Chapter 15
At the end of the day, Becky, Ike, Adam, and Joanna sat around the office in the warehouse after everyone else had gone home. “We’re not going to make an offer on the second house we saw today. That would stretch us much too thin.” Ike glanced at Becky and she nodded.
Joanna had overheard her bosses talking about cash flow problems recently. She was glad they were being cautious, not only with money but also with labor resources.
“We’ll start on the remodeling project at the Garden Lane house tomorrow.
Jacob, Caleb, and Tim moved supplies over today.
A dumpster was scheduled to be delivered this afternoon.
” Ike held a pen tightly in his hand as he glanced from Joanna to Adam.
“What other ideas did you come up with for the Pequea Creek house?” As Ike talked, his flip phone, which was approved by Daniel to be used only for the business, rang in his fanny pack.
He pulled it out, accepted the call, and said, “Hallo.”
There was a pause and then he said, “Jah, we can sign the papers in the morning.” There was another pause and Ike said, “It’s always a pleasure to work with you too.”
He ended the call with a smile. “Glad that’s taken care of.” He slipped the phone back into his fanny pack and made eye contact with Adam. “Back to your thoughts.”
Adam and Joanna presented their list, ending with tearing down the pantry wall to make the kitchen bigger.
Ike didn’t respond, but Becky said, “We’ll need to put more thought into that.” She leaned forward. “Ike, are you feeling all right?”
He stood. “Just a little buggy.” It was a joke that the team often laughed at when one of them was feeling off, but no one laughed now. “I think we should talk about this in the morning.”
Joanna was beginning to worry about Ike too. She turned to Becky and asked, “Is there anything you want me to do before I leave?”
Becky shook her head as she walked around the desk to Ike. Adam stepped toward the office door. Joanna stayed seated.
Ike sat back down.
Becky’s voice was pitched higher than usual. “What’s wrong?”
Ike slumped back in his chair, dropped the pen in his hand, and clutched his chest. He tried to stand but fell, pushing the chair backward.
Becky gasped. Joanna was at Ike’s side in a split second and steadied the chair. “Tell me how you’re feeling.”
“Dizzy,” he said. “And like I might be sick.” He clutched his arm again.
“Where’s your pain?”
“My arm. And my chest.”
“I’m going to get your phone.”
He nodded.
She unzipped the fanny pack and fumbled his flip phone out of it.
Becky was on Ike’s other side now. Joanna stepped away. Adam took her place. She pressed the SOS button. It took what seemed like forever for a dispatcher to come on the line. Joanna quickly told her what happened and gave the address of the warehouse.
Becky caressed Ike’s face. “Can you hear me?” she kept saying over and over.
“Hurry,” Joanna said to the dispatcher. “Please hurry.”
The dispatcher replied, “If you can go out to the road and direct the ambulance, that would be helpful.”
“All right.” Joanna ended the call, sure she should take the phone in case the dispatcher needed to call her back. She lowered her voice and said, “Adam, do you know CPR?”
“Jah.”
“Good, just in case.” She held up the phone. “I’m taking this—so I’ll have it if the dispatcher calls back.”
Adam gave her a nod.
“Stay calm,” Joanna said. “Everything is going to be all right.” As she hurried out the door, she thought of Dawdi Marcus.
He’d had a seizure in the middle of the night.
Mammi woke her, and Joanna ran out to the phone shanty in her nightgown and robe to call 9-1-1.
After she made the call, she ran out to the road too, just as she was doing now.
She’d taken a CPR class through the Red Cross after Dawdi Marcus had passed away. Perhaps Adam had taken first aid through his job in Florida. Construction sites could be dangerous.
She waited another eternity—seven minutes according to Ike’s phone—for the ambulance to arrive. She heard the siren first and stepped into the road and began waving her arms as it crested the hill right before the turn to the warehouse. The ambulance slowed and the driver’s window lowered.
Joanna pointed toward the warehouse. “He’s in there. The door is open.”
