A Simple Hope: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel Read Online Free PDF

too.”
    “Grandchildren? You don’t even have children yet. You’re counting your chickens before they’ve hatched.”
    More disapproval. James could not say anything without his father cutting it down. He rubbed the knuckles of one hand over his smooth-shaven face. How could he explain his connection to the orchard? How winter, spring, and summer had become synonymouswith dormant, bloom, and harvest? How few joys could rival the sheen of healthy bark and the scent of peach blossoms? And all of Doddy’s lists of things to do, categorized by type of fruit and season—they were all in James’s mind, a fruit gardener’s encyclopedia.
    You’d think that Jimmy would understand all this, having grown up on the orchard, too. But Dat had left the growing to his father, while he had focused on the business side of the orchard. It was an arrangement that had worked fine, until the accident. Now, as James dared to take in the older man’s square face, framed by dark hair and a beard below his chin, he wished that his father understood that the injury hadn’t changed James—not really. He was still Jimmy’s oldest son, still capable of overseeing the acres of fruit trees, even if he did it from a wheelchair.
    In the awkward silence, James heard the clipped patter of horses’ hooves in the distance. The bishop was approaching.
    James pushed up on the armrests and shifted in his chair, wishing he could roll down the ramp and escape to the orchard. “Lots of work to do outside,” he said, hoping that this meeting would be short.
    “You’ve always been a good worker,” Jimmy said with a flicker of approval in his dark eyes. “But now that you’re off your feet, it’s time you learned the other end of the business. Get acquainted with the bookkeeping and sales.”
    “But I’ve always managed the orchards. Right now I can’t do everything, but that’ll change when I get walking again.”
    “Mmm.” It was the growl of a discontented bear. “We’ll have to see about that. I’m not sure of Gott’s plan for you, but I know you’re not meant to be tangled up with these Englishers. Isn’t it enough that they come in their buses and vans, swarming like ants in the town? I see them in Halfway and then I come home to find my house full of doctors and nurses, drivers and therapists. There’san outsider here every day. It’s getting so you’d never know this is an Amish home.”
    Jimmy kept his distance from Englishers, which was not so unusual. Most Amish kept to other Amish; that was how their community worked. But living side by side with the English, there were times when they couldn’t be avoided, and this was one of them. There were no Plain folk in the medical profession. Amish children finished school after eighth grade, and then worked the farm or learned a skill. Preacher Dave had told James that no Amish settlement had ever allowed a person to go to medical school. Dave thought it was a matter of pride—hochmut. He pointed out that the higher knowledge gained in worldly society might override a person’s good Amish values. If James wanted to work with doctors to get rehabilitated, he had no choice but to deal with Englishers.
    “Dat, they taught me how to get myself in and out of bed. How to wash myself and … all the physical therapy, moving my legs so they don’t wither and die. Folks like Haley and Dylan, like Doc Trueherz, they’ve helped me come a long way.”
    “I’m grateful to them, but they’re not our friends or family. It’s time to back away.” It was not the first time Dat had spoken of keeping distance from Englishers. His dislike of fancy folk had been forged years ago, when he was a boy, and an Englisher had injured his best friend. An incident so upsetting that Jimmy refused to talk about it.
    “Dat, all Englishers are not bad people.”
    “Ya, this is true, but the Bible tells us to stay separate from that world. I know the bishop will agree with me on this. A man must keep