Levi readied the buggy as his sisters hung clothes on the line. His father and brothers were rebuilding the back fence that had been damaged by the storm on Saturday. As he positioned the bit in the horse’s mouth, he recalled his time with Mary.
Adeline had awoken not long after Levi and Mary got cozy on the piano bench, but during the short time they had to talk, Mary said maybe they were kindred spirits. Levi had no idea what that meant, and he’d been too embarrassed to ask her, but she smiled after she said it, so he took it to be a gut thing.
Today he was carting his mother to Widow Stutzman’s haus, and as Mamm walked across their front yard and stepped over Abram’s bike, she was limping more than usual. Levi wondered if there was a better route to the widow’s place, a less traveled road without so many potholes. But he was pretty sure there was only one way to go.
As his mother climbed into the passenger side of the buggy, she flinched and grimaced. Levi worried there was more to her ailments than arthritis, but she had assured him there wasn’t anything else wrong.
“Maybe you need to see a doctor, Mamm,” he said before he clicked his tongue and pulled on the reins, directing the horse to ease the buggy backward.
His mother folded her hands atop the black purse in her lap and lifted her chin. “I have been seeing a doctor.”
Levi made the turn from their long driveway onto the street, then gave the reins a flick. “I mean a real doctor, an Englisch doctor.” They always sought out natural remedies first, but the various herbs and spices Widow Stutzman was giving his mother didn’t seem to bring her much relief.
Levi complained sometimes about taking his mother on long trips, but up until a month ago, it hadn’t been an issue. Mamm had driven herself everywhere. Then she came home from the market one day, stormed into the haus, said she wasn’t driving the buggy anymore, and slammed her bedroom door behind her. It was untypical behavior for their mother, and Levi could still recall the look on his father’s face, a mixture of confusion and concern. His mother never gave a reason for why she chose to stop driving the buggy, and everyone seemed afraid to ask. Levi thought maybe she’d had a close call with a car and it scared her. The dent on the rear left side of the buggy seemed to indicate that might be the case.
“I want to give the natural medications a little longer to see if they work.” She turned to Levi, squinting from the sun, but with a sparkle in her eyes. “What a beautiful day. The Lord blessed us with blue skies, and you’d hardly know a storm blew through two days ago.”
It was clear his mother wanted to change the subject, so Levi decided not to push. “I’m going to have to redo some of the primer I painted on Adeline’s haus since it started raining soon after I applied a coat.”
Levi had been glad for the rain when Adeline suggested they all play a card game until the weather cleared. Mary wanted to clean house, but Adeline had insisted they all play cards. It was a blessing that the skies cleared in time for him and Mary to get on the road and make it home before dark. Levi didn’t mind driving in the dark, but Mary said driving at night made her nervous.
“She’s a lovely woman—Adeline. I’m glad you don’t mind helping her out.” She shook her head. “It’s a shame she doesn’t have any kin to help her. Did she sell a lot at the estate sale?”
“Ya, almost everything. And it’s real dirty where all the furniture was.”
“Maybe I need to go with you this Saturday and give the place a gut cleaning. I can take the girls with me.” His mother shifted her weight in the seat, flinching again.
“She’s got someone to clean for her.”
His mother turned to face him. “Ach, that’s gut, I reckon. Who is it?”
Levi shrugged and looked to his left, avoiding his mother’s questioning gaze. “Just a girl she knows.” He paused. “Well, I don’t think Adeline really knows Mary, but Mary’s father knew Percy real well. She came to take Adeline for a buggy ride since Adeline doesn’t drive her car anymore. And she offered to clean the haus.”
His mother smiled a little when Levi looked her way. She was going to ask him about Mary, how old she was, and so on, but Levi had an equally uncomfortable conversation he wanted to have with his mother about another topic. There was no easy way to break into it, and it would avoid her questioning him about Mary.
“There’s this one room in Adeline’s haus with a real fancy red couch and chair. Nothing in that room sold.” He swallowed hard. “Not even the piano.”
His mother scowled. “Levi Shetler, you’re not playing that piano, are you? I still shudder when I think about you playing that one time when you were a young boy.”
Levi was quiet. There was nothing he disliked more than lying, but the temptation to tell her he hadn’t played the piano was strong.
“You did play it, didn’t you?” His mother hissed, clicking her tongue. “What would the bishop think?” Her eyes widened. “And even worse, what would your daed have to say about it?” She shook her head, clicking her tongue even more. “Not to mention the Lord.”
Levi had managed to pull off the time he played Percy’s piano when he was ten without his mother knowing, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie. “Ya, I played it. But no one was around. Mary had taken Adeline on a ride. But I don’t understand why we’re not allowed to play instruments or sing.” He looked at his mother. “There are a lot of Bible verses about music.”
