CHAPTER SEVEN

 

“Jeremiah, I can’t stay here.” Miriam’s tone rose, “It’s a hickory tree!”  She spotted the unique tree house as soon as they had pulled in.  It had sat at to the right of the entrance near the strawberry patch. 

“I know but you have no choice since I am adopting your daughter.”  Jeremiah explained as the buggy made its way up the steep dirt road.  He knew that she had to want to see her daughter again; what mother wouldn’t? 

“How did you get Grace?”  She turned and looked for an answer.

“Social Services had brought her to Noah’s haus, and he doesn’t want her, for they have several adopted kids.”  He said as he smiled at her.  “She’s a cute baby, and my nieces love her, especially Rachael, my oldest one.”

“Your nieces live with you?”  Miriam asked as she scooted closer to him.  She was ready to move in for the kiss before they got to the hickory tree.

He suspiciously eyed her closeness and explained, “You can’t get that close to me.  It’s not allowed.  You should know that.”

Miriam felt her face gorge with blood and her courage to steal a kiss overtaken.  She recalled how Mr. Drake’s kisses had made her feel awkward.  She didn’t want him to feel that way.  She wanted it to be right.  She would wait until he kissed her first, as long as it wasn’t near that hickory tree.

“Yes, my sister was killed during bad weather while doing the wholesale route.  I think you’re cute, but I can’t get in trouble.”  He looked down at her and smiled, locking eyes with her.  “If you want me, you’ll have to go through instruction class and stop wearing short dresses.”

“Sorry, this dress was given to me.” Miriam looked down at her tanned legs and squeezed her legs together.  She hadn’t thought about the dress being revealing.  “It’s a beautiful strawberry color, isn’t it?  I miss the strawberry field.  Before my daed was martyred, we raised strawberries.  They were the biggest, reddest, and most plumb strawberries.  Grace’s chubby cheeks remind me of them.”  Miriam hung her head.

“It’s okay.  I know how hard it is to be a single parent, Miriam.  Look up at me.” 

“Yes, it is almost unbearable some days, and now that I don’t have her in my arms to cradle, it’s still just as stressful.  Has she been sleeping through the night?”

“Yes she has been sleeping well.  She is so adorable just like her mother.  Jeremiah pointed to the tree house. “We are at your new house.” 

“Sounds good, but what about the tree; does it look like a hickory tree inside?”  Miriam’s tone entered panic mode, as she remembered the mishap at Ida’s slumber party.

Miriam felt nauseous.  She’d been stranded in a strange town, lost custody of her daughter, and now she’d be living in a hickory tree.  If her mother was alive, she’d never believe such a grand story of fate.

“There’s some lavender soap and a wash pan in there.  There’s a nice creek to the right, too.”

“Danki!”  Miriam smiled and reached to hug him.  “One hug will not hurt.”  Hurry up and kiss him before you get into the hickory tree!  Her mind was trying to remind her of her earlier plan to steal a kiss.  However, she took a deep breath and decided to think before she acted this time.  She would wait for him to kiss her first. Had she done the right thing?

“I’ll help you with your bags,” Jeremiah said as he got out of the buggy. 

Miriam took a deep breath and stepped down from the buggy.  Would she conquer her fear of heights and hickory trees?  She hoped so.  She glanced around and saw him swinging her suitcase out of the buggy.  His eyes were awesome and his soft grin exciting.  She knew she’d found the right man.  Her earlier plan to hurry up and grab an Amish husband might be working after all.  She looked at him and smiled.  “You’re exactly what I have prayed for, Jeremiah.”

His face tightened up.  Should he tell her that he had always charmed every woman the way that he’d just charmed her, just by gazing at her?  He’d always be charming, and when the women would move closer, he’d pull away.

Jeremiah’s mind wondered to Mr. Drake and his never being satisfied with a woman.  Was he like him?  He began to feel like he was kind of like him.  He’d never taken advantage of a woman, but he had gotten close enough to kiss every woman that had pursued him.   In a sense, what he’d done was wrong.  He had to stop leading women on and then leaving them.  It was time to be honest.

“I have several young ladies that are interested in me.  You see, I really am picky,” he forced words out; for he hated telling such a beautiful girl how hard it was to catch a man like him. 

