One
Ruth Schrock straightened up and brushed rich, black earth from her apron. She loved working in her family's vegetable garden, but summer had extended its heat and humidity into September. The sun beat down on her, and only her bare toes, curled into the earth, were cool. She pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her forehead and her nape beneath her kapp. She was looking forward to a soak in the tub tonight. That would help her sleep so she could finish harvesting tomorrow.
She picked green beans and placed them in the bucket with a late squash and the final tomatoes. Everything else, except for the pumpkins, was already canned. The pumpkins still needed a week or two before being cut from their wandering vines. Then, she would slice, peel, cook, and mash them. To some she would add nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon, for desserts and sweet sauces. The rest would be canned without spice. Daed liked egg noodles, chicken, and stewed pumpkin after he finished the milking on a cold winter's night.
Ruth did most of the cooking now, because Mamm was going to have another boppli in early December. Ruth was the oldest of seven daughters, so her mamm was praying as hard for a boy as Daed was. All Ruth prayed for was that the boppli be healthy. It was her mother's tenth pregnancy, including a miscarriage and a stillborn son.
Ruth dropped the last beans in the bucket and glanced at the old, white farmhouse with porches on each side. Gut! Mamm wasn't in sight. Maybe she was resting, as the midwife had ordered. The barn behind the house was the same white, and the wide door to the upper story gaped open. Daed had finished chopping corn for the day, and the mules were in the pasture. By now, he would be starting evening chores.
The grass tickled her feet as she crossed the yard. One of her younger sisters would need to mow tomorrow. She couldn't remember if it was Maisie's or Ella's turn.
Climbing the steps to the mud porch set between the kitchen and the vacant dawdi-haus, she opened the screened kitchen door. She wasn't surprised to see Mamm by the table, mixing something in a bowl she had propped against her large stomach. A smudge of flour accented her turned-up nose that was so much like Ruth's. Her eyes were brown, and her light-brown hair glittered with gray. She wasn't very tall, unlike Ruth who towered over her. Now that Mamm was so round, she looked even shorter.
"Mamm, I thought you were going to sit," Ruth chided her gently.
"I tried, but I promised your sisters some ginger molasses cookies." Mamm smiled, but nothing could erase the fatigue on her face. "It's not in my nature to sit and do nothing all afternoon."
"I know." Ruth didn't bother to remind Mamm there were things she could do: mending, working on the boppli's quilt, or making new clothes for the younger girls. But Mamm wasn't one for sitting. Neither was Ruth, which was why she loved working in the garden, even on a hot day. "Let me make supper tonight."
"Ach, that will be gut, Ruth."
"I'm going to wash up at the pump. I think I brought half the dirt from the garden with me."
Mamm laughed then put her hand to her stomach. "That was a big kick." She winced. "A very big one."
"Are you all right?" If her mamm went into labor early, the boppli might die. "Do I need to call the midwife?"
"No. I'm fine." She waved toward the door. "You worry too much. Go and wash up. Make sure Vera and Mattie wash, too. I saw them playing in the mud by the pump earlier."
Ruth set the bucket of vegetables in the sink, reminding Mamm to leave the cleaning to her. She planned the evening meal while going back outside to find her youngest sisters. Mamm had baked bread that morning, and Ruth would make a stew with leftover chicken. That should be enough for the nine of them, with Mamm's delicious cookies and pie for dessert.
If only Ruth could be as gut a cook as Mamm . . . She tried, but she found cooking traditional recipes boring. When she added a new ingredient and the meal came out tasting strange, Mamm laughed. "That's our Ruth. Always needing to do something different."
Daed wasn't so forgiving, especially when he didn't like Ruth's experiments. He was a stickler for tradition. Maybe that's why God had picked him to serve as the district's deacon, even though Mamm joked with her daughters that Daed needed an excuse to escape so many females. The mules were female, the cows were female, the hens were female, most of the barn cats were female, and he had seven daughters.
Now Ruth needed to find the two youngest. Vera was six and Mattie just four. It was gut that Mamm was having another boppli, because Mattie had been lonely since Vera began school two weeks ago. As far as Ruth could see, the two tried to compress a day's worth of mischief into the hours after school.
"Ruth! Ruth!" called Vera, breaking into Ruth's thoughts. "Komm and play with us."
Her youngest sisters rushed to her. Their bare legs were splattered with mud, and so were the hems of their burgundy dresses. Their brown hair, streaked with gold as light as Ruth's hair, stuck out in every direction from beneath their white, heart-shaped kapps.
"Play with two such dirty girls?" Ruth wrinkled her nose in feigned distaste. "Why would I want to do that?"
"We can't play snake with just two of us," Mattie explained.
"All right. One quick game, then we'll clean up and you can help me wash the vegetables for supper."
Taking each of her sisters by the hand, Ruth began to lead them across the yard in the snake game she had played when she was their age. They wound between the big maples and the towering oak, then around the trampoline, and back past the pump. Her sisters' giggles became excited squeals when Ruth spun them around, their bare feet flying behind them. She flipped Vera, then Mattie, over her arm, landing each on her feet. They bounced around her, begging her to do it again.
Laughing, she asked, "Do you know how silly you look?" She copied their motions, her long skirt flying up around her shins. Grabbing their hands again, she twirled them around until they were all giggling.
"Ruth Deborah Schrock!"
At Daed's sharp voice, Ruth froze along with her sisters. They recognized the tight, restrained tone he used when he was furious.
He strode toward them. His light-blond beard, which reached down over his blue shirt, jutted toward them. That was a sure sign he was angry.
Not them, Ruth corrected herself when he told her younger sisters to go in the house. He's angry at me.
She quickly lowered her eyes. Daed didn't like to be reminded that she was tall-an inch taller than he was, in fact. He blamed her height for her still-unmarried state at the age of twenty-two.
