The Saddle Maker's Son Part 33

"I thought I'd weathered that particular storm with Tobias." He rubbed at a white stain that looked like paint on his pants, his expression absent. "David is a good boy-good man. I've spoken my piece. As has Tobias. And Mordecai. Now it's up to David. And Gott. Hard as it is to leave it in Gott's hands. I thought I could outrun the devil. As if temptations don't exist everywhere in this world."

"Still, I'm glad you came here." The words were out before Susan could corral them. She was happy he'd come. Why not say it? "All of you. The district needs more families to sustain itself."

"But that's not why you're glad I'm here." He met her gaze. "Is it?"

"No need to get too big for your britches about it."

Levi leaned forward, elbows on his knees, the chair creaking under him. "You look so motherly with that baby in your arms."

"Once again, you sound surprised."

"Nee. I'm trying to move past things."

"What things?"

"You know what things."

"You have to accept that the awful thing that happened to you can happen again or not. But you can't stop living or taking the chance to love again. And I'm not talking about me." Although that would be more than nice. "Babies are lovely gifts from Gott, every single one of them."

"I agree." He sighed, a gusty, lonesome sound so like the one Susan had made earlier. "They shouldn't come with a price."

"They come with all the burdens, heartbreaks, joys, and happiness that we can possibly imagine. We can raise them up, only to have them turn their backs on us and we lose them anyway." Susan reminded herself that she held a sleeping baby. She inhaled his sweet scent and schooled her voice in a whisper. "All the same, they give us hope for the future. They give us responsibility and a stake in what happens in this world. We can never stop fighting for them."

She stopped, unable to smooth the quiver in her voice.

"You are a wise woman."

Susan looked everywhere but at Levi. What did he know?

His chair squeaked. The clomp, clomp of his boots told her he approached. She forced her gaze upward. He loomed over her, his face filled with a strange surprise. "Can I hold him?"

"You want to hold him?" She swallowed and breathed. "Of course you can hold him. Sit in this chair."

She rocked forward and stood.

"Ouch, ouch!" He stumbled back, crutches askew. "That was my foot."

"Ach, I'm so sorry. I rocked on your foot? I'm so doplisch."

"It's all right. No harm done." He righted himself and sank into the chair. "I reckon it's a minor pinch compared to being stomped on by a horse."

So true, but still. Her cheeks burning, Susan laid baby Emmanuel in Levi's arms and took a step back. Levi's big, calloused hand came out. His fingers wrapped around her wrist and drew her toward him. "Wait."

His touch sent a tremor radiating through her body, head to toes. His fingers were strong, his skin tough. She couldn't move. "What made you want to hold the bopli?"

"This thing with David and the Englisch girl is hard. It was hard with Tobias when he was so sure he wanted a life with his Englisch girl. It's hard to know how to do the right thing with Martha. And there's still Milo, Rueben, Micah, and Nyla and Ida and Liam. I've never known a harder thing than being a parent." He studied the baby in his arms, but his thumb began to rub circles on the skin stretched across the back side of her wrist, sending p.r.i.c.kles racing up her arm. "Nothing harder, but also nothing fills up my heart like my kinner. I don't know if I'm doing it right. I only know Gott blessed me when He let me keep Liam even when He took my fraa home."

"You could see yourself accepting more blessings of that variety?"

"I could."

Susan closed her eyes for a second, the sheer joy of it of such a magnitude she feared it would topple her. She wanted to hug him. She wanted to kiss him. She backed away.

He didn't let go. Instead he tugged harder. She had no choice but to bend. He stretched toward her. His lips brushed hers. They were exactly as she remembered them. Warm and soft and perfect. He drew back and smiled. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't dream the whole thing."

"I thought it might have been a dream as well."

"Nee. It happened. It is happening."

Susan leaned toward him. The second kiss lasted longer, reached deeper into her heart, and took up residence there. They kissed with baby Emmanuel slumbering between them. The thought warmed her as much as the kiss. Levi could start again. She could start for the first time.

"Aenti Susan, what are you doing?"

Susan stumbled back and whirled.

Horror mingled with surprise in Hazel's voice. The little girl stood at the door, hands on her hips. "Are you and Levi in lieb?"

Levi chuckled. "Do you want to answer that, or shall I?"

Susan shook her head. "Little girls should be seen and not heard. Go play."

Hazel ducked her head and grinned. "Teacher has a special friend." She sang the line over and over as she skipped away. "Teacher has a special friend."

