A Simple Faith

by Rosalind Lauer

  “But you came back home.”

  “I came back, and I don’t miss the life I had out there. This here—tending cows, working the land. This is how a man should live. Close to the land, close to God, surrounded by family. Not that I’m criticizing what you do. It’s a good thing, being a doctor and caring for others.”

  “No offense taken. I’ve only been here a few weeks, and I don’t miss what I left behind.” He thought of his old apartment, his familiar neighborhood with the kids on the playground across the street where he used to take Angela. The landscape had become a source of pain for him.

  And he thought of his friends, always concerned, always trying to ease the pain that would never go away.

  He had needed a break.

  The last hay bale hit the cart with a thud. “Thanks for the help. I hope you can find some Englisher folk who need your counseling.”

  Dylan nodded. “I’m sure I will. And I meant what I said about pitching in. Get in touch if you need some help around here.”

  He handed Adam a card and headed back to the house, undaunted by Adam King’s attitude. When the time came that someone in this community needed help, he would be here. Right now, Dylan just needed patience.

  What had Dr. Trueherz said? Just give it twenty years. Looking ahead, Dylan could see himself spending the next few decades here in Lancaster County. The solitude, the rolling hills, the pastoral charm … it was a world apart from the life he’d lost. The perfect escape.

  4

  In the hospital break room, the usual forum for talk of catheters and sponge baths, Twizzlers and vitamin water, there was one topic on everyone’s mind.

  Dylan Monroe.

  Haley had plenty to say about the new psychologist, but she didn’t want to put it out there.

  “I think he’s waiting for Ms. Right to come along,” Caitlin said as she stirred creamer into her coffee.

  “And you think that’s you?” Danica asked, leafing through a chart on the table.

  “Haven’t you guys noticed that he’s all about me?” Madison tucked a fat blond curl behind one ear. “Did you not see? Yesterday, he spent the whole day with me.”

  “Because you landed the patient who decided to practice his tai chi on the double yellow line of the highway,” Danica said. “Of course he’s going to stick with you if you’ve got the only psych patient on the floor.”

  “Cat fight!” Haley teased, and she made a noise that sounded like an angry cat’s meow for emphasis.

  “Y’all don’t have to get all fanatical about it,” Aeesha said. “He’s just a therapist. Not even a real doctor.”

  “But he’s so nice.” Caitlin took a sip of coffee and cocked her head to one side. “He cares about your problems. He can tell when you’re having a bad day. I’ve never met a doctor who was that sweet.”

  “Forget about a doctor; I’ve never met a man who was that sweet,” Danica said. With a son in school, Danica was the oldest nursing student and the most focused on the doctors at LanCo General. She knew who was married, who was divorced, who was looking for marriage, and who was looking for fun. “There’s something about him, some secret he’s holding back. I don’t know what it is, but he sure is buttoned up about it.”

  “It’s that mystery that makes him so irresistible,” Madison said.

  “That and the fact that he’s gorgeous,” added Caitlin.

  Aeesha tapped a lacquered nail on the table. “He sure is eye candy.”

  “And those designer suits don’t hurt.” Danica closed the chart and sighed. “Like he stepped out of the pages of a magazine.”

  “Did you notice how he stopped wearing the suit jacket?” Caitlin asked. “Just a shirt and tie now. Crisp shirt and designer tie. I think he didn’t want to make the other doctors look bad.”

  “Maybe he just wanted to fit in,” Aeesha suggested. “No one’s really fancy around here.”

  In the week or so since he’d joined the hospital, Dr. Monroe had softened his style a bit. Haley had noticed every little nuance. Gone were the immaculate suit jackets. Instead, he wore a crisp white clinical jacket over his shirt and tie. It was a step toward a more casual look, though the pants were so well pressed that Haley was sure you could cut butter with the crease.

  Reluctant to add a comment, Haley wiggled her toes in her clogs as images of Dylan played through her mind like a romantic slide show. Working with him over the past week, she’d been struck by his kindness, his compassion, his sense of humor. The way he held a patient’s hand as she cried. The way he listened. The way he made everyone feel better after being around him. The way he made tedious tasks enjoyable.

