Authors: Beverly Lewis
The Brethren (27 page)
313 I
his
was at fault, the way I made myself out to be all those years. I should’ve obeyed my father that night, jah, but I didn’t cause my brother’s disappearance.” He stopped to kiss her cheek. “I’m on the path to healing. And I want to show my gratitude by givin’ all the rest of my days to God’s dear son, Jesus.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” Esther said.
Zeke’s heart was full, and he took Esther’s hands in both of his and offered a prayer of thanksgiving before he kissed her a dozen times more.
After visiting with her Mamm and brothers for much of the afternoon, Annie walked upstairs to her old bedroom and sat herself down at her writing desk a gift from her father when she was a girl. Somehow it seemed right that this was where she would pen this particular letter to Lou, as she had so many others over the years. Finding a few stray sheets of paper and a stubby pencil in the drawer, Annie told her friend the good news.
I’ve decided to remain Amish. Are you surprised? Probably not. You said all along this was where I belonged. And you were right! Come this September, Ben and I will be baptized together.
I am also going to get married, and not to just anyone, mind you. (I promised you I’d only marry for love, didn’t I?) He’s my dearest love, Ben Martin, also known as Isaac Hoc istetler by a few old codgers here, stuck in their ways. Ain’t that a funny one a fine beau with two full names?
You’re more than welcome to attend, Lou, if you can get away, though I’ll surely understand if you can’t. The wedding
314 will be sometime in November. I’ll let you know the date and time when it gets closer, just in case you can come.
The golden, hot summer months passed quickly, and the soft autumnal glow of harvest and of silo-filling days would
soon follow.
Ben worked as hard as any of the men in the church district, if not harder, or so Daed liked to say each night at supper. Annie found this ever so satisfying, glad her decision was settled and secure. There was a wondrous peace and a new fulfillment in walking God’s path-the way of the People. More than that, she’d secretly embraced Essie’s and Julia’s love of the Lord Jesus. Ben had, too. She and her soon-to-be husband had talked at length, agreeing to walk the way of the “silent believers,” as many amongst the People fittingly did so as not to lose their family connection nor encounter the shun. It was a choice made not out of cowardice but out of respect.
Annie, of course, was eager to move home to spend her last weeks and months as a single woman with her family. So when Irvin, as well as the brethren, agreed that Zeke was ready, he had returned to Essie and the children, and Annie asked for Yonie’s help moving her belongings back home. This in spite of his joking that she needed to decide where she wanted to be and stay put for once.
In addition to baptismal classes, Sam and Annie gave Ben a crash course in speaking their language, but every now and then he tripped up and said something funny about a coffin when he meant to say a window shutter, or a skull
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when he meant a handsaw. Slips like that were amusing and fun for everyone he encountered.
Ben had never been one to exclude his family. He wished he could fly home and see their expressions, because he was fairly sure they’d be thrilled for him once they recovered from yet another shock. His mother especially would be excited, even though she would no doubt cry if she and Dad were brave enough to come to an Amish wedding.
When the phone rang and rang, he assumed no one was at home. But on the seventh ring, his father finally answered. “Hello, Ben … saw your name on the ID. I see you’re still using your cell phone. How are you?” “Great, Dad. How’re you doing?”
“Oh, just fine.” He chuckled. “I’ve been reading up some on the Amish, trying to picture exactly what you’re up to these days.”
Ben laughed, too, then asked, “Is Mom around? I’ve got something important to tell you both.”
“Not a problem. I’ll switch you onto the speaker phone.” Ben waited until he heard his mom in the background. “Don’t know if you’re ready for another surprise, but…”
He paused, wanting to phrase this just right.
“Go ahead, Ben,” his father spoke up. “We’re listening.” Taking a deep breath, Ben pressed ahead. “I’m getting
married … and I’d like you to meet my bride-to-be as soon
as possible.”
He heard a loud gasp on the other end of the line and assumed it was his mother. “My word, this is good news,” she said. “Wait till your sisters hear.”
