Abram's Daughters 01 The Covenant (15 page)

Reaching over, he opened the glove compartment of his inr and took out a tablet of paper and a pen. "Here, price away.

She propped up one of the homemade signs against the turnips. It read, Self-service today. Pay on the honor system.

Suddenly she felt ever so merry. More than she had for quite some time. The afternoon would be wonderful-gut, she could just tell now by the glow in Derry's eyes. Jah, already I lie landscape looked brighter round them, as if someone had sprinkled golden sunbeams all over the cornstalks.

The school day was over promptly at three-thirty, and I lannah and her twin rode home with their Mennonite neighbors, whose children also attended the Georgetown School. As they made the turn off the road into their lane, Hannah noticed that the produce stand wasn't being looked after. That's odd, she thought.

The twins thanked Mrs. Kraybill for the ride, then headed into the house? kissed Mamma, and placed their school books on the kitchen table.

"How was your day at school?" Mamma asked in the midst of stirring up a chocolate dessert.

"Oh, we spent most of the day reviewing simple algebra," Mary Ruth said.

"Was it easy for you, Hannah?" asked Mamma.

"Not so much, no," Hannah answered. "Mary Ruth's much better at numbers, you know."

Mamma raised her eyebrows. "Algebra sounds like high school to me."

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"It's required, is what the teacher says," Mary Ruth spoke up, and Hannah wished her sister would just leave it be. Mamma didn't need to know how awful exciting such hard problems were to Mary Ruth.

"Well, all I'll say is do your best . . . but don't be lookin' to go past the eighth grade. That's enough book learnin' for Plain girls." Mamma motioned to Hannah right then. "Run out and tell Sadie to come inside, will ya? I'm baking a triple batch of fudge meltaways, and I don't recall the creamy filling part."

"Does Sadie know?" Hannah asked.

Mary Ruth was nodding her head that jah, their big sister would definitely recall the ingredients for the filling.

"I'll see if I can fetch her, then," Hannah said, heading out the kitchen door.

So intent was she on finding Sadie, Hannah almost missed seeing the handwritten note propped against the turnips at the produce stand. "What's this?" she whispered, wondering where her sister might've gone, leaving a note for their frequent and loyal customers of all things. This wasn't satisfactory, not the way they were taught to do. Dat would be displeased, even though they knew of others who didn't bother to oversee a roadside stand for hours on end. But that just didn't seem considerate, somehow. Now what was she to tell Mamma, who'd sent her out here to trade off with Sadie?

Looking up and down the road, even going out on the hot pavement barefooted, she strained to see if her sister might've taken herself off for a short walk in either direction. But there were only acres and acres of corn, the golden brown tassels floating in the gentle breeze. And up the way, farmers threshing their golden wheat.

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"Where could she have gone?" she said aloud. "Where?"

She shuddered to think that she'd have to tell Mamma

| about this. Turning, she ran back to the house to first tell

I Mary Ruth, who was raking the side yard, that Sadie had

plumb disappeared. Then, realizing the seriousness of what

this might mean, and having received an alarming reaction

from her twin, the two of them rushed into the kitchen.

There they found Mamma reciting the old recipe by heart, as

| if saying the ingredients out loud might help her remember

' every part.

"Mamma! Hannah says Sadie's gone left the produce stand without tellin' a soul," Mary Ruth exclaimed.

Mamma's frown was hard against her forehead. "Hannah?" she said, looking right at her, all ears.

"Jah, Sadie left a sign for the customers." Hannah nodded her head. "I looked all round, but she's nowhere to be seen."

Mamma's shoulders slumped about two inches. "Well, she's gotta be somewhere, ain't so?"

But then and there, the plight of missing Sadie was dropped. Almost faster than Hannah could grasp, really. She was promptly sent back out to the road to remove the sign and stand there to greet folk and make change and whatnot. And Mary Ruth was the one chosen to help Mamma with the chocolaty coconut recipe. All the while Hannah kept think' ing Leah didn't know about Sadie's being gone. Dat, neither. What would they think? Would they worry as Hannah was doing now? And as Mamma was, too, though trying to hide her concern. Surely Sadie hadn't been forced to leave against her will. Or had she?

