Susannah nodded. She wondered how long it would be until her parents arrived and whether Micah was still with Sharon. And then her mind slipped to the realization she’d had as they ran toward the barn—that she loved Micah, that he was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
Today wasn’t the time to tell him that, to explain to him how she felt, but wasn’t that what she’d learned in that moment of terror when the tornado dropped out of the sky?
Life was precious, and it was best to take nothing for granted.
As a nurse stepped into the room and cleaned her wounds, Susannah promised herself that she would hold that lesson close to her heart and in the front of her mind.
She’d spent too long caught in the past. Starting this moment, she would plant her feet firmly in the present.
Chapter Fourteen
Micah wasn’t sure if he should stay and wait for Susannah’s parents or go check on his grandparents. Based on what he could see, the tornado had veered off in the opposite direction. He was sitting on the front porch steps with Sharon when Susannah’s parents pulled up in front of the house.
Sharon flew into her mother’s arms.
Micah tried to explain what had happened. He’d reached the part where the ambulance had arrived and picked up Susannah and Shiloh, when Thomas interrupted him. “Get in. You can tell us the rest on the way to the hospital.”
“I should check on my grandparents.”
“Of course. We’ll drop you off.”
“Nein. Go. Go to the girls, and tell them both I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He realized as they pulled away that neither of Susannah’s parents had commented on the destruction of their home.
Homes could be rebuilt.
Their one concern had been for their daughters.
He was thinking of that as he crossed back toward his grandparents’ farm. It was the people in your life that mattered, not the things. It didn’t at all matter what he wore, or whether he owned a phone, or if he drove a buggy or a car. What mattered was how you treated the people you cared about, and he realized with sudden clarity that he had not treated his grandparents well.
In fact, he’d taken them for granted—eating their food, staying in their home, allowing his mammi to wash his clothes and his daddi to provide his transportation. It was true that he’d given them money, but had he given them his respect and his gratitude? In truth, he’d thought they owed it to him, but no one really owed anyone else anything. It was their love for him that had provided for his needs.
And what had he done in return?
He’d mocked their way of life.
Shown a complete lack of respect for their years of hard work.
Argued at every possible turn.
He’d been a child, as surely as Sharon and Shiloh were children. When he’d realized that it was up to him to get Sharon and Shiloh and Susannah to safety, he’d left that side of himself behind in the path of the tornado. The storm had done more than threaten their very lives, it had pushed Micah into the world of being an adult—of being responsible for someone else and embracing that responsibility.
There would be no turning back.
He let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding when he saw his grandparents’ house. It was completely intact, without so much as a tree limb littering the yard.
He took the front porch steps two at a time.
His grandparents were in the living room—Mammi sitting next to Daddi on the couch, holding a glass of water and pressing it to his lips. As for his grandfather, his face was an ashen gray and his breathing seemed labored.
“What happened?”
“We heard the...the tornado. John figured you went over to Susannah’s. He was going to check on you when he collapsed on the front lawn. I managed to get him inside.”
“Daddi? Can you hear me?”
His grandfather opened his eyes, though he seemed to have trouble focusing. His breathing was ragged, and though it wasn’t hot at all in the house, sweat ran in rivulets down the side of his face.
“I shouldn’t...shouldn’t have said...”
“Not now, Daddi.” Micah clasped his hand. “It’s forgiven and forgotten. Now, we need to get some help.”
He sprinted out of the room, to the barn where he kept the replacement phone he’d purchased. He only hoped it was charged. Had he even used it since he’d arrived home from jail? He pulled it from the shelf where they kept miscellaneous tools, powered it on and ran out into the yard.
Two bars and 8 percent power.
It should be enough. It would have to be.
For the second time that day, he tapped in the number 911.
The person who answered took down the information, told him what to do and insisted on staying on the line until the paramedics arrived.
He found the bottle of aspirin in his mammi’s medicine cabinet. After Micah had given one to his daddi, the emergency dispatcher walked Micah through checking his pulse, which was weak but steady.
“It’s important that you keep your grandfather calm. We have an ambulance on the way to you right now.”
Five minutes passed, then ten, and then finally he heard the scream of the siren coming down their lane. He wasn’t too surprised when the two paramedics who hopped out of the vehicle were the same ones he’d seen earlier.
“Busy day for you,” the woman said, patting him on the shoulder before rushing past him and into the house.
They stabilized his grandfather and loaded him into the ambulance.
His mammi looked a bit dazed. “You can go with them, Mammi.”
“I can?”
“I’ll bring the buggy.”
“Danki, Micah.” She pulled him into a hug, clung to him fiercely for the space of three heartbeats and then she, too, was gone.
Micah wanted nothing more than to hitch up the buggy and tear out after them.
