An Amish Homecoming Read online

  “I’m glad for you.” Although Essie tried to keep the swell of enthusiasm tamped down as she focused on the slow-moving traffic, Serena’s joy was contagious. Essie couldn’t help but smile and laugh with her cousin as they talked about the prospects for the future. The furniture business was giving Serena a sense of belonging, and drawing her closer to Essie in a surprising way. Their new relationship had shown Essie that you never knew what sort of blessings Gott was sending your way.

  On the outskirts of town, they came around a curve, and traffic stopped abruptly. “Whoa!” Comet halted, as flashing red and blue lights came into view. Emergency vehicles, thought Essie. Flashing lights rattled her nerves, and sometimes they disturbed the horses. She wished Harlan were driving now. “Something’s happened up ahead,” she said, but she couldn’t see over the tall vehicles waiting to pass the scene.

  “Looks like an accident,” Serena said, stretching out the side of the buggy. “But I can’t see much besides the flashing lights.”

  “I hope it’s not a buggy,” Essie said, thinking out loud. “Buggies are so easily damaged by cars.” She held the reins, keeping the horse in check as they waited for vehicles to move. She tried to remain calm, lest Comet sense her rattled nerves and become agitated.

  “Why don’t you guys have cars, anyway?” asked Serena.

  Essie squinted at her cousin. “You’re asking me this now, after you’ve been riding in buggies with us since we were little?”

  Serena shrugged. “I never thought about the reason for it.”

  “It’s not permitted by the Ordnung, our church rules. Dat says it’s because if you own a car, it can take you far, far away from your church and family, and that’s how people lose their way. Leaving their family and their community.”

  “So how did you guys get to Mom’s funeral in Philadelphia?”

  “In a hired van. We use other transportation for long distances. We’re allowed to ride in cars, but we can’t own them. It limits your travel when you have to pay a driver every time you go a long distance. Our church allows members to ride trains and busses, too.”

  “A van . . . That makes sense. I was so happy to see you that day.” There was a raw pain in Serena’s voice. “Thank you for coming.”

  “It was a sad time,” Essie said, remembering. The loss of Aunt Sarah had hit them all hard. Essie had tried to avoid going to the funeral in the city. She’d wanted to avoid things that reminded her of her English aunt, and she’d always felt out of place in the city, where English folk stared and children pointed at their clothes, their hair, their head coverings. Now she felt a twinge of guilt over that day. Good thing Mem had made her put on her church clothes and go on the trip to Philly.

  Serena chatted on, but Essie wasn’t really listening as they moved ahead another ten feet, and then another. Comet didn’t mind the slow pace, and Essie knew the best way to preserve a horse’s energy was through a combination of trotting and walking.

  At last, they drew close enough to see the roadside, where debris seemed to be scattered. The cracked wooden shell of a buggy lay sideways on the dirt. There was exposed wood and fiberglass. Twisted metal. A bent wheel.

  “A buggy accident.” Essie pressed her fingers to her lips as panic squeezed her throat. What had happened to the folks riding in that mangled buggy?

  Serena was squeezing Essie’s arm, pointing to the crash. “Oh gosh. That looks so awful. Do you think . . . Is everyone okay?”

  Essie looked to the two police vehicles, parked at odd angles to block the traffic. The door of a third vehicle slammed, and the bubble light on its roof began flashing as it pulled off and sped away. “That ambulance just left,” she said. “Please, Gott, let the passengers of that buggy be healthy and whole.”

  The traffic moved again, and now Essie could see one of the police officers trying to comfort the animal that still wore its harness from pulling the buggy. A small horse . . . No, a mule.

  “Dear Gott in heaven,” she said on a shallow breath, staring at the mule and the officer. “That’s Harlan’s mule, Beebee.”

  “What?” Serena turned to look at the braying animal. “Are you sure?”

  Unable to answer, Essie gritted her teeth and guided Comet through the traffic, moving their buggy beyond the police vehicles before pulling over to the side of the road. She tied off the reins and opened the door. “Wait here.”

