Plain Promise (14 page)

She’d left a prepared pot of stew in the refrigerator for Samuel and David. She always left something easy for them to heat up on the days she went to the shop. Samuel was a stickler about eating at four thirty.

Her stomach growled. She raised her hand to pound on the door again, but stopped when she heard footsteps in the kitchen.
Thank goodness
.

“I’m coming, dear,” she heard Lizzie call out. “I’ve been waiting for you!”

Huh?

The wooden door swung open, and Lizzie was grinning from ear to ear. A silly little grin that vanished the moment she saw Lillian.

“What are you doing here, Lillian?” Lizzie didn’t open the screen door or invite her in from the cold.

“I brought Sadie’s bread for you.” Lillian lifted up the plastic bag she had hung across her forearm, with two loaves of bread inside.

Lizzie pushed the screen door open and almost ripped the bag as she pulled it off of Lillian’s arm. “
Danki
, Lillian. So kind of you to drop it off.” Then she let the screen door slam, smiled briefly, and started to push the wooden door closed.

“Wait!” Lillian said.

“
Ya
? What is it, dear?” Lizzie peeked around the wooden door. Her gray hair was tightly tucked beneath her
kapp
, and she was dressed plain, as she always was. But something was different. Her eyes seemed brighter, her face less wrinkled.

“Is everything all right, Lizzie?”

“
Ya, ya. Wunderbaar gut
.” And she slammed the door closed.

Lillian just stood there. Many times, Lizzie had declined offers of company, but Lillian had just assumed she wasn’t feeling well. Quite clearly, Lizzie was feeling mighty fine today. That was the most zest she’d seen in Lizzie’s demeanor since she’d known the woman.
Well, that’s good
, she thought, as she finally turned to walk down the porch steps. Surprising, but good.

Her feet had just hit the snow when she heard whistling coming from the side of the house. A body rounded the corner, but it was too dark to see. She strained to focus on the approaching mass.

“Lizzie girl, I’m here!” a loud voice bellowed.

Lillian’s jaw dropped as the male figure came into view. At about the same time, the man dropped a handful of flowers to the ground.

Lillian closed her mouth, but her eyes were wide.

“Lilly, what in the world are you doin’ here?”

Lillian folded her arms across her chest. “I might ask you the same thing, Grandpa!”

8

AFTER INTRODUCTIONS HAD BEEN MADE, SADIE PLACED the turkey roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans on the table while Carley poured everyone a glass of tea.

“This looks wonderful, Sadie,” Noah’s friend Evan said. The balding man had soft, gray eyes beneath gold-rimmed glasses, and a kind expression.

“Danki
,” Sadie said. She smiled and took a seat at the head of the table, with Carley and Noah on each side of her.

“And this tea is delicious,” Evan added after he took a drink from his glass. “Very sweet, and I like that. The sweeter the better.” He smiled.

“We call it meadow tea,” Sadie explained. “It grows wild in meadows along the creek.”

Evan nodded his approval. Tyler and Kade sat on Carley’s bench, and Noah’s friends sat beside Noah on the opposite side. Sadie explained that the Amish pray silently before meals and asked if everyone would bow their heads in a prayer of thanksgiving for the food before them.

When they all raised their heads, Evan’s wife, Shelly, was the first one to speak. “And it smells fabulous as well,” she said.

Noah loaded his plate with mashed potatoes, and everyone followed by serving themselves whatever was nearby, and then passed each dish to the right.

Kade spooned food onto Tyler’s plate, and then his own, each time an item was handed to him. He kept a fearful eye on Tyler.

Amid the small talk, Tyler’s hands were all over the place—picking up utensils and then putting them down, sticking a finger in his mashed potatoes, tapping his piece of bread on the table, and then spilling his tea—mostly in Kade’s lap.

As the liquid rolled across the table, Tyler began to scream. Kade sat with his mouth open for a moment and stared down at a lap full of tea. Then he shook his head. “I knew this was a bad idea. I apologize to everyone, and . . .” He attempted to calm his son, but Tyler flung himself onto the floor and continued to cry.

Shelly, a tiny little woman with short brown hair, jumped up first and ran around the table to Tyler. Kade had turned around on the bench and was staring hopelessly at his son. Sadie watched Kade’s face redden with embarrassment.

Shelly squatted down and reached her hand out toward Tyler, but she pulled back quickly when Kade practically yelled, “Watch out! He bites.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes in Kade’s direction and fought the urge to tell him that Tyler is not a dog. Then she got up and walked to where Shelly was squatting and joined her. “Tyler likes tapioca pudding. And if Tyler is a
gut
boy, I have some saved just for him.”

“Is he . . .” Shelly glanced up at Kade, who was still sitting on the bench, facing them.

“Autistic,” Kade answered. “Again, I apologize. We should probably go and . . .”

Tyler stopped crying, and then sat up and looked at Sadie. Sort of. His eyes darted around the room. “Hug, hug, hug.”

Instinctively, Sadie started to wrap her arms around him, but she stopped when she recalled how he’d pulled away from her when she was with him at the cottage.

“He actually wants a hug,” Kade said. He leaned down toward the boy, but Sadie beat him to it and pulled Tyler into a hug.

Kade dabbed at his soaked blue jeans, and then put the wet napkin on his plate. “I think we’d best go. I apologize for—”

“Nonsense!” Shelly said. “We have three children close to his age at home with my mother-in-law. Rest assured, we’ve seen bigger messes than this.” She smiled in Kade’s direction. “You absolutely must stay.”

What a lovely person
, Sadie thought, as she continued to hug Tyler.

