Until Angels Close My Eyes (14 page)

A frown creased Ethan’s brow, but he said nothing else.

The four of them continued to stroll around the carnival, but Leah could tell that Ethan wasn’t having a very good time. After thirty minutes, she said, “Maybe we should go home. I told Neil I’d be back before he went to bed.” It was a half-truth. She knew Neil rested better once she was home for the night, but she also was not much in a party mood. She offered Sherry
an encouraging smile and headed outside with Ethan.

By now it was dark, and the March air felt damp and cold. Leah pulled her jacket closer. Ethan slipped his arm around her shoulders. “You are unhappy,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.

“I guess the business with Dave upset me. Guys like him should have a belly button check just to make sure they’re really members of the human race.”

Ethan laughed. “You say funny things, Leah.”

“Well, you shouldn’t feel bad about winning the game. What’s wrong with winning?”

“Nothing. Still, it is a matter of the heart. My heart was not generous toward him. That was not right.”

By now they were at Leah’s car. She fumbled in her purse for the keys, but before she could find them, bodies materialized from the shadows. In moments she and Ethan were surrounded by the hulking forms of Dave and two of his buddies. Leah gasped and pressed herself against the cold
metal of the car. “What do you want?” she cried.

“I just want to talk to your friend here.” Dave’s voice sounded low and menacing.

“Go away,” Leah said, looking around. The parking lot was dark and deserted. With their backs against the car, there was no place to go.

“I’m not talking to you,” Dave said sharply. He leaned toward Ethan. “You know what? I don’t like you.”

“You do not know me,” Ethan returned.

Leah didn’t think Ethan sounded frightened. Obviously he didn’t realize the danger.

“I don’t want to know you,” Dave said. “I think you’re a wimp.”

Ethan said nothing.

“Yeah,” Dave said, glancing at his two friends. “This guy’s a real weenie.”

Dave’s buddies grunted.

“And you’re a jerk!” Leah blurted out. “Leave us alone.”

Dave threw up his hands in mock surrender. “The princess speaks.” His tone turned nasty as he added, “But I’m not
talking to you, Leah. I’m talking to the choirboy.” His body tensed and his hands clenched. “Why don’t we see what you’re made of, choirboy?”

Still Ethan said nothing.

Alarmed, Leah stepped between them. “Please, go away. Ethan’s done nothing to you.”

Dave shoved Leah out of the way. One of his friends caught her and held her arms behind her back.

“Let her go,” Ethan ordered.

“Why? You going to do something about it?”

Leah struggled, but she was held fast. Her fear gave way to anger. “Let go of me!” she bellowed. “He’s just trying to provoke you, Ethan. Don’t let him.”

Dave shoved hard on Ethan’s shoulder. “Your girlfriend always tell you what to do?” he asked. “You let a girl run your life?”

Ethan didn’t move, even with Dave’s shove. It must have maddened Dave because he shoved him harder. Ethan stood like a rock, his hands hanging loosely at his
sides. With an open hand, Dave slapped Ethan hard across the face. Leah cried out, but Ethan still didn’t budge.

“What’s the matter?” Dave snarled. “Can’t you make a fist?”

“I will not fight you.”

Lightning fast, Dave smacked Ethan’s face harder. The sound of the slap crackled in the cold night air.

“Stop it!” Leah cried. Why didn’t Ethan defend himself?

Dave jabbed at Ethan’s face. Ethan bobbed his head to miss the blow. Dave jabbed again. This time, the blow connected. Ethan’s head snapped back hard, but he still did nothing to defend himself. “What’s the matter?” Dave asked. “You too chicken to fight?”

“I do not fight,” Ethan said.

“Then I’ll beat the crap out of you where you stand,” Dave said, moving forward, fists jabbing at Ethan’s head. Braced against the car, Ethan couldn’t get out of Dave’s way. “You’re a coward,” Dave said, dancing and jabbing. “Come on and fight!”

Leah brought the heel of her boot down hard on the toe of the boy who held her. He
yelped and loosened his grip, and Leah started swinging. She clobbered Dave hard on the side of the head.

“Why, you—” He started toward her.

“What’s going on here?” A voice boomed from the darkness.

All movement stopped, and the football coach hurried up to the group. “I asked what’s going on. Simmons? What are you doing?”

Dave leaped back, brushing his knuckles on his jeans. “Nothing.”

Leah was shaking so hard that she could barely make her voice work. Her hand throbbed from striking Dave. “He attacked us,” she said.

The coach stepped forward and peered at Ethan. “Is that true? Are you all right?”

“I am all right,” Ethan said quietly.

The coach spun toward Dave. “I don’t know what happened here, but I do know that fighting on school grounds is forbidden. You’re up for several athletic scholarships, Simmons. Don’t make me put this on your record. You save the hostility for the football field, you hear me?”

“Yes, sir.”

The coach looked at the other two boys. “I expect to see all three of you in my office first thing Monday morning. Then I’ll decide what your punishments will be. Now, the three of you get out of here.” Dave and his friends backed away. “This is finished,” the coach added. “Do I make myself clear?”

Shaking with anger and frustration, Leah watched Dave and his friends go. “I hate them,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” the coach said. “But don’t worry; I’ll deal with them. You two sure you’re not hurt?”

“We’re okay, I guess.” Leah sniffed hard. When the coach left, she turned to Ethan.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Inside the car, with the dome light on, she saw that his lip was bleeding and his eye was beginning to swell. “You’re hurt.”

Ethan blotted his lip on his sleeve. “It is nothing.”

