The Amish Midwife

Goats enjoyed getting out of their pens. Some of them were masters of the skill. Was it his fault that the best forage around was in her garden plot?

It wasn’t his intention to make life harder for the woman. He planned to mend his fence, but there simply weren’t enough hours in the day. Now that the harvest was done, his corn cribs were full and his hay was safe in the barn, he would find time to make the needed repairs. Tomorrow for sure.

He was halfway to the house when the lights of a car swung off the road and into his lane. He stopped in midstride. Who could that be? He wasn’t expecting anyone. Certainly not one of the Englisch.

Most likely, it was someone who had taken a wrong turn on the winding rural Pennsylvania road looking for his neighbor’s place. It happened often enough to be irritating. His farm was remote and few cars traveled this way until Anne Stoltzfus had opened her produce stand. Now, with her large hand-painted sign out by the main highway and an arrow pointing this direction, he sometimes saw a line of cars on the road heading to buy her fresh-picked corn, squash and now pumpkins. Since the beginning of October, it seemed every Englisch in the countssy wanted to buy pumpkins from her. He would be glad when she closed for the winter.

He didn’t resent that Anne earned a living working the soil in addition to being a midwife. He respected her for that. He just didn’t like people. Some folks called him a recluse. It didn’t matter what they called him as long as they left him alone. He cherished the peace and quiet of his small farm with only his animals for company, but that peace was broken now by the crunching of car tires rolling over his gravel drive. From the barn behind him, he heard several of his goats bleating in curiosity.

Whoever these people were, they should know better than to come shopping at an Amish farm after dark. Anne’s stand would be closed until morning. The car rolled to a stop a few feet from him. He raised his hand to block the glare of the headlights. He heard the car door open, but he couldn’t see anything.

“Hello, brooder.”

His heart soared with joy at the sound of that familiar and beloved voice. “Fannie?”

“Ja.”

His little sister had come home at last. He had prayed for this day for three long years. Prayed every night before he laid his tired body down. She was never far from his thoughts. Still blinded by the lights, he took a step forward. He wanted to hug her, to make sure she was real and not some dream. “I can’t believe it’s you. Gott be praised.”

“It’s me, right enough, Joe. Johnny, turn off the lights.”

Something in the tone of her voice made Joseph stop. Johnny, whoever he was, did as she asked. Joseph blinked in the sudden darkness. He wanted so badly to hear her say she was home for good. “I knew you would come back. I knew when your rumspringa ended, you would give up the Englisch life and return. Your heart is Amish. You don’t belong in the outside world. You belong here.”

“I haven’t come back to stay, Joe.” The regret in her voice cut his joy to shreds. He heard a baby start to cry.

After few seconds, his eyes adjusted and he could make out Fannie standing beside the open door of the vehicle. The light from inside the car didn’t reveal his Amish sister. Instead, he saw an Englisch girl with short spiky hair, wearing a tight T-shirt and a short denim skirt. He might have passed her on the street without recognizing her, so different did she look. No Amish woman would be seen in such immodest clothes. It was then he realized she held a baby in her arms.

What was going on?

He had raised Fannie alone after their parents and his fiancée were killed in a buggy and pickup crash. He’d taken care of her from the time she was six years old until she disappeared a week after she turned sixteen, leaving only a note to say she wanted an Englisch life. For months afterward, he’d waited for her to return and wondered what he had done wrong. How had he failed her so badly? It had to be his fault.

It was hard to speak for the tightness that formed in his throat. “If you aren’t staying, then why are you here?”

The driver, a young man with black hair and a shiny ring in the side of his nose, leaned toward the open passenger-side door. “Come on, Fannie, we don’t have all night. Get this over with.”

“Shut up, Johnny. You aren’t helping.” She took a few steps closer to Joseph. “I need your help, brooder. There’s no one else I can turn to.”

Were those tears on her face? “What help can I give you? I don’t have money.”

“I don’t want your money. I...I want you to meet someone. This is my daughter. Your niece. Her name is Leah. I named her after our mother.”