316 “Why don’t you bring her on down?” Dad offered. “We’ll make room for her in the guest room. Stay as long as you like.”
“Thanks, Dad. You’ll all love her,” he added.
“We love you, Ben, so we know we’ll love her, too,” Mom said. “She’s Amish, I’m guessing?”
“Yes. I’ve talked a little about her before. She’s an Amish preacher’s daughter named Annie Zook,” he said. “The prettiest, sweetest young woman I’ve ever known.”
“Your sisters will want to show her the town, no doubt,” Dad said.
“They might even try to modernize her for you,” Mom teased.
“Oh, Annie’s been there and back already, trust me.” He wouldn’t divulge the details of their struggle to come to this point at least not now. Thankfully, that part of their relationship was past. “I’m getting my girl,” he declared. At last.
317 A few weeks prior to baptism, Ben happily took Annie home to meet his Kentucky family. They wore their Plain attire, which Ben had been doing for some time. His parents seemed taken aback by this, but his sisters said it was ‘Very cool,” with something of a wink and a nod. As he had guessed, his sisters took to Annie like she was their own sibling, welcoming her into their home and their hearts. His parents, too, were quickly won over by her kind, endearing ways.
Even though he’d driven his car, he made a point of telling Annie that this trip was it for him. When they returned to Pennsylvania, he intended to sell the car and purchase a family carriage for his first driving horse. The bishop himself had told Ben that, other than the Lord’s Day, he was at liberty to call on a paid driver as were any of the People whenever it was unsafe or too far to take the team.
While Ben and Annie were gone, Daniel Hochstetler traveled back to Canada to pack up his life there. He then moved his belongings into Jesse Zook’s Dawdi Haus, planning to live there permanently, especially as Daniel was not
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permitted by the brethren to openly fellowship or reside with his shunned son and daughter-in-law. Still, there were rumors he was seeing Zeke and Esther quietly, holding family near while attempting to satisfy the Ordnum Ben and Annie were in a similar pickle trying to keep a relationship with Zeke and Essie without violating the rules of the shun. It was a constant juggling of both love and dedication.
The rows of benches set up in the barn were conspicuously empty the morning of baptism as Jesse paced along the center aisle. The People would soon file in, the women siting on the left and the men on the right. The barn would get mighty hot if the weather forecast was correct downright warm for mid-September much better than meeting in a too-crowded house on this Lord’s Day. At last my daughter will make her kneeling vow to the Lord God and the People.
Truly Jesse believed Annie had already begun to walk the straight and narrow, and for that reason he had moved heaven and earth, so to speak, to do all he could for both Annie and Ben. Carefully he’d instructed them in the ways of Jehovah God, though he suspected they were doing quite a lot of digging into the Scriptures on their own. Ben, especially, had asked a good many questions, some out of the ordinary, and Jesse hadn’t known all the answers. He had felt ashamed, being the man of God and all. But he did what he could, asking the bishop and Preacher Moses, although Ben’s questions stirred things up amongst the brethren more than once during the short weeks of baptismal training.
Sighing now, he hoped for the best for his Annie and her
319 beau. He prayed, too, that the Holy One of Israel might cover them with His loving watch-care over their lives and the lives of their offspring, for surely they would marry first opportunity following baptism. Most of the young people did exactly that after making their lifelong promise to the church and to God.
Jah, Annies as good as hitched.
Annie noticed the man formerly called Ichabod sitting with some of Preacher Moses’ married sons and grandsons. She wondered what he must be thinking on the day that his own Isaac was being baptized by the very church that had nominated him for preacher so long ago.
When the time came for Annie to bow her head, she did so along with Ben and the other baptismal candidates, more aware of the sweet smells of the haymow during this hushed time of reverence. She felt warm as she sat quietly, conteiri’ plating the vow soon to be made. This day represented all the years of her parents’ hopes and dreams for her and her brothers yet to join church. She knew she mustn’t open her eyes to glance at the People gathered there, nor look at Ben, even though she wished to. Ben had become more to her in the past months than merely a beau. He was her dearest friend, too, and a student of the Word, as he liked to say. I’m learning all I can about the God who made me, he would tell her. And she listened with rapt attention when he shared the many verses that had changed his thinking … and his heart.
