Chapter 15
15
Moses sat in his office long after the shop closed. He could hear footsteps above. Lois, with Isabelle’s help, was probably reassembling the birch tree in her apartment.
How was he to know Lois’s father had made the display? And that Lois and her mother had crocheted the collection of birds? Why hadn’t Scotty told him? Or Lois herself?
Why hadn’t he thought to ask who had made it?
His phone buzzed, but he didn’t look at it. Instead he stared at the payroll program on the computer screen.
His phone buzzed again. Then a text dinged. Finally he turned his phone over. The text was from Sara. So were the two missed calls. It was seven. He’d told her he’d be at the café by six for supper.
He closed the payroll program, powered down the computer, and picked up his satchel. He hadn’t had a letter from Jane in his Delaware post office box that morning, although he did have one from Teresa and the Flight of Doves. Had Jane been offended he’d asked to meet in person so soon? After an hour at the market he’d decided to return to Paradise.
He’d stopped by the grocery store first, which was buzzing with tourists. He stocked shelves and helped bag groceries. By the time he reached the shop he was hungry and out of sorts. He should have gone to the café for lunch instead of dismantling the birch tree.
As much as Lois got on his nerves, Evelyn was even worse. Lois despised him. Evelyn fawned over him. These days he preferred Lois’s hate to Evelyn’s weird positivity, or whatever was going on with her.
He left through the back door, locking it behind him. Then he walked around the corner of the building, veering out away from it, glancing up as he did. The light was on in the apartment window. Lois was standing with her back to him, her Kapp off, her hair down. He quickly glanced away. Isabelle’s car was gone. Only his remained in the parking lot.
When he reached the café, he went through the front door. Sara was standing at the hostess station, a frown on her face. “You’re late.”
“Sorry.”
“Go get a table. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
Moses sat at the far back table. When the waitress, a middle-aged woman named Jennifer, approached with two menus and two glasses of water, she gave him a smile. “Is Sara joining you?”
“Yes.” Moses took the menu from her and thanked her for it.
“You two make such a power couple. You’re both so tall and golden and handsome.” Her face reddened. “Well, Sara isn’t. Handsome, I mean. She’s beautiful.” The woman chuckled nervously. “Anyway, I’ll come back once Sara joins you.”
Feeling awkward, Moses agreed Sara was attractive. But he didn’t feel handsome. He felt out of sorts. And mean.
As Sara sat down across from him, she said, “It’s so hard to find good help.”
Moses hated that sort of talk. According to Dat, it was up to management to educate employees into the workers the business needed.
Sara pushed her menu to the edge of the table. “I take it you didn’t have a good day either.”
“It was okay.”
“Still worried about the Paradise Amish Market?”
“I still don’t have the permits.” Moses pretended to look at the menu.
“That’s a bummer.”
“The contractor thinks they’ll come through by next week.”
Jennifer returned. Sara ordered a house salad with chicken, and Moses ordered a cheeseburger. After Jennifer left, Sara asked, “Can you pick me up for church tomorrow?”
“I’m not sure I’m going.”
“What?”
“I need to spend some time with Mamm.”
“Okay...” Her voice trailed off. But then she said, “What’s up?”
He shrugged.
“Look, I’m working long hours in your café. And you come in here acting all put out. As if you’re doing me a favor.”
She wasn’t wrong.
She leaned forward. “I’m doing this to help you.” Her voice was firm but low.
He sighed. “I realize that.” He reached across the table and took her hand. “And I’m grateful.”
She squeezed his hand. “We’re both working too hard. You’re going to have to hire another manager for the café sooner or later. Why not sooner?”
Thankfully Jennifer returned with their food, but Moses couldn’t shake how he felt. Did Sara believe their relationship was transactional? She expected they’d get married. Was that why she was managing the café? She believed they both wanted the same thing.
He couldn’t blame her. But he didn’t think he felt as sure of their future as she did. He was at fault. He felt his stomach tighten. Was he leading her on?
“I don’t want you to work for me if it’s not what you want,” he said.
“But I do.” She squeezed his hand again. “For now.”
On Sunday he spent the morning with his Mamm. He bluntly asked if he was adopted. With a solemn expression on her face, she responded with a question. “When can I go home?”
