The Bishop's Daughter (47 page)

“Strange as it may seem, look here; he has a red, heart-shaped birthmark, just like Zach’s.”

Abraham hesitated but finally moved in for a closer look. Before he had a chance to say anything, Naomi pushed through the crowd and rushed over to Jimmy. “What birthmark? Let me see.”

“My Zach did have a red blotch behind his ear that looked sort of like this,” Abraham said as he leaned his head closer to Jimmy, squinted, then stepped back. “But you don’t expect us to believe this is the same boy.”

Naomi groaned. “Oh, but, Papa, what if it’s true?”

It seemed as though everyone was staring at the mark behind Jimmy’s ear, and it made him feel like a bug under a microscope. Who was this “Zach” they were talking about, and what did it have to do with him?

Pushing himself to his feet, Jimmy turned to face Jacob. “When you were a boy, did one of your friends have a birthmark like mine?”

Jacob shook his head. “You’re Zach.” He pointed to Abraham. “He’s your daed.”

A murmur went through the crowd; then everyone began talking at once. Jimmy felt as if his head might burst wide open, and he held up his hands to quiet them. “Would someone please tell me who Zach is, and what’s all the fuss about my birthmark?”

“It’s nothing.” Abraham compressed his lips and folded his arms across his chest. “Jacob has you confused with my son who was kidnapped.”

The shock of Abraham’s words left Jimmy’s mouth feeling so dry he could barely speak. Could the Fishers be the Amish family he had been searching for? Was it possible that Abraham, a man who obviously didn’t care for him, was actually his father? Could he have been living and working among his own people all those months and not have known it? Jimmy swayed unsteadily as the possibility sank in.

“Are you all right? Maybe you’d better sit down.” Leona reached up and took hold of Jimmy’s arm, and he dropped to the ground beside her again.

“I—I have a story to tell—one I think you all need to hear,” he rasped.

“We don’t need any stories,” Abraham grumbled. “We’ve already heard enough ridiculous talk.”

Naomi took a seat on the other side of Leona. “What story, Jimmy? I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

“Well, I don’t want to hear it.” Abraham folded his arms and scowled at Jimmy as if he’d done something horribly wrong.

Feeling more nervous by the minute, Jimmy moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. He was determined to tell his story, even if Abraham didn’t want to hear it. “The thing is, I grew up in Washington State, but I—uh—wasn’t born there.”

“What’s this got to do with anything?” Abraham tone’s was one of impatience, and he turned away with a huff.

He’d only taken a few steps when his son Samuel spoke up. “I think we should listen to what Jimmy’s got to say, Papa. He might know something about my missing bruder.”

“I agree with Samuel,” Matthew put in. “We need to hear Jimmy out.”

Abraham shook his head, but Fannie took hold of his arm. “Your boys are right about this, Abraham. We all need to listen to Jimmy’s story.”

Abraham only shrugged in response, but he did stop walking.

“I didn’t know any of this until last spring, when Jim, my English dad, informed me that I wasn’t born in Washington. He said I was born here, in Lancaster County.” Jimmy paused and drew in a quick breath. “When I was a year old, my sister left me sitting on a picnic table while she went in the house to get some cold root beer for an English man.”

“Oh!” Naomi covered her mouth with the palm of her hand and stared hard at Jimmy.

“
Puh!
That don’t prove nothin’.” Abraham grunted. “Lots of folks knew that story.”

“I thought we were going to hear Jimmy out,” Fannie said.

Abraham squinted at Jimmy again. “Tell us what else you know about that day.”

“The name of the man who went there to buy root beer is Jim Scott. I grew up thinking he was my father. It wasn’t until shortly after my twenty-first birthday that I learned I had been adopted and that my folks had gotten me through a lawyer in Bel Air, Maryland.” Jimmy gulped in another breath of air. “So I went there to speak with the lawyer, but I was in for a big surprise.”

“What surprise was that?” Matthew asked.

“I was told that there had been no adoption for Jim and Linda Scott through that office. The lawyer said my dad—Jim—never left his office with a baby because the birth mother had changed her mind and decided to keep the child.”

