“Ja, that’s all she has in the kitchen, Mam!” Michael giggled.
In the house, the boys bathed. As Annie bathed, Barbara sat, feeling antsy. “Kinder, let me see how much weight you’ve lost. I want to measure tonight. Jeb and Michael, you two first.”
Quickly, she took and noted down measurements. “Annie, your turn...how is your bruise?”
“Better. It doesn’t hurt as much. My dresses are almost too loose!”
“Really? I’m going to have to buy fabric. What two colors do you want?”
“Purple! And blue.”
“Okay. I’ll get started.” Barbara went downstairs, new dresses on her mind. “Husband, I’m going to have to go to the fabric store. Annie and I have lost so much weight already that our dresses don’t fit.”
“Let’s make it a day of shopping. I’m about to walk out of my pants. The boys probably are as well. Shirts—we need them, too.”
Barbara nodded, scribbling a note down on the notepad in the kitchen hutch. “I’m going to see if we have any fabric I could use to make dresses. I may be able to save money there.” As she went down the hall, she hoped she was giving the impression of a wife and mother preoccupied with the well-being of her children.
The next morning, she bustled up to Ben. “Husband, I’m going to take Annie to the pediatrician. She has a large bruise on her chest and I don’t know where it came from.”
“Is she hurting?”
“She says it does hurt a little. I’m worried about her ribs. Will you take the boys to school while I take Annie to the doctor?”
“Ja, but you’ll have to pick them up after school. I’ll be busy replacing and repairing tools that have broken in the past year.”
“Okay, denki. Annie!” Barbara hurried off. “Daughter, I’m taking you to the doctor.” She closed Annie’s bedroom door. “I’ve been thinking about your bruise, and I’m worried about injuries to your ribs. You’ll have to miss at least the morning at school.”
“Mam! I don’t want to go to the doctor! It doesn’t hurt me, honest!”
“Nee. I’m taking you.” Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way. Barbara silently rehearsed what she would say to the doctor.
***
In the doctor’s office, Barbara tossed aside the newspaper and took Annie’s hand as the nurse called her name. “Come, Annie, let’s show that bruise to your doctor.”
By her side, Annie wore a pout and dragged her feet. But she complied. In the exam room, the doctor poked and prodded the bruise, noting its colors: purple and red. “You say this happened last night?”
Annie looked up, her mouth opened in outraged surprise. “Mam!” As Barbara’s hand tightened painfully on her lower back, Annie bit back her words.
“Ja. She was fine when I took her for my sister to watch. Actually, she watched all three of them. I had a planning meeting with the deacon’s wife.” Barbara seemed to puff up in self-importance.
“Did Annie complain of pain to her chest or stomach at home? I’m going to want X-rays of her chest and abdomen, just to make sure.”
“No, she didn’t, actually. She...all of them...love their auntie.” Barbara waved anxiously at Annie as the nurse escorted her to X-ray.
“Okay, so she was fine when you took them to your parents. When she came home, she had this bruise. When did you notice it?”
“After her bath. I had her put an ice pack on it so it wouldn’t hurt as much.”
“What about her ribs or stomach? Did she say they hurt?”
“Mmm, maybe her ribs? But not her stomach...”
Finally, the exam was over. Heaving a sigh of relief, Annie put her dress on and allowed Barbara to pin it back up.
“Annie, you go into the toy room and pick out three toys. One for you and one each for your brothers. I want to talk to your mother.” The pediatrician smiled at Annie, who skipped into the toy room.
“Now, I am concerned that your sister had them just before your daughter showed up with that bruise. Nothing’s broken, thankfully. She’s not bleeding in her abdomen, either.” The doctor sighed, a long, sad sound. “I don’t like suspecting abuse. But in this case, I can’t think of anything but.
“This is what I’m going to do. I have to report this. As a pediatrician, I’m what’s known as a mandated reporter. That is, I’m required to report any suspected cases of abuse or neglect to the authorities. I’m calling the police. They’ll talk to you, Annie and your sister. If they believe Annie was abused, they’ll call child protective services.”
Barbara swallowed, feeling bile rise in her throat. She hadn’t thought of social workers. “Oh...is there any way we can avoid the social workers? Maybe my sister can just repent and promise she’ll take any needed penitence if she talks to our elders?”
“Missus Anderson, that’s out of my hands. They have a solid set of procedures and policies they follow in cases like this. I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later, Annie bounded in with a coloring book, small box of crayons and two small toy trucks. “See, Mam? The trucks are for the boys!”
Barbara smiled and nodded absently. Oh, what have I done now?
Later that night, Barbara started at a knock on the door. Opening it, she saw two police officers. “Oh!”
