Allison's Journey Read online

  She nodded and tears sprang to her eyes. “I thought it would be easy, but I. . .I guess I was wrong.”

  “What were you tryin’ to do, make us all sick?” Walter wrapped his fingers around his throat and coughed several times.

  “There’s too much pepper in it, too,” Sarah sputtered. She grabbed her glass of water and gulped half of it down.

  “That will be enough about the coleslaw,” Uncle Ben admonished. “I’m sure Allison didn’t ruin it on purpose. Too much vinegar probably spilled from the bottle before she realized what had happened.”

  “I tried pouring some of that stuff onto a piece of cotton when I got a nosebleed a couple weeks ago,” Harvey put in. “It ran out all over the counter.”

  Allison was sure everyone was just trying to make her feel better, but their comments hadn’t helped. “No wonder Aunt Catherine never let me do much in the kitchen,” she mumbled. “She was probably afraid I’d make everyone sick.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” Aunt Mary said kindly. “All you need is a little more practice. By the end of the summer, you’ll probably be able to cook so well that your aunt Catherine will be happy to let you take over her kitchen when you return home.”

  “I doubt she’d let anyone take her place in the kitchen.” Allison sniffed. “Besides, it’s not just cooking I can’t do well.”

  “With my fraa as your teacher,” Uncle Ben said, looking over at Aunt Mary and giving her a wink, “I can almost guarantee that you’ll be ready to get married and run a house of your own by the end of summer.”

  Sarah’s head bobbed up and down. “Now we just need to find Allison a husband.”

  The telephone on Paul’s desk rang sharply, and Aaron reached for it since Paul was outside talking to a customer. “Zook’s Harness Shop,” he said. At least Paul hadn’t insisted on changing the name of their business to Hilty after he’d married Aaron’s mother. He’d been the one to suggest they put a phone in the shop, too, since it wasn’t allowed inside their home.

  “Aaron, is that you?”

  Aaron knew by the tone of his mother’s voice that she was upset about something. “Jah, Mom, it’s me. What’s wrong?”

  “Would you please put Paul on the phone?”

  “He’s outside talking to Noah Hertzler right now. Can I give him a message?”

  “The doctor thinks Emma’s problem is her appendix. He wants us to take her to the hospital right away.”

  Aaron gripped the receiver tightly. “If it bursts open, she could be in big trouble. Isn’t that right?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Do you want Paul to hire a driver and pick you and Emma up in Seymour, or are you coming home first?”

  “There’s no time to waste. I’ve hired a driver in town, so please ask your daed to get a driver and meet us at the hospital in Springfield.”

  “Okay, Mom. I’ll be praying for Emma.”

  “Danki.”

  Aaron hung up the phone and dashed outside to give Paul the news. “Mom just called. She wants you to hire a driver and meet her and Emma at the hospital in Springfield.”

  Deep lines formed in Paul’s forehead. “Why are they going to the hospital?”

  “The doctor thinks Emma’s appendix is about to burst, so Mom hired a driver to take them to the hospital.”

  Paul’s face blanched, and he turned to Noah. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go.”

  “Of course you do. We can talk some other time.” Noah headed for his buggy, calling over his shoulder, “We’ll be praying for Emma. Be sure to let us know how she’s doing.”

  “We will.” Paul nodded at Aaron. “Run back inside and phone one of our English neighbors to see if they can give me a ride to Springfield. I’ll go up to the house and let your mamm’s folks know what’s happening. Bessie can help Grandma get supper going while your brothers finish helping the neighbor in his fields.”

  “What do you need me to do after I’m done making the phone call?” Aaron asked.

  “Complete whatever you’re working on in the harness shop.” Paul gave his beard a couple of pulls. “Then maybe you should hang out there the rest of the evening so you can answer the phone. We’ll call again to let you know how things are going at the hospital.”

  “Jah, okay. By the time you get back from the house, I should have a driver lined up for you.” Aaron sent up a quick prayer and rushed back to the harness shop.

  “Where’s your aunt Catherine?” Herman asked when he found Peter in the kitchen, frying some eggs.