They’d made a secret pact, vowing to live out their days with their eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus. Ben had led the way
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to her receiving the Savior; Cousin Julia had planted the seed. And dear Essie had watered. Even Lou had played a part.
Several hymns were sung, signaling her to file up to take her place in the center section with all the others, near the ministers’ bench. There they sat, waiting for the bishop, the two preachers, and the deacon to enter the barn.
At one point, Annie caught the reverence and wonder in Ben’s eyes as the final stanza was sung in unison. A day of dedication …
She observed the sincerity on the part of her darling, and her heart rose up with gladness for God’s guiding hand on her life. Not only for bringing Isaac home but for bringing her, as well, to this most holy ordinance.
Later, during her father’s offering of the second sermon, he made a slight departure, repeating much of what had been said at the time of Daniel’s recent kneeling repentance. Annie wondered at first where her father was going with his remarks, but she understood more fully when he admonished them that Isaac of old had been given back to Abraham due to his inherent trust that God would provide a lamb. “Jeho’ vah was and is faithful. At times this is demonstrated by the quiet entreaty of others.”
Daed paused, looking now at Ichabod. “You are no longer in exile,” he had declared on the day of Daniel’s atonement. “From this day forth you are to be called a brother.”
Annie paid close attention as her father made known to them yet again, “You are one of us … Daniel.”
321 On her wedding day in November, Annie was quite frustrated with herself for having impulsively chopped off her long locks. Yes, her hair had grown out a few inches in the months since she’d cut it, but even with Mamm’s help, twisting her too-short hair into a bun was nearly an impossible chore. When Mamm was finally securing the last pin, a knock came at the door.
Annie was amazed as well as delighted to see Lou standing in the hallway outside her bedroom. “Ach, Lou, you came! I can hardly believe it!”
“Well, you said I was welcome, didn’t you? So here I am.”
The two hugged carefully, so as not to muss Annie’s freshly ironed blue cape dress and long white apron. Mamm slipped out of the room to give them some time alone.
“Bless your heart,” Annie said. “I tried not to get my hopes up, but I’m ever so happy you’re here.”
“Well, just so you know … I’ll be sharing the wedding feast with another Englisher.” Lou’s smile burst across her face.
“And who would that be?”
“Oh, you …”
Annie giggled. “Sam?”
Lou nodded. “Don’t be too excited. I’m not getting serious with him, if that’s what you think. For now anyway, I’m focusing on my relationship with the Lord, thanks to your cousin Julia.”
“My cousin’s quite a zealous witness, jah?” Annie reached for Lou’s hand, whispering, “And I know exactly how you feel ever so free inside.”
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Lou’s eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, Lou …” Annie said, squeezing her dear friend’s hand. “We’ve had quite an interesting journey together, ain’t so?”
Annie struggled not to cry but sensed Ben’s own emotion as he sat next to her, waiting for their time to stand before the gathering of more than two hundred people who were jam-packed into her father’s house.
She looked across the faces to see Mamm’s, her eyes shining with truest joy. And there were Luke and Omar, solemn-faced, and Yonie, who’d let his hair grow out again, much to Daed’s delight. And Essie and Zeke together at last, Essie great with child, sitting in the back with the Englischers, including the Martin family, Lou and Sam, and cousins Irvin and Julia Ranck. All the People … and then some, here for Ben and me.
Annie’s heart swelled with love for her God and her soon-to-be husband. Paradise had never seemed so sweet on any other day, and Annie counted her blessings, glad she had stayed the course. She looked past this most happy moment toward all the years ahead, Lord willing, and realized that on the final day of her life, she could breathe her last knowing she had chosen wisely and well.