Abram's Daughters 05 The Revelation (6 page)

Leah sat still on the bed, not daring to try to comfort her, although it seemed Sadie was distraught about more than the news regarding her son.

Sadie turned and faced the window, staring out at what, Leah didn't know maybe the forest, or the snug log house at the edge of it. Sadie's chest was heaving.

"I'm so sorry," whispered Leah, going to her.

"Ain't for you to say." Sadie buried her head in Leah's shoulder. "None of what I'm feelin' is your doing."

"Still, I can't help but bear it, too." She wanted to remind her of all the good things the Lord had brought their way all the blessings she saw as clearly coming from their heavenly Father's hand but she thought better of it. Best to simply let Sadie cry. . . .

Moments later Sadie pulled a hankie out of the pocket of her bathrobe. "We should've told Lyddie right away," she said through sniffles. "Back when we first knew Jake was seein' her. We wouldn't be in this mess now."

Leah nodded, feeling terribly overwhelmed, even helpless. "What on earth were we thinkin'?"

Sadie shrugged. "We thought Lyddie would've forgotten him by now found someone new him being her first beau and all. Guess we were sorely wrong."

Guess so, Leah thought, contemplating the calamity the news of Sadie's "baby" come back from the dead would bring to the entire Plain community. Dat and Peter Mast would be fit to be tied. Oh, I can just see it.

53The Revelation

I Truly, there was no love lost between the Masts and the Eberlols, though if Mamma were still alive, she'd dispute that notion enjircly. Got to keep showing kindness whether they accept our love or not, Ihe'd often said, which meant you never wanted to sever family ties. With these years of awful silence between them and Grasshopper Level, there was no telling what Mamma might've been willing to lo to bring an agreeable end to it.

I But with their mother long departed, it was for them to make Imends. Of course, with Jonas home and working through his Proving, there was no telling what might come of the Mast-Ebersol Itandoff, especially with Jonas planning to marry her. I Now is not the time for Peter and Fannie to discover Jake actually welongs to us, Leah thought, cracking a pained smile at the irony. If Inyone was to be told, she felt strongly that it should be Lydiann, ilit only provided she promised to keep the truth absolutely silent.

I Leah waited for Hannah to get settled into the carriage before

licking up the reins late morning on Monday. "You'll enjoy another

Hisit with Mary Ruth and little Ruthie," she told her gloomy sister,

loping the outing would do them both some good.

I "You must've forgotten I don't so much care to be round

Irangers," Hannah replied, folding her arms across her chest.

I " 'Tis all right to be timid with Mary Ruth's quiltin' ladies.

hat's just how you are."

I "They're all Mennonites, ain't?"

I "I hadn't heard that. Just a few neighbors and others who want

1} learn how to quilt."

I Hannah let out a harrumph, still acting like a child.

"What's gotten into ya? You seem out of sorts," Leah said, eyeing her sister, who sat all rigid and straight.

"I'll tell ya what's ailin' me," Hannah snapped, surprising Leah.

11 was as if she was desperate for a chance to give voice to her pentii(5 frustrations. "I'm tired of bein' looked down on by my family."

54. ,

Not waiting for Leah to answer, she added, "It's all 'bout my interest in folk medicine, I daresay."

Leah was surprised to hear Hannah spout off so. "There's nothin' wrong with using home remedies and whatnot. Aunt Lizzie and I've never felt there was, and Mamma never did, neither ... as you surely know." She paused for a moment and then continued when she saw Hannah was sitting with arms crossed even higher up on her bosom than before. "What bothers some of the People is dabbling in areas that are best left alone."

"Jah, Gid says the People are split down the middle on powwowing, some saying it's straight from the pit of hell though I don't see why when it helps those who are ailin'."

"Mamma always said there was no point steppin' as close as possible to the wrong side," Leah reminded her. "So I'd have to say we ought to stay far away from things that don't set well in one's spirit."

"Now you sound like Mary Ruth. She was always reciting Scripture and suchlike all those years back when Gid told her to stop comin' over to see me."

"But don't you agree there's something downright spooky 'bout the hex doctors' way with chants and buryin' dead chickens and whatnot?"

