Chapter Two
Later that afternoon, the sun was beating down on Ella’s back as she knelt in the dirt, weeding the family’s vegetable garden. Nearby was a large basket, filled to the brim with juicy red tomatoes and vibrant green cucumbers. She didn’t remember having planted so many cucumbers, but the vines seemed to have multiplied overnight. They were overtaking the rest of the garden, strangling the other plants. Try as she might to keep cutting them back, the cucumbers continued to grow.
At least we’ll have plenty of pickles for the winter, she thought.
Just as she was plucking the last of them, she heard the voices of her sisters, and then the creak of the gate, announcing their arrival.
Ella knelt back on her heels and wiped the sweat from her brow, her eyes staring down the gravel driveway as she waited for them to appear on the walkway.
“I can’t believe that this is happening!” It was Drusilla’s voice.
Anna mirrored her sister’s sentiment.
They stomped up the porch steps, ignoring Ella as they slammed the front door behind them. It was only a few minutes later when Linda appeared.
Ella stood up and wiped her hands on her apron. “Everything going well?”
“Nee, Ella!” Linda snapped. “It’s not going well at all.” She, too, stomped up the porch steps and disappeared into the house.
With a mixture of curiosity and concern, Ella decided to follow them so that she could learn whatever news seemed so upsetting to her family.
Inside the house, all three of them sat at the kitchen table, the two girls slumped over with their heads resting on their hands. They looked miserable. Linda appeared equally distraught, but instead of staring at nothing, she was reviewing some information on a piece of paper and shaking her head.
Something must be troubling them indeed.
Without being asked, Ella hurried to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of fresh mint tea. She poured three glasses and carried them to the table. “Is there anything I can do to help?” She set down the glasses and sat beside Drusilla.
“Not unless you have fifty thousand dollars stashed in your dresser.” Drusilla’s sharp tone was almost as strong as her sarcasm.
Fifty thousand dollars? Ella wondered what her stepsister was talking about.
“Please, Drusilla.” Linda rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Our business need not be aired to everyone!”
Ella frowned. She wasn’t “everyone.” She was family. Even more importantly, she was the only child of the man who had started that store. If anyone should know what was going on, Ella knew it was she.
Clearly her stepmother felt otherwise.
After so many years, Ella wondered why she hadn’t gotten used to the hurtful comments from her stepmother. The truth was that words stung harder than a pinch or a slap. Still, she managed to ignore the slight from her stepmother’s comment, and she dared to ask, “Has something happened at the store, then?”
“Ja, Ella! If you must know, something has happened at the store!” Linda mimicked Ella’s concerned tone of voice. “Sales are down for the year, and I’ve only just learned that we have unpaid taxes! From last year and the year before!” Linda tossed the paper onto the table. It fluttered and landed in the middle, too far away for Ella to reach it without leaning over Drusilla, which, given the current temperature in the room, didn’t seem like a good idea.
“Taxes?” she asked instead.
Linda waved her hand at the paper in disgust. “Taxes. You know. As in paying taxes to those Englischers and their government!” Clearly she didn’t like that idea one bit.
Aha. Now Ella understood. Even without reaching for the letter, she suspected it was from the Internal Revenue Service. “Daed always paid his taxes on time.” She paused, realizing that if the unpaid bills were from the previous year, Linda hadn’t paid them since her father’s passing. And that meant that she was also late on the quarterly taxes for the current year.
“Oh. I see,” Ella whispered.
Linda narrowed her eyes and glared at her, which was confirmation enough for Ella that she was correct. Linda had, indeed, neglected to stay on top of paying the government their fair share. And that certainly did not bode well.
“Surely Irvin Landis helped you with the taxes?” Ella asked.
“Who?” Linda, Drusilla, and Anna asked at the same time.
“Irvin Landis, the Mennonite from Liberty Falls,” Ella replied. Being much larger than their town, Liberty Falls was where many of the Echo Creek Amish traveled for services and goods that were not sold locally. However, from the blank looks on everyone’s face, she quickly realized that they had no idea whom she was talking about “The accountant? He always helped advise Daed about financial matters,” she explained. “And prepared his taxes.”