  “I’m going with you,” Serena said. “I got your back.”

  The strings of Essie’s kapp trailed behind her as she ran to the first officer she could find, a tall woman, wearing a helmet. The officer was trying to walk toward the wreckage, but Essie blocked her path.

  “Officer, please help me. The buggy that crashed belonged to my friend, Harlan Yoder. Is he all right?”

  The cop shook her head. “The passengers in the buggy were two females.”

  Harlan hadn’t been in the buggy. Yah, that made sense. He was at work now. Essie felt a quick rush of relief, and then a new anxiety. The buggy must have been occupied by Harlan’s mother and sister. “The women in the buggy—what happened to them?” she asked.

  “They were both injured. One more serious than the other. They’ve been transported to Lancaster Hope Hospital.”

  Serena touched Essie’s arm. “So it’s not Harlan’s buggy?”

  “It is. It was probably his mother and sister driving it,” Essie said as she moved toward the mule, which was being watched by another officer. The woman’s words echoed in her head: Both injured.

  “Beebee.” She approached the mule slowly, not wanting to spook her any more than she was. “It’s me, Beebee. Are you okay?”

  She wasn’t; Essie could see she was anxious. The mule’s muzzle was tight, her eyes so wide-open that Essie could see the white part. Her ears were flicking back and forth, a sure sign that she was overwhelmed. But despite the mule’s panic, Essie didn’t see any obvious signs of injury. Essie touched her, stroking her neck as she looked to the police officer, a dark-skinned man with warm amber eyes.

  “The horse seems to like you,” he said. “That’s good. I was trying to calm it down, but I don’t know beans about horses.”

  He didn’t know enough to realize Beebee was a mule, but Essie was too overwrought to correct him. “Her name is Beebee. She belongs to my friend. What’s going to happen to her?”

  “We’ve got a vet coming with a cart. A Dr. Evan Foster. He’ll take her in and check her out, keep her boarded for the time being.”

  Essie nodded. She tried to brand the vet’s name in her memory so that she could help Harlan find Beebee, but right now there was a greater worry.

  Two injured.

  Her throat felt thick and dusty, and she felt about to cry. But there was no time for tears.

  “Come,” she told her cousin. “I’ve got to get to the hospital.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  As soon as they pulled away from the scene of the crash, Essie realized she couldn’t just drive to the hospital. “What if no one has told Harlan?” she asked Serena. “The most important thing right now is for Harlan to be at the hospital with his mem and sister.”

  “Okay.” Serena frowned. “So do we drive over to the furniture workshop and break the news?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Or is it okay for us to call him? I still have cell service; we’re close enough to town. And I’m sure I can get the number for the furniture place.”

  “Yah, call him,” Essie said, nodding brusquely. She gave Serena the official name painted on the sign outside the workshop, and within a minute Serena had someone from the factory on the line.

  “Hold on,” Serena said, handing the phone to Essie. “It’s the factory foreman.”

  “Hello?” Essie had never liked talking on the telephone in their phone shack. She always found it hard to absorb everything another person was saying without watching his or her movement and looking in his or her eyes. “This is Essie Lapp, trying to reach one of your workers, Harlan Yoder.”

/>   “I can’t really pull him off work for a phone call, miss.”

  “It’s an emergency,” she said. “There’s been a terrible accident on the road, and his mother and sister have been taken to the hospital. He needs to go to them, to Lancaster Hope. Can I talk to him, please?”

  The foreman apologized, and went to fetch Harlan.

  A few minutes later when she heard Harlan’s tight voice, Essie’s heart sank. “Jerry told me what happened,” he said. “How badly hurt are they?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll come pick you up and take you to them.”

  “No, I have a ride. Jerry here is going to take me in his car.”

  She longed to be with Harlan now, but she knew that a ride in a car would get him to the hospital sooner. “Then I’ll meet you there,” Essie said, wishing to stand beside him to offer him strength and support. Harlan needed her now.

