“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” – Colossians 3:13
“Have a gute ride to the Wagler’s home,” Rebekah said as she walked Katie and Peter out to their buggy. “Peter, are your parents really packing up to head south to Texas with you when you go back?”
“Ja, they are.” Peter was in no hurry to hand Lil’ Bit back over to Rebekah. He had not taken his eyes off his nephew for too long since taking him in his arms and certainly had not put him down. Instead of handing him over to his mater, Peter snuggled him close in his bopplin sling. “They have to come back with us since they are a grossmammi and grossdaddi now,” he said.
Rebekah stood patiently beside her brother. “Did they take Ruth on to their haus?”
Peter nodded. “Ja. We could not have pried her out of their arms if we tried.” He stroked under Lil’ Bit’s chin. “I suppose it is time to give this tiny buwe back to his mater.”
Katie helped Peter slip the sling over his head and untie it from around his waist. “He really is a special buwe,” she said.
Rebekah stood still as Katie slipped the bopplin sling over her head while Peter held on to Lil’ Bit just a moment longer. Reaching around her gently, Katie tied the sling behind Rebekah’s back.
Rebekah smiled at her, a genuine smile that had not graced her lips in months. “Danki again for this,” she whispered. “Lil’ Bit has not slept this gute since he was born.” Rebekah accepted Lil’ Bit, still sleeping soundly, from Peter and gave him a tiny squeeze.
“I am glad you feel better,” Katie whispered back.
“It is quite a trick to don the bopplin sling, isn’t it,” Rebekah said. It had proven to be a two-person job each time she put it on or took it off. She held Lil’ Bit closely as Peter helped Katie make the final ties.
Once it was secure around her neck and around her middle, she slid her bopplin into the pouch. “This tiny buwe loves his sling. It is a Gotte-sent blessing. Danki again for bringing it.”
“Between the bopplin sling and the goat’s milk,” Peter said, “I think we ironed out our little buwe.” He smiled at his schwester. “By the way, all of this is exactly what we had to do for Ruthie, too.”
Somewhere in her mind, the reason for them bringing the sling and thinking to bring the goat’s milk swirled like a whirlpool. The thanks all go to Joseph for writing the letter that got it here.
Peter, as though he could read her mind, looked at her with a knowing expression on his tanned face. “Sure is good that Joseph wrote when he did. Otherwise, we would not have known to bring anything at all.”
Rebekah nodded. “Ja. I will be sure to tell him so.”
“Good. He needs to hear it from you.”
“Remember, Rebekah,” Katie said. “Gelassenheit. Everything for a reason. You taught me that. And that Gotte has a plan for everything.”
Rebekah reached for Katie’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “How was your birthing experience, Katie? You mentioned your bopplin being colicky.”
“She was a, how did you say Peter?”
“A pistol.” He smiled.
“Yes,” Katie said. “A pistol since day one. She was very, very big and my mother and Annie both were attending me. It seemed as though she was stuck for quite some time.”
“It was a few minutes,” Peter said.
Katie shot him a look.
He held his hands up in mock defeat. “But I am sure it felt like hours. Days. Years, even.”
“That is better,” Katie said. “Anyway, I became too tired to push. We were making no progress and the bopplin was getting tired, too.”
“So was I,” Peter said.
Rebekah and Katie looked at him.
“But this is not about me. I do not matter at all in this story.”
Katie shook her head. “Such a funny man. All the time. Anyway, I started to cough. The more I coughed, the closer the baby came to being born.”
“So, what she is saying,” Peter said with a smile, “is that she coughed my daughter right out into the world.”
Katie smiled. “I suppose that is what I am saying. But like Lil’ Bit, she was very colicky. I could not feed her either. We had to use a bottle and lots of different kinds of milk until the Mennonites taught us about goat’s milk.” Katie shrugged. “Us Amish women are able to adjust to whatever our bopplins need to make sure they are big and healthy, right Rebekah?”
Peter shot his sister a quick wink over the top of Katie’s head.
The sting of camaraderie, long overdue, prickled like pins and needles. “Yes. We certainly do.”
Katie and Peter shared a look. “We had to get creative,” she said, “at least if we ever wanted to sleep again. That is how we came to discover this bopplin sling and the goat’s milk, both. Discovering them certainly saved my sanity.” She offered Rebekah a sincere smile. “I pray your dat feels better soon. I noticed today how much he has aged.”
“So did I,” Rebekah said. “The heart seizure last year really did something to him.”
Peter sighed and looked down the road at the setting sun. “As much as I do not want to get back into this buggy right now, I reckon the time has come to do just that.”
Katie smiled up at her mann. Something in their sweetness with one another made her heart twist in her chest. “At least we are only going down the road and not back to that train to travel across the entire country this time.”
“Find the silver linings where you can, Fraa,” Peter said. “Goodbye, Rebekah. I will see you again before we leave. You have a niece to cuddle.”
“Yes, I do. And I cannot wait to do just that.”
#
Rebekah stood on the buggy road and waved to Katie and Peter as they drove off in the direction of the Wagler’s house. “I suppose it truly is a gift from Gotte,” she whispered out loud.
“What is truly a gift from Gotte?” Thomas’s voice made her jump.
“Thomas!” Rebekah’s heart thudded in her chest with the unexpected company of her favorite little bruder. “When did you get here?”
His face fell at her harsh admonishment.
“I have been here. Playing chase with Sun.” He dipped his head. “I did not mean to upset you by being here.”
Rebekah softened her brow and smiled down at him. “Thomas, I am wonderful gute happy that you are here.”
“You are?” He looked confounded. “I did not think you were happy with anybody at all anymore.”
“Why is that?”
“Everything you have said to anyone has sounded angry.” Thomas spoke to the ground and shrugged. “To Mater, to me. But especially to Joseph.”
Rebekah mentally kicked herself. Katie was right. I really did push everybody away.
