Huckleberry Harvest (5 page)

Why had she let Kristina talk her into this? It was too childish.

Kristina’s eyes flashed with mischief. She puckered her lips and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hoo hoo,” she called, making her voice sound like some strange bird trying to lay a ten-pound egg.

Mandy grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “What are you doing?” she hissed. “We don’t want them to see us.”

It seemed Kristina would giggle herself to death. “I’m just having a little fun. Dori Rose and I made all sorts of noises when we spied on Noah. Dori does a very good dog.”

Mandy had nearly reached the end of her rope. “This is ridiculous.”

“Sometimes Noah would hear us and look our way, but we were too fast for him. He’d always be so confused.” Kristina burst into another fit of giggles. Had she truly enjoyed teasing her boyfriend like that?

Mandy furrowed her brows and whispered, “It sounds like a very strange courtship.”

Giggling harder, Kristina poked her head from behind the tree again and made another bird noise. An anemic bird.

Kristina gasped. “He’s coming over here!” She turned abruptly, crashed into Mandy, and sent her flying head over heels into the river.

She heard Kristina scream as she tumbled into the water. It wasn’t deep, probably four feet, but she went under before, coughing and gasping, she righted herself and found the bottom with her toes. Stunned and soaking wet, she anchored her feet on the pebbly surface below and stood. The chilly water came to just below her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” Kristina yelled from the bank. She didn’t need to be so loud. She was only five feet away. “I didn’t mean to push you in.”

Mandy glanced in the direction of the cornfield. Noah, Jethro, and Alvin were still working on the picker, seemingly oblivious to Mandy’s embarrassing accident. She sighed in relief even as she tried to drift downriver a little so they wouldn’t see her.

She was going to get out of this water and go home. She’d never indulge Kristina in such foolishness again.

Her black bonnet floated lazily downstream, just out of reach. She tiptoed through the silt and pebbles in hopes of snagging the bonnet before it got caught up in the swift current. Her fingertips touched it before it bobbed away from her again. She redoubled her efforts, finding purchase on a sturdy boulder beneath her feet, but the boulder proved more slippery than she expected. When she pushed off from it and lunged at her bonnet, her feet slipped out from underneath her and she went below the surface once again, only this time, the current caught her and dragged her into faster-moving, deeper water. She couldn’t touch the bottom anymore, and the water tossed her around like a beach ball in the tide at the lake.

Flailing her arms, she managed to catapult herself to the surface. “Help!” she screamed. The river pulled her under again, shoving her body against boulders on one bank and then the other. She reached out for something, anything to hold fast to. She clawed at rocks and overhanging bushes, but she was moving too fast to take hold of anything.

Almost as if in a dream, she heard Kristina screaming hysterically on the bank, now several yards upriver. The water pushed her farther and farther away from help.

She was going to drown in the deerich pursuit of Noah Mischler. If she got out of this alive, Kristina would get a gute scolding.

Noah ground his teeth together. The irritating, childish spying started out like it always did. It wasn’t easy to ignore. Kristina liked to sneak up on him with all the subtlety of a charging bull. He could always hear her coming from about a mile away.

Noah took a deep breath. He must learn to relax. His jaw would crack if he clenched it any tighter.

At least Kristina proved predictable. She wanted him to see her, even while she pretended to want to hide. Before, if he didn’t look her way, she and her giggly friends would start making noises, hoping he’d look up and catch a glimpse of them.
Ach
, but he found it irritating. Why wouldn’t that girl just leave him alone?

He was clenching his jaw again.

If Kristina insisted on her infatuation much longer, he wouldn’t have any teeth left.

It galled him that when a pretty girl had shown up at his house four days ago, she had come to give him a lecture about being nice. He’d bent over backward to be nice to Kristina. But there was only so much a boy could take before he had to put a stop to the nonsense. If Mandy Helmuth was so willing to believe the tales of a silly girl like Kristina Beachy, then she didn’t deserve to know the truth.

Kristina stood near the river behind a tall maple, but he couldn’t tell if she had anybody with her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her peek her head out from behind the tree and pull it back again, as if appearing and disappearing would spark his interest.

When he paid no heed to that, she hooted like an owl. Jethro and Alvin Coblentz turned their heads in the direction of the sound, but Noah didn’t even glance up. Let Kristina chirp, bark, howl, or oink all day long. He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of looking.

Trying to be oblivious to all the birds dying behind that maple tree over there, he unclamped his jaw and got on his hands and knees to inspect the corn picker.

“Your axle’s bent,” he told Jethro. “You must have gone over a mighty big bump in the road.”

Jethro, a sturdy, weathered Amishman of fifty-five, stroked his hand down the length of his beard. Jethro was missing both his middle and ring fingers just above the knuckles. Corn pickers tended to jam up, and farmers all too often were tempted to clear the machinery by hand. More than one corn farmer had lost a finger to the gathering chains of the picker.

