Looking for a Miracle (8 page)

As Nadine stood in front of the kitchen sink, drying the dishes Rebekah had washed earlier, she stared out the window at Dad’s new barn. It was now fully erected and had been filled with hay and animals soon after its completion. The men who had helped out had been hardworking and faithful, in spite of the fact that they all had their own chores waiting to be done at home.

Dad said he didn’t feel he could ask any of them to return the following week to begin building Rebekah’s greenhouse, and even though the uncles said they were still willing to help with the greenhouse, he had turned them all down.

“It wouldn’t be fair,” Nadine had heard him tell Rebekah last night after supper.

However, with the help of Simon and Daniel, who had insisted on lending a hand no matter what Dad had said, the building would go up, even if it would take a little longer than expected.

Nadine suspected the main reason Daniel had insisted on helping with the greenhouse was because he had an interest in Rebekah. Too bad her older sister seemed too blind to see it.

A knock at the back door drove Nadine’s thoughts aside, and she went to answer it. She was surprised to see Daniel standing on the porch holding a large clay pot with an equally large Boston fern inside. She stood in the doorway staring at him and wondering what the plant was for, and he stood staring back at her with a red, sweaty face.

“I’m ... uh ... here to help build Rebekah’s greenhouse,” he mumbled. “Is she at home?”

Nadine nodded and stepped away from the door, motioning him into the kitchen. She pointed to where Rebekah sat at the table, drinking a cup of tea and writing on a tablet. “You’ve got company, sister.”

Rebekah swiveled her wheelchair around. “Guder mariye, Daniel. What brings you by so early this morning?” She eyed the plant he held but made no mention of it.

“This is for you,” Daniel said, hurrying across the room and placing the fern in the center of the table. “It’s for your new greenhouse—to keep, not sell.”

She smiled. “It’s beautiful, and I wouldn’t think of selling it. Danki, Daniel.”

Nadine went over to the sink to finish up the dishes but glanced over her shoulder to see what Daniel would do next. He shifted from one foot to the other, looking kind of embarrassed.

“Is ... uh ... your daed still planning to begin work on the greenhouse this morning? I’ve come prepared to work all day if he is.”

“I think so,” Rebekah replied, looking rather embarrassed herself. “Dad’s out in the new barn right now, so if you want to talk to him about it, you’ll have to go out there.”

“Naw, that’s okay. I’ll stick around here for a while yet.” Daniel removed his straw hat and went to hang it on a wall peg. Then he shuffled back toward Rebekah, wearing a silly grin.

Nadine lifted her gaze toward the ceiling, thinking how goofy Daniel was acting and wondering why he wasn’t more assertive.

“Say, what’s that you’re workin’ on there?” Daniel asked as he peered over Rebekah’s shoulder.

Rebekah smiled, and her cheeks turned pink. “Well, I was writing my latest column for
The Budget,
but that’s about done so now I’m ready to begin working on the inventory for my new greenhouse.”

“Mind if I take a look-see?”

“No, no, not at all.”

Those two are just sickening,
Nadine thought as she grabbed another dish to dry.
It’s obvious to me that Daniel has his eye on my sister, so why doesn’t he quit thumpin’ around the shrubs and just come right out and say so?
She pivoted away from the sink and turned toward the table. “Would you like some coffee or a glass of milk, Daniel?”

“Jah, that’d be fine.”

Nadine planted both hands on her hips and glared at him. “Well, which one do you want? Milk or coffee?”

“I’ll have whatever Rebekah’s havin’,” Daniel said, barely looking at Nadine.

She shook her head and muttered, “She’s drinkin’ tea; can’t you see that?”

“Okay. Tea’s fine for me then.” Daniel pulled out a chair beside Rebekah’s wheelchair and took a seat. “Do you mind if I see what you have written there?”

“Sure, go ahead.” She pushed the tablet toward him.

He studied it intently, commenting with an occasional, “Hmm ... ah ... I see now....”

When Nadine thought she could stand it no longer, Rebekah asked, “Well, what do you think? Does it seem like I have enough plants to open for business?”

Daniel scratched the back of his head. “I suppose it’ll all depend on how many customers you have at first—and on what they might decide to buy. Sometimes one certain flower or plant seems to be everyone’s favorite, so that might sell rather quick.”

“How is it that you seem to know so much about flowers and plants?” Rebekah asked.

Before Daniel had a chance to respond, Nadine moved over to the table and set a cup of hot lemon-mint tea and a hunk of shoofly pie in front of him.