Something truly peculiar had been happening the last full month; Hannah knew that for sure. Her big sister was off

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somewhere else, at least in her head she was, and most all the time. Maybe that was about to change, though, because from what Mamma had said recently, Sadie was headed for church membership in just four days. Jah, she'd be in the line for baptism come this Sunday, which made Hannah feel ever so much better now, thinking on it ... even with Sadie gone from where she usually stood behind the hearty turnips and juicy red tomatoes.

Derry drove Sadie all the way out to Pinnacle Overlook, near Holtwood, where they stood high on a cliff and gazed out at the Susquehanna River, an expanse of greenish gray water beneath a robin-egg blue sky. He took her by surprise, whispering in her ear that he loved her and was sorry about what he'd said earlier . . . about his mother discovering the note in the mailbox and all. He seemed to want to make up for his hasty words and kissed her softly on the cheek when tears in her eyes threatened to spill down her face. He held her hand as they strolled along. All was forgiven again.

"Uncle Sam wants me after Christmas," he said when they were back in the car, speeding down the highway.

"Your uncle?"

He pursed his lips and motioned her over next to him. And she did. She slid across the front seat and sat right beside him, snuggling close when he put his arm round her shoulders. She listened carefully to his curious explanation that Uncle Sam actually stood for the United States "Understand now, Sadie?" Ach, he could be so dear when he wanted to be.

But what he said next left her completely shaken. "You're gonna join up with the soldiers?" she said.

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"That's right. I'm enlisting into the United States Army the minute I turn eighteen."

"But I thought you and I..." "Aw, Sadie, it won't be forever. You'll see." "So, then, are you sayin' I'll know where you'll be?" He turned toward her then, his breath sweet on her face. "Sure, I'll write to you twice a day."

His tender promise touched her deeply, so much so she nearly forgot his plans with the American uncle. She was more than willing to remove her prayer cap as they rode along, letting down her waist-length hair just for him. She took pleasure in the warm breeze coming in through the car windows, blowing her long locks back away from her face, breathing in the spicy scent of early autumn.

Derry was a fast driver but awful gut at it as he steered with one hand on the wheel, the other caressing her shoulder. If today he asked her to be his wife, she'd say she would marry him, let the chips fall where they may. Truth was, come Sunday she was joining church, so if she ran off and married him after that, she'd be shunned for sure. Even still, she had to go ahead with baptism for Dat's and Mamma's sake, if nothing else.

Such worry faded quickly with his kisses. She knew once again, in her heart of hearts, Derry was her one and only love, for always.

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1 he night of Leah's sixteenth birthday she dreamed of her hope chest, newly filled with birthday treasures, though still rather bare compared to Sadie's. In the dream, the daring sun peeked its golden head into each of the bedroom windows, shining forth a brilliant shaft at the foot of the double bed, where both girls' pine chests stood, side by side. Glancing at Sadie's, she found herself eager to look inside. She wanted to compare her gifts with the many items Sadie had made and received over*he years. Leaning down, she opened the heavy wood lid, and there before her eyes were the beautiful contents of Sadie's years of hard work.

Still dreaming, Leah dug even deeper, suddenly startled to see all of her own perty birthday remembrances, each and every one . . . inside Sadie's hope chest. She lifted out the lovely hand-sewn pillow tops, crocheted doilies, and other linens she'd just received from Aunt Lizzie, Aunt Becky, and other aunts on both sides of the family, as well as from Fannie Mast and Miriam Peachey. She was especially delighted with Adah Peachey's embroidered floral pillowcases and the yellow

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quilted potholders and matching mitts from Mary Ruth and Sadie. Hannah had her own surprise for Leah. Seven perty handkerchiefs, one for every day of the week. Mamma, too, gave a useful gift a complete set of sheets, with pillowcases to match, a woolen blanket, and a quilted coverlet. Here they were, all neatly folded inside her sister's chest.

"Ach, Sadie . . . what have you done?" She began to cry. Her sister had somehow taken away her few cherished gifts. The sky was a sudden gray, and she was terribly afraid.