Mamm faced forward again and lifted her chin. “You are allowed to sing. You’ve been to plenty of Sunday singings to know that.” She turned toward him frowning. “And we sing in church.”
Levi wasn’t sure the slow drawn-out notes of the church songs could really be called singing.
His mother folded her hands in her lap and sat taller. “That’s just the way it’s always been. We don’t sing except at worship service and the singings.”
“But why?” Levi had already prepared for this part of the conversation. “ ‘O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.’ Or, what about ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.’ And—”
“That’s enough, Levi. I know there are many references to song in the Bible, and we do sing the songs allowed in the Liedersammlung, and in other districts, they use the Ausbund.”
“Mamm, you know what I mean. I don’t normally question the Ordnung. I know it’s important to stay detached from the outside world, so I can understand why we don’t use electricity and things like that. But . . . music is beautiful.” He turned to her, knowing his eyes and his voice were pleading with her to bend the rules. But permission to play the piano wasn’t hers to give. It was a long-established rule that had been in place for generations.
“Levi.” She turned her head to face him. “I’m not arguing that fact. Music is beautiful, and as I said, it is allowed. But songs must be appropriate.” Pausing, she rubbed her forehead for a few seconds. “Do you understand why we have as little contact with the Englisch as possible? There are exceptions, of course, like Adeline and Percy, God rest his soul.” She took in a breath. “It’s because we are unequally yoked. There are a lot of gut Englisch folks out there who are Christians and who love the Lord, but we have no way of discerning which ones do and don’t adhere to the laws of Christ. If we were to turn everyone loose to listen to any kind of music they wanted to, what messages would our kinner get from some of those songs?”
Levi wasn’t sure he’d ever heard his mother use words like discerning and adhere, which made him wonder if she’d given this speech before. Had one of his siblings asked this question?
“But playing the piano doesn’t involve any words, so there aren’t any messages.” He turned on the street where Widow Stutzman lived. “I’m not playing music that sounds evil or wild. It’s just pretty. I don’t understand how we can have a rule that has no meaning behind it. And for some unknown reason, I know how to play the piano.”
She leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and exhaled. Lifting her eyes to Levi, she shook her head. “I thought I just explained the reasoning behind the rule.” She pressed her lips together and pointed a finger at him. “Levi, you promise me that you won’t play that instrument when you are at Adeline’s. We can debate about singing all you want to, but playing an instrument is strictly forbidden. You are there to work, not to do things that go against our ways.”
Levi stared long and hard at his mother. “I can’t promise that, Mamm. It feels like that piano is calling me to play.” He pulled into the widow’s driveway, then shook his head. “I know it’s wrong, but how can something that is in the Bible be so forbidden, something that brings out all kinds of emotions?”
His mother pressed her lips together and pointed a finger at him again. “And there is your answer. Music invokes unnecessary emotions.” She sighed heavily as she lowered her hand and pulled her purse over her arm. “And it’s prideful to show off by doing something that others can’t. What if one person could play piano, and another one played a guitar, or maybe a violin? Everything in the Ordnung makes it clear that we are to do things the same way, not to stand out among each other. Our buggies are the same color, our clothing is the same, and we follow the Lord’s teachings in the same manner.”
Levi brought the buggy to a stop as he thought about his mother’s reasoning. “I’ll wait here.”
His mother sat still a few seconds, then slowly eased off the seat, but turned to face Levi once she was standing. “Sohn, there are a lot of voices that call to us. And sometimes it is difficult to discern whose voice it is. But I guarantee you, if you think that piano is calling to you, that isn’t the voice of our Lord. It’s the other voice. Keep that in mind as temptation calls to you.”
Levi was quiet. He’d put up a good argument with his mother, but maybe she was right. There was nothing good to come from playing the piano. The wonderful feelings that rushed over him as he played were nothing but trickery from the devil. It had to be.
And he’d keep telling himself that until his temptation to play the piano went away forever.
Mary waited behind her friend Katie to clock out at the bakery. “Do you know anyone from Orleans, or have you ever been there?”
Katie pulled her timecard from the slot and stepped aside so Mary could stamp hers. “Ya, I went there a few years ago for a cousin’s wedding. Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering. I met someone from Orleans, and I was surprised to learn they don’t use any kind of phones, not even cell phones. No solar panels either.” Mary paused, pressing her lips together for a few seconds. “I can’t imagine mei daed not having a way to power his tools.”
