CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

“Can you move your legs?” Jeremiah worried as he extended his left arm around her neck, lifting her up out of the strawberry patch.  A patch of birds flew around them as he glanced up at the second story level of the tree house.  “It’s my fault.  I forgot to tell you about that window.  You can’t lean out of it because it needs a new window sill.  It’s old and gives way.  Rachael’s almost fallen out of it several times.  You’ll have to stay in the haus so that my girls can help you.” 

Miriam panted in pain.  The image of his face couldn’t be seen for her tears.  She hated to cry, but she had to, for the pain was almost unbearable.  “OH!  I think I’ve broken my leg again.”  She tightened her jaw to avoid screaming.  Her teeth chattered as she spoke, “I feel sick at my stomach can you get me a cold wash cloth or a piece of ice from the ice block?”

“Sure.  I’ll be right back, sweetheart.”  Jeremiah lightly laid her back down and ran his hand around her long blonde hair to get the dirt away.  The warm sun’s rays lightly kissed her blonde locks and made them shine like a treasured gold.

He skipped to the house, nearly knocking over the bushels of strawberries.  He’d glanced at least a dozen bushels of tender, ripe berries.  That’s as many as Sara could pick in an hour.  She hadn’t beaten his sister’s record. 

Huffing and puffing,   he grabbed the albuterol inhaler.  “Not now!”  He was having an asthma attack.  “I don’t need this right now!”  He inhaled the medicine and waited for his airway to open up. 

Why’d he have to let her move in?  She was part of the world and would only bring trouble for him. 

He got the block and ice and ran water over the cloth.  The corner of his eyes caught Rachael’s bright red hair as she leaned against the open kitchen entrance.

“Did you kill her?”  She asked Jeremiah

He turned and looked at her.  “No, she fell out of the tree house.”

“I was just joking because you look panicked right now.  If you want to know what happened, I’ll tell you: I pushed her.”  Rachael explained confidently.  “She was in my tree house.” 

“I don’t believe that,” Jeremiah said with a grin.  He knew his daughter very well and didn’t think that she’d be mean enough to push someone out of a two-story tree house.

“I wasn’t telling you everything.  I was sitting on the upper level bed watching her sleep.  She stood straight up in the bed and started screaming, “Don’t hurt me!”  She sighed and slid a stern look at her daed.  “You know how close the bed is to the window.  She jumped up, quickly turned, and was talking to a tree.” Rachael pushed her stray bangs back and adjusted her calico bonnet. 

He believed her. “I have to go take her this ice and wet cloth.  We’ll talk about it later.”  Jeremiah turned and walked out of the back kitchen door.

“What kind of person talks to a hickory tree?”  Rachael yelled as her father closed the back door. 

He decided to walk briskly instead of running, as he was still wheezing.  He shook his head and yawned.  He needed a nap and a cure for asthma.  Forget about the fraa; she was already here.  He felt God drawing him to her, even if she wasn’t the fastest strawberry picker.  Truth be told, he wanted another kiss.  He wanted to get very close to this blonde-haired city girl.  He knew he could turn her country again. 

“I can’t feel my legs, Jeremiah.  I’m sorry to be lying like this on the ground, but I’m hurt.”  She leaned up as he kneeled down and placed the cloth-covered ice on her forehead.  “I sure don’t look like a lady, do I?”  She blushed as she closed her eyes.

“A true lady, aren’t you?  You’re beautiful even in the sweltering sun.  It makes your hair look like a mine of gold.”  Jeremiah said as he repositioned the ice pack on her head.  Like thick honey, he was into this young lady.  Her beauty captivated him. 

“I picked some of the wild flowers for the dinner table, but I dropped them out the window; there was no way of peeking very far out that window because another hickory tree was staring back at me, begging me to jump.”

“Did you smell the honeysuckles?”  Jeremiah asked as he leaned down. He lightly tapped his lips against hers and whispered, “You are much sweeter than them.”

“Rachael asked me if I was ‘staying in or getting out’, so I wanted to do the polite thing and say, ‘getting out,’ for it was her tree house.”  Miriam explained as she felt his warm, comforting breath.  She opened her eyes and puckered her lips. 

The mellow spring wind softly blew through the top of his head, dangling the grey strands.  Her eyes were like honey, eager to be consumed by him.  He glued his lips to hers and took his right hand and cradled her up into his arms.  “Rachael loves jumping into that hickory tree, sweetheart.” He whispered into her ear.

“Wonderful!”  Although her body throbbed in pain, she had to giggle, for she’d gotten the kiss, even though she hadn’t made it into the hickory tree.  Life was grand.

“You need to go through instruction class.  I’ll talk to the bishop.  We probably have a different Ordnung than your former community,” He whispered as he pecked her lips again and reached for the ice pack.  “You’re going to have some bruising.  But it looks like you’re okay.”

A black pick-up truck come racing up the driveway.  Miriam could see an Amish girl in the passenger’s seat.  The driver was smoking a long cigar and wore dark sunglasses.  She wondered who they were and why they were going so fast.  Had they heard about her accident?  Hopefully they didn’t know that Rachael had pushed her out of the window.

“That’s my younger daughter,” Jeremiah explained as he leaned her closer to him.  The wind dangled her blond curls, making dust fly around them.  “Her name is Emily. She’s the baby.”  He paused and chuckled.  “Actually Grace Anne is the baby now.”

“Emily looks like the older one taking care of the place,” Miriam wished she’d stopped her words, for it wasn’t her place to judge this man’s kinner, but the sharp difference between the two girls was very noticeable.  Rachael was quiet and withdrawn until she’d pushed her out of the window.  “Rachael seems bothered.”

“She wants a mamm,” Jeremiah’s tone increased as did the tension on his face.  “She’s not happy with me; she misses her mother.  She hears the other children at school talk about baking cookies with their mother.  She can’t do that.  She wants to learn to quilt, too.”

“I can teach her.”  Miriam smiled as she tried to scoot up in his arms.  “I can pick a lot of berries, too.  Did you see the ones next to the honeysuckles?”

Jeremiah looked and saw thirty bushels of strawberries lining the honeysuckles.   Thank You God.  He knew that she was the one, and despite what his community thought, he’d take a chance of love.  People that do not listen to God do not grow.