Chapter Ten

 

 

Jane was saying, “Emma, Elton tells me you have a pet rooster.”

At the mention of the rooster, Hal put her attention on their conversation.

She hated the sad reaction on Emma’s face at the mention of her pet. “I did have, but he disappeared.”

“Sorry to hear that. Chickens have a short life what with the critters catching them,” Jane said.

As usual with her half full disposition, Emma made a stab at brightening up the conversation. “How about having a piece of cake with us, Jane? I just baked a raisin spice one.”

“Sounds voonderball gute even if it is close to supper time,” Jane said.

Emma headed for the kitchen. “Come help me, Hallie.”

Once through the kitchen door, Hal whispered, “Something is wrong, isn’t it? Elton isn’t here just to visit. He’s here as the bishop. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have kept John outside so long where we couldn’t hear what they said.”

“Seems so,” Emma said calmly, placing plastic blue bowls and silverware on the table. “Bring the cake in from the cold room.”

Whatever was wrong was something that was going to affect her. Hal just knew it was. She was sure she wasn’t going to like it. Quickly, she picked up the metal cake pan and turned to go back to the kitchen. The cool pan flew from her trembling, clammy hands. The cake landed upside down on the floor with a splat and tinny sound of metal versus floor.

What a mess. What was she going to do now? Emma wasn’t going to like this. Hal remembered her mother used to say Aunt Tootie’s floor was always clean enough to eat off. Well, so was Emma’s, and she promised Jane a piece of cake. Quickly, Hal squatted and slowly turned the cake pan over. The cake, glued to the floor by the white frosting, was a cracked disaster of pieces and crumbs. She picked the chunks up and carefully placed them in the pan. The cake was fresh and moist.

As hard as Hal tried, there was no fitting this cake together like a puzzle. She was just lucky to make the pan look full. The cake’s top was uneven, but she couldn’t do a thing about that. It was minus smeared icing, raisins and small crumbs that stuck to the floor. She picked some of the raisins out of the mess on the floor and sprinkled them on top the chunks in the pan. When she heard Emma coming, she snatched the pan off the floor and headed for the door.

“What’s taking you so long?” Emma said as she met Hal in the doorway. “I thought I heard a noise.” She stared at the mess in the cake pan then grimaced. Looking bewildered, she whispered, “What happened to my raisin spice cake?”

“I’m so sorry. The pan slipped out of my hands and fell on the floor.” Hal paused, biting her lower lip. “Oh, Emma, the cake landed upside down. I picked the pieces up the best I could. I know it looks terrible. What are we going to do?”

“We have no choice. I invited the bishop's wife to have cake. We will serve the cake buried under lots of canned peaches to hide it.” Emma snatched the pan out of Hal’s hands and whispered, “It’s a good thing for you I mopped the floor this morning. Call Jane and my brothers into the kitchen. Wait! First, wash your hands.”

Hal headed for the washpan to get rid of the moist crumbs and icing that had adhered to her fingers. Good thing Emma noticed. All Jane needed was one look at her messy hands. That would have been a dead give away. Emma, tired of waiting on her to wash up, called Jane and the boys to the table. Meekly, Hal sat down across from Jane.

As she took the blue, plastic bowl Emma handed her, Jane asked, “Nurse Hal, how do you like the clinic?”

“I like it very much. We aren’t as busy as I would like yet, but I hope that day will come. After we eat if you have time, I can show you the clinic,” Hal said. If she kept Jane talking until she ate the cake, the woman might not realize what kind of a mess she was eating.

“I would like that. Will you be able to deliver babies here?”

Taken back by the question, Hal said slowly, “I didn’t give that any thought, but I don’t know why not if that is a need. I thought Plain women had their babies at home or at the hospital.”

“They do, but to be at a clinic this close to home with a nurse and know that they would soon be able to take the baby home will be a comfort,” Jane said, taking a bite of peaches and cake.

Emma set a bowl in front of Hal.

