Plain Paradise (5 page)

Although her mother was more sympathetic, Josie knew that her parents, pillars of the community, didn’t want such a scandal. Their Catholic upbringing prevented them from considering anything but adoption. Mom had met Mary Ellen and Abraham through mutual friends, and Mom knew they’d been trying to have a baby but couldn’t conceive. Large families were important to the Amish, and Mom told Josie she was doing God’s work by giving her baby to Mary Ellen and Abraham.

She’d hated her parents for a long time after that. Even though she returned to Chicago, her relationship with her aunt was also strained. She went to college during the day and worked nights for three months until she was able to get a small apartment near the campus. Two years later, she had an associate’s degree in business management and not much of a relationship with her family. And that was okay.

Over the years, Josie was sure Mom and Dad had run into Linda from time to time before they’d moved to Florida, but Mom swore that she broke contact with Mary Ellen and Abe after the adoption, feeling it was best for everyone. In the beginning, Josie phoned her mother often from Chicago, and with each phone call, Mom had done her best to convince Josie that she would be ruining Linda’s life if she caused a ruckus by returning to Lancaster County and seeking claim to her daughter.

Mom and Dad had visited her in Chicago a few times and attended her marriage to Robert, but nothing was ever the same between them. She’d never forgiven them for making a decision that should have been hers to make.

But Linda was seventeen now. And Josie was back in Lancaster County. She didn’t care what her parents or anyone else thought about her moving here.

She stared at the number one blinking red on the answering machine, took a deep breath, and then pushed the Play button. At the last second, she wondered if someone other than the Huyards had left a message. Her heart thumped as she waited and hoped to hear Mary Ellen’s voice, but instead, a deep, raspy voice came through.

“Hello. This is Abraham Huyard calling for Josephine Dronberger.”

3

L
INDA TOOK SHALLOW BREATHS AS SHE WALKED DOWN
the hallway at Lancaster General. She tried to avoid the odor, which smelled like something
Mamm
used when she cleaned the basement. With each tiny inhalation the stench found its way to her nostrils, igniting memories of the last time she had been in this hospital five years ago. Her Uncle Noah had given her cousin, David, one of his kidneys, but before David was transferred to Philadelphia for the transplant, the family had spent a lot of time here. Both Noah and David were healthy now, but it was a scary time for everyone then. And it made Linda even more fearful about seeing Jonas. She wished Stephen hadn’t been called into work at the last minute.

She gently pushed open the door to Jonas’s room. Lizzie, Jonas’s wife, sat on one side of his bed, and his daughter, Sarah Jane, on the other. Jonas was lying flat on his back with lots of tubes and wires running everywhere, and Linda’s chest grew tight for a moment, until Jonas tilted his head toward her and smiled. His cheeks were sunken in and his complexion a grayish-white color—like his hair and beard—but when he smiled in her direction, he was still the same old Jonas she loved.

“Linda, so
gut
to see you.” Jonas quickly turned to his daughter who occupied the chair on his right. “Sarah Jane, get up.” He raised his brows and lifted his chin.

“No, no,” Linda said when she saw Sarah Jane cut her eyes sharply at her father. “I don’t need to sit down. I’m just fine standing.”

Sarah Jane stood up, shaking her head at Jonas, then turned to Linda and smiled. “You sit and visit with Pop. I need some
kaffi
anyway.” She scooted around Linda and coaxed her toward the chair, then faced off with her father. “Pop, I’m not sure it’s necessary to speak to me in such a tone. I would have gladly gotten up for Linda, and I could certainly use a break from you.”

“
Gut
. Take Lizzie with you and the two of you go do something. All this hovering makes a man nervous. I ain’t gonna die in this hospital; I already told you that. And I ain’t gonna eat any more of that mush they call food in here either.” Jonas swooshed a hand toward Sarah Jane. “Go, now.” He turned toward his wife. “The both of ya’s.”

Lizzie placed her knitting needle in her lap beside a blue roll of yarn. She leaned closer to her husband. “I love you, Huggy Bear. But you are a cranky old man when you are feeling down.”

Jonas grunted. “I’ve told you a hundred times since you locked me up in this place that I don’t feel all that bad.”

