Ellie (18 page)

Read Ellie Online

Authors: Mary Christner Borntrager

Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #test

BOOK: Ellie
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Page 153
"Yes, it's me, really," Missy said as Ellie unlatched the gate. They shook hands.
"Come on in," Ellie invited.
"But I don't want to keep you from your work."
"Oh, no, that's alrightthe children will finish what we were doing."
"These are your children? You have three?" asked Missy. "My children wouldn't know how to skin those things," she said, referring to the pea shelling.
Ellie laughed. She had never heard it stated in such a way before. Wait until she told David they were "skinning peas." But Missy had never been taught about such work. "Yes," said Ellie, opening the screen door as they entered her kitchen. "We have three children: Jake, Laura, and Benny. They are a pleasure and are good little workers."
"Well, I just have two, and sometimes I'd like to give them away."
Ellie was shocked. Surely her friend couldn't mean that. How could a mother want to give up her own children?
"Here, have a seat," Ellie said, pointing to a chair.
"Thanks," and Missy sat down. "You sure keep a clean house," Missy commented. "How do you do it with a husband and three kids?"
Ellie had never referred to her children as kids. However, she answered politely that her children had been taught to work from a young age. They had learned that in a happy family there's a place for everything and everything in its place, a responsibility to parents and each other, and a need to live honest, orderly lives.
 
Page 154
Missy changed the subject. They talked about their school days, laughing together over many of their shared memories. "I used to wish I could wear a brown dress like yours," Missy said. "Do you remember the pictures Miss Olive, our first-grade teacher, used to put up on the wall when we had colored nicely?"
"Yes, I remember," Ellie said. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, the one with a lamb in a pasture field that had the girl with the brown dressit was my picture. I remember you did not like it because you thought someone did it to make fun of you. But I did it, imagining it was me in your brown dress."
Ellie laughed. "I remember. And would you believe it, Missy? I used to like your yellow dress so well, I colored my girl's dress yellow."
"Are your parents still living?" Missy asked. "I remember your father was mean."
"No," said Ellie, "my father isn't living anymore. And he was never mean. He may have seemed so to you, but he really wasn't."
Missy's children were getting restless, so Ellie brought out a toy box with wooden blocks and a wooden barn and animals David had made. There was a rag doll with no face, dressed just like Ellie was dressed as a little girl. Ellie thought the children would enjoy these toys, but they soon began fighting over them. Missy told them to stop, but they didn't pay any attention to her. "If you kids don't behave, I'll kill you," she said with exasperation.
Ellie couldn't believe she heard correctly. She was
 
Page 155
glad her own children were out of earshot.
"Would you like to see my little store?" Ellie asked.
"You have a store, too?" Missy showed surprise.
"Yes," said Ellie, "it's right here in my house." And she led the way through the kitchen again.
"Oh, how quaint," Missy exclaimed. "Don't you sell any print or flowered material?"
"No," said Ellie, "just plain. That's what our people wear."
"I used to wish I was Amish when I was small," Missy mused. "But now I'm sure glad I'm not."
Missy's children begged for everything from cough drops to plastic tumblers, which Ellie had on display. Missy kept saying, "If you little brats don't shut up, I'll smack you good." But she never did, and she bought them anything they wanted. Ellie had thought of inviting them to stay for lunch, but she wasn't sure she wanted to now.
"It's nice you can run a store like this in your home for your people," Missy said as they returned to the living room. "May I ask you a question that has bothered me for a long time?"
"Sure," Ellie said. "What is it?"
"Why didn't you answer my letters?"
"I only got one, and I did answer it," Ellie told her.
"Well, I wrote you a lot of times. Someone must have got them before you did and destroyed them, and I can pretty well guess who it was."
Ellie knew she was referring to her papa, and she wished Missy would not blame him for it now. She knew her father meant to do what was best for her.
 
Page 156
Ellie's children were finished shelling peas and brought them in bowls to the kitchen. The visiting children were fighting again, and the three Eash children watched in amazement.
"If all you little beasts are going to do is fight," their mother exclaimed, "we are leaving." She grabbed her little boy by the arm none too gently and, leaving scattered toys on the floor, headed for the door.
"Mommy, I want a drink," begged her little girl.
"Well, hurry up, then. Where is your faucet?" she asked Ellie.
"Oh, here, I'll get you a glass. We get the water from the pump here at the kitchen sink."
"How quaint," Missy remarked again. She filled the glass and handed it to her little girl. The boy decided he wanted it and grabbed it from his little sister's hand. The glass fell to the kitchen floor and shattered.
"That's it, that's it," Missy said. "We are leaving right now." And with two screaming children, she headed for the car. "My nerves are just shot," she said. "I've got to have a smoke to calm them." She reached into her purse, took out a cigarette, and lit it. "I know you don't approve, Ellie, but trying to cope with these two kids alone is more than I can bear.''
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ellie said. "I didn't know your husband wasn't living."
"Oh, he's living, alright," Missy said, "but not with me. He is in the army. He has it easy, I'd say. Well, I'd better be going."
 
