LITMIR.BIZ

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are you doing there?”

      Elam sucked in a breath. Rachel peered over his shoulder as he screwed two pieces of wood together. “You want to scare a man to death?”

      “Ach, it’s not that easy to frighten you. If I had really wanted to, I would have snuck up even quieter.” Rachel stood with her arms crossed.

      “So you were trying to give me a heart attack. Isn’t it enough we’ve had an ambulance here once already today?”

      Naomi tugged on Rachel’s arm. “Come on, let’s have some lunch. The other girls are already sitting down to eat. It’s busy, and they’ll need us back soon. Especially with Sylvia not here.”

      Rachel nodded at Elam. “Why don’t you join us?”

      “Ja, I need a break.” Elam wiped his hands on his pants. “Let me wash up, and I’ll join you.”

      A scowl appeared on Naomi’s face. Well, she may not be happy about it, but that wouldn’t stop him from getting a bite to eat. More than anything, he wanted her forgiveness. Everyone’s forgiveness.

      After a stop in the washroom to scrub his hands and face, he joined the girls at a table away from where the customers ate their baked goods. Still the crowds stared, giggled and even pointed.

      The only spot available was on the end of the bench, right beside Naomi. He plopped down, and she scooted as far away from him as possible, knocking elbows with Rachel as she unwrapped her sandwich from the wax paper. Rachel scraped some dilly chicken salad onto a paper plate and handed it to Elam.

      He ate a few bites before turning to Naomi. “When would be a gut time to get together to work on the auction? I can speak to Sylvia when she returns from the hospital, find out what Simon has planned and what we still need to do. Maybe tomorrow night?”

      “I told you I’m not working with you. You volunteered for this. Take care of it on your own.” Her words were so icy, her breath should have puffed in small clouds in front of her.

      “Wait.” He grabbed her by the forearm. She winced and pulled away. Should he press the matter? Ja, what did he have to lose? He had promised Simon. “You haven’t heard the best part yet.”

      “There’s more?” She hugged herself.

      “We can make it the biggest, most successful auction yet if you tell your story about Daniel and Joseph to the newspapers across the state. The Englisch will flock here to buy quilts and furniture and baked goods, all to support a widow and her little son.”

      She clenched her fists and sat back, almost tilting off the bench. “You want me to do what?” She almost screeched by the end.

      He closed his eyes and grimaced. Once again, he had managed to anger her. He couldn’t seem to do anything else.

      * * *

      A cold sweat broke out all over Naomi. “Absolutely not.” She kept her voice low to avoid drawing attention from the bakery’s customers for the second time today but stern enough for Elam to be clear about her desires. “I will not help you with the auction. And I will not, under any circumstance, go to the papers.” She wadded up her sandwich wrapper and stuffed it into her bag.

      He opened his eyes, and a vein in his neck throbbed. “After all this time, are you still so angry?”

      Her thoughts scrambled in her brain like eggs in a frying pan. How did she identify this burning in her chest? Anger? Or something just the opposite? “So much has changed since the night of the accident. So much that can never be undone. Don’t you understand?”

      “I do. But you once claimed to love me. Didn’t that mean anything? Can’t you forgive me?”

      She breathed in and out, the back of her neck aching. “You ask too many difficult questions. Ones I don’t have the answers for, that I may never have the answers for. I’m dealing with my husband’s loss and my son’s serious illness and disability. Isn’t that enough?”

      The other women gathered the remains of their lunches and meandered inside to resume work. Naomi rose, as well. With a brush of his hand against hers, time stood still. Just like years ago, her knees went mushy, and she thumped into her seat. She nodded at Rachel to stay. Her friend shrugged and bit into a peanut butter cookie.

      Elam plowed ahead. “The auction is just a couple weeks away. If you’re going to tell your story to the papers, we have to contact the reporters soon. You want to give their readers enough notice so they can make plans to come here.”

      “It’s bad enough to have these people here, staring at us. We’re nothing more than a tourist attraction.” She motioned wide, her gesture sweeping over the lot packed with cars, one pulling up the gravel driveway every couple of minutes. “But to encourage even more of them to come, that’s not a gut idea.”

      “What are they going to do?”

      “Disrupt our lives. Mine has been stretched and changed until I don’t recognize it. I don’t need any further interference.” Couldn’t he go away and leave her alone? Just leave her in peace? “Why are you even back in the area? Do you want to bring the Englisch to us?”

      “Nein, not at all.”

      But he had abandoned her. When she’d gone to him for comfort, he had left. And hadn’t returned until now. “Don’t you miss the friends you made out there?”

      “I missed the Amish much more.”

      “And your family? How do they feel about you being back? Won’t they miss you when you leave again?”

      “I’m home to stay, Naomi.”

      She couldn’t help but be doubtful. Forever didn’t mean much to him.

      He stabbed his plastic fork on his plate. “Listen to me. The most important person to you in your life is your son, nein?”

      “Ja, that’s right.”

      “He’s beautiful, Naomi. Such a gift from the Lord. All you have left of Daniel.”

      Rachel stared straight ahead, her eyes filling with tears. “My brother would have done anything for his little boy.”

      “He would have been a wunderbaar daed.” Naomi patted Rachel’s hand.

      Elam nodded. “Parents are like that. They would make any sacrifice for their children. Even though I’m not a daed yet, I know I would walk to the moon if I thought it would help my children. Isn’t giving Joseph the best chance at a happy, healthy life worth anything you might have to do to make that happen?”

      Tears now clouded Naomi’s eyes. The way Elam had of putting things... “Of course. That’s why I’m working here. That’s why I take him to the doctor, why I walk the floor with him at night, sing to him, love him. But there are things I can think of that I wouldn’t do.”

      “Wouldn’t you do anything that was legal, moral and ethical?”

      “Maybe.” Every time Elam came near her, she couldn’t think straight. He spoke with pretty words and was very convincing. If he were Englisch, perhaps he would be a lawyer.

      “All you would have to do is sit down with a couple of reporters and tell your story. Tell them how much you love Joseph. What he means to you. And the good the auction does, not only for your son, but for people like Aaron and Simon and my daed.”

      All of her muscles tensed. She couldn’t cry. Wouldn’t let him see how much he affected her. But the back of her throat burned.

      Why did God have to take Daniel? Why did He have to make Joseph so sick? And why had He brought Elam back?

      “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

       Chapter

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