Second Chances (17 page)

Benjamin, however, lifted his head and studied Anna for a long moment. When she realized
that she was being watched, she fought the urge to squirm in her seat. He soon ended
her agony when he asked, “You like to read, then?”

“I do,
ja
,” she answered.

He inhaled deeply. “As do I. ‘For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have
hope
.
'”

Anna smiled. “The Book of Romans. One of my favorite in the New Testament.” When
she paused, she sensed Leah giving Hannah a nudge with her knee under the table.
Trying to focus her attention on Benjamin, she ignored the two women beside her.
“Do you prefer the poetic verses to the prose? I do.”

“
Nee
,” he said, shaking his head, the light rapidly fading from his eyes. “David's
lyrical poems speak to my heart, and, as such, remind me too much of Fanny.”

A silence fell over the table and Anna chewed on her lower lip, embarrassed at having
reminded him of the one thing that she suspected his parents wished him to forget.

After an appropriate pause, Jonas asked for more potatoes, and the noise of breakfast
returned to the room.

As she passed the jam to Rebecca, Anna forced a smile and addressed her directly.
“Do tell me about your neighbor,” Anna asked brightly, redirecting the conversation
to a safer territory.

“Oh,
ja
! The Kings live just down the road a spell,” Rebecca responded. “You'll adore
the
kinner
. The oldest one is most likely at market today. She goes to Maryland on
Fridays and Saturdays.”

Leah gasped. “Maryland! So far!”

Freman chuckled. “
Mayhaps
from Ohio, Leah, but it's only a two-and-a-half-hour drive
from here.”

Rebecca continued, eagerness showing in her tone of voice. “Rachel King has six
kinner
and, from the looks of it, another one on the way. The two youngest
dochders
are
so dear, always trying to help their
maem
.” She smiled and clicked her tongue:
tsk,
tsk.
“Such sweet angels. I do so miss having little ones around.”

Pointing across the table with his fork, Jonas interrupted her. “You have plenty
of little ones that run around!”

“Only when Susan's or Becca Ann's come visiting!” Rebecca retorted in a gentle tone,
referencing her two daughters who lived nearby.

Another unsafe subject, Anna feared. She wondered if Benjamin was reminded of his
Fanny and how, if they
had married in November, they might have been blessed with
a child by August of the following year. The thought weighed heavy inside of her
chest, and she wished that she could help him through his pain.

Shortly after breakfast was finished, Benjamin and Freman excused themselves. The
two men had a lot of catching up to do, and Anna suspected that Freman wanted some
quality time with his cousin. While Rebecca hurried upstairs to make the beds and
finish her morning chores so that she and Anna could depart, Anna stood at the sink
washing the breakfast dishes. She was drying the last one when their buggy pulled
down the lane toward the road, the black horse's mane and tail fluttering as it moved.

She must have sighed for Leah walked up behind her, peering over Anna's shoulder
to see what she was watching. Glancing at the younger woman, Anna smiled and leaned,
just slightly, against her. “So intriguing,” she said softly.

“Benjamin?”

Turning around, Anna stared at Leah, taken aback by her quick reply. Immediately,
as she realized what Leah had inferred, color flooded her cheeks. “I was actually
referring to the differences between Sugarcreek and Leola.”

Leah tried to hide her smile.

“The gray-topped buggies,” Anna continued. “And the larger houses. Even Jonas's neatly
shaven beard. It's interesting to me, Leah.” Setting the dish towel on the counter,
she leaned forward and whispered, “Not . . . Benjamin!”

With a soft laugh, Leah covered her mouth and turned away, which only added to Anna's
embarrassment.

That was twice that Benjamin had paid special attention to her. She thought well
enough of him, so far anyway.
However, when Leah teased her, Anna was mortified that
anyone might have conceived the idea that she was interested in anything beyond
friendship with Benjamin Esh.
While she enjoyed talking with him, especially about Scripture, for his recollection
of Bible verses appeared most impressive, she found him dark and foreboding—as if
he might be melancholic in general and not just because of Fanny's death.

