The Miting: An Old Order Amish Novel, page 11
After the celery prep was finished, she and Jacob were assigned to mapping the placement of the benches and tables. Jacob had a good eye for how to fit all the benches in the barn, and of course the bride and groom had decided where the eck would be placed.
This was the corner where two tables and benches met and the bride and groom sat. To their left and right, the attendants assembled, boys across from girls down each side of the corner.
“Aren’t you glad we’re already considered a couple, Leah?” Jacob grinned.
“Ja. I would hate to be waiting to see who Sara was going to pair me up with like I did last year at Katie Weaver’s wedding. It was so embarrassing having both Miller brothers tell me they didn’t want to walk in with me. Talk about a red face!”
“Ah, those guys didn’t know a good thing when they saw it, Leah. You know they were both trying to get Red John Yoder’s sister.”
“I knew that, but it didn’t make me feel any better when I was among the last waiting to be placed with someone. Awful.”
“This time, you’ll be with me, and you won’t have to worry about being alone.”
Leah smiled and bent to wipe down the table in front of her. Her thoughts drifted to the day when she would be making these same marriage preparations. Would she be sitting at the eck with Jacob? She glanced his way and felt her cheeks flame. His long eyelashes fanned down and lifted, fanned down and lifted as his gaze shifted in his work. She’d never noticed before how long and dark his lashes were. He glanced up, caught her scrutiny, and gave a quick wink in return. She blushed. One thing was sure: working with Jacob made the whole event more fun.
After the two finished setting up the tables, they wandered back to the kitchen and found Sara and her sisters, along with most of the wedding party, working hard.
“What can Leah and I do next?” Jacob asked.
Sara turned to him, her cheeks flushed pink against her ivory skin. The wedding preparations were tedious and hard, but Sara was surprisingly resilient. “Oh! I know! Can you and Leah go to Henry Miller’s and get some platters that my aunt is loaning us? And also, Matthew Bontrager’s—they said they can loan some of their flatware.”
Sara continued with a smile. “And thanks, Leah, for helping Daniel wash our new dishes. That’s one less thing I have to do today. I’m going to place them on the eck table, and it was such a pleasant surprise to see them already washed and ready to be used.”
Leah acknowledged the thanks with a grin. “I’m glad I could do it for you, Sara.”
Jacob and Leah climbed in his buggy and rode off to the neighbors to get the borrowed items. Daniel and Sara’s wedding would be relatively small compared to some Old Order weddings, but they still had to feed more than 175 people, and that would take a lot of silverware and dishes. It was customary to borrow enough from family and friends to fill out the tables. Some helpers were already lined up for sink duty in case the dishes had to be washed and reused throughout the day.
On the way to the Millers’, Leah told Jacob more about the Bible study she’d attended the previous week. He listened and then asked what her parents thought of it.
Leah made a face. “You know that already. Daet is dead-set against me going, and he has already told the Schrocks that he will not accept any more of their orders and that my going to their Bible study is out of the question.”
“I know how much you’d like to study Scripture, but maybe if you just stopped all this talk about it for a while, your parents would be more open to letting you go again someday.”
She snorted, shaking her head. “As long as Daet is thinking about Martha Mast and what Bishop Miller said about Matthew Schrock, he isn’t likely to change his mind. He’s bound and determined to keep me from being like Martha, and he wants to protect and control my every move.”
“Try being patient with him. He just wants to keep you safe. Any man would.”
Leah swallowed hard at the implication.
“Soon, he’ll realize you aren’t going down the same road as Martha. Which reminds me: how much do you know about the new ex-Amish friends Abe Troyer has linked up with?”
Leah glanced at Jacob, noting how he eyed her steadily. “Not very good people, I’m afraid. She told me a little bit about them. They have some bad habits I wish Martha wouldn’t get involved in.”
“Did she say anything about drugs?” he asked carefully.
“Yes. She said Abe is smoking pot now. I wish that weren’t true.”
“It’s more than pot, Leah.”
“No! You mean, like cocaine or something?” Leah was alarmed by this news. Martha seemed to be jumping from the frying pan right into the fire with her decision to leave her family and move in with Abe.
“Oxycontin, crack—that’s what I’m hearing from the boys who are hanging around with Abe.”
“Jacob, I never dreamed Martha could get messed up in such things. That Abe—what in the world is wrong with him?”
“He’s going wild right now. No other explanation for it.”
They rode back to the Wengerd home in silence, and she prayed Martha would not cause herself even more sorrow with this latest direction she was taking. If Leah’s parents knew even a little of what Martha and her friends were caught up in, it was no wonder they were being overly strict with her.
The rest of the long day of work was nearing an end, and Ada and Leah said good-bye to their friends. It was time to head home. Jacob drove them, chatting amiably with Ada all the way. Leah appreciated his kindness to her sister. It also distracted Ada enough not to tease Jacob and her. There would be enough teasing going on at the wedding.
