Plain Promise (34 page)

“
Ach!
It’s Dale Spalek—that
Englisch
fella in town. He’s been trying to purchase property along our road for years. Remember when he tried to purchase the Lantz place? But Amos Lantz wouldn’t sell to him.” She gasped. “Probably for tourists. They will want to use my shop out front to sell overpriced things to tourists! Mr. Spalek has two stores in town already. He doesn’t need my family farm.” Sadie looked at her friend. “Lillian, what am I going to do now?” She covered her face with her hands. “I’ve made such a mess of everything.”

After several moments of silence, Sadie uncovered her face and stared at Lillian. Something was wrong.

“Uh-oh. It appears I’ve made a mess too.” Lillian’s eyes were wide as she slowly focused on the water seeping over the edge of the chair.

Sadie tucked her chin to her neck. “Did you wet yourself, Lillian?”

Lillian scrunched her face up. “No, silly. My water just broke!”

“Pop!” Sarah Jane yelled throughout the house. “Pop! Sadie left a message on the barn phone! Lillian is in labor, and Carley is taking them to the hospital. Pop, where are you?” She ran upstairs and checked every room, then checked each room downstairs again. “Where is that man?” she grumbled. “Pop!” she yelled again. “Barbie is on her way to get us.”

Twenty minutes later, Barbie was in the driveway. Sarah Jane made one last scan of the house and then hurried down the porch steps.

“Where’s Jonas?” their
Englisch
friend asked when Sarah Jane climbed into the front seat.

Sarah Jane pulled on her seat belt. “I don’t know. I reckon he must have gone to Lizzie’s without telling me. He still does that, sneaks off.” She blew out a sigh of exasperation. “Sometimes I think he enjoys the thrill of sneaking around, when there is no need to. All he does is worry me when he does that.”

“Do you want to swing by Lizzie’s house and see if he’s there?”

“No. I don’t have time to be chasing him around today. Lillian is in labor, and I want to be there. I’m sure he’s all right. He always is. Pop is so mischievous, like a child sometimes. He frustrates me. But I’m hoping once he and Lizzie get married, he will stay close to home where I can keep an eye on him.”

“How’s his cancer?” Barbie asked. She turned off of Black Horse Road onto Lincoln Highway.

“Most days he does fairly well, although he gets confused sometimes.” She paused and thought for a minute. “The doctors say he might have a touch of Alzheimer’s, but honestly, I think sometimes it’s his medications. I think they make him a tad loopy.”

“Jonas is such a dear. You know, everyone who meets him loves him.”

Sarah Jane laughed. “I think Pop scares some people when they first meet him. It isn’t until people get to know him that they realize what a big teddy bear he is. You know, he’d do anything for anyone. Pop has a huge heart.”

“I guess you’re right. Years ago, I suppose it did take Jonas a while to warm up to me. That seems like such a long time ago.”

“You’ve been a
gut
friend, Barbie. Pop loves you. So do I.” She smiled at her friend as they made their way toward Lancaster General. “I can’t wait to see if Lillian has another girl or a boy!”

The plan was simple
, Jonas thought, lying out in the field halfway between his house and Lizzie’s farm. Strap on his walkie-talkie, sneak across the field between their farms now that the snow had cleared, then call her on the walkie-talkie and tell her he was sitting on her front porch. She would have been tickled pink at his playfulness.

Instead, he had tripped and stumbled, then landed flat on his back. Now he couldn’t seem to move. It had been downright frustrating to hear Sarah Jane hollering for him, and even more so, to watch his daughter ride off with Barbie.
And where are they
going anyway? It’s almost my lunchtime.

He unclasped the walkie-talkie from the clip on his suspenders and groaned from the pain in his back. “Breaker, breaker,” he rasped. “Lizzie, you there?”

“Is this my huggy bear?”

“Lizzie, I got myself in a bit of a predicament.” Jonas tried again to shift his weight.

“You all right, Jonas?”

He noticed his straw hat about a foot over, reached to grab it, but the pain was too much. “Lizzie, I took a fall, and I’m laid out here in the field between your
haus
and mine. Ain’t a thing you can do either.”

“I’m comin’, huggy bear.”

“You ain’t comin’ out here, Lizzie. It’s too far for you to walk.

Nearly half a mile, I reckon.”
She’d never make it,
Jonas thought, hoping she would have the good sense not to try. Lizzie could barely get up and down her own porch steps and around her house. “Lizzie,” he said again when there was no response. “Don’t you leave your house. Someone will be by to check on you. Just tell whoever it is to come fetch me out in this field.”

“That could be hours from now. Or days, Jonas. I’m on my way,” she said.

Hardheaded woman!
“Lizzie, don’t you dare. I’m ordering you to stay there. Do you hear me?”

“I’m not your
fraa
yet, Jonas Miller. I don’t reckon you can be ordering me to do anything.”

