“Hiram can rub him down and give him a nice ration of oats.”
Joseph slid into the back seat and leaned back, gratefully resting his aching head. He thought he only closed his eyes for a moment but then the door on the other side opened and Ruby climbed in. “It will be all right,” she said soothingly.
A short time later, they arrived at the urgent care facility and Joseph, Sara and Ruby got out of the car.
“I’ll call you when we need a ride home,” Sara told Grace. “No telling how long a wait we’ll have.” She turned to Joseph as they went through the automatic doors at the entrance. “You two just find a seat in the waiting room. I’ll check you in. Hopefully, they’ll see you soon.”
But the walk-in facility was busy and it was obvious he wasn’t going to see a doctor right away. Instead, Ruby guided him to a corner of the crowded room while Sara checked him in. Ruby found two empty seats side by side and proceeded to convince another waiting patient and his mother into moving to the far wall so that Sara could sit with her and Joseph. As Joseph watched Ruby, he couldn’t help but be surprised a young woman could be so assertive with Englishers in a strange town.
“You’ll be able to see the television better from over there,” Ruby assured the woman who was wearing a tight Superman T-shirt, cut-off denim shorts and cowboy boots.
Her child, a stout, red-faced boy of about eight, didn’t appear to be too sick to Joseph. In one hand the boy clutched a can of soda, in the other a bag of chips. But he was whining that he was hungry and needed a candy bar from the vending machine. The kid’s head was shaved except for a standing ridge down the center, two inches high and a thin braid hanging down the back of his dirty shirt.
“You’ll be closer to the snacks, as well,” Ruby said with a cheery smile as she scooped up the woman’s rain jacket and handed it to her. The boy’s mother reluctantly gathered her belongings and moved toward the other vacant seats. “Terrible, isn’t it, how you have to wait?” Ruby went on. “We’re so grateful that you were kind enough to allow our friend to sit with us.”
“I want a candy bar!” the boy whined.
“All right, all right,” the woman said as she and her son walked away.
Joseph glanced at Ruby as she plopped her black purse on the empty seat on one side of him and sat down in the other one. He wanted to tell her how much he admired her ability to deal with the situation, but as usual, words failed him. All that he could manage was, “Your English is goot. I mean good.”
To his delight, she turned that sweet smile on him. “Thank you.”
Joseph felt his face grow warm and he averted his eyes.
“My mommi and daddi thought it was important that I learn English early on. Most parents from our church send their little ones off to school not knowing a single word, but not my mam and dat. Not my parents. No, indeed...”
Joseph stole a glimpse of Ruby as she chattered on. Usually, when he was with a girl, he was too nervous to get out a sensible word. He liked girls; he desperately wanted a wife. A family. He just wasn’t good at meeting girls. Talking to them.
Ruby asked him a question, but then thankfully went on, not waiting for him to come up with a clever reply. She just kept talking and he kept staring at her, not even trying to hide his infatuation now.
Joseph couldn’t believe this was happening. If he’d known that falling and cracking his head would have gotten him the attention of a beautiful young woman, he would have done it long ago. Best of all, Ruby wasn’t blaming him. She seemed to think that it was her fault. And she didn’t appear to care whether he talked or not. She seemed to have no problem talking for them both.
Joseph glanced up and saw Sara, who had taken the seat Ruby had saved for her, looking at them. He wondered what she was thinking. Did she think he was slow-witted because Ruby was talking and he wasn’t? Some people who didn’t know him well thought he was slow. Even his mother agonized over his lack of knowing what to say when girls were nearby. “Speak up,” she always told him. When he was a boy, it was “Stand up straight, Joseph. Look people in the eye when they speak to you. Do you want the teacher to think you have an overripe cucumber for a brain?” And now that he was a man full grown, it was “God gave you a mind. Why can’t you show it when it matters most?”
Joseph became aware that Ruby had stopped speaking. He looked into her eyes and was rewarded with another compassionate smile. She was waiting for him to say something, but what? He tried to think. What had she been saying? He was so overwhelmed by her presence that he was at a total loss. And just when he thought the floor would open and swallow him up, Sara came to his rescue.
“Ruby comes to us from Lancaster County in Pennsylvania,” Sara said, handing Ruby her purse. “I’ve promised her parents that I’ll find her a match.”
“Who is it?” he blurted. Was it Levi King? Jason Bontrager? If she’d set her kapp for either of them, he wouldn’t have the chance of a pullet in a fox den. Levi could charm the birds from the trees. And Jason had a blacksmith’s shoulders and a father with more farms than he had sons.
“She’s not spoken for yet,” Sara said. “But I’m certain it won’t be long before we’ll all be invited to her wedding.”
Ruby blushed prettily.
Then Sara added icing to the cake by saying, “Our Joseph is looking for a bride. He’s a master mason, and is a credit to his mother and community.”
“Is your father living?” Ruby asked. “Ach, maybe I shouldn’t have asked that. I have a wonderful father.” Without taking a breath, she switched from smooth and perfect English to Deitsch. “He’s so good to me. And he loves to laugh. Everyone says I look like my mother but I’m most like my father. I hope that if I do find someone to wed, we won’t live far from my parents. I’m devoted to them.”
She paused and looked at him expectantly. What was he supposed to say?
“Joseph’s father died when he was very young,” Sara said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a Christian romance novel. “I hope the two of you won’t mind, but I’m dying to see what happens in my book.”
“Do you like to read?” Ruby asked Joseph as Sara settled in her chair.
He nodded. Instantly, his head began to throb again and it was all he could do not to reach up to touch the towel. But he didn’t want her to think he was a complainer or that he wasn’t tough.
“Don’t move,” Ruby cautioned, brushing her hand against his wet sleeve. “I don’t want you to start bleeding again. I feel so terrible that you were hurt. And I’m entirely to blame. I’m such a klutz. You may as well know it. I’ve always been a klutz.”
“I read,” he managed. “The Bible. And The Budget.”
“Your injury will probably be written up in The Budget. I hope no one mentions my name. It’s so embarrassing. And you’ll probably miss work. Will your boss be angry with you?”
“Ne. I...I’m sort of an independent contractor.”
“You are? That’s wonderful.” She clasped her hands together. They were nice hands. “What kind of masonry do you do? Bricklaying? Stonework? Cement?”
“Ya.