That broke his heart a little more, and he sat in silence with her for the next hour watching the birds but thinking about his adoption mystery. Finally, he stood and started pacing, until Mamm said, “Paul, stop fretting and come sit beside me.” Moses obeyed his mother, his thoughts shifting to what Paul might have fretted about. He’d never know.
Tuesday morning, Casey stopped by Paradise Found to talk about the Amish market. Moses hoped spending time with Casey would distract him from his worries. He motioned toward the back door. “I’ll show you what my plans are.”
Once they were outside, Moses stepped off the dimensions of the building and then the outside area. “Hopefully the excavating will be done soon. The building should go up pretty quickly once we can get started. I’m thinking a total of forty-five vendors, once we’re in full swing.”
The two walked the property.
“How are things going with you and Sara?” Casey leaned on his cane near where the concrete pad would be. “Any wedding plans yet?”
Moses took off his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. “No.”
“Don’t you think if the two of you were going to marry you would have by now? How long have you been courting this last time?”
“Six months.”
“And before that?”
“We weren’t courting.”
Casey’s eyebrows shot up. “She thought you were.”
“Well, we did spend time together, starting after she joined the Mennonites too. But it was as friends. Until it wasn’t.” He’d finally decided Sara seemed like the most obvious woman for him to court. Plus, by then she seemed to be his only support besides Casey.
He pulled his hat back on his head.
He cared for Sara, he truly did. But did he love her?
Casey asked, “Is there someone else?”
“No. Well, kind of.” He told Casey about Jane. “I think about her all the time. Live for her letters.” Moses’s anxiety rose as he spoke. “One didn’t come this week, although the circle letter did arrive.” Teresa had written about how birds are mindful and present, always focused on the task at hand because they live by their values. It seemed like a little bit of a stretch, but Moses agreed all of those were good qualities for people to have too. “I asked Jane if we could meet in person—perhaps I scared her away.”
“Write to her again.” Casey resumed walking, slowly. “Maybe your letter to her was lost or delayed. Or hers has been delayed. But you need to meet her—you need to know who she is. What’s her last name?”
“Weaver. Do you know a Jane Weaver around here? Her return address is a Paradise post office box.”
“That’s odd. I don’t know any Jane Weavers.”
Moses replied, “Maybe she’s not who she says she is. But why would someone join an Amish circle letter as someone they’re not?”
Casey shrugged. “Amish or Mennonite?”
“Amish—I assume.”
“Does she assume you’re Amish too?”
“Maybe.” Moses hadn’t thought about that.
“She doesn’t know you’re a Menno.”
Moses laughed. “Actually, that’s the name I’ve been using. I didn’t want the circle letter members to know who I am.”
Casey slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand and mimicked Moses, “Why would someone join an Amish circle letter as someone they’re not?”
Moses grimaced. “I regret that now. But I didn’t want members of the circle letter coming into the grocery store looking for me. Or complaining about the café or the shop. You know how it goes.” His phone dinged. He slipped it out of his pocket. Sara.
I need you at the restaurant. Call me.
He’d wait until he was back in the office.
As they headed back to the shop, Casey tripped on the uneven ground but steadied himself before he fell. Moses had forced himself not to grab for Casey. “Are you doing all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just a normal stumble—it had nothing to do with my leg.”
Moses suppressed a groan. He’d never stop feeling responsible for Casey’s injury. He’d never stop feeling responsible for so many things.
Another incoming text stopped him. It was from the contractor.
I’ve had another delay with the permits. I’ll let you know as soon as they come through.
Moses shoved his phone back into his pocket, but then it dinged again.
Sara.
The kitchen sink is clogged. I went ahead and called a plumber since you didn’t get back to me, but he won’t be able to come by until this afternoon. Get over here as soon as you can.
Moses clenched his phone.
Casey asked, “Is everything all right?”
Overwhelmed, Moses managed to mutter, “Yes.” It wouldn’t help to complain to Casey about his woes.
As they neared the shop, a delivery truck pulled away. Moses couldn’t think of any deliveries scheduled for the day. What had Lois ordered?
Casey said, “I’m going to go into the shop and tell Lois hello.”
