MENDING FENCES

by Brooke Williams

  Cooper nodded. “You like your way of life and you don’t want anything to change.

  It was exactly how Maria felt and it confirmed how much help Cooper was going to be as far as understanding went. “Exactly.”

  “You’re not the only one who has felt that way. I’ve talked to a lot of youth who have come out on Rumspringa and most of them end up going right back where they came in a matter of a week or two.”

  “But how do they get by in the meantime?” Maria asked, knowing that was what was expected of her.

  Cooper stroked his beard. “What’s your specialty…within the community?”

  “I’m best in the kitchen,” Maria said.

  “Ah yes,” he agreed. “I could have guessed.”

  Maria wondered what it was about her appearance that made Cooper think she was good in the kitchen.

  “Think of your Rumspringa as the best loaf of bread you have ever baked. That bread takes time, no?”

  Maria nodded. Bread took lots of time. Not only did she have to gather some of the ingredients and make the others, but she had to wait for the yeast to rise and take many other steps to get it just right.

  “This time in your life deserves your attention as well. You will take the process one step at a time and it’s going to take a week or longer for you to get through those steps. Once you have all of the ingredients put together, you will see what Rumspringa will do in your life. It’s likely you’ll go back home and commit yourself to the community. But until your bread is fully baked with all of the right steps and only the best ingredients, you cannot be a full Amish believer.”

  Maria tilted her head. Cooper had a wisdom much like her father’s, but he spoke with more words and illustrations. She was pretty sure she understood him. She needed to go through this process in order to complete the Amish recipe. It was the Amish way that children go out into the world and then return to commit themselves to the community if they wished to do so. Without the going out and coming back, commitment would be nothing more than flat bread with a hard texture.

  “In other words,” Cooper went on as Maria contemplated what he already said. “Take things one day at a time. One hour at a time. One minute at a time, if needed. You will get through this and you will be better for it.”

  Maria felt reassured. She came into the store completely overwhelmed by the few modern world encounters she had already experienced. As she was talking to Cooper she remembered that with God by her side, there was nothing she couldn’t handle.

  “Thank you so much,” she said, smoothing her hands over her dress. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just bring me some of that bread sometime,” Cooper said with a wink. “And don’t be a stranger while you’re in town, you hear?”

  Maria told the man that she would visit often and she planned to do just that. He made her feel more at home than she had since she left her house that morning, walking out of her mother’s loving embrace under the gaze of her siblings.

  When Maria left the store she felt like she could really make it on her own. It was only a few days or maybe even a week. She would take advantage of her time away from the community and her break from her work and learn as much as she could about the outside world. Once she went back, she could use her experience and knowledge to help the young ones that would come behind her. There would likely be others that would have similar anxieties to hers. She would help to prepare them for their own Rumspringa.

  Maria was so lost in her own thoughts that she wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing or where she was going. Neither was the man who was carrying a large stack of wood in his arms. Before Maria even saw the man, she had bumped her shoulder against his so hard that the lumber went clattering to the ground, making a noise almost as loud as the phone’s shrill ring had earlier.

  Maria gasped. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her eyes glued to the ground at the uniform boards scattered across the sidewalk. She bent to begin to stack them up so she could help the man get on his way. It was her fault that the boards were on the ground in the first place.

  “Maria?” the male voice said from above her. “Maria Miller?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Maria lifted her head at the sound of her name. She could not see the man because of the bright sun that shone behind his head. She stood and squinted in his direction as his features began to materialize before her. He certainly looked familiar. His tanned skin was smooth and clean-shaven and his cocoa brown eyes struck her as ones she had seen before. The man smiled, revealing a row of bright white teeth.

  As the dimple formed in the corner of one cheek, Maria began to place his features alongside a name. “Eldon Schrock?” she asked tentatively. She wasn’t positive, but she felt rather certain that the man standing before her was the boy she once knew.

  “In the flesh,” he said, joy lighting up his face. “Wow,” he continued. “I can’t believe how beautiful you are.”

  Maria felt her face get hot. She had been called a lot of things in her 18 years. A good cook…an excellent baker…a helpful mender…and plenty of others, but beautiful had never been one of them. The Amish didn’t dwell on appearance so it made sense that no one had ever commented on hers. But hearing a man call her beautiful gave her a little too much pleasure and thoroughly embarrassed her. She didn’t know what to say.

  “I…I…” she stuttered.

  “I’m sorry,” Eldon said, realizing his mistake. “I remember how it was. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Maria felt her shoulders relax a bit. He must remember the ways within the community. But where had he been all these years and why had he left? She wanted to ask, but of course did not feel it was proper.

  “Not to say I didn’t mean it,” Eldon said, the dimple in his cheek deepening. “Because it’s true. You are beautiful, Maria.”

  Maria’s shoulders tensed once again. “I’m so sorry I bumped into you,” she said, looking down at the wood on the sidewalk and avoiding his gaze.

