A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel (34 page)

The rest of the house was neat as a pin, and she had at least an hour to spare before
dinner had to be started. She pulled the kitchen apron off, grabbed a coat from the
hook by the door, and set out to see if Jonah needed help with farm chores.

In the three days since Dat had been in the hospital, Annie and Jonah had worked together
to keep the farm and house running, and thanks to Gott, it was working.

Of course, they’d had help from near and far.

The social workers at the hospital in Lancaster had found a place for Mamm and Hannah
to stay so that they wouldn’t have to make daily trips all the way into the city.
After a full day at the hospital, Daniel and Rebecca came home. They went into Halfway
to tend to
the tea shop and harness shop each day, while Annie watched Levi here at home.

When it came time to gather up the last of the hay, Jonah had called on his brothers
Adam and Gabe. Now that it was baled and stored in the barn, the heavy harvest work
was over.

A good thing for Dat, who would have to rest in the house when he came home tomorrow.
Because of a certain medication, Dat would need to wait a month or so for his coronary
bypass surgery. Although the cardiologist preferred to keep him in the hospital on
bed rest, Dr. Trueherz had intervened to get Dat released.

“A month in the hospital wouldn’t be good for anyone,” Dr. Trueherz had said when
Annie had visited Dat in the hospital. “It’s expensive, inconvenient, and quite frankly,
a little unhealthy. Aaron is better off at home as long as you can keep him away from
chores. Rest and reading should be his tasks of the day. He can walk to and from the
table to eat—and that will be the extent of his exercise until we can get this surgery
done. His coronary arteries are in a very vulnerable state.”

Dat had agreed to be a good patient as long as he could go home and sleep in his own
bed. “How does anyone sleep here with lights on all the time and machines beeping
and whooshing all the time? I feel like a cow hooked up to a milking machine.”

Annie wanted everything to be in good shape when Dat came home tomorrow. She had baked
the applesauce cake following his new low-fat diet. Jonah had been chasing sheep and
trimming their hooves. They didn’t want Dat to see anything that would make him feel
like the farm needed his attention.

If they did a good job, maybe Dat would stay put!

Annie didn’t see any sign of Jonah and Levi over in the pastures, so she headed into
the barn. As soon as she stepped in the door, the tall wall of hay stopped her short.
With everything harvested, bundles
of hay were everywhere. She reckoned Jonah and the other men must have been handy
with the winch to load all of this hay. By spring, most of it would be used up.

Voices came from the area where the horses were stabled, and as Annie made her way
over, she couldn’t help but listen. Jonah’s voice was so low and soothing, she edged
closer, wanting to be reassured the way Levi was.

“I want to give my doddy a big hug when he comes home,” Levi said. “Is he too sick
for a hug if I go nice and gentle?”

“A gentle hug would be wonderful good,” Jonah said.

“Is he going to get better?”

“Let’s pray that he does. We know Gott is watching over your doddy. I think it was
a guardian angel that got him to the hospital in Lancaster.”

Up on tiptoe, Annie peered over the wall of the stall to see the two of them sitting
on a bale together beside Dapple, the chestnut mare Annie favored. The sight of Levi,
relaxed in the crook of Jonah’s arm, made Annie’s lower lip tremble. What a whirlwind
week it had been for the five-year-old boy, from his fear of the thunderstorms to
his worry over his grandfather. Everyone had been in a worried state, and the boy
must have felt the fear swirling through all of them over Aaron’s condition.

And through it all, Jonah had remained steadfast. Steady. Calm. And tender with little
Levi.

Jonah had been here day and night, as faithful as the sun and moon.

She lowered herself from the rail and pressed a hand to her chest, sure that her heart
had swelled to eight times its normal size. Why had she never noticed him before?
How had she gone on all these years without seeing him, seeing the man he truly was?
And these last weeks with him here on the farm, right under her nose … how could she
have been so blind?

She was falling in love with Jonah King.

The next day dawned gray and damp with a mist clinging to the hills. But Annie didn’t
let the rainy day dampen her mood as she washed the breakfast dishes and tidied up.
Dat was coming home today, and that was the first step in getting things back to normal
around here.

But the man who was rolled out of the special van in a wheelchair did not look at
all like Annie’s father. Her dat was strong and robust, bold and tireless. But this
man seemed small in the narrow chair that bumped along the path, pushed by a young
man in a navy blue jacket. The man in the wheelchair was small and gray and light
as a dry leaf in the wind.

Biting back her worries, Annie stepped down from the front porch and forced herself
to smile. “Welcome home, Dat!”

The man in the chair lifted his head. His eyes found Annie, and he smiled Dat’s big
smile, the one that could melt the coldest heart.

Only then did she recognize the dear father she so loved. She ran to meet him, reaching
out to squeeze his hand as the attendant pushed him along.

“It’s good to be home, Annie girl.” When the wheelchair reached the single step of
the porch, she expected him to get out of the chair and walk, but he waited there.
As if he had surrendered to the ailment that was eating away his energy.

Mamm and Jonah were suddenly behind her. Mamm stood by, looking tired as Jonah helped
the attendant lift the wheelchair onto the porch.

Annie held the screen door open as her father was wheeled into the house. Annie fully
expected him to go into the kitchen for some tea and applesauce cake, but Mamm directed
the man to push Dat straight into their bedroom.

