A Simple Charity (8 page)

Squinting through the heat shimmering up from the black road, Fanny tried to identify the man walking around her house. Not Caleb, but Zed Miller. How could she have forgotten? Bishop Samuel had told her Zed would be coming out this morning to take a look at the old carriage house with an eye toward repairs. Caleb and Elsie would have gone to work, but where were Emma and the young ones?

He met her in front of the buggy garage, tipping his hat back as she brought the horse to a halt.

“Zed, I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I just came from Market Joe and Lizzy’s, where there’s a new baby boy in the house. John King.”

“Good news. I’m sure they’re both full of joy.”

“They are. You should stop by on your way home. They’d love to see you.” Fanny knew Zed had a special bond with Lizzy and Market Joe, ties wrought in the highway accident.

“I just might.”

Fanny turned around to check on Tommy, but Zed was already reaching into the backseat of the buggy, lifting out the infant chair as if it was light as a feather. Zed was a strong man, with nut brown hair and thoughtful eyes. A handsome one. If he had stayed in Halfway during his rumspringa, Fanny had no doubt that he would be long married with a family of his own. He was a bit on the quiet side, like his father, but that never concerned Fanny, who saw peace and grace in the silent moments in life.

She lifted Tommy into her arms and straightened his little shirt. The baby jutted out his lower lip and stared at Zed curiously.

“He’s getting big.” Zed offered a finger, and Tommy gripped it and smiled.

“I see that no one was home to greet you. I thought Emma and the little ones would be here.”

“I was able to get into the carriage house. There’s some long work ahead, but the building is solid. Good bones. What sort of shop do you want to make it?”

Fanny stepped down from the buggy as the horse nickered. “That is a very good question. Tom used to talk of a carriage shop, but Caleb doesn’t seem so interested in it anymore.”

“Either way, the siding and roof need some more work first.”

“That would be good, for starters.” She shifted Tommy onto her hip. “Would you mind unhitching the horse for me, Zed? And then we could talk inside, with something cool to drink. Not even noon, and the sun is high.”

He nodded and began tending to the horse as she carried Tommy into the house.

When Zed came into the kitchen fifteen minutes later, Fanny had put out some fried chicken and potato salad, and she insisted Zed sit and eat. “At least have a glass of lemonade. My hungry brood should be back any minute. Until then, we can enjoy the peace and quiet.”

He considered for a moment, then hung his hat on the hook and took a seat at the table.

“I guess you know your mamm has been worried about you,” Fanny said as she opened a jar of pickles. Zed’s mother, Rose, a cousin of Tom’s departed wife, had always been close to Tom’s family. “She said you’re having trouble finding work.”

“I am. I drove a truck for seven years, but I can’t do that anymore.”

“You were gone such a long time. Rose feared that you’d been lost to the community.”

“Lost without a map,” he said. “But I’m back to stay. Only I’m finding it’s not so easy to join the flock. No one wants to hire a man who’s left his community behind.”

“That’s not right.” A church member would be shunned for leaving, but Zed had not been baptized before he left. “You were never under the bann.”

“But people can turn a cold shoulder against a man who’s not a member of the church. They think I’m unreliable.”

She shook her head. “Some folks do have a way of thinking the worst.” Fanny had learned that firsthand, having been widowed twice. She knew certain people thought her sad circumstances were her fault. As if she brought bad luck to men or even worse, as if Gott had punished her by taking her husbands. Such cutting, hurtful thoughts. She wished that people thought about the sharp edges of their words before they let them spill out in gossip. “Have you thought of working for the English? Lunch pail work?” Many Amish men traveled by van to work on job sites or factories owned by Englishers.

“The bishop thinks I should stay with Plain folk for now. I appreciate your family taking me on for some work.”

“There’s plenty around here,” Fanny said. “And we’ve saved some money to pay you a modest salary.”

“I can’t take your money,” he said. “We’re family.”

Amish extended families could include two hundred people or more. Zed’s mother had been a cousin of Tom’s first wife. That meant Zed was related to Caleb, Elsie, and Emma, but not Fanny. “Family or not, you must be paid for your work. A man must make a living.”

He held up one hand. “Not this time. You know Bishop Samuel sent me here. He wants me to work in the community as punishment for leaving.”

“Did you come here to find work, then, or to get back in the bishop’s good graces?”

