Whoopie Pie Bakers: Volume Seven: Amish Forgiveness Read online

  Whoopie Pie Bakers

  Volume Seven: Amish Forgiveness

  By

  Sicily Yoder

  DUTCH FARM BOOKS

  ~*~

  Copyright 2012 by DUTCH FARM BOOKS. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form either written or electronically without the express permission of the author or publisher. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are therefore used fictitiously. Any similarity or resemblance to the actual persons; living or dead, places or events are purely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or publisher.

  Photos courtesy of Photo Bucket, I Stock, vso@BigStock and , Paha_L@BigStock, and the author. Scriptures were taken from the KJV.

  “For me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.”

  WHOOPIE PIE BAKERS

  9 VOLUME SERIAL

  Volume 1: Silvery Snowflakes on Lancaster

  Volume 2:Kneeling to Heaven

  Volume 3: Amish Heart

  Volume 4: Heavenly Homecoming

  Volume 5: Special Friends

  Volume 6: A Change of Heart

  Volume 7: Amish Forgiveness

  Volume 8: An Amish Wedding

  Volume 9: Amish Romance

  Other Books by Sicily Yoder

  Amish Blizzards

  Amish Winter Love

  An Amish Winter Surprise

  An Autumn Wind in Walnut Creek

  Amish Garden: 50 Slow Cooker Recipes

  Christmas in Sugarcreek

  Frontier Kisses

  Heaven Driven

  White Christmas Fudge

  Whoopie Pie Bakers

  TABLE ON CONTENTS

  ~DEDICATION~

  ~AMISH WORDS~

  ~ CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE ~

  ~ CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX ~

  ~CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN~

  ~DEDICATION~

  To my fellow Christian authors. You inspire me. To Christ for loving me enough to die for my sins. To my family, who puts up with Papa John’s pizza on nights that I am on deadline. To Hertz Rental Car, who provides my car rental needs for research for my books. To my author friends who have helped in critiquing, book cover and interior layout feedback, and just being there to chat with me on Facebook. To my former Kentucky State Trooper friend, Gene Stratton, for being there for me after my car wreck. No book tours would take place without you.

  ~AMISH WORDS~

  Danki, Thank You

  Fraa, wife

  Schwester, sister

  Bruder, brother

  Haus, house

  Milich Haus, milk house

  Schwester, Sister

  Gut, Good

  Wunderbar, wonderful

  Grossmammi, Grandmother

  Grossdaedi, Grandfather

  Jah, Yes

  Gut Mariye, Good Morning

  Gut Nacht, good Night

  Gott, God

  Boppli, baby

  Kinner, children

  Menner, men

  Vorsinger, the Man who leads the song service at church

  Uffgevva, to give up ego to trust in God’s will

  Wie bist du heit, It is nice to meet you

  Wasser, water

  Blaeckbier, blackberry

  Dach-weggeli, wagon

  Schuldiner, debtor

  Shtill hokka, member meeting

  Chite, fit in morals

  Du dosht nelt, you may not

  Ich glie de, I love you

  Mamm, Mother

  Daed, Dad

  ~ CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE ~

  “Esther, are you awake?” Mamm’s voice sounded urgent on the other side of the bedroom door. “I need to talk to you.”

  Esther eased up out of the warm bed and yawned. The nap was gut while it lasted. What could Mamm possibly want? Esther sat up on the bed, eyed the door. “Come on in, Mamm.” Another drawn-out release of warm air exited her chest. “I w-a-s just sleeping.”

  The door creaked open, and Mamm made her way inside. Strands of red hair framed her temples, and her eyes were like saucers. What could be wrong?

  “I just heard the most terrible news,” Mamm announced in a rushed tone. She quickly took a seat on the bed next to Esther, worry in her face. “Linda Byler phoned the shanty.”

  This couldn’t be gut, for Linda Byler never called anyone other than her driver and family because health reasons prevented her from roaming her farm as she did in her earlier years.

  Before the wheelchair.

