Abram's Daughters 04 The Prodigal (19 page)

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up so suddenly, as if taken aback by her question apparently iiii.\ions to answer the phone made her shiver, even though ilie room was plenty warm compared to the frigid weatheri Hiuloors.

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Oadie was truly astonished at Dat and Preacher Gid's unexpected visit two days after Leah's. The knock at the Nolts' door came midafternoon Friday, and she was thankful there was no one else in the house at the time.

Dat and Gid agreeably stepped inside when she opened the door and welcomed them, and her father got right to the point. "Our preacher, here, went to plead your case to the bishop this past week . . . and I'm mighty happy to tell ya, I believe his news to be ordained of the Lord God."

"What news?" she asked, eager to know.

Her father turned toward Gid and nodded his head, as if prompting him to reveal all. "Jah, 'tis true . . . it's something of a miracle, I'd have to say." He looked down at his black hat before continuing. "Seems the bishop's willin' to give ya another chance at the Proving, Sadie. But only if you come clean before the brethren."

Carefully she listened as Gid explained further. "The requirements will be even more rigid than before, and you must repent to three of the brethren the bishop, one preacher, and a deacon."

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I \\x went on to say that all this must be agreed to before iIn- new time of scrutiny would ever begin. If, and only if, ',11 lie agreed to adhere to this even stricter Proving, which \v,r, in be extended to the beginning of June, instead of to the iniililli1 of April, she could return home.

Sadie could scarcely believe her ears. "A longer Proving,

v-i say

" Tis the price for disobedience."

She hung her head. "Jah, I was awful foolish."

(iid's face brightened, apparently heartened by her words. I i.i I, on the other hand, moved to her side, and she sensed his v,il lor what he'd taken as an admission of her guilt.

"So embarrassing all this is," she said, her mouth dry asi an be.

Hat's voice was thick with emotion when he said, "We'll welcome ya home with open arms . . . when the time comes."

She knew she could not now keep making offhand lemarks about getting a job out in the world. Truly, she did imi desire to leave her life with the People, even though her .Inhi rime in a^nodern house had been warm and wonderfulI',in hI in many ways.

She reckoned Leah's return of the butterfly handkerchief In her to be a symbol of providence ahead. Something far lieyond her was calling her back to the straight and narrow, where she felt she might find peace if she simply did not fail in Iollowing the Old Ways.

The heavy snowfall partially obscured Leah's view as she w.iiched Dat and Gid from the kitchen window. The men

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cleared off the buried path to the woodshed, and then dug out the high drifts near the barn doors.

Soon here came Lydiann, piling on outdoor clothes, saying she was going out to help Dat "no matter how deep the snow," and with that was out the back door.

Red-cheeked Dat came in for some hot coffee after a while when Gid ran back up to his house for breakfast. With Lydiann still out in the snow, Leah and Dat found themselves alone in the toasty warm kitchen.

"I best be tellin' you first," he began.

Leah was struck by the radiance of his gray eyes, but she said not a word. "Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with Lizzie, and I plan to marry her come next Saturday." His gaze searched Leah's following this declaration. "I'm hopin' this won't come as a shock, nohow."

"I guess I'm not too surprised," she said, meaning it. "The twinkle in your eye for Aunt Lizzie has been perty obvious at times."

He nodded awkwardly as if there was much more he wanted to say.

"Goodness knows, I couldn't be happier for you two."

To this they both laughed. "Wanted you to know directly from me," Dat said, looking more serious again. "It'll affect you more than any of the others in the family, I 'spect."

She understood what he meant and held her breath as she waited for him to continue.

"Lydiann and Abe look to you as their mamma, which mustn't change a'tall because of this," Dat said. "You'll always be that to them. Wouldn't think of meddlin' with that, not one iota, and Lizzie agrees wholeheartedly."

She felt ever so grateful to this man who'd loved and shel-

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tfivj her as his own during her growing-up years, just as she was now doing for his children. To think he was planning to in,iny Leah's own natural mother. "Aw, Dat, you'll be ever so li.ippy with Lizzie," she found herself saying. "I know you will

l.r."

There was a merry light in Dat's eyes. "I'm awful glad I i,.; ,ic and I don't have to wait till fall to say our vows."