“I guess I used it too rough,” Alvin said. Alvin was Jethro’s son, probably ten years Noah’s senior. Alvin and Jethro farmed the land together, but Alvin tended to be careless with his equipment. The Coblentzes summoned Noah to their farm on a regular basis to fix something—not that he was complaining. He always needed the work.

Noah paused to listen. The screech owls had stopped. Maybe Kristina had given up early. “Your tires could use more air too.”

The screaming made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Kristina had never out-and-out screamed to get his attention before. She’d never charged at him like a wild woman either, but there she was, screaming hysterically and sprinting out of the woods as if she were fleeing from a forest beast. Noah leaped to his feet. Had she seen a bear?

“Noah, Noah. Mandy fell in the river. She’s drowning!”

Noah didn’t even stop to ask just how Kristina’s pretty friend had happened to fall into the river. He raced to the maple tree with Kristina, Alvin and Jethro close behind. He got to the bank and focused his eyes downriver. “I don’t see her.”

Kristina sobbed uncontrollably. “She’s under . . . she’s drowned . . . I pushed her.”

Knowing he’d get no help from Kristina, Noah shoved his hand into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and slapped it into Jethro’s hand. “Can you call the police?” He pointed at Kristina, whose face was white as a newly washed sheet. “Find a place to sit down, Kristina. I’ll go downriver and see if I can see her.”

“I’m coming too,” Alvin said.

Noah nodded. Without waiting for Alvin to keep up, he raced along the bank, keeping his gaze glued to the water for any sign of Mandy Helmuth. Lord willing, she had dressed in something bright today that he could easily spot. Did she know how to swim? Would she know to grab onto a rock or an overhanging branch to pull herself out?

Dear Heavenly Father,
he prayed,
please spare her life and guide me to her.

Noah put a lot of faith in prayer, even when he hadn’t always felt God’s answers in his life.

With his long legs and athletic stride, he soon outpaced Alvin, who was a little older and a lot thicker around the middle. Noah ran a few yards, paused to study the river, then sprinted farther downstream and paused again. He hoped she’d found something to grab on to. He couldn’t win a race with the swift current.

In his haste, he almost missed her. By the grace of God, he caught a glimpse of her mint-green sleeve as she stuck her arm out of the water and clutched a boulder near the opposite bank of the river. Her hair splayed around her shoulders in an unruly tangle, her
kapp
and the pins that secured it long gone in the swirling waves. The boulder was tall and slick. She wouldn’t be able to hold on indefinitely.

“Mandy,” he yelled. “Don’t move.” She made no indication that she had heard him. He didn’t wait to find out. Without hesitation, he stomped into the water twenty feet upstream.

Alvin, still several paces behind him, called out. “Don’t go in.”

“I’m okay. Stay where you are.”

When Noah had ventured deep enough into the water, he leveraged his boots on the bottom, pushed with all his might, and plunged into the middle of the river. Letting the current carry him downstream, he paddled in the direction of the other bank, pushing the water behind him with all the force of his work-hardened arms. Gute thing he was accustomed to heavy lifting. It took all his strength to fight the powerful pull of the river.

Before the water could sweep him away, he caught hold of Mandy’s boulder. He inched his way around it until he stood between Mandy and the rushing water. She had her back to him, hugging the boulder like a best friend.

“Are you okay?” he yelled above the roar of water.

Her teeth chattered and her eyes were closed, but she nodded.

The oncoming, relentless water pushed him into her, pressing her between him and the boulder. Anchoring his hands on either side of her body, he pushed backward. He’d rather not crush her just when they were so close to getting out.

“Can you push away a little? I’m going to put my arm around you.”

“I’ll lose my grip,” she said.

“Just push away. I won’t let you go. I’m strong enough.”

“I know you are,” she said, still not letting go. She turned her head to look at him. “I’m afraid.”

“Do you trust me?” It was a dumb question. Of course she didn’t trust him. She despised him.

She studied his face for a moment before releasing her grip on the boulder and grabbing his wrist. “I trust you,” she said breathlessly.

He didn’t expect the warmth that spread to fill every space in his chest. She trusted him. Gute thing. Maybe she wouldn’t jump out of her skin when he snaked his arm around her waist.

“Put your arms around my neck and don’t let go,” he said, trying to make his voice reassuring. He didn’t have much experience coddling girls. To Mandy, he probably sounded harsh and pushy.

Holding her breath, she turned, lunged at him, and slapped her arms around his neck.

“Not quite so tight. I need to be able to breathe.”

She loosened her grip as he looped one arm around her waist and held on. He wasn’t going to lose her to the river. Turning toward the near shore, he pushed the water behind him, taking wide strokes with his free hand, fighting against the current trying to pull them farther into the river. He kicked his legs, made extra heavy by the boots still on his feet. Should he have taken them off? When he had jumped in, he had thought it better to go in with the boots and avoid cutting his feet on the sharp rocks at the bottom. Now they felt like two anvils tied to his ankles.

