With Dawson on the floor on a thick, folded quilt and holding his feet, he was a bit happier. Not only did he get a clean diaper, but he now had a clear view of his mater, as well, as she cleaned the bedsheets and his fater.
Thomas had proven himself to be quite a helping hand when it came to cleaning up after his wild babies, though even after being cleaned, the smell of infant raccoon and skunk urine was quite a bit different from anything she had smelled before.
“We may have to set up a loft for you and your pack in the barn,” she joshed before Thomas left to check in on their parents.
Thomas, though, thought that was a grand idea. “Wunderbaar!” he shouted, as he dashed out the door, bound for the Stoll homestead. “I will move my sleeping things out there tonight!”
Rebekah chuckled as she cleaned and changed her husband, something that was strangely intimate in a way she had never imagined. However, it was more humbling than anything.
Joseph’s eyes followed her, and he gurgled something in his throat.
“If you are telling me that the water is too cold, my love, I am sorry but there is nothing I can do about that. With the weather we have been having, I cannot keep the water warm enough in the time it takes to come up the stairs.” She grinned at her husband as she teased him.
Still, he grunted. This time, she could almost make out a word. “Sorry.”
Rebekah’s jocular face softened. “Are you trying to apologize for needing help, Joseph?” She flipped the quilt into place and moved around to sit next to him. She took his hand in hers and stroked his face gently with the other.
“So sorry,” he managed again in a whisper.
Rebekah chewed her bottom lip. “Joseph, there is no need to be sorry. I will always take care of you. And I know you will take care of me, too.” Gently, she pressed her lips to his.
The passionate, unexpected kiss yesterday swirled in her mind. For a brief moment, she wondered if that would be the last time she ever kissed her husband, this side of heaven. Now, thankfully, she knew that was not the case.
Joseph was so weak; he could hardly kiss back.
“Tired,” he whispered when she pulled away.
She eased off the bed. “I will change your bandages and then let you rest.” She gestured to the cup of water and spoon she had brought up. “Maybe I can even entice you into having a sip or two of water. I would like you to drink this entire cup this morning.”
Joseph appeared to be nodding off, so she hurried with the cup and spoon. After sticking another pillow under his back and head, she pushed the spoon of water between his lips. “There we go,” she said.
Several spoons of water later, she felt as though she had claimed a major victory. “Now, just to change your bandages.”
Ever gentle, she removed the rag that Fogarty had applied to Joseph’s forehead and tried not to grimace at what lay before her. An obvious hoofprint, there in the middle of his forehead, with two obvious gashes from which all the blood had come. Now, they were purple and crusted, while bruises spread out from them in various shades of black and blue.
Joseph’s eyes burned through her as she took yet another washcloth and dipped it into a basin of water at the bedside. “I am just going to try and clean you up a bit.”
“Careful,” came a masculine voice from behind her. “Do not be giving my son-in-law a headache now.”
Rebekah’s eyes widened as she turned around. It couldn’t be, could it?
When she saw who stood in the doorway, her heart skipped from a thump to a gallop. “Fater!”
Sure enough, Samuel stood in her bedroom doorway with Thomas at his side. He was pale, paler than she had ever seen before, perhaps thinner, too. But despite that, he was there, grinning in her doorway. An actual answer to a prayer.
“I heard from a little bird—” Samuel tousled Thomas’s hair. “Or should I say a little skunk and a little raccoon, that my son-in-law had an unfortunate accident yesterday.”
“Oh Pa!” Rebekah pushed herself off the bed and ran into her father’s waiting arms. “I am so grateful you are here!”
He hugged her tightly. “You mean, alive?”
“Yes, that too!” She pulled back and studied him. “Did the twister, or tornado as Mr. Fogarty named it, do any damage to your house?”
“What twister?”
Rebekah studied her father. He did not appear to be joshing. “You mean, you did not see it?”
“Clear as a bell at the house.” Samuel shrugged. “You got all the excitement over here it seems.”
Rebekah looked at her father incredulously. It only took a moment to realize he was kidding with her. He wrapped her in another hug. “Our house is still standing. The twister seemed to touch down then suck right up again.”
“Just in enough time to blow out my windows and injure my husband.” Rebekah’s jovial mood flickered.
“Chin up, Dochder,” Samuel said. “Thomas, hand me my grand sohn. He wants to spend time with his grossdaddi. See the way he chews his feet? That is bopplin speak for ‘pick me up, grossdaddi!’.”
Thomas did as he was told.
“Now Thomas, go take care of your wild animals. You said something about moving into the barn to sleep in the hay?”
Thomas nodded stiffly. “Yes, Fater. I think it would be best for the bopplins.”
