with your friend. Don’t hurry back if you want to stay late at the hospital.” She raised her voice so the boys could hear her say, “I can order pizza for supper. We’ll be fine.”

  DJ and Jayden cheered at the idea of having pizza, and Micah knew she’d found the perfect way to distract them.

  From him and his worry.

  “I know you will be fine.” His fingers rose before he could halt them and cupped her cheek. “I’m glad you’re here, Katie Kay.”

  He’d expected her to pull away, but she smiled as she said, “Me, too. Sean and Gemma have done so much for me. I hope I can repay them a bit now. Go on!” She gave him a playful shove.

  His arms reached out and encircled her before he had a chance to think. But as soon as he drew her to him, he couldn’t think of anything but how her blue eyes glowed with astonishment. That he’d been bold, or at the instantaneous sparks arcing between them?

  “Katie Kay...” Her name was the second sweetest thing he could imagine on his lips. Her actual lips would be the very sweetest.

  “Go to your friends, Micah,” she murmured. “They need you.”

  “But we need to—”

  “We’ll have time for everything else later.” She plucked his arms off her and eased away. “Plenty of time, but you’re going to regret even a minute lost when you could be with Gemma and Sean.”

  She was right. He knew that, but it took every ounce of his will to leave her standing there while he went to the phone and dialed the number of the Englisch driver his family used. After Gerry told him the van would be there in less than five minutes, he hung up.

  “You never learned to drive?” Katie Kay asked.

  “I did, but it’s been so long I don’t want to chance getting into an accident on the way to the hospital.”

  Did she believe him, or did she suspect the truth? He was too distraught to get behind the wheel of an unfamiliar vehicle. Either way, she nodded and went to refill DJ’s glass with milk.

  As promised, Gerry’s van reached the house minutes later. Micah glanced back as he lifted his coat off the peg and pulled it on. With a strained smile, she motioned for him to hurry so he didn’t keep Gerry waiting. She was trying to be brave, but he knew she was as heartsick as he was that Olivia had to spend the night at the hospital.

  He wanted to tell her it would be okay, but he wasn’t sure if it would.

  Chapter Twelve

  Though it was beginning to get dark, the porch light was on when Micah climbed out of the van in front of the Donnellys’ house, thanked Gerry and headed up the walk past the three pumpkin figures the kinder had started. They didn’t have any faces yet, and he wasn’t sure when Sean would be able to help the boys finish them.

  Micah moved as if he’d aged a hundred years in the past few hours. When he discovered the door was locked, he fumbled in his coat pocket for the ring of keys that included the one for the Donnellys’ door. He hadn’t expected he’d need it. He was glad he had the key because otherwise he would have had to ring the doorbell. Sean and Gemma never locked their door. In fact, nobody he knew did, but he guessed Katie Kay had picked up the habit while she lived in Lancaster.

  Was she trying to keep out stran
gers, or did she fear someone she knew might come to the house while she was alone with the kinder? He wished he could meet Austin, the boppli’s daed. No, not meet him. Observe him from a distance. Micah wasn’t sure if he could withhold his opinions if he came face-to-face with the man who had no intentions of honoring his obligations to her and her boppli.

  He grimaced. Thinking about Austin made him feel lousier...if that was possible after the visit to the hospital room where little Olivia was hooked to oxygen, straining for each breath. Her face had been colorless, and her parents’ had been almost as gray.

  There were a half-dozen double rooms in the pediatric wing of the hospital, and most had at least one kind in it. Seeing sick kinder was discouraging, but he’d said a prayer for each as he walked along the quiet hallway. The nurses’ hushed voices and the incessant beeps of medical machines had been the loudest sounds.

  Opening the Donnellys’ door, he winced when a hinge squeaked. The noise would have been muffled in day-to-day life with three active youngsters, but in the hush it was as loud as a cat screeching after having its tail trod on.

  Katie Kay was sitting on the couch, rubbing her eyes as he walked into the living room. Her tousled hair fluttered around her face, and there was a mark on her left cheek where the button on a pillow had been pressed against it. She must have been resting. Gut. They couldn’t forget in the midst of the emergency that she was pregnant and needed her rest, too.

  Looking past her, though he wanted to let his eyes linger on her adorable mussiness, he was surprised to see the boys coloring at the kitchen table. They waved to him and went back to their crayons.

  “They’re being quiet,” he said as he shrugged off his coat and hung it before entering the living room.

  “There’s a first time for everything.” She tried to stifle a yawn but failed.

  Should he stay overnight to help her with DJ and Jayden? That might cause more trouble for Katie Kay. A young unmarried woman, even one who was pregnant, should not have a bachelor in the house with her. They wouldn’t be alone, but two little boys wouldn’t be considered adequate chaperones. It wasn’t as if Sean and Gemma had a dawdi haus attached to their home that would offer countenance to the circumstances.