Lavinia was tired from her day, but when she got back to the house she went to her bedroom and got out the fabric she’d bought from Hannah’s. She was glad she’d spent a little extra on it. The fabric had a soft sheen that made it drape beautifully when she held the length up to her and studied it in the mirror over her dresser.
She took it and her sewing basket down to the kitchen, and after making sure that the table was clean and dry, she spread the fabric out and placed her pattern pieces on it. It didn’t take long to pin the pieces and cut it out.
Her excitement increased as she worked. She was making her wedding dress. What maedel didn’t look forward to making the dress she’d wear to her wedding?
Her dat walked in to pour himself a cup of coffee. He looked at her curiously as he turned from the pot on the stove. “Making yourself a new dress?”
She looked up and smiled. “A special one, Daed. My wedding dress.”
“It can’t be time for that already, can it?” he asked, looking a little sad as he glanced at the calendar on the wall.
“I can’t wait until the last minute.”
Her mudder walked into the room. When she saw what Lavinia was doing, she reached into a drawer and pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil.
“I should start planning,” she said as she sat at the table. “She’s right, Amos. These things can’t be put off until the last minute.”
He set his cup on the counter. “I guess I’ll go take a last trip out to the barn, make schur everything’s allrecht.”
“Leave it to a man to disappear,” Rachel said.
He patted her shoulder. “You’ll find plenty for me to do as we get closer to the date. And there’ll be all that setting up of benches and tables I do so much better than planning and cooking.”
Rachel sighed. “You’re right.”
He grinned. “Lavinia, you’re my witness to your mudder saying I’m right.”
She tucked her tongue firmly in her cheek. “I’m so glad I’m here for that historic event.”
Her dat’s jaw dropped and he stared at her. Then he laughed and shook his head. “Got a smart mouth on you there. Wonder who you got that from?” he mused as he stared at his fraa.
Rachel just smiled. “Very funny.”
Her dat’s cell phone rang. He answered it, then quickly handed it to Rachel. “It’s Sadie.”
Lavinia’s heart beat faster as her mudder took the phone from her dat.
“Sadie?”
Her schweschder’s voice was so loud Lavinia could hear it. “Mamm! The boppli’s coming!”
“I’ll be right there,” Rachel said quickly. “Amos, go hitch up the buggy. Sadie’s in labor.” She turned her attention back to her dochder. “Have you called Rebecca?”
“Ya,” said Sadie. “But please come!”
“We’ll be right there. Now you sit down and stay calm.” She disconnected the call and turned to Lavinia. “Sadie’s in labor.”
“I heard,” she said with a grin. “I thought she’d be calmer with her second.”
“We’ll see if you are with yours.” Her mudder grabbed her purse. “Are you coming with?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She grabbed her own purse and locked the door on the way out.
When they arrived at Sadie’s, Lavinia saw Rebecca’s buggy was already parked in the drive.
Naiman, Sadie’s mann, welcomed them inside and didn’t look much calmer than Sadie had sounded.
“She’s in the front bedroom,” he told them.
Lavinia and her mudder rushed there and found Sadie propped up in bed, breathing through a contraction while Rebecca monitored her pulse.
“Mamm! You’re here!” Sadie cried when the contraction eased.
Rebecca released her wrist and stood back as Rachel rushed over to her side. “She’s doing well,” she reassured them.
It felt a little crowded in the small room with the three of them, and Lavinia knew Sadie wanted their mudder more than her, so after a quick hug she returned to the kitchen. There she found her dat and Naiman drinking coffee.
“Want some coffee?” Naiman asked her.
Lavinia shook her head. “Nee, danki. Where’s Anna Mae?”
“In bed. We were just about to go to bed, too, when Sadie said she was having contractions.”
When she heard the faint rustle on the stairs leading up to the bedrooms, Lavinia saw her two-year-old niece peering down.
“Somebody’s still awake,” she whispered to Naiman.
He sighed and started to get up, but she gestured at him to stay seated. “Let me.”
She climbed the stairs and held out her arms. “Hi, Anna Mae. Let’s go back to bed.”
“Want Mamm,” she said, her lips trembling. She clutched a stuffed bear under her arm.
Lavinia stroked her wispy blond hair back from her face. “She’s busy, lieb. Kumm, Aenti Lavinia will read you a story.”
She got the kind back in bed and stretched out beside her, the bear tucked under the sheet between them. Anna Mae smelled of soap and baby powder. Lavinia read one of Anna Mae’s well-worn books, and before she reached the end, she saw the kind was asleep.
Lavinia lingered. While she wasn’t looking forward to going through what her schweschder was experiencing right now, it was so sweet to lie here and cuddle with a kind and think about having one of her own. Reluctantly, she climbed out of bed and went downstairs to join her eldres.
“Rebecca said it won’t be long now,” her mudder said. “Naiman’s in with her.” She yawned and glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Why don’t you stay home tomorrow, and you can come over and help Sadie?” Lavinia said.
“The shop’s been so busy.”
“I can manage. And you know you want to be here.”
Rachel smiled and reached to hold Amos’s hand. “It’s not every day you get to be with a new kinskind.” She glanced at the stairs. “Your dat said you went up to put Anna Mae back in bed.”
She nodded. “Read her a story and she was asleep before I finished. It was nice. I haven’t had enough time to spend with her lately. Maybe I can come over after work tomorrow and give her some attention while you’re with Sadie.”
“Sounds gut.”
They fell silent and listened to the clock ticking away the minutes.
Then, as one, they turned in the direction of the front of the house as they heard the indignant wail of a newborn.
