Huckleberry Summer (28 page)

“Bring Lily along if you want.”

“She’s getting married next week.” The words almost choked him.

“You’re getting married? Congrats, man.”

“She’s not marrying me.”

Silence on the other end. “Was it because of the puppy mill thing? None of us meant for it to go south like that.”

“It’s not because of the puppy mill, Jamal. She found a better man.”

Jamal grunted.

“I’m taking a bus back to Ohio next week,” Aden said.

“That’s perfect. Just tell me when you’ll be here, and I’ll make sure the newspapers show up.”

Aden took a deep breath and thought about all the people and wildlife affected by the dirty lake. He thought about what he wanted and about what God would want. Who would stop those polluters if not him?

“Jamal, this is a great cause. My heart will be there with you every step of the way. But I won’t help you.”

More silence. Aden didn’t usually possess the ability to shut Jamal up. “You’re still mad at me.”

“No, I’m not mad at you. It’s my own fault Lily hates me.” Aden was surprised that he was able to say it without his voice cracking. “But I’ve pledged my life to God and this is His job, not mine.”

“But it’s for the lake and your people.”

“You can do this, Jamal. Nobody can move a group of ordinary citizens to action like you can. This is not my fight. I’m following Gelassenheit.”

“I didn’t sneeze.”

“Gelassenheit—the yielding to a higher authority. I’m yielding my life to God.”

“How long does this Gelassenheit thing last?”

“Forever.”

Jamal’s voice lost its energy. “So, that’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“The guys will be really disappointed.”

Aden smiled weakly. “They’ll be okay.”

“Maybe we’ll cross paths when you come back to Ohio.”

“I’d like that.”

“I guess I’ll go plan another strategy for the lake.” Jamal sighed. “And, Aden?”

“Jah?”

“I’m real sorry about what happened with Lily.”

“Me too.”

If only that were enough to bring Lily back.

“Who would have thought we’d see a storm like this the day before the wedding?” Estee said. “The fourth of November. Who would have guessed? I hope all the relatives get into town okay.”

“Most of the guests have already arrived, and the snow is supposed to stop later tonight,” Lily said.

The snow fell in chunky tufts of cotton, heavy and thick, as Lily and Estee trudged up the country road in their snow boots.

Estee took Lily’s arm as they crossed the slushy road. “Floyd’s dat told me there would be snow. His knees ache right before a big storm.” Estee giggled. “Floyd says it’s just in time for my wedding present. I have a suspicion he’s gone and bought the sleigh yet.”

Lily wouldn’t spoil the surprise. Floyd’s new sleigh sat in the barn tucked neatly behind a wall of hay bales under a canvas tarp.

Estee’s eyes twinkled with a thousand different delights. “Won’t it be charming to ride off to our honeymoon visits in a sleigh? I’ll have to remember to pack plenty of blankets because Floyd will forget.” She squeezed Lily’s arm. “He can remember my favorite kind of chocolate and the date of our first kiss, but he forgets to pack a lunch for work. Or if he remembers to pack a lunch, he forgets to eat it. Oh, Lily, he’s so adorable. He’s going to make the best father.”

Less than twenty-four hours until the wedding. The last three weeks had flown away from her even though she had tried to hold fast to her precious time. She felt as if she were marching to her own execution rather than her nuptial day.

Nothing was right. None of this was right even though Dat couldn’t stop smiling. The absurdity of her situation had become more apparent to Lily every day as she prepared for an event that held no joy for her. She had dutifully sewn herself a new dress and packed for her honeymoon trip and helped Tyler ready the dawdi house, but nothing was right.

She hadn’t slept well for days. Since her talk with Anna, the tension and anxiety had grown as one question ran through her head constantly: Should she go through with the wedding?

But since her engagement, she’d had the overwhelming feeling that it was too late to turn back.

Lily shook her head and tried to reassure herself before despair flattened her. Tyler was such a gute man. How could she not want to marry Tyler? Had she never heard of cold feet before? Every bride had doubts right before her wedding. Every bride panicked and wanted to run away at some point. Every bride had another boy who invaded her thoughts when she should be thinking about her groom.

“Floyd won’t even let me see what he’s done to the house. I bet he’s put up curtains.”

Well, every bride but Estee. She was so enamored with Floyd that they might as well be the only two people in the whole world.

With her arm still hooked with Lily’s, Estee studied Lily’s face. “I’m talking too much again. Tell me about your honeymoon plans. Are you going to La Crosse?”

“Jah. Tyler has an uncle there.”

Estee didn’t seem to expect any more chitchat. They walked along the road in silence as white flakes continued to blanket the earth. Already the snow piled ankle-deep.

“Denki for coming to Mrs. Deforest’s with me. I wanted to say good-bye one last time before she goes to that care center.”

“Will she be to the wedding?”