He leaned against the buggy and drew a worried look.  The light breeze dangled the small grey hairs atop his head.  “It’s not that I want to be picky, but that I have to be picky.  I have two little girls to support, and they need a good Christian mother.”

“They need an Amish mother?”  Miriam asked.

“Of course, Miriam, and that you are not.  That’s not the biggest problem though.”  He grinned and got closer to her. 

Miriam leaned back, for she could feel his breath.  His rejecting her made her mad.  This made the third time that he’d done it.  She clenched her teeth and narrowed her brow.  What could she do to get even with this rude Amish man?

“You might be the one that God’s sent for me.  You look exactly like my sister Sara.  Please don’t tell me that you are the fastest strawberry picker.  Are you, Miriam?”

Miriam wiggled her forehead and smiled.  “Vanity isn’t good.”

“Really, well I don’t need this right now.  Just keep your response to yourself.  Let me carry your luggage in, and I’ll be back to bring you dinner later.  I have a strawberry patch behind the tree house.  Have my berries picked when I get back.”  Jeremiah said as he carried the brown suitcase. 

“I sure will.  May I eat some of them?”  Miriam asked as she softly smiled at him.  She thought that his huge arm muscles were perfect at building any tree house.  Why’d he have to pick a hickory tree?

“Yes, eat as many as you want.”  He replied as he opened the ground floor door. 

“WOW!  This is a house!”  Miriam was ecstatic, for it really was a house.  The large tree trunk was in the middle of the floor, but it looked designed to be there.  Little wooden stairs twirled up to the second floor.  She saw some children’s books lying on a cherry table.  “I took you’re niece’s tree house?”

“Rachael’s tree house, but she comes here too much.  Now that we’re moving closer to the bakery, she needs to get used to not coming here.”  Jeremiah explained.

She agreed, but wanted to act polite. “That’s fine.  I just don’t want to be in the way.”  Miriam grabbed the suitcase from his hands.  “Is there a kitchen in the house?  I want to make you a strawberry pie.”

“Yes, it’s in the back.  I’ll show you.”  Jeremiah said as he tried to hide his nervousness.  Hopefully, she wouldn’t know how to quilt.  If she knew how to quilt, he’d have to sweep her off her feet and into his own home. 

“This is a pretty good kitchen.  I enjoy cooking, especially making pies.  Strawberry Crème pie is my favorite.”  She looked around the kitchen and saw a quilt rack.  She wondered why a quilt rack would be in the kitchen.  “Who quilts?”

He hesitated, for he hated to admit that he’d kept that in the house in hopes of having a fraa one day. However lately, he had been depressed and thought that he’d never really meet the right woman. He said now, “Right now, no one quilts, but Rachael wants to learn.” His voice lowered with despair.

He knew that Rachael had made a list out for the perfect mother, and she’d jotted down three things:  her new mother had to love quilting, love God, and love her father.  Thinking of it made him want to cry.  However, he wouldn’t break down and cry in front of a woman, especially one that had her own troubles. 

“I love to quilt.”  She walked over and felt of the quilt.  It looked untouched.  “Rachael doesn’t use the kitchen?” 

“No, she only likes to climb to the top and read.  She’s a book worm.”

“I see.  I will cook my own meals.  Don’t bother bringing me dinner.  I saw all the laundry that was hanging on the lines.  Could I help with that?”  She wanted to earn her keep, for she’d been taught to not be idle.

“No.  Just pick the berries for me.  There’s a lot to pick. I have got to go to the house to cook dinner.  Make a couple of pies for you to eat.  You know the rules.  I can’t get too close to you.”   Jeremiah bit his lip and drew an upset look from Miriam.  He knew that she’d been desperate to find refuge in anyone Amish, so her forwardness hadn’t surprised him.  As usual, he was getting too close, so was pulling away.

“Thank You.  I’ll save some for you and the girls if you change your mind.”  She smiled and walked closer to him.  “I appreciate your finally letting me and my daughter into your buggy.  You’re a stranger, and I’m an outsider.  That means a lot.  So you don’t have a fraa?”

“You’re desperate, aren’t you?  I find you interesting.  I don’t know who Mark Yoder is but I’m sure that God knows him very well.  To stand there and say your father’s name with so much confidence but yet with no vanity makes me know that you were raised right.”