  Eldon shrugged. “I can stack the wood again. They’re just rough shelves for the back of Cooper’s store. He was needing some more storage,” Eldon paused. “I’m actually really glad we ran into each other.”

  Maria allowed herself a quick glance, but once she met his gaze, she could not look away.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone from the community and truth is, it can get lonely around here.”

  Maria had only been outside for an hour or more and she already understood what he meant. “I can see why,” she agreed, looking down the block past Eldon so she didn’t have to look into his deep eyes any longer.

  “I have to get these shelves to Cooper, but would you want to have some dinner when I’m through?”

  “Dinner?” Maria hesitated. It wasn’t like she had any plans, but she didn’t know if it was right to have a meal with a man on the outside. Within the community, she ate with men all of the time, but always in large groups and with other women and children around.

  Eldon held his hands up in front of her as if to show her he meant no harm. “Just a meal,” he said. “Some conversation. I’d like to catch up with you…hear about your family, that sort of thing. Gosh, you must be, what, 18 now?”

  Maria nodded. “As of just last week.”

  Eldon shook his head. “Rumspringa, I presume?”

  Maria nodded again.

  “You managed to put it off longer than most.”

  Maria allowed herself to give him a slight smile. “That I did.”

  Eldon bent to the sidewalk and started stacking the boards in a pile that he could pick up once again and carry into the store. “So,” he said, looking at her more than he looked at the boards. “Dinner?”

  Maria let the silence between them settle in as she contemplated her options. She could go back to the hotel on her own and see what the café had to offer. But she had plenty of time ahead of her to explore its choices. And she may not get another chance to talk with a fo
rmer Amish who had lived on the outside for several years. Perhaps he could help guide her through the process with even more advice than Cooper had to offer. In the end, Maria decided that having a meal with someone was better than eating alone.

  “Yes, that would be nice, thank you,” she agreed.

  Eldon grabbed the stack of boards. “Just let me take these in to Cooper. I’ll be right with you.” He rushed through the store’s door with a backward glance at Maria.

  Maria felt her skin’s temperature rise. She wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing. He was making her feel very strange. She felt tingly and nervous and almost like something was fluttering around in her stomach. She wasn’t sure she was even going to be able to eat in his presence. Before she could completely process what she had agreed to, Eldon popped back out of the store.

  “All set,” he said, brushing one empty hand against another.

  Maria met his eyes once again and knew that she was in for a lesson from the outside world. What that lesson might be, she did not know. But she had already promised herself that she was going to be open to learning. Now she had to follow through on that promise. She turned and started walking beside Eldon.

  “Tell me about life at the community,” Eldon said, looking at Maria with a hungry expression on his face, as if he wanted to hear every detail in order to make him feel like he was a part of it again.

  “I’m sure you remember,” Maria said. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen making the meals and tending to the baking.”

  “You always had a flair for food,” he agreed. “Even from what I remember. How are the crops?”

  “Well, the drought has hit us pretty hard,” she said with a sigh.

  “Is that why I’ve seen more furniture coming out?” he asked.

  Maria nodded. “The men are trying to supplement the funds we have lost from the crops with extra furniture. It’s not ideal, but it’s working for us so far.”

  Eldon gave her a half smile. “It sure had been a lot of extra competition for me.”

  “Competition for you?” she asked, the curiosity rising in her voice.

  “I build furniture. For part of my living. I learned the skills from my father and created a few new styles myself.”

  “That table in the storefront down the street,” Maria said, pointing down the block a ways.

  “That’s mine,” he affirmed. “I try to build tables that look fully Amish, but are unique in their own ways as well.”

  “I recognized the craftsmanship,” Maria answered. “It almost looked like one of ours, but I was certain it wasn’t. There was just something about it.”

  “I’d like to show you my work room sometime,” Eldon said as Maria felt his shoulder brush against hers while they walked.

  “That would be interesting,” Maria agreed.

  “Is this restaurant okay?” he asked as they stopped in front of a building Maria had not yet encountered. “They don’t make everything from scratch, but their bread is the closest to what you have back home that I’ve found around here.

  Maria smiled at his consideration of her. Cooper had made her feel better about her situation and now Eldon was making her feel more at home. Not only with his thoughtfulness, but also with his sheer presence.

  Maria scolder herself. She needed to be careful. If she didn’t watch herself, she would find her spirit fitting into the outside world. She wanted to experience it, but she didn’t want to find herself going so far that she couldn’t go back.

  She glanced at Eldon as they walked, noticing that he was watching her instead of the sidewalk ahead of them. Eldon definitely had things he could teach her. She could feel it. If nothing else, perhaps she would learn more about his own story…why he left the community and where he had been since. Maria looked forward to hearing what he had to say about the outside world. The only negative she could see was that he was making her feel things that she hadn’t ever felt before. She shrugged off the strange emotions. She was going to feel a lot of things she hadn’t felt before out here. It was to be expected.

