CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Three Months Later…
Martha sat next to Ray Miller in the black buggy with Alice in the back. It felt gut to be home and to be joining the church. If anyone would have told her that Mrs. Dailey would get her back to Amish Country, to her faith, and straighten up the whole Amish community, making them more God-fearing and less gossipy by using a wooden basket of secrets, Martha would have never believed it. Soft silvery flurries swirled before the buggy as the team of horses trotted through the rural two-lane road. The sprawling hills glistened with blankets of sloping white snow with silver dimples dipping down as they drove past them. “Ich glie de,” Martha said to Ray, her sparkling brown eyes in pure love. It felt good to have man that loved her for being her, with her dusty-brown eyes. Before Ray’s dedication to her, she had tried to impress others with her fake winter tan and ocean-blue contacts. She wiggled her toes and sweetly smiled. The feeling of love was a powerful, splendid high.
Ray leveled his sky-blue eyes with her and winked. “I finally reeled you in, sweetheart. His brow arched. “Why did it take so long?”
Martha giggled and said, “I wanted to make sure that you were chite.”
Ray’s brow shot up, his face outlining tanned lines. “Das gut because I was not chite before the basket of secrets came calling!” a warm smile washed over his face as he grabbed her left hand and gripped it tightly. “Ich glie de.” He looked back into the buggy and saw the wind blowing stray fiery red hair along Alice’s chubby cheeks. “Alice is so schnook!” He turned his eyes back to Martha and added, “And you are so shae!”
Martha would be making her wedding dress for the next season, and she had chosen deep burgundy as the color for the dress. It was custom for the bride to make her dress, and she would keep that tradition. Bishop Yoder would officiate the wedding where they would say their vows before Gott, and he sing a wedding hymn.
After the wedding, they would feast on chicken, dressing, wedding potatoes, salad, corn, and a giant wedding cake.
Martha couldn’t wait to sit at the corner where the bride and groom sat and enjoy a wedding meal with Ray, for he had truly been a hidden gem. Having the daed that she wanted to get to know better sitting with her at the groom-and-bride’s table would be a dream for her. She was the prodigal son, in female form. She had made things right before Gott, marrying the man that she’d been with in the loft. This time, it was a real love and not a fake love, and there would be no alcohol at the wedding. Life was perfect, and it was all because of a basket of secrets and six women at a quilting bee.
RECIPES
SOFT SUGAR COOKIES
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoons lemon juice
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
5 cups all-purpose flour
Mix the sugar, baking powder, shortening, lemon juice, eggs, vanilla, vinegar, milk, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the flour until stiff. Chill 2 hours. Drop 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.
DOUGHNUTS
4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon vanilla
2 pounds oil for frying
1 can of chocolate icing for topping (optional)
In a large bowl, sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add sugar and set aside. In another bowl, stir milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the milk mixture in the middle of it. Mix until a soft, non-sticky dough is formed. Turn dough out on a floured surface. Using the rim of a drinking glass, cut out 3 or 4-inch rounds. Cut a 2-inch hole out of the middle of each. Fry in a deep pan of oil at 360 degrees. Turn over until brown. Cool then top with icing.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Martha made the decision to invite Jeremiah to the barn loft after heavy drinking during Rumspringa. She paid a hefty price for this as she got pregnant and was told to leave her family and faith by those that weren’t qualified to hand down such orders. Have you ever been judged by someone that has no authority to judge you, for example, at home, at church, or at the workplace? Did you question them or go along with it? How did it affect your life?
2. Unknown to tourists, Walnut Creek has secrets of its own and church members have to face those secrets when Martha comes toting the basket of secrets. The Bible tells us that everyone sins, and when we hold ourselves up above others who have sinned, we tend to judge them and not see out own faults. Have you ever judged someone for a sin and later caught yourself praying for your own sins? Were there instances when you walked into a community, job, or new relationship thinking that it’s perfect to find out later that it wasn’t perfect? What did you learn from that experience?
3. Two of the women quilters, Emma Miller and Miriam Bender, had blank notes, and they were not judged? Why do you think Mrs. Dailey did that? Was she right by doing so? Why or why not?
4. If you could make a basket of apologies, what would they say? Who would get them and why?
5. Name ten people that you have wronged, or they have wronged you. Can you forgive them? Can they forgive you? Are you willing to invite them out to lunch, bake them a pie, or send them a note?