Katie opened the closet in the back room of the bakery and pulled out her purse, draping it across her arm, then she handed Mary hers. “That’s not all they do without. They don’t use propane for stoves, ovens, or refrigerators. They still cook in wood stoves, and anything that has to be kept cold is stored in freezers with big ice blocks.”
Mary walked in step with her friend as they left the bakery and made their way to their buggies. “Why?”
Katie shrugged. “I don’t know. I asked mei mamm about that after the wedding, and she said that’s the way it’s always been in Orleans. Not every family lives that way, but a lot of them do.” Her eyes widened as she turned to Mary. “Some families still use an outhouse and don’t have any indoor plumbing.”
Mary untethered her horse. “How can that be? They are only forty miles from us.”
Katie chuckled. “I guess that’s why. They are forty miles from us. That’s nothing in a car, but it would be a long trip by buggy.” Katie gave her horse a scratch on the nose. “Why do you ask?”
Mary wasn’t ready to tell Katie about Levi. “I’m visiting a woman on Saturdays. Her husband has passed, and she can’t drive anymore. I took her on a buggy ride last Saturday, and this Saturday I will help her clean her house. Mei daed was friends with her husband, and right now, she just needs a little help and company.”
Katie nodded, then scowled. “That’s too far to push your horse, forty miles. How are you getting there? Are you hiring a driver?”
“Nee, nee.” Mary shook her head as she ran a hand over her own horse’s mane. “She doesn’t live in Orleans. She lives in Shoals.” Swallowing hard, she could read the confusion in Katie’s expression. “There’s a painter that works for the Englisch woman, too, and he’s from Orleans. Their way of life sounds different from ours, stricter.”
“Ya, that’s what I’ve heard.” Katie walked around the buggy but quickly trekked back, grinning. “Is this about the painter?”
Mary felt a blush starting up her neck, and as she avoided Katie’s eyes, she couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face.
“It is. Tell me.” Katie bounced up on her toes a little. “Is he courting you?”
Mary bit her bottom lip. She’d been friends with Katie since they were little, but Katie spread gossip faster than a herd of cattle heading toward a feed trough. Mary shook her head. “Nee, we’re just friends.”
Katie chuckled, then gave Mary an all-knowing wink. “Sure you are.”
Mary rolled her eyes, then silently chastised herself for it. “We are just friends,” she repeated before she climbed into her buggy. Katie blew out a breath of frustration before she got into her own buggy and waved goodbye.
After establishing a steady trot on a back road to her house, Mary dug a pair of earbuds out of her purse. Earlier Katie had shown her how to listen to music on her phone, and her friend had an extra set of earbuds since Mary kept hers in her nightstand drawer.
She found the song she sang for Levi and listened and sang along. But she had trouble focusing on the words. Levi’s face kept flashing into her mind. The way he looked at her when he held her hand. She’d even told him maybe they were kindred spirits. She regretted saying that. Mostly, they just had a love of music in common. That didn’t make them kindred spirits, a term she’d learned from an Englisch friend who worked at the bakery.
She tried to shake loose her thoughts about Levi. Eventually the house would be painted, and he wouldn’t have a reason to keep coming on Saturdays. Since he lived so far from her, she needed to be prepared for the friendship to end.
Mary would continue taking Adeline for buggy rides or to the market as often as she’d like. She enjoyed time with the older woman, and she loved hearing her stories about Percy, their special times together, and how she couldn’t wait to see him in heaven. Adeline told Mary she was in good health for a woman her age, but Mary had noticed that her hands trembled a lot, and she wasn’t always steady on her feet. She’d also seen Adeline in the hallway holding her chest and gritting her teeth as she made her way to the bathroom.
She wondered if there was more going on with Adeline than just normal aging.
Adeline carried her tomato-and-cheese sandwich into the parlor, stared at the piano, and again recalled how they’d saved and saved for the instrument. She remembered how she would haul a kitchen chair into the room to watch her husband play before they had any other furniture. Percy was a large man, and his hands needed the freedom to run the entire length of the keys. They’d purchased the red couch and Percy’s chair at an estate sale a few months later, items they never could have afforded new back then.
It was a miracle that Percy had stumbled upon a piano—a grand piano—that they could afford. But the man selling it didn’t have long to live, and Adeline always thought the fellow could feel Percy’s passion about music. When Percy told him how much he had to spend, the man said that sounded fine. They saved for another month to hire professional piano movers.
Adeline sat down on the couch and took a bite of her sandwich, thinking how much better it would be if it was grilled. The last time she attempted to cook with her shaky hands, she’d dropped the skillet and broken a toe.
