Promised to Another (20 page)

He hadn’t heard a word about the others. No one seemed to know anything. And so, still clueless, he lay awake in this tiny hospital room with green walls. There was a curtain dividing his room, and he knew that the bed on the other side of it was empty. He hoped it would stay that way.

His head throbbed, despite the pain medicine that undoubtedly was flowing in through the IV tube in his arm. He closed his eyes and managed a quick prayer.
Lord, please let everyone else be alive.

When he awoke again, he saw figures moving in the semidarkness. There was a man with a beard, wearing a hat and black pants. Joshua sat up quickly, painfully, as recognition dawned. “Bishop Sol?” His voice sounded raspy.

“Jah.” The man came to stand at Joshua’s bedside and flicked on the lamp above his head. “Do you have need of water?”

Joshua nodded, wincing from the pain in his aching head. “That’d be gut.” He watched as Bishop Sol poured water from a pitcher into a plastic cup. Then, he held the cup to Joshua’s mouth. “Drink up, then.”

Joshua lifted his arms to take the cup, himself, but the bishop waved his hands away. He tilted the cup, and Joshua was surprised by how little of the liquid dripped down the front of his hospital gown as he sipped.

Once Joshua had drained the cup, the bishop moved it away. “Do you know anything about the others? Did they…um, did they live?”
Lord, let Annie be all right.
He gripped the bed rails, awaiting the verdict.

“Jah. They’re alive. David Lapp is in the bed next to yours, in fact. He is sleeping now; they had to put him under to repair a badly broken arm. Multiple fractures. His host family is here visiting.” He nodded toward the curtain. Joshua heard muted voices on the other side. “Cathy also broke a bone, but she was treated and released. They said you and Annie both would have died if you hadn’t jumped out.”

Except that Annie hadn’t jumped. He’d shoved her out. He hoped that if she remembered that violent move, she’d forgive him in light of how it had saved her life.

“Annie is okay?”

“Sprained wrist. They have some sort of contraption on her hand. She’ll be going home.”

Danki, Lord.

***

There was no way Annie was going home, even with Daed insisting that she should, since she’d merely sprained her wrist. He’d already sent Cathy home with a driver, ordering her to go immediately to bed, and Cathy hadn’t objected. Probably due to the pain medication they had administered.

But Annie hadn’t heard a word about Joshua or David, and she wasn’t about to leave until she found out something about their conditions.

So, she and her daed struck up a compromise: as long as she would allow him to push her in a wheelchair, despite her determination to walk, he would take her up to the third floor.

When they exited the elevator, Annie saw Bishop Sol step out of a room down the hall. Daed sped the wheelchair in his direction. “Are the buwe okay?” he called out.

“Jah, they’ll live. They say Joshua has a concussion, so they are keeping him for observation. David’s arm is broken in multiple places. He had to have surgery.”

“May I see them?” Daed asked.

The bishop nodded. “David is sleeping, but Joshua is awake and already restless, squirming around in the bed. They’re wise to keep him in the hospital for the nacht. I need to figure how to get ahold of the families of these buwe. They’ll want to know, though Joshua could probably call and leave a message for his parents, and they could get the news to David’s folks.” He turned and went back inside the room.

“You’ll wait out here.” Daed pushed Annie’s wheelchair up against the wall and secured the brakes, then disappeared through the doorway of Joshua’s room after Bishop Sol.

If he thought she was about to stay put, he was crazy.

Annie tried to stand, but with the footrests in her way and her arm aching so, she couldn’t push herself out of the chair. She reached down, disengaged one brake and then the other, and slowly turned the metal contraption on the wheel. She couldn’t maneuver it too adeptly with just one arm, but she managed to wheel her way into the room.

Joshua was in the first bed. His face was a bit scraped up, but she figured hers was, too. And he looked a little pale. He turned toward her, and his eyes lit up, but she also read pain in them.

“Annie.” His voice sounded kind of husky. He reached out a hand.

Daed turned in her direction, his gaze searing. “Didn’t I tell you to stay out in the hallway?”

Bishop Sol had turned around, as well, shock in his eyes.

Oops. She hadn’t been thinking. Entering a man’s room, even if it was in a hospital setting, was verboden. And she had to go and do so in front of the bishop.

Joshua wanted to protest when Isaac muttered something about impropriety and wheeled Annie back outside. It was a hospital room, for goodness’ sake. But the way Bishop Sol’s eyebrows had arched when Annie had entered gave him pause. He supposed that the mandate for each Amish schoolteacher to be above reproach in every way extended to hospital stays, with no exceptions, even if she were visiting the man who’d saved her life. No wonder she was so cautious about everything she did. If anyone had seen her at the battlefield or at the Bass Pro Shop, she’d be fired, for certain. And yet she’d risked it. For him.

And how had he rewarded her? By stealing kisses from her novice lips. Shame and regret gnawed at him. If the bishop found out, it would be yet another death knell for her career. They weren’t even courting. Yet. Though her responses to him, her glances, her risk-taking, all indicated strongly that she would agree to let him court her. She might even come to love him, eventually.

He glanced at Bishop Sol, who fingered the cord of the phone on the bedside table. If he knew how to operate it, Joshua was sure the bishop would have already insisted he place a call to the phone shanty in his district and leave a message on the answering machine. Joshua had already tried to call out, before the bishop’s arrival, and discovered that he needed a code to access an outside line. And he wasn’t about to volunteer to ask a nurse what that code would be. No point in worrying his parents about this accident. He was fine. And Mamm would get so upset, she’d probably insist that Daed go out and buy him a bus ticket home. Immediately.

