Courting Buggy: Nurse Hal Among The Amish (16 page)

“
I said to come here, Dolly,” Peter's voice was
harsh as he pointed a finger down and jabbed at a spot in front of
him.

Tootie walked slowly down the steps and stopped about
five feet from him. She didn't want to get any closer. “Wh – what
is it you want?” She stammered.

“
I want you to tell me if John Lapp stole my
horse or not. I know I will not get an honest answer from him or
his English wife. My horse is missing. I have been told that the
horse was seen tied to the road fence over yonder.” Peter thrust
his thumb over his shoulder toward the fence. “You, my special
friend, will not lie to me. I will know if you do.”

“
John would never take your horse. He's an
honest man,” Tootie said defensively. What kind of sense did Peter
make? He'd driven past one of John's horse tied to the fence when
he came before. Now he has decided it was his horse on someone
else's say so. Tootie looked toward the side of the barn where Hal
was hitching up the enclosed buggy. She wished Hal would hurry up.
“Peter, are you mad at me?”

The man's eyes warmed just a little. “I have no
reason to be upset with you, Dolly. It is the company you keep that
bothers me.”

Tootie relaxed, but she didn't want to deal with
Peter herself. He wasn't going to leave until he talked to John.
This man confused her. She needed someone else to convince him his
horse wasn't here. She yelled, “Hallie!”

“
Dolly, it will do you no good to yell like
that,” Peter said, shaking his finger at her. “Just tell me the
truth, and I will leave.”

Hal rushed around the side of the barn, saw Peter
shaking his finger at Tootie and ran toward them. He heard her
footsteps behind him and whirled around.

“
What's the matter, Peter?” Hal asked in a calm
tone, slowing to a walk.

“
Was ist letz you ask so innocently. I want my
horse that John Lapp stole from me. I have heard my horse was seen
tied to your road fence,” he said roughly.

Hal paused.
Great! What do I say? If I tell him truthfully that his horse
died a long time ago he isn't going to believe
me
.
If he did it
would be all John's fault that his horse died in our
care
. “Peter, you can look at our horses
behind the barn and see if your horse is there. If he is, John will
bring him back to you. Could be the horse broke loose and wandered
over here. John may have him penned up behind the barn with our
horses. He's been busy in the field and just didn't mention it to
me.”

“
But, Hallie, … .” Tootie started. Hal held up
her hand at Tootie. She pouted.
All I
wanted to do was remind her that it was one of John's horses Peter
saw tied to the fence.

“
I will do just as you say,” Peter said. He
stalked toward the barn and around the side to look at the horse
herd. Hal and Tootie followed him.

Peter shook his head. “I do not see my horse in this
herd, but you make sure that John brings him back to me.”

“
I will do that,” Hal assured him.

Peter gave Tootie a weak smile. “Gute bye,
Dolly.”

After Peter left, Hal helped Tootie step up into the
buggy. She carried the little girls out and handed Redbird to
Tootie then Beth. Tootie placed them on a buggy blanket behind the
front seat. She wasn't in the mood to go shopping now. She placed
her tightly clasped hands in her lap and stared unseeingly out the
window.

Half way to Wickenburg, Hal asked, “You're awfully
quiet. Is Peter's visit bothering you?”

“
Yes, I just don't know what to make of that
man,” Tootie admitted.

“
Peter isn't well. He has Alzheimer's disease,”
Hal told her.

“
Oh my! What can be done to help
him?”

“
The disease isn't curable. It's taking his
mind away,” Hal said.

Tootie looked away to keep Hal from seeing the tears
in her eyes. “He's like two different people, a nice man and an
angry man.”

“
That's the way the disease works on the mind,”
Hal confirmed.

Tootie turned her sad eyes on Hal. “Tell me about
Peter. The nice one, I mean.”

“
He has been a hard working farmer his whole
life. Peter has always been a kind man, but he can't abide a
dishonest man. That's why he seems so upset with John lately when
he thinks John has taken something from him.”