Abraham gave Jimmy another one of his irritating scowls. “What’s this got to do with my missing son?”

“I’m getting to that.” Jimmy glanced at Leona, hoping she might say something that would give him a little encouragement, but she just sat there.

“Uh. . .anyway,” he continued, “after I left the lawyer’s office, I called Jim and demanded to know what had happened at the lawyer’s office. He admitted that the adoption had fallen through, and then he told me some wild story, which I was sure he had made up, about him driving onto an Amish farm asking for root beer, and my Amish sister going
into the house to get the root beer and leaving me on the table. He said I was wiggling around, and he was afraid I might fall off, so he picked me up.” Jimmy paused again and swallowed a couple of times. “Then, with no thought of the consequences, Dad—I mean, Jim—dashed to his van and drove off.”

Everyone who had gathered around Jimmy gaped at him without uttering a word. Jimmy wasn’t sure if they thought he was some kind of a nut, or if they believed his wild story. He decided he’d better get the rest told while he still had a captive audience.

“So then, when we got to the hotel where Jim’s wife was waiting, he told her that I was the child they’d come to adopt.”

Naomi’s sister Nancy let out a yelp. “Ach, my! You really are my little bruder!”

“I told you,” Jacob said with a nod.

Abraham stood there with a stony face, but Naomi reached across Leona and grabbed hold of Jimmy’s arm. “If what you’ve told us is true, then why haven’t you said something to one of us before now?”

“And why’d you return to Washington and then come back again?” Jake asked.

Jimmy looked at Leona to gauge her reaction. Tears shimmered in her green eyes, but she was smiling. It bolstered his courage enough to say more. “I came here last summer with the hope of finding my real family, but every lead I had turned out to be a dead end. No one I spoke with knew anything about a kidnapping that had happened twenty years ago. And then I started working for Jacob and knew I needed to stick around to see what the Amish were all about.”

“That doesn’t explain why you never asked any of us if we knew anything about a kidnapped baby,” Norman spoke up.

“I wanted to, but I was afraid if I blurted something like that out and nobody believed me I might be asked to leave.” Jimmy groaned. “I was also concerned that if the truth came to light and I did actually find my family that my dad—Jim—might end up in jail.”

“The Amish don’t prosecute,” Samuel said.

Jimmy nodded. “So I’ve been told.”

“So what was your excuse for not saying anything then?” Norman asked.

“Jah,” Jake agreed. “If you really had been kidnapped and wanted
to find your real family, I would think you would have left no stone unturned.”

“I did ask a couple of people, but they didn’t know what I was talking about.”

Abraham’s frown deepened. “Who’d you ask?”

“I mentioned it to Jacob, but he didn’t seem to understand much of what I had said. I also asked Eli, and he said he’d never heard anyone around here speak of losing a baby that way.” Jimmy shrugged. “So I figured no one else in the area would know anything or believe my story.”

“Eli’s not been around long enough to know what happened back then,” Jacob put in. “He and his folks moved here from Indiana four years ago. You should have asked someone who’s been livin’ here longer.”

All eyes turned from Jimmy and focused on Jacob, and his wife grabbed him in a hug. “Oh, husband, you remember who you are!”

“ ’Course I do. I’m Bishop Jacob Weaver, and you’re my wife, Lydia.”

Leona stood and leaned close to her daed. “Do you know me, Papa?”

“Said I did when I called you over here a few minutes ago, didn’t I?”

She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck. “We’ve had two miracles today. Your memory has returned, and Abraham’s son has come home!”

Abraham stood there, slowly shaking his head as though in a daze. Jimmy, feeling much the same, struggled to his feet and moved over to stand beside Abraham. “Soon after I went back to Washington, I realized that while I’d been living and working here I had discovered a side of myself I didn’t know existed.” He paused and waited to see how Abraham would react.

“Go on.”

“Then I read a verse of scripture found in Psalm 27:11 that made me stop and think about my life.”

“ ‘Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path,’ ” Abraham quoted.

