getting to really. "Then, I 'spose the rest of the day I can work helpin' Mamma?"
Dat smiled weakly, nodding his head one slow time. He lifted his hat to his oily head and stood up, still looking her full in the face.
The kitten in her lap was not one bit interested in being moved or set free. Not when the sun's rays had found both Leah and the cat there in the haymow, where Dat had spoken some mighty important words, letting her know that he knew she was no longer a tomboy but a young woman. Truly, she was.
Goodness, she felt like jumping up and running round the barn. Glory be! she thought, grinning for all she was worth. Such gut news.
108Hf
jO e d e r I y J~- e lo I s
At sunset Gobbler's Knob was one of the pettiest places in all of Lancaster County, Sadie felt sure, with its view of the farmland below, dotting the landscape, shadowed in the gray-blue dusk.
She had become braver in her visits to the knoll, not waiting for Derry behind the barn any longer. She didn't feel the need to be led into the depths of the woods. After so many weeks, she knew the way to the hunters' shanty. Sometimes she arrived a half hour or so before Derry did, perched on the wooden ledge hewn into the wall. Or she might move to the windowsill, where she sat silently, peering out of the tiny square window, waiting for her beloved as darkness gathered over the forest. Often she remembered Derry's cautious yet compassionate remarks, told to her on one of the first nights they'd walked together amidst the brambles and undergrowth, all the things in the knoll that were dangerous, even deadly. Things like poison oak, wild orange mushrooms, a certain genus of herbs . . . and if you weren't careful, the way the darkness could creep up suddenly, almost out of nowhere, catch you unawares. "You can easily get turned around in here," he'd said, looking up at the dense trees, "or even lose your way completely." At the time she thought it was ever so kind of Derry to point out such things. She still did. It was as if he was looking after her, caring for her in a way that other boys wouldn't think to.
Oh, how she cherished everything he was to her, living for the hour when they each of them left their individual societies behind and sneaked away to the woods. To their secret place against an unforgiving world. They shared an unspoken pact now, a lovers' promise that she belonged to him and he to her. There was no one else for Sadie in all the
109
ml
ivorld. And she was more certain than ever that Derry felt [he same way.
I Not even the coming rain, the wind high in the trees, Illsiurbed her eagerness for the arrival of her beau tonight. IX/hen she and Derry Schwartz were together, she was able to forget who she was, really to play a trick on herself and dispiiss the truth that she was Abram and Ida Ebersol's firstborn, that sooner or later she would join church, marry within the Confines of the Amish community, give birth to numerous children, carry on amidst countless work frolics with fifty or lo other women, dress Plain forever, and live a life with strict rules and regulations set down by a bishop she scarcely knew. I Yet the reality of her future faded when she was with perry. Then, and only then, was she free to be herself. Somepine her own mamma would never even recognize, probably ... a seething yet fragile spirit that knew no bounds. r\nd when it came time for Derry and her to part, she attempted to grasp each precious moment, wishing she could lengthen the span of time, resenting the walk home alone, knowing she wo ld gladly do anything he said, even run away
I mm
with him, never looking back, she was convinced. She was frustrated at what she might have to face if Leah happened to pe awake again when she tiptoed past their bed, slipped into per long white cotton nightgown, her beloved Derry long lince having returned to his own separate world, his "I love you" still resounding deep within her heart. I You could lose your way. . . .
I
Dat smiled weakly, nodding his head one slow time. He lifted his hat to his oily head and stood up, still looking her full in the face.
The kitten in her lap was not one bit interested in being moved or set free. Not when the sun's rays had found both Leah and the cat there in the haymow, where Dat had spoken some mighty important words, letting her know that he knew she was no longer a tomboy but a young woman. Truly, she was.
Goodness, she felt like jumping up and running round the barn. Glory be! she thought, grinning for all she was worth. Such gut news.
108Hf
jO e d e r I y J~- e lo I s
At sunset Gobbler's Knob was one of the pettiest places in all of Lancaster County, Sadie felt sure, with its view of the farmland below, dotting the landscape, shadowed in the gray-blue dusk.
She had become braver in her visits to the knoll, not waiting for Derry behind the barn any longer. She didn't feel the need to be led into the depths of the woods. After so many weeks, she knew the way to the hunters' shanty. Sometimes she arrived a half hour or so before Derry did, perched on the wooden ledge hewn into the wall. Or she might move to the windowsill, where she sat silently, peering out of the tiny square window, waiting for her beloved as darkness gathered over the forest. Often she remembered Derry's cautious yet compassionate remarks, told to her on one of the first nights they'd walked together amidst the brambles and undergrowth, all the things in the knoll that were dangerous, even deadly. Things like poison oak, wild orange mushrooms, a certain genus of herbs . . . and if you weren't careful, the way the darkness could creep up suddenly, almost out of nowhere, catch you unawares. "You can easily get turned around in here," he'd said, looking up at the dense trees, "or even lose your way completely." At the time she thought it was ever so kind of Derry to point out such things. She still did. It was as if he was looking after her, caring for her in a way that other boys wouldn't think to.
Oh, how she cherished everything he was to her, living for the hour when they each of them left their individual societies behind and sneaked away to the woods. To their secret place against an unforgiving world. They shared an unspoken pact now, a lovers' promise that she belonged to him and he to her. There was no one else for Sadie in all the
109
ml
ivorld. And she was more certain than ever that Derry felt [he same way.
I Not even the coming rain, the wind high in the trees, Illsiurbed her eagerness for the arrival of her beau tonight. IX/hen she and Derry Schwartz were together, she was able to forget who she was, really to play a trick on herself and dispiiss the truth that she was Abram and Ida Ebersol's firstborn, that sooner or later she would join church, marry within the Confines of the Amish community, give birth to numerous children, carry on amidst countless work frolics with fifty or lo other women, dress Plain forever, and live a life with strict rules and regulations set down by a bishop she scarcely knew. I Yet the reality of her future faded when she was with perry. Then, and only then, was she free to be herself. Somepine her own mamma would never even recognize, probably ... a seething yet fragile spirit that knew no bounds. r\nd when it came time for Derry and her to part, she attempted to grasp each precious moment, wishing she could lengthen the span of time, resenting the walk home alone, knowing she wo ld gladly do anything he said, even run away
I mm
with him, never looking back, she was convinced. She was frustrated at what she might have to face if Leah happened to pe awake again when she tiptoed past their bed, slipped into per long white cotton nightgown, her beloved Derry long lince having returned to his own separate world, his "I love you" still resounding deep within her heart. I You could lose your way. . . .
I
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