The Healing (18 page)

Leon yawned. “I’m sleepy.”

“That’s because you’ve been thrashin’ around all night.” Samuel pulled the covers aside. “Now climb out of bed and get dressed. You’ve got chores to do.”

Leon clambered out of bed and plodded over to the window. Lifting the shade, he said, “It’s still dark outside, and it’s Saturday, so there’s no school. Can’t I sleep awhile longer?”

“No.” Samuel put on a shirt, slipped into his pants, and pulled his black suspenders over his shoulders. How could he have forgotten that today was Saturday?

“I’m hungerich,” Leon complained. “Can I wait to do my chores till we’ve had breakfast?”

“No!” Samuel didn’t know why, but every word the boy said made him more irritated. He couldn’t remember feeling so impatient with the kids when Elsie was alive. He wasn’t so forgetful then either.

“Should I wake Jared?” Leon asked.

“You’d better not. If you wake him now, he’ll be cranky and out of sorts all day.” The last thing Samuel wanted was another issue to cope with. He might not know much about caring for the kids on his own, but he knew that his two-year-old boy needed eight to ten hours of sleep at night, plus at least one nap during the day, or he was impossible to deal with. At least for Samuel, he was. Elsie never seemed to have a problem with Jared. He also knew that Jared was a heavy sleeper, and even loud voices in the room didn’t wake him. You had to shake the boy’s arm and practically shout in his ear to get him awake.

’Course Jared wasn’t like that with Elsie. All she had to do was pick him up and carry him across the room, and he woke right up—in a pleasant mood, too. Not like with me; he usually cries whenever I hold him. Guess that’s because I don’t have Elsie’s gentle touch
.

Samuel jammed his feet into his boots. Stop thinking about Elsie. You need to find something to do to keep your mind busy
.

He turned to face Leon, who was still standing in front of the window. “I asked you to get dressed!” Didn’t the boy do anything he was told?

Leon’s chin quivered. “Ich bin mied wie en hund.”

“I don’t care if you are tired as a dog. You woke me out of a sound sleep, and since I’m getting up, you are, too.”

“But, Daadi …”

“Don’t argue with me. Just do as you’re told.”

“You’re a
schtinker
,” the boy said defiantly.

Samuel stomped across the room and grabbed Leon’s arm roughly. “So you think I’m a mean person, do you? Well, I’ll show you how mean I can be.” He lifted the boy off his feet, flopped him facedown on the bed, and gave his backside a couple of well-placed swats.

He didn’t think he’d hit the boy that hard, but Leon let out a yelp that could have woke the soundest sleeper. In fact, it did. Jared sat straight up and started howling like a wounded heifer.

Unable to deal with it, Samuel rushed out of the room. He’d be heading over to Bonnie’s after breakfast to build her a chicken coop, and he could hardly wait to get there. He was glad Titus didn’t have to work on Saturdays and would be here to watch the kids, because right now, he didn’t have the patience to deal with even one of his kids, let alone all four!

Bonnie was surprised when she looked out the kitchen window and saw Samuel’s horse and buggy pull into the yard. It was only 7:00 a.m. She hadn’t expected him until nine, which is when he said he’d be over.

She set her coffee cup on the counter and stepped outside onto the porch. Despite the early morning chill, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and no wind at all. It looked like the promise of a beautiful spring day.

“Guder mariye,”
Bonnie said, joining Samuel near the garage, where he’d tied his horse to the hitching rail he’d constructed several weeks ago. “Did I say ‘good morning’ right?”

Samuel gave a nod. “Good morning to you, too. Hope it’s okay that I came early,” he said, without offering an explanation.

“It’s fine. I’ve been up since five. For some reason, I couldn’t sleep.”

“I can relate to that,” he muttered. “I was up early, too.”

Cock-a-doodle-do! Cock-a-doodle-do!

Bonnie grimaced. “That noisy rooster’s probably the reason I woke up at the crack of dawn.”