"Like the young folk."

I le chuckled and added, "Bein' an old widower ain't so Ii;iJ when it comes to some things, jah?"

Leah went to the wood stove and poured him more coffee, ;iiid he sat by the fire drinking it silently. Meanwhile, she I u sided upstairs to awaken young Abe as joy flooded her heart. She felt she ought to pinch herself at the thought of Aunt Lizzie becoming Dat's wife. At last dear Lizzie would have a husband of her own!

Monday morning Leah hurried upstairs after making the

11; in cake batter^and while waiting for the griddle to heat up. Through his doorway, she spied Abe sitting on the edge of his lu-d, looking up at her with squinting eyes, as if his vision was si ill blurred. "It's me, Abe," she said, going to sit next to him.

"I'm awful mixed up," he whispered.

"That's all right. The doctors say you'll get better each day, jah?"

"No, I mean'bout something else."

"Oh, what's that?"

He scratched his head, frowning to beat the band. "Just who's gonna be my mamma when Dat gets married again?"

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She smiled and put her arm around him. Dat had announced the happy news to the rest of the family at suppertime last night. "Well, I am, silly. Who'd ya think?"

He shook his head. "I can't figure out how that can be. Won't Aunt Lizzie become my mother?"

She could see how confusing all this would be, even without the lingering effects of a traumatic blow to the head. "Let me tell you again all about the day you were born, Abe."

"Jah, I'm all ears for that."

He settled against her, and she let him relax that way as she shared the precious things Mamma had said, even prayed, over her beautiful baby boy as he was entering the world and she was leaving it for heaven. "Mamma must've surely prayed a special blessing over you at your birth," she told him. "By the sweet look on her face as she lay dying, I believe she did."

"Our mamma loved us, ain't so?"

Leah nodded. She would always think of his mamma as her own and felt sure she was smiling down on all of them as they looked ahead to the happy wedding day.

Monday, January 21 Dear Diary,

I feel as if I must write down my feelings or sink deeper into despondency. Abe doesn't seem to be getting better quickly enough to suit anyone. Leah was here to see Mimi again yesterday afternoon, and she admitted to still being most anxious about him. I've thought of asking Gid to call for the hex doctor one day when Dat and Leah are away from the house, maybe, to put an end to this misery for poor Abe. For Leah, too. 1

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I luttr to think this, but I wonder if Dat's refusal to have the Am/.s/i doctor come hasn't been some sort of a curse on his I iui/v .son. Yet Gid doesn't think so when I talk to him of this, S though I can see he is as wide-eyed with worry as the rest of

I iin.

1 We've been awful careful not to discuss Abe's ailments in Ijynnt of our girls. Even so, the notion young Abe will never I /t right disturbs me round the clock. Maybe all this neverI ciuling worry comes from the baby blues I'm having something liHvful. I might just need a visit from the hex doctor myself. |( )/i, J just don't know, really. Mary Ruth seems to think I I si u mid throw myself on the mercy of the Lord God, but I hon atly don't see how her "saving grace" can help me. I Poor Gid isn't in control of his own household . . . much ! jt'.s.s the household of faith. But I really can't lessen the amount I r>/ tears I shed, sometimes for no real reason at all . . . though I / jeel just terrible when Gid comes home to find me in a heap Ian ihe floor, sobbing while I hold tiny Mimi as Ida Mae and I Ktttic Ann play. Is this what it feels like to lose one's mind, 1 I n'under?

I / must keep my tears in check for at least Dat and Lizzie's luvi/tiing. Gid's going to marry them in the front room at Dat's I linif.se. Since Dat's a widower and Lizzie, at age forty-five, is

1 much older than most brides, this will be a small gathering of % family and close friends.

I Plenty of changes will take place in the Ebersol Cottage lic/f/i this new marriage. Sadie has already returned home on

1 her best behavior and with the blessing of the bishop and will I move to the Dawdi Haus this next week to look after Dawdi l/nhn. Leah, of course, will stay put in the main house, ibecause she is helping raise Lydiann and Abe, who will have thud the love of three mothers in one lifetime. I Well, I best be tending to Mimi. Truly, her cries slice right

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through me at times I am startled, even put out by my own flesh and blood. Whatever is wrong with me? : ..:

Respectfully, ,..