Once again, Linda waved her hand, this time at Ella as if she spoke nonsense. “Oh, that man.”
There was a glimmer of hope. “So you met with him?” Ella asked.
“Nee, I did not,” Linda said with an air of superiority. “I don’t need help from a Mennonite. In fact, I don’t need help at all.” She lifted her hand and brushed her fingers down the side of her cheek, a supercilious gesture. “I happened to be very good with numbers. I was the best math student in my class, I’ll have you know.”
Oh help, Ella thought, fighting the urge to cover her eyes with her hand and shake her head in disbelief. Was her stepmother truly referencing her education from forty-plus years ago? And, since the Amish did not continue formal education past the eighth grade, Ella suspected that Linda’s tax situation wasn’t going to end well if she didn’t get any help from a professional accountant.
“We’ve no choice but to raise prices at the store.” Linda sighed. “Again.”
That made no sense to Ella. And it wasn’t the first time that Linda had raised prices. In fact, Ella had heard grumbles from her friends Belle and Sadie regarding the ever-increasing prices at the Troyers’ General Store. The Amish of Echo Creek were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, many of the Amish struggled to make ends meet. They lived off the land as much as they could, but they also had to adhere to strict financial budgets.
“Maem,” Ella started slowly, hoping her tone displayed the respect she did not particularly feel. “Mayhaps you should rethink that and consider doing the opposite.”
“The opposite?” With a short laugh escaping her lips, she gave Ella an incredulous look. “What little you know of business!”
That comment smarted. But Ella marched forward. “It’s supply and demand. That’s what Daed always said. When there is a high supply and low demand, you lower prices. And right now that seems to be the case at the store. You raised them just two months ago, ja? And sales have declined. Try the opposite and see how it goes.”
“Oh, Ella! You know nothing about profit margins!” Linda glanced at Drusilla, who snickered as if on cue. “Why, it’s simple, really. If you lower prices, you make less profit! Everyone knows that!”
Ella wished that her stepmother would listen to her. Not just let her speak, which was rare enough, but actually stop and hear what she was saying. “But, Maem, if you sell more items because of the lower prices, you make up the profit by moving inventory and satisfying the customers.”
“Enough, Ella.” The stern tone of her voice made it clear that Linda was not interested in hearing any more of Ella’s ideas.
It was always that way. Linda knew best and did what she wanted. While Ella’s father had been alive, Linda had often argued with him about how he ran the store. However, when he disagreed with her suggestions, which was most of the time, he hadn’t been one to compromise just to soothe a bruised ego.
And the store had been more than profitable.
Once her father passed away, Linda had wasted no time in reorganizing the store. She shut it down for a week, something that most people thought was due to her husband’s death. But Linda had had other plans. After the funeral service and burial, Linda had thrown herself right into the store, implementing idea after idea that seemed to have been fermenting during their marriage.
Ella had worried that her stepmother was attempting to avoid mourning, but she quickly realized that Linda was simply moving on, and a bit too fast, for some people’s taste.
A week after Ella’s father died, Linda reopened Troyers’ General Store. Everything was rearranged and the prices had increased. Everyone in the town mumbled about the change. And then Linda began introducing new inventory—items that weren’t normally found in an Amish general store. When that, too, didn’t go over very well, Linda began raising prices again.
And she refused to support some of the community members. In fact, just that summer, Linda had refused to carry a new wood-burning grill created by Melvin Beiler, the father of Ella’s friend Belle. That was unfortunate for Linda, as the grill had taken off, becoming an amazing success among the Englischers, and the Beiler family had seen a change of fortune.
Ella sighed. There was simply no talking sense into her stepmother.
“What happened with that vendor, the clock maker?” Drusilla asked. “Did he stop by today?”
Linda made a scoffing noise in her throat. “Oh, ja, sure he did. Just when I received this letter about the taxes. I asked him to come back another day.”
Oh help! Ella thought. She could only imagine her stepmother’s reaction to the letter—probably ranting and raving!—just as a new potential vendor walked into the store. Surely he had overheard Linda and knew there were money issues.
