Lavinia felt tears slipping down her cheeks as she walked home.
She brushed impatiently at them, telling herself it was silly to get upset over the way Abe had behaved. He was obviously not feeling well and having a bad day, and that was no surprise. It had to be hard being in the condition he was in and not being able to do anything about it.
But it hurt.
She managed to get the tears under control by the time she reached her house, and when she let herself in, she was relieved to find that her eldres were in the living room.
“I’m back!” she called to them from the kitchen. “I’m going up to bed.”
“’Night!” her dat called.
She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and changed into a nightgown, took off her kapp, and unpinned her hair. Then she sat on her bed, her brush in her hand, and just stared at it.
There was a knock on her door. “Kumm!”
Her mudder came in and sat on the bed beside her. “You allrecht? You weren’t gone long.”
Lavinia bit her bottom lip to stop it trembling. “Abe wasn’t in the mood for a visit. He cut our visit short, so I came home.”
“I’m sorry. It hurt your feelings?”
She nodded and blinked back tears.
Her mudder took the brush and began drawing it through Lavinia’s hair in long strokes. “I’m sorry.”
Lavinia sighed and relaxed as the brushing soothed her. She’d always loved it when her mudder brushed her hair when she was a kind. “I could tell he wasn’t having a gut day when I got to his house.”
“He shouldn’t have taken it out on you, but that’s what we do with the people we love sometimes.”
“He didn’t exactly take it out on me,” she admitted. “He was just abrupt about not wanting to talk to me, and it hurt. And Mamm, he doesn’t love me. We’re just gut friends.”
“I know. But friends can love friends, can’t they?”
“I—I guess.”
Her mudder finished brushing her hair and began braiding it, then bound it with the stretchy tie wound around the brush handle. She hugged Lavinia, then rose. “Try not to worry about Abe. God is holding him in His arms, even when it seems He isn’t.”
She paused by the door. “And Lavinia?”
“Ya?”
“Your dat and I were best friends before we married. Still are.” She walked out and shut the door.
Lavinia thought about that for a long moment and then climbed between her sheets. It took a long time to fall asleep. The first pale fingers of dawn light were slipping into the window before she finally dozed off.
Several sharp raps on her bedroom door woke her.
“Lavinia! Time to get up!” her dat called.
Jerking awake, she sat up in bed, and her eyes widened when she looked at the clock on her bedside table. She hadn’t set the alarm because she always woke up on time. She never overslept!
Throwing the sheets aside, she rushed through dressing, fixing her hair, and putting on a fresh kapp. It was hard to leave the room without making her bed, but there just wasn’t time.
She clattered down the steps and ran into the kitchen. “I’m so sorry, Mamm. I overslept.”
Her mudder turned from the stove. “You don’t look like you slept well.”
Lavinia grimaced. She’d seen the lavender circles under her eyes. “I didn’t.” She didn’t usually let things get to her. She figured maybe she was just tired and had been concerned about Abe since the accident.
“Well, there’s still time to eat breakfast if you’re quick.” Her mudder picked up a plate she’d kept warm on the back of the stove and set it on the table.
While she ate her pancakes, Lavinia watched her mudder put the lunches they’d packed the night before in their insulated totes. She added apples, cookies, and a thermos of lemonade to each. The two of them were waiting on the front porch for their ride just minutes before Liz came for them.
“I’ll set my alarm tonight,” Lavinia told her mudder as they walked to the van. “I don’t want to rush like that again.”
“We’re not late.”
“Only because you had my breakfast ready and put our lunches in our totes,” Lavinia said, feeling guilty. “I didn’t do my part this morning.”
“Once isn’t worth worrying about.”
They got into the van and greeted Liz as they buckled their seat belts.
Two women were peering into the window when they arrived at the shop. “Guess we’re too early,” one said as they got out of the van.
“No problem,” Rachel said as Lavinia unlocked the shop door. “You’re welcome to come on in.”
Their early bird shoppers walked out twenty minutes later, their shopping bags loaded with purchases.
“Well, that was a fine start to the morning,” Rachel said with satisfaction.
Lavinia brought them both mugs of coffee she’d just made, then walked over to the table in the corner where she worked on her rag rugs when there was time.
Arnita came in a short time later. “Mamm and I came into town to run some errands. We have to pick up prescriptions for Daed and more canning jars. Just can’t have enough canning jars at harvest time. Mamm’s getting some fabric for a new quilt, so I decided to run over and say hi.”
Rachel stood up. “Sarah’s at Hannah’s?”
“Ya.”