Making no comment about the rooster, Samuel moved to the back of his buggy and removed a box of tools. Having grown up on a farm, he was probably used to many strange animal sounds. “Where do you want me to build the chicken coop?” he asked.

Bonnie studied the expansive yard a few minutes. “I don’t want it too close to the house. It might turn guests away if they can smell the chickens.”

“I’d think about getting rid of the rooster if I was you,” Samuel mumbled. “Some folks might not appreciate getting woke early in the morning by an irritating rooster.”

Bonnie could see by Samuel’s sour expression that he was agitated about something, and she was fairly certain it had nothing to do with roosters. She was tempted to ask but figured if he wanted to talk about it, he would.

“Guess I’ll keep the rooster for a while and see how it goes,” she said. “If any of my guests complain, then I may need to get rid of him though.”

Samuel nodded at the box of tools he held. “So where do you want the coop?”

“How about there?” Bonnie pointed to a patch of ground several feet behind the garage. “That should be far enough from the house that my guests won’t have to deal with the chicken smells.”

“Okay. How big do you want the coop to be?”

“I hadn’t thought about that. How big do you think it needs to be?”

“I’d say an eight-by-twelve chicken coop ought to be big enough,” he said as he started walking toward the area she’d suggested.

Bonnie followed, and when they got there, he set the tool box on the ground and turned to face her. “I’m guessin’ you’d like an outside run for the chickens, too?”

“I suppose that would be a good idea. I can’t keep them cooped up all the time, and I certainly don’t want them running all over the place.”

He tipped his head and stared at her strangely. “I’ve been wondering … Have you ever had chickens before?”

“No, and it shows, doesn’t it?” She grinned. “Truth be told, the only experience I’ve had with chickens are the ones fried golden brown.” Bonnie hoped her comment might bring a chuckle from Samuel, but he never even cracked a smile.

“Where’s the lumber you want me to use?” he asked. “When you called and left a message for me the other day you said you’d ordered some wood for the coop.”

“I did. The Amish man who owns the lumber mill in the area had it delivered for me yesterday. It’s piled up on the other side of the garage.”

“Okay. I’ll cut the pieces I need then start hauling ‘em over.” Samuel started walking in that direction.

“I’ll be in the house. Esther’s coming over soon to help me do some more cleaning before I open for business,” Bonnie called. “If you need anything, just let me know.”

Okay now, she thought as she hurried along. That’s one more thing taken care of. Let’s see what I can get into next
.

As Bonnie neared the front door, she stopped and traced her finger on the porch table, leaving a streak of pollen dust. She sneezed. “Yep. Spring is definitely in the air.”

W
hen Esther pulled into Bonnie’s yard, she saw Samuel’s horse and buggy parked at the hitching rail. He’d no doubt come to build a chicken coop, as Bonnie had mentioned he was going to do when she’d spoken to Esther yesterday.

When she stepped down from the buggy and heard a steady—
Bam! Bam! Bam!
—she knew for certain that was why Samuel had come.

Curious to see how things were going, Esther made sure her horse was secure and headed around the garage. In a clearing several feet away, she saw Samuel hard at work.

“Looks like you have a good start on the chicken coop,” she said, stepping up to him.

“It’s comin’ along,” he mumbled without making eye contact.

“How big is it going to be?”

“Eight by twelve feet.” Still, he wouldn’t look at her.

Bam! Bam! Bam!
He hammered another piece of wood to the frame.

She figured she probably wasn’t going to get much more out of him, so she turned and headed for the house. She wished he’d be a little more sociable.

Esther found Bonnie in the kitchen, scouring the kitchen sink. “Looks like you’re hard at work,” she said, removing her black outer bonnet and placing it on one end of the counter.

Bonnie pushed a strand of her curly blond hair away from her face. “Seems like there’s always something to do around here.” She nodded toward the window. “Now that I’ve got chickens, it means even more work for me. Lately, I find myself asking, ‘What was I thinking?’ “

“You could have said no when that little boy came by with his chicken and sales pitch.”