“Danki,” Daniel said, never taking his eyes off Rebekah. “My uncle Jake lives in Ohio, and he owns a greenhouse. I spent some time there one summer, and I helped him in the greenhouse for a bit.”

Rebekah’s eyebrows lifted. “Really? Then you could probably give me all kinds of good advice.”

He bobbed his head up and down and grinned. “I would be happy to help out. That is, if you really want my suggestions.”

Nadine gritted her teeth. “Of course she does, silly. Why else would she have said what she did?” Listening to the way those two carried on was enough to make her wonder why she was so anxious to start courting.

“Nadine’s right. I do want your suggestions,” Rebekah said. “Of course, that’s only if you have the time. I know you keep busy helping your daed with those dairy cows of his.”

“I do get some free time, and my brothers, Harold and Abner, help Pop out, too, so I’m sure I can manage to find the time.” Daniel stared at his cup of tea as though he might be puzzling over something.

Unable to stand the suspense, Nadine was on the verge of asking him what he was thinking about, but he spoke first. “I wonder sometimes if workin’ with dairy cows is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I believe God’s given us all special abilities, and I’d sure like the chance to use mine.”

Rebekah tipped her head and stared at Daniel. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“I would think running a dairy farm would be kind of interesting,” Nadine spoke up. “What’s it like, Daniel? Can you tell us a little about the operation?”

He nodded. “Well, I guess I’m lucky in that my daed uses diesel-generated milking machines rather than doing the milking by hand the way some dairymen in other Amish communities still do.”

Nadine pursed her lips, as she shook her head. “Dad makes either me or Simon milk our two goats twice a day, and I don’t enjoy it one little bit.”

“Even with the use of mechanical milkers, refrigerated coolers, and battery-operated agitators, dairy farming is still a lot of work.” Daniel wrinkled his nose. “I especially don’t like the job of cleaning the barn and disposing of all the cow manure.”

“Do you do that by hand?” This question came from Rebekah.

“Nope. We use our horses to pull metal devices through the manure trenches. The manure then goes into a tank, which is later pumped into a spreader.”

Unable to listen to any more talk about smelly manure, Nadine went back to the sink to finish drying the dishes. A short time later when she had put the last dish away in the cupboard, she moved back to the table. “I’m done with the dishes now, so I think I’ll go outside and see if Mom needs help hanging up the wash.”

“What?” Rebekah pulled her gaze away from Daniel and angled her wheelchair toward Nadine.

“I said I’m done here. I’m going out to help Mom.”

“Okay then.”

Nadine headed out the door, but she was sure that neither Rebekah nor Daniel had even noticed. “When I’m old enough to start going to singings,” she mumbled under her breath, “I’ll be looking for a fellow who at least knows how to speak his mind.”

Rebekah and Daniel went back to talking about her greenhouse, and they stayed deeply engaged in conversation about her future plans for nearly an hour. Finally, Daniel looked up at the clock on the opposite wall and whistled. “Wow, it’s later than I thought. Guess I’d better get outside and see if your daed’s ready to go to work on the greenhouse.” He smiled kind of sheepishly. “If he hasn’t already gotten half of it built while I’ve been in here yappin’ away and boring you with all my silly notions.”

Rebekah shook her head. “You haven’t been boring me at all. I appreciate all of your good ideas.”

Daniel’s chair made a scraping sound as he pushed it away from the table and stood. “Feel free to ask me for help of any kind once you open for business. I enjoy being around plants and would be more than happy to come by and help out whenever I’m able.” His gaze dropped to the floor. “Well, I–I’d better get going.”

“Don’t work too hard,” Rebekah called as he went out the door.

For the next several minutes, she sat staring at the list she and Daniel had made for the things she might need in her greenhouse and thinking about how nice it was of him to offer his assistance and how interesting she found him to be. While Daniel couldn’t be considered handsome the way Johnny was, his dark chocolate eyes always looked so sincere. His slim, angular nose and full lips made him seem rather appealing, too. At least Rebekah thought so.

Mom and Nadine came into the kitchen just then, each carrying an empty wicker basket in their hands.

Rebekah smiled. “Guess what, Mom?”

“What’s that?”

She tapped the notebook with her pencil and grinned. “Turns out that Daniel knows a lot about greenhouses, and he helped me add some more items to my list.”

“That’s good to hear.” Mom set her basket on the floor and moved over to the table where Rebekah sat. “I saw Daniel outside. He and your daed, as well as your brother, were getting ready to work on your greenhouse.”

