Paradise Valley (12 page)
“Jah, that’s a shame for sure,” Rachel said, “but it couldn’t be helped. They never knew we would be moving to Mexico.”
“Well, I guess if you have to marry quickly, you must take what comes,” Laura said. She glanced over her shoulder at Rachel as she said this, and there was a hint of a sarcastic smile on her face. Laura was one who had always loved a juicy bit of gossip, and she clearly remained unconvinced of the reason for the hasty wedding.
Rachel set down the bucket she was holding and fixed Laura with an iron stare.
“There is more than one reason to marry out of season,” Rachel said as calmly as she could. “And we must
all
take what comes. None of us knows what Gott has in store for us.”
The week before the wedding was a wild, happy, busy time. The men moved all the furniture out while the women scrubbed the house from top to bottom, for tables would have to be set up in every room for the reception.
Rachel was washing walls one afternoon when Emma rushed in, grabbed her by the arm and said in an excited whisper, “Rachel, come with me! We have to go borrow dishes, and I have a surprise for you!”
She was positively giddy, but before Rachel could ask a single question, she flitted back outside. Rachel dried her hands, grabbed a coat and went out to find Emma already waiting in the buggy, reins in hand, waving impatiently. Borrowing dishes from neighbors and trying to match place settings was a fun part of a wedding, but hardly reason for this level of excitement. This had to be something big.
As soon as they were out on the road breezing toward the Hochstetters’, Emma leaned close – as if anyone could hear – and said, “Can you keep a secret?”
Rachel raised an eyebrow. “I’m
already
keeping a secret,” she said dryly.
“No, but this is a good one!” Emma was beaming.
Rachel nodded, a little suspiciously. “Okay. What is it?”
“You and Miriam are going to be my
navahuckers
!”
Rachel gasped and sat back hard against the seat, staring straight ahead with a world of conflicting emotions rushing through her. The bride was allowed to pick two unmarried couples to be her navahuckers – her attendants for the wedding – and they would be together all day, as couples, greeting guests as they arrived and sitting on either side of the bride and groom at the reception. It was the bride’s right to pick them, and the names were held in strictest secrecy right up until the wedding.
“But I’m too young,” Rachel muttered, still in shock.
“You’ll be sixteen before the wedding, Rachel, and anyway I just spoke with Dat about it. He gave his approval.”
Now she understood Emma’s excitement. It was a great honor, not to mention that Emma was her best friend in the whole world. Still, this was a complete surprise and it left her with a burning question.
“Who will be my escort for the day?” she asked timidly, unable to prevent a slight wince from flashing across her face. There was only one name she wanted to hear, and she dared not hope.
“Well, Dat and I talked about that,” Emma said pensively. “There are lots of boys I could ask. I thought about Yost Schlabach, but he’s too old for you – I’m thinking I’ll give him to Miriam. That blond-headed Miller boy is your age, but he’s too tall.”
“And dull,” Rachel added.
“Dat said maybe Eli Stutzman, but he smells funny.”
Rachel giggled at this. There were stories.
“Anyway, we went through a whole list and none of them seemed right for you, so I told Dat I guess we’d just have to settle for that little neighbor boy, Jake Weaver.”
Rachel’s jaw dropped, and tears came into her eyes.
“And Dat said okay to this?”
Emma nodded, grinning from ear to ear. She knew. Emma knew everything, except perhaps how to keep a buggy straight in the road when her younger sister suddenly leaped upon her in a wild joyful hug.
On the morning of Emma’s wedding the entire family rose at four, rushed through the day’s chores, ate a quick breakfast and dove headlong into cooking for the wedding feast. Even the men helped in the kitchen – something that only happened, ever, on a wedding day. Rachel teased Harvey about doing women’s work, but he just rolled his dark eyes and smiled. He would get even.
Emma slipped away to the privy several times that morning, and Mamm noticed. “Is Emma feeling all right?” she asked Rachel.
“Butterflies,” Rachel said. “She’s very nervous.”
Mamm nodded. “Jah, I was the same on my wedding day.”
The wedding service was to begin at eight thirty in the barn. It was a “banked” barn, meaning it had been built into a hillside, giving the cows and horses who lived on the ground level extra protection from wind and weather while simultaneously allowing drive-in access to the second level from the driveway. The heavy oak floor of the second level had been scrubbed and scoured for the occasion until the grain of the wood stood out, and church benches had been set up on both sides of the wide central aisle.
At seven thirty the bridal party would take up positions beside the barn door and begin greeting guests, so at six thirty the girls slipped away to change. A new navy blue dress awaited Emma upstairs, with a fresh white cape and apron. She had sewn it herself in the last two weeks, along with the dresses of both her attendants, but apart from being new, and perhaps made with a little extra attention to detail, the dress was not noticeably different from her usual Sunday attire. In fact, after the wedding the same dress would
become
her Sunday dress for as long as she lived. When she was done – Amish shorthand for “done with this life” – the dress would be used for her funeral.
As Emma’s attendants, Rachel and Miriam got new dresses, too. When Emma was washed and dressed and ready she took a twirl in front of her sisters.
“Well, do you think I’m a suitable bride?”
Rachel smiled, even as her eyes pooled – it was going to be an emotional day. “You, sister, are surely the prettiest bride I have ever seen.”
Miriam gave Rachel a cautionary sideways glance, eyebrows raised. “Best not let Dat hear you talk like that,” she warned. “That’s just vanity. Pure vanity.” Then her dark eyes crinkled with mischief as she leaned close to Emma and whispered, “Easily.