Hannah groaned and shook her head. "No . . . you don't know what you're sayin', Leah. That's all part of the earthy nature of things. Take people, for example, who can't wear a wristwatch because they have a special type of energy coursing through their bodies."

"I don't know anyone like that."

"Old Lady Henner could never wear a watch."

Leah didn't care one iota to hear more of Hannah's thin reasoning behind her obvious curiosity with the sympathy healers' dark, even evil, secret practices. "Sounds like an old wives' tale to me."

They rode along without saying much more, although Leah made occasional comments about various trees or so-and-so's welltended landscape. But when they arrived at Mary Ruth's house and Hannah noticed the many Englishers' cars parked outside, she uttered in disdain, "Looks like a bunch of fancy folk to me."

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I ,eah hopped out of the carriage and began tying the horse to (lie li itching post. "I expect we'll all have a wonderful-gut time."

I lannah shrugged her shoulders and stepped out of the buggy on flic opposite side, moving as slowly as if she were nigh unto eighty years old, instead of her sprightly thirty.

I1 was altogether pleasing to Leah seeing the eight ladies sitting tround the kitchen table in Mary Ruth's modest kitchen, all chatterin g about intricate stitching and the creative combination of design and color.

Several looked up from where they sat, scissors in hand, smiles

on bright faces, waiting expectantly as Mary Ruth happily intro-

I tliiced both Leah and Hannah as "two of my dear sisters." After that

I I rah and Hannah sat at the table, as well, cutting squares for the

\ |>inject: a nine-patch quilt.

Leah couldn't help but notice how unusually expressive Mary Kuth's blue eyes were as she spoke with one student after another. I lor sister had seemingly discovered a way to channel her gift for teaching right here in her own cozy kitchen. Each lady present three obviously very English, wearing gold scatter pins on blouse lollars, and one with big, round red earrings seemed to lap up the In. hniques much as a kitten does fresh milk.

Meanwhile, Ruthie slept snug in her cradle amidst the contented hum of the industrious women, whose busy hands flew to doing piecework and cutting squares for the pretty side border.

When it caihe time for the noon meal, each woman opened a hack lunch containing an extra sandwich or piece of fruit to share, which was exactly what they did. They broke bread together, with Mary Ruth saying the mealtime blessing before a single morsel was en ten.

I Spreading God's love in her own way, thought Leah, touched not I only by Mary Ruth's sweetness but by her enthusiasm for holding I nidi classes. Even though there was a small charge for the weekly inIll ruction, it struck Leah as a delightful way for Mary Ruth to have a I pleasant and meaningful social outlet after being accustomed to I teaching and enjoying the company of children all day long. GoodIncss, she knew how isolating it could be to tend to a new baby. She

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Beverly Lewis

couldn't have imagined raising Lydiann and Abe without the emotional support of Aunt Lizzie and, at the time, Hannah. In those days, she had even looked forward to doing housework for Dr. Schwartz and his wife, Lorraine.

Sighing, she caught herself glancing around the long table, once the dinner hour was past, drinking in the sounds and sight of the quilters trimming off the Schnibbles from many squares.

It was after the last quilter had thanked Mary Ruth at the back door and headed on her way that Leah and her sisters went and sat in the front room, taking turns holding Ruthie. Hannah couldn't seem to get over how small her niece's fingers were, and how "awful tiny the moons are on her fingernails." To this Mary Ruth remarked that she had put tiny mitts on Ruthie's hands at night. "So she doesn't scratch her face."

Hannah offered quickly that she'd done the same for Mimi. "She had a way of thrashin' her arms in her sleep . . . but only before a visit to the sympathy healer."

Leah's breath caught in her throat.

"Why on earth did you take your baby daughter to a powwow doctor?" Mary Ruth asked, unable to hide a look of astonishment.

Hannah didn't bother to answer. "I've been thinkin' quite a lot here lately. Ain't it time we had another woman doctor in the area?"

"You mean similar to an Amish midwife?" asked Mary Ruth.

"No, someone to carry on the healing gifts, like Old Lady Henner."

Mary Ruth stood right up and went over to Hannah to take sleeping Ruthie from her arms. "I'd rather you not talk about such things within the hearing of my firstborn." Pacing the floor, Mary Ruth glanced every so often at Hannah, who merely sat in the hickory rocker, a bewildered look on her face.

