CHAPTER
31
While Leona was busy working at Maggie’s store, Gloria offered to help Millie hitch up the road horse to the family carriage. Millie had invited her to ride along to Good’s Store in Quarryville for some fabric and sewing notions for a dress Millie needed to make.
Gloria held the shafts as Millie led the horse in, surprised at how much fun this was. She loved being around the farm again, especially the horses. Even hitching up wasn’t a bother today.
“I must be a farm girl at heart,” she told Millie. “Would you mind if I drove us to the store?”
Millie gave a small smile. “Not so much.”
“It has been a couple years, but I still remember what to do.” At least, I hope so!
“Well, we’re not goin’ far,” Millie replied as they worked as a team to hook the back hold straps. “So why not?”
“Thanks so much. Denki, I mean.”
Millie looked her way curiously. “Do you miss doin’ this?”
“I guess I do,” Gloria confessed. “A car sure doesn’t have the personality of a horse!”
This brought a rare chuckle from Millie, and Gloria laughed along.
The cashier at Good’s Store was Orchard John’s younger sister, Naomi Speicher, who blinked her pretty blue eyes, obviously startled when she recognized Gloria with Naomi’s aunt Millie. “Ach, goodness! John said he thought you were here visitin’.” Naomi seemed flustered and uncertain what to say, not at all like the girl Gloria remembered.
“How long will ya be around?” Naomi asked, her blond hair perfectly twisted along the sides and back into a thick low bun.
“Just a couple more days. I need to get back to work.”
“Well, hope ya stay for Preaching.”
Gloria smiled at Millie. “If Pete and Millie can put up with me for that long.”
Millie replied, “Stay as long as you like.”
“That’s sweet of you,” Gloria said, touched that Millie wouldn’t mind a longer visit.
“Is it okay to tell Orchard John I saw ya?” asked Naomi.
Gloria hesitated. What would it matter to John?
“If you want to.” Gloria waited for Millie to pay for her spools of thread and packet of sewing needles, then said good-day.
Back outdoors, Millie went to the driver’s side of the buggy after untying the horse from the hitching post. Millie must feel more at ease in the driver’s seat, she thought. Guess I need practice.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she wished she hadn’t brought it. She certainly wasn’t doing too well with her plan to go unplugged!
I hope you’re having a good time, Darren had texted.
She decided to reply quickly while Millie backed the horse out of the parking spot: There’s no electricity where I’m staying, so I’ll be unplugged again today.
She was about to return the phone to her pocket when another text announced itself. Maybe I’ll just give you a quick call.
So sorry, but now isn’t a good time. She closed the message app and turned off her phone, this time pushing it deep into her purse. Darren will survive the rest of the day without hearing from me.
Millie took the back roads, mentioning it was “a real perty way home.” Feeling more relaxed, Gloria enjoyed the familiar scenery, thinking how odd it had been to run into Orchard John’s sister.
What if I did stay around for church Sunday?
Millie looked altogether pleased when Gloria asked if she could lay out Millie’s dress fabric for her on the kitchen table. “I’d really like to help,” Gloria said. “I’ll be sure to redd up.” Gloria knew how spotless Millie preferred to keep things.
“Well, if you’re sure, Gloria, I could do another chore.”
Her pulse quickened—sewing had always been one of her favorite pastimes. She remembered doing it while her mother baked pastries and loaves of bread. At least one of us was doing something we loved then, she thought, glad Millie would be just around the corner mending in the sitting room.
“If you need assistance, don’t be shy,” Millie said with a glance over her shoulder.
“Thanks . . . er, denki.” Millie had always impressed her as being a kind and helpful woman, never flashy or insincere. Like Pete, she was also devout. Gloria had sometimes wished her own father was more like Leona’s in the way he treasured the old Biewel, reverently reading with the family each morning and evening.
The grass is always greener, I guess. . . .
When she’d pinned the pattern to the dress material, she asked Millie to double-check everything before beginning to carefully cut along the dark lines, then trimming away the excess fabric.
When she was finished, Millie asked if she’d like to sew the long seams for her, and Gloria readily agreed. “Be sure to open the windows in the sewing room,” Millie suggested. “It tends to get stuffy up there.”
After a few false starts on the treadle, Gloria’s feet got into the familiar old rhythm. It was all coming back. And while she guided the fast-moving needle along the seams, she was reminded of how she used to make little britches for her younger brothers or hand stitch the facing for their small black church vests. She had also sewn a shirt or two for her father, though not to his satisfaction—Mom had taken over to rework some of the details. “That would be fine for the boys,” her father had said, “but I want mine to look store-bought.”
When Gloria had completed the seams, she returned to the kitchen, where Millie set up the ironing board so she could press them nice and flat.
“Do you think your father-in-law would be napping just now?” Gloria asked, wanting to pay him a visit.
Millie laughed. “He perty much naps all the time on days after he helps Pete in the barn. Even if ya have to wake him, he’ll be glad to see ya.”
Gloria thanked her and folded up the ironing board, stowing it away before heading over to visit with Benuel.