An hour later, the Musser sisters and Cris stood in the kitchen, waiting for Mary
to finish getting ready. After Anna brought her breakfast in bed, Mary had suddenly
recovered and dressed, eager to ride with Hannah, Leah, and Cris to meet their family.

“Now how will we all ride over to the Blanks?” Mary fussed as she looked in the small
mirror hanging over a wash sink, retying the thin white ribbons that hung from her
prayer
kapp
. “We can't all fit in one buggy, now, can we?”

Cris tapped his fingers on the counter while he waited for his wife to finish her
primping. “I have the directions and Jonas is lending us
his
horse and buggy.”

Anna peered out the kitchen window. “The horse is already hitched to the buggy, Mary.
You needn't even wait.”

“Where is Hannah? We can't leave without her! And if she doesn't hurry, we'll be
late!” She frowned at Cris. “What will your
aendi
think if we are late because of
your
schwester
?”

By nine o'clock they were on their way to the far side of Leola while Rebecca and
Anna walked down the road in the opposite direction. There was a slight incline before
the Kings' mailbox. The field closest to the driveway was
already cleared of cornstalks,
and in the distance, Anna saw a man working on cutting the growth. With his hat tilted
forward upon his head and the sun in his face, he didn't notice them. Rebecca waved
anyway.

The Kings' farmhouse was older than the Eshes'. However, Anna noticed that, once
again, the downstairs kitchen, combined with a sizable sitting room, was large enough
to accommodate not just the King family but extended relations and visitors. When
they arrived, the women were already busy peeling apples at the wooden farmer's table.
Their heart-shaped prayer
kapps
, so different from the stiff, cuplike
kapp
that
Anna wore, framed their faces in such a way that they appeared delicate and dainty.

“
Wilkum
!” A convivial older woman greeted Rebecca and Anna at the door. “You must
be Anna Eicher!” With her brown dress held closed with tiny straight pins down the
front, Linda King seemed plain enough. Her three daughters, busy at the sink washing
and drying canning jars and lids, also wore darker clothing; however, two wore a
fabric that had patterns in it, so minute that Anna wouldn't have noticed if she
hadn't been looking.
How different
, she thought, smiling while Linda introduced
her to each of the girls and her two sisters who sat at the table already.

“Benjamin and Freman stopped by on their way out visiting, to see if Abe wanted
to ride along,” Rachel said as she returned to her seat at the table. “Abe was put
out to think he couldn't go.” She laughed good-naturedly and glanced at her daughters.
“Wasn't he now?”

The younger girls merely smiled and nodded their heads.

Anna and Rebecca joined the other three women at the table. Within minutes, a paring
knife in her hand, Anna's fingers worked at peeling the apples, a sweet, juicy aroma
filling the air. She listened to the older women talking, sharing recent news about
people that she didn't know or places she had never been. The one thing she did know
was that it was a warm and inviting environment. Unlike her home growing up or Mary's
home, there was no tension in the air, and a feeling of happiness pervaded the room.
Even the children, so wide-eyed and shy, wore an expression of genuine peace.

“Your
schwesters
are here too ain't so?” Linda asked, breaking Anna's train of thought.

Looking up from the apple she held in her left hand, Anna nodded. “My one younger
schwester
,
ja
,” she answered. “She went with her husband's two
schwesters
to visit
with their cousins.”

“Oh?” Rachel seemed surprised and glanced at Rebecca. “I wasn't aware that there
was family in the area.”

“It's her husband's family,” Anna pointed out.

Rebecca kept her head bent, her focus on peeling the apples as she added, “The Blank
family.”

At this announcement, Rachel pursed her lips and leaned back in her chair. “I see”
was her simple response. But from the terse tone in her voice, it was clear that
her opinion of the family was less than favorable.

Nothing further was said about the Blank family.