  “She came out of her room long enough to say she wasn’t feeling well; then she went back to bed.”

  Herman frowned. “She’s been feeling poorly for several weeks, but she won’t go to the doctor.” He lifted his bedraggled straw hat from his head and hung it on a wall peg near the back door. “That woman is the most glotzkeppich person I know.”

  Peter nodded. “She can be pretty stubborn.”

  “If she doesn’t get better soon, I might have to ask Allison to return home earlier than planned.”

  “How come?”

  Herman motioned to the stove. “You have to ask?”

  “I’m doing okay with breakfast.” Peter handed Herman a plate of eggs.

  “Jah, but who’s going to clean up this mess?” Herman pointed to the broken egg shells and spilled juice on the counter.

  Peter grimaced. “I see your point. It’s one thing to fry up some eggs and bacon, but I don’t really have the time to cook and clean. Not with all the other chores I have to do.”

  “Maybe I should make an appointment for Catherine to see the doctor,” Herman said as he took a seat at the table.

  Carrying a platter full of bacon, Peter took the seat opposite him. “You think she’d go if you did?”

  “Probably not.” Herman grunted. “Guess I’ll wait a few more days. If she’s not feeling better by the end of the week, I may take her to the doctor whether she likes it or not.”

  Aaron paced in front of Paul’s desk, waiting for some word on his sister’s condition. Paul had phoned shortly after he’d arrived at the hospital, saying the doctors had determined it was Emma’s appendix and that she’d be going in for surgery soon. That had been several hours ago, and Aaron was getting worried.

  At six o’clock Joseph had brought out a meatloaf sandwich, but that still sat on the desk, untouched. Aaron had no appetite. Not when his little sister’s life could be in jeopardy. He’d tried to get some work done, but all he could do was pray and pace.

  At nine o’clock the phone rang, and he grabbed the receiver. “Zook’s Harness Shop.” He didn’t know why he was answering it that way. Nobody would be calling the shop at this time of night for anything related to business.

  “Hi, Aaron, it’s me. I wanted to let you know that Emma’s out of surgery. She’s in the recovery room.”

  “How’d it go, Mom?”

  “The doctor said things went well, and Emma should recover fine.”

  “Had her appendix burst?”

  “No, but it was getting close.”

  Aaron sighed. “I’m glad you got her there in time.”

  “So are we.” There was a brief pause, and Aaron could hear his mother say something to Paul, but he couldn’t make out the words. A few seconds later she said, “We’ve decided to stay here tonight. Could you make sure Grandma and Grandpa are okay and settled in at the daadihaus?”

  “Sure, Mom. I’ll head up to their house right now and check on them.”

  “Oh, and your daed said to open the shop without him in the morning because we’re not sure how long we’ll be here.”

  Aaron gritted his teeth. He was tempted to remind Mom that Paul wasn’t his daed. . .not his real one, anyway. “No problem,” he said instead. “I can manage fine on my own.”

  “Danki, Aaron. I knew we could count on you.”

  “I’ll be here bright and early tomorrow, so let me know if you need anything,” he said. “I could hire a driver and send one of th
e brothers or close up the shop and come to the hospital myself.”

  “We’ll let you know, son.”

  “Okay. Bye, Mom.”

  Aaron hung up the phone and sank onto the wooden stool behind the desk. Thank You, Lord, for bringing Emma through her surgery. Now please heal her quickly.

  “I’m going out to the shop to see what’s taking Aaron so long,” Joseph said to his younger brother, Zachary, who sat on the front porch reading a book. “Since Bessie and Davey are both in bed, and we’ve checked on Grandma and Grandpa, I thought maybe you, me, and Aaron could play a game of Dutch Blitz while we wait for Mom and Papa to get home.”

  “Can we make a batch of popcorn and have some cold apple cider?” Zachary asked.

  “Jah, sure. I don’t see why not.”

  “I’ll get the popcorn and popper out while you get Aaron.”

