Huckleberry Hill (22 page)

Determined to follow Lia even if he developed blisters on his armpits, Moses picked up his empty bucket and hobbled feverishly in Lia’s direction. He knew he couldn’t possibly be subtle. There were several perfectly good bushes to pick between Lia and himself.

He walked so rapidly and clumsily, he sounded like a bear crashing through the underbrush. All three cousins and Lia looked up as he approached.

“Glad you could join us,” said Ben, teasingly glancing at Lia as if they were already the best of friends.

Moses forced a casual smile. “It sounds like you’re having more fun over here than I am over there.”

Lia pointed to a few feet from where she picked. “Here are some taller branches so you don’t have to bend over so far.”

His drab mood lightened as he limped to the bush. Lia hadn’t forgotten him completely.

“Lia said a snake spooked the horses,” Max said. “That’s how you broke your leg.”

Moses put his bucket on the ground and started to fill it as best he could. “Jah. And Dawdi picked up the snake with a rake and waved it in the air like a flag. I thought for sure that thing would finish me off.”

Max hooted with glee. “Dawdi never could hurt a living thing.”

Moses chuckled. “He won’t even let us kill the spiders. And Rachel screams until her face turns purple whenever she sees one.”

Lia’s face glowed with affection. Moses had never seen a more attractive look. “We have been given strict instructions to leave the spiders to Felty. He has a special little bottle he puts them in before he releases them into the wild.”

“Lia really did save my life,” Moses blurted out.

“The doctor said I could have gone into shock or lost too much blood.”

“I knew she was being modest,” Ben said, showing that annoyingly handsome smile again.

“Nae, I ran down the hill, tripped and fell, and then borrowed someone’s phone to call the ambulance.”

“Lia kept her head and knew exactly what to do even though she got injured herself.”

“And Mammi says she is a very gute cook,” Titus added.

“The best.” Even though his admiration would make his cousins even more interested than they already were, Moses wanted to make sure Lia realized he’d been watching. He knew how little notice she got at home. “Her rolls melt in your mouth.”

Lia shook her head. “Don’t exaggerate. You’ve never tasted my rolls.”

“Oh, yes, I have. At the picnic with Rachel.”

Lia fell silent and looked thoughtful for a minute as her lips curled ever so slightly. Did she really believe Moses could be so blind as to think Rachel made those rolls?

“You are quite taken with Lia, aren’t you, Moses?”

With Lia close, Moses felt more playful. “Of course. Look how pretty she is. And tall.”

“There aren’t enough tall girls to go around,” Ben said, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

“But I’ll have you know, she has refused to marry me.”

The cousins gaped at Moses, unsure if he was teasing, and then they turned to Lia for confirmation.

Her laugh tripped past her lips like a brook tickling the pebbles. “He thought I wanted him for a husband, but he didn’t like the way I swept the floor.”

“That’s not true,” Moses said. “I love the way you sweep the floor.”

Max folded his arms across his chest. “It doesn’t matter. Moses is glued so tight to that girl in Minneapolis, a crowbar couldn’t pry him loose.”

The sunshine in Lia’s face disappeared, and she lowered her eyes to the ground.

“She writes him every week,” Ben said. “Going on three years yet.”

Moses didn’t like that look on Lia’s face. He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and compel her to look in his eyes. He needed to set her straight. He wasn’t glued to Barbara anymore.

Wasn’t glued to Barbara?

When had this happened?

He slid his hand in his pocket and fingered the yellow envelope. He used to watch out the window for the mailman every Friday while he separated curd. But lately, Barbara’s letters felt more like burdens than blessings. She was so far away.

Far away from Bonduel. Far away from the Amish way of life. Far away from Moses’s heart.

Would his cousins believe him if he denied everything? Probably not today.

A movement through the trees caught their attention, and they watched as cousin Sarah Beachy’s son, Gabe, rode toward them on a dappled gray mare. Gabe was fourteen years old and happy as a clam since he’d finished his last year of school in May and didn’t have to return with his younger siblings next week.