Still thinking about another exciting way the clinic would be useful to the Amish, Hal picked up her spoon. “As long as there is no complications, I wouldn’t mind birthings. If there is something wrong the women would have to go to the hospital so a doctor could help with labor,” Hal said with a suspicious feeling. As she took a bite of cake, it ran through her mind that Elton’s wife was sure asking a lot of questions.

“I understand,” Jane said. “Emma, we need to get Nurse Hal acquainted with the community. How about we have a quilting bee at my house in a few days?” She listed the women she intended to invite including Stella Strutt.

Hal tensed at the whole idea.

“That sounds like fun,” said Emma, frowning at Hal’s reaction then smiling at Jane.

A quilting bee didn’t sound the least bit fun to Hal. Sitting in a group of women she wanted to like her with Stella Strutt putting her down and giving her the evil eye wasn’t going to be helpful. She was just learning to sew. Stella was always ready to find fault with her. She’d be sure to point out Hal couldn’t make stitches as fine as the other women. Hal had to think up an excuse to get out the quilting bee. That’s all there was to it.

“The cake and peaches are very good,” Jane said to Emma.

Noah agreed, smacking his lips, “Very gute.”

With his mouth full, Daniel garbled, “I like it, too.”

“Thank you,” Emma said. “Daniel, do not talk with your mouth full.”

Elton appeared in the doorway. “What is going on in here?”

John was behind him. “Did I hear Jane mention cake and peaches?”

“A fresh raisin spice cake. Sit down and have some with us,” Emma invited.

Elton entwined his chubby, red fingers and stretched his hairy plump arms out on the table. “I like your cakes, Emma. Make mine a big piece.”

Emma blushed.

On edge while she waited for Elton to tell her his real reason for this visit, Hal scooped up a heaping spoonful of cake with a peach on top, but she was too nervous to eat. She left her spoon resting in the bowl. Almost too worried to breathe, she looked from Elton to John. When was Elton going to tell her what was wrong? Before he ate his cake or after? If that wasn’t enough to worry about, now she had to wait to see if the men noticed anything wrong with the cake?

Hal started to relax about the time Elton swallowed the last bite of cake. So far, he had been friendly as long as he was preoccupied with eating. He looked at the empty saucer as he licked his spoon clean. Suddenly, Elton’s head shot up. He said sharply, “Emma, there was something wrong with this cake!”

Emma’s face flushed as her voice rose, “What?”

With a gasp, Hal dropped her shaky hand onto the table to brace herself for what Elton was going to say. Her hand connected forcefully with her spoon handle. The end of the loaded spoon shot up out of the saucer, propelling the cake chunk into John’s hair. The peach took a separate flight path and landed on Elton’s bald spot.

Elton and John’s eyes met in surprise before their narrowed eyes focused on Hal. John gave her a very disapproving look as he said to Elton, “Have you changed your mind about the difference between the child and the storm?”

“I am thinking on it,” Elton said, looking flustered.

Hal slid down in her chair.

The boys grinned from ear to ear. Noah whispered in Hal’s ear. “You have good aim.”

“I didn’t do that on purpose,” hissed Hal, eying Elton with a pleading look for forgiveness.

Rising quickly, Jane picked the peach off Elton’s head and dropped the slice in his empty bowl. “It is just a little peach slice, Elton,” she said as if that made some difference in the degree of Hal’s assault.

Emma shot out of her chair and stood over her father. She grabbed his bowl and spoon. With a few quick swoops, she had most of the splattered mess off John’s hair. Hal was too mortified to speak or react. Once again when she had to make a good impression, she was an Amish threat to the Lapp family. This time her assault was on the bishop. She didn't know how things could get much worse than that. Biting her lower lip, she helplessly watched Emma and Jane fuss over the men.

It didn’t help to look at Noah and Daniel. They were having too good a time. Hal had to set this right. Not only for her good standing in the bishop’s eyes. She couldn’t let the boys think it was all right to play this kind of practical joke on company. The boys putting duck eggs under Emma’s hen didn’t begin to stack up with what she just did to the bishop and their father. What kind of a motherly example was she showing these boys anyway?

