Chapter 16
16
Lois sat on her bed, numbly staring at the birch tree. Without the birdhouses on the branches, it definitely needed more birds. She took out a skein of yellow-green yarn from her sewing basket, along with a crochet hook. Mamm and she had crocheted the birds at the same time Dat had put the birch tree together, a few months before he died. She climbed back into the center of her bed, leaned against the pillows, and began crocheting.
She’d never been fired. Then again, the only employer she’d ever had before Moses was Scotty. He’d always raved about her work. The way he’d treated her and talked about her with others had given her confidence. She’d always believed she was a good employee. Until now.
Would Moses evict her from the apartment next? She’d known her days were numbered at the shop. She’d known she needed to start looking for a new job. And yet she hadn’t. As miserable as it was to work for Moses, the comfort of the shop kept her there. Now she’d lost that. She kept crocheting.
She’d scooter to Bird-in-Hand to see Mary and ask if The Country Store might be hiring. If she stayed with Amy and Bennie for a few weeks, until she could find a room to rent, it wouldn’t be far to Bird-in-Hand. Much closer than it was from Paradise Found.
Her throat thickened. Paradise was home. She didn’t want to live in Bird-in-Hand. But anything was better than going back to Big Valley and the threat of Nathan Hertzler.
She put down her yarn and crochet hook. She needed to talk to Moses about the Youngie wiener roast, which was Friday. She’d hate to have to cancel, and it would be a bad look for him if he forced her to.
Lois placed her crocheting in her sewing basket, put on her safety vest, and pulled her scooter out from behind the building. Sara’s small car was in the parking lot, along with Moses’s big one. Of course he’d called Sara to come over. That had probably been the plan all along.
She scootered up the lane and then turned onto the highway, facing the traffic as she sped through Paradise and then on up the road toward Bird-in-Hand. When she reached The Country Store, Mary wasn’t there. An older woman was working and said Mary had taken a few days off because her sister was visiting. They’d gone birding that day.
“Do you know where?” Lois asked.
“Middle Creek.”
That was much too far to scooter.
“Come back next week,” the woman said.
Lois fought back tears as she left the shop. She would never beg Moses for her job back. Never. Ever. Ever. She hadn’t even ordered the birdhouses—Scotty had, even though the invoice was dated May 1. The order must have been delayed and then sat in a warehouse for weeks.
She should have quit when Moses first bought Paradise Found, which was Paradise Lost now to her. She’d known working for him wouldn’t end well.
She was tempted to stop by Amy’s, but she didn’t want to cry in front of the kinner. Or make her problems Amy’s. She had enough problems of her own. First Lois needed to speak with Moses and find out about the apartment.
She’d rather know when he planned to evict her than have him spring it on her. She’d march right into the shop and demand to know exactly what his intentions were. And about the wiener roast. If Moses refused to let her host it, John, Evelyn, Mark, and a lot of other Youngie would be upset.
When she reached the shop, Sara was ringing up a customer, two more were waiting in line, and Moses, looking very uncomfortable, was talking with a fourth customer.
“There she is.” The customer next in line pointed at Lois. “I was afraid you’d quit,” the woman said. “You’re the reason we come here.”
Lois glanced at Moses. He had an awkward expression on his face. Did he expect Lois to state she’d been fired? She wouldn’t.
Instead she said, “How are you? How are things in York?”
“I can’t believe you remember where I’m from.” She grinned.
“Oh, I definitely remember you.” The woman came in every few months and always bought quite a lot. Gifts for family. Seasonal items. Decorations.
“Now that I know you’re here I’ll do some more shopping,” the woman said. “Anything new I should look at?”
“We have a set of spring kitchen towels with flowers. They’re discounted fifteen percent.” Lois pointed toward the towel rack.
“I’ll go look,” the woman said.
The fourth customer stepped over to the candles, so Lois approached Moses. “Do you want to talk in my office?” he asked.