. . ,. .:. Hannah :;r;;;

The deep cold made itself known in the crunching creak of work boots on hard-packed snow as farmers headed for the barnyard, or in the solid thump of horses' hooves on wintry roads. A stiff northern wind swayed the towering trees in Abram's backyard as Gid made his way into the lower level of the bank barn, ready to shovel out the manure and redd up the stable.

Still ringing in his ears was the sound of Mimi's crying into the wee hours of this morning, and he wondered why it was that Ida Mae and Katie Ann had been such easy babies for Hannah to tend to. He recalled Hannah had actually been cheerful when the older girls were but newborns.

Picking up the shovel, he set to work, beginning the smelly yet needful job. All the while, he couldn't get his wife's gloominess out of his mind. The joy of motherhood had flown out the window with the arrival of Mimi. Nearly all Hannah wanted to talk about these days was one worry after another, concerns that revisited her during the dark night hours in her increasingly frequent nightmares.

Gid shoveled all the harder, glad for the quiet of the barn, not looking forward to returning to the log house for lunch. Fact was, he was often tempted to slip in at Abram's table and enjoy the peace of his father-in-law's house and Leah's tidy

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kitchen, come noon. Naturally he had never succumbed, dlwuys heading up the long mule road to the cabin where he'd imule a home with Hannah. It wasn't that he regretted his ' I mice in a bride Hannah had been his all in all, his everyiliiliK, from the first day he'd invited her for a ride in his 'lining buggy. He just wished he could somehow lessen her motional burden. Maybe tonight he'd offer to walk the floor null inconsolable and colicky Mimi, if necessary. A good nii;hl's sleep might be all Hannah needed, he thought. Either i li.il or a visit from one of the hex doctors. Jah, might just do

ill of us some good along about now, including young Abe.

He would have to check with Abram on this first, of

nurse, because Abram had not called for a sympathy healer ulirii it had been most critical. What had made Abram

lun^e his mind on something he'd long held important? Wi >i ilc) Abram, in fact, agree to set things right by having the li'"i doctor come and work his magic as should have been

I* >ue in the first place?

Just today Hannah had pleaded with him to ride for the pnwwow doctor not but four miles away. "Have him calm NI imi down witk his potions or chanting. And me, too!" she'd

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! le recalled how uneasy he'd felt around the older man, I >"\v he could hardly wait to send him packing once Hannah's I'.ihy was born safe and sound. Never in his life had he felt i ii 11 a cold presence like a blue haze draped over all of them ii i i he room. He could remember only a handful of times as a I 'V being taken to visit the man with healing powers . . . and i inly by his father. Mamma would sooner have seen them all I i ish than summon the Hexedokder, he knew.

Thinking back on his breakfast conversation with flustered

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Hannah, he wondered how she'd gotten to the place where she so strongly desired help from powwowing, especially since both her mother and Aunt Lizzie had resisted it.

That evening following supper, Gid offered to look after the girls. "Hannah, go 'n' rest a bit," he instructed, following her into the bedroom to make sure she did indeed lie down.

Hannah nodded, brushing tears away, and he pulled up a quilt to cover her, hoping she might be able to console herself in the silence of the room.

His wife had caused him alarm on plenty of other occasions if the ministers knew the full extent of her suffering, just how would it set with them? The preacher's wife was to be an example, not a hindrance to the People, so Gid must see to it that Hannah was surrounded with joyful folk like Leah, Aunt Lizzie, and his own mother and sisters. There was plenty of support awaiting Hannah . . . and himself.

Meanwhile Gid had his first wedding to prepare for, and after morning milking tomorrow, he must pay another visit to the bishop about the procedure. The thought of yet another face-to-face talk with the man of God put a chill in his bones, especially after the grueling encounter he'd borne on behalf of Sadie, but there was no putting it off. Abram Ebersol was mighty eager to wed, and the bride-to-be was happily willing.

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4-n4i

e, fr'n.

L,

JLvenh heard Lizzie stirring next door in the Dawdi Haus midriinrning Tuesday. She could see the top of her aunt's head in .ir the cookstove in the cozy kitchen, where she found