Read The River for Free Online Page B

life too seriously. He’d always paid special attention to Tilly, supposedly his favorite, or so Ruthie had pointed out years ago. Tilly had brushed it off, but she knew one thing was sure: Uncle Abner had a knack for making folks laugh right out loud. It was generally known that if he teased you, he was in reality very fond of you.
    Tilly parked the car near the old icehouse, just down from the front yard, her thoughts turning to two of Abner’s younger sons, Elmer and Henry, her close-in-age cousins. The boys were sleepwalkers who had once walked right out the back door and into the yard, jabbering all the while. Uncle Abner had decided that instead of allowing his sons’ nighttime hours to be an obstacle to his own rest, he would occasionally tie their feet to their beds, making sure to unfasten them before the boys awakened. The boys might never have known, but after they were both married, Uncle Abner let it slip at a church gathering, as Tilly recalled now. She had to smile at the memory and wondered if Elmer’s and Henry’s wives had devised a way to keep their spouses from roaming about while they and their children slept.
    These and other recollections flitted through Tilly’s mind as she got out of the car and went to open the trunk. When she’d retrieved her suitcase, she motioned for Ruth to go inside with her, even though Ruth didn’t intend to stay there.
    The two young women headed up the well-manicured front footpath toward the white porch before Tilly remembered that none of the Plain folk they’d grown up around ever used their front doors, at least not as a rule. She laughed at her near mistake and turned to go around the side of the house. “What was I thinking?” she muttered, glancing at Ruth, who gave her a quick smile of encouragement.
    In a quick minute, Uncle Abner’s deep voice echoed across the driveway.
    “ Willkumm to ya, Tilly and Ruth.” He lumbered over from the stable. “We’ve been expectin’ yous.” He wore a hospitable grin as he brushed his hands on his black work trousers. His gray shirt was highlighted by black suspenders, and there weredozens of grayish speckles in his long brown beard that hadn’t been there before.
    She felt sure she could count on her uncle not to comment on their fancy attire or how she’d influenced Ruthie to leave the People. Tilly knew him too well to think otherwise. Uncle Abner could be quite frank, but he was not ill-mannered. Besides, he’d talked privately with her before she’d ever left Eden Valley, his tone gentle. Momentarily, she wondered if their uncle had done the same with her sister when she decided to go. If so, Ruth had never shared that.
    “Hoscht du shunn gesse?” He tugged on his beard and waved toward the house.
    “Denki,” Ruth said, brightening. “But we stopped along the way to pick up hamburgers and ate in the car.”
    He raised his eyebrows at the outlandish notion of eating anywhere but with one’s feet firmly planted beneath a dinner table. “Was that enough for a gut sound sleep tonight? Moreover, your aunt’s been bakin’ up a storm. You won’t hurt her feelings, now, will ya?”
    Tilly knew they ought to eat at least something here, as well as later at their parents’ house, if invited. It was the courteous thing, after all.
    Abner led them inside the farmhouse by way of the side door. Brightly colored rag rugs lay in a vertical row on the old linoleum—Aunt Naomi was a stickler for clean shoes, so no one dared track dirt in from the barn or anywhere else.
    “Naomi, kumm hiwwe, ” he called happily, and his wife came bustling toward them from the kitchen and opened her plump arms, a big smile on her round, rosy face.
    “ Ach , you’re both here,” she said, stepping back and looking at them fondly, her hands holding Tilly’s. “And you, Ruthie.Just look how you’ve grown up.” She moved to embrace her, as well.
    Tilly was pleased at the warm welcome, though she should have expected