  “Is she okay?’ Esther asked in a hopeful tone, thinking the call was about Linda’s health.

  “Gina’s farm is on fire!” Mamm blurted in a shocking tone, wrinkles arching high above her brow. “Fire and EMS are there trying to save—” She stopped mid-sentence, glanced down, and grimaced. “The foundation.”

  Esther wasn’t about to let Mamm focus negatively. Fires weren’t uncommon, but they happened with no fatalities.

  Usually.

  “I bet Gina and her familye got out. She’s the runs faster than any girl in our community, according to Jacob Smith.” Esther paused, studied Mamm’s worried glare. “And she was fast enough to steal Jacob back from me,” snickered Esther. She didn’t feel guilty for telling the truth. Gina could hold her own, even during a fire.

  Mamm looked stunned at her reply as if she didn’t offer enough compassion for a girl who had done nothing but bully her all her life. “Esther, you said that is such a hurtful tone. Why hold a grudge at a tragic time like this?”

  Finally, Esther forced a halfhearted reply, “I pray they are okay.”

  Mamm didn’t buy her change of heart. “Please put your differences behind you, Esther, and think about how hard it will be for Gina and Jacob’s familye right now.”

  The latter sparked an interest from Esther. “How does Jacob come into this?”

  “He had dropped her off minutes before the fire, and with the trouble his bruders were in and all—.” Her words stopped short as if she was allowing Esther to piece the situation together.

  “Mamm, Jacob doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’d never start a fire,” Esther snapped in a defensive tone. How rude of Mamm to think Jacob was as mischievous as his outlaw bruders. The Bible instructed Christians not to judge. Esther saw a different side of Mamm, one she did not like, but she would bite her tongue.

  Halfway. Jacob deserved some support. “Mamm, we have all done things we aren’t proud of, haven’t we?’

  Mamm took on a holier-than-anyone glare. “I have always been a woman of my word and never gotten into any trouble.”

  Esther doubted the latter. “You never snuck down to the pond when Grossmammi told you not to go near it?”

  “Once, but my schwester led me there. I was only eight-years-old,” Mamm explained defensively, her brow arching high. “After I learned, I never went back to the pond like Ruthie did that chilly autumn morning. You remember what happened —”

  “Jah, I remember Grossmammi talking about her drowning. She says very little about her, so I don’t press her for more information.” Esther’s heart hurt. Ruthie drowned when she was twelve-years-old. How sad it was for the whole community. Now Gina’s haus was on fire, another tragedy, another round of gloom entering the community. Esther felt a bit remorseful for holding a grudge during a time like this.

  Esther gave a full-hearted smile. “No one deserves to have their farm burn down. I forgive Gina for stealing Jacob, but I won’t forget it.”

  Mamm smiled. “That is a better attitude. Remember what Bishop Smucker teaches us about death.” She
gently patted Esther’s back and smiled lovingly. “We aren’t to focus on those who have passed, but on those of us who are left to prove ourselves worthy before Gott.”

  Esther had to agree. “Jah, we need to examine our own lives, make sure we are fit for heaven, saved by grace. Without a relationship with Jesus and repenting, we are lost souls.”

  “Take Gina’s tragic death as a lesson to obey The Ordnung, follow Christ.”

  Why does Mamm talk as if Gina is gone? Gina did make it out alive. No fire would stop such a girl as Gina. Mamm needed a paradigm shift. “Stop talking as if Gina is dead. It’s making me edgy. There’s no way she would have stayed in a burning fire.” Esther rubbed her hands over her arms to tame the goose bumps. “No one would want to die that way.”

  “We need to pray for Jacob and his familye that they won’t meet such a fate as Gina met,” Mamm said as if they were at the gates of hell.

  They weren’t, but Esther hid her words. Jacob loved the Lord, but he made some dumb choices. One day, he’d get his life straight and rejoin the church.

  What if he didn’t? The thought of such a fate for a man she had become close to hurt her heart badly. Thinking of Gott turning him away on judgment day tilted her stomach worse than the news of Gina’s haus fire. She cared about his soul.