Leah fell into bed that night, exhausted and weary, but right before she went to sleep, she opened up the little New Testament and looked for the first chapter of John. Different verses leapt out at her as she read.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
She thought about that and then continued reading, until she came to one that she remembered from the Shrocks’ Bible study: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Further into John, she read, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
Leah sat up straighter as she read that last verse. She read it again and again and yet again. Her heart raced as the meaning sank in. Tears fell. She was learning something she’d never given any thought to before: through Christ alone, she could be set free.
CHAPTER NINE
Morning chores started early on this important day, and Leah was up with the rest of the bustling household. The service would start at 9:00 a.m. and last until noon, so she had to be sure to get a good breakfast. She pulled the new dress out, carefully smoothed it, pulled it over her head, and then put on the apron. She fastened all the pins and fastened her kapp securely, making sure her bangs were neatly tucked behind her ears.
Breakfast was a hurried and harried affair. Daniel was understandably nervous, and Maem was a mixture of sadness and excitement. The Raber family was small in number by Amish standards, and Daniel was Maem’s firstborn. Leah knew her maem must be thinking of how fast they were all growing up, and by the end of the day Daniel would be on his own with his new bride.
Leah caught a glimpse of Maem wiping her eyes as she turned to the stove. Most Amish didn’t think it good to show too much emotion, especially on such an auspicious and holy day for Sara and Daniel, but she supposed that all maems felt the fleeting years at the marriage of their first child.
When breakfast was finished, they divided the family into two buggies: Daniel and Benny in one buggy, and everyone else in the other. Daniel looked handsome in his black suit and bow tie—the only day a tie was not considered too high and mighty.
The Wengerds’ neighbors had offered their barn for the wedding service because it would be challenging for Sara’s family to ready their own barn for the service and convert the place for the lunch and dinner, too.
The service started with singing from the Ausbund. Leah watched as Daniel and Sara quietly made their way to the group of preachers and the bishop at the front of the room. The couple followed the leaders out of the barn for their counseling or abroth session while the guests sang the first of many songs.
The congregation neared the end of the Lobleid, the last song of the service, when Daniel and Sara reappeared along with the preachers and Bishop Miller. The bride and groom sat facing one another with their attendants on either side of them.
Then the preaching began, and Leah yawned discreetly, giving a little shake of her head. The droning on of the preaching combined with a late night and hard work was making it difficult for her to keep her eyes open. She inched forward on the bench to steal a glance in Jacob’s direction. He was also stifling a yawn. Leah smiled.
The next preacher started his sermon in the Old Testament and gave examples of godly marriages, beginning with Adam and Eve. By the time the congregation had sung more songs, prayed, and then waited through another long sermon about New Testament marriages, Leah thought she would surely disgrace herself by falling asleep right on the bench in front of the whole church. Finally, the bishop finished his sermon and addressed the bride and groom directly for the first time that morning.
“Here we have two of one faith, Daniel L. Raber and Sara M. Miller. If there is anyone present who knows any scriptural reason why these two may not be married, let yourself be heard now.” Bishop Miller paused for a full thirty seconds while Daniel and Sara sat tensely in the silence.
The bishop turned to Daniel and Sara and stated, “If it is yet your desire to be married, you may, in the name of the Lord, come forward.” Daniel and Sara stood, joined hands, and approached the bishop.
“Daniel, do you believe and confess that it is scriptural order for one man and one woman to become one, and state that you have been led thus far?”
“I do.”
“Sara, do you believe and confess that is it scriptural order for one man and one woman to become one, and state that you have been led thus far?”
Sara answered softly, “I do.”
Turning back to Daniel, Bishop Miller asked, “Can you, brother, state that the Lord directs you to take your sister as your wife?”
“I can.”
The bishop asked Sara if she could state that the Lord had directed her to take Daniel as her husband, and having received her positive answer, he went to the next question.
“Daniel, do you promise to support your wife when she is in weakness, sickness, what trials may befall you, and stand as a Christian husband?”
Daniel promised he would and Sara promised to support Daniel, too.
The bishop turned again to Daniel to ask the last question: “Can you vow to remain together and have love, compassion, and patience for one another and not to part from one another until the beloved God shall part you in death?”
With their answers of “I will,” the wedding service neared completion.
After a special prayer, the bishop said to Daniel and Sara, “Go forth in the name of the Lord. You are now man and wife.”
The bishop finished his sermon, the congregation knelt for prayer, and after singing a final wedding hymn, the ceremony was over. The congregation filed out, older men first, followed by younger, then the women in the same order. As the families broke line, they began to make their way to the Wengerd farm next door.
Jacob and Leah climbed into a buggy with Sara’s sister and Daniel’s friend, and the hoslers whisked them, along with the bride and groom, back to the Wengerd place so the celebration could began.
