Amish Circle Letters (24 page)

“This is a surprise,” Rachel said, walking between Steve and Elijah.

He shook his head, his focus on Elijah broken, and turned to look at Rachel. “I’m looking for Mary Ruth. Mamm sent a letter.”

“Wrong farm,” she said lightly. “She’s staying at Leah’s. You know that.”

“Ja, right, but the thing is that she’s not there,” he retorted, irritated that Mary Ruth wasn’t there. Each minute looking for his youngest sister was keeping him separated from Mimi. “Didn’t come home after service, Leah said.”

Rachel paused, setting her hands on her hips. Where could Mary Ruth have disappeared? “That is rather odd,” she said. “I saw her at church but I didn’t stay for fellowship. I wanted to get back here for Elijah.” She glanced at her husband. He was sleeping, oblivious to the conversation.

He handed the letter to Rachel. “Any chance you might…?” His words trailed off, a pleading look in his eyes.

“You sure are in a hurry, ain’t so?” she asked suspiciously. Then, with a sigh, she reached out and took the letter. She waved it at him. “I’ll get it to her.”

With a big grin, Steve thanked her and hurried back outside to the buggy.

After dropping off Katie at the Miller’s farm, he drove over to the Hostetler home. His mind was in a whirl. He barely paid any attention to where he was going. Luckily, the horse seemed to know his way to Mimi’s house. Steve was too distracted, the scene replaying his mind of what he had just witnessed on the way to the Miller’s farm.

They had turned left at the end of Rachel’s lane and were headed down the road. When they turned the corner by the Yoder’s farm, Katie had waved franticly from the buggy at a group of six people walking down the road with a picnic basket. Steve blinked and tried to focus on the people. When he finally realized that he recognized the woman as his sister, he pulled back on the reins and stopped the buggy. “Whoa,” he said to the horse, his voice soothing but his mind still not comprehending that his sister was walking with the Yoder’s down the street.

“Mary Ruth!” he called out.

She turned around, startled that her brother had called her from the buggy that just passed them. “Steve?” She glanced at the man next to her, the man that Steve recognized as Menno Yoder. He nodded at Mary Ruth before she left his side and hurried to the buggy. “Whatever are you doing here?”

He frowned and glanced over her shoulder at the happy little family standing there, waiting for Mary Ruth to rejoin them. “I might be asking you the same thing,” he murmured so that no one but Mary Ruth could hear. “No one could find you.”

“
Vell
,” she said, her tone short and clipped. “I am an adult.”

Steve ignored her remark. “Mamm sent a letter. I left it with Rachel.”

Mary Ruth raised an eyebrow. “Everything all right at home then?”

“Ja,” he said slowly. “But Mamm says it’s time for you to come home.” Steve glanced over her shoulder at Menno, surprised that he was watching them so intently. Even the children were crowded around Menno, waiting. “He seems to be doing better.”

It was the look on Mary Ruth’s face that told Steve what he had suspected when he first recognized her walking alongside Menno Yoder. She didn’t say anything but the color drained from her face. Her silence spoke volumes. And he knew:
Mary Ruth wasn’t going to be returning home
.

“Steve?”

He snapped out of his thoughts and saw Mimi staring at him. For a moment, he was dazed and had to look around himself. He barely remembered driving down her lane and he certainly didn’t remember stopping his horse and buggy by the hitching rail in front of the barn.

“You sick?” she asked, concern written across her face.

“
Nee
,
nee
,” he said and jumped out of the buggy. “I just saw something…” he started to say but his voice trailed off as he walked alongside Mimi toward the house. “I can’t even describe it.”

“Ja vell, you sure look like you saw something,” she said, frowning. “You look like you saw a specter!”

He shook his head. “Nothing like that. But it was just as odd. I saw my sister walking with Menno Yoder down the lane,” he said.

At this, Mimi looked equally as surprised. “Menno Yoder?”

“You don’t think that…” He couldn’t complete the sentence. How could he suspect that his sister, so young and vibrant, would be courting not just an older man but a widower with four children at that!

“So soon? I mean Menno was crazy about Martha. I don’t think he’d be showing interest in someone so quickly,” Mimi whispered. The thought horrified her. Could Menno truly replace his love for Martha that fast? “But then again…” This time, Mimi couldn’t finish her sentence.