Jimmy nodded. “I believe the Lord showed me through that verse that deep down inside I really am Amish, and I have decided that I want to follow the Plain path.”

Abraham shifted from one foot to the other. Then he took one step forward.

Jimmy swallowed hard in an attempt to push down the lump that had lodged in his throat.

“I—I can’t believe that after all these years God would finally answer my prayers.” Abraham paused. “But I believe He has, and—” His voice broke, and he rocked back and forth on his heels. “And after I’ve treated you so badly, thinking you were out to destroy Leona’s life—”

“It doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters except trying to make up for the years we’ve lost.” Jimmy opened his arms, and giving no thought as to whether he would be accepted, he embraced his father.

Abraham held his body rigid at first. Then he hugged Jimmy so hard he could barely catch his breath. “There’s so much I want to tell you, son. So very much.”

“And I want to hear it all.”

Everyone shed a few tears as they took turns hugging Jimmy and welcoming him home.

“There are many things that each of us wants to hear.” Naomi smiled at Jimmy. “We want to know the details of your life out there in Washington, too.”

Jimmy nodded and reached for Leona’s hand, pulling her gently to his side. “If there’s no objections, I’d like to do whatever is required of me in order to join the Amish church.” He looked over at Jacob, who winked at him, and then he smiled at Leona and said, “If this special woman will have me, I hope to make her my wife some day.”

Leona looked a bit hesitant at first, but then her face relaxed and she looked at her father. “Well, Papa, what do you have to say about that?”

Jacob nodded and thumped Jimmy on the back. “I always knew I liked you—even when you weren’t Zach Fisher.”

After everyone’s laughter died down, Jimmy sent up a silent prayer.
Thank You, God—for bringing me home
.

Eighteen months later

C
ongratulations on your marriage.” Jim hugged the newlyweds as they all stood in the Weavers’ front yard, following the wedding ceremony. “Thanks for inviting Holly and me to witness your vows. I’m so proud of you, Jimmy—I mean, Zach.” He swallowed hard. “I know Linda would be proud, too.”

“Mom. She was my mom,” Zach corrected. “And it’s okay if you keep calling me Jimmy, because until I found my Amish family, it was the only name I’d ever known. To tell you the truth, even after living here over a year as Zach Fisher, I’m still trying to get used to my real name.” He smiled at his bride, and the tender look she gave him spoke volumes. Jim was pleased with his son’s choice for a wife. He knew from all he’d heard about the bishop’s daughter that she was a special woman.

“Are you ready to meet Abraham now?” Zach asked.

Jim nodded, but he didn’t move from the spot where he and his own new bride stood on the Weavers’ front lawn.

“It’s going to be all right, honey,” Holly whispered in his ear. “The Lord will help you through this and give you the right words.” She stepped away from Jim and took hold of Leona’s arm. “Why don’t we let our men tend to business while the two of us get better acquainted?”

“I think that’s a fine idea.” Leona gave her husband a hug. “I’ll see you inside for the wedding supper.”

Zach led the way, and Jim followed him across the yard to where a tall, bearded man stood talking with Bishop Weaver near the barn. When they approached, the bishop nodded and said, “I’d best go inside and see how things are going.”

Zach stepped up to the other man and touched his shoulder.
“Abraham, this is my dad—I mean, Jim Scott.”

As Jim reached his hand out to Abraham Fisher, his throat felt so clogged he wasn’t sure he could speak. “For many years, I dreaded the thought of meeting you, but now I’m thankful God has given me this opportunity to tell you how sorry I am for taking your child.”

Abraham nodded. “You already apologized in that letter you sent soon after Zach returned to Pennsylvania.”

“Yes, but I—I needed to say it in person.” Jim paused to regain his composure. “What I did was unthinkable, and I wouldn’t blame you if you never forgave me for kidnapping Jimmy—I mean, Zach.”

“In Matthew 6:14, Jesus said, ‘For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.’ ” Tears gathered in the corners of Abraham’s eyes. “Many years ago, I forgave the one who had taken my son away, even though I didn’t know if I’d ever see my boy again.”