Chapter 27
Prayers answered.
Elijah leaned against the wall in Jason’s living room.
His family sucked up all the rest of the space.
The celebration of Jason’s oldest boy’s birthday had turned into a celebration of Jason’s returning health.
Working in the garden with Caitlin had added color to his pale face. He was still too skinny, according to their mother, but that wouldn’t last long, considering the amount of sausage, cottage fries, corn on the cob, coleslaw, and cake and ice cream he’d consumed in the last few hours. Soon he’d be strong enough to take up his beloved microphone and call an auction.
Danki, Gott.
“Here, finish this cake.”
Declan offered Elijah a thick slab of two-layered chocolate cake with buttercream frosting.
“My eyes are bigger than my stomach.”
“I’ve already had a piece.”
Despite his words, Elijah took the plate.
He wasn’t a big fan of cake, but he did like a good frosting.
“When have you ever filled that hollow leg of yours?”
“Since my fraa stacked my plate with a double serving of sausage and extra fries.
She spoils me.
She knows how much I love chocolate cake.”
Or any kind of cake.
However at peace Bethel and Declan seemed to be regarding his cancer, in remission for now, they both seemed inclined to celebrate life whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Declan cocked his head toward the front door.
“I know what you’re thinking.
Join me in my office.”
The front porch in other words.
Elijah followed his younger brother outside into an evening still hot and dank with humidity.
A storm had hovered on the horizon all day, threatening but never breaking.
A good thunder boomer would be a relief as June meandered its way toward July and midsummer.
“What do you think I’m thinking?”
“I think you’re thinking that you’ll soon be off the hook.
Despite the fact that we’ve done three mock auctions with all the kinner and their friends lined up as bidders, you’re still hemming and hawing about calling an auction.
Another week and there won’t be any holding Jason back.
He’s chomping at the bit now.”
“If there’s no real need for me to do it, I don’t see a problem with bowing out.”
“Number one, Jason has the stamina of a newborn foal.”
Declan stopped a shiny new basketball that had sailed onto the porch.
He tossed it back to birthday boy Zachary, who whirled and tossed it into his new portable basketball hoop.
The other kids surrounded the ball, fighting for the rebound.
“Number two, you keep saying you need to call an auction, but you never actually step up.
You’ll regret it.”
“That’s Dat’s call.
Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”
“You’ve never insisted.
And that’s wishful thinking on your part.”
Declan’s hand went to his throat as it so often did.
“You’ve practiced and practiced.
You’ve done every other job.
You can’t walk away now, not without testing your mettle.”
Yes, he could.
Couldn’t he? “I won’t be needed.
It’s as simple as that.”
Declan swiped the fork from Elijah’s plate.
He stole a dollop of frosting, stuck it his mouth, closed his eyes, and savored it.
After a few seconds of humming and smiling, he opened his eyes and held out the fork.
“Don’t you want to overcome your biggest fear? Prove to yourself that you can do it?”
Elijah took the fork.
“To myself or everyone else?”
“Either. Both.”
Elijah grabbed a canvas lawn chair with one hand.
He slipped down the steps where he shook the chair open, then settled into it, his cake safely in his lap.
“No answer?”
Declan chose to sit on the steps.
“Or are you afraid to even think about it?”
“I took Bonnie for a buggy ride.”
“Whoop!”
Declan sat up and clapped.
“Way to go.”
A couple of the kids on the makeshift basketball court yelled their thanks and bowed.
Declan laughed and clapped harder.
“Don’t make fun.”
“I’m not.”
“I need to get my toy business going.”
“Why? Was it a prerequisite to her going out with you? You have to sell your toys in her store or else?”
What went on between Bonnie and Elijah was personal.
“Nee, don’t be narrisch.
I’m thinking of the future.”
“The future?”
Declan screwed up his face like he was thinking hard and it hurt something fierce.
“You’ve taken one ride.”
