Plain Again (2 page)

Chapter One

Thinking of you and missing you.

Daed doing better.

Enjoy your day and call later if you can.

<3

A.

The knock at the door surprised Amanda. She wasn’t expecting anyone, especially since Mamm had left for the hospital already and the rest of the community had been avoiding the Beiler farm; now that the paparazzi had discovered that Viper’s wife had returned to her plain roots, it had taken only three days for word to spread. And then, the privacy and peace that she had anticipated on her parents’ farm quickly disappeared as the media descended again upon their farm in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Amanda had no idea of how it had happened. Who could have possibly known? How had they learned about her
daed
’s condition? How had they known that Amanda was there while Viper was on tour? But, by now, she knew that it was exactly what the media did for a living: discover things that others wished were kept secret. And the successful ones were quite good at it. They could ferret out information from even the most secretive members of Alejandro’s entourage. Or, more likely, from the peripheral people who were involved in his life.

For the first few days after Alejandro had left her at the farm, Amanda had spent time with her
mamm
at Daed’s bedside at the hospital. It was an unfamiliar and sterile environment with strange noises and smells. The nurses and doctors had seemed pleasant enough to Amanda and her
mamm
, but she knew that more than one person who worked at the hospital had done a double take when they realized who she was.

A few were brazen enough to outright question her. “Are you . . .?” However, they never seemed to finish the question when they asked it.

As Alejandro had trained her, she merely smiled and greeted people who stared while remaining distant and reserved. After all, her entire attention was focused on Daed, making certain that he was properly tended to during his hospital stay.

On the second day, he had begun to awaken. He had blinked his eyes several times, trying to place where he was and what had happened. And then, his eyes found Amanda, sitting in the chair by the bedside. His eyes had sparkled, and he tried to greet her. But he wasn’t able to speak, at least not very coherently yet. He had moments of clarity and a speech therapist was working with him every day. The doctors had seemed hopeful that he had not suffered brain damage and would fully recover. From his reactions, eye movements, and hand gestures, it appeared that the doctors were correct.

It was just a few days later when someone must have recognized her while visiting another patient at the hospital. A stolen photo posted on social media began the firestorm. And before Amanda knew it, she was greeted at the hospital with crowds of photographers, waiting for her arrival. For some reason, it had taken her by surprise that the paparazzi were there, eager for stolen photos of her and her
mamm
. But she wasn’t taken by surprise when they returned to the farm and began to camp outside of the driveway, eager for more photos of Amanda when she would return in the evening. Amanda knew all too well that anytime she stepped outside of the house, her picture was being snapped with telephoto lenses and sent over the airwaves to the media for distribution to the public.

This time, however, Amanda knew better. She knew how to handle the paparazzi. Alejandro had taught her well. During the day, she continued to go about her chores as usual. With the police once again positioned at the end of the driveway in order to hinder the photographers from trespassing, she had some degree of isolation. Yet she knew that, in the predawn hours, the photographers snapped her picture as she walked from the house to the barn, her head down and covered with a simple black knit head scarf since the weather was turning cold. She was able to shut the barn doors before turning to the task at hand: the morning milking. When she turned out the cows, she knew that the paparazzi were stealing her photograph from the road with their long telescopic lenses. This time, she didn’t care. Her image would be sold to websites and gossip newspapers. There was nothing she could do about it, and truth be told, she really had no choice as she was determined to help her family.

“How can you get used to that?” her
mamm
had asked earlier, a look of disgust on her face, as she waited for the driver to pick her up for the twenty-minute drive to the hospital.

Amanda hadn’t known how to explain it to her mother. Living it was the only way to understand it. So, rather than try, Amanda gave a weak smile and simply shrugged her shoulders. “Guess you just do, after a while.”

“Is that what it was really like?” her
mamm
had asked, a curious look on her face. “Traveling with him?”

