“Tell him he’ll have to wait. It’s my privilege tonight.” He helped her take the robe off her lap as she slid the buggy door open. “Have fun.”
“I will,” she said, but her attention was on the icy walk leading to the kitchen door.
Guy reached the back step the same time she did.
“It’s sure cold tonight, isn’t it?” His words were muffled by his scarf.
“Ja. Very cold.” She shivered, anxious to get into the warm house.
He pulled the scarf down, revealing a pleasant face and ready smile. “Do you remember me? Friday I saw you when I brought milk to the Beacheys.” He spoke in a mixture of Englisch and Deitsch words, turning his sentence into a jumble.
“For sure, I remember.” She remembered how his brown eyes had widened and then crinkled into a grin when she answered the door.
“In a hurry, you were...” He stumbled on the Deitsch words and switched to Englisch. “You were in a hurry on Friday.”
Judith changed to Englisch, too, as she reached the door. “You didn’t stay long, either.”
Guy opened the wooden storm door and followed her into the washing porch. “You surprised me. I didn’t know anyone but Annie would be there.”
“And then Eli was crying...”
“Those babies were, too.”
Judith unwound her scarf from her neck. “They always cry, but I don’t mind. There is nothing sweeter than a new baby, and the twins make things twice as much fun.” She glanced through the glass window of the kitchen door. The room beyond was crowded, and even though she longed for its warmth, she wished she had an excuse to stay here and continue visiting with Guy. She wondered why he didn’t seem comfortable speaking Deitsch, but how could she ask that question?
Suppressing a shiver, Judith settled for a smile. “It was nice seeing you again.”
Guy unwrapped his own scarf with one hand as he held the door open for her, then she was swept into the crowded kitchen.
Two girls stood between the door and the big kitchen stove, talking with each other, but turned to greet her.
“I’m so glad you came,” one of them said. “We met at church this morning. I’m Waneta Zook.”
“Ja, Waneta, I remember. It’s so good to see you again.”
“This is my friend Hannah Kaufman.”
“I saw you at meeting,” Hannah said. Her smile was friendly and welcoming. “You came with Matthew Beachey, didn’t you?”
“He’s my sister’s husband. I came to live with them last week.” Judith started to say how thankful she was that Matthew and Annie had opened their home to her, but Hannah’s face lit up.
“You’ve come to help Annie with the twins? What fun!”
Judith smiled as she untied her bonnet. “They are so sweet, but all they do is eat, cry and sleep. Annie keeps busy with them while I watch Eli and take care of the house.”
Waneta led the way to a back bedroom where Judith laid her shawl on top of a pile of other shawls and coats on the bed and set her bonnet on a table. She felt to make sure the hairpins were still holding her Kapp secure and ran her hand down her skirt to smooth out any wrinkles, then she followed Waneta and Hannah into the big main room. She found a spot against the wall with the other girls and watched the group of boys lounging along the opposite side.
Hannah leaned close to speak into her ear. “After the singing, I’ll have to introduce you to my brother. He’s that handsome one over there.”
Judith looked in the direction Hannah indicated. The young man was tall, and as good-looking as Hannah said. He glanced in her direction as he talked with some other boys who gathered around him, but Guy caught her attention as he stood off to the side, staring at her. He wore the same plain clothes that the other boys wore, but somehow, he looked out of place.
Before she could ask Hannah if she knew Guy, one of the older boys announced that it was time for the Singing to begin. As the girls took their places on one side of the long table in the middle of the room, the boys scrambled to sit across from the girl of their choice. Judith watched to see who would sit across from Waneta. The spot remained empty until a tall young man came in late.
“That’s Reuben Stoltzfus, Waneta’s beau,” Hannah said, whispering into Judith’s ear. She giggled as a young man sat across from her.
“Who is that?” Judith whispered back.
“Reuben’s brother, Ben.”
Hannah looked everywhere except in Ben’s direction. Judith didn’t dare look to see who had taken the seat across from her. She had never had much to do with boys, since she and her sister Esther hadn’t attended the Singings in their home district of Shipshewana. She didn’t know if she should say hello, or if she should acknowledge his presence at all. She watched Hannah, who finally looked across the table at Ben, blushing as she gave him a smile.
Judith dared to look at her partner. She drew a breath of relief when she saw it was Guy. His dark brown eyes crinkled as he grinned at her. She could only give him a brief smile before she looked down at her lap. The boys chose to sit across from a girl they were interested in, according to what Annie had told her about the Singings. But was Guy interested, or had he sat there because no one else did?
She took a songbook from the stack that was passed along the table and dared to meet his gaze again just as a voice called out the first song number. She fumbled with her book until she found the right page, knowing he was watching her all the time. The group started singing and she struggled to join in the unfamiliar tune. She glanced up again and was relieved to see that he was concentrating on the songbook.
Holding her book in front of her face, Judith squeezed her mouth shut tight to keep from giggling. She was at a Singing, and a boy was sitting across from her. So, this was what it was like to be grown up. She dared to peek at Guy again, but he was still concentrating on the book in front of him. She suppressed a little quiver that went from her middle all through her, then turned her eyes back to the words of the song. It was a hymn, but not one from the hymnal they used on Sunday mornings, the Ausbund.
The tune became more familiar as they started the second verse and she joined in. As she did, she could hear a clear tenor humming the tune without singing the words. It was Guy. He frowned at the book in his hands. If he didn’t speak Deitsch well, perhaps he couldn’t read it, either. Judith lost her place in the song as she let her imagination fill in the empty pieces of Guy’s story without success. She would just have to get to know him better if she wanted her questions answered.
* * *
Guy Hoover couldn’t believe that the seat across from the new girl had remained open long enough for him to claim it. But now, he told himself, he had to quit staring at her. It didn’t matter if she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. She would think he was some kind of fool if he didn’t get hold of himself.
Running a finger inside the too-tight neckband of his shirt, he stared at the songbook in his hands. He hadn’t wanted to come to the Singing tonight. He hadn’t been to one since Hannah Kaufman had laughed at his attempt to talk to her in Pennsylvania Dutch. Three months had passed since then, but the sting of her rejection had kept him away from any gathering of the community’s young people. Tonight, though, Verna Mast had pushed him out the door.
“Go have some fun,” she had said. “David has you working so hard all through the week that you deserve to spend some time with folks your own age on a Sunday evening.”
Folks his own age, yes, but the fellows treated him like the outsider he was. They knew his past, that his pa had abandoned him at the orphanage. That he was an unwanted mongrel, not worth their bother. That he was only