An Unexpected Christmas Gift

the facts first. I wondered why she never remarried but wouldn’t dare inquire. Well, maybe no other man found her attractive. She was not sweet-natured. Yet Anna and Nancy adored her. Nothing made sense with this family.
“Come with me.” Naomi took hold of Linda’s elbow and guided her toward the living room. “I’ll get you settled on the couch in front of the fireplace.” Naomi returned and prepared some kind of herbal tea I didn’t recognize. “Will you please bring Linda this tea?”
“Sure.” I carried the mug into the living room. Linda lay blanketed on the couch, pillows propped behind her back.
Linda took a couple sips of tea, then her head drooped back into the pillows. I heard Silas’s voice and the clicking of a dog’s paws on the kitchen’s linoleum floor. A still-damp Saucy raced into the room and licked Linda’s hand.
“Ach, not in the living room.” Silas thundered in but stopped short when he saw Linda and heard her cooing over Saucy. “Well . . . I suppose he needs to dry off somewhere warm. Better here than the kitchen.” Silas shook his head in slow motion. “Just this once. I will not allow a hund to take up permanent residence in this house.”
Back in the kitchen, wearing an apron, I washed and dried my hands, then stood at the counter with Naomi, taking a lesson in making piecrusts. “Your mother never taught you to bake a pie?” She sounded like she was asking me if I’d ever gone to the moon.
“Nope,” I said. “And I’m not much of a cook, either.”
As Naomi directed me on how to measure out flour into a bowl, sadness wafted over me as I realized how much I missed Mom. She was the woman who’d raised me. But the truth was, she’d always favored my sister, who I loved with all my heart. When Trish got married and moved away, there’d be nothing left for me in Hartford.
“Being with you is fun, but I can’t imagine growing up this way or living your life. No TV, no Internet, and I can’t help but notice those straight pins around your waist.”
She grinned. “And yet a lot of Englisch people wish they were Amish. I know of only a few cases where that actually worked out and Englischers were baptized into the Amish church. Even then, two of the people I know left the church.”
“Do all the women have to wear the same dress and apron?” I glanced down at my own black apron—without the pins, thank goodness. “It’s sort of like a uniform.”
“Yah, we are not supposed to try to outdo each other. Be prideful. Although sometimes that happens . . . Never mind, I must not judge others.”
“What’s this Rumspringa all about?”
“When Amish children turn sixteen, they may experiment with the world before they get baptized, which is a lifetime commitment—so we don’t pressure them. For the most part.”
“Is that why Isaac gets to hang out with Troy?” I dipped my hands in the apron’s deep pockets.
“Yes and no. Those two have been friends all their lives. Troy’s parents live next door, so the boys played and fished together often. They even attended the same one-room schoolhouse until the eighth grade. However, Troy is Mennonite and went off to public high school and then college to study business, while Isaac stayed home to help his father on our farm. That’s the Amish way.”
“Do you think Isaac would’ve been happier with more schooling?”
“I have no idea. But I’ll ask you this question: Do you think Troy would have learned more staying home and working in his father’s business, which he now manages and will someday own?”
“I don’t know.” The thought of Troy’s dreamy eyes caused a jolt of electricity up my spine. But the last thing I needed to do was get involved with Troy or any other man. Still, I recalled how gently he’d treated Linda and how he’d ventured outside with Isaac to inspect my car in the ditch. My ex-boyfriend never would have done either. He certainly never would have dragged a car out of the snow when he could call AAA. And he’d told me once he didn’t like being around uneducated people. His snobbish attitude had always irked me.
I heard coughing from the living room. “How sick do you think Linda is?”
“I’m not sure.” Naomi filled the kettle with more water and set it over the flame on the stove. “I’ll make her more herbal tea, a blend used by my family for decades.”
“What if she gets worse?”
“If she doesn’t improve by this afternoon, we’ll have to do something. Depending on the weather.”
I glanced out the window and saw fluffy snowflakes drifting down. “I should tell Troy not to bother with my car until this snow stops.”
“Gut idea,” Naomi said. “I hope that means you’ll stay with us all through Christmas.” She placed a cinnamon roll on a plate. “Would you mind taking this to Linda? She never could resist these.”
“I get the feeling she doesn’t like me.”
“She’s sick and she’s probably surprised to see an Englischer in the house.”
“But I’m not English.”
“We call anyone who isn’t Amish Englisch.” She sliced into the butter and laid a slab and a knife on the plate. “Please don’t take offense, as none is meant.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
I expected to find Linda asleep on the couch, but she sat staring at the flames in the fireplace. “Naomi asked me to bring this in.” I set a tray with tea and the roll on the low table before the hearth. She made no move to drink or eat. “Is there anything else I can bring you?” I heard a rustling sound in her chest as she breathed.
“No. I have no appetite.”
I plunked down on the couch next to her. A snoozing Saucy awoke and sniffed at my hands, then turned her nose to the roll and sniffed the air.
“She’s a consummate beggar.” Linda furrowed her brow. “We brought her kibble, didn’t we?”
“Yes, and there’s a bowl of