The conversation shifted to more mundane topics related to the people they knew from
their church district while Anna continued peeling her apples. On the stove were
three large steel pots, all with steam escaping from under the tops. Rachel was quick
to cut her apples into
eight pieces before tossing them into the boiling water. Anna
knew that, after thirty minutes, the apples would be soft enough to drain and then
mash, with just a hint of cinnamon added to the mixture, before the smooth liquid
would be spooned into the waiting jars. The jars would then be added to a hot water
bath in order to seal their tops. They would repeat the process at least three times
that day in order to fill all of the empty jars waiting on the counter.

Working in the kitchen was a chore that Anna liked, and she rarely complained about
any particular tasks. However, when there were other women—especially friendly and
cheerful women like Rebecca and Rachel—to work alongside, canning food was no longer
a chore; it became a social event.

Even though Anna did not know the people that Rebecca and Rachel mentioned as they
told stories, she laughed with them and felt a camaraderie that she so often missed
back in Ohio.

Unfortunately, her sister's day did not travel the same course.

Later that afternoon, when the Mussers returned from visiting her husband's cousins,
Mary took the opportunity of being alone in the sitting room with Anna to share her
less fortunate experience.

“My word!” Mary plopped her weary body down on the sofa and leaned her head back
against the soft cushion. Even though they were alone in the room, Mary lowered her
voice when she said, “I've never seen such a place! Not tidy at all; and that woman!”

“What of their
maem
?”

Mary exhaled sharply and shook her head in disgust. “Such a ridiculous creature!
It's a wonder that Salome would want us to visit her!”

Not certain how to respond to Mary's statement, Anna remained silent.

“And not one son! No wonder the place is in shambles!”

Anna wanted to remind her that there were only daughters in their immediate family
too. But she quickly saw that Mary wasn't looking for contributions to the discussion,
merely sympathy as she complained about her husband's relations.

Placing her hand on her forehead, Mary sighed. “I've such a headache from listening
to her ramble on and on about her
dochders
.” She opened one eye and peered at Anna
as if to make certain she was listening. “They seemed fine enough, especially the
two older ones. But it's no wonder they aren't married! I'd be quite unhappy if one
of my boys married into that family.”

“Mary!”

“
Vell
!” She lifted her head and stared at Anna. “It's the truth, ain't so?”

“‘Pleasant words are a honeycomb,'” Anna quoted softly.

“And with every honeycomb is a hive of bees!” Mary snapped back, an intense look
on her face.

Anna highly doubted that the visit could have gone as poorly as Mary suggested. However,
when the rest of the Mussers joined them, there were no lively discussions from Leah
or Hannah about their cousins. Kind words were mentioned in regard to the two older
daughters, Jane and Lizzie, but that was where the discussion ended. Neither Rebecca
nor Jonas pressed the issue; neither did Freman.

Mayhaps Mary was right
, Anna thought. If so she couldn't help but wonder why Salome
would have insisted upon the visit. Regardless, Anna remained quite pleased with
her own day and secretly felt rather thankful that Freman had made the suggestion
to begin with.

After the supper meal, Anna and Hannah helped Rebecca with the dishes while Mary
retired to nurse her headache. The four men sat in the small sitting area, Leah joining
them, to listen to Freman's description of his visit with Benjamin to the carpentry
store.

“A fine operation that John runs!” His voice relayed how sincere the compliment was.
“He uses an assembly-line-type method for construction. I often wondered about the
benefits of that system, and I can see now how effective it truly is.”

“Not surprised,” Jonas said. “His
grossdawdi
started that business, and John's expanded
it substantially. He's a
gut
man with an even better reputation.”

“Can't ask for more than that,” was Freman's response. “A man who stands by his word
and does the right thing is almost certain to have a successful business.”

“Speaking of success,” Jonas said, turning his attention toward his wife. “How was
your time making applesauce?”

Rebecca was wiping down the table when he asked the question. “Eighty quarts canned,”
she replied, hardly able to repress a smile despite the hint of pride it would indicate.