“
I can see that upsets him,” Tootie
agreed.

“
Peter called you Dolly. How did he know that's
your given name?”

“
I told him when we went for a walk after the
church service,” Tootie shared.

“
What do you think of Peter?”

“
He's a kind man that loves animals. He has a
gentle voice and warm eyes when he's himself,” Tootie said softly.
She was quiet a few minutes. Finally, she fretted, “Why did you
tell Peter he could look at the horses? You knew that horse tied to
the fence was John's horse.”

“
Because in Peter's mind his horse is alive.
He'd have thought worse of me if I said the horse died a long time
ago. He wouldn't have believed me,” Hal said.

Tootie pictured Peter with his arm out Sunday
afternoon and the peculiar way he moved his hand around the top
wire on the fence. Now she understood. “Does Peter have a dog?”

“
He did. The dog died a while back, but Peter
still thinks the dog is alive,” Hal said. She glanced at Tootie's
miserable face. “Why?”

“
No reason. What if Peter had picked out one of
your horses and said that one was his. What would you have
done?”

“
I told him if he found his horse John would
bring it home for him. If he had picked out a horse, chances are
he'd forget what he did today by tomorrow.”

“
But if he doesn't forget then what?” Tootie
insisted.

Hal looked worried. “I don't have an answer, Aunt
Tootie. I did the best I could on the spur of the moment. I didn't
want to upset Peter anymore than he already was with us home alone
with two babies.”

“
Would he ever be violent?” Tootie
asked, looking alarmed.

“
Maybe. It's something to keep in
mind with someone like Peter. Talking to a person with Alzheimer's
is sort of like play acting to keep the person from being upset. We
should go along with whatever Peter says. It's called living in his
world, because he can't live in ours any longer,” Hal explained.
“For a while, bad times will come and go. Sometimes, he can seem
like his old self. The one we all think so much of. That was the
Peter you took the walk with.” Hal glanced over at her troubled
aunt. “Right now try not to think about Peter. We should enjoy our
shopping trip and the scenery.”

It was a fine afternoon to be riding in the
country. A beautiful, sunny day with a mild temperature and not
much wind. Planting season was in full swing. Amish farmers were
tilling fields with great jangling teams. Tootie pointed out a mule
team driven by a farmer across the field and marveled. This farming
wasn't anything like what she was used to seeing around her home.
So very much different from the large machinery the English farmers
used.

On a whim, Hal drove into the Walmart parking
lot. Normally, she wouldn't spend idle time window shopping, but
today she felt Tootie needed a distraction. Something to do that
the elderly woman might consider fun. After all, it was her
vacation. They walked around in the store, looking at clothes and
jewelry.

As they came to the perfume counter, Tootie
paused. “Do the Amish like perfume?”

“
Ach, I think everyone likes to smell
gute. Mostly that's done by taking a bath, but in your case no one
would mind if you bought perfume,” Hal said.

“
Help me pick out a bottle. My perfume
is almost gone,” Tootie said.

“
Sure, what fragrances do you
like?”

Tootie thought a moment about when she
planned to apply this new perfume. “I want a scent that smells like
flowers.”

“
We have plenty to select from. The
small bottles in front of the row of large ones are a sample. You
can see if you like the way each one smells,” Hal said.

When Tootie carried her small sack out to the
parking lot, she felt more uplifted. It didn't hurt that she and
her niece both smelled terrific from a mixture of perfume samples.
The purchase she made was Delightful Rose. She wondered when the
time came if she'd have the nerve to apply the perfume. Had she
thrown her money away on a pipe dream?

Hal parked on the edge of the grocery store parking
lot. Inside, she pulled a cart out of the corral and started down
the first aisle. “Aunt Tootie, if you see anything you would like
to eat tell me. I'll buy it for you.”

“
I'm sort of partial to chicken. I like it
fried. Prefer the breast,” Tootie said shyly.

“
We have that already at home,” Hal said,
looking in the cheese section.

“
You have a deep freezer?”