But what would his daddi want him to do?
After all, he would only be waiting and pacing at the hospital. They wouldn’t even let him in the room for the first hour or so. Instead of rushing off, he walked through the living room and into the kitchen. He found a pot of red beans cooking on the stove, so he turned the gas burner off. He covered the pot with the lid and pushed it to the back of the stove. The clock above the sink said that it was nearly five in the afternoon, when his daddi always looked after the animals.
So Micah did those chores, too.
Finally, he walked into his grandparents’ room to see if there was anything there that they might need. His grandmother’s purse and sweater were hanging on a hook near the door. He grabbed both and had turned to go when he spied her worn Bible on a nightstand. Picking it up, he ran a hand over the cover. The corners were worn and the letters on the front were barely discernible.
Sinking down onto their bed, he opened the book and stared at the inscription.
To Abigail, the love of my life.
John
October 15, 1978
His daddi had been a young man then, younger than Micah was now if he’d done the math correctly. And yet he’d known that Abigail was the woman he wanted to spend his life with. He hadn’t questioned his love for her or her love for him. And look at them now. They’d survived the terrible accident that had taken his arm, raised a houseful of children and now they were helping to raise Micah.
He realized in that moment how much he respected his daddi. Micah might not always agree with his opinion on things, but he admired how he’d spent his entire life caring for and providing for his family. He recalled the look on both of their faces as Mammi had sat beside him holding the cup of water. There was simply no doubt how much they loved each other.
Micah wanted that.
He wanted that kind of consistency in his life.
He wa
nted someone who looked at him like his mammi looked at his daddi.
And he was absolutely certain he knew who that someone was.
* * *
Susannah had moved to the waiting room and was sitting with Deborah by the time Micah found her. He explained about his grandfather—the doctors had assured him that his condition was stable, but that he didn’t need more visitors at the moment. “How’s Shiloh?”
“Mamm’s in with her now, and Dat’s taken Sharon to get something to eat and then outside to check on the horse.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Have you eaten anything?”
“Nein.”
Micah reached for her hand, pulled her to her feet and then told Deborah where they were going. The room was virtually filled with Englisch and Amish. The latest reports were thirty-four people injured, but no fatalities. Three homes had been damaged—two Amish and one Englisch, though it sounded like Susannah’s had taken the most direct hit.
“I’m sure I have something to eat in this bag.” Deborah hoisted her large purse off the floor and onto her lap. “Ya. I have gum and peanut butter crackers and...”
Micah leaned down and said, “Danki, but I’m going to take Susannah to the cafeteria to get her some hot food.”
Deborah raised her eyes to his, glanced at Susannah and then smiled. “Gut idea. You should do that. I’ll just stay here, and if anyone is looking for you two, I’ll tell them where you are.”
“Danki,” Susannah said, enfolding her friend in her arms. She then left with Micah, tucking her hand in the crook of his elbow.
The cafeteria was staying open later than usual, owing to the aftermath of the tornado. They both grabbed sandwiches and coffee, and Micah carried their tray to a table in the corner of the room.
Susannah took a couple of bites and then sat back, studying him instead of eating.
“You should finish that. You’re going to need your energy. Your schweschdern, they can be a handful.”
She could tell he meant it in a teasing way, that he was trying to lift her mood, but she wasn’t ready for that yet.
“Micah, I need to thank you.”
“Nein. You don’t.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips. Finally, he pushed his tray away, crossed his arms on the table and focused on her. “I shouldn’t have talked you into going to the river. I’m always doing that. Trying to find a way to goof off and dragging someone along with me, and today the result was that Shiloh was hurt. That’s on me. That’s my fault.”
She could tell he was surprised when she reached across the table and covered his hands with hers. “I didn’t see our house, but they told me. Half of it’s gone. Is that right?”
“Ya.”
“So if we’d been home, if we hadn’t gone to the river, there’s at least a fifty-fifty chance we’d have died in that house today.”
“Please don’t say that.” His voice was husky with emotion, and when he raised his eyes to hers, she saw tears sparkling there.
“You saved us, Micah, and I am grateful that you did. You saved your daddi, too. Gotte has used you today, and... I’m just glad that He brought you here.”
Micah swiped at his eyes, then sat up straighter and squared his shoulders. “Are you saying that you’ll go fishing with me again?”
“I could be talked into it.”
She’d tried to match his light tone, but it was a facade that was simply too hard to keep up. He reached for her hands, pulled them to his lips and kissed them.
“I love you, Susannah Beiler.”
“You do?”
“Tell me you haven’t known that for some time.”
“I hoped, but nein, I wasn’t sure.”
“I let you teach me how to sew.”
“You’re not very good at it.”
“Susannah, I’d be interested in alpacas if it meant I could spend more time with you.”