The wonderful smells of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, dressing, corn, and creamed celery greeted the wedding party as they filed into the room and made their way to the eck. The table held an assortment of eck sachs. These decorated candy dishes were gifts from aunts and uncles, sisters, brothers, and cousins and were filled with brightly wrapped candies. Already, the little ones were hanging out near the eck, hoping to receive a sweet treat from the bride or groom.
Once Sara and Daniel were seated, the wedding party followed and the ecktenders came to serve the food. Leah was nervous being in the spotlight for the first time with Jacob across from her. Her parents knew, of course, they were a couple, but now that the other wedding guests were watching and gossiping about who was sitting across from whom, she dropped her eyes to the table, smoothing a wrinkle near her plate. She could still hear whispers and snatches of conversation in the crowded room. “Look, Leah and Jacob are together!” “I hope he knows the girl well.” “Do you think they’ll get married?”
As she raised her eyes, Jacob grinned. “Gut dinner, right? Let’s enjoy the day. Ignore the talk.”
She smiled back at him. “Why not?”
Once the wedding party finished with lunch, Daniel and Sara went off to open a few gifts and to rest before coming back for the evening meal.
Jacob and Leah wandered out to the area where chairs and blankets had been spread under a giant oak. It was quiet and a little chilly outside, but she was happy to have a few minutes out of the public eye. They sat down on a brightly patterned quilt, and she rested her head against the tree. Jacob barely spoke, but she felt his gaze on her from time to time. She was tired, but she still had the dinner and singing to attend.
“Sara and Daniel are truly married now, Jacob. It’s hard for me to imagine he’ll be living on his own.”
“They’re lucky to have a house to go to right away. Not so many have that luxury.”
“Yes. The empty dadihaus turned out to be a good thing for my brother.”
“They’ll do fine, Leah.” He took her hand. “Maybe we’ll have that kind of luck someday.”
Leah smiled, the feeling of his hand on hers causing her mind to speed forward—seeing the future—their church membership—their wedding day—their family. Suddenly, the thought of all those years stretching ahead, being Amish for the rest of her life—always doing, never questioning—dimmed her smile. Could she ever again think of living and dying Amish without panic rising to choke her dreams? She moved back slightly from Jacob, and eased her hand from his. The look of puzzlement she glimpsed in his eyes tugged at her heart.
I’m not being fair to him. He doesn’t understand that my worries are not about him, but about the church. About being Amish.
Just as she was wondering how to explain, a small group of women approached the tree from behind them, not seeing the two under the canopy of branches. Before Jacob or Leah could greet them, they heard the ladies’ laughter. Leah caught Martha’s name, followed quickly by her own.
“And that Martha Mast, she’s going to be banned for sure, if she ever decides to join church. I’ve never seen such willful disobedience from a girl. And Leah! If that were my daughter …”
“It makes me wonder why the bishop hasn’t already warned Martha she’s in deep trouble if she keeps this up. She’s an awful influence on the young people.”
“She hasn’t joined the church yet. He can’t really put the ban on her, but he could ask her parents to show her how it will feel to be shunned. That might get her attention.”
“And what about Leah Raber? She’s almost as bad, though some would say that going to an Englisher Bible study isn’t nearly so wild, but getting involved with those Schrocks! It’s like she’s trying to be English. When I asked her maem, she shook her head and said no, like I was making that up, or something.”
“Ja. It’s best to nip that kind of behavior in the bud while you can. Her parents are good people; it’s a shame—”
At this point, Jacob cleared his throat and the ladies became aware of Jacob and Leah’s presence. They stopped talking mid-sentence but were sensitive enough to turn red at their blunder.
“Good afternoon.” Jacob nodded to the ladies. They nodded back, glanced at Leah, and hurried back to the house.
Leah stood, her heart beating wildly and her cheeks flaming at what she’d heard. She had to get away from the talk and the scrutiny. Her feet turned automatically toward home.
“Leah,” Jacob called softly. She stopped, waiting for him to come near.
“Don’t pay attention to those ladies. They don’t know the real you or what you’re going through.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “That’s just the problem. No one understands what I’m going through. No one.”
Jacob tilted his head, pushing his hat back. He studied her, a sudden longing covering his face. “I’d like to understand, Leah. You could help me understand.” He reached out and wiped a tear from her cheek. His touch was gentle and kind—everything Jacob did for her was gentle and kind.
She swallowed. Why can’t I just give in and stop worrying?
Just then she spied the women hovering near the back porch, eyeing her and Jacob like a group of black-winged ravens hungry for juicy gossip. Their ebony bonnets hid their faces, but she knew how much they would love to watch her for life: waiting for the moment when she would fail. And she knew she would fail. There was no way she could ever lead a perfect Amish life.
“I’m very tired, Jacob. What do you suppose would happen if we just left and you took me home?”
“Some will wonder where we are—but I could come back and tell them you have a headache or something.”
She considered his offer. It didn’t seem right to let him make excuses for her, but the increasing pounding in her head would not be a lie. The thought of home and quiet and her soft clean pillow drew her.