Awakening, she sat straight up in bed, breathing ever so hard and looking round the dark room. It was nighttime, not noonday at all. And Sadie was next to her, sleeping quietly. Tempted to slip out of bed and investigate the two wooden chests, she was aware of the beating of her heart. But the longer she sat there, the more she realized the dream had only seemed real the result of having a second helping of Mamma's dessert surprise. A wonderful-gut pineapple upsidedown cake with fresh whipped cream. No need to think twice about such a dream. She turned on her side, facing away from Sadie, and hugged herself. May my dreams be sweet now, Father God, she breathed a prayer and closed her eyes, falling asleep once again. '.

The morning of Sadie's baptism was as gloomy and rainy a Sunday as any she ever recalled. Seemed to her the heavens were already unleashing divine wrath upon her as she stood in the line, waiting with five other girls to take their places in the center section over near the minister's bench. Just now

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she felt an overwhelming need to rutsche squirm but her memory served her all too well. During many a Sunday Preaching service, when she was little and not able to sit as perfectly still as Mamma would expect her to, Sadie had received Mamma's firm pinch on her leg. She could almost feel the smarting pain even now, a bleak reminder of her indifference to those things her parents deemed sacred.

A holy hush came over the room. The applicants for baptism prepared to turn their backs on the world and all its pleasures, saying a resounding "Jah" to the Lord Jesus and the Ordnung the unwritten rules for holy living.

Preacher Yoder had literally pounded away at the aspects of covenant making, as stated in the Old Testament, teaching them that a vow made had lifelong consequences if broken. "To disobey the church would mean death to the soul."

Obey or die. . . .

There had been exhortation from Dat, too, Sadie recalled. He'd sat her down just yesterday and read aloud from Genesis chapter fifteen, where Jehovah God made a covenant with Abram of old. --The blood of a young heifer, goat, and ram, along with a dove and a pigeon, had been spilt. Then a blazing torch, representing the Holy One, had appeared and passed through the blood path, sealing the covenant. "Making a covenant with the Lord God heavenly Father is a very serious matter," Dat had said. Yet she had remained silent.

Kneeling before the bishop and his wife, Sadie battled in her spirit, caught betwixt right and wrong, good and evil. But she went ahead with her baptism, making good on her parents' hopes and wishes for her paying merely lip service, so unable was she to deny her desperate love for Derry Schwartz.

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A few weeks later Gideon Peachey and his father worked together, chopping and stacking wood, a backbreaking chore. Keeping his eye on the log, Gid swung the ax down hard in one mighty blow, splitting the log apart at the center, the way his pop had taught him to do.

Close to one o'clock Gid happened to look up and see Abram Ebersol coming across the pastureland, cutting through the side meadow and round the barnyard to where they worked, a long stone's throw from the barn. "Willkumm!" he and his father called at once.

Abram moseyed over and offered to lend a hand. Gid was glad for the extra help, since there was more wood to hew than he and Dat could possibly split in three hours' time, and the afternoon milking would be rolling round here before too long.

Nodding, Abram smiled stiffly. "Thought I could make myself useful."

Gid cheerfully gave Abram a spare ax, and the two of them worked on the pile of wood while Dat went to stacking. They kept at it for an hour and a half before Mam brought tall glasses of sweetened iced tea for each of them. Mopping his brow, Gid glanced at the man who might be his father-inlaw someday. If Leah Ebersol would have him, that is. From the moment his father's and Abram's plan had been revealed to Gid, marrying Leah had appealed to him. He hadn't let on to either Dat or Abram that long before his school days he'd had his eye on the perty brunette girl who lived just across their grazing land. Of the four Ebersol sisters, Leah was the

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one who'd most caught his attention. Same thing once they Started attending school together. Leah had been the kindest, most pleasant of all the girls in his class, which wasn't taking Into account whatsoever that he thought she was downright beautiful inside and out. Adah and Dorcas, his younger sisters, must've thought so, too, because the girls, especially Adah and Leah, had struck up an instant friendship back when they were just little.

Truth was, everyone who knew her spoke well of Abram's Leah. Gid could only hope he would be worthy of courting her. That she might allow him to accompany her home in his black open buggy come this Sunday night. Evidently Adah had already talked to Leah about driving to the singing together, the three of them. But Adah had said that Leah wanted to go a little farther away over to the Grasshopper Level singing which was right fine with him. It was the returning home part of the evening he cared most about.