The Amish Midwife - By Mindy Starns Clark Page 0,97

must think I’m awful.”

I found a box of small garbage bags under the sink. “He’s the one who took you to the party.” I dumped her smelly clothes into the bag and knotted the top.

Her voice trailed off. “But it was my idea…”

I opened the door to the scent of coffee and Ezra sitting on the floor of the hall, his back against the wall. “How is she?” he asked me.

“Stupid,” Ella answered before I could, following me into the hall.

Ezra scrambled to his feet.

“I’m sorry,” Ella whispered, leaning her head against his chest.

I kept walking down the hall toward the kitchen, their quiet voices behind me.

Sean sat at the nook table, his hands wrapped around a cup. He stood and stepped toward the counter, pouring me a cup. “How is she?”

“Mortified.”

He smiled. “I remember nights like that.”

“But you were homeschooled,” I teased.

He shrugged. “Well, I was pretty wild by college, and then my younger siblings figured things out a whole lot younger.” He hushed as Ella and Ezra came into the room and poured them each a cup.

We all crowded around the table and stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Ella said to me, “Are you going to tell Mom?”

“No. You are.”

She groaned. Sean’s blue eyes lit up over the rim of his cup. I liked that we were a team in this—and I liked it that we made a good one.

All Ella had for breakfast the next morning was coffee, and I could tell that the sunshine coming through the window hurt her eyes, but besides that it wasn’t obvious she’d been drunk the night before. Marta declined going to church again, saying she didn’t want to be a distraction. I found this odd but didn’t say so.

As soon as we pulled onto the main highway on our way into town, Ella groaned and closed her eyes. “Never again,” she whispered.

“Never again what?” Zed asked from the backseat.

Neither of us answered.

“What’s going on?” Zed’s face filled the rearview mirror.

“Nothing,” Ella barked, too loudly.

I smiled and caught his eye in the mirror. “Later,” I said.

Esther and David weren’t at church, which didn’t surprise me. Between David’s schoolwork and having a new baby, it was much better for the young family to take it easy than to be pushing themselves. Afterward, Ella didn’t want to stay around and chat, and I didn’t want to answer questions about Marta, answers I wasn’t sure of myself, so we hurried out of the foyer and headed home.

I’d told Ella that if she hadn’t said anything to her mother about getting drunk by Monday morning, I would. I listened closely Sunday afternoon to their interactions, and from what I could tell, Ella hadn’t uttered a word.

Sunday evening I sat on the bed in my alcove contemplating my immediate future, including how to tell Marta the next morning about Ella’s drinking. But there were other things I needed to sort out too. How long would I stay in Lancaster? What had happened to my desire to live in Philly? Had all that changed with the discovery that my birth family didn’t live in Montgomery County, that I had merely been born there?

My ties to Ella and Zed were growing tighter. Both had offered me their rooms, individually, when we’d arrived back home after church. I was touched, but I’d declined. For some reason I liked the alcove. You would think, considering I was an only child, that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate a life without privacy, but I liked being part of a family, being in the middle, hearing everyone’s coming and goings, knowing when Marta got up in the morning and when Ella went to bed at night. The alcove was an in-between place and that’s where I was—in between Portland and Philly, in between Ella and Marta, in between Ada and Klara, and in between Giselle and the truth.

My cell rang. It was James. Yes, I was in between him and Sean too. I leaned against the wall. After we chatted for a moment, I told him about my trip to Harrisburg and then Norristown, and how I’d felt like a disgruntled adoptee as I searched. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful toward Mama and Dad.”

“I know.”

I told him the rest of the story, and then he asked about Marta, Ella, and Zed. I didn’t tell him about Ella’s escapade the night before, but I did say that I was growing to love my cousins. Then I told him about seeing