A Change of Heart Read online

  “I’ve never seen her before.” Kathleen arched her brows, then whispered, “She’s rather old. She can barely walk in them shoes.”

  “I don’t know her either,” Mary Carol said. “Maybe she has word about Edna.”

  The woman stumbled toward them with a wide grin stretched across a wrinkled face painted with bright colors. Her eyelids were covered in dark blue, and her lashes were long and black. A rosy streak ran high along each cheekbone, and her lips were the color of cherries. Puffy gray hair topped her head in a loose twist.

  Leah took in the women’s floral print dress, which hung below her knees and didn’t seem to go with her boots. She looked like a walking bouquet of mixed flowers from Mary Carol’s garden, planted in those dark brown boots. And as the rain blew under her umbrella and slapped across her face, she merely licked those red lips and kept trudging. Leah bit her lip to keep from giggling. Who is this Englisch woman?

  “Hello, hello!” she yelled as she neared the porch. The woman’s presence was a light amid the gray skies and pouring rain. “Your sister is fine!” The stranger seemed as delighted by the news as Leah, Kathleen, and Mary Carol, who turned to each other for a quick hug.

  “Thank the Lord,” Leah whispered. Then she pulled away and returned her attention to the woman coming slowly up the slippery porch steps. Leah took the bag from her hand, gave it to Kathleen, and gripped the woman’s elbow to help her up the steps.

  “Come into the haus. It’s awful weather out here.” Leah motioned toward the open screen door that led into the kitchen.

  The woman placed her umbrella on the porch, then dripped her way into the kitchen. Mary Carol and Kathleen followed.

  “Sit down. Tell us about Edna. Can I get you a cup of hot tea or kaffi?” Mary Carol moved toward the kitchen counter.

  The woman raised her bottom lip and blew upward to clear a strand of wayward hair. Then she pointed to her feet. “I knew these boots were the right choice for today. I got these at a little shop by my house last year.” She smiled at Leah, then at Kathleen. “They’re sharp, aren’t they?”

  Kathleen’s mouth hung open, but she nodded her head.

  “Ya, they are,” Leah said. “Edna is all right?”

  “Ach, ya. Your sister is gonna be just fine. Asthma. That’s what she’s got. Your folks will be bringing her home this afternoon.” The woman dabbed at droplets on her bright cheeks with a white handkerchief. “The Lord whispered in my ear that the weather was gonna be terrible. I listen when the Lord speaks. Do you?”

  Leah nodded, but she knew her expression must be a mirror of Kathleen’s—dumbfounded. “Do you speak the Deitsch?” Leah asked cautiously.

  “Oh, sure.” The woman waved her hand dismissively at Leah, then slid onto one of the wooden benches at the table.

  Kathleen narrowed her gaze. “How could you know how to speak Pennsylvania Deitsch?”

  Leah didn’t care how she knew. She was just glad that Edna was coming home, and she found this stranger delightful.

  The woman’s eyes matched the shadow on her lids, and they grew wide as she spoke. “Why, it’s not that much different from German.”

  Kathleen sat down across from the woman on the other bench. “You know German?”

  Following a sigh, the woman said, “And French, and Italian, and Spanish, and . . .”

  Leah was still standing as she listened to her rattle off several more. Who are you?

  “I’m Leah,” she said when the woman finished.

  “Nice to meet you, Leah.” She smiled with a warmth that Leah found contagious.

  Kathleen was still scowling suspiciously. “I’m Kathleen. How do you know—”

  “Oh! Kathleen is the name of my neighbor. Kathleen Fontenot. She’s French.” She paused and glanced at Mary Carol. “Honey, did you offer me a beverage earlier?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Mary Carol stepped forward a bit. “What would you like, some tea or kaffi? Or we have lemonade or milk. And, um . . . I’m Mary Carol. And—and what is your name?”

  The woman popped herself in the forehead with her hand. “My manners! I’m Ruth Ann Lantz. But you girls just call me Auntie Ruth. Everyone does.” She smiled again, revealing a perfect set of white teeth.

  Leah didn’t think they could possibly be real. She glanced at Kathleen. Her sister’s expression was still one of caution, but a smile tipped the corners of her mouth. Mary Carol stood by the counter and waited to see what Auntie Ruth wanted to drink.