  She handed the cellular phone back to Serena.

  “Who should we call next?” Serena asked.

  Essie considered the question a moment, then shook her head. Harlan didn’t have much family in this area. His dat had come from a settlement near Erie, and his mem’s family was mostly in Ohio. “We need to go home,” she said. “Mem and Dat will want to come to the hospital with me, and we might need to use another horse.”

  The rest of the trip home would have been agonizing but for Serena’s encouraging chatter and questions about Harlan’s family. Did Essie know them well? Did she get along with Harlan’s mother? How old was his sister? Did he have other siblings?

  Serena’s questions gave Essie a chance to think about the two women who would soon be part of her family—at least officially. Collette Yoder, Harlan’s mem, was a kind, soft-spoken woman with dark hair and a load of worries on her shoulders. Although Collette was in her late thirties like Essie’s mem, the sorrow that clung to her made her seem older.

  Harlan’s sister Suzie was a different story. Just fifteen, she had a sunny disposition that mixed well with her mother’s serious streak. Sometimes, seeing how dutiful Suzie and Harlan were, Essie felt sure that Collette Yoder didn’t know how good she had it. If Collette could see the chaos and arguments that went on in the Lapp home, she would thank Gott ten times and again!

  Essie shared her observations of Harlan’s family with Serena, and they were still talking when they pulled into the lane that led to their home.

  “It sounds like Harlan has a very nice family,” Serena said. “I hope everyone’s okay. Do you want me to go to the hospital with you?”

  “It’s okay. You don’t know them, and Mem will want to go.” Essie tied off the reins and started to climb out of the buggy. “You’ve got your schoolwork, I’m sure, and you’ll be needed here to help get supper on the table.”

  “Okay,” Serena said cheerfully, though Essie knew that cooking was not one of her talents. “Whatever needs to be done.” She held her arms out. “Hug?”

  Essie moved into her cousin’s arms and felt a new strength coursing through her. How was it that Serena had been with Essie today of all days, when she needed her most? Gott makes no mistakes—that was what Mem always said.

  * * *

  The trip to the hospital seemed maddeningly slow, like trying to empty the last of the molasses from the bottle. Essie was glad that Dat was driving this time as they approached the wreckage of Harlan’s buggy.

  “There it is,” she said.

  In the front seat, Mem and Dat turned to look. Even little Sarah Rose leaned in front of Mem to see what had captured their attention.

  “What’s that?” she asked. “What happened, Mem?”

  “It’s the buggy Collette and Susan Yoder were riding in today,” Mem said. “They had an accident and got hurt. That’s why we’re going to see them at the hospital.”

  “I get hurt sometimes,” Sarah Rose said thoughtfully. “Did you bring the bandages?” She had gone through a phase of wanting attention for her cuts and scrapes. Once, when no one was looking, she had opened the box of bandages and taped a dozen of them to her bare legs.

  “They have bandages at the hospital,” Mem said.

  Essie turned to stare back at the remains of the buggy. The pieces had been pulled off the road onto the edge of the fallow field with knee-high dried weeds, but Essie could still make out the pieces. The overturned bench where she’d sat with Harlan countless times. The gray cab that had been shorn off the platform and cracked in half.

  The sight of the debris gave Essie a stab of uncertainty; she wouldn’t be able to take a deep breath until she knew that Suzie and Collette were fine. As the Lapp’s buggy rolled past the heap of mangled wood and fiberglass, Essie thought back to the buggy accident that had rocked their church a few years ago, the crash that had killed two little kids.

  And there was her sister Sarah Rose, sitting in the seat in front of her. It scared Essie to know that terrible things could happen in an instant.

  The stress and controlled panic of the day suddenly flared inside her. Tears filled her eyes, and before she could put her feelings in check, she was crying.

  Sarah Rose turned around and rested her chin on the back of the seat. “Why are you crying?”

  Essie sniffed, shaking her head. But now Mem was turned around, studying her. “I know, Essie. All of us are concerned about the Yoders.”