Lizzie stood up, leaned over and kissed Jonas on the forehead. “We’ll be back soon.” She pushed a fallen strand of gray hair underneath her
kapp
and walked toward Linda. She smiled and patted Linda on the back. “Enjoy your visit, dear. If we’re not back by tomorrow, you’ll know we’ve left him in your hands.”

Over the years, Lizzie’s sense of humor had begun to mirror Jonas’s. Linda suspected that to live with Jonas, a person needed to stay light on their toes and find humor in every circumstance.

“We wouldn’t do that to you, Linda. Not to worry,” Sarah Jane said to her before turning to Jonas. “Be
gut
, Pop.” She playfully pointed a finger in his direction, then she and Lizzie headed out the door.

Jonas rolled his eyes and grumbled. Linda walked toward him and sat down where Sarah Jane had been. “Are you in pain?” It was the one thing that scared her. Pain. She didn’t tolerate it well, and she didn’t like to see others suffering.

Jonas propped himself up taller in the bed. “Why didn’t you bring the chess set? I haven’t played chess since the last time you and me played.”

“I—I didn’t know if you would be well enough to play. But I can bring it next—”

“No, no.” He waved his hand in frustration. “There won’t be a next time.” He leaned closer to Linda. “I reckon they won’t be back for a spell, so you got plenty of time to get me out of here.”

Linda arched her brows in surprise and stifled a grin. “What?”

He edged upward in the bed even more. “I think they hid my breeches in that closet.” Jonas pointed to a cabinet on the far wall. “If you can fetch me those, I’ll worry about all these contraptions they have me hooked up to.” He paused and twisted his mouth to one side. “Might try to round up my shoes too. And a shirt.”

Linda realized that he might be serious. “Jonas, you can’t just leave. I reckon that’s not how it’s done.”

He worked his legs to one side of the bed, swung them over, and kicked Linda in the shin. “
Es dutt mir leed
,” he said, apologizing, but planted his feet firmly on the tile floor.

Linda jumped from the chair and put her hands on her hips. “Jonas, for sure you can’t seriously think I’m going to help you to—”

Jonas latched onto her arm. “The
Englisch
will kill me in here. I got a
gut
month or two left, and there ain’t no need for them to rush me on to heaven.” He released her arm and pointed to his own. “They got me hooked up to all kinds of mind drugs.” His brows cinched together in a frown as he shook his head. “There ain’t a need for all this. Yesterday, colorful flowers started blooming in the corner over there.” Jonas pointed to his right. “They were growing right out of the tile floor.” He sighed. “Now, Linda, I’m not a well man, but I reckon there ain’t no flower garden growing in that corner.”

“Jonas, have you told Sarah Jane and Lizzie all this?” She dropped her arms to her side in frustration. “You can’t just pull those tubes out and leave.” She shook her head.

Jonas reached for his straw hat on the nightstand and placed it atop his matted hair, then he stroked his beard. “They’re keeping me hostage, that daughter and wife of mine.”

Linda fought a grin. “Jonas, no one is keeping you hostage. Everyone just wants you to feel better. Don’t you want us to be able to play chess when you’re feeling up to it?”

Jonas scanned the room with glassy eyes. “Where ya reckon they’d put my suspenders? I’ve lost so much weight,
mei
breeches will fall plumb down to
mei
ankles.”

Linda hoped Sarah Jane and Lizzie would be back soon. “I think you better wait until Sarah Jane and Lizzie get back.”

Jonas grunted again. “Those two are the guards in this prison. They ain’t gonna help me one bit.” He looked up at Linda, his eyes serious. “I’m doing this with or without you. I thought I could count on you.”

She sat down and reached for Jonas’s hand. It had to be the medications that were making him act like this, a stretch even for him. “Jonas, you know you can count on me, but I’m sure we can’t just pull those tubes from you arm. That wouldn’t be safe at all. I know you don’t like it in here, and I—”

“Hello.” Linda immediately recognized the voice and spun around to face Stephen. Relief washed over her.

“I thought you had to work.” She released Jonas’s hand, stood up, and walked to Stephen, wishing she could fold herself into his arms the way she had last Sunday after the singing. Every time she thought about the kiss they’d shared behind the barn after he brought her home in his courting buggy, she went weak in the knees.