He lifted her chin up and looked into her eyes. “You did pursue me because you were scared.  Pray that God will find you a safe place to live.  You need to get into a good Bible-teaching church; hopefully, it will be the Walnut Creek Mennonite Church.  I don’t think you’re ready to be Amish again.  I can tell that you would have a problem.”

“Oh really?  First you call me a little girl- remember?”  Miriam became defensive as she tip-toed up and lightly kissed him in the mouth. 

“You’re seventeen so you’re a lady now,” Jeremiah said as he reached down and grabbed her arm.  “I see that you really are interested in knowing me just like the day that you can running over to my buggy.  You lied to the social worker and that’s why I hadn’t given you the lunch box.  I had bought it for you, but I wasn’t going to award bad behavior.”

Miriam stepped back and straightened her back.  She had to agree with him.  “You’re right.  I shouldn’t have lied.”

She turned and looked at the hickory tree trunk.  Panic entered her face.  ‘I’ve done it again.  I tried to get a kiss from a cute guy and the Hickory tree was there to watch me fall.  I’m such a loser.”  Miriam hung her head.

“No loser here.  You’re not upstairs.  You’re standing on the ground.”

“You’re right, Jeremiah.  I’m not leaping into a tree this time.  There’s no rush to get a kiss.”

“A real kiss, you mean?”  Jeremiah asked.

“Yes, a real one because I just rushed to kiss you, but since we really don’t know each other, it wasn’t a real kiss.”  Miriam hung her head.  “I have to be honest with you.  I intended on kissing you because you were so rude to me and my daughter.  I now see that you’ll be raising my daughter her.  I feel bad that I was spiteful.  I just felt rejected.  Your Plainness made me feel safe and secure, and that’s something that I hadn’t felt after my daed was martyred.”

“I understand.  I’m not upset at you.”  Jeremiah stepped closer to her and smiled.  “You are really cute.”

“That’s what Mr. Drake said, too.  It seems like you both are picky at picking a wife.”

Jeremiah giggled.  “I’d have to agree with that.  I’m letting God lead me.”

“I can’t argue with that.”  Miriam smiled and stepped closer to him.  “When my lips touched yours, it felt like it was real.”

“I felt it, too, but you’re an outsider and you know that.  Just start dressing Plain and find a job.  You’ll be able to get your own place and then you can make sure that this is what you want to do.  I feel like you’re reacting on impulse, Miriam.”

“I see.  That’s fine.”  Miriam had to admit that she’d been on impulse since she’d dropped into this town.  She needed to settle down and get her own place.  Big decisions couldn’t be made at the drop of a hat.  Look at her mamm’s boss; he’d acted on impulse and look where it got her: baby Grace. 

“You’re smiling.  Why?”  Jeremiah looked down at her.  You look really happy.”

“My mamm’s boss had acted on impulse and that was how chubby little Grace came into this world.”

Jeremiah became quiet.   He let out a deep breath and then said, “God made a bad situation good.  That doesn’t make what that man did to you right.”

“True.  I still have nightmares.  I’ve felt this odd attraction to you ever since I arrived here.”  Miriam reached up and kissed him again, this time locking lips with him. 

He wrapped his arm around her and let go of her lips.  “This is where I pull away.  I have to be picky.  My two nieces belong to God, and I have to honor Him.” 

As soon as he’d blurted the words, guilt came knocking, for he knew that the strong desire to get to know her had to be from God.  Why’d he just disobey God’s direction?  It was simple:  she was forbidden.

“I’m fine. Just forget about the kiss.  I’m sorry that I got too close.”  Miriam frowned.  She understood why he was pulling away.  Getting a wife was a big decision, one that shouldn’t be taken lightly.  “You’ll be a good father to my daughter.”

“I’ll try.  Danki!”  Jeremiah leaned closer.  “I am interested in you, so don’t be heartbroken.  All of the girls have to prove themselves to me.  I secretly caught all of the previous women turning from God and not being strong during hard times.  Whether it’s not forgiving someone, telling little white lies, or not helping a widow in the community, they all fell.  Sara never fell.  Have a good evening.  I’ll be back for those strawberry crème pies.”

Miriam watched him turn away and walk out the door.  She knew that no one was perfect, but Sara must have been close.  There’s no way that she could have filled such a woman’s shoes.  Sara had sounded like the Proverbs 31 woman.  Miriam started thinking about a way out of Walnut Creek.