  Gina did not. However, there was no way of convincing Mamm that Gina took Jacob just to spite her. Gina had always taken it upon herself to compete with Esther for everything.

  “You’re deep in thought, Esther. What are you thinking about; maybe Jacob?” Mamm asked curiously, as if she knew the answer but wanted to probe her to expose her feelings.

  Esther wasn’t ready to share the blossoming love she had for Jacob, but she would share her experience with her only opposition, Gina. “Jacob would be such a better man, a godly one, if he wasn’t chasing a girl like Gina.”

  Mamm disagreed, shook her head hard. “He has freewill, and he only left because he wanted to leave. No one made him become Englisch.” Her brow tightened. Don’t blame his wrongdoings on Gina.”

  “His mamm made him leave, and Gina influenced him to leave his faith.” Esther said defensively, and Mamm gave a stern glare.

  “He could have stayed with one of our Amish families when his mamm made the decision to leave her faith,” Mamm snapped, “I am not feeling one bit sorry for the man.”

  It was easy for Mamm to say because he hadn’t let her into his truck, held her protectively under a cold, thundering rainstorm. Esther had to wonder how Mamm would have acted if Daed had been Jacob. “What if you were me, Mamm, and Jacob was Daed? Would you have pity on him?”

  Mamm gave a lighthearted laugh. “Daed would never be in Jacob’s shoes. He’s always been a strong man of Gott.”

  “So he never messed up when he was younger?” Esther asked in an unbelieving tone. The Bible clearly said that only Christ was perfect. Mamm seemed to be painting Daed as perfect to make Jacob look bad.

  “No, Grossmammi said he was perfect.” Mamm remarked confidently. “He was the best-behaved child.”

  “He never asked to join Rumspringa,” Esther asked, hoping the world’s glow lured him a bit like Jacob.

  “No, not once. He was quite content where he was on the farm.” Mamm’s brow arched. “He joined the church rather quickly.”

  Esther frowned. Too bad Daed isn’t human like Jacob. Esther cut her eyes towards the floor, her heart ripped out. There was no way Daed or Mamm would understand Jacob’s plight. How could they welcome him into the family when they judged him so harshly? Arguing the case was useless. Mamm seemed to be against him.

  I will lose Jacob. Esther’s heart plunged, which shocked her because she had gotten mad at him earlier for disclosing her secret. Now, she realized she was really into him.

  “You know I told him to go along with your plan to leave for New York,” Mamm admitted.

  “Did you tell him to hold me in his arms, pretend to have feelings for me?” Esther immediately regretted the words as she saw the stunned look on Mamm’s face.

  “He didn’t, did he, Esther?” Mamm’s brow narrowed, her eyes deepening into scolding mode, and Esther felt uneasy confessing to such. Why had she blurted it out?

  “We had a special friendship,” Esther confessed, feeling her cheeks burn with guilt.

  “You were scared you’d be a spinster like your aunt Madie?” Mamm snapped in a hurtful tone. “How could you rush like that and consider a husband outside of the faith.”

  Esther debated on telling the truth. Everything had happened so fast, from the first secret meeting to the long embraces in his truck. Of course, she never did anything inappropriate like Englisch girls did in the community. Nonetheless, she felt shame as if she dishonored her familye. “Sorry, Mamm.”

  “You know, if you’re scared of being a spinster and need a husband that badly, then pick up one of the menner after Sunday service, ask him out. I’m sure they will give you a stern glare.”

  “Why, they wouldn’t want me?” Esther retorted.

  “If they were interested, they would ask you out. That is the proper way our community handles dating. Trying to grab someone, lure them into marriage is wrong. It is sin!”

  How rude! Mamm made her feel useless, unworthy to have a husband. What had happened to the woman who helped her stock her hope chest? Did she see that none of the menner asked her out for youth singings or suppers, but wanted her to be teased with a chest of hope of what was supposed to be, but couldn’t be because no Amishman loved her?

