Three fire trucks were parked in the yard. The one between the house and barn was still spraying water on the utility shed. Susan stood with Mamm and Ada on the front porch while the men milled around the pasture, being kept away from the area by the ever-vigilant firemen.
The ambulance had long since departed. Duane had gone along to keep Steve company. Susan had almost offered to go at the last minute, but that would have been unseemly, even though it might have been understandable. Steve needed a woman’s touch and he was her daett’s hired hand. Perhaps she should have been bold enough to go, but it was too late now.
Buggies were coming down the road now, the horses urged on by heavy slaps of the reins. A few Englisha vehicles had parked alongside the road, the neighbors getting out to stare at the aftermath. Mamm and Ada went down to the road to meet the Amish as they arrived to see if they could help. They talked for a few minutes with the people as they pulled to a stop. There wasn’t much anyone could say or do at this point. Showing their concern was the main thing. And it did feel gut to have the community gather in support. At least it was only Reuben and Ada’s barn that was burning to the ground. To lose the house would have been much, much worse.
No reason had been given for the cause of the fire yet. That would come out in due time. Meanwhile, more buggies were arriving. Susan walked out to join Mamm and Ada by the road.
Daett and Reuben headed across the pasture to direct buggies to pull in where they would be safe and out of the way. Even from a distance many of the horses looked wild-eyed and acted as if they were on the verge of bolting or shying into the roadside ditch.
“What happened?” one of the women asked Ada. Susan turned her attention toward them to hear Ada’s reply.
“I haven’t heard,” Ada said. “Reuben hasn’t said anything. We were in the middle of supper when Joan got up to take the pies out of the cupboard. She saw the fire through the kitchen window.”
“That must have been quite a shock,” someone said. “Do you think the men left a lantern burning in the barn?”
“No, they were done for the night,” Ada replied. “Steve Mast works for Menno, so he hadn’t been in the barn all evening. He came straight into the house from work.”
“It looks like there was no chance to save the barn,” one woman observed. Just then they heard the sound of large timbers crashing to the ground. “That must have been the barn’s main beams,” she added.
Ada clasped her hands. “Thank Da Hah no one was inside. That would have been awful—losing someone at a time like this.”
“Didn’t an ambulance leave with someone in it?” someone asked.
Ada nodded. “Steve inhaled too much smoke trying to get the last of the horses out. The paramedics think he’s going to be okay.”
“Did you lose any livestock?” the woman asked.
Ada shrugged. “I don’t know. At least one horse, I think. I was too worried about Steve. Horses can be replaced.”
They all nodded and turned to watch as another beam fell, seemingly in slow motion, an eerie sound filling the air. A spray of water from fire hoses arched through the sky and drenched the trees near the house.
As some of the people drove out, the women moved to the house porch. They hadn’t been standing there long when one of them suggested they make sandwiches and prepare drinks for the firemen.
“That’s right!” Ada said. “And there are still pies on the table. That will be a good place to start in helping the men recover from this ordeal.”
Susan followed them inside and squeezed lemons for the lemonade while others got out pitchers and glasses. Other women sliced pies and put the pieces on plates.
“That will do while we make egg-salad sandwiches.” Ada waved toward the door. “Take out what we have.”
One of the women was already heating water over the stove when Susan left with her hands full of servings of pie. Joan and two others followed with lemonade and glasses.
Walking down the porch steps to the picnic table, they spread the drinks and pie out for the firemen.
Susan took a quick look around. The food ought to be safe here from the still-floating cinders. How should she get the firemen’s attention? Perhaps they didn’t want to be disturbed in their work. Seeing Reuben out by the pasture fence, she walked over to him. “Ada has drinks and food ready for the firemen. Sandwiches will be ready soon. I’m not sure how to let the firemen know.”
He nodded. “I’ll let them know before long.” Reuben’s face looked drawn and distracted, which was understandable. His barn had burned to the ground. Gone in the matter of an hour or two.
Already it seemed like years since Susan had stood in front of the kitchen sink thinking her moody thoughts. “Have you heard how Steve is doing?”
