“Yah, I know.” Job nodded. “How are things in Ohio?”
“They’re fine.” Arden pressed his lips together and leaned into the saw, blade slicing neatly through the wood as he pushed and pulled.
“Are things, really?” Job pressed. “I heard it’s been tough. Really tough.”
The end of the wood dropped off, and Arden wiped his calloused fingers over the cut surface. Then he looked up at Job again.
“It’s been hard,” he admitted. “We don’t have a very big community yet, so sharing the load is...a bigger burden between fewer people.”
“Understood,” Job said. “What would help?”
“More people,” Arden said with a short laugh.
“And until more people come?” Job wasn’t joking. He met his gaze evenly. “What’s the biggest need right now?”
Arden swallowed. “My daet needs a new thresher. We’re saving, though. We’ll get there.”
“You need a down payment, I imagine?” Job said. “Maybe a down payment and the first few monthly payments, just to make sure there’s a cushion there?”
That would be incredibly helpful, but Arden shook his head.
“Job, you’d have to discuss that with my father. I’m not the owner of our farm, if you know what I mean. That’s my daet’s business.”
“Your daet isn’t here, and you are,” Job replied. “And Gott has put it onto my heart to help your family out. I just need to know how.”
“It’s kind, but—” How on earth was Arden supposed to accept any kind of help from a man he already owed so much to? “I’m not the man to talk to about this, though.”
“You are a man in the community,” Job said.
“Yah.” That couldn’t be argued.
“Then straighten your shoulders, Arden,” Job said with a rueful smile. “I’m discussing it with you.”
“Oh.” Arden swallowed and sent up a panicked little prayer. “Then I thank you for your kindness and generosity, but maybe the help you could give me is to help me bring my grandfather home. He hates the idea of leaving his farm, but he needs the extra help. He’s not a young man.”
“We do look in on him,” Job said. “He’s not on his own here in Redemption.”
“Yah, but we’re his family, with all due respect,” Arden said. “Gott gave us community, but the first circle is family.”
“Fair enough. I’ll help you out wherever I can.”
Job looked a little perplexed but nodded and was just turning away when Arden said, “And, Job?”
The older man turned back. “Yah?”
“I just want you to know that I didn’t want to put that roofing material on your tab,” he said. “I was going to pay it myself.”
“No need, son,” Job said. “That would have been a burden to you, and not fair at all.”
“Yah, but it felt wrong,” Arden said. “I don’t presume upon other men’s tabs. And I wanted you to know.”
“No problem, Arden,” Job said with a smile. “You and I are even. My daughter knew I’d want her to use the tab. Don’t worry about it.”
Except they weren’t even. Not by a long shot, and as the older man headed back over to where the building and hammering was happening, Arden wished that this conversation could make him feel better. But it didn’t. Job was being kind. He was treating a young upstart like Arden as an equal, when Arden was anything but. Job wanted to help the new fledgling community, and he was in a financial position to do so. What would Arden’s father say when he told him about the offer?
Likely, his daet wouldn’t want to accept the help, either. But their farm needed more than hard work: it needed some divine intervention. Job said Gott had placed it on his heart... But why Job? he wondered helplessly. Why the one man Arden could never accept it from?
But Job was also the man who could most easily afford the gift. Gott had blessed him mightily in his farm and his finances.
If he accepted, Arden would never be truly out of debt to this man, would he?
Chapter Nine
The chicken coop was finished in a morning. With that many hands working, it came together quickly, and it stood in the same spot as the last coop, strong and straight. It had red siding so that it would never need painting and would withstand the elements. The roof was covered with high-quality shingles, and it was bigger than the first coop, too, so that Sarai could grow her flock even more.
Arden was proud of their work, and when they went home that afternoon, he felt like they’d done a good job for Sarai and Ellen. Moe stayed in Ellen’s kitchen for a coffee and some chatting, but Arden went back to the farmhouse to do a few chores for his grandfather. He realized halfway back to his grandfather’s house that he’d forgotten his tool bag, but he could go back for it later. He needed some space right now.
Besides, Sarai was being much cooler around him now. She gave him polite conversation, but the warmth and sparkle was gone. And with Moe and Ellen present, he couldn’t exactly explain himself, could he?
Arden washed up some dishes in the sink, wiped down the cupboards and then picked up a broom. But as he did so, his gaze landed on a pile of envelopes that sat in a little letter holder next to the hook that held the broom. He’d seen them a hundred times, but today with his general feeling of frustration stewing, he reached out and picked up the tight bunch.
He pulled a sheet out of the first envelope. It was a bill. He scanned it: it was from the hardware store. Moe had several hundred dollars owing. The next was a bill, too, for the butcher. More money owing. The next one was for the buggy shop—the same again. This bill looked like it had been outstanding for a couple of years now.
Arden flipped through the envelopes. Bills, all of them. The Amish dry-goods store, the Petersheim Creamery, a veterinary clinic—that bill was by far the highest, and it came with a bold typed request that Moe pay up his bill as quickly as possible. This had come several months ago.
Arden’s heart beat faster. He’d mentally tallied up the amount owing, and it was in the thousands of dollars. Arden had just enough in his savings account to cover the lot of it, but no more. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. What was he going to do?
Gott, You keep providing our daily bread and not much else. This will empty me out... You know how hard I’ve saved. You know I need to make things right with Job. Why does hardship keep coming?
