One mid-June afternoon, Chris was sitting out at a table in the Yoders’ yard, turning the crank on the ice-cream maker. He looked up at Lena Rose. “Do ya think I might ever live with you again?”
The question was legitimate, but she had no answer, not when she was staying at Preacher Yoder’s crowded house. “What if we pray about it?” she suggested.
“Just you and me?”
“Jah. I’ll pray first thing each mornin’ . . . and you can, too.”
Chris’s face shone with trust. “Mammi Schwartz says God can see our hearts.”
“And Mammi’s right.”
“Then I’ll ask God ’bout it,” he said, turning the crank all the harder.
Oh, how she loved this boy! And she did her very best to show it by taking time for him every single day.
The Amish school board, consisting of four fathers, called annually for a community workday to clean the interior of the schoolhouse, paint the exterior, and in general redd up the play yard and the boys’ and girls’ outhouses. Lena Rose and her siblings were on hand to help, including Emma, who reintroduced Lena to her beau, Ammon Bontrager. Lena was pleased that Ammon was just as cordial as she remembered.
But it was Hans who went out of his way to find Lena and talk to her. “Congratulations on your teachin’ job,” he said, as pleasant as ever.
“Denki.” She was glad there was apparently no animosity between them. “And I’ve heard you’re engaged. I’m real happy for you, Hans.”
He nodded and thanked her. “Hope you can come to the wedding. It’ll be at the end of November, close to Thanksgiving.”
As she later recalled their encounter, she felt a sense of peace. Seeing Hans again, she felt certain that splitting up had been the right choice. There hadn’t been the spark she’d felt with Arden, or the same close connection, either.
During the hot, sticky month of August, Lena was invited twice to go riding with one of Wilbur’s close friends, Mark Miller, who had been politely vying for her attention. And though he was very nice and she trusted Wilbur’s opinion of him, Lena felt she should let Mark know that she’d put dating on the back burner. She shared this confidentially with Emma, saying she didn’t want to waste anyone’s time.
“Why do you feel that way?” her sister asked, her expression concerned.
Lena simply shrugged, not wanting to say outright that her heart was still linked to Arden, and therefore it wasn’t fair for her to date any young man. And because Lena didn’t see how she could get over Arden, she wondered if she might be destined to be an alt Maidel schoolteacher. She wouldn’t be the first woman to remain unmarried, she knew, recalling one of the teacher-friends Mamma had known in Indiana—happy as a schoolgirl in her singleness, surrounded by her adoring scholars.
I need to pray about this, Lena thought, knowing Mimi would urge her to do exactly that.
Summertime bounty led to picnics with family, canning bees, and work frolics. While shelling pole beans or cutting sweet corn off the cob with Clara and her daughter Abby and several other womenfolk—with help from Chris, who carried the bowls into the house—Lena occasionally caught herself imagining what Arden was busy doing. Was he thinking of her? Oddly, such thoughts were becoming more frequent, which was surprising because she hadn’t had any interaction with him since leaving Leacock Township. Nevertheless, he was in the midst of many of her daily thoughts. And the longer she was away, the more she realized how much she loved him. But it was too late now.
Arden has his life there, and I have mine here.
The closer the time came for school to start, the more hours Lena spent studying and preparing to teach the curriculum approved by the Amish school board. The McGuffey Readers were still the reader of choice for grades one through six, as was the German Bible and the Ausbund hymnal, which helped the younger children learn to read and understand the German used during Preachings.
Lena was expected to emphasize working hard over getting good grades, and the board also instructed her not to display perfect spelling tests, so as to downplay competition and pridefulness amongst the students.
She enjoyed showing some of the second-grade arithmetic lessons to Chris.
“I’m ready to begin,” he told her one morning as they walked together from Dawdi and Mammi Schwartz’s house to the Yoders’.
Seeing how motivated he was brightened Lena’s days. Chris had also offered to help her make autumn leaves and pumpkins for the school bulletin board.
“I’ll wash the blackboards for ya, too,” he said. “Whatever ya need, I’ll do it, Lena Rose.”
She wanted to tousle his hair but had to remind herself that he was going into second grade and was no longer a little boy. “Dat would be so proud of ya,” she said, “helpful as you are.”
“Do ya think Dat and Mamma know we’re together again?” he asked, looking up at her. “Does God let them know things like that, maybe?”
Lena smiled. Such a thinker! “Well, whatever happens after people die, I’m very sure it is wunnerbaar for those who walked with the Lord. And if it’s important for Dat and Mamma to know something about us here on earth, then our heavenly Father surely has a way of letting them know. You can trust His plan to take care of us.”
Chris seemed to ponder that. Then he asked, “Does God know everything before it happens?”
“The Good Book says so.”
He nodded. “Well then, it’s true.”
A pony cart was coming down the road toward them just then, and Chris asked if he might ever have a pony and a cart of his own. “It’d take me just a few minutes to get around to see everyone thataway.”
“Now you’re talkin’!”
Chris laughed and picked up his pace.
Lena loved these windows into her little brother’s mind. She’d sometimes