  “Um . . . something to drink?” Mary Carol offered again.

  Auntie Ruth twisted her mouth from side to side. Then she looked hard at Mary Carol. “A nip of brandy would be nice.”

  The girls all looked at each other. Leah took the lead. “I—I don’t believe we have any brandy.”

  The woman sat taller. “Sure you do. Look in that bag. I brought my own. Oh, and I brought a meat loaf, cooked celery, and a chocolate shoofly pie.” She pointed to the bag. “It’s all in there. My niece sent it when she heard her future daughter-in-law was in the hospital. All except for the brandy. I added that myself.”

  “Abner’s mamm?” Leah was having trouble connecting this woman to Sarah Lantz.

  “Well, not just Abner’s. There’s Aaron, Mary, Annie, and little Mae too. But yes, I’m Sarah’s aunt, on her father’s side.”

  Leah nodded toward Mary Carol to pour Auntie Ruth a glass of brandy, although she’d never heard of anyone partaking in such a thing at this time of day. So this is Aaron’s great-aunt? Then Leah remembered. She’d heard about this woman from others in the community. The odd aunt who visited the Lantz family twice a year. She’d left the Old Order before being baptized, and she always stayed with Sarah and her family when she visited.

  “Please thank Sarah for us, for sending the food. That was very thoughtful.” Leah watched Mary Carol set the glass down in front of Auntie Ruth. She was glad that her sister only poured a small amount into the glass, since Ruth was driving. Ruth gulped it down in one swig. Then burped.

  “Goodness me!” She chuckled, then said, “Well, they weren’t sure early this morning just how long Edna would be in the hospital, and Sarah wanted to help.”

  Kathleen looked somewhat disturbed by Auntie Ruth, and Mary Carol just looked confused. Leah thought the woman was a welcome relief from the fear that had gripped them earlier in the day.

  “So can you tell us more about Edna?” Leah took a seat in her father’s chair at the head of the table. Mary Carol slid in beside Kathleen.

  “Evidently she had an asthma attack. A bad enough one that it caused her to stop breathing.” Ruth puckered her lips and nodded her head. “Your pop saved her life, I heard them say.”

  Thank You, Lord. “We appreciate you bringing this food to us in this miserable weather.” Leah rested her elbows on the table, then cupped her cheeks with her hands. “Where do you live? Are you just visiting your relatives for a while?”

  “Honey, do you think we could eat now? I get the cramps when I don’t eat by eleven. The doctor says it’s a gastric problem.” She arched her eyes at Leah, as if she hadn’t heard a thing she’d said.

  “I’ll get you something,” Kathleen said. She rose from the table, but not before cutting her eyes in Leah’s direction and making a funny face.

  “I live in Florida,” Ruth finally said. “I come up here a couple of times a year, and Sarah and her family visit me once a year as well.”

  Leah knew several families in their community who vacationed in Florida, but she’d never actually met anyone who lived there.

  “Were you, um . . .” Mary Carol hesitated. “Shunned?”

  “If I was, can I still eat here with you?”

  None of them knew what to say. Of course they weren’t going to ask her to leave.

  Ruth burst out laughing. “Gotcha, didn’t I?” Then she quickly turned serious. “No, my dears. I wasn’t shunned. I chose to leave before my baptism, that’s all.”

  “How long have you been visiting you
r kin?” Kathleen asked.

  Ruth yawned. “Just got here this morning. Drove all the way by myself. When I got to Sarah’s, they’d just received the news of your sister.” She shook her head. “Abner was most distraught. I drove the boy straight to the hospital and waited with him until we knew Edna was out of harm’s way.”

  Kathleen placed a plate in front of Ruth, filled with meat loaf and creamed celery from Sarah and some homemade bread Kathleen had made the day before.

  “Danki, danki.” Ruth dived in.

  All the girls looked back and forth at each other.

  “How long will you be staying?” Leah stood up, retrieved a napkin from the counter, and pushed it across the table to Ruth, in case Ruth wanted to wipe the creamed celery from below her bottom lip. Evidently she did not.

  Ruth chewed a bite of meat loaf, and Leah tapped her finger to her chin. “You have a, uh . . . bit of . . .”

