Chapter 9
9
Lois sat in the middle of her bed with her back against a pillow and her other pillows and blankets arranged around her, trying not to scratch the scab that had formed and dried over her road rash injury. By the light of her battery-operated lamp, she read the letter from Teresa Schrock. She enjoyed her missive about learning from birds, about being confident in particular. It reminded her of Dat’s bird lessons.
She smiled at the last line, which welcomed her. Jane Weaver. She liked the sound of it.
She recognized the name of one of the other members. Mary Schmidt, a widow without children who worked at a gift shop in Bird-in-Hand. Lois stopped at the shop occasionally to see what merchandise they carried and chat with Mary about the business.
Mary had stopped at Paradise Found a few times in the last two years too. If the group ever had an in-person event, Lois wouldn’t attend. Otherwise she’d be exposed for using a pseudonym.
Menno Stoltzfus. That definitely wasn’t a name she recognized. All of the other men in the group were obviously married. Perhaps Menno wasn’t. Lois folded the letter and slipped it back into the envelope. She liked the idea of the weekly letters. She’d write one by Monday. It would only take a day or two to reach Teresa.
Thankfully she’d see Evelyn the next afternoon and could tell her about the position at Paradise Found. John had stopped by the shop earlier and said he’d found a ride to the volleyball tournament. She’d warned him she was an inadequate volleyball player at best. He said that was fine—she could sit and watch him. The tournament would have both team games and pick-up games.
She’d take her binoculars and birding notebook in her backpack. If she could sneak off by herself, it would be the perfect place to spot herons and loons—and imply Jane Weaver, even though her address was in Paradise, easily traveled to other places in the county.
Mark and Evelyn didn’t ride with Lois and John, but John assured her they’d be at the tournament. “Mark went to church with her family near Marietta this morning,” John said. “They’ll meet us there.” They rode in a sedan with one of John’s teammates who hadn’t joined the church yet.
John pointed at Lois’s backpack, which sat at her feet. “What did you bring?”
“A water bottle.” She reached down and felt her binoculars through the fabric of the backpack. “Things like that. I thought I might have time to walk along the river for a few minutes.”
“I’ll go with you,” he said.
“All right.” It wasn’t what she’d planned, but she couldn’t tell John not to take a walk with her.
When they arrived at the park, Lois didn’t see Evelyn or Mark. “Want to go down to the river?” John asked.
“Sure,” Lois answered. She led the way, hurrying down a pathway.
“We can’t actually get to the riverbank, can we?” John asked.
“Jah, we can. There’s a dirt path up here.”
The pathway intersected with another one, heading northwest. The Riverfront Trail. Lois took it but then darted off to the left.
John followed, saying, “Is this a good idea?”
“Absolutely.” Lois followed the path along the river and then stopped at a willow tree and slid her backpack off her shoulder. “Look.” She pointed to a duck on the water.
John laughed. “It’s a duck.”
She stopped herself from taking out her binoculars. She was pretty sure the duck was a hooded merganser, a rare sight.
A bird flew by, and Lois forgot she wasn’t going to act like the birder she was in front of John. “Oh, look! An eastern bluebird!”
John laughed again. “It’s brown.”
“It’s a juvenile female. You can tell by her gray tail feathers. Her wings will have more blue soon, but never as much as the male birds.”
John shrugged. “Whatever.”
That stung. Lois directed her attention back to the Susquehanna River. Dat had told her it was a mile wide at Harrisburg. It wasn’t that wide here, but downstream at Columbia it widened to a mile again.
Movement in the willow above caught Lois’s attention. A female belted kingfisher. They were bigger and more brightly colored than the males, a rarity in the bird world. She didn’t draw John’s attention to the bird.
He glanced back up to the park. “I should go see if my team’s arrived.”
“All right,” she said.
“Are you coming with me?”
“Oh.” She thought of her binoculars in her backpack. “Jah, of course.”
He led the way. She followed.
The sun warmed Lois’s back as she sat on the grass. John was the best player on the team, which wasn’t surprising. Her gaze drifted to the branches of the silver maple on the other side of the volleyball court. Something fluttered in a top branch. Again, she longed to take her binoculars out of her backpack but didn’t. Instead she retrieved her notebook and began recording what she’d seen along the river.
“There you are!”
Lois turned, shading her eyes from the late afternoon sun. “Oh, hello! I’ve been waiting for you.”
Evelyn sat down on the grass beside her, and Lois slipped her notebook into her backpack.
Mark had joined the game.
“Do you play?” Lois asked.
Evelyn shook her head. “Not with them.”
There weren’t any girls on the team.
“I was hoping I’d see you.” Lois told her about the very part-time job opening up at Paradise Found, starting with Mondays and maybe adding a few more hours once summer started.
Evelyn clapped her hands together. “I’m definitely interested. I’d love to work there, plus it will give me an excuse to stay with my Mammi more.” She giggled. “And be close to Mark.”
“Can you stop by the shop in the morning between ten and noon?”
Evelyn pursed her lips together. “I’ll need to talk to my parents. Then ride back with you and Mark and John.”
“I think that would work,” Lois said.
