A Simple Faith: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel (13 page)

“Maybe it was Gott that led you there,” Elsie said.

Ruben had been thinking the same thing, but he didn’t respond. He couldn’t have Elsie or anyone else thinking that he heard voices from nowhere. He wasn’t well liked by many of the young people in their community. Some thought he was lazy because his father ran a business instead of a farm. Others thought he was heavy because he sat around doing nothing all day.

Neither was true, but because of his reputation Ruben had developed a thick skin. He had stopped looking most young women in the eye because he didn’t want to see their looks of disapproval, and he had taken to playing jokes and pranks on the other men his age, mostly to keep them on their toes and at a distance.

They reached the top of the path, and he turned to offer Elsie a hand up.

“Denki,” she said as they paused to look down the highway at the police car.

“Anyway, it’s something good to come out of such a terrible thing.” In the light from the streetlamps along the highway, her breath formed small puffs of steam that hung in the air. It was probably the first time Ruben had really looked at her face, and he was struck by her wide mouth and big brown eyes. She had a pretty face, mostly because Elsie Lapp wore her peace like a cape.

This was a girl with inner grace, a beautiful thing if you could catch sight of it.

“Look at that,” she said.

Ruben’s eyes scanned the inky blue sky until he realized she was staring down at the asphalt.

“No snow or ice. Not even a drop of rain. What do you think happened? Why did that car come across the line and send us spinning around?”

“I don’t know.” Ruben kicked at a stone on the side of the road. “Should we tell the deputy that we found her?”

“That’s a good idea,” Elsie said, “but one of us needs to stay here, so the ambulance can find her.”

“I’ll go. I can run fast. You stay here, and mind you keep off the road.”

“You, too.” There was a light in her eyes, an earnestness as bold as a lightning bolt. Elsie Lapp really cared about him … about everyone, he was sure of that.

He ran to the police car, his boots flying through the dark, heavy night.

15

I
ntensive Care.

Even the name of the hospital unit sounded serious. So dramatic for a man who had a small bump on his head. A small bump that grew bigger until the doctors decided they might have to do surgery. If the drugs they were using didn’t do their job, they would take Dat into the operating room and remove a piece of his skull so that his brain would have room to swell.

“A very common procedure for traumatic brain injury,” the surgeon had told their family. “We do it all the time.”

All the time, they cut off a piece of someone’s head.… Elsie marveled at that. It was amazing medicine; she just hoped and prayed that they would not need to do it to her dat.

Seated in the hospital waiting room, Elsie stretched her hands and refolded them on her lap, in prayer position.

Dear Heavenly Father, bless Dat and make him better. Please … please
.

She felt like an old washrag that had been wrung out and
squeezed and wrung out again, but of course, she had to keep praying. For Dat and James and Jacob. And for the driver of the dark blue SUV, too. They didn’t know that woman’s name, but surely the Heavenly Father knew her well.

Although the waiting room was bursting with Amish folk from her community, Elsie felt very alone right now. Fanny and Emma were in Dat’s room in the ICU, where children were forbidden and only two family members were permitted. Caleb had taken the little ones across the street to get them a snack and a bit of escape from the chaos of a waiting room packed with so many Plain folk.

Tonight there was only a handful of Englishers in the intensive care waiting room. At first Elsie had stared at them, wondering if the driver of the dark SUV belonged to someone sitting right in this room. But then, on the way to LanCo General, Haley had told them that the driver might end up at a different hospital. Sometimes the paramedics did that so that they wouldn’t overwhelm one emergency room.

And as it was, this hospital was getting overwhelmed with Amish people. The Fishers, such a big group of them, took up half the waiting room. Ruben Zook’s father, Joseph, paced in the aisle at Elsie’s feet. Preacher Dave talked with Ira and Rose Miller in one corner, and word had got around that the bishop was on his way. James’s parents and sisters, family relations on Elsie’s father’s side, were now huddled in the hallway, talking with a team of doctors. Rachel stood with them, her mamm, Betsy, by her side, holding her close. Such a lovely thing, a mother’s love.

Sometimes when Elsie closed her eyes she could see her mother’s bright smile. It was a smile that said
I love you, darling girl, no matter how short or how tall you are, or the shape of your teeth. I love you from now till the end of time
.

Elsie closed her eyes and tried to remember her mamm, but instead, the sight of those fierce headlights cut through her mind.
She saw the crazy loop of the lights across the double line. She heard the sickening noise of glass exploding and metal scraping.

When she opened her eyes, her heart was pounding. She gasped, taking heated air into her raw throat. So much heat in this room, from the hospital furnace and the body heat of too many people. She couldn’t take it.

She rose and removed her coat and wondered how she could have sat here all this time with her winter coat on. Her mind wasn’t quite right, she knew that. She folded her coat and sat down with it on her lap, feeling that something was missing. What was it?

The pastry box. Whatever had happened to the cupcakes?