Rebekah giggled, the dark flicker across this happy day faded with Samuel’s sunny disposition and Thomas’s, well, as well as Thomas’s being Thomas.
Samuel continued, Dawson drooling on his shoulder. “I will take this little bopplin and we will get busy on mending the latch on the gate on the corral outside. And feeding the animals…whatever needs to be done.” Samuel smiled at Rebekah. “And you take care of Joseph and get some rest.”
Rebekah stood, incredulous, at the remarkable change this day had taken. “Fater, how did you…”
“When I learned what happened to Joseph…” Samuel waved his hand as if to wave the explanation away. “You are a parent now. You will understand someday. When your children need you, that is bigger than anything that you yourself may need.”
Rebekah noticed a leech attached to his wrist, peeking out from under his sleeve. Her stomach churned.
Samuel followed her gaze. “Fogarty really knew what he was talking about with these leeches. They have made me feel so much better. He mentioned that he might stop by today to check on the progress of all of his patients.”
Rebekah nodded and glanced back at Joseph. “It appears he has fallen asleep.” She turned back to her fater. “May I come downstairs with you? I need to get some warm water to change Joseph’s bandages. And, although it is past sunrise, I thought maybe you could use some…”
Samuel interrupted her. “Hot coffee and good company?” His grin was contagious. “Of course, always!”
***
“Your being here is an answered prayer,” Rebekah told the kettle, too embarrassed to look at her fater as she praised him. “I was afraid I would never see you again, at least not this side of heaven.”
“I simply needed a little rest is all.” He bounced Dawson on his knee. “And a leech or two.”
Rebekah poured some of the boiling water into a deep bowl before making coffee from the remainder of the water. “I will let that cool a bit before going to change Joseph’s bandages.”
Samuel smiled at his eldest child from across the table. “I am very honored to call you my dochder. Is it a sin to say you have made me proud in how you are taking care of Joseph since pride is a sin?”
Rebekah flushed. She always had to share her father with her brothers, and it was a rare and welcome thing that she got him all to herself. Her heart filled as she absorbed his flattering words. “Danke, Fater.”
“So,” Samuel continued, “since you have your hands full taking care of Joseph, I decided to get up out of the bed and come help you. And spend some time with this little bopplin, as well.”
“If it is a sin to be proud of me, then I, too, will sin and be proud to have you as my fater.” She handed Samuel the cup of coffee.
“Mmm.” He closed his eyes and smelled the aromatic liquid. “It seems you had a fine teacher in the art of coffee making.”
Rebekah sipped from her cup and giggled at the memory. “Jah, remember how you taught me to make coffee by the cup. To smash the beans and put them into a piece of thin cloth, then place it into a cup before pouring the boiling water over it.”
She was laughing so hard; she could not continue.
Samuel snorted. “Ja, and after we drank our coffee your mother came into the kitchen, looking for the cloth to make a white apron. Only we had, we had…”
Samuel could not continue for laughing. “We had dyed the fabric hopelessly brown by brewing cups of coffee with it!”
Tears streamed down Rebekah’s cheeks at the memory of Elnora’s shocked expression as Samuel pulled the dripping sachet of smashed beans wrapped in her good cloth from his coffee cup. Her father looked as innocent as a puppy who had just been caught digging up the garden, equal parts apologetic and mischievous.
Samuel’s face, too, was wet with happy tears. Dawson, not to be left out, screeched, beat his arms up and down, and smiled a slobbery smile, which made Rebekah and Samuel laugh even louder.
A noise from outside wafted in through the freshly mended screen door. Rebekah rose. “Do you hear that?”
Samuel, carrying a sleepy Dawson, trailed her to the door.
Rebekah’s smile broadened when she saw the source of the noise. “Fogarty!” Thomas stood behind the old barber and watched as he mended the fence.
“I heard tell,” Fogarty began, “one of my patients was coming over here to do chores. So, I decided to beat him to it.”
Samuel chuckled. “What a good physician you are.”
Fogarty gave the lever a try. It worked expertly. “I just happened to bring some more leeches too, in the event that yours become engorged and fall off.”
Samuel nodded. “They have been, actually.”
Rebekah’s stomach rolled. “Forgive me, but I cannot listen to any more of this talk about leeches. If you will excuse me.” She slipped back inside and picked up the bowl of water, which was no longer steaming, and started upstairs. Changing the bandages, which she would do morning and night, was quite time-consuming. Perhaps, with Samuel and Fogarty here, she could even lie down and nap beside her husband a moment.
Thank you, God. Thank you for the trials, so that we can more fully appreciate your blessings. Thank you for the hope of a better tomorrow. And thank you, most of all, for Joseph and my fater.