Sadie was emptying the cases and storing the leftover food in the refrigerator. She rolled her eyes at me.
“Jake, I need to get back to work. I told Sadie she could leave early.”
“If you don’t promise me, I’m going to drive over there right now.” I could hear exasperation expanding Jake’s voice, like bubbles rising to the surface.
Two Englisch couples entered carrying bags from the retail shop, followed by two Amish women.
“Customers are arriving, and it’s almost three,” I told Jake. “I need to show them how to serve themselves coffee and tea. And how to pay.” My patience with his demands were vaporizing like drops of water in a hot skillet. “Please don’t come here” were my final words to him.
The two Amish women were already pouring themselves tea and leaving money, while Beatrice gave the Englisch couple directions as they begged for pastries. She broke down and sold them each a muffin. Then she covered the glass case from view.
“When will I learn to say no in a way that people believe me?” I asked Beatrice as she and I finally closed the café’s kitchen. Sadie and Annie bustled around straightening and washing.
“I could have put Harvey’s dinner invitation off for a week, and I should have.” Stress was invading me.
She glanced back at me and batted her eyes. “So what are you going to do?”
“I can’t not go with Harvey when he comes to fetch me.”
“Why not? Tell him you have a headache.”
“Not so far from the truth. My temples are pounding. But I can’t lie to a bishop.”
“Then tell him the truth. You’ve changed your mind. Women do that all the time.”
“Not to a bishop, they don’t. I couldn’t.”
“He’s only asked you to come for supper. Maybe his daughters really do want to meet you, and it means nothing more.”
“Then why haven’t they come in here to the café? Doesn’t everyone in the county know where I work and every detail of my life?” The image of me on the front of the newspaper flitted through my mind.
She scrutinized my eyes. “I see no happiness on your face. Do you not care for Harvey at all?”
“Yah, as a friend, and I respect him as a mentor and spiritual leader. But he’s as old as my dat.”
“About my age, probably.” She clucked. “You said you were going to his house for supper, so go already. Otherwise you’ll never know.”
“He told me not to dress up.”
“Suddenly you care how you look?”
“Ach, none of my kapps are pressed, and I don’t have an iron. Mark’s sister Susie was going to help me out, but I didn’t think to ask her today.”
“We have an iron in the laundry room in the basement.”
“But I assume it’s electric.”
“I wonder how Edna used to press her kapps. Who knows? A nonelectric one might be waiting for you down there. Or I’ll press one for you myself. Now, are you satisfied? You’re not headed to a church service or a wedding.”
“You’re right. Maybe I should look like a slob. He’ll be disappointed and his dochders will disapprove.”
“In other words, they’d be making up your mind for you. Honestly, Eva, you need to make your own choices and stop relying on other people’s opinions. I speak from experience.” She glanced to the ceiling, as if remembering the past. “You’re not the only one who’s been the subject of gossip and ridicule. I was miserable in high school. Bottom line, I was chubby and never thought anyone would date me. But then I met my soul mate, who said he adored me exactly as I was. So when he asked me to elope, I said sure.
“As you can imagine, when my parents’ attorney annulled my marriage, I was devastated and again the subject of gossip.” She expelled a sigh and her shoulders rounded. “Everywhere I went, heads turned. I was so embarrassed and belittled that I allowed my parents to force me to marry a man I didn’t even know, let alone love.”
“But it all turned out for the best, yah?”
“Eventually. Although I’ve often wondered what would’ve happened if I’d simply refused to obey my parents. How different my life would be if I’d stayed married to…”
“Will you tell me his name?” I asked.
“I’d better not, as he could stop by.”
“Seriously? He’d come here?”
She shrugged, but her face brightened up, and she looked ten years younger. “We attended a small high school, so many have kept in touch, especially with our quarterly newspaper.” She nibbled her lower lip. “In it I read his wife passed away last year. Of course, I was sad to hear of her death, and yet surprised and pleased when he contacted me and said he wanted to get together. For old time’s sake.”
“Well? What did you say?”
“I said yes, but he told me he’d be out of town on business for several weeks. I didn’t tell you about that when we talked about him before, but that was more than a month ago. I haven’t heard from him. It would have probably come to nothing anyway.”
The image of Beatrice in a wedding gown sent me for a loop. Would she remarry before I married for the first time?
“Now you know my secret. Please promise not to tell anyone as I don’t want to be the subject of more ridicule if he never shows up. I only told you my story because I wanted you to know I can empathize with you.” She removed her apron and tossed it into our laundry hamper. “Now I’ll go down to the basement and look through our irons.”
“I have a clean kapp in the cabin.”
“If you don’t mind my going in there, I’ll get it,” she said.
“Of course I don’t mind if it’s not too much trouble.”
She stared out through the glass. “Oh my. Looks as though you have another visitor.”
Harvey sauntered through the café’s front door as Sadie and Annie slipped out before the end of their shifts. His grin
