grapevine, that wasn’t the first relationship that he broke off for no reason.”
“There’s always a reason.”
“I suppose.”
“It’s kind of sad that we’re so interested in everything he did wrong there.”
“Are you defending him?”
“Not at all. It’s only that... Well, Mamm reminded me that everyone deserves a fresh start. Don’t they?”
Deborah pulled her skirt up an inch or so and proceeded to pull stickers from her socks. “I guess. The only thing is that I’d rather these people who need a fresh start get it somewhere else.”
Which pretty accurately mirrored Susannah’s thoughts, though somehow, spoken out loud, they sounded rather judgmental and unfair.
“What do you mean?”
“I guess I was thinking that what Micah Fisher does in Maine is his own business, but what he does here... Well, here he stands to hurt other people with his actions.”
“Meaning what?”
Deborah shrugged and pretended to look for something in her purse. Susannah put her hand on top of the bag and left it there until her friend looked up.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Apparently Micah sneaked out of his house on Friday night and met up with Caroline Byers.”
“I have trouble believing that’s true. He’s been here less than a week. How could he—”
“I heard it from Caroline herself. She said it was harmless. Said they just happened to be downtown at the same time to hear a local band, but Betty heard them talk about meeting up again on Thursday.”
Susannah had at least a dozen questions, but none of them really mattered. Most of them were none of her business. She settled for asking, “Her parents let her do that?”
“Nein. She sneaked out. Are you even paying attention?”
“I am now.” Susannah jumped up, crossed her arms and paced back and forth in front of Deborah. “Caroline is young and impressionable. I can see how she’d fall for someone like Micah in a second, but I’m not sure that’s a gut idea.”
“Finally.”
“Finally what?”
“Finally you’re paying attention and concerned. I mean, the guy practically lives at your house. Maybe you could say something to him.”
“I’m not sure that I could, or even that I should.”
Deborah began to fiddle with her kapp strings, something she only did when she was holding back.
“What else?”
“Well...one of the boys claimed they saw him smoking.”
“He doesn’t smell like smoke, and I should know... He’s eaten with us three times now.”
“There was also talk of his carrying a flask in the back pocket of those blue jeans and...you know...taking a sip now and again.”
Susannah flopped back down beside Deborah. “I don’t know if I’m more aggravated about the gossip—”
“Unless it’s true.”
“—or Micah’s behavior.”
That sat between them a few minutes until Susannah realized they needed to start back to help put out a snack for the children. It was nearly three in the afternoon and some of them would be going down for a nap soon.
They were halfway toward the main group when Deborah asked, “Are you going to talk to your dat?”
“Nein. He wouldn’t want to hear about it unless it was something I saw myself. He has no patience for gossip.” She turned abruptly so that Deborah nearly bumped into her. “If anyone else talks to you about Micah, about his behavior, you tell them to come to my dat directly. Dat will speak to him, but only if the report is a firsthand account.”
“Okay. I should have done that to begin with. I guess I was a bit stunned by it all.”
“Understandable, but now that we know about his reputation we need to take steps to protect our freinden.”
“What kind of steps?”
“Well, I can keep a closer eye on him when he’s at our farm. I can certainly watch for the smoking and drinking.”
“I doubt that he’s likely to do either of those things around your dat.”
“But there would be signs, and I just don’t...” She looked toward the picnic tables, where she should be helping. Instead, she tugged on Deborah’s arm and pulled her in the opposite direction. “It’s just that I don’t want him to be unfairly judged. He seems like a gut guy, just a bit lost.”
“Reminds me of my bruder when he was on his rumspringa.”
“Exactly.”
“Only Elias was seventeen at the time.”
“And Micah is twenty-five.”
A shout rose up from the baseball field, where none other than Micah had apparently hit a home run and was jogging around the bases to the cheers of all watching.
Susannah pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. After taking a deep breath and letting it slowly out, she tried to shake off the feeling of trepidation. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and so far at least, Micah had done nothing against their Ordnung—at least nothing she’d witnessed.
“We’ll give him a fair chance but keep our eyes on him.”
“Sounds reasonable.” Deborah nodded so hard that her kapp strings bounced.
“And above all else, we’ll make sure that he doesn’t set his ball cap at any of the girls in our group.”
“Like Betty.”
“Or Caroline or any of the other girls we’ve grown up with. The ones who aren’t married... Well, some of them are too quick to fall in with a guy.”
“Their biological clocks are going ticktock.”
“Exactly.”
Deborah tucked her arm through Susannah’s. “The good part is that he’s not planning on staying, from what I’ve heard.”
“He said as much to me, as well. Hopefully he can serve his time at his daddi’s and then go home to break hearts.”
“Gut idea. We don’t need any of that sort of drama around here.”
Which