Rachel turned to Lavinia. “I’m going to run over and say hello. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Lavinia nodded, then turned to Arnita. “I’m so glad you came by. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Maybe we can get together soon.”
Arnita nodded. “My mamm was so upset we had to cancel the singing that night Daed got sick.”
“Everyone understood. I’m glad he’s feeling better. Listen, if you’re not busy later, why don’t you come for supper?”
“I will if I don’t have to help Mamm.” She watched Lavinia as she twisted strips of fabric into her current rug. “I should have remembered to bring a bag of scraps from Mamm’s quilt work for you. I’ll bring it this evening if I come to supper.”
“That would be great. I can always use them.”
Rachel returned. “Arnita, your mudder says she’s ready to go.”
“See you later,” Arnita said, and she flew out the door.
“It was so gut to see Sarah, even if it was just for a few minutes.”
“I know. I felt the same way about Arnita stopping by. I invited her for supper later. She said she’ll come if her mudder doesn’t need her.”
“Sarah said her mann is much better. The chemo treatment was rough on him that day, but he’s feeling better.”
“I’m glad.”
The rest of the day passed quickly, and as soon as they got home, Lavinia insisted on fixing supper, so her mudder went out to her kitchen garden in the backyard and puttered in it. She came in a while later with a basket filled with fruit and vegetables. After she washed off a leafy head of lettuce and some ripe, red tomatoes, she made a big salad to go with the ham left over from Sunday supper.
“Sadie said she’d do some more canning for me since we’ve been too busy at the shop to spare one of us to do it.”
The familye depended heavily on what it grew in the garden, so canning and preserving had to be done no matter how many hours were spent working outside the home like Rachel and Lavinia did. When winter came, they’d be grateful for the jars of green beans and corn and carrots. And there was nothing better than strawberry preserves on a hot biscuit on a cold day.
Arnita came for supper with the bag of fabric scraps she’d promised. Lavinia’s dat sat and ate quietly, smiling indulgently as the three women chattered nonstop through supper. Lavinia gave him a second scoop of ice cream on his slice of pie for dessert and kissed his cheek.
“What’s that for?” he asked, surprised.
“For being you,” she responded. “You let us talk all through supper without saying a word.”
He shrugged. “You and your mudder don’t get much time to visit with friends since you work in town all day.”
“Like you get any time with yours when you work out in the fields?”
“I manage to see them, especially this time of year when we help each other with harvesting.”
He helped his fraa with the dishes so Arnita and Lavinia could sit on the front porch and visit. They had a gut time catching up on all the news. Lavinia hadn’t heard that Wayne was seeing Katie Ann and that Katie Ann’s bakery was doing well. Arnita listened raptly to Lavinia talking about the customers who’d visited the shop and what was going on in town.
After Arnita left to walk home, Lavinia sat there for a long moment in the rocking chair. This was the first day she hadn’t seen Abe. Was he sitting on his porch enjoying the evening as dusk fell? Gradually the stars came out in the sky, and when cars passed on the road in front of the house, they had their headlights on. Few buggies rolled by, as most Amish tried to be home before dark.
Lavinia told herself she should get up and go inside. Abe schur wasn’t going to stop by. And if she’d hoped he’d call and apologize for his behavior the evening before…well, apparently it wasn’t going to happen. She got up and went inside.
* * *
Abe found the paperback book on the table on the front porch the next morning. For a minute he stared at it. Where had it come from? Then he realized it was written by an author he and Lavinia’s dat enjoyed reading. She must have brought it for him last night when he hadn’t been in a gut mood. He hadn’t seen her set it down on the table.
Fortunately, it had been protected from the weather by the front porch roof. Abe knew how much Amos valued his books, and he wouldn’t have wanted to explain any damage when he returned it. As he sat with it in his hand, he wished he could take back how he’d behaved. Lavinia had been such a support to him since he’d fallen off the roof.
He needed to make it up to her, but how was he going to do that? It didn’t seem right to just call her on the phone. But he didn’t have the ability to just walk over to her house in his condition.
His mudder came out holding a towel and a pair of scissors. “You’re looking shaggy. Thought I’d give you a haircut.”
Appalled, he stared at her. “Not out here where people can see!”
“I just mopped the kitchen floor. Don’t want hair all over the place.”
“Then let’s go out on the back porch.”
“Fine.” She walked behind his chair and began pushing it toward the front door.
He hated that she had to push his chair. He couldn’t wait until he wasn’t a burden to other people.