Reuben didn’t say anything. He just stared at the embers where the barn had once stood.
Susan was ready to repeat the question when he shrugged.
“I don’t know, but I think someone should check on him.”
“I’ll go into town,” Susan offered without thinking. “Maybe someone needs to sit by his bed for the night. Duane will probably want an update on what’s happened out here too.”
Reuben nodded. “You shouldn’t go by yourself. Take Joan along.”
“Okay, I’ll ask her.”
Reuben turned around. “Come with me first. I’ll see if I can find someone to drive the two of you to the hospital.”
Susan tagged along as Reuben approached the crowd of neighbors. “Anybody willing to drive Susan and Joan to the hospital so they can check on Steve Mast?”
“I’ll drive them,” an elderly Englisha neighbor offered.
“Thank you, Rodney,” Reuben acknowledged. “They took Steve to Scott Memorial.”
“I’ll be back in a minute.” Susan smiled her thanks before running toward the house. She found Joan among the woman gathered on the porch. “Your daett said you could go with me to see how Steve is doing. If he needs us, we’ll stay for the night. Do you want to go along?”
“Of course,” Joan said at once. “But I should ask Mamm.”
Susan nodded and went to find her own mamm.
Meeting back on the porch, they nodded at each other and walked across the lawn and out to the road.
“Are you ready to go?” the Englisha neighbor asked as they approached.
When they nodded, he said, “My wife is waiting in the car. Do you need to stop to pick up anything at your house, Susan?”
“We’re fine,” Susan told him, imagining sitting in a chair all night as the worst-case scenario. They wouldn’t need more than what they had on.
“Is the young man your sweetheart?” the old fellow asked on the way to the car.
Susan shook her head. “Thank you for taking us,” she said. “Steve’s our hired hand.”
“I see.” He didn’t sound convinced as they arrived at the car. “Lydia, this is Susan and Joan. I just offered to take them into town to check on the young man who was taken to Scott Memorial.”
Lydia smiled at Susan and Joan. “I’m glad we can help. I appreciate the way your people look after your own.”
Susan opened the back door and motioned Joan in first. While they fastened their seat belts, the old fellow climbed in, groaning as if he were in pain.
“Tough getting so old,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition. “It’s tough losing a barn in this economy too. Tough anytime, as far as that goes.”
“Do they know how the fire started?” Lydia asked.
“I haven’t heard,” Susan replied.
Rodney turned the car around and headed toward town.
“Surely it couldn’t be arson?” Lydia glanced at Rodney.
Her husband cleared his throat. “I heard the men talking. Reuben thinks it must have been the last batch of hay. It was rained on before he baled. He thought it had dried sufficiently, but maybe not. The fire could have been caused by spontaneous combustion. And from how fast the fire advanced before it was first spotted, that makes sense. Much of the loft would be involved before there were visible signs from outside.”
“I was the one who spotted the fire from the kitchen window,” Joan volunteered. “I couldn’t believe it at first. Smoke and flames were coming out of the eaves.”
“You poor thing.” Lydia reached over the seat to pat Joan on the arm.
“It was awful.” Joan shuddered. “Then Mamm said to run up to Uncle Menno’s place to tell them. Daett said he was going to run across the road to call the fire department from the phone shack.”
“You never know when tragedy will strike.” Lydia sighed. “I suppose the Lord has His reasons.”
They rode in silence along the rolling southern Indiana hills. The trip was made in a fraction of the time it would have taken a horse and buggy.
“We’ll come inside to make sure everything is okay,” Lydia said after Rodney parked the car.
“That’s awfully nice of you,” Susan told them. “Are you sure you have the time?”
“Believe me,” Rodney replied, “we don’t have much left but time. If we go home, we’d just be watching Jeopardy on TV.”
With Rodney still chuckling, they climbed out of the car. Susan led the way into the low, one-story hospital. She hadn’t been here for years—not since Joan had broken her arm in the eighth grade. Susan had ridden along to the hospital with Ada and an Englisha driver then too.