“Kick your feet,” he yelled. If she could help him just a little, it would be enough.

She realized what he needed from her, and she began to kick her feet back and forth. To his surprise, her effort helped quite a bit.

His arms and legs were on fire, but he refused to let the pain overcome him. He grunted as he pulled strength from deep within his gut and struggled toward the bank.

Just as his arms began to shake, his foot found a hold as they finally reached shallow water. Gulping in air, he fought for every step as he pulled himself and Mandy out of the river.

He was glad he had his boots. The rocks were sharp, and he could plant his feet firmly without being injured or losing his balance.

His ragged breathing matched Mandy’s as he half dragged, half carried her away from the water. He found a boulder at the river’s edge where they could both sit.

Alvin stood on the opposite bank. “Are you okay?”

Too breathless to speak, Noah nodded and raised his hand as if he were asking the teacher a question. That’s all he had strength for.

“I’ll go back and tell them you got her out,” Alvin called.

Noah feebly raised his hand again. He was too spent to lift it higher than his head. Hopefully Alvin could interpret the gesture as a sign of agreement.

They sat on the hard boulder, unable to speak until they had both taken in their fill of air.

He finally found the energy to turn his head and look at her. Her left cheek was lightly scraped where she had pressed it against the boulder, and her bottom lip oozed blood, but other than that, it didn’t look as if she were badly injured.

He took a soaking-wet handkerchief from his soaking-wet pocket and handed it to her. “Your mouth,” he said.

She hesitated for a split second before taking the handkerchief and dabbing it against her lip. “Denki.”

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

She brushed the side of her face with her hand, then squeezed out some of the water from her dripping hair. “My knee crashed into something hard under the water. Probably a rock. It’s a little sore, but not bad.”

“Can you walk?” he asked, eyeing her carefully. She seemed dazed, maybe in shock. She’d almost drowned. He’d be surprised if she wasn’t in shock.

She tried to push herself from the boulder. “I have to get across the river to my buggy.”

“Maybe we should sit here for another minute.”

“I should probably get my buggy.” She wouldn’t meet his eye, as if she were embarrassed, maybe about falling into the river.

Okay, he could understand that. It was pretty hard to fall into a river if you were even a little coordinated. He wouldn’t come right out and say it, but jah, she should be embarrassed.

She turned her face away and seemed to turn bright red. Was she blushing? Yep, she was definitely feeling the humiliation. “Is Kristina okay?” she said.

Noah leaned back, pressed his lips into a rigid line, and put two and two together. How dumb was he to not realize it sooner?

Mandy had been spying with Kristina.

His stomach felt as if he’d just swallowed a pound of lead. Even though he didn’t like her very much, he had thought Felty Helmuth’s granddaughter might have more sense than empty-headed Kristina Beachy.

He had been mistaken.

Mandy was a bossy busybody
and
just another silly girl who made a fool of herself by tormenting innocent boys. She’d been spying on him too, and somehow fallen in the river because of it.

She’d put not only her own life in danger, but his as well.

His gut clenched in disgust. Why wouldn’t these girls leave him alone?

Was it too much to ask to be left in peace to live his life and take care of his dat?

“Come on,” he said, standing abruptly. Without pausing to help her to her feet or to see if she followed, he hiked up the gentle incline to the stand of trees that ran alongside the river. “There’s a footbridge just down from Coblentz’s field where you can cross.”

He looked back and watched as she carefully stood and tried to take a step on her shaky legs. He groaned inwardly. She wouldn’t be able to manage one yard, let alone one mile. Immediately feeling guilty for not helping her the first time, he tromped back down the slope and offered his arm. Even if she was silly and thoughtless, she was a girl and she was hurt. His mother would have scolded him for forgetting his manners.

Pursing her lips doubtfully, she hesitated before hooking her arm around his. She took one step, and her knee buckled under her. Noah tightened his grip to keep her from falling.

“Maybe I hurt my knee worse than I thought,” she said, trying to hobble up the slope on one leg. She winced every time she put weight on her injured knee.

They managed to make it to the top with a lot of leaning on her part and a lot of dragging on his part. He led her through the thin border of trees to a dirt road that ran alongside the river.

She let go of him and tilted her face toward the sun. She lifted her arms away from her body, probably hoping the breeze would dry her dress. They were both soaking wet.

Noah heard the wail of a siren across the river. “The police are here,” he said.

“You called the police?”

“Jethro used my cell phone.”

She frowned, no doubt remembering their argument about his cell phone. Well, her righteous indignation seemed a little foolish now, didn’t it?

“You shouldn’t have called the police.”

Never mind. She’d probably been too busy making a tally of Noah’s transgressions in her head to be grateful for his cell phone. “You almost drowned.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Not for lack of trying,” he said.

She got red in the face again. “I can’t believe you called the police.”

He felt a campfire roar to life inside him. She was more of a nuisance than Kristina. “Next time I’ll let you drown.”