“
Deep freezer? Nah.” A light bulb went off in
Hal's head. “Oh, I see why you asked. Nah, a freezer takes
electricity. When we want chicken to eat we go to the hen house,
catch and butcher them. If that's what you want for supper, you and
I can do that when we get home. We'd only need two fryers so it
wouldn't take us long to dress them.”

Tootie sniffed huffily. “You kill Emma's chickens
that she is so proud of and eat them?”

Hal stopped the cart so she could look at her aunt.
“Jah, nothing wrong with that Aunt Tootie. We do live on a farm you
know. Animals are killed all the time for food.”

“
Oh well, don't do anything
special
on my account. I'm partial to many other
foods so let's see what else we can find,” Tootie said, backing
down. Softly, she mumbled, “I'll bet Emma's poor chickens sleep
with one eye open.”

Hal kept going with the cart, smiling to herself.

“
Nora makes a sour cream potato dish
that we like. She calls it Party Potatoes. I'll bet your family
would like it, too,” Tootie suggested, catching up with
Hal.

“
You know what goes in it. We could
buy the ingredients and make it for supper,” Hal told
her.

Tootie thought for a minute. “It's a very simple
recipe with mash potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, salt
and pats of butter on top.”

“
Sounds easy. Let's find the cream cheese and
sour cream. The other ingredients we have at home,” Hal said. “This
is wonderful. We can fix something new to my family for supper
tonight and surprise everyone.”

Chapter 11

Hal put the groceries away. Tootie watched closely
what came out of the sacks. She questioned, “You bought a roll of
cookie dough?”

“
I thought we could have chocolate chip cookies
for dessert tonight,” Hal said. “Would you rather mix up some
cookie dough from scratch for me?”

“
No, Dear, I guess that roll is sort of like
baking and certainly quick,” Tootie relented.

Hal brought five tubes of biscuits from the sack and
started for the refrigerator.

“
You don't make your biscuits from scratch?”
Tootie asked.

“
Jah, Emma does for breakfast, but I had
something else in mind for these,” Hal said.

“
Well, they are better than nothing, aren't
they?” Tootie replied with disdain.

Once Hal emptied the sacks and put them away, she
said, “Maybe I should wash up before I start supper. The perfume
smells strong on me yet.”

“
I thought you said no one would
mind?”

“
I said no one would mind you wearing perfume.
I'm not so sure John will be pleased about this much perfume on
me,” worried Hal.

“
You worry too much,” Tootie declared. “Don't
wash all that good perfume off.”

“
Well, maybe no one will say anything,” Hal
relented. “I'll keep my distance from John until
bedtime.”

Tootie giggled.

Adam Keim knocked on the front door. Hal hollered out
the kitchen window, “Come on in, Adam.” She went back to the stove
and took the lid off a kettle. As she stabbed a chunked potato,
Adam appeared in the kitchen doorway and searched the room. “Emma's
not here. She took my mother with her to clean the school house
this morning. They should be home soon. Dad and John are in the
field. Noah and Daniel are planting in the sweet corn patch. You
might as well sit down and keep Aunt Tootie and me company until
they come home.”

Tootie cut the cookie dough and filled a baking
sheet. She was almost done when she stopped to look intently at
Adam. “Emma said you are a furniture maker. Too bad business is so
slow. Otherwise, you would be working instead of sitting around
here with us.”

Adam looked like he didn't understand.

“
That's all right. You can't help it if you
don't have customers. It's just we tend to worry about these things
you know. You're going to be the provider for our Emma some day,”
Tootie prattled as she laid the raw cookies in rows.

Hal watched Adam and bit her bottom lip to keep from
stopping Tootie. Adam frowned his dislike and started to get up to
leave. She said firmly, “Sit down, Adam.”

He plopped back in his chair with his hands up in the
air as a sign of surrender.

“
Very funny,” Hal hissed. She came over close
to his ear. “If you're a member of this family, you have to endure
everything good or bad. That means no leaving me alone with
her.”