The Amish Suitor. Jo Ann Brown

store.

      “You, too, sir,” he said to Eli.

      Again, Eli didn’t reply until his nephew tugged on his arm. “Danki.”

      He took his nephew by the shoulders and steered him to a cart farther back in the aisle. When he glanced at her again, their gazes locked. Did he want to say something to her?

      For the third time, he said, “Danki.”

      The single word’s warmth and the sincerity in his voice swirled through her like a spring breeze after a difficult winter.

      “You’re welcome,” she replied.

      After he gave her a slight nod, he and his nephew walked away.

      And Miriam let the air in her lungs sift out. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath, and she wasn’t sure why she’d been.

      “Are you okay, Miriam?” asked a soft voice from behind her.

      As Eli and his nephew went around the end of the aisle and out of view, Miriam turned to her friend Annie Wagler. Annie, her twin sister, Leanna, and Sarah Kuhns had come with Miriam in the Englisch van they’d hired to bring them the three miles into Salem for grocery shopping. The other women were, like Miriam, in their midtwenties and unmarried. Each had come to the Harmony Creek settlement to join members of their families in making a new home. The twins lived with grandparents and their brother and his family while Sarah kept house for two brothers.

      “I am. Danki for asking. I never expected so much excitement.” She was babbling. She needed to stop, but her mouth kept moving. “Be careful. Glass is scattered everywhere.”

      “Bend down.” Annie plucked a shard from the top of Miriam’s kapp.

      Annie was the complete opposite of Miriam. A tiny brunette doll instead of a female Goliath towering over everyone else as Miriam did. Annie possessed a sparkling effervescence that brightened every life she touched...which Miriam couldn’t. Annie was honestly cheerful while Miriam had to struggle for every smile, though it’d been easier this morning while she and the other women rode in a white van driven by Hank Puente, who wasn’t much taller than the Wagler twins.

      While Annie handed the glass to a store employee, Miriam shook her apron and dress with care. She was shocked when several more pieces of glass dropped to the floor. When she washed her clothes and herself, she was going to have to take care not to get cut.

      Sarah stepped forward. She was a couple inches taller than the twins, but had hair as red as Eli’s nephew. She wore gold-rimmed glasses, which she pushed up on her freckled nose as she helped Annie and Leanna do a quick check to make sure there was no glass among the groceries in Miriam’s cart. Other shoppers edged around them, staring. Not at the plain women, but at the mess. More than one Englisch woman asked if Miriam had gotten hurt.

      Miriam was amazed how the incident had opened the door wider for them with their Englisch neighbors, who had watched the Amish newcomers with polite but distancing curiosity. When she mentioned that to her friends, Annie giggled.

      “What’s the saying? An ill wind blows no gut? I’d say it’s the opposite today. Gut things are happening.”

      Annie saw the positive side of every situation, one of the reasons Miriam was glad they’d become friends. Annie’s optimism helped counteract her own regrets at how her betrothal had ended.

      As she moved her cart aside so the store employees could clean the floor, she saw Eli and his nephew checking out. She watched the little boy signal his onkel each time the cashier spoke to them. Comprehension blossomed when she remembered Caleb saying Eli wore two hearing aids. They must not be enough to compensate for Eli’s hearing loss because he needed help from his nephew.

      “Someone’s curious about our newcomer,” Leanna said.

      “I’m more curious how long the checkout lines are,” she replied.

      With another giggle, Annie said, “She’s not denying it.”

      Miriam shook her head and looked at Sarah, who was more serious than she was. They shrugged before separating to finish their shopping.

      Ten minutes later Miriam was watching her purchases flow along the belt at the checkout. Coming into the small village to do errands had become more fun than she’d expected. Other than the spaghetti sauce disaster, but that would be amusing when she told her brother about it. She was glad she’d accepted the invitation to share a ride with the Wagler twins and Sarah Kuhns.

      Hearing laughter, she grinned at Annie. The tiny woman was in a silly mood today. They were enjoying a respite from the hard work of making homes out of the rough buildings on the farms where they lived.

      It hadn’t taken long to get their groceries. The store had only three rows of shelves and was much smaller than the big-box store where Miriam used to shop at in Lancaster County. She hadn’t gone with women friends then, but with Ralph.

      Her happiness faded again at the thought of the little boy she’d believed was going to be her son when she married his daed.

      “Ach, Miriam, where did you find those oyster crackers?” asked Annie.

      “I think,” she replied, “the crackers are in the middle aisle.”

      Telling her twin to stay with their cart, Annie sprinted away as if she were as young as the boy with Eli. Two men at the other register followed her with their eyes. Nobody could be unaware of the interest Annie Wagler drew from men, except Annie herself.

      “That’s forty-nine dollars and twenty-seven cents,” the cashier said. In a singsongy tone that suggested she repeated the words many times each day, she asked, “Do you have one of our frequent shopper cards? You get a point for every dollar you spend. When you fill the card, you get twenty-five bucks off your next visit. If...” The woman paused. “Do you people use these sorts of cards?”

      Miriam smiled at the woman whose hair was the same rich purple as Miriam’s dress. After five months, Englischers around Salem still worried about offending the plain folks who’d moved into their midst.

      “Ja... I mean, yes,” Miriam said, wanting to put the other woman at ease. “We’re known for being frugal.”

      “Squeezing a penny until it calls uncle, huh?” The cashier laughed as she pulled out a card and handed it to Miriam. “Bring this with you every time you shop.”

      “Thank you.” She put the card in her wallet and pulled out cash to pay for her groceries. “Do you take checks here?”

      “As long as they are local and have a phone number on them.”

      With another smile, Miriam accepted her change and helped the cashier bag her groceries. She put the grocery bags in her cart and walked toward the automatic door. As it swung open, she walked out. She watched a buggy leave the parking lot. It wasn’t a gray buggy like the ones she was accustomed to, nor was it the shape of the black buggy Sarah’s brothers had brought from northern Indiana. Though the departing buggy was also black, it was wider. It had to belong to the Troyers, because when she’d visited a cousin in Delaware, she’d seen similar Amish buggies.

      Once their Ordnung was decided, everyone in the new settlement would drive identical buggies. Discussion had begun on the rules for their church district, but nothing had been voted on yet.

      Hearing the store’s door opening behind her, Miriam hurried toward the white van. Hank slid aside the door as she reached it. He reminded her of a squirrel with his quick motions and gray hair and beard. He wore a backward gold baseball cap as well as a purple and gold jacket, though the June day was warm. He’d explained the coat was to support the local high school team.

      “Find everything you wanted?” he asked.

      “And more.”

      “Ain’t that always the way?” He looked past her.

      Turning,