The Bishop's Daughter (25 page)

Lydia shook her head, and even though a look of sadness swept over her face, he sensed her determined spirit to look on the brighter side of things. “I haven’t lost faith,” she murmured. “If it’s God’s will for Jacob’s memory to return, then it surely will.”

Leona grunted and moved over to stand by the window. Jimmy was tempted to follow and offer some words of encouragement, but he decided against it. The last time he’d stopped by the Weavers’ place and mentioned the idea of putting Jacob to work on some of the schoolhouse repairs, Leona seemed upset. In fact, she’d stared at him in obvious disbelief and said, “You can’t be serious. My daed would never be able to help with repairs. He may look like he’s capable of a man’s work, but he thinks like a child, so he can’t be expected to do anything more than a boy would do.” The decided edge to her voice and the look of defeat he’d seen on her face let Jimmy know Leona still wasn’t dealing well with her father’s accident. His heart went out to her—and to everyone else in Jacob’s family.

A short time later, as Eli and Jimmy were about to climb into his truck, he overheard Lydia, who stood near her closed-in buggy, ordering Jacob to get in. Leona sat in the driver’s seat, and her deep frown conveyed her frustration. Jimmy knew he couldn’t drive off without offering to help.

“Is there a problem?” he asked, stepping between Lydia and her husband.

She nodded, and a tear trickled down her cheek. “Jacob refuses to get into the buggy.”

“Is that true?” Jimmy asked. He looked at the bishop, who stood with his arms folded in an unyielding pose.

“Mama won’t let me have more candy.”

“I bought you some licorice. Did you eat it all?”

“Jah, it’s gone.” Jacob patted his stomach and gave Jimmy a sheepish-looking grin.

“It will soon be time for lunch,” Jimmy said, taking hold of the man’s arm. “You don’t want to spoil your appetite by eating too much candy, do you?”

Jacob lowered his bushy eyebrows and stared at the ground. “My eatin’ went away.”

Jimmy glanced over at Lydia and shrugged. He had no idea what the man was talking about.

“I think he means that his appetite has left him.”

“And no wonder, what with him eating candy so close to lunch,” Leona chimed in from her seat in the front of the buggy.

“Would you like me to stop by your house later tonight? We can play with your goat if you like,” Jimmy said, hoping to get Jacob’s mind on something else.

“That’d be nice.”

Jimmy nodded at the buggy. “Then climb inside, and I’ll see you later on.”

Without a word of argument, Jacob climbed into the back, smiling like a happy child.

“Thank you, Jimmy.” Lydia took a seat beside her daughter and lifted her hand in a wave.

“I’ll see you later this evening,” Jimmy called as the buggy pulled out of the parking lot.

Eli, who had been standing beside Jimmy’s truck during the whole ordeal, shook his head. “That was sure somethin’ the way you handled things with our bishop. You’ve got a way with him that no one else seems to have, that’s for certain sure.”

Jimmy opened the truck door. “I only wish I could do more.”

J
immy had just placed his breakfast dishes in the sink when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the clock on the wall and wondered who would be calling him so early. When he pulled the phone from his belt clip to check the incoming number, he was relieved to see that it wasn’t his dad. “Hey, Allen,” he said. “Why are you calling so early? It’s seven o’clock here, which means it’s only four on the West Coast.”

“I know it’s early, but I’m going with some of the young people to the Oregon coast today, and we want to get an early start,” Allen explained.

“Sounds like fun. Wish I were going with you.”

“Yeah, me, too.” There was a brief pause, then, “Hey, it’s sure good to hear your voice. It’s been awhile.”

“I know. I’ve been really busy.”

“Are you still painting for that Amish bishop you told me about?”

“Yeah, but since Jacob’s memory hasn’t returned, he’s no longer able to run his business. And since he doesn’t remember hiring me, it’s really his son, Arthur, I’m working for now.”

“It’s too bad about him falling off the ladder. I’ve still got our church’s prayer chain praying for him.”

“Thanks. Jacob and the rest of his family need all the prayers they can get.”

“Oh, by the way, I wanted you to know that I did try to get ahold of your dad,” Allen said. “He hasn’t answered the door or his phone whenever I’ve dropped by the house or called. Have you heard anything from him since the last time we talked?”

“I spoke to him the other day, and as much as I hate to say this, I’ve decided that he’s telling the truth about kidnapping me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“You think he really took you from an Amish farm?”

“That’s what he says, and he’s scared to death that if I find my real family he’ll end up in jail.”

“The information I got off the Internet said the Amish don’t sue. So I doubt they would press any kind of criminal charges against your dad,” Allen said.

“Jim. His name is Jim. He’s not my dad—not even my adopted dad,” Jimmy muttered as he moved across the room and grabbed his lunch pail off the table.

“I know your dad’s not a Christian and he can be kind of hard to deal with sometimes, but I can’t picture him walking onto an Amish farm, snatching you away, and then passing you off to your mom as the baby they’d gone to Maryland to adopt.”