Joshua had no intentions of going home now. Though he thought it might be wise to call regarding David. He went to retrieve his cell phone from his pant pocket, only to remember that he’d been stripped of his clothes while unconscious and dressed in a hospital gown. The flimsy garment barely reached his knees, and one of the shoulders had slipped off, exposing more skin than was decent. His face heated. No wonder Isaac had shooed Annie out of the room. Joshua wasn’t clothed appropriately to receive visitors of either sex. He yanked the gown up to cover himself better.

A groan came from the other side of the curtain. Bishop Sol stood up and peeked through the fabric at David. “Ach, gut. He’s waking up.” He disappeared to the other side.

“Are we allowed to open the curtain all the way?” Joshua glanced at Isaac.

Isaac shrugged. “Guess if we’re not, they’ll tell us.” The metal rings clattered as he pushed it open so that Joshua could see his roommate.

Joshua swallowed. “Where’s my stuff? Do you know?” He gave a cursory glance at David, still groaning. His arm was in a cast, and the other one was connected to an IV, just like Joshua’s. David’s host daed and mamm nodded briefly at Joshua before returning their attention to David.

Joshua looked at Isaac. “I could call the phone shanty.”

Isaac nodded. “I think that’d be wise. They might have put your clothes in a bag in the closet. That’s what they did with Lydia’s after her accident.” He pivoted and went to the small closet, opening it up. “Jah, there it is.” He pulled out the small pile of clothes and set them on the foot of Joshua’s bed.

Joshua fished his phone out of the pocket. “Could I have a moment?”

Isaac nodded and walked over to the other side of the room, next to Bishop Sol. Relief washed over Joshua. He didn’t want them to know he was calling to report David’s condition alone. He really didn’t want to get into his reasons for doing that, either.

After a moment’s consideration, he pressed the speed dial number for the phone shanty near his parents’ farm. He’d left a message there only once before, to let his parents know he’d arrived safely in Missouri. When the generic message kicked on, he held his breath, listening. Then, at the beep, he spoke quietly. “This is Arthur Esh’s Joshua, calling from Seymour, Missouri. There’s been a buggy accident. Arlen Lapp’s David has a couple of broken limbs. He’ll be fine, but he’s in the hospital.” Not knowing how to conclude, he simply ended the call. Someone would get the message and notify David’s folks.

Isaac looked up with a smirk when Joshua closed his phone. “Forgot to mention something, didn’t you, son?”

***

Fuming, Annie fidgeted in the wheelchair for what seemed like hours before Daed and Bishop Sol finally exited Joshua’s hospital room. She understood the rules, really; she knew that she wasn’t allowed in a man’s bedroom, but this was a hospital. A place of life and death. It seemed that those rules shouldn’t apply here.

She wished Shanna Stoltzfus was around to sit with her awhile, but it was Sunday, so Shanna didn’t have any clinical today. She’d be with her family, making visits around the district. But word must have spread about the accident. How else could Daed and Bishop Sol have learned about it?

Daed went behind her and began pushing her down the hall.

“It’s a pure miracle those kinner survived.” Bishop Sol’s voice held some awe. “A pure miracle. The gut Lord has a purpose for someone, for sure. Maybe a future minister.” There was a moment of silence. Annie could imagine Daed nodding his head in agreement, although he—and most of the men she knew—lived in fear of “the call.” No one wanted the responsibility, but a man had to accept it if he was called of the Lord.

“Thank the Lord there were nein fatalities,” Daed agreed.

“Want to go down and get a koffee before we head back to Seymour?” the bishop asked.

“Koffee? Maybe some tea for Annie and me. Sounds ser gut. But I’m not sure we’ll be going back right away. I’ll want to check in on Joshua and David once more before we go.”

Annie sat up straighter, her hope renewed. Daed would give her some time with Joshua, after all! Just out from under the bishop’s watchful eye. Of course, if that was his plan, it meant he knew far more than he was supposed to.

They weren’t courting. They were developing a friendship. She needed to remember that. Even if he had given her the kissing lesson of a lifetime.

But Bishop Sol dismissed his words with a wave of his hand. “Nein point in wasting a ride. They’ll be fine. I’ll call for a driver. Just be ready to go when he arrives.”

Annie tried not to slump in her seat, but the bishop’s word was law. Daed wouldn’t dare go against him.

“That bu is like a son to me.” Daed’s voice was quiet but forceful. “I need to say gut nacht and assure him I’ll be by in the morrow to bring him home.”

Bishop Sol exhaled. “Very well, then. I’ll have the driver wait. A half hour should be long enough. And, while you’re at it, call his parents. I don’t care what his reasons are for withholding the fact of his own injuries, but if my son were in the hospital, I’d want to know. Even if it is just for observation. I don’t see anyone observing anybody else. They’re all going about, doing their own business.”

Annie fought a grin as they entered the elevator. Daed had dared to cross the bishop. And won. Kind of.

Leaving the bishop to nurse a koffee and munch on a sandwich in the hospital cafeteria, Daed pushed Annie back toward the elevators to go visit Joshua and David. “We won’t stay long, jah?”

“Jah,” Annie agreed. “Will I need to stay in the hall this time?”

Daed chuckled. “Nein. You can go in. I didn’t want you getting in trouble with our gut bishop over something so trivial. Just keep in mind that I’ll be there as a chaperone. Nothing improper will happen, then, ain’t so?”

Annie felt the heat rise to her cheeks. “Daed,” she whispered, her voice tight with embarrassment, as he wheeled her into the empty elevator. Did he know about the kiss?

He chuckled.