“No. I have two simple questions.”
“All right.”
“One, when do you plan to evict me? And two, may I still host the Youngie on the property for the wiener roast on Friday?”
Moses sighed. “Yes, on the second. It would be bad for business to say no at this point.”
Was PR all he was worried about? She forced herself not to react. “And the first?”
“Give me some time to think about it.”
“Do I have a day? A week? A month?”
“Closer to a month,” he answered. “You’re not going to be out on the street.”
Was she supposed to thank him for that? She didn’t. “I appreciate the information.”
As she turned to go, the woman from York said, “Oh, I hoped you’d check me out. I always enjoy chatting with you.”
“I’m sorry.” Lois smiled at her. “I always enjoy talking with you too, but I’m not working today.”
That afternoon Lois sat on her bed with a childhood book— Anne of Green Gables —propped on a pillow, and she crocheted as she read . She must have fallen asleep because she awoke to knocking and then someone saying, “Lois?”
She crawled out of bed, adjusted her Kapp, and went to the door. She opened it to Isabelle.
Lois motioned for her to come in quickly. She’d rather Moses not know Isabelle was visiting her, but perhaps he knew already.
“What’s going on? Why are Moses and Sara working in the shop?”
“Moses fired me.”
Isabelle shook her head. “He’s a fool. What are you going to do?”
Lois shrugged. What could she do? “How about a glass of iced tea?” Lois asked.
“I’d like that.” Isabelle sat down at the table. “ Do you want your job back?”
Tears sprang into Lois’s eyes. Moses had definitely stung her hohchmoot , her pride, by firing her. For sure. She took two glasses from the cupboard.
“We need to start a campaign.” Isabelle placed both palms on the table. “We’ll let everyone in the area know Moses fired you. I’ll ask people to boycott the store. I have a friend who is a lawyer. We could talk to him and see if you could sue.”
“We don’t sue.”
“You wouldn’t even sue Moses Lantz? He’s not Amish.”
Lois poured the tea. It was tempting. Not to sue—Moses owned the shop and could fire her if he wanted. But to tell everyone what happened. If she told people at the wiener roast Moses fired her, every family in the area would know by Sunday morning. Moses would get what he deserved.
“Perhaps this is what it will take to get him to sell the shop to me.” Isabelle grinned but then it flattened. “Although, I found a shop in Charleston, South Carolina. Any chance you’d want to move there?”
“Is there an Amish community nearby?”
“I don’t know,” Isabelle said.
Lois doubted there was one. “Have you made an offer on the shop there?”
“Not yet.”
Lois put the two glasses of tea down on the table.
“So what do you say?” Isabelle asked. “Do we spread the word Moses Lantz is a real—” She laughed. “I have no idea what derogatory word you would use.”
Lois smiled. “Jerk? Is that good enough?”
“Sounds succinct,” Isabelle answered. “We don’t want to go overboard and put the focus on your words instead of his actions.”
Lois agreed.
After Isabelle left, Lois sat at the table with her half-full glass of tea and reread the latest letter from Teresa and the Flight of Doves. Menno had contributed a report, writing about a mockingbird he’d recently seen. Mary wrote about several orchard orioles—chestnut males and yellow-green females—landing on the front yard of The Country Store. Teresa wrote about birds being mindful and present and focused on the task at hand.
They live by their values, something we would do well to emulate. Everything they do is for a purpose, from their singing to nest building to hunting.
Ouch. Jah, Moses had hurt her, but was she really going to lash out and hurt him back?
On Wednesday, Lois heard Evelyn’s voice in the shop. Had she taken over Lois’s position? That evening, after Moses left, Lois let herself in the back door to use the phone. Bishop Stephen’s stipulation for the wiener roast each year was that it was well chaperoned. Lois had asked Amy, Bennie, and Wanda and Silas Miller to help, but she needed to confirm with both couples and ask if Amy could take her shopping on Friday afternoon. She called the Miller phone number first and put on her cheeriest voice. “Wanda, this is Lois Yoder. I wanted to confirm that you and Silas can still chaperone the wiener roast on Friday. We’ll start gathering at seven. See you then.” After she hung up she wondered, If Wanda called the store to say they couldn’t chaperone, would Moses tell her? Perhaps Evelyn would.
