Free Ella's Wish by Jerry S. Eicher

have somethin’, Mamm? I thought you looked bothered at the supper table.”
    “I am more than bothered,” she said.
    “But you haven’t told me?”
    “I only learned of the matter this morning. This is too serious to discuss before the work had been done. We need time to think and to talk without the day’s burdens on our shoulders.”
    “You have always been a wise woman,” Daett said. “Da Hah also waited for the cool of the day to discuss the matter when the first man and woman sinned. I’m supposin’ this is serious, then.”
    “Eli is seein’ an Englisha girl,” Mamm said straightaway, allowing the words to tumble out.
    Ella felt some relief now that it was out in the open.
    “An Englisha girl?” Daett said. His voice rose in surprise, and his paper slid off his lap and sprawled in separate pieces across the hardwood floor. “Eli? Are you sure of this, Mamm? Is this true, Eli?”
    “It is true,” Mamm said.
    Eli’s face was pale. “Did you girls go tellin’ on me?” he asked, turning to Ella and Dora. Both girls shook their heads.
    “That’s another thing,” Mamm said. “The girls are here because they knew about this, but they decided to keep their silence.”
    “So, who did this come from?” Eli asked, his voice rising.
    “Son, look…” Daett said. “You really shouldn’t be accusin’ someone else. This sin lies at your door.”
    “Pam,” Eli said, rising from the couch, “is not a sin. She is the best thing Da Hah has ever given me. Her love warms my heart when I am with her. How can that be a sin?”
    “But she is Englisha! ” Mamm exclaimed. “And what of the girls, Daett? They both knew of this and tried to teach Eli themselves. They thought they could turn him back from his error.”
    “Is this true?”
    Ella felt her dad’s eyes on her and struggled for breath. All day she had prepared for this, yet the moment still caught her by the throat. How could I have prepared for Daett’s disapproval, his judgment on my actions, and his disappointment in me? The hiss of the gas lantern filled the room, and somehow she found her voice. “It is true that I knew and told Dora. And I did try to correct Eli, but Dora did not. In this the error is all mine.”
    “You always took too much upon yourself,” Daett said, his voice low, “but our son is our business, and he will answer to us.”
    “I will answer to God,” Eli retorted. “I am not a member of the church, and in this matter of love, I will follow my heart. Did not Ella and Aden have the best? Should I not also have the best?”
    “Aden and Ella?” Daett asked with a voice filled with surprise. “What has this to do with them? Did Aden know also?”
    Eli shook his head. “I mean their love. How true it was. It was one of a kind, like a cow that gives twice the milk. I saw it with my own eyes—how they loved each other. And I want that kind of love.”
    Ella felt the tears begin to trickle down her face. She restrained her instinct to wipe them away.
    “You believe Da Hah cannot give you such love with one of our girls?” Daett asked, leaning forward in his rocker.
    “He hasn’t,” Eli said.
    “That is not a good answer,” Daett said. “We are all tested in our faith, and you did not seem to pass this one, it looks like.”
    “I am not a wild boy. You know that. I have given you no sorrow and no reason to doubt me, as some sons have. Can you not believe me on this? I must see whether this love is true to the end.”
    “You are seein’ an Englisha girl,” Mamm said. “Is that not sorrow enough? How can that ever be made right?”
    “How can you say that?” Eli asked, distress in his voice.
    “Eli, look,” Daett said. “I have no complaints about you. You have been all a son could be. You do not hold back from your work on the farm. You are up with the dawn as any good man should be. Your mamm and I have no regrets. Yet in this you have chosen the wrong way. You might think it a matter of decidin’