“So what’ll happen when you meet with him, then?” Drusilla asked.
Drusilla’s questions caught Ella off guard. Hadn’t Drusilla been working at the store all day? Or had she, once again, snuck off to go visit with Timothy Miller?
“I told him to come back next week to discuss the matter further.”
Ella wondered what was so difficult to discuss. With only one general store in Echo Creek, it would be wise to offer clocks . . . if they were of good quality, of course. In fact, if her stepmother had asked her for advice, she would have recommended keeping a sample of several different models on display and letting people order them, thus eliminating the need to keep an inventory in the storeroom.
But Linda never asked her for advice, and Ella knew better than to offer it.
With a heavy sigh, Linda drank her tea and set down the empty glass on the kitchen table. “Reckon I’ll retire early tonight,” she said, even though the sun had not fully set in the sky and Ella had supper warming on the stove top. “Need to figure out how to pay these taxes. Seems like a bank loan is the only option left.”
Ella cringed. Her father had worked so hard to ensure that they lived a life free and clear of debt. The house was paid for, the store building was paid for, and his inventory was paid for. He always claimed that it was better to owe money to no man, even if that meant hard work and sacrifice.
Clearly Linda had never been listening when her father said that.
“A bank loan?” Ella blurted out. “That can’t be the answer, Maem!”
“Oh, what would you know of such things?” Linda snapped at her.
The criticism chafed, but Ella persisted. “If you aren’t making money now, you’ll only owe more money to the banks, that’s all. And that’s if you can even get a loan.”
“Of course I can get a loan!” Linda’s expression said it all: she thought Ella was speaking absurdities. “Why, I’m the only general store in town. Where else will people purchase their goods? From Liberty Falls?” she asked as she stood up. “No one will travel that far, for sure and certain!”
Ella wished she had the courage to remind Linda that Melvin Beiler had done that very thing: taken his business to Liberty Falls when Linda had refused to sell his newly designed cooking grills. Had she been more forward thinking, she could have been an exclusive distributor of the product and made enough money to cover any losses from the rest of the store.
But she had turned him away.
“Perhaps someone else will open a store.”
Linda whirled around and glared at her. “There isn’t room in town for two general stores!”
And that was exactly Ella’s point. The people needed to buy their dry goods from somewhere, and if Linda didn’t lower prices, people would go elsewhere. It wouldn’t be long before Linda might lose all of her customers to Liberty Falls or, even worse, unconsciously invited competition into the town. “Either way, you will keep losing business if you don’t lower prices.”
“Why, Ella! You’d have me give half of the store away with little to no profit. Then where would we be?” A noise that sounded like a cackle escaped her thin lips. “Such nonsense, Ella. Really.” She started walking to the bedroom door near the staircase that led upstairs. “If I choose to get a partner or even to sell the store, you should mind your own business. The store’s mine now, not yours.”
Furious, Linda stormed out of the kitchen, making certain to shut her bedroom door just a little too loudly, a further indication of her displeasure.
Ella, too, felt displeasure. The thought of someone else being brought into the store as a partner didn’t sit well with her. Her father had started it and had created a wonderful enterprise that benefited the community. Ever since his death, Linda had been slowly destroying it. And if Linda actually sold the business, Ella could only foresee more problems.
“Now look what you’ve done, Ella!” Drusilla said abruptly as she, too, stood up.
Anna followed her older sister’s example. “You’ve gone and upset Maem!”
Both girls hurried to the first-floor bedroom, knocking once before entering, as if they intended to console their mother. But one look around the kitchen and Ella knew the truth. While they feigned concern for their mother, it was the evening chores that they were most likely trying to avoid.
Again.
With a little sigh, Ella stood up, gathered the untouched cups of tea, and carried them to the kitchen sink. After turning on the faucet, she stared out the window while waiting for the hot water.
If only her father hadn’t passed away. If only Linda would listen to some advice instead of thinking she knew it all. If only . . .
Ella knew better than to keep listing the if onlys. The list was endless and only further disheartened her. It was better to push the problems into the back of her mind and focus on the here and now. And that was full of a long list of another kind: chores.
At least she had something to distract her.