“I can’t be sure, really,” Leona was telling Maggie at the shop. She was walking a thin line, trying not to divulge any confidences. “But it seems like Gloria is tryin’ to work through some things.”
“That would explain why she came back with you.” Maggie sharpened her pencil, then pushed it behind her ear.
“Honestly, I thought she just needed to get away from her boyfriend for a few days. But now I think there’s more to it.”
They worked together on the inventory of all the handmade linens and whatnot prior to the big summer tourist season, just around the corner.
“Gloria could have been our cousin-in-law by now,” Leona said softly, “had she stayed.”
“Who knows if you might not have married Adam Gingerich, too,” Maggie said, a glint of humor in her eyes.
“Ach, Adam and I were never serious.” Leona had to laugh. “I know for sure Tom’s the man for me!”
Maggie smiled as she jotted down the number of doilies with tatting around the edges.
Leona continued counting the embroidered pillowcases, making sure each was a matched set. She couldn’t help but wonder what Gloria was doing at home. Dear ferhoodled friend.
She thought again of Tom, wondering how soon she might see him. He trusted me completely, letting me go to Arkansas.
Gloria followed the garden path around to the Dawdi Haus, where Millie’s tea roses would bloom in June on a white trellis Pete had made years ago. Brilliant lilies would appear, as well, scenting the air close to Benuel’s private back porch.
She made her way up the steps and hesitated a moment before lightly rapping on the screen door, lest she startle Leona’s grandfather. When no one came, she knocked again, this time more firmly, and Benuel Speicher’s frail voice called for her to come in.
“Hope I’m not barging in,” she said as she closed the screen door behind her.
“Well, just had myself a long after-dinner nap, so this is a gut time.” He motioned her into the area where he had been resting. “Sit over there,” Benuel said, pointing to the settee. “It’s the most comfortable spot—well, aside from this here chair.” He patted the upholstered arms.
“I won’t stay long.”
“Puh! Don’t worry ’bout that,” he replied, leaning forward and making the chair creak. “I enjoy a conversation with a perty girl.”
She smiled, enjoying how very Amish he looked with his gray beard and bowl-shaped haircut. “To be honest, I’d like to pick your brain about something.”
He chuckled. “Such as it is.”
“Seriously, I’ve been thinking about talking to Deacon Ebersol. Something’s weighing on my mind.”
“No one’s ever regretted seeking out that minister. He has a right agreeable way ’bout him.”
Gloria had heard it before. But my father never seemed to think so.
“Pete and the deacon are lifelong friends.” Benuel tugged on his thinning beard. “Don’t s’pose your father wears a beard anymore.”
“Actually, he does.”
“Well now.” Benuel looked serious. “Wonder why he kept it.”
“Maybe it’s too bothersome to shave every day.”
“I s’pose that would be rather vexing. And a beard becomes part of a man’s chin and face over the years.”
“I’ve never seen my father without one.” She tried to imagine what he’d look like. “But my mother got her hair cut—it was down past her sitter. She donated it to Locks of Love.”
“Read ’bout that organization somewheres,” he said.
“I’m sure Leona told you that all of us are fancy now—sticking together as a family, as my father likes to say.”
“But the Lord Gott calls us one by one, Gloria.” Benuel sighed heavily. “And ’tis more important to honor God than family.”
Gloria pondered that. She didn’t recall hearing anything like that before.
Benuel continued, “And to recite a verse I heard often as a lad, ‘Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.’”
“I tried to do that as long as possible,” Gloria said, but she knew she had not succeeded. Still, there was something very sincere about Benuel’s concern for her. “Leona’s real lucky to have such a caring family.”
“No luck about it.”
“Well, you know what I mean.”
Benuel dipped his head. “The Lord alone showers blessings on those who honor His name.”
Gloria agreed, then thanked him for the visit and rose to go.
“Gloria, don’t forget: When life is hardest, the Lord Gott is still to be praised. ’Tis our only lifeline, our best hope, to keep fear from festerin’.”
“I believe that, but I can’t help worrying sometimes. And I’m not sure what to do in my present case . . . at least now that my life has gone in a different direction,” she admitted. “Honestly, I don’t know what I think.”
“Well, to be blunt, what you or I think doesn’t change the truth one iota.” Benuel nodded as if to punctuate his remark. “You’ll consider that, won’t ya?”
She said she would.
“And this time, please don’t leave town without saying farewell, all right?”
At the look on his face, Gloria promised to drop by again. Truly, Benuel Speicher was someone she didn’t wish to disappoint.
Gloria took Leona’s wicker basket and hurried out toward the clearing Leona so loved and began to gather up twigs and vines and berries for some new wreaths. She missed being out in the woods like this, and she was certain Leona would want to fashion more wreaths before the next market day. It’s only fair I help out.
She thought of Leona’s Dawdi Benuel and what he’d said about God calling His children “one by one.” It had been so reassuring to talk with him . . . until he’d mentioned how the Lord showered blessings on those who honored His name. That wasn’t new to her, of course, but she’d felt uncomfortable all the same. And convicted, she thought.
“I can’t let this get to me.” Gloria shook her head, knowing her father would object to what Benuel had said.