“Missus Anderson, we need to speak to you regarding the charges against your sister, Emma Lapp.”
“Charges? Against Emma? Wife, what is going on?” Ben stood in the entrance to the kitchen, the picture of an outraged male.
“Uh...the doctor felt that Annie’s bruise may have been abuse...” Barbara’s voice faded out.
“May we come in?”
“Ja, certainly. Kinder, go to your rooms, now! Schnell!”
The children all scattered upstairs.
The four adults sat in the kitchen after Ben poured coffee for them. “Mister Anderson, the doctor called us with suspicions of child abuse. We went to see Miss Lapp. After interviewing her, we can’t find any reason to charge her with abusing your daughter.”
Barbara sat up straight. “But did you—?”
“We asked her to account for every minute that the children were in her care. She did so. She gave them a snack. She supervised their homework and read to them. She combed Annie’s hair in a new style that allows her to keep her head covering on more easily. Then, you came back. She wasn’t even aware that Annie had a bruise on any part of her body.”
The female officer spoke up. “Mister Anderson, if you don’t mind, I’d like to see that bruise.”
Barbara tried to object.
“Wife, quiet! She will look at Annie’s bruise. Annie, come downstairs now!”
The male officer retreated to the living room to give the little girl more privacy.
Annie came down quickly, looking from the officer to her parents, her eyes huge. “Ja, Dat?”
“Annie, this nice police officer wants to look at the bruise on your chest. Your mam and I are in here, so unpin your dress and show her, please.” Ben tried his hardest to speak naturally to Annie, but it was difficult. He didn’t want to scare her.
Quietly, Annie complied, removing her apron, unpinning her dress and opening it. She lifted the sleeveless T-shirt she wore and mutely showed the bruise to the officer.
“Mister Anderson, do you mind if I take a picture of this? I have my smartphone with me and I can send the picture to my computer at the police station.”
“Sure, go ahead.” Ben was mystified by the technology being explained to him.
As the officer kneeled down in front of Annie to take the picture, Ben’s gaze swung around to his wife.
Barbara’s face was pasty white and she refused to look up. She knew she was in trouble.
“Missus Anderson, this bruise doesn’t look anything like what you described in your statement. We saw the record and you wrote that it was hand-shaped, as if an adult had slapped Annie across her torso. This bruise is just a random shape. Annie, sweetie, can you tell me how this happened?”
“Ja. I was swinging at school the other day. One of the boys wanted the swing, but it wasn’t his turn yet. He didn’t care, so he pushed me off when I was swinging back. I fell off and landed on my stomach, and it hurt! I felt like I was going to throw up!”
Three sets of eyes all swung toward Barbara. The male officer sighed and spoke. “Missus Anderson, you went to your children’s pediatrician with a story that your own sister had hit your daughter. Based on your complaint, your doctor reported that to our station. What you did was file a false report, and we have to place you under arrest.
“Mister Anderson, you can bail your wife out in the morning. I strongly suggest you hire a good criminal attorney for her...and a good therapist.” Taking his handcuffs out, he paused for a minute, hiding them away from Annie. “Sweetie, go back upstairs to your brothers. Your dad will be up in a minute.”
Annie, not understanding what was happening, mutely obeyed, holding her dress closed across her torso. She walked upstairs slowly.
Once Annie’s feet had vanished, the officer placed the cuffs on Barbara, reading her Miranda rights to her at the same time.
Ben looked helplessly at Barbara as she was escorted out. Running upstairs, he told Annie to pin her dress together. “Just do the best job you can, daughter. We have to go to your grandparents’.”
***
At the Lapp’s, Ben paced inside the living room. “She lied! She told the doctor that Emma had hit and injured her. John, she’s been arrested. I can’t pick her up from jail until the morning after I hire an attorney.”
Ann sat down, breathless at the news and betrayal. She looked at Emma.
Emma was still angry. “Mam, let the kinder stay here for the night. Ben, did you bring their things?”
“Nee, but I can do so now.” He prepared to leave.
“Ben, I’ll follow you so you don’t have to make two trips,” John offered. “We’ll just need their night things, clothes for tomorrow and their school things. We’ll take them to school and you can pick them up once you’ve gotten everything straightened out with Barbara. I agree with the police officer. Barbara needs a gut therapist.” He left, following Ben.
“Mam, we need to figure this out. I have work tomorrow, and I can’t ask off with this short notice.”
“That’s not a problem. I’ll call Abby and she can help me with them. Besides, you have to go back early again tomorrow, ja?”
“Ja. Mam, I am so angry with Barbara! She could have destroyed me with this!” Breaking down, she left the room.
