Kirsten didn’t mention Janelle’s new job when she returned home for supper. Speaking in anger wouldn’t help them. She wanted to avoid upsetting her aenti and Theo.
As she walked into the kitchen, she wondered where Theo was. It wasn’t like her cousin to be late for a meal.
“He’s out with his friends,” Aenti Helga replied to Kirsten’s query while she continued to slice bread with smooth strokes.
“His Englisch friends?”
Putting aside the knife, she picked up the platter piled high with the bread. “I’m sure we’ll meet them soon. There aren’t that many families along the bay.”
Janelle walked in, started to speak and then paused when her gaze linked with Kirsten’s. An embarrassed flush rose up her cheeks, and she looked as if she’d rather be anywhere else other than in the kitchen with Kirsten.
As she’d acted for the past few days, Kirsten realized. Her cousin had been avoiding her.
“Janelle, can I speak with you?” Kirsten asked, not wanting to put off delivering the message from Mattie.
“Can’t right now. Got to—” She ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
Aenti Helga shook her head. “I don’t know how one slight girl can sound like a herd of elephants.”
Kirsten let her aenti change the subject to the house she’d cleaned that day and how many different and interesting things the clients owned. Though the words washed over her, hardly noticed, Kirsten was aware of glances Aenti Helga kept aiming in her direction. The older woman knew Kirsten didn’t like her talking about their clients’ homes.
Kirsten was as determined not to get into an argument with her aenti as she was with her cousin. She helped carry food into the dining room, nodded to Theo when he blew into the house with the icy wind and sat at the table to share silent grace with the family.
For the first time in months, she wondered what Mamm and Daed were doing. They ate supper earlier than Aenti Helga did. She could imagine Daed leaning back in his chair and patting his stomach and telling Mamm she’d prepared another wunderbaar meal. A craving to see them sliced into her. Homesickness? For her family, ja, but not for the community she couldn’t face. To hear the whispers and see the stares following her... No, she didn’t want to go through that again.
She had to deal with the situation in her family in Prince Edward Island. She couldn’t put it off. Janelle hadn’t said a word to her through the meal and kept glancing at her mamm. Was she looking for an excuse to leave the table?
Kirsten couldn’t let that happen before she passed along the message as she’d promised. “Janelle, Mattie asked me to tell you that you shouldn’t come to work tomorrow.”
“She did?” asked Janelle, blushing.
At the same time, her mamm frowned. “Why would Mattie care about Janelle’s work tomorrow?”
The girl lowered her head. “Because I took a job at the farm shop.”
“That’s not a gut idea,” Aenti Helga said, setting her sandwich on her plate.
“I want a job.”
“You’ve got a job. You work for Ocean Breezes.”
“I quit.”
When?, Kirsten wanted to ask but didn’t get a chance before Aenti Helga asked in a taut tone, “So you’re not working for us any longer?”
Kirsten bit her lip before she reminded her aenti the business was Kirsten’s, not Aenti Helga’s. One problem at a time...
Janelle stood. “I don’t like cleaning houses. Mattie is going to teach me to use the cash register as well as how to stock the shelves.” She put her hands on the table on either side of her plate. “Please understand, Kirsten. I want to do something with people. When I’m cleaning house, I don’t often see anyone else. They’re gone before I get there, and they don’t return until I’m done.”
“Sit down,” her mamm said. “You can’t quit without giving us fair warning.” She held up her hand. “This isn’t up for debate, Janelle. If you want to work at the shop, that’s fine, but you have to continue with your housecleaning jobs until Kirsten can find someone to take your place.”
“I’ll be working every second of the day,” wailed the teen.
“Until I find someone,” Kirsten said, having sympathy for her cousin. She glanced at Theo who seemed unaware of the conversation or wisely was staying out of it.
Janelle became calm. “What if I know someone who might be interested?”
“That would be wunderbaar,” Kirsten said, hoping whomever Janelle recommended would be more enthusiastic about doing a gut job than her cousin was.
