Rebekah donned her dress in her quilting room. Elnora came in to help her. “Today’s the day, Daughter.”
“I hope my dress isn’t terrible. A Chinese woman helped sew it and pieces from all over came together to make it happen.” Rebekah hung her head. “So why don’t I feel happy?”
“You’re afraid,” Elnora said, “that the differences in the dress will take away from the solemnity of the occasion. You don’t want to stand out, yet you always stand out. You don’t want to be anything other than a perfectly plain Amish, but striving for perfection is vanity. Am I right?”
Elnora did up the buttons on the back of the dress. “Your Chinese friend really did a wonderful job. She was even able to talk me into wearing this.”
Rebekah dared a look at her mother, who was wearing the black silk dress. “Wait, what did you say, Ma?”
Elnora smiled.
“Did you say, talk you into it?”
Elnora shifted to the side. Behind her, in the doorway, hovered Mrs. Cheng.
“Mrs. Cheng!” Rebekah squealed. Elnora smiled and stepped to the side as Rebekah dashed into the old woman’s waiting arms.
“I tell your beautiful mother,” Mrs. Cheng began, “that God not see fit to give me a daughter. For many years, this break Mrs. Cheng’s heart.” Elnora clasped her hands at her middle. Rebekah remembered the story her mother told her last year, about how for many years, God didn’t see fit to give her a daughter either. Then, she found Rebekah.
“Now, I see why God make me wait. I ask your mother, can Mrs. Cheng share this special day. For one day, I have a daughter too.” She looked at Elnora. The two mothers from different worlds understood one another better than others might ever think possible. “Of course, she agree. Because as you know, Ah-mitch and Chinese...”
Mrs. Cheng put her hands up and shrugged. Rebekah clasped her in a hug again. “We are the same, Mrs. Cheng. Chinese and Amish.”
“I asked your father if Mrs. Cheng could attend the service, since she traveled so far and on such painful feet.” Elnora kept her voice low while the little boys entertained Mrs. Cheng in the sitting room. “He said he saw no problem with it, but she insisted that she would like to look around instead, and respect our customs.”
“I cannot believe she made the trip.” Emotion choked Rebekah’s throat, but she fought to keep mist from forming in her eyes. “On second thought, I can.”
“She gave me a letter, from a Father Plant, who sent his condolences that he couldn’t be here. He said he would be in touch with some news he thinks that you and Katie will appreciate, though.” Elnora shrugged. “It was very cryptic. In a good, godly way.”
A bout of hissing from the sitting room brought Rebekah, in her unique wedding dress, to her feet. She and Elnora bounded down the stairs to find Thomas, his original stuffed cat before him, hissing wildly at something on the couch beside Mrs. Cheng.
“Cats don’t like other cats.” He put up his paw-hand and hissed. “They only like baby squirrels and dead mice.”
Katie chuckled from across the room.
Rebekah watched as Mrs. Cheng reined Thomas in as only an expert could. “Mrs. Cheng make you that kitty, Little Thomas Stoll.”
Thomas sat up and gave her an eye.
“And all cats need babies. That’s why Mrs. Cheng make you a basket of kittens.”
“Meow.”
“Oh, good kitty.” Mrs. Cheng leaned over and patted him on the head. “Such a good kitty.”
“Purr, purr.”
“Here good kitty.” She plucked a tiny, stuffed, golden kitten from the basket. “Here, good kitty. Here is your baby Cheng Kitten.”
“Purr purr!” Thomas accepted the tiny kitten and consented to climb on the couch beside Mrs. Cheng. Together, they took out a dozen tiny kittens, each one a different color, and each one already named a traditional Chinese name.
***
After the two-hour church service, it was time to become Mrs. Joseph Graber. Mrs. Cheng appeared and took a seat as though she’d been to a thousand Amish weddings, and would attend a thousand more. Mr. and Mrs. Williams sat in the back, close to the doctor and Calvin Smith, whose family was unable to come. Patty and Noah chose to sit near Peter and everyone wore their brightest smiles.
As their friends, family, and community sang from their hymnal, Samuel Stoll and Lucas Graber called their children to the front of the barn that smelled of cinnamon, celery, and turkey. Katie, Annie, and Elnora sat on the front row in their black silk dresses, plain but not, ready to attend to Rebekah when Samuel and Lucas gave the word.
“Rebekah Elnora Stoll. As a baptized member of the Amish community of Gasthof Village, you are eligible to marry in the Amish Church.” Her father’s voice, normally so commanding, was weaker. She prayed nobody noticed, though she wasn’t rightly sure as to why. Everyone aged, and everyone became ill at some point in their life.
And were we not born to die? Rebekah choked on the finality of the words that entered her mind at the most inopportune time. Death comes to us all.
She stared at her father. Her tall, strong Pa, who was always smiling and always had a kind word for anyone he met. Emotion clogged her throat.
But not my father.
“You have kept our customs in making your own wedding dress and those of your newehockers, have you not?”
Rebekah nodded, her black covering strings heavier and more weighted than her white gauzy one. “Yes sir, I made my dress with the help of Mrs. Cheng, a seamstress, who traveled all the way from New York City to be here today.” Rebekah turned to look at her old friend. She was crying into an embroidered hanky. “She did the honor of gifting me with the newehocker dresses, made from silk, which is very important to her for many personal reasons.”
“I see. Your dress is one you will wear each Sunday to church meetings. Then, when the Lord calls you home, you will be buried in it. But your dress is not plain, as is required by Amish custom.”
“No sir, it is not.” Thankfully, Samuel and Elnora rehearsed this part with her beforehand, so she wouldn’t be surprised or feel that she was in trouble. “You and my mother adopted me, a lowly English orphan that would have died if not for you. That was against Amish custom as well. This is my last reminder that I am born of English blood, and showing my future husband that he gets all of me when we marry, the English and the Amish.” Rebekah dared a peek at Joseph, who stared at her with reverence. “But when we marry, we will be of one flesh. One Amish flesh.”
“Will you make amends to your dress for plain wear after today?”
“Yes. I will take off the collar and cuffs and replace them with plain fabric. I will take off the mantilla, that was a prayer shawl in my English family, gifted to me by Patty and Noah.”
Noah squeaked at the mention of his name from behind her.