“Why didn’t you stop him?”

“Amish do not fight.”

“I know that, but you could have at least defended yourself.”

“I will not fight, Leah.”

“Not even to defend yourself? Or someone you love?”

He shook his head. “Leah, my feelings about violence cannot vanish simply because I am threatened. What good is a virtue if it is untested? What good is a belief if any challenge causes us to toss the belief aside?”

“But you could have been really hurt!”

“Often God provides a way out. Tonight the coach showed up.”

“But what if he hadn’t shown up?”

“But he did,” Ethan said.

“Well, you almost got your teeth knocked out.” Leah started the car and gunned the engine. “And I can’t believe you Amish don’t make allowances for hitting a bully like Dave who’s about to do you bodily harm. You’d think you could at least defend yourselves!”

“It is our way, Leah.” Ethan’s tone sounded patient, as if he were explaining something to a child. “It has always been our way. It always will be.”

She gritted her teeth, afraid to answer him because she was so angry. How could
anybody stand by and let some idiot pound him into the ground and not lift a finger? Some things about the Amish made no sense to her at all. “I’ll put some medicine on your lip when we get home,” she said. “Or is that against your rules too?”

He said nothing. They didn’t speak for the rest of the ride home.

S
cuttlebutt at school the next week had it that Dave and his two friends were in deep trouble. They could have been suspended, but the coach intervened and they were spared. For punishment, they had to pick up trash and paper from the school grounds every day after school for two months. They steered clear of Leah, which suited her fine. But she couldn’t forget the fear she had felt and Ethan’s absolute refusal to do anything to protect them.

“Would it have been better if he had fought and gotten pounded to a pulp?” Neil had asked her when she told him her feelings.

Leah shuddered at the image of her tender, gentle Ethan after a bashing by Dave. “Of course not. But what about the next time some jerk comes along and threatens him? Will he never stand up for himself? I see bad stuff every day on TV. Sometimes a person has to fight. Or die.”

Neil sighed. “I agree—the world’s a mean place. But the Amish are pacifists and always have been. They don’t fight in wars. If they must serve in the military, it’s in a noncombat support role.”

Ethan had once told Leah the same thing, but at the time she’d hardly paid attention. Now she couldn’t shake her fear that something awful might happen to Ethan if he never did anything to protect himself.

Neil added, “This is one of the reasons that the Amish keep to themselves—so that they won’t have to fight and quarrel. Their world and ours don’t mix. You’ve known that all along.”

Yes, Leah had known it, but now the disparities between her and Ethan’s worlds had taken on a sinister note. This time it was more complicated than not using electricity
or modern conveniences. As for Ethan, he went about his everyday life as if nothing had happened. Neither Leah nor Ethan spoke of it again.

Leah was out in the barn helping Ethan with the cars late one afternoon when Neil came in to see the two of them. His gait was little more than a shuffle and he was slightly stooped, but Leah could tell he was excited about something. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Neil waved a piece of paper. “Ethan, I think we’ve found your brother.”

Ethan dropped the rag he was using to polish chrome and hurried up to Neil. “Eli? You’ve found Eli? Where is he? Can I go to see him?”

“Whoa … One thing at a time.” Neil thrust the paper into Ethan’s hand. “This is a report concerning him. It appears he changed his name to Elias Long. That’s why it took so much time to track him down. I hadn’t thought about his renaming himself, but he did.”

“This will shame Pa,” Ethan said, shaking his head.

“I’m sure Eli had his reasons. Anyway,
here’s the good news. He’s a schoolteacher, and he’s employed in the southern part of the state, in a small rural school district not far from the Kentucky border. His address and phone number are in the letter.”

Ethan stared at the paper, but Leah saw a slight tremble in his hand. It was Ethan’s only outward sign of excitement. “Do you want to call him?” she asked.

“No. I want to see him. With my own eyes, I want to look into his face. Will you come with me, Leah?”

Leah and Ethan left on Saturday. Since the trip was about two hundred miles, Ethan asked off from work and Dr. Prater excused him. Ethan said little during the drive down the interstate. He drove while Leah watched the countryside fly past as they headed south. Pale pink blossoms adorned plum trees, and new leaves sprouted from trees like insets of green lace. Tulips and daffodils pushed through the hard, dark earth in spikes of brilliant color. Even the cold air was tinged with the scent of spring.

“Are you excited?” she asked.

“I have dreamed of this for years, but now that it is about to happen, I feel … well, like there are butterflies inside my stomach.”

“He’s probably missed you as much as you’ve missed him.”

“I am not so sure. If he wanted to see me again, he would have come home.”

Leah had no reassuring words to offer.

Once they were off the interstate, Leah checked the map and the directions a gas station attendant had given them. “I think that’s it up on the right,” she told Ethan. A lone mailbox stood by a gravel driveway that led to a house set far back on the property. “Yes, this is the place,” she said, checking the number on the mailbox.

Ethan turned onto the driveway.

“It sort of looks like your place,” Leah said. “Not the house, but the property.” A garden could be seen off to one side, and clusters of trees dotted the land.

“I am surprised,” Ethan said. “Eli always hated working in the garden.” He stopped the car behind a pickup truck parked in front of a garage. His knuckles looked white on the steering wheel.

A dog bounded from around the side of the house and started barking. Fearlessly Ethan got out of the car. Leah waited patiently while Ethan made friends with the big black Lab. When she thought it was safe, she got out and, with Ethan, walked up to the house. The dog trotted at their heels.