  “It’s so scary, Mem. One minute they were traveling down the road; the next they were . . . Their buggy was smashed to pieces.”

  “I know, daughter. We can’t understand why these things happen, and it’s so upsetting; it is.” Mem reached back and patted her knee. “We just have to trust that God Almighty will get us through, and you know he will.”

  “I know,” Essie said, wiping her damp cheeks with one hand. Mem’s words were reassuring, as always. Her quiet strength had a calming effect, taking some of the barbs of anxiety out of Essie’s chest. But even though Essie had faith in Gott, she couldn’t help but worry. How did you let go of the terrible possibilities, the bad twists and turns in life that you couldn’t control? She wasn’t sure, but she knew that her fears were allayed in the safety of Harlan’s arms. They couldn’t get to that hospital fast enough.

  At last, they turned into the hospital entrance. Dat let them out at the main doors, and went around the building to find the horse and buggy parking. The kind woman at the information desk directed them to the emergency room. Mem and Sarah Rose waited at the entrance for Dat, while Essie hurried down the long corridor, her heart racing as she followed signs to the ER.

  Harlan stood out in the busy waiting room. He was the only Amish fellow there, pacing in front of two shiny snack machines. Although his brow was knit with worry, the steely resolve in his demeanor reminded her of how strong and determined he was.

  “Essie . . .” He cut through the room and took her hands, relief evident in the way his shoulders relaxed. “It’s good you’re here.”

  “How are they?”

  He swallowed hard, then took a deep breath. “They were both injured in the crash, but they’re in good spirits.”

  “Thanks to Gott in heaven!” she whispered. At last, she could breathe a sigh of relief. She hugged him for a brief second before she realized other people were watching. Public displays of affection were discouraged by the Ordnung. When she stepped back, Harlan seemed a little less tense. “What are the doctors saying?”

  “Suzie has a bump on her head that they’re checking out. I just talked with her before they took her off for a CT scan. She’s a little scraped up, too, getting some stitches. Mem’s a bit worse off. Her thigh was broken, and she may have injured her pelvis, too. She’ll have a longer road to recovery, but the doctors say everything can be treated. They’ve moved her upstairs, and they gave her pain medication. She’ll probably sleep for a bit.”

  “It’s a miracle they survived.” Having seen the ruins of the crash, Essie truly believed this. Gott had been merciful.

  Behind Harlan an English man with a gray crew cut and a craggy
face rose from a chair and joined them. “I’m Jerry. The foreman at the furniture shop.”

  Essie nodded, introducing herself. “Thank you for your help.”

  “I appreciate the ride,” Harlan said, “and the afternoon off.”

  “It’s the least I could do.” Jerry wore a navy T-shirt and jeans and smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. “I didn’t want to leave Harlan here alone, but if you’re staying, I’m gonna get back to the shop.”

  “I’ll be here, and my parents are right behind me.”

  “Okay, then.” Jerry patted Harlan’s shoulder. “You take care, and let us know if there’s anything you need.”

  Harlan nodded. “I’ll be at work in the morning.”

  “That would help us stay on track with the delivery schedule, but let me know if you can’t make it.”

  “I’ll be there,” Harlan said, a steely resolve in his amber eyes.

  Watching Jerry walk away, Essie wondered if Harlan was in shock. “Maybe you should take tomorrow off. Your mem and sister might need you.”

  “I can’t,” Harlan said. “We’re on a tight deadline, and I’m the only one who can do the hand-carving on it. Besides, I won’t get paid if I take the day off, and my family is going to need the money, now more than ever.”

  Essie understood about needing the money, but right now the priorities were caring for Collette and Suzie. Before she could pursue the topic, her parents came into the waiting room, Sarah Rose following with a rag doll she carried by one leg.

  “Harlan?” Sarah Rose touched his hand. “What happened to your buggy?”

  He got down on one knee so that they could be face-to-face. “I don’t know what happened, but it was in a crash.”

  “Can you bandage it together?” she asked.