A knot grew in her throat as she imagined the green froggy and the purple horse smashed to crumbs. She sniffed. What a silly thing to cry about when so many folk were suffering tonight. But she’d been so pleased to give the cupcakes to the children. A few hours ago, it had mattered.

Just then Will and Beth darted in, roses on their cheeks from the cold outside. Elsie sniffed back her tears and pulled little Beth into her arms and held her close until Beth squirmed away to announce that Caleb had bought doughnuts for everyone.

“And this is for you,” Will said, handing Elsie a pint of milk.

“Denki.” There was no way she could eat, but the milk would help to soothe her throat.

“Any news?” Caleb asked as he offered her a doughnut.

She shook her head and watched as he made the rounds with the giant box.

“Two dozen doughnuts,” Caleb told everyone. “I got a discount because the shop was closing for the night.” He passed the box around to everyone, including the Englishers.

Elsie sipped her milk and watched the hallway, hoping for a doctor to appear and tell them that Dat was going to be just fine. But
when a young doctor in navy blue scrubs arrived, he asked for the family of Jacob Fisher.

Half the waiting room gathered round him.

The news of Jacob was good. A few broken ribs and a punctured lung. A dislocated arm. “He’s in excellent shape for a man in his eighties,” the doctor said. “And it was wise of that young nurse not to move him at the scene. Her caution may have saved Jacob’s life.” The announcement that Jacob was being moved to a room on the third floor prompted the Fisher clan to rise and head for the elevators.

The empty seats beside Elsie prompted some of the other people to shift away from folding chairs that had been set up in the hall near the snack machines. A solitary woman with jet black hair streaked with silver took the chair beside Elsie.

“So many people,” she said with a quiet smile. “Did I hear someone say there was an accident with a large van?”

“Ya,” Elsie spoke softly. “A terrible thing. My father got hit on the head. We’re waiting for him to awaken.”

“My daughter is in surgery for a ruptured spleen. She was in a fender bender, but I’m guessing it was a different accident. Someone told me that the van was hit on Route 30 outside Halfway, but that’s way out of Clara’s stomping grounds. She’s not allowed to drive that far from home, and she’s such a good girl. I never have to worry about her that way.”

Elsie nodded. “That must be a very good feeling, to have a good daughter.”

“She’s a good girl. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to her, so I’m doing my best to keep calm.” The woman blinked back tears and nodded. “I’m Graciana Estevez.”

“Elsie Lapp.”

“You know, you and Clara are around the same age. She’s seventeen.”

“Me, too.”

Just then Rachel came over and sat on the other side of Elsie. “How’s James?” Elsie asked her friend.

“He’s sleeping now. They gave him something to help him sleep.” Rachel explained that he had been talking with his parents and with doctors in the emergency room. “He told them he couldn’t feel his legs.” Rachel twisted a handkerchief around one hand. “They did some tests, and they think he has a spinal injury.”

Elsie closed her eyes. Dear Gott, how could she bear more terrible news?

“Is he having surgery?” Graciana asked, joining the conversation.

“Not yet. They’re going to wait and see how it looks when the swelling goes down.” Rachel sighed, her lower lip quivering. “So I’ll be waiting, too. For as long as it takes, till James comes home.”

Elsie clasped her friend’s hand. “I’ve been praying for James. You know there’s a reason the Heavenly Father had us all on that van today.”

Rachel frowned. “What reason? Nothing good will come of this. I never should have gone to the city today. If there’d been more seats, James wouldn’t have used that bad seat belt. He would be fine right now.”

“You don’t know that,” Elsie said. “We have to trust in Gott’s plan and keep praying for James and Dat.”

Rachel didn’t respond, but the older woman warmed to Elsie’s words.

“I’ve been praying, too, ever since I got that call from the police,” said Graciana. “I keep praying that God will guide the surgeon’s hands, and I’m hoping for a quick recovery. Clara is in her last semester of high school and these final classes are so important. Not to mention the prom and all those fun things for seniors. I don’t want this to ruin her senior year for her.”

“I’ll add Clara to my prayers,” Elsie promised. Although her head
was already swimming with sorrow and fear, she reached to find the love and patience this woman needed. “Did you get a doughnut, Graciana? My brother brought them for everyone.” She pushed out of the chair and brought the box to the older woman, who helped herself and thanked Elsie. “Rachel?”

Her friend waved her off. No appetite—Elsie understood that.

Without windows, time didn’t seem to pass in the hospital waiting room. The only thing that changed was the occasional arrival of a doctor with news, or another family waiting for a loved one.

A huge fish tank in a wooden case against one wall kept capturing Elsie’s attention, luring her to a place underwater where food floated down to you and you could swim through the weeds and castle and back in less than a minute. Those fish were lucky in there. No giant steel demons to smash into them out of nowhere.

Sandwiched between Rachel and Graciana, Elsie kept quiet as the women talked. She was wondering if she would ever forget the icy sliver of fear that stabbed at her as the headlights came toward them. The terrible explosion of metal as the two vehicles collided.