“No. She leaves tomorrow morning, and her son refuses to delay her trip even a few more hours.”

Mrs. Deforest lived on a good piece of land in Bonduel not twenty minutes from Lily’s house. An ornamental iron fence with matching mailbox marked the south border of her property. Brown with rust, the fence stood almost four feet tall, and underneath the layer of new snow, yellow grass and dead leaves collected at the base of each post. Mrs. Deforest was too old to care for her property, and her son had no interest in upkeep.

A jumbo “For Sale” sign accosted Lily and Estee before they came in sight of the house. “What a shame,” Estee said. “It’s a nice little place. Mrs. Deforest used to plant geraniums in the front.”

Some nice neighbor was shoveling Mrs. Deforest’s sidewalk. Lily turned her face to the sky. They’d finish at one end and have to start again. The snow made down hard.

Lily saw a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Pilot loping toward her.

A bolt of lightning couldn’t have hit her more forcefully. She stumbled backward. Aden Helmuth was the neighbor shoveling Mrs. Deforest’s sidewalk.

She couldn’t breathe. Someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the surrounding air.

Estee tightened her grip on Lily’s arm and plunged ahead before Lily had a chance to back away.

Pilot stopped at the edge of Mrs. Deforest’s property and ventured no closer. He tilted his head and examined Lily as if she were a stranger and then took two steps back and whined pathetically.

She should have been pleased. At least that dog wouldn’t get snow all over her dress.

“Aden,” Estee called, with a cheerful lilt to her voice that only heightened Lily’s panic.

Still hunkered over his shovel, Aden glanced their way and froze. Lily recognized a mixture of pain and embarrassment in his eyes as he slowly straightened to his full height. He was so tall. And so handsome.

Her gaze involuntarily flew to his lips, and she couldn’t fight back the memory of his tender kisses or the way her heart raced when he enfolded her in his arms.

Why did she react like this? She’d seen him at gmay three times since the puppy mill disaster, but because of the bann, he always sat in front and stole away as soon as church ended.

Her heart was like to pound out of her chest. Was this still a childish fascination or something else?

They seemed to be the only two people in the world as Estee pulled Lily forward. His green eyes pierced hers as if he wanted to read her thoughts.

The connection broke when Estee swung open the creaky gate, and it screeched like a barn owl.

Aden held up a hand. “Wait. It’s slippery.”

After propping his shovel in the snow, he gingerly made his way down the sidewalk, put himself between them, and offered his arms. “You don’t want to break your arm the day before your wedding,” he said. He stared directly at Estee and ignored Lily completely.

Estee glanced at Lily and immediately latched onto Aden. “Denki. I didn’t expect a snowstorm in early November.”

Lily froze in confusion. She wanted to take Aden’s arm more than she’d ever wanted anything in her entire life, but if she did, she might revive feelings she couldn’t control.

Aden nodded at Estee and then lowered his gaze to the ground. “I am forbidden to speak to Lily or even be near her, but I think your fater would forgive me this one time.” His voice trembled with emotion. “Maybe your dat will overlook my transgression since I am no longer under the bann.”

Three days ago, Aden had given a kneeling confession and been reinstated into full fellowship, or so Estee had reported. Lily hadn’t been there to witness it herself. She and Dat had agreed that it was a gute day to stay away from church.

“Lily?” Estee prompted.

Aden still averted his eyes as if to look at her might turn him to stone.

Some part of her registered that she would be very rude if she didn’t take his offered arm, even if Dat were angry about it. She slipped her arm through his and couldn’t help but feel the hard muscles beneath his coat. Of course he had strength. He’d lifted her from the water once as if she weighed no more than a feather.

They stepped carefully to the porch, with Lily feeling increasingly grateful for Aden’s arm. It would be too easy to slip on the icy sidewalk.

“I haven’t salted it yet,” Aden said apologetically, as if the falling snow and dangerous ice were somehow his fault.

He had cleared the steps. Lily grabbed the railing and pulled herself to the safety of the porch. Aden didn’t let go until he made certain she and Estee were secure. “It will be salted by the time you come out,” he assured them.

Lily dared a look into his face. He turned his head and studied the cracks in the sidewalk. She couldn’t find her voice, even to thank him.

Thank goodness for Estee. “Denki, Aden. I’ll make sure they save you a large helping of carrot pudding at our wedding. It always gets eaten first.”

“I won’t be to the wedding,” Aden said. “I am going back to Sugarcreek tomorrow morning, Lord willing.”

Lily should have been relieved. Of course she didn’t want Aden at her wedding. Dat would not want him there either. But the disappointment almost choked her. Aden was leaving Huckleberry Hill? What about his grandparents? Did he care nothing for their well-being?

Estee frowned. “I wish you would stay. Floyd thinks you are the smartest man alive. And the roadsides have never been so clean.”