He shrugged. “Both.”

They both chuckled. They agreed that the family’s money would be put toward supplies for the renovation. When the work was done, Zed hoped to get a paying job based on his work here.

As Zed started a list of necessary repairs on the carriage house, Fanny sensed that he would be an easy person to have around. It was the fact that her family was now a community charity that made her a bit uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it was necessary. They needed help right now, and it would be better to build a business than to just keep taking money. Now and again Fanny was paid as a midwife, but only when Anna was away. The Country Store brought in some steady income and there was Emma’s teaching salary, too, though Fanny couldn’t count on that forever. Emma and her boyfriend, Gabe, were coming of age, and Fanny knew they’d be wanting to get married next year. Still, Gott would provide for her little family. They would not starve, but it was tough making ends meet at times.

As Fanny ate a piece of cold chicken, Zed explained that the bishop hadn’t made it so easy for him to return to Halfway’s Amish community. There would be no slipping back into place. “But I’m getting closer. Inch by inch. Right now I’m getting the training for baptism. Did Elsie tell you? An old man like me is in class with eighteen-year-olds. They must think I’m an odd duck.”

Fanny laughed. “Come on, now. You’re not that old, are you?”

“I’m twenty-nine, nearly thirty.”

“The same age as me, although I feel so much older than that.” Fanny was not even thirty and she had outlived two husbands. “Gott has given me so many wonderful lifetimes already.”

“Now, Fanny, you sound like my grandmother, and she’s twice your age.”

She took a bite of chicken and smiled at his gentle teasing. “I’m not a mammi, but I do wonder where the years go. In the blink of an eye, the older ones went from children to full grown, all with work of their own now.”

“But you still have them here.”

She nodded. “I’m happy to have a houseful.” Her children filled her days and nights with joy. Emma, the teacher, was such a good storyteller, so willing to share her knowledge and wisdom. Caleb, Tom’s oldest, had proven himself as the man of the house—strong, fair, and kind, just like his father. Dear Elsie had been blessed with the small body of a little person and the big heart of a giant. Fanny often looked to her for patience when she became frustrated trying to juggle chores and responsibilities. The three older ones had been born to Tom and Rachel, but Fanny continued to raise them as her own.

And what a help they were with the young ones! When the family was around, baby Tommy was never at a loss for someone to pick him up and tote him around the house, narrating chores like the cooking of dinner or the feeding of chickens. Will and Beth looked
up to their older siblings, who had already taught them so much. Will loved fishing and repairing things with Caleb, and Beth enjoyed standing on a stool beside Elsie to help with the dinner dishes each night after supper.

“Family is such a blessing,” Fanny said.

Zed nodded. “I’m sorry I spent so many years away from mine.”

“So I reckon you heard the story behind our needing some help here?” Fanny asked.

When Zed shook his head, she told him about the day two weeks ago when she had helped Caleb buy wood from the lumberyard. “We were loading the new two-by-fours into the old carriage house, when I got clumsy. I gave Caleb a nasty poke by accident. And then I tripped and fell forward. The long piece of wood fell with me—right into one of the windows.” She waved off the concern on his face. “Ach, everyone was fine. But I learned that I wasn’t cut out to do that sort of work.”

“Then Samuel has sent me to the right place.”

As they talked, Fanny thought of how Bishop Sam put people and jobs together. Some folks were uncomfortable around the stern bishop—a graying bear of a man—but Fanny had always been able to face his owlish eyes and growling voice with a smile, just as she had been quick to abide his decisions. She would follow the bishop’s instructions and hire Zed.

“Who’s here?” came Will’s voice as he burst into the kitchen, bare feet pattering on the linoleum. “Ah, it’s you, Zed. Caleb said that was your buggy.”

“It is.”

“And where were you off to?” Fanny asked.

“To town. We all went to drop Elsie at the shop and pick up Caleb for lunch. And while we were there, Emma bought us cookies from the bakery.”

“Cookies from the bakery,” Beth repeated, putting her chin on
the table and staring up at Zed. At four, she was a smaller, chubby-cheeked version of her mother, with reddish brown hair and flashing blue eyes.

“Did you save a bite for me?” Zed asked.

“Nay. We gobbled them up,” Will said.

“All gone,” Beth agreed.

“You would think these two never had a snickerdoodle before.” Emma nodded at Zed as she came in and placed a fresh loaf of bread on the counter.