Then he chided himself for being a little cranky. With all she did, she was making time to cut his hair, and here he was complaining. The woman had raised a familye, worked hard to help her mann with the farm, and now, when she should get some time to take it easy, she was helping him. His mudder was busy as a bee doing something every minute he turned around.
“Is the floor dry?” he asked as they approached the kitchen. He didn’t want her to fall and break a hip. Then there would be two of them laid up.
“It’s dry. Are you trying to get out of a haircut?”
“Nee. Just didn’t want you to slip.”
They went out onto the back porch, and Waneta tucked the towel around his neck and began clipping. Soon, clumps of hair littered the wooden porch floor. It made him remember all the times she’d cut his hair as a kind. He tried not to feel like he’d gone back to that time as she worked, humming a hymn.
“Is Daed next?”
“Hmm? Nee, I cut his before I came for you.”
“You’ve had a busy morning.”
“Same as usual. You know what they say about idle hands.”
He stared at his hand, the one he was unable to use since his arm was in a cast. He flexed the fingers and daydreamed about what it would be like when he got the awkward cast off.
“You falling asleep on me there?” Waneta asked wryly.
He shook his head, then got a tap on the crown as she chided him for moving while she was cutting his hair. She muttered under her breath about nearly nicking his ear.
Finally she finished and flicked off the towel, scattering hair. “Stay put while I get the broom.”
He watched his dat walk out of the cow barn and make his way across toward the house. He’d been worried about his mudder slipping on the kitchen floor, and here his dat was maneuvering awkwardly with his cane.
His mood plummeted at the thought of what a burden he was on his eldres. Even Wayne was taking on more than his usual job.
“What’s that you’re reading?” his mudder asked when she returned with the broom.
He held it up. “Lavinia brought it over last night.”
Waneta sniffed. “She didn’t take it back after you weren’t so nice to her?”
Abe reddened. “Nee.”
“What was the problem?”
He ducked his head. “I wasn’t feeling well, wasn’t in a gut mood. So I decided I should go to my room and see her another time, that’s all.”
Waneta frowned and stared at him, her lips pursed. Then she began sweeping hair clippings from around his feet and off the porch. “Lavinia’s a sweet maedel. I never interfere, but seems to me you need to apologize.” Another sweep of the broom sent more off the porch.
Before he could say anything, she’d marched over to the back door, walked inside, and let the screen door slam behind her.
Well, he guessed he’d been told.
“Your mudder riled up about something?” Faron asked as he slowly climbed the stairs to the porch.
“Seems so.”
Faron settled into a rocking chair. “What’s the problem?”
“Me and my not-so-gut mood yesterday. I just decided I should cut short a visit with Lavinia, that’s all. Mamm thought it wasn’t polite.”
His dat gave him a long look. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“What do you do when you mess up with Mamm?”
“Who says I do?”
Abe thought about it. Actually, he couldn’t remember a time when his eldres had argued.
“Well, there were a few times early on when I got on the wrong side of her,” Faron admitted. “I remember talking to Abram. You know he was my friend as well as the bishop before he died. He told me about a quote from Ephesians that he liked. It says be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven us.” He smiled reminiscently. “Followed that advice for more than thirty years now, and it’s served me well.” Then he chuckled. “An Englisch friend said it a little more plainly than that. He said, ‘Happy wife, happy life.’”
Abe hadn’t heard that one, but it made sense. But he and Lavinia weren’t married…and with all that was happening, marriage looked far in the future.
“So what did you do to make it up to Mamm when you did mess up?”
Faron grinned. “Went into town and bought her a box of her favorite chocolates. She’s partial to turtles.”
“Turtles?”
“Ya. They pour chocolate on top of caramel, with pecans sticking out like little legs. Looks like a little brown turtle.” He looked thoughtful. “Been a while since I bought her some.”
Abe didn’t think he’d ever seen them, but they sounded gut. Then he frowned. “Well, chocolates won’t work.” Abe waved his gut hand at his wheelchair. “Can’t get myself anywhere to buy them.”
“Could be someone might be persuaded to pick them up while he’s in town getting a few things we need this afternoon.”
“Ya?”
“Ya.”
“Deal. Then all I have to do is persuade Lavinia to come over and apologize to her.”
Faron grinned. “I have faith in you.” He stood. “Be thinking about what kind of chocolates you want me to get while I ask your mudder for her supply list.”
Abe thought about the only time he’d seen Lavinia sampling chocolate from the candy shop. He realized he’d been more interested in watching her rosy lips than what she was eating.
Maybe he’d better ask his dat to get a sampler.