Jonas sighed, and even that small gesture sent a ripple of pain throughout his body. His pain from the cancer had gotten worse lately. His doctor wanted to put him on medication to manage his discomfort, but had also said it would make him out of sorts. He figured he’d live with the pain, as he was out of sorts enough as it was. Plus, he needed his mind in the right place if he was going to take care of Lizzie.

“
Ach
. No, Lizzie,” he whispered to himself. He saw her tiny frame, a dot in the field, moving his way. He pushed the button on the walkie-talkie. “Lizzie, you go on back to the house. You’ll catch a chill, and it’s too far for you to come out here.”

Silence for a few moments. Then Jonas heard her on the walkie-talkie as he watched her taking baby steps across the field. “I’m comin’, Jonas.”

He didn’t have the strength to argue.

“It’s a girl,” Samuel told the crowd in the waiting room of Lancaster General. “We will be calling her Elizabeth.”

“Wonderful news,” Sarah Jane said. “How’s Lillian?” It had been a short labor and delivery, barely four hours.

“She’s
gut
. You can go see her.” Samuel couldn’t wipe the grin from his face, and Sarah Jane was a proud grandma yet again.

She stood up, hugged Samuel, and headed toward her daughter’s room.

“
Mamm
,” Lillian whispered when Sarah Jane walked in. She was holding little Elizabeth in her arms. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

Sarah Jane held back tears of joy. “Oh, Lillian. She certainly is. Just beautiful.” She gently touched the baby’s cheek, and then cupped Lillian’s face. “She will be a fine baby sister for Anna and David. I think David will want to come in. Is it all right if I go get him?”

Lillian nodded, but her eyes were fused with the new bundle in her arms.

Sarah Jane thought for a moment. “As a matter of fact, sweetie, I think I better go. I couldn’t find your grandpa before I left. He probably snuck off to Lizzie’s, but he’ll be hungry and sorry that he missed all this.”

“It’s fine,
Mamm
. Send David in. You go find Grandpa.”

Sarah Jane kissed her daughter on the forehead. “Do you need anything? I will be back first thing in the morning.”

After Lillian assured her that she and the baby were fine, Sarah Jane excused herself, wishing she could stay, and trying not to be irritated with her father

Lizzie fell for the second time, and she heard her hip pop. As she lay in the field, new spring growth poked her legs and back.

“I’ll be there soon, Jonas,” she said into the wind. With every ounce of strength she possessed, Lizzie pulled herself to a standing position. She stifled a cry of pain as she edged forward, almost dragging her right leg behind her. Her heart was racing much too fast, and it was difficult to breathe. But her huggy bear was in trouble. She could see him up ahead, sprawled out and not moving.

“Please, Lord,” she prayed, “let me make it that far.”

She pressed forward, not knowing what she would do when she reached him. But something inside her drove her onward, to Jonas, to her love. “I’m coming,” she whispered. And with each painful step, she held her chin high and fought the urge to quit, to lie down, to rest.

But she fell again, and this time the pain in her hip caused her to cry out. It felt dislocated, completely out of joint. She closed her eyes, grimaced, allowed herself to feel the pain, and then she struggled to stand up again. “Please, Lord,” she said. “Just let me lie beside him, hold his hand.”

Her legs wouldn’t lift her, and Lizzie feared she had gone as far as she could. She’d lie here in the field, within only a few yards of him, until someone found them. “Jonas!” she cried with all her might. And then she laid her head back, tears flowing down her wrinkled face. “I can’t do it,” she cried. “I’m sorry, my love.” And she closed her eyes.

It was a few moments later when the breeze carried the sound of his voice. “Lizzie?”

“Jonas?” She struggled to lift her head. “Jonas?” she asked louder.

“I’m here, Lizzie. But I can’t move.”

Lizzie pushed herself up onto her elbows and realized something. Her upper body was working far better than her lower body. She inched along on her elbows, dragging her legs behind her. “I’m coming, Jonas.”

“Stay there, Lizzie. I’ll come to you,” Jonas said.

She fell onto her back and waited. But nothing.

Lizzie lifted her head. “Jonas?”

But there was silence. “Jonas!” she yelled. “Jonas! Answer me, you silly old man!”

She propped herself back up on her elbows and dragged herself forward through the tall weeds, a few inches at a time, not sure she’d ever felt such pain or determination. Then she saw him—inching toward her, his face filled with pain, but with the same determination she had. “Jonas,” she whispered. She continued to pull herself toward him.

“Lizzie.” His voice was low and hoarse. “Wait. I’m almost there.”

But Lizzie pressed forward, her heart pounding through her chest, both hips preventing her legs from assisting with her efforts. And finally . . . she was within two feet of him. She lay on her stomach and reached her hands as far as they would stretch. Jonas did the same.