“Let me talk to my friend tomorrow, and, if she’s interested, then I’ll let you know so you can hire her.” She picked up the bowl of applesauce and spooned half of it on her plate as if she’d rediscovered her appetite. “I should be able to continue to do a house or two. Mattie said she couldn’t give me a lot of hours during the winter, because the store isn’t busy then.”
“Danki.” Kirsten smiled. She hadn’t expected Janelle to be so reasonable after her cousin had slunk out of the kitchen.
“I can do the Yutzys because they’re close by.”
Kirsten was startled. “Why that house? You know how particular Mark is about his house. I thought you’d be happy not to have to go back.”
She raised her eyes toward the ceiling and shook her head. “You told him I would do a better job, and I want him to see that I can. Not just one time, but over and over.”
“I appreciate that, Janelle.” She did and couldn’t help wondering if her cousin might be growing up...at least a little. She wasn’t so sure when Janelle went on.
“Not that I can do much gut there. The Yutzys’ old house is about to fall apart. The slightest puff of a breeze makes it groan. None of the windows can be opened because Mark jammed wood into them so they won’t fall down. For a guy who was a woodworker, he’s let his house go to ruin.”
“He’s been busy with his crops.”
“That’s no excuse for letting the house go to seed.” She smiled at what she seemed to think was a jest. “Crops. Seed. Get it?”
“That’s pretty lame,” Theo said as he reached for another slice of bread.
“You’re sorry you didn’t think of it first.”
Aenti Helga forestalled a possible argument by changing the subject to the cookie exchange she hoped to host. “You’ll help, ain’t so, Kirsten?”
“You can count on me.” She enjoyed making cookies as much as her cousins enjoyed eating them. Baking a few extra batches would allow her to try different recipes. She’d find time, even if she had to take over Janelle’s clients temporarily. “Let me know when you want them.”
“I’m hoping to have it the week before Christmas. Quite a few members of the community are planning to head back to Ontario to see family for the holidays, so it would be nice to give them something to take with them on the journey.”
“Which means I should avoid making frosted cookies.”
“You can make them for me,” Theo piped up.
The tension sifted away, and Kirsten began to see that not having her whole family working for her might not be a bad thing. They’d brought their work home with them too often, and it had begun to taint their relationships.
God, danki for knowing what is best for us when we can’t see it for ourselves.
Over the next few days, Mark grew more impressed with Kirsten’s knowledge of how to clean the farm shop and make it safe again. She’d been right. Tests had confirmed there had been something wrong with the cans’ contents. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had been contacted, and a recall went out to prevent other stores from suffering what the Celtic Knoll Farm Shop had.
Fans were brought in by the mediation company from Shushan to blow botulism spores out before customers were allowed inside. Kirsten’s precautions hadn’t ended there. She’d insisted everyone cleaning the walls, shelves and floors wear a respirator mask. Yesterday, after three days of steady ventilation and the replacement of the broken windows, she’d changed her requirements to a simple paper mask.
He tugged at his. He’d like to be rid of it, but he’d wait until the all clear was given. Getting ill would delay his plans for returning to work on his house. Old-timers on the Island warned the first snowfall could be any day, and he needed to get up and check the roof that seemed to be sagging at one side.
But two gut things had happened this week. Janelle had come back to the house yesterday and done a superb job of cleaning what she could. The kitchen was torn apart as were some of the walls, but the bathroom sparkled, and the floors had been wiped clean of plaster dust.
Even more important, the strain had begun to lessen—slightly—between him and Daryn. The day after the explosion in the farm shop, Mark had decided he’d give Kirsten’s suggestion a try. He’d asked Daryn to help take out the kitchen cabinets and the wiring left by the house’s previous, Englisch owner. His brother had responded with enthusiasm.
“I like breaking things and tearing them apart,” Daryn had said with a big grin. “There’s a sledgehammer in the barn.”
“Let’s start with a crowbar and a hammer. Breaking through walls without knowing what’s there is stupid.”
“But lots of fun.”
Glad to see his little brother’s smile, Mark chuckled. “I agree. I’m planning to take down a couple of those wobbly outbuildings next spring. Those will make good sledgehammer fodder.”
Daryn’s grin faded. “You’ll have sent me home by then.”
