Missing Your Smile (19 page)

“Come!” Menno said, picking up the spring wagon shafts. He steered while the boys pushed, backing up to within a foot of the steaming water. They attached ropes and pulled the sow out, lowering her into the trough. In one side and out the other she went, the scalding water splashing as the trough nearly tipped over.

They heaved the sow up onto a wooden picnic table that creaked under the weight. Starting on each end with knives held on edge, they peeled the hair off. The day's real work had begun.

“Come on! We're already late!” John hollered, as more picnic tables were brought over.

The women came with their kettles and then separated the meat into piles. A grinder was brought out, the gasoline engine attached to a belt. Two boys fed the meat in while Betsy watched.

“Keep your fingers away from the auger!” Betsy repeated the words in a chant. “We don't want fingers lost today,” she added at times. “One accident today is enough.”

John stoked the fire as more hogs were brought and drug through the scalding water. Intestines were taken out and turned inside out on the grassy lawn. Scrubbers were assigned, and they went to work on a picnic table, brushing down the future sausage tubes.

“I can help here,” Menno offered, approaching the red-faced boys working on the intestines. Grateful hands offered him their scrub brushes.

Betsy intervened. “Nothing doing!” she ordered from her place at the head of the meat grinder. “If
Grandpap
wants to help, there's another brush over there in the grass.”

Menno laughed as the boys groaned.

“I'm never eating sausage again. Not ever in my lifetime,” one of them muttered, taking his brush up again.

“Hah! Come winter,” Menno said, “you boys will be eating with the rest of us. This memory will be long gone.”

“I suppose so,” the boy said. “But it sure looks awful now. Pig guts…
phew
!”

“Surely you knew where sausage came from?” one of the others said with a laugh.

“Knowing and seeing are two different things,” the boy said. “Do you ever get used to this when you're older,
Grandpap
?”

“I suppose so.” Menno shrugged. “I don't think about it anymore. I just bite into Anna's delicious sausage on cold winter mornings and I think, ‘My, this couldn't be better!'”

They all laughed and scrubbed away.

By lunchtime the lawn lay littered with meat, blood, hair, and sausages in various stages. They all washed their hands in a basin set outside by the washroom door and then filled their plates with the prepared lunch fixings. They ate under the shade of the oak trees.

“I'm going down to call Miriam,” Joe said, getting to this feet. “She should have been back by now.”

“I'm sure Jonas is okay,” John assured him.

But we would all do the same had it been one of our children
, Menno thought. He watched Joe leave moments later, his shoulders squared as he drove his buggy out the driveway.
Da Hah
had given him
gut
sons-in-law—all of them. Only Susan remained single, but that was best not to think about right now.

When lunch was finished, the work resumed while the younger girls took the remaining lunch food back into the house.

Joe returned, and he unhitched his buggy by the barn.

“What's up?” John hollered to him.

Joe didn't answer until he had the horse in the barn and approached the group. They all turned to listen when he cleared his throat. “The doctors have worked on Jonas, Miriam said, cleaning up things. Sounds like the danger of infection will be the biggest problem. They want to keep him overnight so they can keep tabs on his wounds and make sure there's no infection.”

“Do you need to leave?” John asked. “We can bring your share of the meat over this evening.”

Joe shook his head. “Miriam will stay with him for the night, and Mr. Davis is back home already. He offered to take me down tonight after the chores.”

“Not really bad news, but still bad enough,” John said.

“I know,” Joe said. “We can be thankful it wasn't worse. Now, where can I help?”

John waved toward the meat grinder. “You could give the boys a break. They've been hard at it.”

Smiles covered the faces of the boys.

“Aw, it's not that bad,” Joe teased. “Let me see what I can do.”

They stepped aside and threw themselves onto the grass, flailing their arms in gestures of mock exhaustion.

Betsy laughed, but let them be. She turned and walked toward the house, taking a bowl of ground meat with her. “I'll be back in a little while,” she said over her shoulder. “You boys aren't going to lay on the grass all afternoon, right?”

They all groaned their reply but were happy to be relieved even for a short time.

By four o'clock everything was done, the meat divided, and the area cleaned up. They all had home chores ahead of them, except for Menno. Sure, he had to feed the horses, but that didn't keep a person's mind occupied for very long.

Menno sighed as he took the hog crate off the spring wagon and washed out the bottom with the garden hose. He helped Anna load the tubs of meat, and they readied to leave.
We will eat well this winter
, he thought, holding the horse while Anna climbed in.

He pulled himself onto the wagon bench seat, took the reins from Anna, and hollered, “Get-up.” The horse set out at a brisk pace.

“It's been quite a day,” Anna said as they went out the driveway.

“
Yah
. Too bad Jonas had to get hurt.”

“We need to write Susan and tell her what happened.”

“You can do that,” Menno said with a shrug.

“She might come home,” Anna said.

Menno looked at her and shook his head. “No, I forbid it. Jonas will be fine. You won't go making things sound worse to Susan than they are. That's not right.”

“But Jonas could get a bad infection,” Anna insisted. “You heard Joe say so yourself.”