“I know, but he was so cute, and I figured his folks probably needed the extra money.”

Esther smiled. “You have a tender heart, Bonnie.”

A blotch of red erupted on Bonnie’s cheeks. “I just care about people. My grandma used to say that if a person loves God, they’ll love His people.”

“That’s what I believe, too, and it’s what the Bible teaches.” Esther made a sweeping gesture of the room. “Now, what would you like me to do today?”

“With all the renovations that have been done, there’s dust everywhere,” Bonnie said. “So it would be good if you dusted the living room, dining room, and the banister on the stairs.”

“Sure, I can do that.” Esther found the dust rag and some furniture polish in the utility room, and then she quickly set to work.

She started in the living room first, and when all the dust had been cleared away from the furniture, window ledges, and fireplace mantle, she moved on to the dining room. Finished with that, she went up the stairs and was about to start working her way down, cleaning the banister rungs, when she heard Samuel come into the house.

“I came for a drink of water,” she heard him say to Bonnie when he entered the kitchen.

“Would you rather have a glass of iced tea?” Bonnie asked.

“That sounds good.”

“Have a seat, and I’ll fix you a sandwich to go with your tea,” Bonnie said. “When Esther finishes up with what she’s doing, I’ll fix her one, too.”

“I appreciate the offer, but you don’t have to do that.”

“It’s no trouble. You’ve been working hard all morning, and I’m sure you’re hungry by now.”

“Guess I am at that.”

Esther tried not to eavesdrop, but their voices floated out of the kitchen and up the stairs. So while she continued to dust and unavoidably listened, she wondered once more why Samuel was so talkative to Bonnie but would barely say more than a few words to her.

“When you first got here this morning, you seemed kind of down,” Bonnie said. “I wasn’t going to bring it up, but I’ve been wondering if there might be something wrong.”

“Actually, there is. I had a little trouble at home this morning with Leon,” Samuel said. “When I told him to get dressed and do his chores, he smarted off to me, so I gave him a spanking.”

“Oh, I see.”

“I don’t normally lose my temper so easily, but it irked me when he said I was a mean person.” Samuel groaned deeply. “Guess I
was
mean to him, and now I feel like a bad father.”

Esther grimaced. Poor Leon must have been upset when Samuel spanked him. But the boy shouldn’t have said what he did. Even so, I’ve seen how short Samuel can be with the kinner. Maybe he overreacted, the way he did the night Marla dropped her mother’s cup
. She was pleased when she’d learned that Samuel had apologized for that and had bought Marla several new books for her birthday present, but he obviously had a long way to go if he was going to establish a loving relationship with his children.

“You’re not a bad father because you disciplined your son,” Bonnie said. “Besides, kids usually get over things quickly and don’t hold grudges the way some adults do. Well, most kids, anyway,” she added.

“That may be, but I plan to apologize to Leon as soon as I get home.”

“When I was little and my dad got mad at me, he never said he was sorry for anything he said or did.”

Esther could hear the hurt in Bonnie’s voice. No wonder she’d decided to leave Oregon and move here.

Samuel and Bonnie continued to talk for a while, as Bonnie shared with him some details about her childhood. She’d told Esther a few things during the times they’d spent working together, but not nearly as much as she was sharing with Samuel right now. Apparently Bonnie’s father had been very harsh … especially after his wife died.

“It’s hard to live in the same house with someone when there’s a lot of stress and undercurrent going on,” Bonnie said.

“I know what you mean.” Samuel paused. “There’s been a lot of tension at Titus’s house these days—between me and the kids and between me and Titus.”

Esther thought about a conversation she’d had with Suzanne the other day, remembering how upset Suzanne was because Titus spent all his free time with Samuel and the kids instead of her. Esther figured the solution to the problem would be for Samuel to find a place of his own. If things didn’t get better soon, she was afraid Suzanne might break her engagement to Titus.