An Amish Kitchen, page 16
“Don’t be silly. It’s going to be in the teens tonight and snowing. Even with the tarps and the fireplace, I can’t even cook us a meal.”
Eve’s gas range was only a year old, and her propane refrigerator wasn’t much older than that. Both would have to be replaced, along with the oak dining room set Benny had built when they were first married, with seating for eight. Losing the dining room furniture upset her more than the other losses. But she reminded herself that they were all safe and silently thanked God again.
“Now get moving,” she said with a clap of her hands. “We need to be there before dark.”
Back downstairs, she carefully stepped over debris and made her way to what was left of the kitchen. Benny was holding his black felt hat in one hand, stroking his gray-speckled brown beard with the other, and eyeing the mess.
“Is it really going to take two months before we can move back?” Eve shuddered. She and her mother didn’t see eye-to-eye on most things, and Mamm wasn’t used to having three teenage boys around either.
“Depends on the weather.” Benny finished looking around before he walked to Eve and pulled her close. “It won’t be so bad.”
Eve’s head rested against her husband’s chest as he towered over her by a foot. “You don’t know my mother the way I do.” She sighed.
After making up the sleeper sofa in her sewing room, Rosemary put fresh sheets on the two beds upstairs where the twins would sleep, then made her way to Eve’s old bedroom. Her daughter’s room hadn’t changed all that much since Eve had moved out to marry Benjamin over twenty years ago. She ran her hand along the finely stitched quilt on the bed with its mottled cream background, golden yellows, and soft blues bursting from a star in the center. Rosemary had given Eve the quilt on her sixteenth birthday, but Eve left it when she’d married, opting to take a brand-new double-ringed wedding quilt that Benjamin’s mother and sisters had made for her.
As it should be.
Rosemary sighed.
She eased a finger across the top of the oak dresser and pulled back a layer of dust, then reached for a rag in her apron pocket. After wiping the piece of furniture from top to bottom, she inspected the rest of the small room, dabbing at a cobweb in the corner above where the rocking chair was. She could remember sitting in the rocker, Eve swaddled in her arms, rocking until late in the night. Her only child had suffered a bad case of colic. She turned toward the bedroom door when her husband walked in.
“Everything is gut, Rosie. You’re fretting too much.” Joseph pushed his thick, black glasses up on his nose. “You’d think the bishop was coming to stay. It’s just Eve, Big Ben, and the kinner.” Like most folks in the community, Joseph referred to Benjamin as Big Ben because he was a bear of a man, stout and tall, towering over almost everyone. Rosemary still called him Benjamin because that’s what she’d called him since he was born.
“I’m not fretting.” Rosemary raised her chin as she folded her trembling hands together in front of her. “I just want things to be nice for Eve and her family.”
Joseph shook his head and stared at her. “You worry too much.”
“I do not. I’m not worried about their stay. Why do you say that?” Rosemary looked away from her husband’s soft brown eyes as she positioned the Bible and box of tissues on the nightstand.
“You know just what I’m sayin’.” Joseph tipped back the rim of his black hat just enough so that Rosemary could see how much his gray bangs needed a trim. He tapped a finger against his thick beard of the same color and raised a bushy eyebrow. “You know that when Eve is here in our haus for two months, she will see . . .” He paused as Rosemary clenched her fingers tightly together. “She will see how things are.”
“Joseph Chupp, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rosemary moved toward the bedroom door and tried to ease past him, but Joseph blocked her, gently grasping her shoulders.
“Talk to Eve, Rosie. Tell her everything. Let her help you.”
“There is nothing to tell.” Rosemary shook loose of his hold. “And I don’t need any help. I am quite capable of running mei own home, preparing meals for you, and tending to everything else around here. I’m not a feeble old woman.” She scowled. “So stop acting like I’ve got one foot in the grave.”
“I didn’t say that, lieb. But I think—”
She maneuvered her way around him and shook her head. “Let me be. I have much to do.”