The driver gave her a nod, turned, and sped up. Joanna ran behind the ambulance. When she reached the warehouse, two men were carrying equipment inside.
After they loaded Ike into the ambulance, Joanna pulled his phone from her pocket and said to Becky, “I’ll call Nick and ask him to take you to the hospital.”
“Denki.” Becky’s voice was flat, even as she begged to be allowed to ride in the ambulance with Ike. The paramedics said she couldn’t, and Joanna hoped that wasn’t a bad sign.
Joanna left a message for Nick. A minute later he texted he was on his way. As they waited, Mammi Lu came up the lane. A strand of her gray hair hung loose against her cheek, and she wore a work dress. “I heard sirens,” she called out. “Is everyone all right?”
“Lu.” Becky staggered toward her friend. “It’s Ike.”
Mammi Lu stretched out her arms for her friend.
“It’s his heart,” Becky said. “Just like Reuben.”
Joanna sat next to Adam in the ER waiting room of Lancaster General Hospital, aware of how frightened he must be but at a loss for what to say.
So instead she concentrated on her grandmother and Becky. Mammi Lu held her friend’s hand—which Joanna understood. She felt compelled to take Adam’s hand in hers, but of course she wouldn’t. It would be inappropriate for her to do such a thing. She wasn’t a sixty-seven-year-old grandmother.
Mammi Lu had always been soft. Not plump, just soft. Her lap was soft when she held Joanna as a child. Her face was soft when she put her cheek against Joanna’s now. Her breath, her words, her voice. All of her was soft, in a comforting way.
Becky, on the other hand, was always moving. She never walked—she marched. Even when she sat behind her desk, she moved. She was energetic and unpredictable. Everybody loved Becky. And everyone loved Mammi Lu too. Joanna had never loved either of them more than she did as she watched them now.
After a while a doctor approached, saying, “I’m looking for Becky Slaybaugh.”
“Right here,” Mammi Lu answered, patting Becky’s knee.
The doctor offered her hand. “I’m Dr. Flander.” Becky took it. Then the doctor sat next to Becky and said, “You married a fighter.”
Becky choked back tears. “Is he all right?”
“Yes,” the doctor said. “He’s most likely going to need surgery—we’ll run tests as soon as we can.”
“Can I see him?” Becky asked.
“A nurse will come get you soon. I’ll have a cardiologist speak with you about what to expect over the next few days.”
Adam hiccupped. Or was that a sob? Joanna whispered, “Are you all right?”
He stood. “I need to get a drink of water.”
“I’ll go with you.” Joanna stood and stepped toward her grandmother. “We’re going to go get something to drink.”
“Go to the cafeteria.” Mammi patted her side. “I guess I didn’t bring my purse.”
“I have money.” Joanna had grabbed her bag before she locked the warehouse.
“Bring Becky and me something to drink too,” Mammi Lu said. “And a snack.”
Adam had already reached the hallway. Joanna hurried to catch up. By the time she did, he’d stopped at a water fountain.
When he stood, Joanna said, “Let’s go to the cafeteria. Mammi wants me to bring back something for her and Becky.”
Adam swiped the back of his hand across his eyes and then over his mouth.
Not once had Joanna seen Jacob become emotional, not even after his mother died. She led the way, one she knew from the times Dawdi Marcus was hospitalized, and Adam followed. She parked him at a table and then gathered bottles of juice, premade sandwiches, and an order of fries to share with Adam.
He stared straight ahead when she reached the table. He seemed startled when she sat down. She opened one of the bottles of juice and handed it to him, brushing his arm as she did. “Are you okay?”
He took the bottle and nodded.
She knew how he felt. She’d lived it with Dawdi Marcus. And she had the same feelings now about Ike—not only was he her boss, but he was also her surrogate grandfather.
Adam had lost his father as a boy and had just witnessed Ike collapse. She was worried about him. But she didn’t tell him that. Instead, she asked, “Where did you learn to do CPR?”
“I took a class in Florida.”
“Why?”