After Jane and Emma sat down, everyone looked wordlessly at Hal. She cleared her throat and found a voice unfamiliar to her, croaky as a frog. “I am so sorry. I don’t know what made me so careless. Truly, I’m very, very sorry, Elton and John.”

Emma came to her rescue, putting her arm around Hal. “Hallie is tired. She must have dozed off. Her hand slipped. What she needs is a good night’s rest.”

John said dryly, “It is time I washed my hair anyway.” As if that ended the matter, John turned to Elton. “Before Hal’s piece of cake rained down on us, what was it you were going to say about the cake?”

Hal darted a hopeless look at Emma. John had no idea how not over this subject was if the bishop had noticed the scrambled mess he just ate.

Elton cleared his throat. He eyed Hal’s hand as if he feared it might go off again and said in a subdued voice, “Only that my piece was so good it was not big enough.”

Hal went limp.

Emma asked meekly, “Would you care for another piece, Elton?”

“That would not do,” said Jane, standing up. “More cake would spoil his supper.”

Hal felt a tightness in her chest when Emma asked, “Will you stay for supper?”

“Thank you, but we should go home. We will stay another time,” Jane said. As the Lapp family gathered to follow the Bontragers out on the porch, Jane gave Hal a warm smile and took her hand. “Do not forget to come with Emma to the quilting bee next week.”

“Okay, thank you for asking me,” Hal said halfheartedly. No way would she forget about the quilting bee. She’d be too busy worrying how to get out of it.

While waiting for supper, John sat down in his rocker to read his bible. As Hal and Emma started back to the kitchen, he asked, “What was that Jane said about a quilting bee?”

“Dad, Jane has asked Hallie and me to come to her house one afternoon next week for a bee,” Emma said with excitement in her voice.

“Are you too busy to go?” John had a sober expression Hal didn’t like seeing. Was he trying to vaguely warn Emma she shouldn’t take Hal out in public after what she did to him and Elton?

“I can make time. Hallie needs to meet other Plain people,” insisted Emma.

“Is Stella Strutt going to be there?” Something in the sound of his voice bothered Hal even more when he said that disagreeable woman’s name.

Emma said offhandedly, “Yes.”

Hal had to prove to John that she could get along with his friends. She was willing to bet Stella didn’t have friends, but she’d have learn to turn the other cheek around Stella. “Don’t worry, John. I promise to get along with Stella.” In an after thought she added under her breath, “In a crowd.”

John grimaced as he slowly shook his head.

“If you’re worried about me. I promise not to do anything at all embarrassing at Jane’s house in front of the other women,” Hal declared.

“I’m not worried as long as Jane does not serve you cake,” John said with a quiver at the corners of his mouth. He sighed. “I just thought you might not want to go if you knew Stella Strutt was invited.”

Emma assured him, “Of course, Hallie knew. She wants to go. Jane says it will be a good way for her to meet other women. It will be good for the clinic if Plain people get to know Hallie.”

John threw up his hands in surrender. With a solemn look of defeat on his face, he opened his bible.

After supper, Hal waited for John to bring up the fact that they should have that serious talk he promised, but he seemed to be distracted. She didn’t dare ask why. Whatever the bishop told John was worrying him more than his problem with her. She’d just have to wait for him to decide to confide in her. Anger built up in her. That time might never come. For sure, it didn’t look like it was going to happen tonight. Maybe that was just as well since she hadn’t decided if she wanted to marry him if it meant giving in to his “boss” law.

Whatever Elton said to John was worrying him too much to be bothered with her. Right this minute, she didn’t think she could stand knowing what was that terrible. Not with the way she was feeling. She didn’t need the bishop’s negative attitude heaped onto her own problems. There was only one good thing she could think about. If John waited long enough to have their talk, he might forget to bring up how mad he was about her table manners.