Next she called Amy and tried to put on a cheery voice—but failed. “It’s Lois. I’m calling to make sure you and Bennie can still chaperone the wiener roast. And, um, I’m not working Friday. Any chance you could take me to the store in the afternoon while the older kids nap? We could take the baby—and Ernie too, if needed.”
As Lois put the receiver down, her hand shook a little. She dreaded telling Amy that Moses fired her. Would Amy think it was Lois’s fault for not being nicer to Moses?
Thursday morning, Lois scootered to the post office, hoping for a letter from Menno. None had arrived. Most weeks she had one by now. Friday morning, she scootered to the post office again. She left, disappointed for the second day in a row.
Friday afternoon, Lois sat on the top step of her apartment staircase waiting for Amy. A buggy turned down the lane. Lois squinted into the bright sunlight. Then she stood, ready to hurry down the stairs. It wasn’t Amy. It was John. She quickly stepped into the apartment. Evelyn could tell him Lois had been fired. Or did Evelyn even know? What if Moses had told people she’d quit?
She listened for the front door of the shop to buzz. John had entered. No one else, except for Evelyn, was in the shop. She listened intently for another buzz. It came. Next she listened for the hooves of the horse. There weren’t any. Instead there were footsteps coming up the stairs, a knock on the door, and then the hooves of a horse on the pavement.
Lois groaned and then opened the door. “John! What are you doing here?” She stepped out on the landing and pulled the door shut behind her. Then she took a step forward, forcing him down to the top step.
“Evelyn said you haven’t been working. Is everything all right?”
“Jah.” She peered around him to the parking lot. Amy was sitting in the buggy that had just arrived. “I’m on my way to the store to buy supplies for the wiener roast. I’m looking forward to it.”
“So am I,” John said. “But now I’m curious about your job. Evelyn says she doesn’t know if you quit or Moses fired you.”
“Jah, I haven’t talked with Evelyn. Perhaps I’ll see her at the wiener roast.” Lois pointed toward Amy and her buggy. “I need to go.” She slipped past him and hurried down the steps, not ready to discuss her work situation with John.
He followed her. “Is everything all right? Because I heard a rumor Moses did fire you.”
“I can’t talk now.” She deflated a little more with each step. If only she’d had a letter from Menno to cheer her up. Perhaps he regretted suggesting they meet in person.
John asked, “Do you still have a place to live?”
“Jah.” Lois had reached the buggy, and she quickly climbed in. She gave John a wave and a smile. “See you tonight.”
Amy was holding Maggie in her arms and passed her to Lois. “What was that all about?”
“Oh, you know John. He’s a little persistent.”
“Does it have to do with Moses firing you?”
Lois groaned. “Where did you hear that?”
“Mamm heard it from her Englisch neighbor, who heard it from a cousin. I have no idea who the cousin heard it from.”
Probably from Isabelle.
“Is it true?” Amy asked.
“Jah.” Lois held the baby close, breathing in the sweet scent of the top of her head. “Moses fired me.” She told Amy about the order of birdhouses that arrived after Moses told her not to order any more bird paraphernalia. “The order must have been delayed. I didn’t place it—Scotty did.”
“What did Moses say when you told him?”
“I didn’t have a chance to.”
“Tell him now.”
“And beg for my job back?”
“I’ll tell him,” Amy said.
“Nee.” Lois stared straight ahead. “He obviously doesn’t want me working for him.” He’d rejected her before. Why wouldn’t he reject her now? And it seemed Menno had too.