“I saw Dawdi do CPR when I was little. I always figured it was something I should know how to do.”
Joanna held a fry in midair. “Who did your grandfather do CPR on?”
“My Dat.”
After they returned to the waiting room with the juice and sandwiches for their grandmothers, Becky asked Joanna to leave a message on Daniel and Elaine’s phone.
“And on Caleb and Mandy’s phone too. They’re apt to check before Daniel does, although who knows how many times a day Elaine checks.
Someone needs to do our chores and yours too in case we’re here for a while. ”
Joanna stepped out the front door and did as she was told. She hesitated a minute when she’d finished, and then made one more call, to her Dawdi Hiram and Mammi Rhoda. She left them a message asking them to pray.
It wasn’t long until Becky and Adam were called back to see Ike. “The doctor will be down soon,” the nurse said.
Ike’s cell phone rang. Joanna recognized Caleb and Mandy’s number and stood, stepping away from Mammi Lu and the other people. She answered it quickly.
It was Mandy. “I got your message. Is Ike okay?”
“I think he’s going to be.” Joanna headed outside to talk in privacy. “Becky and Adam went back to see him and speak with the doctor.”
“What a shock. Caleb’s hitching up our buggy. We’ll stop by Dawdi Daniel and Mammi Elaine’s and let them know what’s going on and then head over to do the chores at the Slaybaughs’ place and yours too.”
“Denki.” Joanna knew she could depend on Mandy and Caleb.
“Do you want Dawdi Daniel to go to the hospital?”
“Nee,” Joanna answered. “It’s getting late. Becky or I will call in the morning.”
Mandy chuckled. “Don’t get used to Ike’s cell phone.”
It felt good to joke a little. “It’s just a flip phone, so, you know, a smartphone would definitely be a different matter.”
Once she returned to the waiting room, Joanna sat back down by Mammi Lu. Neither spoke for several minutes. Finally Joanna asked, “Who’s Reuben?”
Mammi Lu bristled. “Who mentioned Reuben?”
“Becky did, to you. After the ambulance came.”
Mammi Lu sighed. “That’s right. Reuben was Adam’s Dat.”
“I wondered.” Joanna hesitated for a minute. “When did he die?”
“Twenty-one years ago.”
“When Adam was three?”
“Jah. Adam was with him when it happened. Reuben, Elizabeth, and Adam lived in the apartment above the warehouse. Reuben went to do the chores and took Adam with him—he collapsed in the barn.” Mammi Lu folded her hands.
“Elizabeth finally went to check on them. She found Adam beside his Dat, stroking his forehead. She screamed for Ike and Becky.”
“Was Reuben dead?”
Mammi shook her head. “Ike did CPR on Reuben until the ambulance arrived, but they couldn’t save him. It was too late.”
Joanna knew Adam’s father had died when he was young, but she assumed it had been in an accident. “What did he die from?”
“It was something to do with his heart.” Mammi Lu sighed. “It was such a hard time.”
Joanna thought how awful it must have been for Becky to watch Ike collapse after losing her son that way.
One time Mandy said her grandmother believed Becky never wanted more than one child, which meant she probably used birth control.
“Can you believe it?” Mandy had asked Joanna, her eyes wide.
“The bishop before my Dawdi even talked with her about it, but she denied she only wanted one child. My Mammi figured that Becky had grown so tired of taking care of her younger siblings that she thought one child was enough. And then that only child died.”
Joanna asked Mandy how Becky and Ike’s son had died, but she didn’t know.
“No one talks about what happened. Not even my grandmother.” Joanna knew if Elaine didn’t talk about something it was definitely a taboo topic.
She became convicted of talking about Becky—of listening to gossip about her—and quickly changed the subject.
She thought about all of that now as she watched Mammi Lu rub her temples.
“Becky asked for an autopsy after Reuben passed,” Mammi Lu said quietly.
Joanna wasn’t surprised to hear that. Many Amish parents would have attributed a sudden death like that to God’s will and not sought an explanation. But not Becky.