“What?”

“
Vell
,” she began. “He has been looking less forlorn at church service these past few weeks. And the
kinner
adore your sister. It will be tough for Menno to raise them alone, especially the girls. They need a mamm.”

A silence fell between them, leaving them to their inner thoughts. Men needed wives. Women needed husbands. It was a plain fact. Yet, it was discomforting to think that it could happen so quickly. Steve wanted to tell Mimi that he would never do such a thing. Without Mimi, he’d be lost. But the words wouldn’t form on his lips. He couldn’t make a promise that he didn’t know if he could keep. What if something dreadful happened to Mimi? What if he one day found he was left alone with four young ones and a farm to tend?

“It’s awful quick, ain’t so?” Steve asked.

At that statement, Mimi laughed and playfully touched his arm. “No more so than us, ja?”

There was truth in her statement and he couldn’t help himself from smiling. It had been just right before Martha Yoder’s accident when he had first met Mimi Hostetler and they had started courting shortly thereafter.

They were inside the kitchen, enjoying a cold drink and fresh apple crisp when the door opened and Mimi’s daed walked inside.

“Might want to come see this, Steve,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

Outside, Steve immediately noticed that something was missing. Mimi followed close behind, grabbing her shawl from the peg on the wall as the evening air was beginning to get cool. She, too, noticed that something was wrong.

“Where’s my buggy?” Steve exclaimed, realizing that the horse was gone.

Jonas laughed. “Oh, don’t you fret none. It’s coming back.”

Steve frowned, wondering if Mimi’s daed was getting ferhoodled. “Coming back? From where? I left it right there!” he said, pointing toward the hitching rail.

As he said it, he could hear the noise of horse hooves on the road and the rattling of the buggy wheels. Mimi looked down the road, squinting as she tried to make out who was coming up the driveway but the setting sun was too bright to make out the driver.

“What in the world…?” Steve hurried toward the driveway and saw a young man walking his horse up the lane. In the buggy, sitting perfectly straight on the front seat, was Shep, Isaac and Anna’s dog.

Laughing, Jonas followed Steve. “Was out front over yonder and saw the buggy go by. That horse sure did seem to know where she was going! And lo and behold, there was that dog sitting in the front seat, natural as could be!”

“How’d you get the horse?” Steve asked the young man who was holding the horse by the bridle.

He shrugged. “Saw it approaching and realized dogs can’t drive horses. Managed to get her to stop before she passed.”

Mimi caught up with the men and laughed at the sight. The dog was still sitting on the front seat, panting happily at the attention he was receiving.

“I’ve seen everything now,” Mimi said as she approached the side of the buggy. “Where did you come from?” She petted the dog and looked over at Steve questioningly.

He pulled off his straw hat and scratched his head. Clearly, he was as wonderstruck as the rest. “I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself!” He ran his hand down the mare’s neck, kicking himself for surely he had forgotten to tie her to the hitching rail. He had been too distracted by his encounter with Mary Ruth. The horse must have wandered off and, when realizing she wasn’t tied down, tried her old trick of heading back home.

“And with the dog?”

Steve laughed. “I had heard that he’s been sleeping in the buggies of late. Isaac’s Anna found him a few times, curled up in the back, sound asleep, when she goes shopping at market. He must’ve been there the entire time I was looking for Mary Ruth!”

Jonas tied the horse to the hitching rail while Steve thanked the neighbor.

Once back inside the house, Jonas sat down at the kitchen table and gestured for Steve to join him. “Well, son, beside having a crazy horse and a lazy dog, I understand there is other more important news you might want to be sharing with me prior to the next church service,” he said, his eyes sparkling at the man who was to become his son-in-law.

Steve was caught off guard by how frank and direct Jonas was. He had never thought that he would need to speak to Jonas about marrying Mimi. It was something that was announced in church and discussed immediately afterward.

“Ja vell,” he began, searching for the words to begin. “I reckon that Mimi told you then?” He glanced at her and she tried to hide her smile. A faint hint of pink covered her cheeks and Steve could see that, clearly, she was as excited and happy as he was. He turned back to Jonas and took a deep breath. “I’d like to marry your
dochder
, ja.”