But when would she be able to visit with him … talk with him?

She missed her dat.

Annie stood in the hallway, confused. “Do you think he’s coming out?” she asked Jonah.

He shrugged.

A moment later, the door opened and Lovina emerged with the English man. “Thank you
very much, Jerry. So we bring back the chair when he returns for surgery?”

Jerry nodded. “Make sure he uses it whenever possible. We don’t want to tax his heart
in any way.”

Annie and Jonah watched as Lovina thanked the man again and saw him out. Once the
door closed behind him, Annie turned to her mother. “Can I go in and talk to Dat?”

“Not right now, honey girl. He’s very tired from the trip, and rest is the main thing
right now. Leave him be. Maybe he’ll come out for dinner. Maybe not until tomorrow.”

Annie nodded as her mother disappeared back into the bedroom, closing the door firmly
behind her. She felt foolishly disappointed. How she wanted to tell her dat all about
how she and Jonah had managed the farm! She wanted to see him enjoy homemade food
for the first time in days. She longed to spend just a few minutes with him … to hear
a few words that would reassure her that everything would be all right.

“I’m so disappointed.” She turned to Jonah. “And worried for Dat. The sickness has
taken a toll on him. He’s so … so small.”

Like a withered branch.

It was as if autumn had come through and stripped him of life.

Seeing him this way frightened her more than the news of the heart attack. “Did you
see him?” she whispered to Jonah.

He nodded. “He’s in a bad way, Annie. Until he gets the surgery, he’s going to need
all our help and patience.”

He was right, of course, but she couldn’t forget the ghostly image of her father that
had just passed by.

“Annie …” Jonah reached for her hand and held it tight. “Give him time, and pray for
Gott’s healing love.”

She bit her lower lip, taking strength from the spark of determination in Jonah’s
dark eyes. Time and prayer … she had plenty of those to give.

J
onah sat at the kitchen table, his thoughts focused on a farm miles away, beyond the
neat white frame of the kitchen window. Was Aaron taking it easy, as the doctor had
instructed? He wondered when, exactly, Annie would be leaving for New York, though
he didn’t have the courage to ask her. And he wanted to be there when that pregnant
cow freshed, which could be any day now.

Most of Jonah’s brothers and sisters were gathered in the kitchen to listen in on
the big discussion. Although Jonah enjoyed spending time with his family, he wished
he didn’t have to be a part of this talk.

Wedding preparations …

Jonah didn’t have much interest in the details, but Adam had wanted him to be involved
in the financial planning.

There was a nip in the air, but the potbelly stove kept the kitchen warm, as well
as the gas stove that was heated up for baking. Remy had made hot cocoa for everyone.
Jonah sipped from his mug, tuning out the talk of who would handle the horses for
the bridal carriages and who would serve the meal.

The good thing about a family meeting was that it brought the family together. His
grandmother sat beside him, taking notes on costs. Nell King had been the farm’s bookkeeper
for more than a decade, and no one knew the family finances as well as she did.

At the far end of the big table, Ruthie, Leah, and Susie sat, tending to some kind
of embroidery project. Tonight he had a feeling each was more focused on the wedding
details than the needle in hand. As much as he disliked wedding plans, the girls seemed
to eat them up like candy.

“My father has offered to pay for the wedding, if that’s okay,” Remy said. “I told
him he would not be allowed to meddle in the plans or break Amish wedding tradition,
and he’s agreed to that.”

“That would be a lot of money for one father to pay,” Mary said.

Remy lowered her mug. “In the English world, it’s traditional for the father of the
bride to pay for everything, and he’s prepared to do that. He can afford it.”

Mammi Nell tapped her pencil against her open book of accounts. “As your bookkeeper,
I think that would be very good. But as Adam’s grandmother, I have to say that it’s
too much.”

“It is too much,” Adam agreed. “It’s not right for your father to pay for a double
wedding with more than five hundred guests. Maybe you can calculate what one fourth
of the cost would be, Mammi?”

“Ya, I can do that,” Nell said.

“And the Beilers are going to help with money, and the preparations, of course,” Mary
said.

“Gut,” Adam said. “And did you ask about the wedding wagon?”

“I got the information from the woman who runs it.” Mary handed a folded piece of
paper to Mammi. “For this price, we get the wagon a week before the wedding, so we
can use it to start preparing.”

“All those pots and pans … and five gas stoves?” Mammi said as she read over the letter.
“That’s gut. There’s a lot of cooking involved for five hundred people.”

“Lots of potatoes to be peeled,” Remy said.

“How many potatoes will that take?” Susie said.

“If everyone eats two potatoes, that’s one thousand,” Leah said. “We’re going to be
peeling for many days and nights.”

“And it comes with a giant coffeemaker,” Mary said. “It brews a hundred and sixty
cups of coffee at a time.”

“Mmm.” Nell tapped her pencil. “No waiting for a cup of coffee.”

“The wedding wagon would make things go smoothly,” Adam said. “What about the cost,
Mammi?”

“It’s good.” Nell tapped Jonah on the arm, showing him the letter. “What do you think,
Jonah?”

“Fine by me.” Jonah shot a look down the table at his younger sisters. “I’m just wondering
who’s going to peel all those potatoes?”

“I’m a very fast peeler,” Susie said.

“My fingers are getting tired just thinking about it,” Leah said, stirring laughter
at the table.