For a moment, Amanda had shut her eyes and a whirlwind of memories flashed through her mind: Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami. After she had opened her eyes, she simply looked at her mother and smiled. “There were moments like that, I reckon,” she replied. “But, for the most part, there’s a lot of isolation from it. It becomes . . . white noise, I suppose.”

Her mother had frowned, not familiar with that term. “White noise?”

“Background noise. Like the sound of a buggy driving down the hill. After a while, you just stop noticing the sound unless you are listening for it.”

Now, however, there was someone knocking at the door. That was a noise that Amanda noticed, all right. No one came to visit the Beiler farm, not with the nosy photographers stationed outside of the farm, waiting for the million-dollar snapshot of Amanda Diaz, the Amish-born wife of Viper, international sensation and superstar.

Cautiously, she peeked through the glass, surprised to see a man standing there. From the way he was dressed, she could tell he was a local man and most likely a farmer. While he certainly wasn’t Amish, she thought he might be a Mennonite. Cracking the door open, she kept her foot at its bottom and glanced over to make certain the police were still there. One of them was watching for her and waved his hand. Clearly, they had vetted the visitor.

“Yes?” she asked timidly.

“Mrs. Diaz?” the man responded, plucking his hat from his head and holding it in his hands. He was nervous and shuffled on his feet, avoiding direct eye contact.

It felt strange to have someone call her Mrs. Diaz. Among the Amish, such formalities were never used. While on the road with Alejandro, she had been known as Viper’s wife or simply as Amanda. No one ever referenced either of them by using Alejandro’s last name. In fact, most people always called him by his stage name. She often doubted that the greater part of his fans even knew his Christian name.

“Ja?”
She remained blocking the door, just as a precaution.

The man glanced over his shoulder toward the barn as he said, “Your husband hired me to help with the farmwork.”

“My husband hired you?”

The man nodded and glanced toward the barn. “With your father being in the hospital, Mr. Diaz asked me to step in with the barn chores so you can tend to your
daed
.”

Amanda frowned.
Daed?
That was a word used by the Amish. Yet, clearly, this man was not Amish. “What’s your name?”

“Harvey,” he responded. “Harvey Alderfer.”

Alderfer? The last name was definitely Mennonite. Yet she wondered why Alejandro hadn’t told her about hiring him. That worried her. Still, if the police had let him through, certainly it was safe enough to let him muck the dairy barn while she tried to sort this out with Alejandro. It would be just like him to do something so thoughtful, she realized with a warmth building inside her chest. Only Alejandro would think to hire help for the manual labor around the farm.

“Ja vell,”
she said, gesturing toward the large building that housed the cows. “You could get started with the mucking, I reckon, while I contact my husband to find out about what, exactly, he has arranged.”

The man seemed satisfied by her answer and tipped his hat in her direction as he backed away from the door. She watched as the willowy stranger hurried down the porch stairs and wandered over toward the barn, his shoulders slightly hunched over and his hands in his pockets. Despite having lived in the area her entire life, she did not recognize the man, but she sure recognized his disposition: Mennonite.

Amanda made certain to lock the door after she shut it, and then, chewing on her lower lip, she hurried over to the place where she kept her cell phone. It was nearly eleven in the morning. She knew that Alejandro had a performance scheduled for the previous night and had to make an appearance at an after-party, but certainly by now he would be awake, she thought. Hesitantly, she pressed the button to dial his number. She disliked using the phone and, even more so, did not want to disturb him. She never knew whom he might be meeting with or what he was doing. But she certainly needed to find out about this man, this Harvey Alderfer, who had just shown up on her doorstep.

He answered on the third ring, his voice cheerful as he greeted her. “Princesa! You must have been reading my mind!”

“I was?” she said lightly, smiling as she clutched the phone to her ear and turned to look out the window. Her eyes scanned the empty fields, but her heart raced. “And what exactly was on your mind, Alejandro?”

