Sometimes, I almost forgot what Rachel looked like, but held the memory of her hair and her soft hand close to my heart. Some nights, she seemed so close I could touch her, but when I woke up she was gone. Doc seldom had a call to that part of the county but he kept me awful busy with the books. Aunt Alice was always a slave driver when it came to chores. After she heard about germs, she got more persnickety about housecleaning. Being a doctor’s apprentice didn’t leave time for fun.
There wasn’t even no way I could send a message to Rachel, lessen it was by letter that her pa might get first. Every Saturday, I put on my best clothes, slicked down my hair and went downtown. Rachel never came to town. When the Bontrager’s team of big Belgian horses and the wagon would come down Main Street tt was just the old man and his boys. I was careful to stay out of sight on account of I still worried that Reverend Pendelton could send me back to the orphanage. I guess Mr. Birt said something to the Reverend about leaving me alone.
One Saturday, I was moping around, wishing that I could get a glimpse of Rachel,
when Walter, the youngest Bontrager boy, came out of the harness shop all by himself.
“Walter, how’s Rachel?” I just blurted it right out without thinking.
“She’s just fine, walking as good as ever,” said he.
I got all red in the face and the words came tumbling out. “Does she ever talk about me? I think about her all the time.”
“Rachel always wants to come to town. Pa won’t hear of it, says she got big ideas about school. I think she’s sweet on you,” said Walter.
“Would you tell her that I want to see her real bad. Maybe I could get a buggy and take her for a ride again.”
“I’ll do that.” Walter grinned, like he was glad.
I just about floated on air when I walked home on account of she was sweet on me.
When they didn’t come to town the next week, I moped around and didn’t have much of an appetite. One evening Walter knocked on our back door. I figured he wanted the doctor, but he had a big grin and held his black hat in both hands. “Tom, there’s going to be an ice cream social at the meeting house next Saturday. Rachel hopes you can come.”
“I’ll be there if I have to walk,” said I
Walter looked down at his feet like he was embarrassed. “It ain’t that easy. Pa hates outsiders on account of folks who don’t know our ways are a bad influence. Rachel got the idea you could come with the ice wagon. If you git there, be real careful around Pa.”
Billy Malone was throwing his Barlow knife at the outline of an Injun on a board. From ten feet away, he could hit the bulls-eye every time. He could do most anything with that knife, from skinning rabbits to making a fire by striking the back of the blade with a piece of flint.
“Do you know about the ice cream social at the Amish meeting house next week?” I asked.
“Yep, they want two hundred pounds of ice and twenty pounds of rock salt. What about it?”
“Who is driving the delivery wagon?”
“I ‘spect Pa will send me.”
“Kin I go along?”
Billy held the point of the knife blade and gave it a toss. It turned over once in the air and went “plunk” dead center in the middle of the Injun. “Pete Stickel was going to help load the ice and drive the wagon, but you could go instead. How come you want to go to an Amish ice cream social?” He asked
I scuffed the dirt with my toe. “Aw, just to take a ride in the country n’ get away from Aunt Alice for a spell. She’s been workin’ me pretty hard.”
“It wouldn’t have nothin’ to do with that blond haired gal?”
“I was hopin’ to see her again.”
“You gotta help load the ice and chip it when we git there. We have to leave early before it gets so hot the ice melts,” said he.
I could hardly wait until the next Saturday. “Kin I have Saturday off?” I asked. “Only if you get the chores done on Friday,” Doc said. I split enough wood for a whole week, curried the horse, shined up the buggy and scrubbed the operating room with carbolic. Everything was done by Friday night. I took a bath, laid out clean clothes and shined my Sunday shoes. First thing Saturday, I got the fire going in the kitchen stove, pumped water into the wash tubs, had a bite of breakfast and combed the cowlick out of my hair. I left before Aunt Alice caught me for more chores. It was a warm, clear day, but over toward the east, the sky was dull red, hazy almost like the sun was shining through smoke.
Billy’s pa cut big blocks of ice from the lake in the winter time and stored them under sawdust in a big thick walled building. Billy and I shoveled away the sawdust then we cut the big slabs into fifty pound blocks that we put in a box lined with sawdust. We piled on more sawdust, a couple feet of straw and covered the whole thing with a canvas tarpaulin. By the time we got done I was wet and dirty. Billy settled on the wagon seat and got the two dray horses to moving. They pulled hard but slow on account of the wagon was real heavy.
Billy looked over his shoulder at the red sky. “It’s going to storm for sure.”
It didn’t make no difference to me, on account of Rachel would be at the ice cream social. It took almost until noon to get to the meeting house. A whole lot of buggies and horses were parked under shade trees. The church meeting was over and folks were just finishing lunch out under the trees. Rachel was surrounded by a bunch of big strapping young farmers making goo-goo eyes. They had on their best black Sunday suits and were all slicked up for courting. The sawdust never did come out of my wet clothes and I felt pretty sheepish. She was wearing a long homespun brown dress and her hair, done up in braids, was covered with a little white cap. She looked more filled out and all grown up. It didn’t seem fair that girls grew up faster than boys and all the older fellows got first dibs on the prettiest girls. She didn’t pay me no attention. I chipped ice so boys could pack ice chips and salt into the ice cream makers while women mixed the sugar and cream in big bowls. Long tables were covered with cakes and pies. They had peaches, raspberries and hickory nuts for different flavors of ice cream. Billy and I figured we would eat ice cream until we busted. There was lots of giggling and hollering, when they put the makin’s and the ice and salt into the mixer. Boys took turns at the crank and churned the mixture until it got cold and thick. Other kids stole the chips and crunched them with their teeth. I had just about given up hope of ever being alone with Rachel when she came by, talking to another girl and slipped me a bit of paper. “I’ll be under the big cottonwood by the creek.”