  “Okay. Be back soon.” Joseph sprinted across the yard, singing a few lines from “Scattered Seed,” one of his favorite songs from schooldays. “ ‘In the furrows of life, scatter seed; small may be thy spirit field, but a goodly crop ’twill yield; sow the kindly word and deed, scatter seed!’ ”

  By the time Joseph reached the harness shop, he’d sung himself into a good frame of mind. Earlier, he’d been down in the dumps, worried that Emma’s appendix might rupture and she might die. He’d been praying for his little sister all day and felt confident that his prayers would be answered and Emma would be okay.

  A shaft of light illuminated the harness shop as Joseph opened the door. Aaron sat at their dad’s desk, with his head in his hands.

  “What’s wrong, Aaron?” Joseph asked as he stepped into the building. “Have you got a koppweh?”

  Aaron lifted his head. “No, I don’t have a headache. I just got off the phone with Mom, and I was praying.”

  “How come you were praying? What did Mom have to say? How’s Emma? Is she going to be all right? Did they have to do surgery?”

  “Slow down with the questions.” Aaron frowned. “I can only answer one at a time.”

  “You don’t have to be so testy.” Joseph pulled a wooden stool over to the desk and took a seat. “Why don’t you start by telling me how Emma is doing?”

  “She had surgery to remove her appendix.”

  “Had it ruptured?”

  “No, but I guess it was getting real close.” Aaron rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I hate to think of what would have happened if Mom hadn’t gotten Emma to the hospital in time.”

  Joseph nodded. “Are Mom and Papa coming home soon?”

  “Mom said they planned to spend the night with Emma, and they probably won’t be home until sometime tomorrow. Paul wants me to open the shop in the morning.” Aaron nodded toward the window. “Mom also said I should check on Grandma and Grandpa.”

  “It’s already been done.” Joseph smiled. “Davey and Bessie have gone to bed, so I thought it would be fun if you, me, and Zachary played a game of Dutch Blitz.”

  “You and Zachary go ahead if you want to,” Aaron said with a shake of his head, “but I’m going to hang out here awhile and try to get some more work done.”

  Joseph’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you kidding me? You’ve been out here all day.”

  “So what? There’s a lot to be done—especially with Paul being gone most of the day.”

  Joseph winced at his brother’s caustic tone.

  “Guess I’ll head back to the house,” Joseph said, stepping down from his stool. No point in making an issue of Aaron’s attitude. “If you change your mind about playing a game with me and Zachary, we’ll be in the kitchen.”

  “I won’t change my mind.” Aaron grabbed a stack of invoices and thumbed quickly through them. “You and Zachary will probably be fast asleep by the time I come up to the house.”

  Joseph shrugged. He wondered if Aaron had decided to stay in the harness shop late because there was so much work to be done, or was he just being unsocial? Joseph turned and took one last look around the harness shop. When he was a boy, he used to feel a bit jealous whenever Aaron got to help out here. Now, he couldn’t care less about working in the harness shop.

  Chapter 10

  I hope Bessie and her family can come to our barbecue Friday evening,” Sarah said to Allison as they sat beside each other in one of Uncle Ben’s open buggies. They were heading toward the Hiltys’ place, and Allison was driving.

  “Sure will be fun to have some homemade ice cream.” Sarah smacked her lips. “I love ice cream!”

  “Does your family make it often?” Allison asked.

  “Oh, jah. During the summer we make it a lot. Doesn’t your family make ice cream?”

  “We do on occasion, but since most of my brothers are married, we don’t make it as much as we did when they all lived at home.”

  Sarah wrinkled her nose. “The only part of ice cream makin’ I don’t like is the crankin’.”

  Allison grinned. “That can be hard, especially toward the end when the ice cream starts to freeze up.”

  They rode in companionable silence the rest of the way. As soon as Allison brought the buggy to a stop, Sarah jumped out and ran over to greet her friend Bessie, who sat under a tree in the front yard, playing with her dolls.

  Allison tied the horse to the hitching rail near the barn and joined the girls on the lawn. She’d been tempted to drop by the harness shop to see Aaron but couldn’t think of a good excuse to go there.