  “Oh my.” Ruth swiped at the splotch of celery. “Danki, dear.”

  “Ruth, I was wondering . . . ,” Kathleen began.

  “Auntie Ruth, dear.” Ruth smiled warmly in Kathleen’s direction, then kept eating.

  Kathleen grinned. “Is it true that your Cadillac can hit zero to sixty miles per hour in 8.4 seconds?”

  Mary Carol rolled her eyes. “Kathleen, why does it matter? I don’t understand your need to know these things.”

  “Honey,” Ruth said, “I can hit seventy miles per hour in seven seconds on the open road.”

  At the way her sister’s face lit up, Leah knew that Ruth had won Kathleen over.

  “Oh, sure.” Ruth sat up a little taller. “Now, I best be getting back to Sarah and the girls. Aaron went on to the furniture store with their father, but Abner chose to stay at the hospital. He was sure shook up about your sister. I’m glad she’s going to be all right.” She stood from the table and pushed the bench back with her leg.

  Leah suddenly remembered her concerns about giving Aaron her story. “Ruth—I mean, Auntie Ruth, do you think you could drop me by the furniture store on your way? I’d take the buggy, but I’m not sure about this weather.” It wasn’t raining anymore, but the sky was still gray and threatening.

  “Of course, dear.” Ruth scuttled across the kitchen floor and reached for her umbrella.

  Kathleen stood up and folded her arms across her chest. “Why do you need to go to the furniture store and get to ride in the car?”

  “I have some business to take care of.” Leah didn’t owe Kathleen an explanation. “But I’ll be home soon. Probably before Mamm and Daed get home with Edna.”

  Kathleen got in step beside Ruth. “You never did say how long you were staying. Maybe sometime I could ride in your car?”

  Ruth pushed the screen door open and walked onto the porch, and the girls followed. Ruth’s expression grew serious. “I don’t know how long I’ll be staying. It just depends on—on how things are handled.” Then she narrowed her eyes at the three of them. “Till the good Lord tells me it’s time to go, I reckon.”

  “What?” Then Leah remembered the brandy. “Ach, do you want your brandy to take with you?”

  Ruth shook her head. “No, you girls keep it.”

  Mary Carol giggled, but Ruth didn’t seem to notice.

  “What do you mean, you’ll be here until things are handled?” Leah grabbed her shoes from the porch, sat down in the rocker, and laced them up.

  “Oh, honey. It’s a secret. I surely can’t tell you.” Ruth’s eyes widened, then she turned away from them and headed down the porch steps.

  “I’ll be back soon,” Leah said as she followed Ruth to the car.

  And I bet I’ll know what Auntie Ruth’s secret is.

  Chapter Six

  LEAH HAD BEEN IN PLENTY OF AUTOMOBILES OVER THE years, but she’d never experienced anything quite like riding with Auntie Ruth. The woman knew one speed—fast. As they peeled onto the highway, Leah double-checked her seat belt as Ruth sped over a well-known speed bump, causing Leah to bounce in her seat.

  “Oops,” Ruth said, then chuckled. “Didn’t see that coming. So tell me, Leah. Are you sweet on my nephew, Aaron?”

  Leah quickly turned toward her. “What? No. No, we’re just friends.” And barely even that.

  “He sure seems sweet on you,” she said, batting her long lashes. “When I arrived this morning, I heard him mention your name several times. And later, in private, he told me you like to write.”

  Leah was surprised Aaron had shared that news with his aunt. “Ya, I do. I love to write stories about people turning their lives to God.”

  “What a glorious feeling it is to know that you are a child of the Lord.” Ruth zipped around the corner, even squealing the tires. “This car can take the curves,” she boasted. “I’ll have to take Kathleen for a ride sometime. She seemed awfully interested in my car.”

  Leah rolled her eyes. “Ya. She loves cars, and none of us knows why.”

  Ruth’s lips curled at the corners, but only a little. “Sometimes we just can’t understand what makes a person tick, now can we?” Ruth looked at Leah as if she was the keeper of more than just her own secret.

  “I suppose not.” Leah stared straight ahead, very alert. “So, you said you don’t know how long you’ll be staying?” She couldn’t imagine what this charming, odd woman might be keeping as a secret.