Caleb was right behind her, and he spoke with Zed about the hot weather as he took a seat at the table beside him. Caleb would need to eat quickly and get back to work at the Stoltzfus ranch, though the rest of them could take their time.

As the men talked about repairs to the carriage house, Fanny sent the children to wash their hands, then sat them all at the table. They bowed their heads for a silent prayer of thanks before helping themselves to cold chicken, potato salad, pickles, and the fresh bread Emma had bought at Halfway’s bakery.

“The Fishers always do a good job,” Fanny said as she buttered a slice, “and it’s nice not to heat up the kitchen with baking this time of year.” Biting into the bread, she thought of the folks she had once counted as family. Joan Fisher, her former mother-in-law who still ran the bakery staffed by her daughters and nieces, reminded Fanny of a hardworking donkey—slow, steady, and stubborn. Joan always seemed to be on the brink of a bad temper, but Fanny suspected that she would be in a stormy mood, too, if she had to be at the bakery before three
A.M.
every day. Sometimes Fanny saw Gott’s wisdom in moving her away from the bakery business, as Fanny was an adequate baker, but her heart just wasn’t in kitchen work.

“Tell us about the little baby!” Will said, interrupting Fanny’s thoughts.

Everyone was delighted by the news of Lizzy and Joe’s newborn,
and Fanny promised to bring Beth and Will along to visit when she went by tomorrow to check on Lizzy.

“So, Zed here is asking me what we want to do with the carriage house,” Fanny said. “And I didn’t have the answer.”

“It would be good to finish it with a bathroom and kitchen,” Caleb said. “Like a Doddy house. We might need it down the road.”

A Doddy house was a small, complete home where grandparents lived on family property. Fanny suspected that Caleb was thinking that down the road, he or one of his sisters might need a starter home after they married, and it was a good plan. Gabe King had been courting Emma for quite a while now; they were probably next in line to marry. Elsie was becoming inseparable from Ruben Zook, and though Caleb never brought anyone around, Fanny knew from his late nights out that he was courting some lucky girl. In the next few years, there were bound to be more new babies in the family.

“That might be an expensive renovation,” Emma said.

“Could be,” Fanny agreed. “I wonder what that might cost.”

Zed rubbed his clean-shaven jaw. “I can ask around and get some prices for you.”

“We should turn it into a zoo,” Will said. “And we can fill it with tigers and bears and elephants. And then we wouldn’t have to travel so far in a van to visit the zoo in Philadelphia.”

“And who will feed the tigers and bears?” Emma asked.

“I can do it,” Will said. “I’ll toss the animals some meat with a pitchfork.”

“I can give the elephants peanuts,” Beth offered, her youthful face aglow with the notion of a backyard zoo. Dear little Beth had not even been to the zoo in Philadelphia yet, but one of her favorite picture books was about a trip to the zoo, and she knew that elephants were one of Gott’s creations.

Fanny smiled at the children’s creativity. “Wouldn’t that be fun? Too bad we don’t have the space for wild elephants. We have to be content with our horses and chickens.”

When the light meal was finished, Zed went off to survey the barn with Caleb.

Fanny was rinsing plates in the sink when she saw the two of them cross the yard. There was something reassuring about the way Zed walked, sure and smooth, like thick molasses. Zed would make a fine husband for a very lucky Amish girl. Such a good young man with a heart of gold. Oh, he was still in the doghouse now, but the shadow of his life with the Englishers would fade over time. Soon all the single women in the community would see Zed as a right fine catch. Fanny had a flash of Zed being followed by a row of his own little ducklings, and she wiped her hands on a towel before dipping down to hug Beth and tickle little Tommy. Ya, she wished Zed the joy of children.

“Do you want Gabe to help with the carriage house?” Emma asked as she dried a fistful of forks and knives. “He told me he could find the time.”

“That would be wonderful. I think we’re going to need lots of spare hands.”
And it’s a good excuse for you to have Gabe here at the house
, Fanny thought with a secret smile as she watched her oldest daughter stack the forks in the drawer. It was tempting to tease Emma, but Fanny didn’t want to ruffle the very serious young woman’s feathers. Besides, Fanny understood the sweetness of true love. When you were inside the wondrous bubble, you didn’t want folks on the outside poking at you.