I knew right away it was the same place we had gone in the buggy. While the ice cream was getting cold, younger kids played red rover and ring around the rosy. The men had a rope-pulling tug of war over a mud pit and the women bustled around with the food. Me and Billy chipped ice, like we were the hired help. All this time, the sky was getting hazy and a breeze sprung up that took the edge off the heat.
The older folks were talking, eating and watching the young ones, but Rachel’s pa scowled every time he looked my way.
Late in the afternoon, there was a game of hide and seek. Rachel ran up a hill and disappeared. The cottonwood trees were in the opposite direction, but I figured she meant to double back. I drifted off and when no one was looking, ran through the woods towards the creek. She wasn’t there, but after a while, I saw sneaking through the trees.
“They won’t find us if we scrunch down between the roots,” she said.
She picked a place, out of sight, where we could sit together. I was all tongue tied and red in the face and didn’t know what to say until I got it out, “I ain’t seen you in a long time.”
“Can’t you say you are glad to see me,” she said.
“Why sure. It’s about the happiest thing that ever happened.”
“I’m real sorry about your pa. Was that orphanage pretty awful?”
“Yes, it was real awful.”
She was quiet for a spell and sat with her arms folded over her chest.
“How is that little colt?” I asked.
“He ain’t mine no more. Pa says I can’t ride a horse because it was all my fault that my leg got broke.”
“I’m sorry about that. It ain’t common for a girl to ride horses, though.”
“I’d druther ride horses than anything. It’s so free and nice with the breeze blowin’ through my hair. I like takin’ care of them too. I raised that colt until they took him from me.” Her mouth turned down and it looked like she might cry.
“Rachel, if we was to run away together, we could go to Kansas or even Californy and you could ride every day. Besides, we could be together all the time,” I said.
“Oh, Tom, that would be so nice, but I just couldn’t leave Ma. She ain’t been feelin’so good and I got to help with the cookin’ and chores. Besides, you couldn’t be a doctor.”
“I could be an Indian scout for the army or dig for gold. There are lots of other things besides doctoring if we were together.”
“Now, Tom, don’t talk that way. I’d just love to be with you, but you got a callin’ to be a doctor and it wouldn’t be right if you gave that up. Besides, it must be real nice to get all that learning. I ‘spose you will be going away to school pretty soon.”
“I’d rather go out west with you than anything,” I said.
She looked at me with her blue eyes all shiny and bright and some color come in her cheeks. It made her all the more pretty. I couldn’t say nothin’.
“Ma taught me to read and write. I went to school with the little ones for a while, but we ain’t got a teacher no more. I always thought it would be nice to teach school,” she said.
We sifted dirt through our fingers and listened to the birds chirping. It was comfortable, just being so close together. The breeze turned cool and dark swirling clouds scudded right over the trees. All of a sudden, there was a crash of thunder and a bolt of lightning streaked out of the sky.
“Oh, Tom, I’m scared of lightning.”
“We should go back.”
“No, not yet.”
The sky opened and rain came pouring down and there was more thunder and lightning. We huddled closer, but I didn’t touch her until the next thundery crash and a bolt of lightning split the sky right over our heads. Rachel clutched my arm and buried her head on my chest. “Hold me, Tom.”
I held her, so there wasn’t nothing separating us but her dress and my shirt. She was warm and soft. I pecked on her cheek with a little kiss. Then it was like an explosion because we were hugging and kissing and getting soaked with the rain all at the same time. We didn’t say nothing until the rain turned into a light drizzle and the sky lightened up.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could stay like this forever? I think about you most all the time,” I said.
“Oh Tom,” she said and burst out crying.
“What’s wrong?
“It’s Pa. He wants me to marry to a rich farmer.”
“You are too young to get married.”
“No I ain’t. Lots of girls get married at my age, mostly to older men.”
It just goes to show that happiness never lasts as long as misery. There wasn’t no way I could marry her on account of I didn’t have no money and it would take years before I finished school. She rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes, sort of dreamy like. “We better git on back before Pa comes looking,” said she.
We kissed again and she squeezed my hand when we got up and walked back, sort of twined around each other until we came out of the woods.
Everyone was inside the meeting hall and all the ice cream was all et up. We were wet as dogs that been swimming in the river and most of the other folks were dry. Her pa and brothers came clompin’ over my way and stood in a circle with me in the middle.
“How come you and Rachel come in all wet?” her Pa asked.
“I don’t know about Rachel, I ‘spect she was out hiding. I went down to the creek to wash off the sawdust.” It was a fib, but I figured it was right to protect Rachel.
“We were just fixin’ to leave,” I said.
“Don’t you come this way no more,” old man Bontrager growled.
Billy Malone was outside, layin’ down under the wagon and the tarpaulin.
“That peach ice cream was the best, but I liked the kind with hickory nuts too,” he said.
“Shut up, I ain’t had nothin’ to eat since morning.”
We got up on the wagon and started the horses just about dark. The rain had passed, but tall black clouds scudded across the sky. No one came out to say good bye until we were a quarter mile down the road. About a half dozen of those fellows who had been makin’ google eyes at Rachel stepped from behind a clump of trees. They had black broad brimmed hats, black suits, and two had full beards. They didn’t strike me as the sort of people who meant us real harm.
Billy stiffened and grabbed for the whip.
“Hold on, the Amish are peace loving folks.” My hunch was right; they didn’t have weapons, but waved for us to stop.
“We don’t aim to hurt you boys, but it wouldn’t be wise for you to come back and bother our women. Our ways are different and it’s best for you to leave us alone.”
I didn’t say nothin’, but hung my head and suffered. It hurt even more, now that I knew Rachel had feelings for me.