“Did something happen?” he asked. “Are you hurt?”
Maria stared at her hands, folded tightly in her lap. She wasn’t hurt. At least not in the way she suspected he meant. “I’m okay,” she uttered in a shaky voice.
“Someone got to you, didn’t they? Who was it?” he asked, standing up and looking towards the door as if he was about to rush into the street to hunt down whoever made Maria feel as she did.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Just some boys. Having a little fun at my expense.”
Eldon clenched his jaw. “They don’t understand what it’s like. They are ignorant.”
Maria nodded. “I’ll pray for them.”
Eldon turned back to her, coming a step closer, his face beginning to relax. “Yes,” he agreed. “That’s what we should do.”
Maria thought it was strange that Eldon wanted to be a part of it. It had been her encounter and it was her problem. The fact that he wanted to join her in prayer for the boys who had taunted her did not escape her.
Eldon bent over and took Maria’s hands in his, lifting her to her feet. He bowed his head and said a brief prayer asking the Lord to forgive her tormenters and for God to show them the error of their ways.
As the prayer finished, Maria raised her head and finally looked around the small shop. There were pieces of furniture in all different stages of completion littered across the space. Each item she saw was more beautiful than the next.
“Eldon,” she gasped, running her hand over a tabletop nearby, “this is truly beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”
“Neither have I,” he said, looking at her in a meaningful way that told her he wasn’t talking about the furniture.
Maria cleared her throat. “What do you do with it all?” she asked, avoiding the insinuation behind his statement.
“I sell some of it to the store up front there,” he said nodding towards the furniture store Maria had seen the other day. “Some is ordered specifically by people in the area and I deliver the items when I’m through. Other things, well, there are a few that I haven’t been able to part with,” he said, knocking on a rocking chair towards the back of the shed. “I’m hoping to create a home of my own soon and when I do, I’ll have a few things to take along with me.”
Maria smiled. His home would be beautifully decorated with his own furniture. She couldn’t imagine a nicer way to start a life.
“I’m so thankful that you came here today,” Eldon said. “You have no idea how good it is to see someone…” he drifted off, but Maria knew what he was thinking. In fact, she had been thinking the same thing. It was true that she had only been away for a short period of time and she knew that the days ahead would likely get harder. But seeing Eldon in the middle of a shed with furniture that looked so much like home made her feel as if home was much closer than it really was.
“Now that you’re here,” he said, pulling a knotty bench out from under a nearby table. “It’s time for me to make good on my promise.”
Maria sat down on the bench, running her hand over the smooth surface as she did. Eldon sat next to her and she felt his hip brush hers.
“I don’t know where to start,” he said. “But this is a story you deserve to hear. I want you to know everything that happened. I know you need to know before you can make any decisions about me.”
Maria wondered how he could be so in tune with what she was thinking. Perhaps because he had grown up in the same Amish community. He knew their ways and their lines of thought. Either way, she liked that he seemed to know what she wanted without her having to say anything at all.
“It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Eldon began. “But to be perfectly honest with you, if I had to go back and do it all over again, I don’t think I would change anything I did.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Eldon took a deep breath, preparing to tell his story. "Do you remember my father?" He asked.
Maria allowed herself to picture him. He went to be with The Lord just two years prior. It had been a farm related incident and though she didn't know the details, she was horrified but his untimely passing. Hank had been a large man with broad shoulders, big hands, and a thick neck. He was suited for the field nearly as much as a strong ox. Like many of the Amish, he married young so Maria had never seen his full face. His large beard shadowed the bottom half of his face enough to hide his smile. "Yes, I remember him," she said. "I was sure sorry to hear about his passing. The whole community was in shock." Maria wondered how the news impacted Eldon here on the outside. Had he heard right away or was the funeral over by the time the news spread? She wanted to know how he handled losing his father but she didn't feel right about asking at that moment. This was his story to tell and she needed to let him tell it in his own way.
"I learned nearly everything I know about the community from my father," Eldon continued. "I looked up to him and took any advice he gave almost as if it came right from God," he paused taking another deep breath. Maria could see he was through the easy part of the story. This is where things took a turn and she would find out what really happened.
"You know I went out on Rumspringa myself and I came back and quickly got baptized. I had every intention of staying with the community until my dying day. I even hoped that I would find a woman and marry within a few years," Eldon paused, glancing at Maria.
"When my sister went out on rumspringa the very next year I could tell my mother was having a hard time of it. God only gave my parents the two of us and my sister was her baby. Seeing that she was growing up was rough. After she left I found my mother crying one afternoon and since my father was in the fields I took it upon myself to comfort her. I hugged her tightly," Eldon stopped, looking off into the distance before starting again. "She squealed in pain and drew back and at first I thought I had hugged her too tightly and hurt her somehow. But I hardly touched her and I could just feel something in the air, you know? Something was wrong."