A few minutes later, Naiman rushed into the room. “It’s a bu! Sadie and I have a bu!”
It was late by the time Lavinia and her eldres got to meet the new boppli and congratulate Sadie. Lavinia had to wait until her mudder and dat held him and fussed over him, and then it was her turn.
She held the squirming bundle and studied the tiny face and agreed with Naiman that ya, his sohn had his nose. And she couldn’t help wondering if this time next year she might be married and holding a boppli of her own.
* * *
Abe felt a hand touch his shoulder.
“Sorry you lost her,” Wayne said. “I really hoped when I came to work this morning that she’d pulled through it. She always has in the past.”
He glanced up at Wayne. He’d been so miserable sitting here on the bale of hay in Bessie’s stall he hadn’t heard the man approach.
“I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help with Bessie after—afterward.” He stared down at the cast on his arm. “Can’t wait to get this off.”
“No problem. Your dat and I managed. He’s an old hand at it. I’m heading home for supper unless there’s something else you need.”
Abe shook his head. “Been a long day.”
“Get some sleep. You look half-dead on your feet.”
“I dozed some here watching Bessie last night.”
They walked out of the barn and headed for their houses.
As Abe washed his hands at the sink, he couldn’t help glancing at the meal his mudder was putting on the table. He didn’t think he could handle it if it was beef.
“Tuna salad plate,” she said as she caught the direction of his gaze. “Wanted something simple and cold after canning again today.”
He nodded. “Sounds gut.”
“Sohn, I remember how you felt when you were a kind and you found out the chicken and dumplings you were eating came from one of the chickens you fed every day.”
He grunted. “I’m older. I should be used to it. Cycle of life and all that.”
“Sometimes we form an attachment to an animal,” Faron said quietly. “It’s not a sign of weakness.”
“I know.” Abe sighed. But he was glad he was eating tuna for supper tonight and not beef.
“Made your favorite pie,” she told him. “Strawberry rhubarb.”
“You did?” He’d been so lost in thought when he walked into the room he hadn’t noticed the pie cooling on the counter. “Danki.”
He bent his head for the blessing of the meal, then watched his dat slide two fat slices of tomato onto his plate.
“I think these are the biggest tomatoes you’ve grown yet,” Faron told Waneta.
“I do, too. And the yield was better. I made a lot of spaghetti sauce today.” She sighed. “We’ll enjoy that when cold weather comes for schur.”
“Feels like it’ll never get cold,” Abe said.
She nodded. “Summer feels forever in Lancaster County. Faron, turn that fan a little more in my direction, would you, please?”
Abe glanced at her sharply. “Are you allrecht?”
She patted his hand. “Just fine.”
They’d just finished with supper and Abe was helping clear the table—he thought his dat looked a little tuckered out from helping Wayne with Bessie—when his cell phone rang. It was Lavinia calling to tell him she was stopping by Sadie’s to see the new boppli.
“I figured you’d do that,” he told her, and tried not to sound disappointed. “See you tomorrow.”
“Lavinia won’t be coming by,” he told his eldres. “Her schweschder Sadie had her boppli last night. A bu.”
“How nice. Now Sadie and Naiman have one of each. Rachel must be thrilled at having another kinskind.” She filled the sink with warm water and squirted in dishwashing liquid. “Nothing better than a kinskind. Or so I hear.”
Abe stared at her. “Is that a hint?”
She just looked at him and smiled.
For a moment, he thought about telling them he and Lavinia were engaged. But he wanted to do that with Lavinia.
“You falling asleep?” she teased.
He shook his head. “Just thinking about something.”
“Clean dish towels in the drawer there,” she told him.
“I know where they’re kept,” he growled, but with a small smile for his mudder.
When he glanced over at his dat, he saw he was helping himself to another slice of pie. He thought about tattling on him, but his mudder suddenly said, “Faron!”
“Woman’s got eyes in the back of her head,” Faron complained, but he was grinning.
“I just know my mann,” she retorted, without turning to look at him. “That’s your third piece!”
“Now Waneta, a man’s got to have more than some fish and salad after a hard day’s work,” he said. “’Sides, it’s fruit, so it’s gut for me.”
She sighed and shook her head as she rinsed a dish and handed it to Abe to dry.
After they finished, Abe wondered what to do with himself. He was so used to spending time most evenings with Lavinia.
“Let’s take a walk out to the barn,” his dat suggested.
“Didn’t you spend enough time working today?” he asked him. “Thought you’d want to sit in your recliner with The Budget.”
“You saying I’m old, bu?”
“Nee. But you and Mamm worked hard today, and it was hot.”
“Got something to show you. Might cheer you up a little.”
As they walked out to the barn, Abe and his dat took their time navigating the uneven gravel of the drive with their canes. Abe pushed the barn door open so they could walk inside, wondering what his dat wanted to show him.
Faron stopped in front of a stall and gestured for Abe to look inside. He did so and felt himself tear up when he saw the calf.
“Forgot about her, didn’t you?”
Abe nodded as he leaned over the top of the gate to the stall. Inside was the last calf Bessie had borne. She had the same big brown eyes and black-and-white-spotted hide.
“It’s like having part of her here, don’t you think?” Faron said, patting Abe on the shoulder.
“Ya. Danki for reminding me.”
“Well, I’m going to head back in and sit in that recliner like you said. Coming?”
“I think I’ll stay out here for a while.”
Faron nodded and headed back out of the barn.
Abe just stood there, elbows resting on the gate of the stall, looking down at Bessie’s calf.