Nadine placed her basket on the end of the counter and rushed over to the table. “Say, Mom, did you know that Daniel’s sweet on Rebekah?”

Rebekah’s face heated up, and she shook her head vigorously. “No, he’s not. He’s got his eye on Mary Ellen and has for some time.”

Nadine snickered. “Jah, well, you should have seen the way he hovered over Rebekah, stumbling over every word and making cow eyes at her the whole time.”

“That’s not so!” Rebekah whirled her wheelchair around to face her sister. “And you shouldn’t have been spying on us.”

“I wasn’t spying,” Nadine said in a defensive tone. “I was just dryin’ the dishes, and it’s not my fault I could hear every word that was being said.” She clicked her tongue. “And it didn’t take me long to realize that you’re as sweet on Daniel as he is on you.”

Rebekah wanted to deny her sister’s accusation, but she couldn’t. The truth was, she did care for Daniel, but she would never have admitted that to Nadine or Mom. Especially when she knew nothing could come from her feelings for him. She was painfully aware that, even if by some miracle Daniel returned those feelings for her, they could never have a future together.

With Dad, Simon, and Daniel working on the greenhouse, it took a little more than two weeks to complete the project. The day after the greenhouse was completed, Mom and Dad hosted a picnic in honor of the official opening of Grandma’s Place. All the family had been invited, as well as Daniel since he had done so much of the work.

The picnic supper was served on the lawn out back, and soon everyone was heaping their plates with barbecued burgers and hot dogs, potato salad, coleslaw, homemade soft pretzels, baked beans, pickles, olives, and carrot sticks. For dessert, they served homemade ice cream with both chocolate and strawberry toppings.

When it appeared as if everyone had finished eating, Dad stood and called for their attention. “As you all know, the greenhouse is finally done, so I’d like to offer my thanks to two very helpful people. First of all, my son, Simon, who worked as hard as any man could.” He reached over and ruffled Simon’s hair, and Simon grinned up at him. Then he nodded at Daniel, who sat on the end of a bench beside Rebekah’s wheelchair. “A special thanks goes to Daniel, who came over for several hours nearly every day and did more than his share of the work.”

Rebekah couldn’t help but notice how red Daniel’s face had become as he stared at his empty ice-cream bowl. “Aw, it was nothin’,” he mumbled. “I was glad to do it.”

“Daniel not only helped build the greenhouse, but he also assisted Rebekah in setting out all the plants and flowers she will sell. I appreciate the fact that Clarence Beachy was so willing to loan out his son,” Dad went on to say.

Rebekah stifled a giggle behind her hand. Just thinking of Clarence loaning out his son made it seem as if Daniel was some piece of farm equipment instead of someone’s grown son.

“Now my wife has a little something she would like to give to the new owner of Grandma’s Place.” Dad nodded at Mom, and she stood.

“This is for you,” she said, bending down and pulling a large paper sack from under the table.

Rebekah sat staring at the sack Mom had just handed her.

“Well, go ahead and open it,” her brother prompted. “We’d all like to see what’s inside that sack.”

With trembling fingers, Rebekah tore open the bag. When she reached inside and withdrew a large wooden plaque, she gasped. Inscribed in bold, block letters were the words
GRANDMA’S PLACE—OWNER, REBEKAH STOLTZFUS.

“Oh, Mom, it’s wunderbaar! Danki, so much.”

Mom fairly beamed, obviously quite pleased with herself for keeping such a special secret. “It’s that surprise I was working on when Vera took us shopping a few weeks ago. You see now why I couldn’t tell you where I was going?”

Rebekah nodded and wiped away the tears that had dribbled onto her cheeks despite her best efforts to hold them at bay.

“And now,” Dad said in a booming voice, “let’s all go down to the new greenhouse and hang up the sign, because Rebekah Stoltzfus is officially in business!”

As everyone stepped inside the greenhouse, Rebekah was filled with a sense of awe. Even though she had been inside plenty of times during the building of it, she was still pleased with how nice it looked and excited about the prospect of making her own money. Grandma’s Place was everything Rebekah could have hoped for. The building was a wooden structure with glass panels set in the middle section. Dad had built a wheelchair ramp up to the door so she could easily come and go on her own. The front of the building, which was divided by a partition, had a long counter where people could place their purchases. A battery-operated cash register, a calculator, several stacks of notepaper, and some pens had been placed on the end of the counter where Rebekah would wait on her customers. Several gas lanterns would light this section of the building, and a small woodstove would heat the building during the chilly winter months.