“Use your noggin, Bruder.
Do you really think I can be gone six months out of the year if things go the way I hope they will with Bonnie?”
“Ah, ah, you mean because she’s got SMA.”
“Jah, that’s what I mean.”
“I don’t even think of it.
She’s always used a walker or a rollator.
It’s just who she is.”
“Which is the way a person should see it.”
Elijah set the plate in the grass next to his chair.
Another bite of cake and he’d hurl.
“But there are some things that are different because of it.”
“Jah, jah, I can see that.”
Declan swatted a mosquito that had landed on Elijah’s arm.
“They like you better than me.
You must be sweeter.”
“There you are.”
Dad’s voice cut through the air before Elijah could respond to his brother’s ridiculous statement.
He craned his neck and looked back.
Dad stomped down the steps.
“Your fraa is looking to leave, Declan.
Your bopli is fussing. She wants to put him to bed, I reckon.”
“I’ll bring the buggy around.”
Declan rose.
He clapped Elijah on the shoulder.
“You’ll figure it out.
If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
He’d coached Elijah on his calling and how to talk to women.
He’d covered all the important topics. “Danki.”
Dad took a chair.
“What were you two talking about so serious-like?”
“Not much.”
“I’m not blind or deaf, Suh.”
“I know that.”
“It’s true you could probably get away with staying home when Jason goes back out on the road, but you have to go.”
“Why is that?”
“I’m sure Declan already told you.
If you don’t call an auction, you’ll always feel like a failure.”
No, that was Dad’s litmus test for success, not Elijah’s.
Even so.
“You’re the one who keeps putting it off.
I’ve been ready.”
“I wanted to make sure you were truly ready.”
“I have to get my business going.”
“You know Declan decided at one time that he wanted his own business.
Of course it was going to be an auctioneering business.
But that all fell to the wayside when he got the cancer.”
“I have my reasons for wanting to focus on my woodworking.”
More than one.
“I don’t have the right temperament for auctioneering, for one.”
As if Dad didn’t know that.
Yet he continued to insist.
“Give it another few weeks.
I truly believe that once you call an auction and do it well, you’ll want to do it again.
And again.”
Maybe Dad was blind and deaf.
Or simply didn’t understand the one child he had who was different.
“I’ll call that one auction.”
Elijah swiveled so he could see his father’s face.
“But I can tell you this now.
One is all there will be.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Dad’s chin jutted.
He tapped one bent finger on his chair’s arm.
“You can’t predict the future.
Neither can I.
Declan lost his voice and had to lay down his vocation so he could sell plants. I don’t know why, but there it is.”
Dad tapped harder.
He stared straight ahead.
His ruddy complexion darkened.
“Jason almost died from a burst appendix that spewed poison into his body.
I don’t know why he and Caitlin had to suffer through that season. But I do know that Scripture says Gott can bring gut from all things if we love Him with all our mind, heart, and soul. I just keep reminding myself of that. You should too.”
It was the most words he’d ever uttered within Elijah’s hearing.
Only something weighing heavy on his heart could move Dad to speak of such things.
A Plain man didn’t.
He plowed his way through, trusting in God’s plan as demanded by his Plain faith.
Elijah should respond.
No words came.
Dad stood.
“It’s getting late.
We need to clean out the trailers tomorrow and start getting ready for the auctions next weekend.
Don’t stay out too late.”
Again, no words.
If his father knew Elijah was courting, he would likely be only too happy to encourage his son to stay out late.
Did God’s plan for Elijah include Bonnie? Why give Elijah the gift of woodworking if not for him to use it? If God made everyone in His image, didn’t that mean Elijah’s shyness came from God?
Or was that a huge leap? Maybe the shyness came from Satan worming his way into Elijah, undermining his self-confidence and his ability to interact with other human beings?
Only one way to find out: keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Starting with hopping in his buggy and pointing it toward Bonnie Yoder’s house.