A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel (19 page)

“And Adam said he’s worried that you don’t talk much.” Ruthie finished cleaning Clementine
and turned to face Gabe. “He’s afraid that you’re going to go wild one day. Adam says
the quiet ones are the ones to watch.” She stifled a smile as she attached the milking
machine. “Is it true?”

Gabe folded his arms as he thought about how much he could
tell Ruthie. He didn’t want to say too much, but he liked talking to her. She always
had a bright way about her, and she didn’t judge. He leaned back against a stanchion,
wincing when a post connected with the sore spot on his shoulder.

Ruthie’s eyes opened wider. She never did miss much. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I just got a cut on my neck. It’s sore.”

“Is it okay?”

“It’s hard to tell. It’s too far back for me to see.”

She straightened up and moved out of the stall. Her face was pinched with worry now.
“Let me look.”

Gabe checked behind him. Simon was down at the other end. No one would notice. “Just
tell me what you see.” He opened his vest and shirt quickly and got down on one knee
to get to Ruthie’s eye level.

Her hands were gentle, but the wound still stung. “Oh, Gabe, that’s a fierce cut.
And the skin’s turning black and blue. It must hurt.”

“Sometimes.” He started to stand up, but she pressed down on his good shoulder.

“Stay there. I’m going to get the first-aid kit. There’s some ointment there to keep
you from getting an infection.”

She ran to the blue plastic box hanging on the wall. Watching her fetch the tube of
antibiotic, Gabe wondered how she knew so much. Sometimes Ruthie seemed way too smart
for her twelve years.

“Okay.” She squeezed ointment onto a square of gauze and pushed his head down. “How
did you do this?”

Gabe gritted his teeth as the cut tingled with cold. “Riding motorbikes. I took a
spill and hit something on the ground.”

“A bike accident? Oh, I’m glad you weren’t hurt bad. It could have been so much worse.”

“Don’t worry. I always wear a helmet, and I’m a good driver.”

She yanked his good shoulder back and swung around to face him as he rose. “A good
driver? So this isn’t the first time you were on a motorbike.”

“No. And don’t tell Mary or Adam. They’ll only give me a talking to about how I’m
going against the Ordnung.”

“Well …” She closed up the first-aid kit. “It’s true. But I’m more scared of you getting
hurt bad.”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry.”

She crossed her arms. “You know I will. But I won’t tell. Nobody likes a tattletale.”
As she went to return the first-aid kit to the wall, he wondered if Ruthie could help
him with his jacket. Had she learned to sew yet? He never paid much attention to what
his sisters were doing.

“As long as you’re helping me,” he said, “would you mind taking a look at my jacket?”
He’d rinsed all his clothes in the mud sink, but he’d been leery of putting his torn
jacket in with the laundry.

“What’s wrong with your jacket?”

“There’s a big rip in the back. I know if I put it in with the washing, Mary’s going
to have a cow.”

Ruthie let out a sigh. “You really are a wild one, just like Adam said.”

He smiled. “So you’ll mend it?”

“I’ll give it a try. Put it in the sewing room, in the closet. Mary is so busy sewing
her wedding dress, she won’t be looking to do mending for a while.”

“Denki.” He removed the pump hoses from Tansy and smiled at his little sister. “And
not a word to Mary and Adam.”

“I won’t tell them,” she said, “but I hate to think of what Bishop Samuel’s going
to say when he hears about your wild bike rides.”

Gabe shrugged. “If the wind blows my way, he’ll never hear about it.” He couldn’t
live his life worrying about what
might
happen. Besides, this was his rumspringa. It was his season to go wild.

M
onday morning, Emma arrived at school early. After being closed up for the weekend,
the schoolhouse needed a little fresh air, and she enjoyed opening windows and wiping
down the desks. The large windows allowed a full view of nature outside the window,
as well as lots of natural sunlight.

