Loving Isaac

Annie glanced at her mother with raised eyebrows but didn’t comment.

The women stitched for a couple hours before Katie stood. “Let’s eat.”

Mae King and Miriam got up to help their hostess with the food. Ellen started to rise to join them, but Katie waved her to her seat. “Sit. We’ll manage.”

The work on the quilt was progressing nicely. The stitches were neat and even. Ellen knew the women hoped to get most of it done today.

Elizabeth’s mother rose with Mam and the two went into the kitchen to help the others. Ellen slid over to the seat next to Elizabeth.

“Are you allowed to go on Saturday?”

Elizabeth frowned. “Nay. Dat said I wasn’t ready.” She sighed dramatically. “What does he mean by that? I’m old enough.”

Ellen stifled her disappointment. She didn’t want to make her friend feel worse. “Maybe we can try again in a couple of months.” She really wanted to visit the clinic, not that she’d said anything about it to her friend.

Ellen changed the subject and the girls chatted briefly about their siblings. Soon the women had the food ready, and following Elizabeth, she went to grab a plate. After eating lunch, the women went back to work and finished up at three thirty. There’d been no sign of Isaac or Daniel, who apparently had both gone to work with their older brother Jedidiah and Matt Rhoades.

Ellen felt immense relief when she and her mother headed home. She’d spent a large part of the day at the Samuel Lapp farm and had made it without encountering Isaac more than once. She hadn’t realized that she’d been tense and worried about it until after she and her mother had climbed into their buggy and left.

Why should I care whether or not I see Isaac Lapp? She was over him. Completely. She’d moved on. But the memory of her past feelings for him lingered.

She turned her thoughts to the clinic. She didn’t want to wait months until she visited the clinic, especially since her father had agreed to let her go. There must be someone who would be allowed to go. What about Barbara Zook? She’d have to think about it. Barbara was slightly older than her. There were other girls her age in her community. She had to think of one she could trust with her desire to work for the Westmore Clinic.

* * *

Isaac took off his black-banded straw hat and ran a hand through his light brown hair. It had been a good workday but he was tired. He glanced over at his younger brother Daniel and felt his lips curve upward. He wasn’t as tired as Daniel. This was Daniel’s first job on a construction site, and while he did hard work on the farm, he was clearly exhausted from the unaccustomed manual labor.

“Ready to go?” he asked his brother.

To his surprise, Daniel grinned at him. “Gut day, ja?”

Isaac stared at him, feeling astonished. “You like the work.”

“Ja. Feels gut to see what you’ve accomplished in a day.” Daniel glanced at the house that was currently under construction.

They had put together and set into place all the walls of the first floor of a house. It would be a large dwelling. The first floor alone was probably two thousand square feet. Isaac didn’t know what the upper level would entail yet, but he was sure when the structure was done, it would be massive.

“Nice job,” Matt Rhoades said as he approached with their older brother Jed.

Isaac gave a silent nod but Daniel was more effusive. “We got a lot done today.”

Matt looked pleased by the boy’s obvious enjoyment. Dark haired with dark eyes and a quick smile, the contractor was a favorite Englisher among their Amish community. “Ready to return tomorrow?”

Daniel nodded vigorously, and Isaac couldn’t help but chuckle at the boy’s enthusiasm.

“We should make sure that Dat doesn’t need us on the farm tomorrow.” Isaac watched Daniel’s face fall. “I doubt he does, though.” He made a decision, hoping that his father would agree. “We’ll be here,” he told Matt. “Eight o’clock sharp, as usual. Let’s go home, Daniel.”

As he drove their wagon home, Isaac thought of the money he’d earned today, which was his, free and clear. Until this week, everything he’d made since the Whittier’s Store incident, he’d given to Bob Whittier to pay for the damages. The paint that had been splattered over the back of the building had ruined the siding. Since there was no match for the old color, all of it had been removed from the building and replaced. And Isaac had paid for it all—the material and the labor to install it—even though he wasn’t the one who had been responsible for the damage.