Once she’d reached the bottom of the stairs, she crossed the den and went into the kitchen, going straight to a large pot of stew she had simmering on the stove. She fought the tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she picked up the spoon on the counter. With concentrated effort, she gripped the ladle full-fisted and shakily swirled it around the thick, meaty soup, praying that the Lord would keep her hand steady.
Eve’s family lived almost nine miles outside of Paradise, just far enough to make it quite the haul by buggy, so most of Rosemary and Joseph’s visiting with their daughter and her family was done after worship service every other Sunday. The thought of all of them under the same roof for two months was exciting. And terrifying.
Rosemary jumped when she heard a knock at the front door.
CHAPTER TWO
EVE FORCED A SMILE WHEN HER MOTHER OPENED THE large wooden door, then pushed the screen wide. “Wie bischt, Mamm?”
“Gut, gut. Come in.” Her mother smoothed the wrinkles from her black apron as she stepped aside so Eve could enter the living room, then waited while Benny and the three boys toted in the suitcases and duffel bags.
Eve breathed in the aroma of her childhood home. There was always a piney clean fragrance mingled with a hint of whatever Mamm might be cooking. Eve hung her black cape and bonnet on the rack by the door and glanced around the room. Her mother’s oatmeal-and-honey hand lotion was on the end table next to her side of the couch. She’d been making and using the lotion for as long as Eve could remember. After devotion time in the evenings, her mother would smooth the silky balm on rough hands, worn from a hard day’s work.
Eve hadn’t been in her parents’ home in a couple of months. She blamed it on the distance between their houses and the fact that she saw them every other Sunday at someone else’s homestead for worship, but she knew it was more than that. Her mother didn’t approve of the way Eve and Benny raised the children. “Too many freedoms,” she’d always say. Eve had grown weary of her mother’s lectures years ago.
It also upset Eve to see the way her parents lived. She’d tried for years to get her mother to upgrade to appliances and other household fixtures that would make their lives easier, things that Bishop Smucker approved of, like propane lighting. But Mamm insisted on using lanterns to light the entire house, which became more and more of a fire hazard the older her parents got. The same lantern was on the mantel from many years ago, and when Eve turned to her left, she saw another one on the coffee table—just the way it had always been. Both her parents had poor eyesight, especially her father, who was almost blind without his thick, black-rimmed glasses. Eve had told them repeatedly that propane lighting would brighten up the room and help them to see better, but Mamm said such technology wasn’t necessary. She also used the same gas stove that she’d had since before Eve was born, one so ancient she had to light the pilot in the oven as well as the top burners.
Eve walked to the fireplace, pulled off her black gloves, and warmed her hands by the fire as Benny and the boys continued to haul in their necessities.
“I have you and Benjamin in your old room.” Mamm joined Eve by the fire. “We’ll put the twins in the extra bedroom and Leroy in my sewing room on the pullout couch.”
“That sounds gut.” Eve managed another brief smile, although she couldn’t help but wonder if God was punishing her for something. Two months here with her mother would be a nightmare. That wouldn’t be the case with her father. He mostly stayed in the background and let Mamm run things, which was exactly the opposite of how it should be. Everyone knew that the man should be the head of the household.
Her father came from his bedroom around the corner from the living room, waving to everyone as they entered. “Come in, come in . . . out of this wedder.” He kissed Eve on the cheek the way he always did when he saw her, then shook hands with Benny and all three boys. Eve glanced at her mother, who had never been affectionate. Eve didn’t have the energy to change things. Instead, she was overly affectionate with her own children and made sure they’d never feel unloved.
“Follow me, and we’ll get you all set up while the womenfolk work on some supper.” Daed motioned for Eve’s clan to follow him upstairs, and Eve followed her mother into the kitchen. She could see snow starting to fall outside the window as night was almost completely upon them. They’d made it there just in time, and Eve was hoping her house wouldn’t be damaged any further from bad weather.