“You’d better get inside and warm up,” Aden said. “You don’t want frostbite for the wedding.”

Without a proper good-bye, he disappeared around the corner of the house with Pilot following close behind. At least that dog wouldn’t be bothering Lily anymore. Without Pilot licking her all the time, her hand sanitizer supply would be good for months.

Mrs. Deforest answered the door gripping her walker with one hand. Her arms were thin and covered with age spots, and her face was a map of wrinkles against her salt-and-pepper gray hair. Lily hadn’t seen her in over two years. She had aged significantly.

“Well, here’s Estee come to see me off,” she said in her gravelly voice, made rough from years of smoking. “It’s ’bout time you come. That no-good son of mine says we’re leaving tomorrow no matter how many good-byes ain’t been said yet.”

Estee had worked for Mrs. Deforest for almost five years. She didn’t mind the old lady’s cantankerous moods. Lily found her abrupt, but Estee understood her and said Mrs. Deforest didn’t mean harm to anybody.

She invited them in and glanced out the screen door. “I told him he didn’t need to clear the sidewalk. I ain’t going nowhere today. But he said there might be visitors.”

Lily had to ask. “How . . . how do you know Aden Helmuth?”

Mrs. Deforest waved off Estee’s assistance and motioned to the sofa. Estee and Lily sat and watched as Mrs. Deforest hobbled to her recliner and sat down with a grunt. “I’m taking the chair with me. I told Barnard I won’t go without my chair. They feed you three meals a day and a snack.” She shook her finger at Estee. “Though that hospital food won’t be near as good as homemade Amish cooking. I might starve.”

Maybe Mrs. Deforest hadn’t heard the question or perhaps she’d forgotten it already. Lily didn’t dare ask again. Besides, it was none of her business whose sidewalks Aden wanted to shovel.

A look of confusion crossed Mrs. Deforest’s face before she nodded to herself. “Estee, go in that front bedroom and get your wedding present. It’s on the dresser.”

Estee obediently walked into the other room and came back with a gift wrapped in shiny white paper and tied with a baby blue ribbon. “Thank you, Mrs. Deforest. You didn’t have to get me a present.”

“Well, I sure did. You’ve been with me for how many years, Estee?”

“Five.”

Mrs. Deforest waved her hand in the air. “All this is going. Barnard sold it to an estate auction. Except my chair. And my horse. I told the young man to take my horse.”

Now she had Lily’s attention. “Aden?”

“I thought he was a hoodlum come to rob me. My imagination runs wild at night sometimes. He came to my door and said he noticed my skinny horse. Asked if he could feed her for me.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Estee said.

Mrs. Deforest leaned forward and lowered her voice. “His people think he’s wicked for taking care of the animals, so I’m not to tell anybody. And don’t you tell neither.”

“Of course not,” Estee said. “I don’t think he’s wicked.”

Lily sat like a statue and barely heard another word as Estee and Mrs. Deforest talked about care centers and bad hospital food and Barnard Deforest, who wanted to sell the property and move to Miami.

Surely the Plain people didn’t think Aden was wicked for taking care of animals or for cleaning up the pond so birds would have a place to nest, did they? They accepted Aden from the very first. They liked him and even sympathized with his tree story.

Lily’s heart felt like a jagged stone. The community didn’t have a problem with Aden’s schemes. Aden had been shunned because her dat demanded it. His precious daughter, who’d rarely done a bad thing in her life, had been terrified and humiliated, and Aden had to pay.

“. . . I hope your feelings aren’t hurt, Lily,” Mrs. Deforest said, as if she didn’t care about Lily’s feeling at all. “We’re not that close, and you’ll get plenty of other presents.”

Lily tried to follow the thread of the conversation. Her mind barely registered what Mrs. Deforest had said. “Ach, no. Estee is the one who has taken care of you.”

“Estee says you are quite anxious about leaving home. Some girls have trouble adjusting to marriage. I hope you’re not one of them. A husband needs a sturdy wife, not a girl who whines like a kitten because she misses her mommy.”

Estee didn’t even glance at Lily. “Lily is more likely to miss our dat. They are very close.”

“At least you Amish don’t have phones. You can’t call your dat every day and complain about your husband.”

“I won’t ever complain about Floyd,” Estee said. “He is nearly perfect.”

Mrs. Deforest got a twinkle in her eye. “Any fool can see you’re befuddled. I remember those days. I don’t know what I ate for breakfast this morning, but I can clearly recall my wedding day. I tried on my wedding dress every day for a month before the wedding. Merlin wore his Navy uniform. When I walked down the aisle, he looked so handsome I thought I would burst.” She sighed. “Those were happy days.”

The space behind Lily’s eyes throbbed with a dull ache. She didn’t feel happy. She wasn’t even content.

Estee stood. “We’ve got to be going, Mrs. Deforest. There is still lots and lots of celery to wash.”