Maria knew what he meant. She felt that way often right before one of her family members took ill. Something was just off.
"Anyway," he said, wiping his palms against his pants, "I did what I needed to do and I asked. She was hurt and my spirit knew it so I asked. First I asked if she was okay and she told me that she'd be fine in time. That told me that she was indeed hurt like I suspected. Then, I took it a step farther and asked her how she was hurt and what had happened. If I hadn't asked that question...my whole world would likely be different today."
Maria understood what Eldon was saying. It was against the Amish way to lie. His mother was a devoted member. When asked a direct question, especially by a male member of the family, she would have felt as if she had to answer truthfully. She could not ignore what Eldon asked and, if she wanted to please God, she could not lie either. Maria leaned a little closer to Eldon. She could almost hear his heart besting faster as he told his tale.
"My mother informed me that she had a broken rib and that it had been caused by..." Eldon’s shoulders heaved and Maria thought he was about to cry, "by my father," he finished. "Something about the wash not being right. I don't know," he shrugged. "That part doesn't matter. The point is that he hurt her.”
Maria tried to understand how he might feel finding out that his father injured his mother. Maria knew that she would have been devastated. Her father was very important to her, but her mother meant the world to her. She never wanted her to experience any harm, especially from her own husband.
"What did you do?" she asked quietly, wanting to put her hand in his to comfort him but holding herself back.
"I asked more questions that I didn't really want to hear answers to," he said, taking the initiative and placing his hand over hers. Maria felt his fingers wrap around her hand. He squeezed his hand closed and she knew he was taking comfort in her presence and nothing more. "I asked her if it had happened before and she couldn't even look me in the eye. She just nodded."
Maria was in shock. She hadn't really crossed paths with Hank much but he seemed like a good man. Hitting his wife once might have been an accident, but multiple occasions? There was no excuse.
"My mother had become very good at hiding things. And the dresses you all wear can hide a lot."
Maria wondered how many times she had encountered the woman when she might have had bruises within an arm’s length of Maria without her ever knowing. She squeezed Eldon’s fingers to encourage him to continue.
"She begged me not to say anything to my father, but I felt like I had to. He had given up his place as the righteous man in the house. If it had happened before, it would happen again.”
Maria dreaded what came next. She feared for Eldon’s mom as well as for Eldon himself. Hank was big and strong and based on what she'd heard so far, he was used to getting his way.
"I called a family meeting and I confronted my father. My mother shrank inside herself. It was as if she got smaller before my eyes. When I accused my father of his wrongdoings I told him he needed to atone for his sins. He needed to speak to elders in the church and repent. Before he could admit or deny anything, my mother came out of nowhere in his defense. She grew out of her chair and rose up right in front of me. She told me that she had forgiven him and there was nothing anyone else could say on the matter.”
Maria knew the Amish were supposed to forgive, but she also felt an apology was in order in this situation before Eldon’s mother could issue such forgiveness. It sounded as if Hank had issues and those needed to be dealt with.
"My father sat silent for a long time as my mother stared me down. When he finally chimed in he told me that I needed to issue forgiveness and that if I did not, I would be going against our ways. I couldn't believe my ears. Not only was he not apologetic but he was asking me to forgive."
Eldon brought Maria's hand up to his face and held it against his forehead. "I should have known then I was sunk. After a few days of silence in our family home an elder came to me and said that I was being accused of disrespecting my parents because of my lack of forgiveness. I believe to this day that the elder didn’t know why. If he did surely he would have gone to my father as well. I didn't feel like I could tell him because that would just be gossip, an even worse offense."
Maria was starting to see where all of this was going. The elder demanded that Eldon atone for his lack of forgiveness and he would not. The shun was placed on him and things went downhill from there.
"I thought I could deal with being shunned," he said. "I thought I was doing what was right and nothing else mattered. But I didn't know what being shut out like that would do to me. The people I knew and loved were just gone and I was left with a shell of my old life."
Maria felt tears well up in her own eyes. She wanted to apologize for the part she played in Eldon’s agony. She wished she would have known the whole truth back then. She surely would have stood by his side.
"I was stuck," he continued, placing their joined hands on the bench between them. "I couldn't admit to any wrongdoing. But I couldn't forgive. I just couldn't. My father hurt my mother. It was not my place to forgive. But on the other hand," Eldon continued, turning over his empty hand, "I couldn't stand the shun either. It was unlike anything I can even describe."