“It smells gut in here.” Eve walked to the old white gas range and fought the urge to say anything. She’d asked her mother only once why they didn’t buy a newer model, one with an electronic ignition that would be easier—and safer—for them to use. Mamm had scowled and said it was too Englischy, a term that Eve had never heard anyone except her mother use. “What can I do to help?”
“You can set the table.” Mamm pointed to a hutch on the far wall in the large kitchen. “And use the gut dishes.”
Eve hesitated. Her mother only used the good dishes at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other special occasions. But Eve didn’t want to give her any reason to argue so soon after they’d arrived, so she went to the hutch and pulled out seven of the large white china plates. She was setting the last one in place around the large table in the middle of the room when her father, Benny, and the boys walked into the room. Eve had already instructed her sons about not using cell phones, earbuds, or other electronics around her parents—especially their mammi. After a small rebellion, they’d all agreed. And Eve had told Amos, “If possible, try not to let Mammi see that lizard.”
Eve remembered when she’d turned sixteen, excited to participate in all the things that the rumschpringe offered. It should have been a time to explore the outside world, go to movies, ride in cars, wear Englisch clothes, listen to the radio, and own a cell phone—if portable phones had been common and affordable back then. But Eve’s parents had been much too old-fashioned and overprotective for any of that. Eve had hidden the few things that she did do from her parents—the same way she was making her own kinner do now.
She wasn’t thrilled that all of her boys were actively taking advantage of this time period, but that’s the way things were done. Children should be allowed to experience the outside world, then make a decision whether or not to be baptized into the community. It was every parent’s fear that one of their children would choose not to stay, but Eve knew that she and Benny had educated the boys well about the Ordnung. All she could do was pray that they’d all seek baptism. Leroy was scheduled to be baptized in the spring, which made Eve think that there would be a proposal in the works too. Her oldest son had been courting Lena Byler for almost a year, and Lena was going to be christened into the community at that time as well.
Eve’s father sat in his spot at the head of the table, Leroy and Elias took the two seats to his left, and Amos and Benny sat across from them. When Eve’s mother sat down across from her father, Eve slipped into a chair beside Benny. They all bowed their heads in silent prayer, and Elias was the first one to speak.
“It’s so dark in here.” He glanced at the lantern hanging above the middle of the table, then at two others on the counter. All the kinner were used to the large propane lamps they had in their house.
“This is the way it has always been done, Amos.” Eve’s mother raised her chin as she passed a bowl of chow-chow to her right.
Eve cleared her throat. “Mamm, that’s Elias.”
Her mother shook her head. “Ach, I still can’t tell those boys apart.”
Eve smiled. “Most people can’t.” She ladled herself some stew from the large pot in the center of the table. Despite her anxiety about staying with her parents, she still thought her mother’s cooking was the best in the world.
Of course, if Mamm would wear her glasses more often and invest in some propane lighting, she’d have a better shot at identifying her own grandchildren. But to be fair, everyone in the community confused Amos and Elias. They were as identical as any twins could be, and the only thing most people used to distinguish them was that Amos stuttered sometimes. As a parent, Eve could tell them apart instantly before they even came within ten feet of her. Elias’s eyebrows were a tad bushier than Amos’s, and Elias had a freckle to the left of his right eye. One of Amos’s teeth on the bottom row was crooked a bit to the left, and his thumbnails were different from his brother’s, rounder. And to Eve, the boys just had a different scent. Maybe that was something only a mother noticed.
“I’m the handsome one,” Elias said with a mouthful of food.
Eve quickly corrected him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”
From there, the conversation turned to the work to be done on the house. The plan was that Eve’s father, Benny, and the three boys would tackle outdoor chores here first thing in the morning—get the chickens and pigs fed, stalls cleaned, horses tended, and cows milked—then they would go to the house to work. Various members of the community would show up as they could to lend a hand. Eve knew they could raise a barn in a day, and at first she’d questioned Benny as to why they couldn’t get her house put back together in a day too. Benny had started to explain the structural damage, but then he just shook his head and said, “We’ll get it livable as soon as we can.”