From the mouths of babes.

FORTY-ONE.

A son should never see his daed kissing a woman, any woman other than his mudder. Still, Tobias managed a smile as he backed onto the front porch, letting Hazel scramble past him, still giggling. If he were younger, he might giggle too. Daed didn't need to know his oldest son had seen him smooching the schoolteacher in broad daylight. His daed had found the thing he needed in a woman who'd never been married, seemed almost as opinionated as her brother, and had the same penchant for using a lot of words. Opposites did attract. Like Rebekah and him. He'd come here to see the kinner. And Rebekah. She had to come to grips with his past. She would see that he'd made the right choice. His choice had brought him here to her.

She would see that. Someday, David would see it, too, when he found the right Plain woman for him. Tobias would pray that it wouldn't be in the too-distant future. For either of them.

Until then Tobias would see Rebekah every time he closed his eyes. He would see how she looked that first time he leaned down and kissed her, like a startled doe, with skin so soft and blue eyes so clear. He shook his head as if that would allow him to think more clearly. "Stop mooning around. Find Lupe and Diego."

"Talking to yourself?" Jesse pushed through the door and closed it behind him. Despite red-rimmed eyes and a dark five-o'clock shadow, he looked as happy as any man Tobias had ever seen. With his faded blue jeans, white T-shirt, and black sneakers, he also looked as Englisch as they came. "That's a bad sign when a man prefers himself as company for a conversation."

"Nee, it's just been a long day."

Jesse plopped down on the top step as if his legs would no longer hold him. Butch rose from his spot on the corner of the porch, sauntered over, and nosed the man's arm. Jesse scratched between the old hund's ears. His tail thumped in time on the wood. "The sun's still up. The day's not over yet."

"How are Leila and the bopli?"

"Fine. Sleeping." Jesse rubbed his face with his free hand. "Emmanuel has a mighty good set of lungs for a little boy who arrived almost a month early. I reckon we'll be hearing from him plenty often. No sleeping through that caterwauling."

"You're spending the night here, then?"

Bright red spots pinched Jesse's cheeks. He shoved his hand through already-tousled hair. "That would be too much to ask. I'll go home for the night and come back tomorrow to pick her and the baby up. Abigail isn't letting go of Gracie anytime soon, so she'll stay here too."

"Then let Diego and Lupe spend the night at our house." Tobias eased onto the step next to Jesse, careful not to sit on Butch's still-wagging tail. "Liam and the girls would like that a lot, and I reckon Diego and Lupe feel the same."

As would he. It was hard to protect the two kinner when they were out of his sight all the time.

"I came looking for you to talk about all that."

Something in his tone tipped Tobias off. His stomach tensed. He swallowed and waited.

"I've been talking to people I know from this organization called the Interfaith Welcome Coalition. They're at the bus stations in San Antonio when ICE dumps off the immigrants who've been released after they pa.s.s their credible fear interview and make their request for asylum. They give them cell phones and money and help them figure out the bus schedules so they can get to other parts of the country to their families. They have some houses where they can spend the night if it's too late to head out."

He didn't know what most of that meant, but Tobias nodded, still waiting.

"I showed the photo of Lupe and Diego's dad to a bunch of the volunteers. One of them is a lawyer who does pro bono work for an organization called Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. RAICES. That means 'roots' in Spanish. She thinks she saw him at the shelter in San Antonio."

Too much information came at Tobias all at once. Jesse might as well be speaking Greek. Tobias latched onto the thing he understood. The photo. "That photo is old. How can she be sure?"

"She wasn't at first, but then she looked at the photo of the kids he held in his hands." Jesse smiled, deep dimples appearing. "She said the man was sitting on the floor at the bus station when she approached him. They mostly deal with women and children, but they try to help the men who come in from the Pearsall Detention Center too. She stopped to talk to him because he looked troubled. He had the exact same photo in his hand that Lupe has. I had been showing both photos around to everyone, asking if they'd seen him. She remembered it. He was staring at it."

"The photo of the kinner with their groossmammi."

"Yep. It was Carlos Martinez."

"It's been years since they heard from him. Where's he been all this time? He's not a new illegal."

"That's the thing. He might have been in the States for a while, but if he was working on the border and got caught up in a raid, he would've been treated like he was part of this latest wave. He was probably sent to the detention center in Pearsall and got bonded out. That's what they're doing with them now. Either bonding them out or granting asylum-hearing requests."