  The way the air sizzled between them whenever he was around.

  Oh, she had it bad, and she knew it. But right now, she didn’t want the other nursing students to know. Admitting that she had a crush on Dr. Monroe would be like tossing chum off the boat before a swim. She didn’t want to be shark bait.

  Fortunately, break time was winding down and the women began to file out of the room.

  “Have you noticed that he rarely smiles?” Danica asked. “Almost never. Somehow, he communicates compassion without smiling. But it makes you wonder what happened to make him so serious.”

  “There is something about a man with sadness in his eyes.” Aeesha gave a sigh. “Makes you just want to snuggle him up and make him all better.”

  Aeesha was right; Haley had felt the same urge to reassure Dr. Monroe. As if she had the power to make him feel better with a hug. She frowned. This hen session was ridiculous. All of them really needed to leave Dylan Monroe alone.

  “He may be a man of mystery,” Madison said as she tossed away her coffee cup, “but Dylan Monroe sure keeps things interesting around here.”

  Haley smiled, knowing Madison was right. Since Dylan had joined the staff, Haley looked forward to coming to the hospital for clinicals.

  “You’re awfully quiet today.” Aeesha stopped Haley with a hand on her arm. They were the last two in the break room. “You didn’t chime in on the Dylan fest. What is it? He’s not your type?”

  “I don’t know.” Haley wiped a napkin over the table, hoping her friend wouldn’t pursue the question.

  “What are you talking about? Girl, I’ve never seen you stumped by a question. What’s the matter? You got on a crush on Dr. Monroe?”

  Haley looked around to be sure the others were out of range. “Maybe.” She gathered up a sandwich wrapper from the table and tossed it into the trash. “That’s the problem.”

  Hands on her hips, Aeesha gaped at her. “I thought you were taking a break? It hasn’t even been six months since you left your fiancé crying at the altar.”

  “Don’t make it more dramatic than it was,” Haley said. “I called it off the week before the wedding, and to be honest, I think he was relieved. I didn’t fit his image of a good wife. He thought that would change, but it wasn’t going to happen.”

  “I hear you. But I do like the idea of the man crying at the altar.”

  “Graham didn’t shed any tears. In fact, when I broke it off, he was more upset about canceling the wedding than about canceling our lives together.”

  “I wish I’d known you then.” Aeesha patted her arm. “Sounds like you needed someone to cheer you on.”

  “I still do. My parents think I made a huge mistake. They really liked Graham, and they want to see me married and squared away like my sisters. More than that, I think they were happy that I would be financially secure after I married him.”

  “Do you ever look back and wonder if you made a mistake, letting him go?”

  “No. Never. He’s a nice enough guy, but we wanted different things. Graham wanted to spend our vacation on a cruise ship, and I wanted to go along on a church mission that was sending medical aid to Africa. He liked to eat out at trendy restaurants, and I was always campaigning to have a picnic in the park.”

  “Did you really quit nursing school because he wanted you all to himself?” Aeesha as
ked, adding, “I heard that through the grapevine.”

  “It’s true.” Haley pressed her palms to her face, wondering what she had been thinking back then. “I can’t believe I thought I could be happy as Graham’s wife. That would have been disastrous. I get so antsy when I’m cooped up at home.”

  “I hear ya.”

  “Graham always talked about how good we looked together, and that struck me as odd. I mean, you can be a gorgeous couple, but it’s not going to work unless you enjoy each other. The chemistry has to be there.”

  “And it wasn’t?”

  “I had fun with him, but it wasn’t anything special. I think I was in love with falling in love. Then one night, I got annoyed with him. He had a tantrum about how they’d changed the menu at his favorite restaurant. Then, while I was trying to talk to him, he kept checking his text messages. I felt invisible. I decided to go home, but that hurt his feelings. He pointed out that once we were married, we’d be together forever and always.”

  “And you felt smothered.”

  Haley nodded. “That was it. That night I told him I needed breathing room. He told me there was no time, that we were getting married in a week. That ended it for me. I wished him the best and called the catering hall to cancel.”