“I remember this place,” Joan whispered, looking up at the round, glass-enclosed top of the building as they walked in.
“I was just remembering the time you broke your arm,” Susan whispered back.
In front of them, Duane jumped up from where he’d been sitting in the waiting room. A smile filled his face. “I thought I’d been forsaken and abandoned by everyone.”
“You know we wouldn’t do that,” Susan said. “How is Steve doing?”
“I was in the room with him until a few minutes ago. He’s awake now and ready to go home, he says. I didn’t know what to do about that. No one answered the phone at the shack when I called.”
“That’s good news about Steve.” Relief flooded Susan’s face.
“That is good news!” Rodney declared. “We’ll wait here until he’s checked out and take all of you home.”
“I’d better go back and see for myself,” Susan said. “I just realized that Steve being ready to go home may not be the same as the doctor being ready to allow him to go home.”
“Talk to the nurse up front to see if she says it’s okay for you to see Steve,” Duane said. “They don’t like people wandering around without permission.”
“I’ll do that.”
Susan walked up to the nurse’s small window. “May I please see Steve Mast?”
The young woman disappeared for a moment, and Susan heard the murmur of voices. The nurse returned and quietly said, “The doctor said it’s okay. I’ll take you back.” The woman led the way to a room with several curtained-off spaces. Motioning with her hand toward one of them, she said, “He’s in there. Go ahead. One side’s open.”
“Are you sure?” Susan asked. What would Steve think if she just barged in?
“Oh, he’s decent, don’t worry.” The nurse smiled and then turned to go to her station.
“I didn’t mean that,” Susan said, blushing red she was sure, but the nurse had already left.
Taking a deep breath, Susan walked around the edge of the curtain and stopped. Steve lay on a bed, his eyes red and swollen. He was propped up in a sitting position.
He turned his face toward her, and a slight smile played on his face. “Hi, Susan.”
“Hello,” Susan said. “You look awful.”
“If you’re going to tell me that, please go home.”
“If you’re going to be grouchy, I will.”
He tried to smile again but grimaced instead. “Who came with you?”
“Joan. And Duane was already here, of course. Rodney and Lydia, Ada’s neighbors, brought us in their car.”
“I saw Duane, yah. Hopefully he told you I’m ready to go home.”
“Will the doctor let you go?”
“They want to keep me for the night, but I’m not going to. I can’t afford to stay here. It’s expensive. How stupid of me to hit my head and end up here. I feel fine.”
“But it was something,” Susan protested. “You were trying to do a very brave thing. And you should stay here if the doctor thinks you should. What if something serious is wrong?”
He grimaced again. “There’s only a knot on my head from one of the barn beams as it fell. It was a glancing blow, so it’s not too serious.”
“Where?” Susan asked, walking closer to run her hand over his head.
He held still, allowing her hand to find the bump.
Susan stopped. “You really should stay. What if there’s a concussion?”
Steve made a face. “I’ve already talked with the doctor, and the X-rays showed nothing. So I’m going home. Just give me some time to get out of this hospital dress.”
Susan laughed but Steve didn’t join in.
“Will you please tell that nurse I want my clothes back?”
“I’ll see what I can do.” There really was no sense in arguing with him, she decided. That might do more harm than good if Steve got stressed. And home was the best place to recuperate—even from a serious injury.
“Did the horse I was trying to get out survive?” Steve asked before she was out the door.
Susan shook her head, stopping to turn around. The expression on his face fell. He shouldn’t have asked right now, Susan thought. There were already enough things on his mind.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s not your fault,” he said. “I suppose it’s really no one’s fault. But I wish I could have succeeded.”
“You tried,” she assured him, and his face relaxed. Leaving the room, Susan found a nurse in the hallway and told her what Steve wanted.
“I was expecting as much.” The young woman laughed. “I’ll go see what the doctor has to say, but it shouldn’t be any problem as long as Steve will sign the no-fault papers.”
“He’ll sign,” Susan said. “He wants to go home.”