“You have a bubbel?” Joseph reeled in shock. He still thought of his sister as a little girl skipping off to school or playing on their backyard swing, not someone old enough to be a mother. He gestured toward the car with a jerk of his head. “Is this man your husband?”

“We’re not married yet, but we will be soon,” she said in a rush.

“Soon?” Had she come to invite him to the wedding?

“Ja. As soon as Johnny gets this great job he has waiting for him in New York. He’s a musician and I’m a singer. He has an audition with a big-time group. It could be our lucky break. Just what I need to get my career going.”

She looked away and bounced the baby. Something wasn’t right. Joseph knew her well enough to know she was hiding something.

Maybe he was being too hard on her. Maybe she was simply ashamed of having a babe out of wedlock and she expected her brother to chastise her.

This wasn’t the life he wanted for her, but he was a practical man. It did no good to close the barn door after the horse was gone. He struggled to find the words to comfort her. “If Johnny is the man Gott has chosen for you, then you will find a blessed life together.”

“Thanks. Danki. We will have a good life. You’ll see. But in the meantime, I need your help. Johnny has to get to his audition, and I’m going to have surgery. Nothing serious, but I can’t keep the baby in the hospital with me.” She moved the blanket aside and showed him a cast on her wrist.

“It was an accident,” Johnny shouted from inside the car.

“It was,” Fannie added quickly, her eyes wide. She nibbled at the corner of her lower lip.

“I did not think otherwise.” At least not until this moment. He eyed Johnny sharply. Nay, it was wrong of him to think the worst of any man. If his sister said it was an accident, he must believe her. He nodded toward the house. “Come in. We can talk there. I have a pot of coffe on the stove.”

“No, thanks. Your coffee was always strong enough to dissolve a horseshoe. I can’t stay, Joe. Please say you will take care of Leah for me. It’s only for a couple of days.”

“Think what you are asking. I have no experience with babies.”

“You raised me.”

“You were not in diapers.”

“Please, Joe. If you don’t keep her, I don’t know what I’ll do. I have everything she’ll need in a bag for you. I’ve even mixed a couple of bottles. Keep them in the fridge and warm them in a pan of hot water when you need them. That’s all you’ll have to do. If you run out, there’s powdered formula in here.” She set a pink-and-white diaper bag down by her feet.

“Hurry it up, Fan, or I’m going to leave without you.” Johnny’s snarling tone made her flinch. Joseph scowled at him. Johnny sank back behind the wheel muttering to himself.

Joseph shook his head. Why was she with such a fellow? “This is not a good idea, Fannie. You know I would help if I could.”

She moved close to him. “I’m desperate, Joe,” she whispered.

Glancing at the car, she kissed the baby’s forehead. “She will be safe with you. I won’t worry about her for a single minute. Please. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s what’s best for her.” She thrust the baby into his arms and hurried away.

Stunned, Joseph froze and then tried to give the baby back, but his sister was already getting in the car. “Fannie, wait!”

The moonlight showed her tear-streaked face and her hand pressed to the window as the car took off with a spray of gravel. He stood staring after it until the taillights disappeared.

“Don’t do this, sister. Come back,” he muttered into the darkness.

The baby started crying again.

Chapter Two (#ulink_bc8b10b3-c89a-5ca7-be22-161aef3339e1)

Startled awake from a sound sleep, Anne tried to get her bearings. It took her a moment to realize someone was pounding on her front door downstairs.

She threw back the quilt and turned on the battery-operated lantern she kept on her nightstand. As a midwife, she was used to callers in the middle of the night, but only Rhonda Yoder was due soon. Anne lived so far away from them that the plan was for Rhonda’s husband to use the community telephone when she was needed. Anne carried a cell phone that had been approved by the bishop for use in emergencies. She checked it. No calls had come in.

After spending the previous day and night delivering Dora Stoltzfus’s first child, Anne was so tired it was hard to think straight. Maybe Dora or the baby was having trouble.

The knocking downstairs started again.