Jimmy groaned. “It was hard for me to accept at first, too, but now that I’ve had a chance to think things over and have talked with Da—Jim again, I’m beginning to understand why he drinks so much and didn’t want to go to church with me or Mom.”

“He’s probably been eaten up with guilt all these years. I’ll bet he’s fallen under conviction, which means there’s still hope that he will—”

“Look, Allen, I’ve got to go. I’m going to work for Arthur part of the day, and then I’ll be stopping over at the Weavers’ place to see Jacob.”

“Oh, okay. I need to head out, too.”

“I’ll call you soon.” Jimmy grabbed his painter’s hat off the wall peg near the back door of his rented trailer and started to leave the kitchen.

“One more thing,” Allen said before Jimmy clicked off his cell phone.

“What’s that?”

“I sensed some anger in your voice when you were talking about your dad.”

“As I said before, he’s not my dad.”

“He might not be your flesh-and-blood father or your adopted father, but he is the man who raised you.”

“Mom had more to do with raising me than he did.” The feelings of bitterness Jimmy felt since his last conversation with Jim mounted higher, and he swallowed against the taste of bile rising in his throat.

“You’ve got to find a way to deal with this, Jimmy. If you don’t, it will eat you alive.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever come to grips with what that man did to me, Mom, and my real Amish family.” He clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw ached, as he jerked open the door. “Can you imagine how my sister must have felt when she returned to the yard with a jug of root beer and discovered I was gone? It gives me the chills just thinking about it.”

“I’ll bet even after all these years they’re still missing you.”

Jimmy said nothing as he walked across the yard and opened the door to his truck, which he kept parked near the Rabers’ barn.

“So, are you going to look for your real family?”

“I started looking for them—even before I fully believed Jim’s story.”

“So what else will you do to try and find them?”

“I’m not sure. Guess I’ll have to rely on the Lord to help me.”

“You don’t really think God’s going to help you find your real family as long as you continue to harbor anger and hatred toward Jim, do you?”

Jimmy halted. “I—I don’t know.”

“I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded what the Bible says about forgiveness. The only way you’ll ever have any peace is if you forgive your dad.”

Jimmy grimaced. He knew Allen was right, but he wasn’t sure he could forgive. “I’d better go. Talk to you later, Allen.”

“Bye, Jimmy. I’ll be praying for you.”

Since school would be starting in a few weeks, Leona spent most of her free time at the schoolhouse getting things ready. At least that was her excuse for being here—as she was today. The truth be told, she’d begun to look for ways to get away from her daed and his childish antics. Her faith in God, which had once been strong, was faltering in the midst of all her disappointments.

It helped some whenever Jimmy came over and kept Papa occupied. In fact, the young English man seemed to be Papa’s best friend these days, which Leona felt sure her daed needed. However, she had a hunch Papa’s friendship with Jimmy had hurt Abraham’s feelings. Papa had not only forgotten who Abraham was, but he didn’t perk up whenever
Abraham came around the way he did with Jimmy. Leona had noticed the last couple of times Papa’s old friend had dropped by, her daed acted kind of strange. She figured Papa’s friendship with Jimmy might be the reason.

Leona glanced around the schoolhouse, wondering what she should do today. The walls had been painted, so no cleaning would need to be done on them. With the help of several parents, the desks had been cleaned and polished and a new blackboard had been put up—the kind Leona had requested.

“Maybe I should clean and organize my desk,” she said, turning in that direction. “Anything to keep my hands and thoughts occupied.”

Leona had only been working a few minutes when she heard a vehicle rumble into the school yard. She hurried to the front door and saw Jimmy and Papa climb out of Jimmy’s truck.
I wonder what they want. I hope they’re not planning to stay long. I don’t need this interruption
.

“Hi, Mary,” Papa said with a cheery wave. “We come to give you some wood.”

Leona glanced at Jimmy, who grinned at her and said, “I figured you’d be needing some firewood cut and stacked before school starts.”

“Actually, my students’ parents usually take turns bringing wood over during the school year.”

“That’s okay. This is something your dad can do, so I guess you’ll have some extra wood this school term.”

Papa shuffled his feet a few times and looked at Jimmy as if he’d taken leave of his senses. “I ain’t Mary’s daed. I’m her bruder.”

Jimmy shrugged, and Leona looked away. They had tried several times to explain things to Papa about his accident. Sometimes he seemed to grasp the fact that he had lost his memory, but other times he would only give them a blank stare. Even though Papa had called her “Ona” on a few occasions, he was still insistent that he was her little bruder, not her daed.

“Where would you like us to stack the wood once we get it cut?” Jimmy asked, halting Leona’s thoughts.

She motioned to the side of the building. “Are you sure it’s safe for him to be handling an ax? I mean, if he doesn’t remember how to use it. . .”

“I’ll do the cutting, and he can haul the wood over to the building and stack it.”

“I guess that would be okay.” Leona turned toward the door. “I’ll be inside if you need me for anything.”

When she returned to her desk, she noticed that her hands were shaking, and she clasped them tightly together.
If stacking wood would bring my daed back to me, I’d ask for a ton of wood and let him stack all day
.