Evelyn’s plan did work, and the next morning she came by the shop at ten thirty. Lois directed her to the office door. After Evelyn chatted with Moses for ten minutes, the two came out. Moses told Lois she’d be training Evelyn on Thursday.
“All right,” Lois said.
“Please make her a time card,” Moses said, “and a list of duties she can reference.”
At noon, after Moses left, Lois put a sign in the window saying she’d be back by twelve thirty and scootered to the post office with the report she’d written in her best penmanship the night before to the Flight of Doves birding circle. She wrote about seeing the hooded merganser, the belted kingfisher, and the female eastern bluebird along the Susquehanna River. She dropped it in the outgoing mail slot with a sense of satisfaction.
Moses wasn’t around Tuesday or Wednesday. Surprisingly, on Wednesday afternoon, when Lois checked her mail during her lunch break, she already had a letter from Teresa that included a couple of reports, including her—Jane’s— account about birding on the Susquehanna River. One of the other two was from Mary, who had seen a Carolina wren outside The Country Store in Bird-in-Hand. The third was from Menno. He’d seen a great egret on the Delaware shore. Lois had never been to Delaware nor to the shore of any state.
Teresa ended the letter by writing,
Gott made you, just as He made every single bird, to be YOU. Let others see the beauty He created in you, both internal and external.
Lois read the last two sentences several times. It went against the Amish teaching to emphasize outer beauty, and yet every bird—and human—was beautiful in their own way.
Moses was back on Thursday before the shop opened, along with two surveyors. However, he stayed out on the property instead of coming into the shop or office.
Evelyn showed up at nine thirty wearing a pink dress and a huge smile. Lois went through all the steps of opening the shop. “I wrote all of this down for you,” she told Evelyn.
Evelyn followed Lois around as she did each task. Lights. Temperature. Clock in. Put away any deliveries that have been left by the back door in the storage room. Unpack, price, and stock if there’s time—or work on those tasks during the day. Make sure the shop is tidy. Clean the restroom if it wasn’t cleaned the night before. Wipe down the counter, even if it was cleaned the evening before, and the front door, especially the handle on both sides. Lois continued through each task, surprised at how many there were. She ended with “Flip the sign, and open the door if it’s a nice day.”
“Got it?” Lois asked.
Evelyn nodded.
“I’ll go cut tulips from the flower bed,” Lois said. “If anyone comes in, I’ll be right back to show you how to use the register.”
The day was busy but not overwhelming, perfect for training Evelyn. Lois remembered how kind Scotty and Barbara had been when they taught her, and she did everything she could to make Evelyn comfortable.
Around noon, the shop was empty, and Evelyn asked, “Does Moses actually come into the shop?”
“Jah,” Lois answered. “He works in the office some of the time—I guess when he’s not at his other businesses. He must be working on the logistics for the farmers market he wants to put in here. I think he’s trying to get permits.”
“Oh.” Evelyn spoke softly. “Don’t tell Mark this or anything—because I really do like him—but I think Moses is hot.”
Lois suppressed a laugh. “Hot?”
Evelyn nodded. “He’s tall and buff. And in charge. I like that.”
“He’s also Mennonite, and he already has a girlfriend.”
Evelyn shrugged. “Minor details.”
Lois laughed.
Evelyn grinned. “I’m surprised you’re not interested in him.”
“I’ll repeat: He’s Mennonite and has a girlfriend. Besides, we have a history.”
Evelyn’s eyes sparkled. “Oh?”
“Not a good one. We were in school together. We were frenemies. Is that what it’s called?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Heavy on the enemies.” That wasn’t entirely true, but Lois didn’t want to offer any more of an explanation.
Footsteps fell and then, “Lois?” It was Moses.
Her face warmed and she stepped toward the back of the shop. “Jah?”
His golden hair curled a little at the ends, and his brown eyes shone. Evelyn was right. Moses was hot. “Can you call Scotty’s home phone? He’s not returning my texts.” He pushed the rolled sleeves of his shirt above his elbows, exposing his biceps.
“I’ll give it a try.” She stepped back to the counter and called Scotty and Barb’s number while Moses hovered nearby. No one answered, so she left a message, ending it with “Call me back at the shop. We have a business-related question.”
Moses gave her a nod as she hung up. “The surveyors have some questions about the north boundary. I can’t file for the permit until it’s settled.” As he walked away he muttered, “This better work out.”
Lois suppressed another smile. Hopefully Isabelle would come in before long. She said she wouldn’t stop working on her financing, just in case Moses decided to sell soon.
But Lois couldn’t count on that. When Moses fired her—unless she quit first—he’d have Evelyn to take her place. Unless she wanted to return to Big Valley or move in with Amy and Bennie, she needed to have a plan.
Out of the blue, Evelyn said, “Moses Lantz might be hot, but I’m still aiming for Mark.” She met Lois’s gaze. “And I’m guessing you have your sights set on John.”
Unsettled, Lois smiled demurely.
Evelyn stepped away from the counter and grinned. “John Miller is definitely the next best thing to Moses Lantz.”
Lois didn’t respond. She couldn’t agree—or disagree. Which unsettled her even more.