Gabe caught sight of Moses first. “Is Lia with you?”

Lia stepped out from the shade. “Is another baby coming?”

“Mamm said there’s plenty of time, but all I had was this horse to deliver the message. Do you want to come on my horse or can Moses take you in the buggy?”

Moses must have broken every berry branch in his way to put himself forward. “I will take her in Dawdi’s buggy.”

Ben had always been real sharp. “You can’t hitch up the horse with that leg. I’ll take Lia.”

Absolutely not
, Moses wanted to protest. Moses and Lia shared the midwifing jobs together, the two of them—except when Rachel came along, and she didn’t count. It didn’t seem right that anyone else should take his place. Moses looked to Lia. Surely she wouldn’t agree to anything else.

Lia smiled the unhappy smile that Moses saw more and more often. “You should stay here with Rachel.”

Moses wanted to shout in exasperation but decided it would be unseemly to pitch a fit. Why in the world would he want to stay here with Rachel?

Maybe Lia was tired of taking Rachel along and having to care for her sister as well as her patients. But more likely, Lia would much rather be with Ben or Max than Moses Zimmerman, the boy who wouldn’t let go of the memory of a girl who had rejected him. Why wouldn’t Lia want to be with a boy who found her fascinating instead of one who took her for granted?

Moses watched Ben put a light hand at the small of Lia’s back to guide her to the path that would take them back to the house. Lia smiled, still unhappy, and let Ben lead her away. Moses couldn’t catch his breath.

 

 

Moses had never seen any food so mouthwateringly tempting. Plump huckleberries peeked from under a golden, flaky lattice crust on top of the three pies Lia had made for dessert. She had a gift for making food look delicious.

After three hours, they had finally finished picking the berries, making sure to leave a sufficient amount for the bears as Dawdi wanted. Moses had picked like a madman. Maybe he thought if he finished soon enough, he could take a horse to Lia and be there when she walked out of the house, her face aglow with the exhaustion and satisfaction of hard work. He loved that face.

His daydreams were ridiculous. Moses didn’t even know where they had gone. He’d have to ask Mammi the names of all the women in Bonduel expecting a baby this month and go to each of their houses. It was a wild-goose chase, and with this worthless leg of his, it would take him the better part of a week.

When he and his family walked into the warm kitchen, they were greeted with the sight of three huckleberry pies on the table and the aroma of potato soup in a Dutch oven on the cookstove.

A good-sized wedge had been carved out of one of the pies and a note lay on the table beside it.

Moses didn’t think his heart could sink any lower. Ben had eaten the first piece. Moses’s piece. Ben had probably smiled and told Lia how heavenly it was, and Lia had soaked it up like a desert soaks up the rain.

Moses should have been the one to tell Lia how good it tasted. He’d been waiting for three months for this chance. Ben had innocently stolen it from him.

Dejectedly, Moses helped Rachel set the bowls and spoons while Max and Titus Junior put two more leaves in the table and brought up folding chairs from the cellar. Moses studied his leg encased in a cast. He couldn’t help with the heavy lifting, and he couldn’t drive Lia places. He was truly worthless.

At supper, Moses ate his soup—the best potato soup he’d ever tasted—in silence while the family chattered merrily away. Rachel scooped up his slice of bread and buttered it for him. He wanted to growl in frustration. Rachel’s hovering had become unbearable.

“Now that your leg is in a cast, how long do you plan on staying here, Moses?” Mamm asked.

“We’ve enjoyed taking care of him,” Mammi said. Her eyes twinkled. “The girls especially have.”

Mammi and Mamm shared a knowing look.

Rachel poured Moses another glass of milk and smiled ever so sweetly. “All the hard work has been a true pleasure.”

Moses coughed to cover up the protest that broke free from his throat. Had Rachel known a day of hard work in her life? Ach, but she was very good at playing the long-suffering nurse. An actress. She should have been an actress.