  “Mamm, have you noticed any menner who show interest in me?” Esther asked hesitantly, bracing herself for the truth.

  “No one is interested in you, and I know of several Mamms who have asked their sons to take you to Sunday singings, and they weren’t interested in an older woman like you.”

  Mamm’s words stung like fresh rubbing alcohol on an open cut. Esther never knew Mamm watched so closely. How sad to see a docdher grow a year older, get closer to becoming an unmarried woman.

  “I’ll accept life as a spinster,” Esther uttered regretfully. She didn’t want to accept such a fate, but she had to be honest that chasing a non-Christian was wrong. “I went after Jacob, then grew feelings for him for all the wrong reasons.”

  Mamm smiled softly. “And without the Lord’s help. If the Lord wants you to be a spinster, which I think He does, then you need to accept his decision.”

  It was hard to swallow, but Esther did agree. “No more chasing Jacob. I will wait for Gott’s leading.” She thought about the hope chest. What would happen to it? “Mamm, if no one asks for my hand in marriage, what shall we do with my hope chest?” Esther fought back tears. “Just keep it?” She didn’t want to do that, for the memories of her past dream to wed would be too much to handle.

  “I’ll give it to Miriam,” Mamm said gently.

  Miriam is older than I am. This doesn’t make sense. “And when do you think Miriam will wed?”

  Mamm smiled. “Sometime in the future.”

  “Mamm, but Miriam is older than I am, so she will probably be a spinster too.”

  Mamm gave a horrified look as if Esther’s words were insulting. “Why do you think your schwester won’t wed?”

  “Because you just said that I wouldn’t wed, and I’m younger and more outgoing than she is,” Esther explained.

  “Miriam has been talking to Reuben Esh’s eldest son after church services. I’ve watched her out of the corner of my eyes.” Mamm seemed embarrassed to have been eavesdropping on Miriam.

  “I guess she’ll get hitched soon then. Go ahead and give her my hope chest,” Esther remarked, wishing Jacob’s embrace had been real as well as his faith to Gott.

  “I shall go take it to her room now. I’ll let you finish your nap.” She walked out and gently closed the door behind her.

  Esther etched her knees up to her chest and leaned her head down over them. She would be an unmarried woman, although she had looked forward to raising a big familye. Why
hadn’t any of the menner shown interest in her? Was it her weight? She’d joked for years about wanting to lose weight.

  Did she talk too much? She talked more than anyone at in her community did. Maybe that was it. As she heard Mamm dragging the heavy cherry chest down the hallway, she felt her heart skip beats. My dream is over now. No hope chest, no special friend. She lay down and sobbed herself to sleep.

  ~ CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX ~

  “Gina’s house just burned down, Jacob,” the brown-haired, petite cashier said ghastly. “And she was inside!”

  The hair stood up on Jacob’s back, and he felt cold bumps pop up on his arms. “You’re kidding me. I just dropped her off at home earlier today.”

  “We just found out a couple minutes ago, and the sheriff is looking for you.”

  “Why does the sheriff want to see me?” He didn’t live at Gina’s place, so couldn’t offer any information about the fire.

  “I don’t know for sure, but I heard he was looking for you,” the cashier said gingerly. “Maybe he wants to know when you dropped Gina off and how she was feeling.” Her brow arched above her wide blue eyes. “You know she’d been having seizures since she’d gotten sick.”

  Seizures? The news frightened Jacob. Why had Gina kept such a secret from him? This was vital information that he needed to know. Being with her a lot, he needed to know about her health in case it turned for the worse.

  “She never talked about her health,” Jacob said in a surprising tone as he sat the cola down on the checkout. “Guess we know now, but this is no way to find out.”

  The cashier smiled empathetically as she rang his order up. “That will be one dollar. I wonder why she didn’t tell you about the seizures. Most of the community knows,” she said in a gossiping tone.

  “I guess she didn’t want to bother me with her health woes,” Jacob replied in a stressed tone.