“I’m sure I can persuade Daed and Mamm to let you stay a little while longer. It’d be gut to have someone else around when I demolish those buildings.”
“They won’t agree.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they don’t want me to have fun, and they don’t think I can do anything right.” He slammed his hands into his pockets. “Just like you do.”
“I think you do things right. I wouldn’t have asked for your help otherwise.”
“You don’t think I mess up all the time?”
“Not all the time,” Mark drawled.
Daryn started to fire a retort, then paused and grinned. “But I want to have some fun.”
“Work can be fun.”
“For you maybe. I don’t want to be a potato farmer.”
“What do you want to do?”
He’d been surprised when Daryn had said, “I’ve been thinking about raising beef cattle.”
“Why did you choose that?”
“I read an article about Amish ranches out west where they raise beefers, and it sounds like a great life. Riding and roping and tending to a herd.” His nose had wrinkled. “Better than potatoes.”
“You’re right. Potatoes don’t run away and have to be rounded up by lasso.”
When his brother had laughed instead of firing back a snarky comment, Mark had been amazed. Kirsten’s advice to treat Daryn like an equal and not like a kind seemed to work.
Kirsten was handling everything for the farm shop’s cleanup with the same efficiency and insight. She directed the Englisch crew with an ease Mark had to envy.
That was why he was surprised to discover Kirsten in the shop wearing a dismayed expression. She’d confronted every crisis-in-the-making until now with a positive attitude.
“What’s wrong? Are you still upset with Janelle for getting a job here?” he asked.
“No. We’ve talked that over, and I’m going to find a replacement for Janelle. Even after I can hire and train someone else, Janelle has offered to continue doing a couple of houses through the winter. Like yours, for example.”
“Why my house?” He watched as a pair of hefty Englischers carried one of the large fans into the farm shop. He couldn’t wait for the sound level to be normal. Working in the Quonset hut had been as noisy and windy as he imagined standing behind a jet plane engine would have been. “If you’d asked me, I would have said mine would be the first one she’d want to get rid of. She did do a gut job yesterday. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Danki. I’m glad you feel you got your money’s worth.” Her eyes twinkled.
It took him a moment, then he realized what she meant. “Janelle didn’t clean as if the job was a freebie. She worked hard, especially when it came to getting dust out of the house. But I’m still surprised that she wants to keep working at my house.”
“I was amazed myself, but she wants to make it right.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “Janelle has a friend who might be interested in the job. I hope she’ll be a gut fit. Until I can hire someone else, Janelle is going to have to balance two jobs.”
“The shop looks great.”
Kirsten looked around, and her eyes crinkled with a smile. “The mediation company has done an excellent job.”
He nodded, not wanting to embarrass her by saying she had made what seemed impossible possible. The shop was clean and the shelves restocked. The fresh fruit and vegetable bins were empty, but Mattie had been assured by her supplier there would be a delivery early next week. The day after that, the doors to the Celtic Knoll Farm Shop would reopen.
“I brought potatoes,” he said.
“Gut. You’re right on time. I was about to leave. I was waiting for them to remove these fans.” She held out a ring of keys. “I’ll leave these with you.”
“Where are Mattie and Daisy? I thought they’d be here.”
“They had to run home to get supper ready for you and your cousins. Mattie said she usually prepares something the night before, but last night, she was so exhausted she fell into bed before taking her shoes off.”
“She does too much for us.”
“If you ask her, she’d say you do too much for her.”
A faint smile curved along his lips, tilting his mask to an odd angle. “You’re right.” Without a pause, he asked, “How about that cup of kaffi we never got before you chased us out of the shop? A new café has opened near the Sea Gull Holiday Cottages.”
“I thought that the building wasn’t opening for another month.”
“The lights are on, and the owners have hung a big banner out front announcing they’re in business. Looks like it might be a soft opening so they can work out the kinks before they have their official grand opening. What do you say? By the time I’m done unpacking the potatoes, I’m going to be thirsty, and kaffi sounds great.”
“I don’t think—”
“Don’t think, Kirsten. Say ja. You’ve been working hard, and the only way I can imagine convincing you to relax is to sit there with you.”
“I don’t know.”
“Why not?”