  “Till it’s time for me to go,” she repeated, then sighed.

  They arrived at Lantz Furniture much too soon for Leah, and there really hadn’t been an opportunity to question Ruth about her secret. Ruth screeched to a halt in front of the store.

  “Danki for bringing me,” Leah said.

  “You’re welcome. It was very nice to meet you and your sisters. I’ll let you tell Aaron and his father about Edna. I’m going to head back to the house to let Sarah and the girls know she is going to be all right.”

  “Very nice to meet you too. We will see you again, no?”

  “I hope so.” Ruth smiled. “Take care, my child of God. Keep writing your stories. You never know who you might touch someday.”

  Leah climbed out of the car, then hesitated before she shut the door. She wanted to tell Ruth how she felt this strange connection to her, how she wanted to get back in the car and spend the day with her, but she simply said, “Good-bye, Auntie Ruth.”

  Aaron carried the wooden rocker to the back of the store, tucked it in the corner, and hung a Sold sign on it. Ms. Simpson said she’d be back this afternoon to pick it up. His father would be glad the rocker sold, along with three others this morning. Seemed to be a popular style with the Englisch. There was nothing fancy about the oak chair, but it was larger than most, and Abner had constructed the seat in such a way that a person’s fanny seemed to nestle right in.

  Aaron wiped the sweat from his brow and raised the window in the back of the store to allow a cross breeze, wishing he’d done that earlier. Then he headed back up to the front in time to hear the bell on the door chime and see Leah walk in.

  “How’s Edna? Abner’s at the hospital, but we haven’t heard anything.” Aaron stopped in front of Leah, thrilled that she was the one to deliver any news, but also concerned about Edna.

  “She’s gonna be fine. She has asthma. Mamm and Daed will be bringing her home later this afternoon.” She smiled, but only a little, as if forcing herself.

  “That must have been a real scare for your family.”

  “Ya.” Leah’s expression confirmed that it was. She avoided his eyes, hung her head slightly. “She was an awful shade of blue, and— and she wasn’t breathing.”

  Aaron stepped a little closer and leaned down a bit. “But she’s all right now, no?”

  Leah took a deep breath. “Thank the Lord.”

  “Ya.” Aaron glanced past her and out the glass window of the shop and noticed that the designated buggy area was vacant. “How’d you get here?”

  Then a large smile swept across her face, and those tiny dimples came into view. Aaron smiled along with her.
He couldn’t help it. She looked awful pretty in her green dress, and her face was aglow about something.

  “Auntie Ruth brought me.”

  His mouth dropped open. “My Auntie Ruth?” Oh no. Auntie Ruth was as fine a woman as had ever lived, but she was a tad—off. Aaron wondered what sort of conversation Leah had with his greataunt.

  Leah grinned. “I liked her very much. She wanted me to let you and your daed know that Edna would be all right.”

  Aaron was confused. Why would his aunt bring Leah here and drop her off, instead of just coming to tell him and his father herself? He opened his mouth but was unsure how to phrase the question.

  “I asked her to give me a ride to come see you, so she dropped me off and asked me to tell you about Edna.”

  Aaron looped his thumbs in his suspenders and tipped his straw hat a bit. “Really? And why did you want to come see me?” Perhaps he’d made a fair impression last night after all.

  “I—I just wanted . . . I wanted to make sure that you understood that we wouldn’t be courting if we went to the Grabers’ Sunday singing together.” She shrugged. “You know, it’d be more like—like going as friends.”

  Aaron mentally pulled her foot from his gut. “Of course it’s only as friends. I reckon it’s a mite silly for you to think otherwise.” He folded his arms across his chest and stood taller.

  “No. I didn’t think otherwise,” she quickly said. “I just didn’t want you to think it was anything more than a friendly ride together. You know how sometimes people tend to assume that a boy and girl are dating when they attend a singing together.”

  “If you’re so worried about it, why did you ask to go with me?” He realized right away that his voice revealed more anger than he would have liked.

  “Well, I—I thought we would talk about my story.” She batted her eyes at him and smiled. “Have you read any of it?” Then her face grew still. No smile, only questioning eyes. She bit her lip and waited.