  Everyone loved wedding planning, but no one ever talked about the awkwardness of calling off the event. Although Haley’s mom had been disappointed, she had helped Haley call their side of the guest list to explain. Seventy-two personal phone calls, most of them to relatives, Mom’s friends, and Dad’s business associates.

  Graham’s mother had refused to make a single call. “How can you do this to me? I’m going to be the laughingstock of all my friends.”

  Graham’s side of the list had been more than ninety phone calls. Haley had said a prayer of thanks every time she got someone’s voice mail. It was so much easier to leave a message than to open yourself up for a barrage of questions.

  Is someone sick?

  Who called it off?

  Will the gifts be returned?

  Are you planning to postpone until next year?

  Sometime amid all the phone calls Haley had realized that this had not been her wedding at all. With nearly two hundred names on the guest list, only a handful of them were her friends.

  How had it gotten so far out of control? She still wondered about that.

  “So that’s how that all went down?” Aeesha narrowed her eyes. “Then I take back what I said. Not that I’m judging you or anything, but you should go for Dr. Dylan.”

  “You heard what they said. He’s aloof and mysterious.”

  “Please.” Aeesha waved her off. “A curvaceous blonde like yourself should not have a problem with aloof and mysterious.”

  “I’ve talked to him, and I don’t think he’s that easy.”

  “I didn’t say it was easy.” Aeesha arched one eyebrow. “I just said you should go for it.”

  5

  On Tuesday morning, there were extra passengers in the Lapp buggy as the horse trotted down the road into Halfway. While Caleb ran some errands, Elsie would show Fanny and the children around the shop so that they could handle it tomorrow, while she and Dat took their trip to the city.

  As Caleb helped Fanny out of the buggy, Elsie put her arms on the shoulders of her younger brother and sister and guided them down Halfway’s Main Street.

  “It’s good to have some helpers this morning,” Elsie told the children. “Many hands lighten the load.”

  “Something smells very good,” Will said, pushing back the brim of his black hat to look around.

  “There’s nothing like fresh-baked bread,” Elsie said. With the mouthwatering scent in the air, getting past the Sweet ’N’ Simple Bakery was always a practice in fighting temptation, more so today with a three-year-old and a five-year-old in tow.

  Will eyed the bakery. “I would like a cinnamon bun right about now.”

  “Me, too. Can we go to the bakery, Elsie?” Beth detached herself from Elsie to turn toward her mother, who moved slowly but steadily, the bulk of her belly barely noticeable under her black wool shawl. “Mamm, can we buy some treats?”

  “Maybe later, honey girl,” Fanny said. “Right now Elsie has to open the shop, and we need to learn the routine. We’re going to manage the store while Elsie and Dat go into the city tomorrow, and you’re going to be my helper, right?”

  Beth nodded as Will added, “I’m going to help, too.”

  “Of course you are,” Elsie said. “There’ll be plenty of errands to run.”

  “I like to run.” Beth raced ahead, her small boots pattering on the walkway, before she pivoted back. “See? I’ll run for you, Mamm.”

  “It’s good to know I can count on you,” Fanny said as they moved past the steamy windows of the bakery. “It’s been a while since I’ve made it here to Main Street, and I must say, it feels good to be out of the house.”

  “I don’t know what it is about Halfway, but I always look forward to opening the shop each morning.” Elsie found the Main Street of the little town comforting. Maybe because she was surrounded by Amish here in town. So many businesses owned by Plain folk. The Fishers had the bakery and the Mast family had run Molly’s Roadside Restaurant since Molly Mast started serving soup and sandwiches back in the 1950s. Lovina Stoltzfus had opened Ye Olde Tea Shop as a side business, and it had become a popular spot. There was the Amish furniture store, the ice-cream shop, the candy shop, and just down the road, Zook’s barn hosted a marketplace for farmers and crafts.