She heard him move, a shuffling sound that was muffled. With a low voice, he replied, “You,
mi amor
. Always you. And if you knew about what, you’d blush.”

She couldn’t help herself and caught herself laughing. “I think I am blushing, even without knowing.”

“I only have a few minutes, Princesa. I am headed to a lunch reception,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “But I trust you are calling because the hired man showed up,
sí
?”

“Sí,”
she said back, her eyes sparkling just from the sound of his voice.

He laughed as he always did when she tried to speak Spanish to him. “I simply can’t have my wife doing all of that farmwork now, can I?”

“I have done it for many years,” she pointed out, still smiling to herself.

It had been almost a week, and she missed Alejandro more than anything in her life. Yet she knew that sacrifices had to be made. Life was greater than just her. And, at this time, her parents needed her at the farm. To not be there would risk her sister’s upcoming marriage to her beau in Ohio. If Amanda had been selfish and continued traveling with Alejandro, Anna would have felt compelled to return home and help rather than marry her young gentleman friend. Having already lost one prospect, Anna certainly could not risk losing another. At least, that was Amanda’s perception of the situation and the main reason she had stayed behind on the family farm while Alejandro toured on the East Coast.

“Ah,” he breathed, his voice deep and full of emotion. “But now you
are
my wife,” he said solemnly. “And, despite the distance, I must continue to take care of you,
sí
?”

“Sí,”
she whispered back, feeling an intense sense of loss. She had not realized how much she had grown to depend on Alejandro, on his love and support. Now that he was gone, she knew that she had become far more attached to him than she had even imagined. Loving him was just one part of the equation; counting on him was another. “
Sí
, you will always take care of me, Alejandro.”

She heard him catch his breath at her words and he swallowed, fighting his own emotion that continued to swell in his chest. “And your father, Amanda. How is he? Has he returned home from the hospital?”

“Next week,” she said softly into the phone. “He’ll be home next week.” That’s what the doctor had told her
mamm
just the day before. It was news that Mamm had been most excited to share with her
dochder
when she had returned home from the hospital last evening. Yet Amanda knew that coming home was a long way from being back to normal. She wasn’t certain how things would work themselves out. It all depended on his recovery.

“We must talk, Princesa,” Alejandro said, a sense of foreboding in his voice. “What to do with the farm in order to help your parents.”

A sigh escaped her lips. She didn’t need to hear the words to know exactly what Alejandro meant. Her father certainly could no longer handle the farm, not alone. Without a son to take over, there was no one to inherit it. Not now anyway, with Amanda married to an Englische international superstar and her sister, Anna, getting married to a farmer in Ohio. Clearly, her parents’ farm would have to be sold and her parents settled into a smaller home, one that her
daed
could handle. But that was definitely not something he nor his family were looking forward to, having lived on their farm for the greater part of their lives.

“Ja,”
she admitted. “I know. Decisions I don’t want to make today, that’s for sure and certain.”

“Now, Princesa,” he said, a noise in the background distracting him for just a second. She could hear voices and laughter. “I must say good-bye for now. I am needed to greet some people for this luncheon.” She sensed the dread in his voice. She knew how taxing these events were on his energy level. Yet he had taught her how necessary they were for maintaining his image and fan base. “I shall contact you later,
sí
?”

“Sí,”
she said softly, wishing more than anything that she could be beside him. He had affirmed to her more than a dozen times how much her presence had soothed him, giving him the energy and motivation to face the crowds with a smiling face. She could sense that now this energy was forced as he faced endless streams of fans and reporters and sponsors, all of whom had no idea about the true essence of the man they knew as “Viper.”

Outside, at the barn’s entrance, she stood in the shadow of the doorway, her eyes adjusting to the darkness for just a brief moment. The pungent smell of the cows mixed with hay and manure accosted her nose. For some, it could have been a distasteful odor. But for Amanda, it was comforting, a smell that reminded her of her youth on the farm.