It was a loaded question, and one that Kirsten didn’t want to answer. How could she explain to Mark about how her skin crawled at the idea of going to a café? That was the kind of place where Loyal had met the woman he chose over Kirsten. The best barista. That’s what he’d called the woman, never once mentioning her given name as he stumbled over his words while telling Kirsten he didn’t want to continue their relationship. Mark wanted to take her to a place like that.
He isn’t Loyal, she reminded herself. Loyal hadn’t been loyal. A tinge of hysteria enveloped that thought, and she pushed it away. Five years had passed. Loyal had moved on long ago. It was time for her to do the same.
Trying to keep her voice light, she mused, “I wonder if they serve chai lattes.”
“Chai lattes? What are those?”
“Chai is a tea mixture with cinnamon and ginger. Latte means it’s combined with steam milk.” She smiled. “It’s like drinking a liquid oatmeal cookie.”
“Let’s go and see.”
Knowing she’d be disappointed if she didn’t agree, she nodded. She had to confront her past, but more enticing was the idea of spending time talking with Mark. Not about their work or their families, but about whatever they wanted. It was something they’d never done, and it sounded wunderbaar.
Kirsten took a deep breath of the fresh air as she looked toward the west where the sun was sinking quickly. Days were so much shorter now at the end of November. Mark brought the buggy to a stop near a hitching rail next to a large building that looked as if it’d been a dairy barn.
It was illusion. The building had been built over the past summer. No one had been quite sure what it was going to be. Rumors whispered it might house a glassblowing shop and a pottery or a collection of doktors’ offices. A few tongues had wagged about a new restaurant or a yoga studio, something aimed more at locals than tourists because it’d been started so late in the season, too late to capture the final visitors of the year.
Instead a sign had been hung out front announcing the coming of Shushan Bay Beans. A cartoonish figure of a dark brown kaffi bean was emblazoned on the white sign with bright red letters. The sign was set by the road. A smaller version of the sign hung by the front door on the left side of the broad front porch. He guessed tables and chairs would be set out there once the weather turned warm, but nobody would want to sit and sip kaffi when the wintry wind blew in from the icy bay.
“Here we are,” he said needlessly.
“I can’t wait to find out what they serve.” Kirsten slid open the door on her side of her buggy and stepped out. She tightened her scarf around her neck and pulled it up over her nose as she walked toward the porch steps.
He paused long enough to tie the horse to the hitching post, then hurried to where Kirsten stood by the door. Opening it, he motioned for her to precede him into the café.
Two people were working behind the long counter. Wood floors gleamed underfoot. The menu was written in chalk on a long, tall blackboard set behind the counter where registers that looked like handheld computers waited for customers. Black metal plates held together the unpainted beams that crisscrossed the ceiling. A fireplace divided the space into two, with sliding doors on either side. He guessed they could be closed to allow for a private space on the far side of the fireplace.
Next to one side of the fireplace, a tall tree was covered with Christmas ornaments. They were white and gold to match the ribbon garland woven among its branches. Birds with real feathers for their tails sat on gilded nests. A star that appeared to be made out of straw and rhinestones perched on the top of the tree. Lights twinkled on the tree. Overhead hung lamps with bulbs sprouting in every direction. The lamps dangled between hanging plants and shone down on the glass case which contained a few baked goods.
Kirsten bent to look at them. She was astonished the scones and muffins came in flavors like blueberry-lemon or lavender-vanilla or pumpkin spice.
Mark decided on a chocolate chip muffin and a simple cup of kaffi. He smiled when Kirsten chose a pumpkin spice scone to go with her chai latte. A few minutes later, the barista had put together their drinks and handed them their treats on plates decorated with the image of the kaffi bean on the sign out front.
Kirsten wondered why she’d hesitated to come to the kaffi café. It wasn’t the same one where Loyal had met his barista, and even if it had been, that had happened years ago. She couldn’t live her life stuck in the past, being drawn back as if a rubber band was wrapped around her middle. It was time to cut that band into so many pieces it couldn’t ensnare her again.