  Now more than ever, Amish were giving up farming to start other businesses. Many folk in the Old Order saw that as a bad thing—especially the elders who believed that working the land brought a person closer to Gott. Elsie understood their concern. No one wanted their community to change, and folks sure didn’t want to step away from the Almighty Father! But farmland had become scarce for the growing Amish population in Lancaster County. For her own family, Elsie knew that the income from the Country Store was the one thing that earned them money to pay for groceries and gas to make it through the winter months. She was glad that the store had made enough profit to get Dat and Caleb started in their new business.

  But for her, the Country Store had become more than a business. It was a second home, a place where she felt confident moving about as the little person that she was. Amid these four walls, folks seemed to accept that she looked different from them. Oh, there was still the occasional squint of curiosity, usually when people realized she was not a child but a young woman of a child’s height. But given the chance to assist a customer, share a story, or evoke a smile, Elsie could demonstrate that she belonged here as much as water belonged in a riverbed.

  Elsie turned the key in the lock as her stepmother cooed beside her.

  “Look at that!” Fanny steered her daughter around to face the shop window, where Elsie had hung a colorful blue, purple, red, and orange Sunshine and Shadow quilt as a backdrop for the display. “The last time I looked in this window, there was a stack of soda pop cans. Now it’s like taking a peek inside a rainbow.”

  “Sure is different,” Will said, his breath a white puff in the air.

  Beth nodded. “A winter rainbow. And look, Mamm. A treasure chest.”

  Biting her lips against a grin, Elsie couldn’t deny a surge of pleasure at Fanny’s compliment. “I hung up one of Mary King’s quilts. That’s for sale. The box is just for display. It’s been in our family for years. There’s a little message painted inside that says it was a gift from Elizabeth Lapp to Sammy Lapp in 1933.”

  “And the other items?” Fanny asked.

  “The dolls and embroidered linens are for sale. All made by local Plain folk.” Elsie’s step was a little lighter as she pushed through the door and slid off her coat. In the past year, she had begun to take an interest in the details of the shop, restocking specialty items made by local craftspeople in lieu of the standard drinks and snacks that had drained the character from their little store. She
was glad that Fanny was noticing the improvements. She wanted their little store to reflect the skill and hard work of Halfway’s Amish community, even as it helped the local women make some money on the side.

  “Such a welcoming sight.” Fanny sent the children to the back room to hang up their coats and sat down on a bench by the door. “Elsie, if I didn’t see you open the door, I’d think we came into the wrong store. You’ve made this place downright pleasant.”

  “I’ve just tried to bring back the unique things that tourists want to buy. Of course, we’ll always carry fabric and sewing notions for Amish women.” In their community, women bought fabric and sewed dresses, aprons, shirts, and pants on treadle machines at home, so it was handy to have a place to buy sewing materials in town. “I know Dat didn’t want to go back to carrying Amish crafts after that business with the bishop, and I understand that.”

  “Bishop Samuel is a good friend of ours, and of course, we had to hold to his decision. Your dat couldn’t take a chance of breaking the rules.”

  “I know that. But I thought there was a way that we could sell Amish crafts without going against the Ordnung.”

  “So you talked to Bishop Samuel about it.”

  Elsie nodded, picking up a faceless doll made of cloth and stuffing. This one was a girl, with a purple dress, blue apron, and matching blue bonnet. “I brought a few crafts over to the bishop. Some pincushions and soaps. Placemats and pillows. And as I was showing him, trying to get his okay, I saw his granddaughter Sallie holding a doll like this. Turned out Lois makes a hobby of sewing these dolls, which a lot of customers had been asking for.”

  Fanny lowered her shawl with a smile. “And Samuel had to say yes, with his wife pushing on him.”

  Elsie gave the doll an affectionate squeeze and placed it back on the shelf. “I’ll admit, it didn’t hurt to have the bishop’s wife on my side. But I believe his decision was based on a lot of thought and a close, careful look at the Bible.”

  “You’ve got a head for business,” Fanny said.

  “I like running the shop. I’m grateful that Dat held on to it.” Elsie ran a feather duster over some merchandise and paused. “And you’ve been a big help, Fanny. You’ve always encouraged Dat to let me make decisions here.”