“Hear you have yourself a farm over by your daed’s farm.”

Steve nodded. “Just across the road.”

Jonas seemed to mull this over. Clearly something was on Jonas’ mind, something that made him less than happy about the marriage. Steve began to feel panicky, wondering if Mimi’s daed would have some objection to their marriage. Certainly his own reputation was right gut. And he was a good Amish man. Whatever could be troubling her daed?

“You have a concern?” Steve asked, not wanting to beat around the bush.

Leaning back in the chair, Jonas rubbed his chin. “She’s not used to farm life, you know,” he began. “Used to working in the store with me. Farm life…” He paused, his eyes searching the air and avoiding Steve’s. “Farm life is hard, Steve. Hard on the farmer and hard on his
fraa
.”

That wasn’t what he expected. Steve wondered where her daed was going with this. Certainly he didn’t object to their marriage! After all, it wasn’t up to the parents to grant permission. “It can be, yes,” he admitted slowly.

“Daed,” Mimi said softly, rolling her eyes. “We already had this talk.”

Her daed lifted his hand to gently silence her. “I’m entitled to have my say, Mimi,” he scolded but in a loving tone. “Marriage is forever and I want my
dochder
taken care of,” he said.

Steve lifted his head, stunned at John’s words. Did Mimi’s daed actually think that he wouldn’t take care of her? “If you have an objection…” Steve started, trying to keep his heart calm and temper calmer. “I’d like to know what it is.”

Jonas shook his head slowly. “
Nee
,” he said. “I have no objections, Steve. Not to you. Besides, I reckon it’s not my place to say so, if I did. I just want you to be easy on her. It will take her some time to adapt to farm life.”

For a moment, Steve didn’t quite know what to say. Farm life was all that he had ever known. He didn’t know any other life and, from that perspective, didn’t understand what Jonas meant. He wished that he had something to say, a way to respond to Jonas. But he didn’t.

“Daed,” Mimi said with confidence. “I’ll be just fine.”

But Jonas’ words echoed in Steve’s head:
I want you to be easy on her
. Was life on a farm so very different that her daed was worried? True, there were no vacations on a farm. No days off. Still, the routine was more on his shoulders than on hers. From what he knew about Mimi, she was good-natured and hard working. Together, they’d be able to succeed. Of that, he was sure and certain. Many years ago, he had given up hope of finding such a partner. Until the day that he had laid eyes on Mimi and he had not felt her objecting to it.

Steve took a deep breath and leveled his gaze at Jonas. “Jonas, I promise that I will care for your
dochder
with the most tender love and understanding possible. I’ll help her adjust to life on a farm and to the daily routine. And I’ll do what I can to see that she has a
wunderbaar
gut
life, a godly life. After all, God is our refuge and strength.” He turned to look at Mimi and felt a wave of warmth flow through him. Relief. Love. Awe. He wasn’t certain what he was feeling, perhaps a mixture of it all. But he sensed that she was embracing his words as well. As she met his gaze, he smiled. “Together and with God, we will both be right gut.”

She took a step forward and laid her hand on his shoulder.

Jonas clapped his hands once and stood up from the table. “That’s what I like to hear, son!” He clapped Steve on the back in a friendly gesture of familiarity. “We welcome you to the family, then. Should be a lonely house without Mimi here but I reckon you are close enough that she will stop by frequently.” He paused. “Both of you.”

He walked toward the door, reaching for his hat.

“You speak with the bishop yet?” he asked as he stood at the kitchen door. “Announcements are at next service. You will need to let him know and decide on a date. I’ll have Mimi and her mamm put together the list for inviting folks.”

Steve nodded.
This is real,
he thought.
I’m actually getting married.
“I will leave the date up to Mimi,” he said.

Unfortunately, he knew that it didn’t really matter since his tenants were still in the farmhouse. He had spoken with them just the day before and they were going to look to move in the spring or as soon as they could find a new place to rent. Mimi would continue to live with her parents after the wedding and they would go visiting relatives on the weekends. Worse case scenario, he knew that he could fix up the small apartment in the back of the main house until his tenants could find a place. But that would have to wait for warmer weather.