The first store had what Lois needed—wieners, buns, and marshmallows—but not the rice cereal on Amy’s list. As Amy flicked the reins, she said, “Let’s stop at Creekside Market.”
“Isn’t that Moses’s store?” Lois always shopped at the less expensive store they were now leaving.
“He won’t be there, right? His SUV was at Paradise Found.”
“Oh.” Lois hadn’t noticed in her rush to leave. Hopefully John hadn’t talked with him after she left. “That doesn’t mean he didn’t drive over to the store in the meantime.”
Amy sighed. “I really need rice cereal for the baby. I’m hoping it will help her sleep through the night.”
“All right.”
Thankfully, Moses’s SUV wasn’t parked at the market. Amy tied the reins to the post and then dashed into the store, leaving Lois holding the sleeping baby in the buggy. But Maggie soon woke up and began to cry. Lois patted her back, but she continued to fuss, so Lois climbed down from the buggy, headed to the boardwalk around the store, and began walking the baby back and forth under the awning.
A couple of Englisch women passed her and smiled as they walked to the entrance of the store. Then one of the regular customers at Paradise Found saw Lois and asked, “Why aren’t you at the shop?”
“I’m not working today,” Lois answered, which was true.
“Cute baby,” the woman said.
“She’s a friend’s.”
“Aww.” The woman kept going.
Lois heard a car door slam and turned toward the parking lot. In the last space was Moses’s SUV, and he was headed straight toward her.
Did he see her? She wasn’t going to scurry away to avoid him.
“Hallo, Moses,” she said over the top of Maggie’s head as he approached.
He stopped. “Lois. What are you doing here?”
“Amy’s in the store. Maggie got fussy.”
“Oh.” Then he simply kept walking. He’d been awkward when they were young, but she thought he’d outgrown that. Clearly he hadn’t.
A moment later she heard voices around the corner of the building, near the entrance.
“You fired her for nothing.”
Lois’s face heated. Amy was confronting Moses. Maggie began to fuss again.
“She didn’t place that order. Scotty did.” Amy’s voice grew higher.
“It’s not your concern.” Lois could barely hear Moses.
Maggie began to cry. Then wail. Lois put her up to her shoulder and began patting her back. Then she headed to the entrance.
Amy stood with her hand on her hip while Moses shrugged.
“Come on, Amy,” Lois said. “Maggie’s ready to go.”
Amy stomped away from Moses, handing Lois her bag. Then she took the baby, who immediately quieted.
Once they were inside the buggy, Amy passed the baby, who was almost back asleep already, to Lois. “What happened to Moses Lantz?”
“I don’t know.” Lois swayed a little. “But I’m pretty sure I bring out the worst in him. And I’m positive you shouldn’t get involved in this, considering how your property is financed. And that you want to sell things at his market.”
Amy exhaled and pulled the horse around to the highway. As they entered Paradise, Lois asked if Amy would stop at the post office, even though Lois had already been there earlier that day.
“Expecting a letter from Menno?” Amy asked.
“Hoping for one.”
To Lois’s relief there was a letter from Menno. And one from her brother, or more likely Deanna. She hadn’t answered the last letter—even though she knew they’d keep coming. She put that one in her apron pocket. She wouldn’t think about it until after the wiener roast. She couldn’t wait until she was home to open Menno’s, so she opened it in the post office lobby, hoping no one coming in would get nosy. She read it quickly. It was dated Tuesday, three days before.
Dear Jane,
I was so relieved to get your letter (it seems it took a two-week journey to get to me) and read that you do want to meet sometime. Choose a place that works best for you and let me know where that is.
He wrote a couple of paragraphs about birds and then,
Looking forward to meeting you in person,
Warmly, Menno
She slipped the letter into her apron pocket. When she climbed back into the buggy, Amy said, “You’re smiling.”
“Jah. I received a letter from Menno. It was short, but he still wants to meet.” She hadn’t lost him too, after all.