“Heck, I’ve had a whole plate of food dumped in my lap before,” Evan added with a chuckle. “Did she mention that two of our angels are twins? Double trouble on some days.” He laughed again.

Kade still looked extremely embarrassed by the whole display, but he managed a smile.

Tyler continued to snuggle against Sadie, and she whispered in his ear. “Tyler, you’re a
gut
boy.”

He eased out of her arms and smiled. “Pudding.”

“
Ya
, pudding for Tyler after he eats his supper. Can you do that?” His big, blue eyes looked through her, but his smile seemed to say yes. He stood up and climbed back into his spot on the bench beside Kade.

“He’s adorable,” Shelly said. Then she grinned at Kade. “But you’re soaked, huh? I’ve been there.”

“I have some clothes in the bedroom that might fit you,” Sadie said to Kade. He arched questioning brows. “They were my husband’s,” she added. Then she couldn’t help but grin. “I’ll go see about some dry pants for you.”

“No, Sadie. Let’s all eat,” Kade said. “Really, I’m fine for now.” He spoke in a way that seemed intimate to Sadie, for some reason, as if they were more than just the acquaintances they were. She knew she was blushing, and she was glad when Noah spoke up.

“Did you say Tyler is autistic?” Noah asked Kade once they were all settled and eating again.

Kade swallowed, and then said, “Yes. He is.”

“There’s a boy about Tyler’s age in the Amish community who is autistic,” Noah said before turning to Sadie. “Jacob and Martha, those are the parents’ names, right?”

“
Ya
.” Sadie waited for Noah to say more. This is what she’d hoped for.

“The boy’s name is Amos,” Carley added. “Martha has brought him to the clinic a few times for a recurring cold.” She paused. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of the Amish since I work as a receptionist at the clinic.”

Noah finished off a bite of turkey roast. “But unlike Tyler, Amos is nonverbal. He doesn’t speak at all. Tyler seems to communicate quite well. Is Tyler enrolled in a school that specializes in behavioral therapy?”

“He has been going to a special school.” Kade glanced at his son. “I’m afraid I haven’t been around Tyler much. I live in Los Angeles, and Tyler lives with his mother in North Carolina.” He paused. “Actually, I haven’t seen Tyler in six months. I’m not sure exactly how much he understands at this point.”

There was an awkward silence as everyone seemed to be wondering about Kade’s statement, but Kade must have decided to make the most of having two doctors present. “In my notes from my soon-to-be ex-wife, she says that Tyler has hyperlexia. Can you explain a little about that?”

“Usually autistic children who present with hyperlexia listen selectively. You’d almost think they were deaf if you didn’t know otherwise,” Noah said. “I noticed that with Amos in my office. But Tyler seems tuned in to what you’re saying.”

Kade hung on Noah’s words. “What about reading? Tyler reads.”

“But does he understand what he reads?” Evan asked. “Although I haven’t treated any autistic children, it’s my understanding that children with hyperlexia show an intense fascination with numbers or letters, but that doesn’t mean they can count or read. Or even if they can, it doesn’t mean they can comprehend.”

Kade paused, rubbed his chin, and seemed to be weighing Evan’s comments. “So, he repeats what he reads with no understanding?” Noah had a mouthful and nodded. Kade went on. “That’s what it says in my notes from Monica, my ex, but this afternoon, something . . . something happened, and it was—it was odd.”

They all waited. But Kade didn’t elaborate.

“Tyler’s reading skills can help him to develop language, but it’s getting him to understand what he’s saying that is the hard part,” Noah said.

“He certainly understands tapioca pudding,” Sadie said affectionately.

“Tyler likes tapioca pudding,” Tyler said. Then he smiled in a way that touched Sadie.
How blessed his mother is
, she thought. And Kade too.

“Maybe he understands more than you think,” Evan said.

Kade got the strangest look on his face. “Maybe.”

An hour later, everyone was still gathered around the table. Tyler was into his third helping of pudding while the others ate shoofly pie and drank coffee. The conversation had drifted from autism to music, and Kade found someone who shared his passion for the subject—Evan. They talked a lot about things to do with music that Sadie didn’t know anything about. But watching Kade have such an animated conversation with Evan, often talking with his hands and laughing, made him seem more
real
to Sadie.

Everyone’s mood was light, the conversation good, and they all seemed to be having a good time. A successful supper, despite the rocky beginning. Shelly asked lots of questions about the Amish, all of which Sadie gladly answered. She loved to talk about the beliefs of the Amish, their strong faith and plain ways. However, more than once she felt as though she was ministering to herself about the importance of believing all things to be of God’s will.

Twice while she was talking, she had looked at Kade and found him staring at her in a way that she found most inappropriate. She had blushed and felt almost . . . flattered. Tonight, she’d pray to cleanse herself of such thoughts.

“
Ach
,” she said to Kade when she was clearing the dishes. “I forgot to round you up some clean breeches. You don’t want to walk to the cottage like that. You’ll freeze for sure.”

He waved his hand to shush her, but then quickly jerked the action to a stop. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s okay, really. I haven’t even noticed it. I should probably take Tyler and be on my way.”

“Look.” Sadie pointed to the couch in her den, where Tyler had been playing with his plastic letters. “He fell asleep.”

“You said earlier that your company builds high-rises,” Evan said. “If Sadie’s not in too big a hurry to get rid of us, I’d like to hear more about that.”

Kade turned to Sadie.

“No rush at all,” she said much too quickly. “I’ll go get you some pants.” She hurriedly left the room and retrieved a lit lantern on a table in the den. She headed down the hall to her bedroom and wondered why she felt elated that everyone—particularly Kade—wanted to extend their visit.