Closing her eyes, she envisioned Percy at the piano, seemingly healthy as a horse. He had a heart attack after taking a shower one evening, and he died before the ambulance arrived. Adeline had just enough time to tell him how much she loved him before he slipped out of this world and into the next. Some days, she wished she’d have a heart attack too.
She savored the flavor of the cheese and tomatoes and forced such morbid thoughts away. Instead she thought about her two new friends, wondering if they saw the spark igniting between them. Adeline caught them sneaking looks at each other during their visit, a thought that brought her right back to Percy.
She remembered clearly the first time she met him. She’d gone with her father to a cattle auction, as she almost always did. Adeline couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t love animals. She’d even wanted to be a veterinarian someday.
Percy owned the prize cow that everyone wanted. Her father had paid top dollar for the animal. And Adeline had fallen in love with Percy Collins that day when she was twenty-one years old. It had been a brief encounter in front of her father, but Adeline could still recall the way Percy took off his hat, smiled at her, and told her father what a pretty daughter he had.
Looking back, it seemed a bold thing to say to her father, but Adeline’s cheeks still warmed when she thought about the way Percy had looked at her, the warmth in his eyes, the way he squared his shoulders with confidence. He was handsome, and younger than her, but she was drawn to him right away for reasons she couldn’t identify at the time. Now, all these years later, she knew that love wasn’t always logical. What draws one person to another, besides physical attraction, is often a mystery that perhaps only the Lord is privy to. It was another two years before he came calling to ask her on a date. And three months later, she became Mrs. Percy Collins.
Smiling, she took another bite of the sandwich, but she jumped when there was a knock at the door. She wasn’t expecting anyone until Saturday when Mary and Levi arrived. She stood up, set her plate on the chair, and shuffled to the door as she smoothed the wrinkles from her blue blouse and knocked off a few crumbs in the process.
“Can I help you?” She smiled at the young woman on the other side of the screen door, the dry air outside colliding with the air-conditioning inside.
“Ms. Collins, it’s me, Natalie. Do you remember me?”
The small woman with long blond hair and big blue eyes looked familiar, but Adeline couldn’t place her.
“I’m Cecelia’s daughter.”
Adeline smiled as she brought a hand to her chest. “Of course.” She motioned for Natalie to step back so she could open the screen door. “Come in, come in.” She studied the young woman as she stepped across the threshold. She looked to be about Mary’s age, maybe eighteen or nineteen. “It must have been at Percy’s funeral, the last time I saw you.”
Natalie nodded. “I think so.”
Adeline pulled her into a hug, then held on to her shoulders as she eyed her up and down. “What a lovely young woman you’ve become. How is Cecelia?” Adeline had never been close to Percy’s side of the family. Percy hadn’t kept in touch with his kin either. There hadn’t ever been any ill will about it. Sometimes distance causes folks to lose touch, and from what Adeline could remember, Percy’s cousins lived on the other side of Indianapolis, at least a two-hour drive.
Several times, the family had asked Percy and Adeline to join them for a holiday meal, but Percy never wanted to go. If Adeline’s memory served her well, Cecelia and her husband had two children. But Cecelia’s mother and aunts and uncles also attended the holiday events. In hindsight, maybe that was the reason she and Percy hadn’t stayed close with them. It was the big family she and Percy had always wanted. She couldn’t even remember Cecelia’s mother’s name, the cousin who would have been about Percy’s age. But she did remember Natalie from the funeral, even though most of that day was a blur. Adeline didn’t have any family. She often forgot that Percy did, even though there wasn’t any relationship there.
“Mom’s fine.” Natalie hung her head for a few seconds, then looked back at Adeline and sighed. “Her and Dad got a divorce not long ago, so things were a mess for a while.”
“Oh dear. I’m so sorry to hear that.” Adeline glanced around her almost-empty living room at the squares and circles on the floor where furniture had been for nearly fifty years. “Forgive the appearance of the place. I had an estate sale recently.” She felt a shudder of renewed humiliation and didn’t want word of her financial status getting back to Percy’s family. “It was time for those old antiques to go.” She felt another tear in her heart as she spoke. “But, please, follow me into the parlor where we can chat. I still have some furniture in there.”
Adeline scooted past the brown couch, not wanting to subject her guest to the loose springs protruding randomly on the piece of furniture.
“Wow, this is a cool room.” Natalie’s eyes lit up as she took in the space Adeline so loved.
“Percy and I spent a lot of time in this room.” Adeline looked around, then remembered her sandwich on the chair. She hurried to scoop it up. “Let me just put this in the kitchen. Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat.”
Natalie shook her head, her lovely blond hair swaying past her shoulders. “No. Thank you, though. I was just in the area and decided to stop by. Don’t let me interrupt your lunch.”