“The
Englisch
worker showed up after all, so Abner told me I could leave if I wanted. I got a ride from Mr. Lauder at the bank next door.” Stephen slid past her, but not before winking in her direction, which did cause one knee to buckle. His brown eyes were flecked with gold, like sun-kissed wheat in the field. Stephen’s hair changed colors with the seasons, and already his tawny locks were turning a golden shade of blond, which framed his bronzed face in the bobbed haircut Amish men wore. After working long days in the fields, his skin was already tanned, his hard work evident by the way his shoulders filled out his blue shirt. Linda loved everything about him. Stephen Ebersol was as wonderful on the inside, kind and unselfish, and always the first one to volunteer when the community needed someone to take on an extra project. Maybe that was because Stephen was the bishop’s grandson, but Linda suspected it could be something else.

Linda felt like Stephen worked harder than most, as if it might make up for the one thing he was particularly self-conscious about. He was born with one leg almost two inches shorter than the other one, and even though he had special shoes to even out his tall stance, he walked with a slight limp and couldn’t run very fast, something she knew had bothered him when they were younger.

Over the past year, they’d shared picnics, Sunday singings, and spent all their free time together, but when Linda suggested they go for a swim at the creek, Stephen made up an excuse not to go. She knew it was because he didn’t want her to see him without his shoes on, which would make him off-balance. The only thing off-balance was Stephen’s way of thinking. She loved him, and to her, he was perfect.

“Hello, Jonas.” Stephen extended his hand to Jonas.

“Stephen, you’re just in time.” Jonas latched onto Stephen’s hand. “Linda was just about to break me out of this jail.”

Linda tried not to giggle. Jonas was a mess sitting there on the side of the bed wearing nothing but his straw hat and a white hospital gown. She shrugged in Stephen’s direction, glad that Jonas was feeling good enough to behave in such a manner.

“Break you out of here?” Stephen smiled benignly. “Jonas, you know we can’t break you out of here.”

“Well, then—” Jonas reached for the tube running into his arm and Linda gasped. Thankfully, a voice erupted throughout the room.

“Jonas Miller, what in the world do you think you’re doin’?” Lizzie marched to his side, slapped her hands to her tiny hips, and leaned her face to his. “This is why we can’t leave you for a minute.”

Sarah Jane was quickly at her father’s bedside. “Pop, you’ll be glad to know that we ran into the doctor on the way to get
kaffi
, and they are going to release you, if that’s really what you want. But they won’t be able to monitor your pain as closely if you aren’t in the hospital.”

“I’m not in any pain.” What little color Jonas had in his face when Linda arrived was quickly draining as he sat on the edge of the bed, and she noticed his hand trembling. Just sitting on the bed seemed to have zapped his energy.

“Pop, you will have to wait until the nurse comes in and unhooks you from everything. Now lie back down.” Sarah Jane helped her father back into bed. He grumbled but seemed to be relieved after he was on his back again. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

Jonas took a labored breath, then reached for his daughter’s hand. He spoke softly. “Take me home, Daughter. I want to watch the sun rise in the mornings and set in the evenings.” With glassy eyes, he turned to his wife. “Like I’ve done my entire life. It’s where I want to be.”

It was a side of Jonas that Linda had never seen, and she suddenly felt as though she were intruding on a very private moment. Worse, the realization of what Jonas meant punched her in the gut. Stephen’s hand brushed against hers, and he discretely looped his pinky finger with hers.

“All right, Huggy Bear,” Lizzie said tenderly. “You rest now.”

Sarah Jane was still holding her father’s hand, and Linda could see her eyes clouding with tears. “I’ll go check to see how much longer it will be before you can get released.” She blinked back tears, then turned to Linda. “Here, Linda. Come sit. Visit with Jonas while I go find the nurse.” Sarah Jane eased her hand from Jonas’s and motioned for Stephen to come closer. “Come over here. I’ll be back shortly.”

Linda sat down and Stephen stood by her side. “Maybe when you get home, you’ll feel like playing chess.” She tried to sound hopeful.

“A game of chess will be
gut
.” Jonas smiled, but Linda could tell it was forced, and she didn’t want him to have to make an effort like that for her sake. His eyes began to close, and after only a few moments, Jonas was snoring lightly.

“It doesn’t take much to tucker him out.” Lizzie gazed at Jonas, rubbing his forearm with her hand. She looked up at Linda and Stephen. “But I know it means a lot to him that you both stopped by.”

“We—we love . . .” Linda swallowed hard and fought to steady her emotions. Stephen put a hand on her shoulder.