Eve glanced out the window, and the only propane light her parents allowed illuminated the yard, large flakes of snow falling in blankets. If bad weather continued, it was going to make repairs that much more difficult.
She thought about spending her days inside with no one else but her mother, and she wondered how this part of God’s plan for her life could be a good thing. It was only a matter of time before they began to disagree about everything from how Eve raised her children to updating this old house. As she finished the last of her stew, she determined that she was just going to keep quiet and let her mother run her own household and try not to cause any upset.
Elias put the lantern on the nightstand between him and Amos before he climbed under the covers fully dressed, leaving his shoes next to him on the floor. He flipped open his cell phone.
“You better not try to sneak out here. It ain’t gonna be as easy as at home.” Amos sat up on his bed, frowning in the dimly lit room.
“Mind your own business.” Elias propped himself against his pillow and tapped Elizabeth’s number. While it was ringing, he said to his brother, “Besides, I’m closer to Elizabeth’s haus here. Just barely a run through the Lapps’ pasture, and I can meet her at the barn behind her haus.”
“I—I reckon if you’d got caught sneaking out at home, you would’ve been in a b-big enough heap of trouble. But if you get caught sneaking out of Mammi and Daadi’s haus, you’re r-really gonna get it.”
Elias closed the phone when Elizabeth didn’t answer, then glanced at the battery bars. Only one left. Tomorrow he’d need to find some power to recharge, which might be a challenge since he’d be with his father and other members of the community working on their house. His father had insisted both Elias and Amos take a leave from their part-time jobs at the market in Bird-in-Hand to work full-time on the reconstruction. Leroy had also been told to put his job on hold at the construction company where he worked. Leroy’s supervisor hadn’t taken the news as well as the twins’ boss at the market, but the older man had eventually agreed.
This new work schedule put a glitch in Elias’s plans. First, it would be hard to charge his phone. Second, he wouldn’t get to see Elizabeth. She’d been visiting him every day for two months during her lunch break from the bakery. Elias was sure their first kiss was coming soon.
“She’s not answering anyway.” Elias put the phone on the nightstand. He glanced out the window at the steady snowfall. It would have been a cold trek across the pasture, but seeing Elizabeth would have been worth it. “And ya know, Amos . . . you ain’t ever gonna get a girlfriend if you don’t give it more effort.”
Amos grunted. “Give it more effort? N-Now you’re talking like the Englisch. You probably want to—to be one of them.”
“Don’t be dumm. I’ll never leave here. I’ll marry Elizabeth, and we’ll have lots of kinner.” In the darkness he pointed a finger at his brother. “You’re the one always reading them Englisch magazines. You probably want to go live out there.” He waved his hand toward the window.
“Ain’t true. I mostly like the pictures anyway.” Amos lay down.
“You’re gonna be living with Mamm and Daed until you’re old, like twenty or something.” Elias folded his hands behind his head. His brother was so shy that he’d barely even talk to a girl; all he did was bury himself in books and magazines. Elias knew that it was partly because of his stuttering, but Amos was a good-looking guy. Elias grinned at the thought.
“Sh-shut up, Elias.”
“You shut up, Amos.” Elias shook his head, not in the mood to fight. He stood up and was just about to slip out of his trousers when the phone rang. He grabbed it and answered quickly as he sat back down on the bed.
Elizabeth’s sweet voice was a whisper as she spoke. “Can you kumme?”
“Ya. Same plan. If I’m not there in thirty minutes, then I got caught leaving the haus.” He paused. “But since I’m at mei mammi and daadi’s haus, I’m closer, so maybe less than thirty minutes.”
“Gut. I’ll be in the barn. Be careful, Elias. It’s snowing hatt. Sure you want to kumme?” Before he had time to answer, she said, “I really want to see you.”
Elias smiled as his heart thumped in his chest. A blizzard wasn’t going to keep him from Elizabeth. He swallowed hard. “I want to see you too. Putting on my shoes and leaving.”