"How long ago was this?"

"Last week."

"Would he still be there?"

"Could be. Karen says he was released by ICE with an electronic ankle monitor. They're doing that now to make sure they show up for their hearing with the immigration judges. His is in San Antonio, but not until next year. That's how backed up they are."

Tobias contemplated the horizon. The sun dipped behind Mordecai's barn. Crickets chirped in a song far too cheerful for the topic at hand. A mosquito buzzed his ear. He swatted it away. "Looks like we need to go to San Antonio."

"Yep."

"Did you tell Lupe?"

"Nope."

Good move. No sense in getting her hopes up. "What if we don't find him?"

"Karen says if we turn the kinner over to the Office of Refugees, we'll never get access to them. Once the federal government gets them, no volunteer organization gets near the kids."

"So they stay here illegally?"

Jesse stood and dusted off his hands on his jeans. "One step at a time. I'll call Karen and ask her to drive into San Antonio with us tomorrow to the shelter where folks are staying." He glanced at his watch. "It's a two-hour drive. We'll want to go early. Talk to Mordecai. See if he and Abigail will let Rebekah go with us."

Tobias stood. He towered over Jesse, but the man had a presence about him that made him seem taller than he was. Bigger. Two hours in a car with Rebekah. With Jesse as a chaperone. "Why do you want her to go?"

"She speaks the most Spanish."

"He's been here awhile. Surely he speaks the language."

"Some immigrants never learn English, especially if they are illegal. They don't mix with the general population for fear of being caught." Jesse stretched and yawned. "Don't you want her to go?"

"Jah, I do." The words came out too quickly. No way to walk them back now. "I mean-"

"That's what I thought. Don't worry about it. It's a long trip there and back. Plenty of time." Jesse chuckled and slapped Tobias on the back and strode away. "But just so you know, I imagine Mordecai will go, too, so no shenanigans."

Shenanigans. Plain folks didn't go in for shenanigans.

What were shenanigans exactly? Tobias found himself wanting to answer that question firsthand. Instead he stomped around to the back of the house in hopes he could see Lupe and Diego in the kitchen without coming upon his daed kissing Susan.

Now that must be what Jesse meant by shenanigans.

FORTY-TWO.

Refrigerated air felt a lot like winter. Rebekah shivered and tucked her cold hands under her arms. The car, which Karen Little called an SUV, had all the bells and whistles according to Jesse, who seemed to know all about cars. He and this lady lawyer had gone on and on about it as if Plain folks cared about four-wheel drive and backup cameras and folding mirrors. It had three rows of seats so Karen could take whole immigrant families from the bus station to the houses where they could spend the night until they moved on. Now that was important.

Karen seemed like a person who would know what was important. With her gray pantsuit that looked like men's clothes and her dark-rimmed gla.s.ses perched on the end of a thin nose, she looked like Rebekah imagined a lawyer would look. Only she was a woman. A woman who wore no jewelry or makeup like most Englisch women did.

Rebekah was glad Karen drove and not Jesse. As much experience as he had, it couldn't be as much as an Englisch lady. Traffic into San Antonio was thicker than flies on garbage. The closer they came to the city, the more it thickened. Honking, squealing brakes, eighteen wheelers, Greyhound buses, pickup trucks. Rebekah marveled at how so many people could live so close together, just as she did every time they came to the zoo or the botanical garden or the Alamo in what Mordecai called the tenth largest city in the US of A.

He always said it just like that. US of A. Only his insistence had convinced Mudder to allow Rebekah to come to the big city this time. Only because Mordecai would be with her the entire time. Only because Lupe and Diego's lives depended on it. Their existence in the US of A depended on it. She shivered again, this time with apprehension. What if they didn't find Carlos Martinez?

"Are you cold?" Tobias reached past her and adjusted a k.n.o.b on a small console in front of her. The s.p.a.ce between them closed for a few seconds, then reopened as big as the pasture where Mordecai tended his bees. "Just say so. Don't sit there shivering."

"I'm not. I'm fine."

Tobias had been quiet for the better part of the trip, his gaze fixed on the road whizzing by in a blur that made Rebekah dizzy. She glanced at the front seat. Jesse had his head back. She couldn't see if his eyes were open. Karen fiddled with the k.n.o.b on the stereo. The music, already soft and hypnotic, quieted.

A snore trumpeted from the backseat. Rebekah jumped and shrieked. Tobias laughed. "You sure are jumpy."