"Why is it you're so against our doctors, anyways?" asked Hannah at last.

Though Leah flinched inwardly, she hoped Mary Ruth might speak up and share what she'd learned about the matter. She was secretly pleased when Mary Ruth carried Ruthie to the kitchen and returned with a Bible. "Here's why I believe we must call upon the

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^Hfiic of the Lord for healing and not seek out the powers of certain li's in our community."

Hj Before Mary Ruth could thumb through the thin pages of the ^fcriptures, Hannah spoke up again. "Doesn't the Lord God give good Hfts to His children? Just look at water dowsers and folks who can Hflcl the depth and flow of a well and they can locate other things, mo do ya mean to say those things ain't from the hand of God?"

"The sort of healing used by sympathy healers is done mostly by

I writings and charms," argued Mary Ruth. "My Robert has been doing some research as an outgrowth of a church debate two years .i|'o, and he's discovered that powwowing uses chants and formulas liom a book of spells that traces back to the thirteenth century '.

Hannah frowned. "I've never heard tell of that. Old Lady Henncr never needed a book. She knew exactly what to say and do to help a sick person ... or even an animal."

"But she did things in secret, didn't she?" Mary Ruth pressed, I he Bible in her lap.

"I guess she did."

1 ,eah couldn't keep still any longer. "We know she did."

I .ooking as though she had been cornered, Hannah said, "Are ya I'.onna read the Bible now, Mary Ruth?" She gave Leah an annoyed look.

"Will you heed God's Word on this matter . . . this time?"

Hannah nodded Bter head and sighed. "I'm still here, ain't I?"

"All right, then, I'll read from the eighteenth chapter of I >cuteronomy, verses ten through part of twelve. 'There shall not be Ioiind among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to I >.tss through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of limes, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with f.itniliar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these i lungs are an abomination unto the Lord.' "

Hannah's face dropped and she looked like the air had gone out of her. The sisters endured a long and awkward silence.

Softly, yet confidently, Mary Ruth volunteered something Leah Ii.td not heard previously. "Believe it or not," she said, "I've heard

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some of the diseases are supposedly transferred at the time of the healing." Her shoulders rose and fell, and she went on. "Following such a treatment, the sympathy healer must go and rest to recover from taking on the toxic part from the sick person."

Leah wasted no time in responding. "For pity's sake, that doesn't sound like God's doing, does it?"

Hannah remained silent.

Leah rose and went to check on Mary Ruth's sleeping baby. Kneeling on the kitchen floor, she rocked the cradle and prayed silently that Hannah might ponder the goodness and grace of the Lord and take the Scripture reading to heart instead of yearning for the hex doctors' powers.

Please, Lord, help Mary Ruth finally get through Hannah s thick head on this matter.

On the ride home Leah was heartened by Hannah's rather relaxed demeanor. And because she hoped something good had been accomplished for Hannah today, Leah began to hum softly.

"Must be feelin' happy," her sister commented.

"S'pose I am." She couldn't go so far as to say just why, but another look at Hannah's serene face left Leah wondering what she was truly thinking.

"Mary Ruth seems quite contented, ain't so? All cozy in her house . . . with her first baby 'n' all."

"Ruthie is so cuddly and dear." Makes me want one of my own, she thought.

They rode along, Leah humming all the while, and Hannah leaning back against the front seat as if taking in the countryside, not saying much.

Will she consider the Bible verses Mary Ruth shared? Leah wondered. After all, there had been numerous other times when Hannah's twin had tried to link their concern to God's Holy Word for her sake. ,

Leaving the matter once again to the Lord, Leah was tempted to

' :. ": S ' -. ' '..' '..'. 58 - \ "'..:. ' ' ' :v:r"59

Sivt* in to aimless musing, but an open courting buggy in broad uylight, of all things was headed their way.

As the carriage drew closer, she looked over at the young couple, tpccting perhaps to wave and greet familiar faces. Instead, she drew H it sharp breath.

jake? .-:.. ;

H I lannah sat up quickly. "Wasn't that our Lyddie?" H I ,cah was speechless.

H Jake had surprised all of them, possibly even Lydiann, too, by

Btning home so soon. Witnessing yet again how smitten Sadie's boy