“I am going home tonight,” he announced. “I still have two good hands to make cheese. Adam has been running the factory almost by himself since I’ve been gone.”

“Adam is a gute boy,” Mammi said.

“He takes after his dawdi,” said Dawdi, waving his spoon for emphasis. “This soup is the best I’ve ever tasted. The queen of Mexico doesn’t eat this well.”

An overwhelming desire for solitude wrapped itself around Moses’s chest. He would have liked nothing better than to hike to the rocky side of the hill and recline on a boulder while he tried to make sense of his jumbled emotions. But going anywhere proved to be a huge production with his casted leg as heavy and clunky as a motor home negotiating a narrow road and Rachel clinging to him like a cocklebur on his pant leg.

Mammi scooted her chair from the table. “And now for the best part.”

Mandy stood to help Mammi as she pulled ice cream from the freezer and got ready to cut the pie.

Rachel leaped from her seat. “I’ll serve the pie if you want to scoop ice cream, Mandy.”

Mandy shrugged her shoulders and handed Rachel the spatula. “Okay, sure.”

Rachel picked up one of the pies and tilted it so everyone at the table could see the lattice top crafted by skilled hands. “Lia and I made the pies.”

Rachel had been with Moses at the doctor when Lia made the pies. He pressed his lips together so something impolite wouldn’t accidentally come out of his mouth.

“They look delicious,” Mamm said, not suspecting that Rachel stretched the truth beyond recognition. “Do you use lard or shortening for the crust?”

Rachel looked confused for a fraction of a second, put the pie on the counter, and waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, Lia did the crust this time. I’m not sure which she used.”

Moses couldn’t stand it. He’d break his other leg before he took anything from Rachel’s hand ever again. Even Lia’s pie.

Grabbing the crutches that rested against the back of his chair, he said, “I’ll go pack the rest of my things so Mamm and Dat can take me back to my house tonight.”

Rachel held out a generous piece of pie, with luscious purple berries dripping from between the crusts. “Don’t you want pie?”

“I’ll eat a piece with Lia when she gets home. She ought to have a taste of her own pie.”

“But that might not be for hours.”

Without replying, Moses limped into Rachel’s room to gather his things. He stopped short. A whole pie sat in the middle of Rachel’s bed, complete with a fork tied with a ribbon and an envelope addressed to Moses. He eagerly ripped open the envelope and pulled out a card filled with Lia’s handwriting.

Moses couldn’t hold back the smile that sprouted on his face. She hadn’t forgotten him. He read her note four times, delighted with the way she curled the tails of her
y
’s and
g
’s.

On the fifth time reading through her note, his eyes got stuck on “friend,” and he sucked in his breath because it felt like a semi truck crashed through the house and ran over him.

He didn’t want to be friends.

Staggering with the weight of this realization, Moses dropped his crutches and sank to the bed where he sat in stunned silence. He wanted so much more than friendship.

The feeling overtook him like a flash flood, crashing into him and tossing and turning him until he didn’t know which way was up.

He loved Lia Shetler.

He loved Lia Shetler! He loved her laugh and her smile. He loved the way her graceful hands shaped bread into pans and plucked huckleberries from bushes. And he hated it when she smiled at one of his cousins.

Moses kneaded his forehead as if trying to pull out every confusing thought in his brain. Did he really love Lia more than Barbara? He couldn’t decipher his deepest emotions.

But he did know that he loved Lia so much that he couldn’t bear the thought of not being with her. He remembered their embrace at the Millers’ house. He’d never felt so strong or secure, even with Barbara.

Especially not with Barbara.

Barbara had always kept one foot in the community and one foot in the world. When they got engaged, fear that he might lose her followed him like a cloud of black, choking smoke. He never felt sure of her love.

His world had shattered when she chose to leave the community, but then she dangled that carrot.
I need to see what it’s like, but I will come back. You’ll wait for me, won’t you, Moses? If you truly love me, you’ll wait.
So he had waited.