Lavinia couldn’t help looking for Abe on the front porch of his house as Liz drove past it that evening.
She wasn’t surprised when she saw him sitting there in his wheelchair. What did surprise her was seeing what he was doing. He wasn’t snapping green beans, was he? She craned her neck to look back as the van passed the farmhouse.
“See something interesting?” her mudder asked, keeping her voice low.
Lavinia turned and saw the twinkle in her eye. She shrugged. “Just surprised to see Abe on his porch.”
“I’m schur Liz would stop and let you out if you want to visit with him.”
“Maybe later. We need to get supper on the table. Daed will be starved after working in the fields. And I should do a little work in the garden before it gets dark, since Sadie didn’t come today.”
She didn’t want to tell her mudder that she thought it might be best to let Abe settle in more first. She hadn’t told her that he’d hurt her feelings snapping at her yesterday when she and his mudder helped him into bed after the welcome-home party. She knew he was tired and she shouldn’t have let it bother her, but it did.
When they walked into the kitchen, they found Amos poking in the refrigerator. He backed away from it, looking guilty.
“Amos Fisher! What are you up to?”
He grinned and brought his hand out from behind his back and took a bite out of a chicken leg. “I got hungry. Couldn’t wait for supper.”
Lavinia turned to her mudder. “Told you.”
Rachel chuckled. “So you did.” After putting her purse and lunch tote down on the bench by the door, she walked over to the refrigerator. She kissed her mann on the cheek. “Sit and I’ll get something on the table as quick as I can.”
Lavinia put down her own things and went to the sink to wash her hands. She set the table and poured glasses of tea, then hurried outside with a basket to gather up several tomatoes and cucumbers. Then, after checking to see if her mudder needed any help, she set the table and chatted with her dat.
As soon as she’d eaten supper, she looked to her mudder, and Rachel chuckled. “Our dochder can’t wait to leave us. Go,” she said. “Your dat and I will do the dishes.”
“We will?” he asked.
“We did before she got old enough to help,” she reminded him.
“Ya, we did,” he said, and his eyes twinkled as he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I remember how we used to—”
“Amos!”
Lavinia shot to her feet and started for the door. “Bye!”
She heard her dat’s chuckle as she rushed out the kitchen door.
The evening was still warm, but the walk to Abe’s house was short. Honeysuckle and jasmine scented the air. Her steps slowed as she reached the house, and she hesitated when she saw him sitting on the front porch. Should she have waited another day? Called first?
“Lavinia!” Abe called.
Taking a deep breath, she walked up the ramp and stepped onto the porch. “How are you?”
“Gut. How are you?”
“Gut.”
They stared at each other.
“Are you going to sit down?” he asked.
“I wasn’t schur if I should come.”
“Why not?”
She bit her lip. “Yesterday—”
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I was tired, and it felt awkward having you tend me like a kind. I’m really sorry.”
“I didn’t tend you like a kind,” she countered. “You needed help and I wanted to give it to you.”
Abe looked down at his hands, then up at her. “I know. I sound ungrateful. I don’t like needing help. Bad enough my mudder had to be there, but—”
“But then a female friend,” she finished for him.
He nodded. “Will you sit? Please?”
Lavinia took a seat in the rocking chair beside his wheelchair. Neither spoke. Silence stretched between them, punctuated by the creak of the rocking chair as she set it into motion with a push of her foot.
“So how was your day?” she asked finally.
“A little boring,” he confessed, after glancing over his shoulder at the front door. “Wayne took me out to the cow barn, but I can’t help much,” he amended. “But it’s gut to see the cows.”
“Especially cranky Bessie.”
He chuckled. “Especially cranky Bessie.” He rolled his shoulders. “And I met the physical therapist who’ll be coming to the house. She was…strict. I’m feeling a little sore.”
She might have offered some sympathy, but the front screen door opened and Waneta stepped out with a glass of iced tea.
“Why, Lavinia, what a nice surprise!” she said as she set the glass on the table beside Abe. “Can I get you a glass of tea?”
“I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“It’s no trouble.” She bustled off and returned with the tea and a plate of sugar cookies.
“How are your eldres?” she asked Lavinia.
“They’re gut. We’ve been busy at the shop. Daed has been working hard in the fields like usual.”
They chatted for a few minutes until Waneta glanced at Abe, then excused herself and went back inside the house.
Silence hung on the warm summer air.
“Well, I guess I should go. You’re probably tired.”
Abe laid his hand on hers, and, startled, she jerked her head and stared at him.
“Don’t go,” he said quietly, so quietly it was almost as if he whispered the words. “Please.”
