Plain Peace (A Daughters of the Promise Novel) (10 page)

Her grandmother lifted her chin. “What are you talking about?”

Anna shook her head. “Come on. It’s late. Let’s go in.”

Is that what it had come to? Now her grandmother was lying to her.

As
Mammi
got in step behind her, Anna slowed her pace and turned around to face her grandmother. “What did you do with all the strawberries?”

“What strawberries?”

Anna grinned at
Mammi’s
wide-eyed innocence, then at a bulge in her apron pocket. “What’s in your pocket?”

“My hands.” Her grandmother scooted around her and hurried to the house.

Like dealing with a child
. Anna shook her head and followed her inside, hoping she wouldn’t venture out again.

And still wondering what had happened to all the strawberries.

Marianne slipped quietly back into her bedroom and stashed her nonworking cell phone between the mattresses.
Dumb phone
.

She’d gone to Barbie Beiler’s house earlier in the day to charge her new phone. Barbie owned Beiler’s Bed and Breakfast, and the
Englisch
woman had always been a good friend to the Amish folks. Some of her husband’s kin were Amish. Barbie had helped her set up the phone, but now that she was on her own, Marianne couldn’t remember how to work it. She couldn’t seem to get on the Internet or even tell if she had a signal. Barbie had called the device a smart-phone. Marianne didn’t think it was very smart at all—and it was making her feel dumber by the moment.

At this point she’d pushed so many different buttons on the screen that she was lost. Barbie was leaving for her annual trip to Florida tomorrow morning, so Marianne was wondering who else she could get to help her.

Isaac would flip his lid if he knew she’d purchased the portable
phone—even more so if he knew how much she’d spent on it. But she’d been saving her money from bakery sales for a long time. Her shopping had been limited because she didn’t have Internet access, but then she’d learned that the newer phones could connect you right to the Internet. She didn’t really understand how that all worked, but she knew it would be faster and easier than catalog orders. So she’d heard. If the phone would work.

Thankfully, Isaac was still snoring as she crawled underneath the sheet. She appreciated not having to make up something to tell him. When she couldn’t drift off to sleep, she thought back to when she started collecting her little luxury items. Anna had still been quite young. And to tell the truth, she wasn’t sure she could have survived living with Isaac for all these years without her little hobby. But at the end of the day, like now, the deceit still bothered her.

It occurred to her that maybe that was why sleep never came easy.

By Thursday morning, Jacob was getting more and more excited about his date with Anna. He’d already cleared using the buggy with his mother. It would take awhile for him to save enough money from his work at the lumberyard to buy his own buggy. In the past, he would have asked his father to help him, but he didn’t ask
Daed
much of anything these days. And he’d noticed that his father had stayed out late the other night. He hated the way his mother often looked like she’d been crying, with dark circles underneath her eyes. He was resenting his father more and more.

But today he was trying to focus on something happier—on Anna. She’d let him talk about Leah and listened with compassion instead of trying to pretend nothing had happened the way
Carolyn had. Jacob needed someone to talk to, a friend. And it didn’t hurt that Anna was the prettiest girl he’d ever met. He was looking forward to getting to know her better.

Mary Jane slowed the buggy in front of Lindemann’s Lumberyard.

“I’ll see you at three.” Jacob stepped out of the buggy. “Sorry you keep having to bring me and pick me up, but otherwise you all would be stuck without a buggy all day.”

“It’s okay. I know you’re trying to save money for your own buggy. And you can’t really walk to your job the way Eli can.”

Jacob waved as he crossed in front of the buggy. He wished Mary Jane and Anna Mae would get jobs, even if just part-time, so they’d be around people and hopefully make some friends. Back in Middlefield they’d been very social, but they didn’t seem to have an interest in much of anything these days. What was it going to take for them all to move on?

He pulled the door open and glanced at the clock on the wall. Five minutes early.

“Good morning, Jacob.” Glenda Myers was the
Yankee—
no,
Englisch
—girl who ran the cash register in the front of the store. She was about his age, and she made him uncomfortable. Her blouses were always low cut, her jeans a size too small, and there was something seductive about her eyes, maybe the way she wore her makeup. She’d asked him to lunch twice, and both times he’d come up with an excuse not to go.
Mamm
always sent him to work with a lunch anyway.

He gave a quick wave in her direction, forcing a smile, then headed to aisle four to take up where he’d left off the day before—unpacking and stocking a shipment of nails. It was easy work and kept his mind occupied.

