The Amish Teacher's Dilemma. Patricia Davids

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      Willis let go of her arm. Her pulse was strong if a bit fast. She didn’t seem to have suffered any serious damage.

      The new teacher was a slender woman wearing a gray dress with a white apron over it. She had eyes the color of green willow leaves in the early spring. They regarded him steadily as if she saw more than his grubby face or his soot-and sweat-stained clothes. Her direct gaze was oddly discomfiting. “I suggest we find you a more stable place to sit, Eva Coblentz. Can you walk?”

      “Since I was eight months old. Of course I can walk.”

      The color was coming back into her face. Her snippy remark proved her wits weren’t addled even if there was a slight tremor in her voice. She stood, took a deep breath and headed to a nearby bench along the wall, rubbing the side of her head as she walked. “Is this one safe or are there other surprises in store for me?”

      She had some spunk. He liked that. “Want me to try it first?” He sat, bounced up and down a couple of times and stood. “Feels okay to me.”

      She sank onto the bench with a sigh and pressed one hand to the side of her head. “I have collected quite a goose egg.”

      He frowned. “Seriously? I thought your hair would have cushioned the blow.” Amish women her age had hip-length hair folded up inside their kapps.

      “I must have turned my head to the side. It’s behind my ear.”

      He had been too quick to laugh off her fall as a minor incident. He needed to assess her injury. He held out his hand. “May I?”

      She nodded and began pulling out the hairpins that held her heavily starched white kapp in place. Her neatly pinned honey-brown hair remained in a large, tight bun.

      He gently felt the area she indicated. She did have a good-size goose egg behind her ear. “Is your vision blurry? Do you feel dizzy?”

      “Nee. I feel foolish. Does that mean anything?”

      He grinned at her. “Only that you’re human. Sit still. I’ll get some ice to put on that knot. I just live across the road.”

      “I don’t think that will be necessary.”

      He had spent weeks learning first-aid skills before moving his brothers and sister from Maryland to the far north of Maine where medical help might be long in coming. This was the first chance he’d had to use the knowledge he’d learned from a retired fireman turned potato farmer who lived in the next town.

      “Ordinarily, I take a woman at her word, but this time I have to disagree. Sit still. I’ll be back in a few minutes and you will stay right here. Understood?”

      “I will stay,” she repeated, closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. Her color was a little pale. Was she really okay?

      Something about her prompt agreement troubled him. He was torn between the need to get the ice and a reluctance to leave her alone.

      She opened one eye to peek at him. “I thought you were going to get ice?”

      “I’m waiting to see if you plan to obey my orders or if you’ll take off as soon as I’m out of sight.”

      Both her eyes opened wide and then narrowed in speculation. “You must have sisters.”

      “Just one. She doesn’t like to do as she is told, either.”

      “Very well. I promise to stay here until you return.”

      “That is exactly what I wanted to hear.”

      Willis hurried out the door and down the school steps. His house was only about fifty yards across the way. He barged into his own kitchen, startling his little six-year-old sister Maddie, who was coloring at the kitchen table.

      “Willis, you scared us.”

      Maddie was the only one in the kitchen. He figured the us referred to her imaginary friend. “I’m sorry. СКАЧАТЬ