Page 157
Ellie followed her to the car.
"Oh, who is that?" Missy asked, as she saw David coming from the field.
"Why, that's David, my husband. I'm not Ellie Maust anymore. I'm Ellie Eash now. I like that name, and I like being David's wife and the mother of his children."
"I'm glad you're happy, Ellie."
"Well, see you around, kiddo," was all Missy said as she drove away.
Ellie returned to the house to clean up the broken glass and see that the toys were picked up and put away, but she found her own children had things back in order.
"Mama," asked Laura, "why didn't that woman like her children? And why was she so cross?"
"Oh, Laura, I don't really know."
"Who was it, anyway?" asked David.
"It was Missy," answered Ellie.
"Your old school friend you told me about so often?" David asked.
"Yes, David, my old school friend. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I want to remember us as we used to beme, a little Amish girl, and my special friend, Missy."
But the family often talked, after the unexpected visit, about how one "skins peas."
Ellie was glad her father had enough wisdom to know what could come of being too friendly with people outside their own group. She appreciated him and her own family more than ever.
 
Page 158
22
The Dawdy Haus
David and Ellie were blessed with one more baby girl. They decided to name her Rebecca, but she always went by the name of Becky.
Ellie couldn't believe how fast her children were growing up. Sometimes it almost frightened her. Soon they would be going to singings and other get-togethers with young folks their own age. Had they been taught well enough, she wondered, to withstand the many temptations confronting today's youth? She sincerely hoped so. She intended to remain an example to them all her life both by word and deed.
Ellie knew a mother's prayers are important. She prayed daily for each of her children. Although accustomed to silent prayer, as the Amish mostly are, still she was sure the Lord knew her heart, her longings, concerns, and desires better than she herself did.
 
Page 159
The Eash children loved to sing as much as their parents did. Many evenings before retiring, they gathered around the kitchen table and sang favorite hymns together. Even Becky, at a very young age, joined in with the rest of the family. There was a closeness here that would not easily be broken.
David's dairy had grown from one cow and four heifers to fifteen good Guernsey cows. He also had about twenty pigs. The henhouse was full of chickens. Yet there were times in the winter when there just wasn't enough work to keep one man and two husky boys busy.
"Ellie," David asked one evening, "what would you say about moving closer to Hatfield again?"
"What?" said Ellie, startled.
"How would you feel about moving closer to Hatfield? You know, close to where you grew up."
"I know what you asked me."
"Then why did you ask me to repeat it?" laughed David.
"Because, I just couldn't believe that's what you said," she answered. "Why, David?"
"There just doesn't seem to be enough work here to keep us busy the year round. My dad told me the other day that my youngest brother, Joe, would like a chance to farm this place on shares now."
"But why Hatfield? And what about your shop? And, oh, David, our children will start their
Rumschpringe
and there are so many more temptations near a larger town. They would need to drive so far for singings. Are you sure it would be wise?"
"I get the feeling you are opposed to the idea. I
 
Page 160
didn't say we are moving there. I just want to know what you think. I found out in town today that a two-hundred-acre farm with good buildings is for sale over there. I can move my shop tools, if that's what you're worried about. And you know I'd make room for your store. The children would get used to the place soon enough."
"Not too many people would drive that far to come to my store. They could buy most of the same things at Harper's Five and Ten right here in Springdale, even if they have to pay a little more," Ellie reasoned.
"Yes, but at Harper's they couldn't visit with you and exchange news of who is getting married, who has a new baby, and all the neighborhood gossip," David teased.
"There you go teasing again, and I don't think it's funny," Ellie said, fighting back tears.
When David saw how upset his wife was, he apologized and told her he would not insist upon the move.
"Let's talk it over with my mother," Ellie suggested. "She raised her family for many years away from the settlement. Maybe she would give us some advice on whether or not she would recommend it."
David thought that was a good idea. So the next time they went "over home," as they referred to it whenever they visited Lizzie, they brought the subject up with her.
Mrs. Maust looked so tired of late. She was almost completely white-haired now, and her eyesight seemed to be failing her. She sat in her favorite

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