Anna was in the kitchen pulling two loaves of bread from the oven when her grandmother entered the room.

“I’ve got three batches of snickerdoodles and three pans of peanut blossoms cooling on the rack, and everything else is already packed to take to the market and the bakeries.” Anna took off her oven mitts, placed them on the counter, and turned to face her grandmother. “
Mammi
, I need you to convince
Daadi
to let me go out with Jacob on Saturday. He’s the first person brave enough to face
Daadi
, and I really like him.”

Her grandmother poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down in a kitchen chair. “I tried,
mei maedel
. But Jacob didn’t take you where he said he would, and that didn’t sit well with your grandfather.”

Anna pulled out the chair across from
Mammi
and sat down. “But there was a
gut
reason. Jacob’s
bruder
cut himself on a piece of glass. His
mamm
was desperate for some help, and their
daed
wasn’t anywhere around.” Anna shook her head as she recalled the details Jacob had shared with her. “Their
schweschder
was killed,
Mammi
. She fell off the plow, hit her head on the corner of it, and died in front of all of them. The whole family is grieving, needless to say. That’s why they left Middlefield to start over. But Jacob said his father blames himself and that he stays upstairs or is gone when he’s not in the fields or the barn.”

Mammi
kept her head down as she spoke. “
Ach
, that’s terrible. I feel for all of them.” She looked up, her eyes soft. “I understand their pain. I really do.”

“I know you do. And I know
Daadi
does too. Please talk to him,
Mammi
. Tell him what happened, and convince him to let me go on Saturday. Jacob did the responsible thing. He’s a
gut
person.” She paused, biting her bottom lip. “Please,
Mammi
.”

“I will try, dear.”
Mammi
let out a heavy sigh. “But your grandfather won’t like to hear that the boy has a cell phone. And that his
mudder
does too.”

“Maybe just don’t mention that part.” Anna realized that she was getting more and more like her grandmother by hiding things from
Daadi
. It wasn’t right, and she knew it. God had chosen her grandfather for this role. But that left her questioning His will. Why would the Lord put someone in charge of their district who refused to consider the members’ feelings, who just did whatever he wanted, no matter how unreasonable? And her grandfather would hold the position until he died. Anna loved
Daadi
, and she hoped he would be with them for a long time, but what would it take to get him to ease up?

She knew he kept a list of violations. She’d seen it the other day on the kitchen table. The Huyards were using a gas lawn mower instead of the accepted push mower. Rumor had it that the Rabers had a deep freeze in their mudroom and were running a long extension cord from the
Englisch
neighbors’ house instead of storing their meat in rented lockers like others in their district. Leroy Glick had been seen using a skid loader to scoop manure, something that used to be common until her grandfather became bishop. And Mary King was letting her daughters wear light-colored dresses, pink and other pastels. Anna knew they’d all be getting a visit.

Marianne’s heart hurt for Cora Hostetler. She’d met the woman briefly at worship service but had no idea they’d lost a child.

“I think I’ll pay Cora a visit. I’ll take her some snickerdoodles too.” Marianne stood up from the kitchen chair, slowly straightening her stiff back. “And I’ll try to talk to your
daadi
tonight, Anna, but no guarantees.”

“Danki.”
Anna threw her arms around Marianne’s neck. Marianne had never seen the girl so interested in a boy before. Maybe no one had been worth fighting for until now.

“Like I said, no guarantees.” She smiled. “Do you want the topless buggy or the other one?”

“It’s hot and sunny. If you want me to take the open buggy, that’s fine with me. I know your face burns easily.” Anna walked to the counter and packed some of the cookies into a Tupperware container. “Here. These are for the Hostetlers.” She set the sealed container on the table, then loaded up the rest of the cookies and six loaves of bread. “I’m going.”

Marianne kept her seat for a while, drumming her fingers as she thought about her visit to see Cora. Then she went to her bedroom, reached between the mattresses, and found her new cell phone. Anna had said that Cora had a phone. Depending on how the visit went, maybe Cora would show Marianne what she was doing wrong. As she slipped into her black leather shoes, she wondered if Cora could be trusted. Would she tell someone that the bishop’s own wife was in violation of his rules?

She looked down at the device and thought about how much simpler life would be if she was able to buy her favorite hand cream online using her phone. And what about the pink sweater she’d been eyeing? She stuffed the phone in her apron pocket, picked up
the snickerdoodles, and walked outside. Anna had already gotten her horse and buggy ready, so she was quickly on her way.