Abe studied the way his hand looked on Lavinia’s. He’d watched Liz’s van drive past earlier and found himself wondering if she would stop by to see him. After all, he knew he’d snapped at her yesterday as she helped him. He was usually even-tempered, not known for being irritable or out of sorts. But he’d been exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed at seeing all those people who’d come to welcome him home. He was a quiet man, used to spending his days working on his farm, his only company Wayne…and his cows. He was probably better at talking to his cows than to people. So he’d talked to those who’d come, shook hand after hand, and made conversation. It was a lot after days of lying in a bed staring at the ceiling, his only company the brief times Lavinia and his eldres could visit.
“Tell me about your day,” he said.
“My day?” She smiled. “It wasn’t all that interesting.”
He stared out at the fields across from the house. “I’ve come to appreciate little things more since the accident.”
She nodded. “I call them simple pleasures. I was sitting at the table this morning eating the pancakes Mamm made us for breakfast and thinking how much I appreciated something that simple.”
“I didn’t think I took them for granted before, but I did.”
He reluctantly took his hand from hers and rubbed at a muscle in his thigh that chose that moment to spasm. “I’ll think of something I want to do, start to get up, and realize I can’t. I took the simple act of walking, of doing things for myself, for granted.”
“You’ll be able to do them again soon.”
He nodded. “I know. But things have changed. Money was tight before this, and now…” He trailed off, glancing at the stack of bills the mail carrier had brought that afternoon.
“What is it?” she asked, obviously seeing the direction of his gaze.
“Bills from the hospital. I haven’t had the courage to open them.”
“You shouldn’t worry. You know we help each other out here.”
“There’s that word ‘help’ again. I hate to ask for the help. We had a lot of hospital and doctor bills this past year, what with one member having a buggy accident and the chemotherapy for another—”
“It’s part of being a community,” she reminded him. “We found a way. God provided.” She picked up the plate of cookies and offered it to him. “Don’t you remember what our teacher Phoebe used to say?”
“‘Abe, stop running in the classroom’?”
She laughed. “Well, schur, she said that a lot to you when you were a bu. You had only one speed and that was fast. Nee, I’m talking about what she said about worry. Do you remember?”
“‘God knows what He’s doing.’”
“Ya.”
“So let’s talk about something else,” he said. “Tell me about your day.”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t much different than usual. I unpacked new stock, set it out on shelves. Did a new display window.” She took a sip of her tea. “Oh, I walked to Hannah’s and saw her and her new boppli. Then I went to Gideon’s shop and saw John. He’s growing so fast!”
“Did you have many customers?”
She nodded. “We stayed busy. People are already talking about buying Christmas presents.”
Christmas felt so far away sitting here.
The whole world felt far away right now. He listened to her talk about the people she’d encountered that day, what they’d said, what she’d seen as she walked around town. Her face grew animated, her eyes sparkled, and her hands moved so expressively.
He’d always thought she was pretty, but at that moment, in the fading glow of sunset, she looked beautiful.
And so out of his reach.
“Abe?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m sorry, I’m rattling on.”
“Nee, I like listening to you,” he said quickly. “You love your work and it shows.”
“I know you love yours, too. And you’ll get to do it again soon.”
He flexed the fingers on his left hand. His legs weren’t his only hindrance. The broken arm also made him feel trapped in his own body. He shook away the thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to brood when he had this woman he’d waited to see all day here with him.
“So do you think you’ll be attending church on Sunday?” she asked him.
“Church?”
She smiled. “Ya. You do remember church, don’t you?”
“Ya. Of course.”
“Everyone will be glad to see you, see that you’re doing well.”
He flashed back to the welcome-home party again, remembering how it had felt to suddenly be in the midst of all those people.
“I’m not schur I’m ready to go yet.”
“Well, you have a couple of days to think about it. There’s a singing later that evening, but that might be a long day for you.”
He heard the wistful note in her voice. They’d attended singings often before the accident and enjoyed sharing the music of their faith. He’d enjoyed even more giving her a ride home and taking the long way there. They’d begun dating after the first time he asked if he could give her a lift.
“We’ll see,” he found himself saying, and he hoped he’d be able to manage going to church—a three-hour-long service—and then the singing in the evening. Maybe if he rested in between…
“Well, I should be going,” she said.
He wanted to ask her to stay, but she’d had a long day and schur hadn’t had a nap like he had.
“See you tomorrow?” he asked.
She nodded. “Tomorrow.”
“Danki for coming,” he told her. “It was so gut to see you.”
He was rewarded with a big smile before she left. He watched her walk away, so slim and graceful, and craned his neck as she disappeared in the gathering indigo shadows of evening.