He put his hand on her shoulder and turned her toward the house. Neither of them spoke as they walked into the kitchen. Only Mamm was there, putting a tray of cookies into the oven.
Mamm glanced at them, then went to the sink, where she poured water into a bowl and began washing the beans Ruth had brought in. Mamm didn't interfere when Daed chastised them. It was the deacon's job to reprimand members of the district when they hadn't followed the Ordnung. He expected no less from his daughters than from the rest of the community. Ruth girded herself for what her father would say.
Daed took off his straw hat and hung it on the peg by the door, where eight everyday bonnets waited. Crossing to where Ruth stood, he demanded, "What if someone had seen you dancing like that?"
"Daed, we were shielded from the road." She looked into his eyes, that were the same deep blue as her own. "Nobody passing by would have seen us."
"I saw you from the barn. What if the bishop and the preachers had been meeting with me there?"
Ruth had no argument for that. She had let herself get caught up in the moment, enjoying the chance to play with her sisters. But now Daed was disappointed with her-again! She hung her head, knowing she'd been wrong.
"I am sorry, Daed," she whispered, as she had so many times before. Why was it easy for Martha, Ella, and Maisie to live up to Daed's expectations? Martha was on her rumspringa, but never gave Daed a moment of concern. Her sisters seemed to instinctively know what behavior was perfect for a deacon's daughter. It wasn't that Ruth didn't know, but sometimes she got caught up in the moment.
As if she had spoken her thoughts out loud, Daed said, "Ruth, a deacon and his family must show esteemed behavior to the Leit." The Leit were the people of their district; her father seemed to measure every act in terms of how it would look to them.
When her daed was chosen as the district's deacon, Mamm had explained to Ruth and her sisters that a deacon and his wife were expected to follow the district's rules even more closely than other members. She had said nothing about a deacon's kinder, but Daed believed they must be exemplary, too.
And Ruth tried.
She really did.
Lord, you know how I long never to disappoint my daed so he will be glad I am his daughter.
How often had she prayed those words?
And how many times had she found herself bending the rules? Never breaking them, for she had agreed to live within the Ordnung when she was baptized.
But even so, she seemed to disappoint her daed. It never was anything outrageous . . . at least to her. Just last week, she had been walking along their farm lane and humming a song she had heard through the window of an Englisch neighbor's house. It was such a catchy tune that she hadn't even realized what she was doing until Daed overheard her.
But the scolding she received then was nothing compared to what she would hear now, if she were to judge by the stern fire in Daed's eyes. "If you don't show exemplary behavior, how will your younger sisters know how they should act?" Daed asked. "You know your mamm and I depend on you to be a gut example for them. You aren't a kind any longer. You are a baptized member. You need to act as the other women do. You can't be cavorting about like a kind."
"I know, Daed," she replied as she stared at the mud dotting her bare toes.
"You must consider each decision you make with the greatest care and consider the consequences of that decision."
"I try."
"If I saw any effort on your part to change . . ." He sighed.
Pain cut through her. Did he have any idea how she wanted to please him? She tried, but she wasn't like the women her age because she wasn't married or even being courted. Most girls she had gone to school with had at least one boppli by now. It wasn't that she hadn't had offers for rides home from singings. She had taken buggy rides with several young men, but none ever touched her heart enough for her to consider that he was the one God intended her to spend the rest of her life with. She wanted to find a man she could love with all her heart, but was it God's will or her own that she wasn't ready to be a fraa?
She wanted to do something else first. What? She didn't know. But she felt that she had a calling, that there was some work that God meant for her to do. Last year, she'd assisted at the schoolhouse, and she had loved having time with the scholars, as they called the students. When the teacher left to have a boppli, Ruth prayed the job would be hers. That hope ended when the teacher decided she wanted to return to teaching. It wasn't unheard of for a married woman with a kind to teach, but it was unusual enough for Ruth to have gotten her hopes up. She couldn't remember when she had been so disappointed.
She prayed for God to show her what plans He had for her.
"Zeb." When Mamm spoke, Ruth wasn't sure if it was she or Daed who was more surprised. "What Ruth did was no different from what I did with our kinder when they were young. I appreciate Ruth helping them use up their energy. Especially now." She placed her hand on her full belly.
All bluster vanished from Daed. Even though he ruled their home, Ruth and her sisters had long ago discovered that Mamm ruled him with the gentle warmth she showed to everyone. Mamm and Daed loved each other so much that they respected each other's opinions and needs.
That was what Ruth wanted in a marriage.
But she also wanted her kinder to have a daed who was both stern and loving. Once, her daed had been that way, but when he became the district's deacon, he had set aside everything but strictness. She missed the daed she recalled from her childhood: the man she could go to with any concern, the man who held her and comforted her over a skinned knee, the daed she adored. She still respected her daed, and she loved him, but it sometimes felt more like a duty.
While Daed put his arm around Mamm and walked her into the living room, Ruth finished washing the vegetables. She heard their muted voices, but concentrated on her task. By the time Daed returned to the kitchen, she was chopping vegetables into the stew pot. Her eyes met his, and she saw his anger was gone, but not his disappointment in her. She quickly lowered her eyes as she blinked back tears.
"I'm sorry, Daed," she said as she stared into the pot. "I wouldn't do anything that would bring shame on you or this family."
"Gut." He added nothing more as he walked out, letting the screen door slam shut behind him.
Mamm came back to remove fragrant cookies from the oven. "Ruth, God gave you a joyous spirit. I've known that since you were as young as this one." She patted her belly. "But your daed worries that your unconventional ways will catch the attention of Bishop Abram." She reached for the bowl with the dough, and began spooning more cookies onto another cookie sheet.
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