“He's in the hospital, under a doctor's care. You will not ask Susan to come home unless there is good reason for it. As of now, there is no reason.”

“But she's our daughter!” Anna said, her fingers clutching the side rail of the buggy seat as the horse and wagon turned a corner.

“I know,” Menno said. “But nothing
gut
comes out of tricks like that. Susan would figure it out once she got back. I say that if Susan comes home, it will be by her own free will.”

After a silence, Anna agreed, teary-eyed. “You're right. I know you are.”

“
Yah
,” Menno said. He was crying too—only on the inside.

S
usan stood at the front window of the apartment, the early morning racket from the street a dull roar below her. There was so much to do! Did she dare move so quickly? Making all these big changes?
Yah!
she thought, these were big changes, but life was taking her in this direction. If she held back, her chance might never come again.

Laura had been kind enough to allow her the day off, so she ought to be thankful and enjoy it instead of spending it worrying. Yet how did a person keep from worrying with so many
verbotten
things she planned to do. There was getting a driver's license and working for a GED certificate—both of which were forbidden by the church
Ordnung
. But the church
Ordnung
was now far from her. She needn't be worried about the church rules anymore…but she was. The letter from her
mamm
hadn't helped.

“I'm not exactly Amish anymore,” she said to the window glass. “It's just that Amish doesn't go away so easily.” Susan turned away from the street with a sigh. She would get ready for this day off. There were questions to ask at the college about taking the GED test. That might even be fun. Robby would be driving her around. He had also picked up the state's driver's manual earlier in the week for her. Nothing had looked too difficult as Susan studied it the last few evenings. All this help was likely Laura's doing, even though she made the plans sound accidental. Like Robby just
happened
to have time to drive her around today.

She also needed to shop for a new dress. The special night with Duane was tomorrow night. The thought made her catch her breath. She
could
wear one of her current dresses, but
nee
, that wouldn't work. They all looked, well, Amish. They wouldn't do for an evening with Mr. Moran…Duane.

Duane…He wasn't at all like Thomas. He'd stopped by the bakery a few times since their lunch together. But he never said anything more about the dinner invitation. In the few minutes while waiting on him, he would smile and make conversation like usual. He acted as if he had forgotten his own suggestion.

The tension the man caused was enough to make goose bumps burst out all the way down her arms. She had been ready to tell him when she saw him again that
nee
, she couldn't go after all. She had expected him to bring the subject up the first morning she saw him after the diner outing, but he hadn't said a word. And when he
did
finally bring it up, she had agreed to go.
It's perfectly understandable
, she decided,
considering all that charm he exuded
.

Thomas wasn't like Duane at all. He blurted out words and let the sticks fall where they would. Did that come from being Amish? Perhaps. Or maybe Thomas was just plain clumsy? Or maybe just pushy. Forcing his way around like he owned the world. Well, it didn't matter. Thomas was in love with Eunice. He could have her! She wanted nothing more to do with the man or her former best friend. Let them both go fly a kite.

Pulling her thoughts back into the present, Susan looked around. Now what to do about the letter from home lying on the table? She had read through it again last night. The news was troubling, to say the least. Susan walked over and picked the envelope up again. She took the letter out and unfolded the paper. Her eyes scanned the words. What was
Mamm
saying? She never quite knew with her—or maybe it was this way with all Amish people. They said something, but a person couldn't be sure if the words were to be taken at face value.

Dear Susan
,

Greetings in the name of Da Hah. I hope as always this finds you well and happy. I wish you would come home, but your
daett
and I are trying to understand. Laura must be a sweet lady. Please thank her for us—that she is taking such good care of you
.

Yesterday we had our day of butchering at John and Betsy's place. We came home with the spring wagon loaded, and now we have plenty of meat for the winter. Your
daett
is worried we have too much, but meat is an easy thing to get rid of
.

The day contained quite a bit of excitement. Menno tried to burn down the barn while he was doing morning chores. Not that he really did, but he forgot to properly put out the match. He's getting old, I guess. He tossed it on the barn floor near some straw. His first attempts at putting the fire out only drove the flames deeper into the pile. I came out at his call for help, bringing some of my quilts along, and helped him smother the fire. Don't worry, we can make more quilts. Much easier than building a new barn!

We got to John and Betsy's place with that mean sow—you remember her, I think, since you helped raise the piglet. She always had the nastiest temper. Anyway, Menno left her sitting in the crate on the back of the spring wagon. One of Miriam's boys, Jonas, got his arm bit pretty badly when the boys took it upon themselves to unload her. Jonas had to stay in the hospital overnight. We haven't heard anything more. I suppose he'll be okay, as the doctor didn't say otherwise
.

Please be thinking of us often, as we are of you. And may
Da Hah
keep you safe. We are praying
.

“Well,” Susan said out loud, “obviously
Mamm
wants me to come home.” Of course, she knew that already, but
Mamm
was thinking of something a little more permanent than a quick visit.
Should I go home for a visit? No, not yet. Too much is going on right now. And it would be hard to get back into moving forward later
.