“I’ve had plenty. Be back in a moment.” Adeline put the dish on the counter and hurried back to her guest, her heart filling a tiny bit as she wondered if Percy would welcome the child into his heart if he were alive. After turning it over in her mind, she decided he would. It was the large crowds that congregated on holidays that he wasn’t fond of.
When she returned, Natalie was sitting in the red chair where Levi sat on Saturday, where Percy sat for decades.
“This really is a super cool room.” Natalie set her purse on the floor beside her and crossed one leg over the other as she leaned into the chair. “And I love this furniture.”
That was nice to hear. Adeline thought she was the only one who appreciated it these days. She wondered if she should offer to patch the tear in Natalie’s jean, a fringy slit right above her knee. It didn’t look right with her crisp white blouse and high-heeled white sandals. But she didn’t want to hurt the girl’s feelings. And kids dressed a bit differently these days. “So, tell me, what brings you to Shoals?”
Natalie rolled her eyes, something Adeline had caught Mary doing a few times. Adeline remembered being reprimanded by her father for the gesture when she was about Natalie and Mary’s age. Just when you think everything in the world has changed, you find something familiar to cling to. Teenagers will always be teenagers.
“Job training,” Natalie said. “I work for Rural King. I mean, not as a checker or anything. I’m in management.” She huffed. “I’m not sure why the training is way out here instead of where I normally work.” Another eye roll, followed by a smile. Adeline used to frequent the Rural King in Bedford. The store carried a hodgepodge of items, everything from farming supplies to clothing, along with tools, home goods, and hunting gear. “So, I thought I’d stop by. Mom told me the address, and I just put it in my GPS.”
Adeline knew what a GPS was, even if she’d never known what GPS stood for. Generalized property search? “Well, I don’t get many visitors, so I’m happy to have you.”
Natalie looked around again, her gaze heading toward the window, the red curtains tied back with gold strands of decorative rope. “You don’t have any neighbors. Just a lot of fields. It must get lonely out here.”
Adeline smiled. “Those fields fed us for many years, until Percy became too old to tend the land anymore.” She suppressed a sigh as she recalled shelling peas on the porch while Percy was out on the tractor. “It wasn’t lonely when Percy was alive. But sometimes it is now.” Could it be that the Lord was gifting her with yet another young person to fill the emptiness?
“I’m going to be coming to Shoals every Wednesday for a while, for the training I mentioned. Maybe I could come and visit you?”
Thank you, Lord. Adeline brought a hand to her chest. “I’d like that very much.” She might be running out of money, but her circle of friends was growing, and that felt more important. She thanked God again, then listened as Natalie told her about her parents, how her brother—Sean—had joined the Army, and then she finally mentioned her grandmother, the one closest in age to Percy.
“My grandma died last year.” The girl looked away for a few seconds, her eyes traveling back to the window as she blinked a few times.
Adeline still couldn’t remember the woman’s name, but it was clear that Natalie was still grieving. “Honey, I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Natalie tucked her hair behind her ears before she slowly found Adeline’s eyes. “I loved her very much. In a lot of ways, I was closer to her than my mother.” Pausing, a smile filled her face. “Mimi Jean drove a racecar for a while in the sixties. She even won a trophy. She was kinda wild like that. But she was the kindest person I’ve ever known. And no one could bake bread the way she could.”
The girl’s eyes glowed as she spoke about her grandmother. Jean. Adeline remembered her, and the few times she’d been around the woman, she’d always laughed a lot. Adeline remembered her daughter, Cecelia, being not quite as friendly. Not rude, just not as outspoken and cheerful as her mother. The qualities must skip a generation, Adeline thought, as she watched the animated way Natalie talked about her grandmother. There was no doubt she’d loved the woman very much.
Adeline wondered if anyone would speak of her with such fondness after she was gone. Maybe this was her chance to leave a bit of legacy with Percy’s family. Perhaps this young woman would like to know more about the third cousin she’d never really known.
But the visit was cut short when Natalie’s phone rang from her purse. She reached for it, studied it, then stood. “I’m going to have to go.”
Adeline slowly lifted herself from the couch, disappointed that their visit was coming to an end. But when Natalie crossed the room and hugged Adeline, she felt sure the girl would be back next week, and in addition to Mary and Levi on Saturdays, she’d have Natalie’s visits to look forward to. Eventually, Levi would finish painting, and Mary would tire of carting Adeline around. But Natalie was Percy’s family, so she was Adeline’s kin by extension.
And sure enough, at the front door Natalie said, “See you next Wednesday.”
Adeline smiled and waved as Natalie headed to her car. “I’m looking forward to it.”