I may as well have been, he thought. Because he’d lied when he’d taken the blame. Nancy had begged him not to tell. Her brother, Brad, had instigated the act, and she’d pleaded with him. Isaac had arrived on the scene after the deed had been done, and as he’d stared at the damage with a sick feeling of dread, the police had pulled up to the building in their cruiser and everyone had scattered into the wind, except for Isaac. Sergeant Thomas Martin, the police officer who’d questioned him, was Rick Martin’s brother. Rick was a friend and neighbor, and because of Rick’s connection, the officer had called Bob Whittier rather than taking him to the station immediately. Bob had refused to press charges. The officer could have pressed charges himself, but he’d let Bob handle the situation himself. Bob Whittier had said that he’d forget about the incident if Isaac would pay for the damages. So for the next couple of years, Isaac had worked hard and paid Bob Whittier every cent he’d earned until the debt was paid. He’d given Bob the last payment owed with his last paycheck.

“Isaac,” Daniel said, pulling Isaac from his dark thoughts. “I did all right today, ja?”

Isaac nodded. “You did fine, Bruder.”

His brother appeared relieved. “Danki for getting me the job.”

He ran a weary hand across the back of his neck before he turned toward his brother. “You’re a gut worker. Matt asked if I knew anyone and I did—you. Jed agreed that you were the man for the job.”

Daniel looked pleased that both brothers had approved of him. “I appreciate it.”

Isaac studied him. Daniel wore a blue shirt, triblend denim pants and heavy work boots, just like he did. His straw hat sat crookedly on his head. There was a smudge of dirt across one cheek and sawdust on the shirtfront, but he looked happy and content and that was all that mattered. He wondered what his mother would say when she saw them. “We’d better clean up outside before we head into the house. Mam is bound to take one look at us and cry out. But you can’t work and stay clean, too, ja?”

“Ja,” Daniel agreed with a grin.

They headed toward the back of the house. As they passed an open window, Isaac heard his mother’s voice. “Isaac, Daniel—that you?”

“Ja, Mam,” they both answered.

“Just stopping to wash up at the pump.”

“Hannah,” he heard Mam call. “Get your bruders some soap and towels. They’re outside.”

Isaac heard his little sister murmur her assent as he pumped the handle that set forth a gush of water. “You first,” he told Daniel.

His younger brother reached in and cupped his hands full of cold water, then splashed his face and neck.”

Hannah appeared and handed him soap. Isaac stood by watching as Daniel lathered up his face, neck, arms and hands while Hannah hovered nearby, waiting with a towel. Meeting his little sister’s gaze, Isaac grinned at her.

Daniel finished up, and then Isaac took his turn. He washed up while his brother worked the pump and his sister looked on.

“You boys done yet?” Mam called out. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Coming,” Isaac replied.

As the three siblings approached the back door that led to the kitchen, Isaac put a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Did you have a gut day, Hannah?”

“Ja, I got to play with Susanna. Joseph helped with EJ.” She beamed up at him. “Annie came to Mam’s quilting bee today.”

Isaac nodded as he reached to open the door and waited for Daniel and Hannah to precede him. Hannah hung back as Daniel went in first. She seemed eager to talk about the day. “Ja, and Mae, Nancy and Charlotte came—so did Josie and Ellen,” she went on. “And Elizabeth and her mudder, too.”

“That’s nice,” he said. Isaac felt his belly warm at the mention of Ellen. Since her accident, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. Or was it because he was bothered that she’d seemed to go out of her way to avoid him since?

Mam was at the kitchen sink, washing dishes. She turned as they entered. “Gut.” She eyed him and Daniel, assessing their appearance. “You look clean enough,” she decided.

Isaac glanced at her with raised eyebrows. “You need us for something?”

She dried her hands on a tea towel and laid it to dry over the end of the dish rack. “Ja. I’d like you to carry my quilt frame upstairs. Martha may stop by at any time, and I don’t want her to see the baby quilt before it’s done and we’re ready to give it to her.”

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