  “I invited Bessie and her family to our barbecue on Friday evening, but Bessie’s not sure if they can come,” Sarah said.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s not that we don’t wanna come. My little sister Emma’s in the hospital,” Bessie explained. “Her appendix got sick, and she had to have it taken out.”

  “Will Emma be okay?” Allison remembered the day Peter’s appendix had ruptured. He’d been thirteen years old at the time, and Papa had been afraid he might not make it. But after several days in the hospital, Peter had recovered nicely.

  “I think Emma will be all right, but she’s gonna be laid up at home for a while.” Bessie turned to Sarah. “That means they probably won’t be able to go over to your place on Friday.”

  “Say, I’ve got an idea,” Sarah said to her friend. “Maybe one of your brothers can take you to the barbecue.”

  Bessie grabbed Sarah’s hand. “Aaron’s in the harness shop. Let’s go see if he thinks he can go.”

  Struggling with an oversized piece of leather, Aaron looked up when the front door swooshed open. He was surprised to see Bessie step inside the harness shop with Sarah and Allison.

  “Hey, Aaron. Look who’s here,” Bessie said.

  “What brings you by the harness shop on this hot morning?” Aaron asked, looking at Allison.

  “They came to invite us to a barbecue at their place on Friday evening,” Bessie said before Allison could reply.

  Aaron dropped the leather to his workbench and stepped forward. “Didn’t you tell them about Emma?”

  “ ’Course I did.”

  “Even if our little sister comes home from the hospital by Friday, she won’t be up to going to any barbecue.”

  “I realize that,” Bessie said in an exasperated tone. “But that don’t mean we can’t go.”

  Aaron glanced at Allison, and she offered him a pleasant smile. “Would it be possible for you or one of your brothers to bring Bessie over?” she asked. “I think she’s really looking forward to it.”

  “That’s a nice idea,” Aaron replied, “but somebody’s got to stay here with Grandma and Grandpa Raber if Mom and Paul are still at the hospital with Emma.”

  Bessie’s lower lip protruded. “I’m sure Grandpa and Grandma can manage on their own for a couple of hours.”

  Aaron contemplated the idea. Grandpa’s arthritis had gotten so bad over the years that he could barely walk, and Grandma’s bad back made it difficult for her to do much. While it was true that they could manage a few hours alone, he would feel b
etter if someone were at home in case a need arose.

  “I’ll talk to Mom about it when she calls later today. If they don’t mind you going, someone can probably drive you over to the Kings’ place on Friday evening.”

  Bessie smiled and reached for Sarah’s hand. “While you’re here, would you like to go out to the barn and see the baby goat that was born a few days ago?”

  “Sure!” Sarah turned to Allison. “Would ya like to come along?”

  Allison shook her head. “You two go along. I’ll visit with Aaron awhile.”

  Sarah and Bessie scampered out the door, and Allison moved toward the workbench where Aaron stood.

  “Are you minding the shop on your own today?” she asked.

  “Jah. Probably will be until Emma gets out of the hospital.”

  She leaned close to the piece of leather he’d been working on. “Is harness making hard work?”

  “Sometimes, but I enjoy what I do.” Aaron motioned to the leather. “It’s a good feeling to make a bridle or harness.”

  “The harness shop back home repairs shoes, too,” Allison said. “Do you do that?”

  Aaron shook his head. “Paul thought about doing some shoe repair, but we get enough business with saddles, harnesses, and bridles. I doubt he’ll ever do shoes.”

  Allison drew in a deep breath as she scanned the room. “I can’t get over how nice it smells in here.”

  “You really think so?”

  “I do. I think it would be fun to work in a place like this.”

  “You might not say that if you knew what all was involved.”

  “Why don’t you show me?”

  “All right.” As Aaron gave Allison a tour of the shop, he demonstrated how he connected a breast strap to a huge, three-way snap that required some fancy looping, pointed out numerous tools they used, and showed her two oversized sewing machines run by an air compressor. He was surprised to see how much interest she took in everything.

  “These are much bigger than the treadle sewing machine Aunt Mary uses.” Allison smiled, and her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. “She’s been teaching me how to sew, and I’ve learned to make a faceless doll.”