Pausing to sprinkle cinnamon on her chai latte, Kirsten went with Mark to a table near the fireplace. The fresh, damp scent of pine needles was the perfect accent to her drink.
“Do you want to try it?” She held up the cup, and he leaned forward to sample the aromas wafting from it.
“You’re right. It smells like an oatmeal cookie without raisins.” He glanced down at his black kaffi. “I should be a bit more adventurous.”
“Like your brother?”
His brows drew together. “Daryn?”
“Ja. Adventurous is the word my friend Aveline used to describe Daryn. Before you met her after church, she was talking to me about how her brothers got into trouble when they were Daryn’s age, and they called them adventures.” She shared some of Aveline’s brothers’ wild escapades.
Mark laughed when Kirsten got to the tale about Aveline’s brothers convincing the kids in their neighborhood that they had an elephant in their barn. They’d charged the other kinder a loonie to pet the elephant’s leg. The ruse had come to an end when someone discovered the leg was well-worn tire rubber the boys had scavenged from along the side of the road. The money they’d tricked the other kids out of had been sent as a contribution to the Mennonite Disaster Service to help with rebuilding after a flood along the US border in western Canada.
Taking a sip of her chai after finishing that story, Kirsten said, “You think these stories are funny, but you’re exasperated with Daryn.”
“The stories are funny when they’re happening to someone else’s brothers.” He stirred his kaffi. “And when one of the stories doesn’t include how they painted insults on someone’s boat.”
She became serious. “You still think Daryn was involved in that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you show him the gloves?”
He shook his head. “I was going to, but then with the mess at the shop, I haven’t had the time. When I didn’t hear about any other vandalism, I figured it could wait. Have you heard anything new?”
“No. Maybe it was a onetime thing aimed at a particular fisherman.”
“I’d like to believe that, but I don’t.”
“Why?”
“Just a feeling I’ve got.” He continued stirring his kaffi. “I worry my parents were wrong to send Daryn here. He’s helping around the house, but he may be getting bored. That’s a sure way for him to start looking for trouble again.”
Breaking a piece off her scone, she considered her answer. When it came, it was so obvious, she wondered why neither of them had considered it before.
“How about if we give the kids an adventure so they don’t get bored?” she asked.
“I hope you’re not suggesting we take a neighbor’s car and head out across the Island or to find ruined tires to build an ‘elephant.’”
She laughed. “The thought never crossed my mind. I was thinking about a different type of adventure. Let’s take Janelle, Theo and Daryn into town and visit a thrift shop or two. Janelle wants a new clock for her room, and Theo is anxious to find some sports equipment. They might find what they’re looking for in a thrift store in Shushan. You and Daryn can join us. Who knows what you’ll find?”
“I don’t know. Well, I do know. Spending an afternoon pawing through racks of worn clothing is something I don’t want to do.”
“I understand you’re busy.” There must be a way to convince Mark that his brother was more than an obligation. They could become friends, creating a friendship that would last the rest of their lives.
She’d tried to do that with Janelle, which was why she’d agreed to talk to Janelle’s friend about working for Ocean Breezes. Maybe working together toward a common goal—finding a replacement for Janelle—would bring them closer. She hoped so.
And Theo. So far their relationship seemed comfortable. Yet she’d seen cracks. With her and with his mamm. He was growing up, testing his bounds, unsure what he wanted to be or whom. She wanted to help him. She wanted to help them avoid the mistakes she’d made.
“I am busy,” Mark said, bringing her attention to him. “The house needs so much work.”
She took a sip of her tea, then lowered the cup to the table. “It’ll be fun. You’ll see. Who knows what you might find?” Her smile broadened. “It’ll give the kids a chance to get away while we can keep an eye on them.”
“There is that, and I can’t be too busy to help my brother.” He nodded. “Let’s have an adventure in Shushan.”
She smiled as she reached for her cup. She didn’t take a sip because her heart was doing jumping jacks. Had she been foolish to arrange for this outing when every image running through her head was focused on her and Mark as they walked along the main street, hand in hand?
Ja, she’d been silly to ask him to come with her and the kids, but this time wouldn’t be like the past. She’d learned her lessons, and she wouldn’t let her heart overrule her brain.
Again.