Today the bursts of colorful trees in the schoolyard suggested an assignment about
identifying trees. Perhaps her scholars could gather some of the orange, yellow, and
red leaves that had fallen to the ground. They could do tracings and learn how to
tell maple from oak, beech from sycamore. She would ask the students to do the tracings
in the colors of autumn, and when they were complete they would cut them out and post
them on the classroom wall—a colorful fall tree.

Smiling at the idea, Emma straightened the old-fashioned wooden desks, set in rows
named after flowers, like Rose Road and Lily Lane. She was opening a window when a
buggy came down the lane—someone delivering children to school. Was it Gabe?

She held her breath as she squinted to make out the figures in the open carriage.
Three heads in white prayer kapps came into view—a mamm with her girls.

It was silly to be disappointed, but now that she had decided to share their secret,
she wanted to see him more than ever. She was counting down the days until Sunday,
when they would be together at the singing. How wonderful good it would be to sit
right beside Gabe, to talk and joke with him all night and not have to pretend interest
in what other boys were saying.

Students began coming into the classroom, and she greeted each one by name, then continued
gathering supplies. Each child dropped off his or her lunch cooler and then returned
to the schoolyard for a few last minutes of play.

“Good morning, Teacher Emma.” Before she glanced up, Emma knew it was the cheerful
voice of Ruthie King.

Emma greeted her, warmed by Ruthie’s bright eyes and joyous smile. When Ruthie smiled,
she seemed to glow from head to toe.

“I’m dropping off my lunch, and Simon’s, too,” Ruthie said, placing two coolers by
the potbelly stove. “He’s outside playing tag.”

Emma gazed out the wide window facing the lane. “Did you get a ride from Gabe?”

“Not this morning. When we saw that it wasn’t raining, we decided to walk,” Ruthie
said, taking a seat at her desk. Ruthie was one of Emma’s most social pupils, and
it wasn’t unusual for her to break away from the other children for a very adult conversation.
“And I’m so glad we walked because we ended up walking across a beautiful carpet of
leaves. Such a pretty yellow, like golden pears! And when Simon and I walked across
them, they stuck to our shoes. For a while we had yellow shoes!”

Emma smiled. “A sure sign that autumn is here.” She gestured to the window. “I was
just looking at those magnificent trees in the schoolyard, and I thought of a project
the whole class might like.”

Ruthie’s eyes lit with excitement as Emma described the classroom tree. “I hope I
can find a maple leaf. They’re so fancy, with all the points. When you see them on
the ground, they look like a thousand stars.”

“Then we will have to find a nice maple,” Emma said as she leaned over her large bin
of classroom crayons. “Would you like to help me with this? I need to pick out fall
colors for the project.”

Ruthie joined her at the desk and peered into the box. “Orange, dark red, yellow,”
she murmured as she plucked each crayon from the box. “How about plum?”

“Plum is good. Keep going. We need twenty-eight.” As Emma sat at her desk to fold
and cut the papers for the project, she wondered how the Kings’ family dinner had
gone last night.

Would it be wrong to ask Ruthie? In a few days the girl would know her older brother
was dating her teacher. Word would spread quickly. Emma didn’t mind smoothing the
way … and she was hungry even for a crumb about Gabe.

“How was your family dinner last night?” she asked.

“Wonderful good,” Ruthie said, her eyes on the crayon box. “Betsy made roasted chicken
with pumpkin pie for dessert.”

“And how’s Gabe? Did he enjoy it?”

Ruthie blinked. “He never made it on account of the accident.”

An accident? Buggy accidents happened more often than anyone cared to know, but Emma
hadn’t heard of any incidents last night. She sat up straighter, instantly alert.
“Is he all right?”

“He’s going to be fine, but there’s a cut on his neck and his shoulder is bruised
bad. I was worried sick when I saw that cut, but I put some ointment on it for him.”

Emma swallowed hard, tamping down surprise and alarm. “I’m glad it’s getting better.
How did it happen?”

“A motorbike crash,” Ruthie said, shaking her head in disapproval.
A motorbike? Emma’s face grew warm as anger swept through her.