After John came back home, Ann asked him to go to Abby and Zeke’s. “I need Abby’s help with the kinder tomorrow until we figure out what’s going to happen with them and Barbara.”
“Gut idea. I’ll do that now.” John put his coat back on and left again. Twenty minutes later, he was back, with the Yoders in tow. “I explained some of what just happened but they really need to hear from Emma.”
Emma had, by now, calmed down. She told them what Barbara had tried to do. “All because she didn’t want me to lose weight and be smaller than she is.”
***
The next day, Ann, John, Abby and Zeke took care of the kinder and helped to unravel the tangled web that Barbara had tried to weave. By the end of a stress-filled morning, the police, child protective services and Barbara’s attorney had helped the family develop a plan for the children.
“Until her trial, Missus Anderson cannot be alone with her children,” the attorney advised them. “She can see them in weekly, supervised visits. Your church is going to have to decide what’s going to happen to her within your community.”
Barbara and Ben lived quietly and wordlessly under the same roof. Their relationship was effectively over. He had realized that Barbara’s fears had destroyed who she was as his wife and mother of his children. The same day that he had bailed Barbara out of jail, he had also gone to see the elders, who had scheduled a meeting of the community for Barbara.
The community meeting took place much sooner than the criminal trial. Emma had forgiven Barbara, as was the Amish practice, but she now knew she could no longer have a relationship with her sister. When she got up to speak in front of the community, she was brutally honest.
“I have always had a difficult relationship with my sister. I love her, but I can no longer have a relationship with her. She tried to destroy my reputation months ago, by setting up a situation that made it look like I had been alone with her husband. She has not been happy with my efforts to lose my excess weight, and every chance she could, she tried to slow or stop my weight loss progress.
“Oh, for a time, she seemed supportive—but all along, I just had a feeling that she was still up to something. And, several weeks ago, we found out. She knew that Annie, my niece, had a large bruise on her chest. It was something she’d gotten at school. She took Annie to her doctor and cooked up a story for him that I had hit her and left that bruise.”
The community swung its collective eyes to Barbara, who gazed at the floor. “The doctor called the police, as he was supposed to do. They came and interviewed me, and I gave them a minute-by-minute accounting of my time with all three kinder. The officers then spoke with Annie and found out what really had happened. Barbara was arrested and now faces trial for what she did.”
After conferring among themselves, the entire community voted to ban Barbara. She returned to her home with Ben, who lived wordlessly with her. Several months later, she faced trial and, after all the evidence and testimony was given, she was convicted of filing a false report. She was sentenced to 65 days in jail.
Staring at the bars of her cell, Barbara asked herself where she'd gone wrong. She'd lost her sister. Her kinder. Her own sense of self-respect. She questioned herself, anger simmering. She didn't pray. If Gott had loved her, He wouldn't have let her make so many terrible mistakes.
"Barbie," her cellmate, Mercedes, a fat, 23-year-old woman who had somehow acquired bright pink lipstick in jail and wore it at every opportunity, asked, "when you gonna stop staring at them bars and smile for folks?"
"Have you thought of trying to lose some weight? You'd look so much—"
"Honey, I ain't the ugly one in this cell."
While Barbara was in jail, her parents tried to figure out what would happen with the children—the court psychologist had said that, given Barbara’s earlier actions, she would have no problems in using them again, should she feel the need. That input from the psychologist helped them make their decision.
“Barbara can’t stay here. She can’t have the kinder because the child protective services people have said she can’t. I’ll go talk to Ben and see what he wants to do.” After a few hours, John returned.
He shook his head, indicating he didn’t want to say what he had to say around the kinder. After they had gone to bed that night, he spoke. “She is leaving. He is putting her on the bus when she is out of jail so she can go live with my sister and her husband. The kinder will stay with us, and we will share custody of them with Ben.”
Jacob had been a steady presence for Emma and the family throughout the whole ordeal. After Barbara had been banned, he proposed to Emma and they had decided to get married in the next wedding season.
As for Emma’s weight loss, she was steadily nearing her final goal weight. She no longer needed her asthma or diabetes medications.
On the day before Barbara was released from jail, Jacob and Emma sat side by side in the driver's seat of his buggy as the sun set over the fields. He took her hand.
Emma looked up at him, her eyes shining. "Denki. Truly. I don't know how I'd have gotten though everything that's happened without you."
Cupping her jaw, Jacob said, "I don’t know how I'll get through everything that happens next without you at my side."
Her face blossomed into a smile as the setting sun bathed her in a warm, orange glow. It would have taken a stronger man than Jacob to resist kissing her.
Jacob thanked Gott he didn't have to be a stronger man.
THE END.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
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Best,
Rachel