“I don’t have any alpacas.”
“Not my point.”
They sat there another ten minutes, until they became aware that others needed their table. Susannah wanted to tell him how she felt, but how was she supposed to do that in the middle of the crowded cafeteria? Then they were walking down the hall, and Micah stopped abruptly. He glanced left, then right and then pulled her into an alcove, wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
“I was so frightened,” he admitted.
“Me, too.”
“And when I realized...” He framed her face with his hands and kissed her softly on the lips. “When I realized that I might lose you, I understood how important you are to me. I knew when I saw that tornado dipping out of the sky that I would do anything for you, for your family, for us.”
He kissed her again, then thumbed away the tears slipping down her face.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
“You do?”
“Don’t act surprised.”
“I thought you were dating me to keep your friends safe.”
“That was the original plan.”
He kissed once more, and she felt safe again. No longer worried about what might fall out of the sky. He kissed her, and she knew that somehow everything was going to be all right. Then he pulled her back out into the hall. Together they walked toward the waiting room, knowing that whatever news they faced, they would weather it together.
* * *
Shiloh was released from the hospital the next morning.
Micah’s grandfather stayed an additional three nights, and then was only allowed to go home when he promised to rest and stay off his feet. They’d put in a stent to clear up a blockage in his main artery, and the doctor had started him on a statin medication.
Micah was in the room when the cardiologist had said, “You’ve had a heart attack, Mr. Fisher. As we discussed, that means your heart is damaged. You’re going to need to give yourself a few weeks to build your strength back up, and I expect you to be in my office in seven days for a follow-up.”
Once they were home, his daddi insisted on sitting on the front porch while Micah unharnessed and cared for the horse. When Micah had checked everything and closed up the barn, he climbed the steps to find his daddi still there. The sun was dipping toward the horizon, and through the window Micah could see his mammi heating one of the casseroles a neighbor had left.
“I’d like to talk to you, Micah.”
Instead of arguing, as he might have the week before, Micah sat in the adjacent rocker and waited.
“I meant what I said when you found me the day of the tornado. I shouldn’t have spoken to you as I did that morning. I shouldn’t have tried to force your path.”
“You care about me.”
“I do, but I see now that your path is different from mine. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
Micah fought to hide his surprise. When his daddi caught his eye and smiled, Micah admitted, “You’re not the only one who needs to apologize. I see now that I’ve been bullheaded out of habit and immature because I could be.”
A red bird landed in front of them in the yard, hopping back and forth as it pecked at the dirt.
“I’m going to ask Susannah to marry me.”
“She’ll make a fine fraa.”
“Not yet, though. I won’t ask yet. I want to give her time to recover.”
His daddi sighed, then pushed himself up and out of the rocker. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never assume you have more time.”
Micah understood what his daddi was saying, but he also appreciated what Susannah had been through. He didn’t want to take anything for granted, least of all her. He also wanted to be sensitive to her feelings.
Three days later, Detective Cummings stopped by to say they’d found the person who had burglarized the general
store as well as quite a few others. “Not an Amish kid. He thought that by acting like one, by looking like one, he could get away with it.”
“And he almost did.”
“His mistake was stealing Widow Miller’s buggy twice. She saw him driving out of her place, and she walked to the phone shack.”
“Good thing it’s across the road.”
“She called the police, and we caught him as he drove into town.”
Which seemed to end the matter as far as Micah was concerned.
Two weeks later, a workday was held at the Beiler place. They began before the sun came up, and by the time it was setting, a new home had been framed. They’d been staying in a dawdi haus over on the Hochstettler place, and Micah knew they’d be glad to move back home.
Each day of the next week, Micah went over in the afternoons to help finish the house. Each time he arrived, a different group of men were nailing up Sheetrock or painting rooms or finishing the porch. By the end of June the house was completed. They’d opted for a one-story design, since Susannah’s parents didn’t see themselves having any more children.
Micah tried to stay away, but he found he couldn’t.
He was drawn to the Beiler place. It felt like home to him. He needed to be there.
He arrived after dinner, their first dinner in their new home. Shiloh and Sharon insisted on showing him their new room. “We have window seats,” they squealed, then insisted he sit there while they brought him a pillow, blanket, three books and two dolls.
Susannah stood in the doorway laughing.
It wasn’t until the girls were in bed and Susannah’s parents had moved to the front porch to enjoy the cool evening, that he asked her to go for a walk. And it was there at the pasture fence, under a covering of stars, that Micah asked Susannah to marry him.
“You’re sure?” She reached up and touched his face. Micah wanted to memorize the way that her fingers felt against his skin. More than that, he wanted her this close to him every day for the rest of his life.
An Unlikely Amish Match Page 18
