An Amish Homecoming by Rosalind Lauer

Author:Rosalind Lauer [Lauer, Rosalind]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zebra Books
Published: 2020-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

As soon as they pulled away from the scene of the crash, Essie realized she couldn’t just drive to the hospital. “What if no one has told Harlan?” she asked Serena. “The most important thing right now is for Harlan to be at the hospital with his mem and sister.”

“Okay.” Serena frowned. “So do we drive over to the furniture workshop and break the news?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Or is it okay for us to call him? I still have cell service; we’re close enough to town. And I’m sure I can get the number for the furniture place.”

“Yah, call him,” Essie said, nodding brusquely. She gave Serena the official name painted on the sign outside the workshop, and within a minute Serena had someone from the factory on the line.

“Hold on,” Serena said, handing the phone to Essie. “It’s the factory foreman.”

“Hello?” Essie had never liked talking on the telephone in their phone shack. She always found it hard to absorb everything another person was saying without watching his or her movement and looking in his or her eyes. “This is Essie Lapp, trying to reach one of your workers, Harlan Yoder.”

“I can’t really pull him off work for a phone call, miss.”

“It’s an emergency,” she said. “There’s been a terrible accident on the road, and his mother and sister have been taken to the hospital. He needs to go to them, to Lancaster Hope. Can I talk to him, please?”

The foreman apologized, and went to fetch Harlan.

A few minutes later when she heard Harlan’s tight voice, Essie’s heart sank. “Jerry told me what happened,” he said. “How badly hurt are they?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll come pick you up and take you to them.”

“No, I have a ride. Jerry here is going to take me in his car.”

She longed to be with Harlan now, but she knew that a ride in a car would get him to the hospital sooner. “Then I’ll meet you there,” Essie said, wishing to stand beside him to offer him strength and support. Harlan needed her now.

She handed the cellular phone back to Serena.

“Who should we call next?” Serena asked.

Essie considered the question a moment, then shook her head. Harlan didn’t have much family in this area. His dat had come from a settlement near Erie, and his mem’s family was mostly in Ohio. “We need to go home,” she said. “Mem and Dat will want to come to the hospital with me, and we might need to use another horse.”

The rest of the trip home would have been agonizing but for Serena’s encouraging chatter and questions about Harlan’s family. Did Essie know them well? Did she get along with Harlan’s mother? How old was his sister? Did he have other siblings?

Serena’s questions gave Essie a chance to think about the two women who would soon be part of her family—at least officially. Collette Yoder, Harlan’s mem, was a kind, soft-spoken woman with dark hair and a load of worries on her shoulders.

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