David grimaced and shook his head, “I don’t feel gut. I think we need to just go on home.”
Ida opened her mouth to protest but then seemed to stop herself. Lifting her hand, she placed it on his forehead. “You don’t feel hot,” she announced, “Maybe you just need to eat.”
Reaching up, David grabbed her hand in his grip and jerked it away from his face.
“I think I know when I feel sick,” he snarled, tightening his grasp. Ida looked up to meet his stare, her blue eyes suddenly huge and filling with tears.
Releasing his grasp with a force that almost made her lose her balance, David looked away and stated, “Get Lucas. I’ll be in the buggy.”
Chapter Two
As David went out to the barn to unhitch his horse from the buggy, he found himself struggling with an assortment of feelings. Ida hadn’t spoken a word the entire ride home. Lucas, who had wanted to stay and eat with the rest of the Amish community, had spent the trip crying.
Running a hand through his hair, David shook his head in frustration. It seemed like everything was becoming too stressful to ever hope to handle.
Taking a deep breath, David released the horse into a stall and closed the gate behind it. Turning around, David made his way to a feed trough and lifted the wooden lid. Reaching deep down into the recess of the empty storage bin, he gave a sigh of relief when he pulled up the bottle of whiskey that had been hidden from sight.
For some reason, he was always afraid that Ida would have found it and taken it away.
Uncorking the bottle, David lifted it to his lips and took a swig before he set the bottle aside and started hanging the bridle, bits, and other pieces of buggy equipment on their places in the barn.
David had always drunk a little bit. When he was younger, it hadn’t seemed like such a big deal. Although he knew his parents did not like it, living in a very relaxed Amish community, the young folks were allowed to bring alcohol to their gatherings if they wanted. David had never thought a thing of trying a little bit every now and again. Something about it simply seemed to make the gatherings more enjoyable...and, as time passed, David started to realize that alcohol made everything in life a little more enjoyable.
It still did.
“David?” The voice of his wife made David jump and nearly spill the whiskey across the front of his white shirt. Letting out a low curse, David acted quickly and hid the bottle on a nearby shelf that was full of tools.
“David?” Ida called out again.
“I’m back here,” David managed to call out, hoping that his secret was safely out of sight.
Taking a deep breath, David looked up to see his wife making her way toward him. David could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest and his hands shaking at his side. His legs felt so wobbly, he wondered if he could continue to stand without sinking to the ground in a pile.
“Ach, I was starting to wonder if you’d just vanished!” Ida announced with a forced laugh as she stopped in front of him.
“Nope.” David tried to sound nonchalant as he hung up a bridle and turned to look at her. He bit his tongue to keep from adding, I’m sure you wish I would!
Coming to his side, Ida reached out awkwardly and put her hand on his arm. “David,” she whispered, “I’m worried about you.”
David couldn’t keep from rolling his eyes. Jutting out his bottom jaw, he tried to decide how to handle her without exploding.
Turning to face her head-on, David shrugged and smirked, “Worried about what? Everything’s fine. I’ll be back to my old self as soon as I manage to get that bill paid off at the feed store.”
Ida cocked her head to one side, her eyes filling with sympathy as she obviously tried to be understanding. Reaching up, she put her hands on David’s shoulders and said, “It will be okay.”
Putting her arms around him, Ida leaned her head against his chest and whispered, “It just seems that you’ve been troubled...ever since your mamm died.”
David felt himself bristle. He definitely did not want to talk about or even think of his mother. But saying that would surely bring only more tension between them. Instead, David kept silent and let his wife hug him.
“Come on inside,” Ida suggested, “Lucas is down for his nap, but he might wake up.”
“I’ll be in soon,” David promised, trying to sound pleasant as he swallowed hard against the bitterness in his throat, “I just have to finish putting away these things.”
Ida nodded and released him from her hug. Standing on tip-toe, she gave him a kiss on the cheek, “I’ll go get you a sandwich ready.”
David turned back to his work, anxious to have his wife back in the house.
“What is that?”
Ida’s question made David’s blood instantly go cold. During the split second he had looked away, she had managed to spot his bottle of whisky. David made a mad dash for the shelf, anxious to do anything to hide it, but he was too late; his wife already knew the truth.
“Ach, David!” She exclaimed, her face suddenly growing solemn, “I thought you’d quit.”
“Drinking isn’t illegal.” David retorted, his internal temperature suddenly starting to rise, “I’m not a little boy, you know. You’re not my parent.”
“David...” Ida took a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts, “I’m not trying to act like that. I just asked a simple question!”
“A simple question that is none of your business!”
“None of my business?” Ida returned, her eyes suddenly filling with a fire of her own, “Anything you do is my business – I’m your wife.”
“Then maybe I wish you weren’t!”
As soon as the words escaped David’s lips, he regretted them. Turning, he grabbed a pitchfork and started mercilessly tossing