By far,
the prettiest bride ever.”
Emma beamed, the flush in her cheeks and the excitement in her eyes putting the finishing touches on a naturally radiant face.
At seven thirty, in their new dresses and spotless white capes and aprons, the three sisters went downstairs to meet the rest of the bridal party.
Jake was there, strikingly handsome in his Sunday clothes. His eyes lit up when he saw Rachel. He shook her hand with proper reserve, then leaned close when no one was watching and whispered, “You look wonderful. I’ve been looking forward to this.”
Miriam’s escort, Yost Schlabach, looked good too, though Miriam seemed to be keeping her customary distance. He was nice enough, but Miriam had already confided to Rachel that she didn’t think he was terribly bright. Sometimes it seemed to Rachel that, for someone with no prospects, her sister was awfully choosy.
It was a fine golden morning lit with radiant flowers and the eager gossiping of birds. The bridal party sat in a row of kitchen chairs outside the barn, with Levi and Emma in the center, Miriam and Yost on the right, and Rachel and Jake on the left.
Rachel took great delight in just being with Jake, only now there was the added joy of seeing people’s faces as their buggies drove down the lane and they got their first glimpse of her and Jake sitting together. It was a kind of declaration.
By eight thirty the crowd had filled the benches in the barn to capacity, and the singing began while the bridal party waited outside. Until now, Emma had shown nothing but the normal nervous anticipation common to any young bride, but when the singing began Rachel saw her older sister biting her lip. Angst had crept into her eyes.
Emma knew what was coming next.
So did Rachel, and at such times she could read her sister’s mind. She reached over and laid a hand on top of Emma’s, and when Emma turned to look at her she mouthed the words, “It will be okay.”
Emma smiled thinly, but the worry didn’t leave her eyes. Two lines into the first song, one of the ministers came outside and said to Levi, “It is time.”
Rachel and the other navahuckers stayed where they were, watching silently as Levi and Emma rose and followed the line of ministers to the house. The clutch of visiting preachers accompanied the bride and groom upstairs to the
abrode
, a bedroom that had been set aside and prepared for a closed-door session of counseling and prayer before the actual wedding could commence. Rachel had no idea what would be discussed there, what questions might be asked.
Nor did Emma. That’s why there was fear in her eyes.
Sitting outside the barn waiting for Emma and Levi to return, Rachel fretted about it herself. What would happen if they asked Emma and Levi the wrong question, point-blank? Neither of them would lie to the ministers – and then what?
Jake touched her shoulder and whispered, “Why does she look so worried?”
Rachel forced a smile. This was one of the things she liked about Jake. He paid attention.
“She’s all right. It’s just a serious step – marriage. They’re going to be fine. A wonderful couple. They love each other very much, and Levi is very good to her.”
Jake pondered this for a moment, frowning with thought.
“What does that mean, exactly?” he asked.
“What?”
“That he is good to her. I mean, I know a man is supposed to be nice to his wife and provide for her, but surely there is more to it than that. There must be some special thing a man does that makes a woman say he is good to her, but what is it?”
“It’s not complicated, Jake. He just gives her what she wants.”
The singing from inside the barn intensified, and Jake leaned a little closer to be heard over it.
“Well, okay,” he whispered, “then tell me. What does she want?”
A shrug. “What every woman wants.”
“And what is that? What does a woman want from her husband?”
“She wants him to know what she wants.”
There was a trace of frustration in his voice. “But how would he know if she didn’t tell him? I’m not sure a woman even
knows
what she wants. Why, I bet even
you
don’t know what you want.”
She nodded emphatically, a slight frown creasing her brow. “Jah. I know.”
“Okay, tell me then. What is it that you want from me?”
“I want you to know what I want.”
He slumped back in his chair, staring straight ahead. A slightly sardonic smile crept onto his face. As much as she liked him, Jake was still a man. He could be a little thickheaded at times.
And then, slowly, without looking, his hand came over and gently took her hand from her lap. Holding their hands down between them where no one could see, Jake’s fingers intertwined with hers.
Perhaps he was not so thickheaded after all.
The prayer and counseling session in the abrode lasted thirty minutes, during which time the navahucker couples waited outside while the congregation in the barn sang hymns from the
Ausbund
, led by men chosen from the families of the bride and groom. Then Levi and Emma rejoined the wedding party, and the six of them marched into the barn and took their reserved seats.
Emma’s face was serene and relaxed, and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. Things had gone well in the counseling session and only joyful celebration lay ahead.
Staring across the aisle at Jake Weaver, Rachel found herself constantly thinking about the future, about what her own wedding day might be like. His eyes twinkled when he looked at her, and she was dying to know if anything of the sort had crossed his mind.
Probably not. He was, after all, a man. Perhaps she would find a way to pry into his thoughts a little later. There would be plenty of time for that – it was going to be a very long day.
The bishop began his sermon in the Garden of Eden, when Gott himself noted that it was not good that a man should be alone, and worked his way through the Great Flood, carefully pointing out that the widespread evil which ultimately caused Gott to destroy the world was the inevitable result of mixed marriages. After about an hour he finished by driving home the point that marriage was a binding promise witnessed by Gott himself, never to be taken lightly, and never,
ever
, so long as you both shall live,
ever
to be broken. Among the Amish, there could be no divorce.