“So am I.” Moses took off at a faster pace. He marched in through the back door and down the hall into the shop. Lois was leaning over a box, cutting through the tape.
“What arrived?”
“Guder Mariye to you too.” She opened the box and pulled out a birdhouse.
Moses took a step back. “I told you not to order any more bird stuff.”
“I—”
“That’s insubordination.”
Casey caught up and stepped to Moses’s side.
Lois said, “I—” again.
“You’re fired.”
“What?”
“You can’t do that,” Casey said.
“Of course I can.” Moses pointed to the door. “And I am. As of now.”
Lois didn’t protest. She simply turned on her heels and walked out the front door. Moses assumed she climbed the stairs to her apartment, but he couldn’t hear her. There was no stomping. No slamming the apartment door.
Moses felt sick. He’d gone against his Dat’s business advice to always keep a good sense of humor, to never burn any bridges, and to always be kind. He’d failed miserably.
“Wow.” Casey took a few steps toward the front door. “Did you actually just do that?”
“It’s been coming for weeks,” Moses said.
He went to the box. There were four more birdhouses inside, but no invoice. He stepped to the counter. The invoice was next to the register. The address on the paperwork was a business in Ohio, Amish Birding. The date on the invoice was May 1, right after Moses took over the shop.
He picked up the invoice, folded it, and then turned toward Casey. “I’m going to need help today.”
Casey shook his head. “I’m not sticking around here.”
“Please?” Moses didn’t want to beg, but he had too much work to do not to have help.
“Do you hate your life, Moses? Because you just fired Lois Yoder, a woman you used to care about. A woman you loved. A woman who knows this shop better than anyone.”
“It was never going to work out long-term. She wasn’t happy working for me.” Moses ran his hand through his hair. “I really do need your help.”
“Not today.” Casey gave him a wave and headed to the front door.
Moses left a message on Evelyn’s machine but wasn’t sure if it was her grandmother’s number or her parents’. Was she close by or on the other side of the county?
Then he called Sara at the café. First he gave her the number of a plumber he’d used for emergencies at the grocery store who would make the café a priority. Then he told her what happened with Lois. Sara asked, “Does that mean she’s moving? We could really use the apartment.” We. Sara expected a proposal and soon. And why wouldn’t she? She sounded a little too gleeful about him firing Lois, which bothered Moses.
But he found his own reaction puzzling—he was the one who’d fired Lois. It was his fault. That bothered him even more.
He wouldn’t kick Lois out of the apartment right away. He’d give her a few weeks to find a new place. Maybe she could move in with Amy and Bennie. He winced. What were they going to think of him?
Car doors slammed outside the shop. The front door opened. An Englisch couple entered. Sara arrived as Moses rang up a big purchase. “We’re from Philly,” the woman said as he handed her the receipt. “We come here a couple times a year—or more. Has the business sold?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Moses said. “I bought it just over a month ago.”
“You took down the birch tree with the birds and bird feeders.”
“Yes.” Moses added, “It was a liability.”
“And the nice young woman isn’t here. Lisa?”
“Lois.”
“Yes, Lois. A real sweetheart. I hope she’s still working here.”
“No,” Moses said. “I’m afraid she’s not.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Did you get rid of her too?”
“I no longer needed her.”
The woman pointed at the cash register. “You just charged me twice for the birdhouse. I think you do.”
Sara stepped to the register, which was similar to the one at the café, with a smile on her face. “I’ll fix it.”
Moses backed away and shuffled down the hall to his office. What would local customers think of him for firing Lois? They’d all know soon enough.
He’d stick it out until midafternoon, but then he’d close the shop and head to Delaware. Surely he’d have a letter from Jane by now.
Jah, he knew he was attempting to escape how badly he’d handled the situation with Lois. He hadn’t followed Teresa’s advice in the Flight of Doves letter to be mindful and present and aware of his values. It was shameful, really. He’d always prided—something he shouldn’t do, he knew—himself on being the best personnel manager he could be, but he’d failed miserably with Lois. He’d fired her for an order Scotty had approved. And she hadn’t protested—she hadn’t even tried to defend herself.
If she had, would he have listened?