  Maria tore her eyes from the sidewalk and met Eldon’s stare. She was sure to experience plenty of feelings during her time away from the community. But she wondered if any would match the way she felt right then.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Maria and Eldon sat across from one another near the front window of the little restaurant and ordered soup. It was a warm day outside and hot soup wasn’t exactly inviting, but Eldon said the soup and bread were the closest thing they could find to home so Maria agreed.

  They spent a few minutes before the meal arrived chatting about the town. Eldon told Maria the best place to buy fabric in case she wanted to make anything while she was there and Maria told Eldon more about the crops and the furniture business that had sprouted out of need.

  When the soup arrived, Eldon took the lead. “Shall we pray?” he asked, extending his hands across the table.

  Maria nodded and placed her hands in his. “Dear Lord,” Eldon prayed as the steam from the soup wafted between them. “Thank you for crossing our paths today and please guide us to teach one another the lessons you would have us learn. Bless this food for our bodies and bless Maria during her time away from her home and family. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”

  Maria repeated Eldon’s Amen and drew her hands back reluctantly. It wasn’t the first time she had held hands with a man in prayer, but it was the first time she had noticed and enjoyed it.

  “Would you like to see more of what I do?” Eldon asked, an earnest look on his face.

  Maria scooped up a spoonful of soup and started to blow on the hot liquid.

  “I mean,” he continued, “it’s been such a long time since I’ve run into anyone from the community and I just want to get in as much as I can while you’re here.”

  Maria smiled. It was nice to be treated like family. Cooper was friendly and he had Amish in his background, but he wasn’t part of the community. Eldon wasn’t either, but he had been there and he knew what her life was all about more than anyone else in the town.

  “You want to show me your craftsmanship?” she asked, delighted at the idea. She was still intrigued by the table she saw in the first window on the other side of downtown.

  “I’d like that very much. Are you interested in seeing it?” he asked.

  Maria hesitated. She was interested. A little too much so. She didn’t know what she liked more…the idea of seeing Eldon’s creations or simply spending more time with him. She felt her face flush. Was this a good idea? Spending time with a man who left the community many years ago? He dressed in plain, simple clothing, but it was not homemade. He lived in the outside world and there must be a reason for that.

  Maria didn’t know the whole story and she had not been allowed to ask. Eldon was several years older than her so she didn’t really know all that much about him. She remembered seeing him in church and around the community as he worked in the fields and ate in the communal hall. As for actually speaking, they may have said a few words to one another from time to time, but they hadn’t exactly been friends. They were too young for that at the time. Friendships between males and females didn’t normally form until the teen years and by the time Maria came to understand that she needed to form bonds with some of the men in the community in order to someday marry, Eldon was gone.

  Though Maria couldn’t remember any conversations she had had with Eldon when he was still part of the community, she did remember the conversations they didn’t have. Eldon had gone out on his Rumspringa break when he was 15 and he had come back a whole month later. It seemed like a long time to Maria, but she had only been 11 then and she wasn’t all that concerned with boys or Rumspringa. What Maria remembered more was that two years after Eldon’s baptism, he was shunned within the community.

  Shunning was not something that occurred very often within her community. If someone was doing something that the community considered wrong, the topic would be br
ought up before them and most of the time, they quickly changed their ways. To be Amish was to please God and anyone that was not pleasing God wanted to make sure that they made adjustments in order to do so.

  Maria hadn’t been at the center of the controversy so she didn’t really know very much about it. She just knew that one day, her parents informed her that the shun was to be placed on Eldon Schrock. Maria was not to speak to him, look at him, or touch him. When she was on kitchen duty, she still had to serve him, but he sat at a table all by himself away from his family, friends, and everyone else in the community.

  Maria imagined that being shunned was the most horrible thing that could happen to an Amish person. To be that close to family members and people you grew up with only to be ignored was a fate worse than death. When she asked her parents what Eldon had done, her father had simply said, “He has disrespected his parents.” Maria never knew how or why. She simply followed the rules and began ignoring Eldon Schrock.

  Shunning Eldon hadn’t been all that hard on Maria because she didn’t know him very well. But watching the process sent a stab of pain through her chest and as she sat across from him in the restaurant now, blowing on her soup, she felt the same pain hit her.

  “You want to know, don’t you?” Eldon asked quietly, referring to her thoughts as if she had said something out loud. “Tell you want,” he continued. “You come to my workshop tomorrow and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

  Maria slowly took a bite of soup to stall for time. If Eldon had only apologized for his transgressions, he would have been forgiven and he could have gone back to the Amish lifestyle to which he was accustomed. The fact that he was shunned was harsh enough, but since he never apologized and attempted to atone for his sins, the shunning went on and on. Eventually, Maria figured that he had had enough. He went into town on foot one day and he never returned.