“He crashed on one of his friend’s motorbikes. It was an Englisher friend who has
the bikes. Gabe says he’ll be fine, but maybe you should talk to him about it. It’s
dangerous, and it’s against the rules.”

“Yes, it’s against the Ordnung. I will talk to him about that.” Emma strained to keep
the anger from her voice. Ruthie was only the messenger; it would be wrong to upset
the girl, who had a very clear picture of her brother’s wrongdoing.

Children were streaming into the classroom. From the door, John Zook called, “Teacher
Emma, can I ring the bell?”

She pressed a hand to her temple as she looked at the clock on the wall. It was time.
“Yes, John. Give it a good ring, please.”

Ruthie went back to her desk as the children took their assigned seats. Emma strode
to the window, composing a letter in her mind. She would send a note home with Ruthie,
a letter requesting that he come to the school to discuss an important matter.

Would he think she was talking about Simon or Ruthie? She didn’t care if it was misleading.
She had to talk to him; she needed to hear his side of this story.

The air blowing in did nothing to cool her hot temper, but she knew that would simmer
down when she started teaching. Her scholars deserved a levelheaded, patient teacher,
and she would be the teacher they needed.

Even when her heart was burning with anger over Gabe’s antics.

A motorbike? How could he?

The next morning Emma waited for him on the schoolhouse porch. Her jaw felt stiff
and her eyes were dry and sore. Not enough sleep and too much worry. She hadn’t even
told Elsie about what happened,
knowing that Elsie would be disappointed. Besides, she felt like a fool to have trusted
him. He’d lied to her. And he’d chosen a motorbike over her. That hurt.

Gabe King was not a suitable beau. She could not be connected with him and maintain
her good reputation as Halfway’s Amish schoolteacher.

Her heart ached at the sight of Gabe’s buggy. Ruthie sat beside him, and Simon’s dark
hat bobbed in the back.

He got out of the carriage and she rose from the porch. She tried not to look at the
eyes that could melt her heart. She stared down as she invited him into the classroom
to chat.

Inside the schoolhouse she went to her desk, wanting the big wooden slab to keep Gabe
at a distance.

“Emma?” Gabe’s footsteps were heavy behind her. “What’s wrong?”

“I heard that you got hurt Sunday.” Standing behind her desk, she turned to face him.
“In a motorbike accident.” She didn’t try to hide her disappointment. “A motorbike?
Gabe, what are you doing?”

The color drained from his face. He pinched the brim of the hat in his hands. “How
did you hear?”

“Ruthie mentioned it, but don’t blame her. She’s worried about you, Gabe, and I am,
too. What are you thinking?”

He lifted one hand to stop her. “Take it easy. It’s not the end of the world.”

“You told me you had family plans and instead you went out riding motorbikes. How
could you do that to me?”

“It’s got nothing to do with you, Emma. It’s just something Ben and I have been doing
for fun.”

“It’s strictly forbidden, and you know that, Gabe King.”

He glanced out the window and shrugged. “You make me feel like a bad student, Emma.”

“Gabe, you’re breaking the rules.”

“Ya, but it’s my rumspringa. I’m sowing my wild oats.”

“Oats are sown in the soil. You are breaking the rules, and your bike racing has nothing
to do with finding an Amish mate, the true purpose of rumspringa. You said it yourself.
You’re looking for fun, and going against the Order. It’s wrong, Gabe.”

“I’m not hurting anyone. I’m not breaking the Golden Rule.…”

“Ach.” Emma sat down and folded her hands on her desk. “Tell that to Bishop Samuel.”

“Why would I do that?”

Frustrated, she stared up at him. “So that you can ask for forgiveness.”

Gabe shook his head. “I’m not ready to do that.”

“But you must!”

“Don’t ruin this for me, Emma.” His eyes flashed, as if she was trying to hurt him.
“It’s the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”

“But …”

I thought I was the best thing that ever happened to you
. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words because now she knew how wrong she’d
been.