Fraying at the Edge Read Online Free Page A

Mamm was innocent. However, she had given birth to four mavericks. Then her fifth son had left for different reasons, and now he was a maverick too. Maybe he had been all along, but the desire to be present and to provide for his Mamm and his desire to build a life with Ariana had kept him from considering leaving.
    “I’ve been thinking,” Elam said. “We sank all that time and money into preparations for Salome and her family to leave the Amish. Since Salome has now promised Ariana to stay, at least until Ariana returns, maybe we could ask Salome to help Mamm the way Ariana used to.”
    After years of prayer Ariana’s oldest sister and her husband had decided to leave the Amish, taking their children with them, of course. But like others who wanted to leave, they needed help to do that, including places to live until they could support themselves. That’s where Quill and his brothers came in. They provided funds and temporary homes. Even if Ariana spent a decade among the Englisch, he doubted she would ever agree with him about helping Amish people to leave.
    “No.” Quill glanced at each brother. “Ariana’s family is off-limits.”
    “Salome and her husband owe us. We’ve invested time and money…” Elam hushed when Dan gave him a stern look.
    “Quill’s right,” Dan said. “Besides, no one asked Ariana to help Mamm. It was voluntary. Since having contact with us is not allowed, if we ask someone directly, we’re asking them to disobey the bishop. So the whole community is off-limits.”
    Ariana had gone by their Mamm’s place at least once a day for five years, often staying for hours. Neither Ariana nor anyone else in the Amish community had any idea that the brothers took turns secretly visiting their Mamm. If Ariana came during one of their visits, the son would slip out and hide in the barn or the shed until she left.
    “We have to do something,” Leon said. “If Ariana hadn’t been looking after Mamm two months back, she would’ve died from simple dehydration because of that virus.”
    “But that was a fluke. Mamm gets lonely, and everyone could use a little help with daily chores, but she’s generally healthy, right?” Elam asked.
    “Sure, but another fluke could happen at any time, and she could be dead before anyone checks on her,” Leon said.
    Their Mamm’s health wasn’t bad, but her being a widow without family in the area raised issues that were difficult enough when Ariana was in Summer Grove. They seemed insurmountable with her gone now.
    “Josiah Gingerich.” Leon dropped the name and fell silent.
    Josiah was from an Old Order Amish family in far northern Pennsylvania. He had left home as a teen and lived Englisch for a decade. Now he lived with his Old Order Amish folks. He had electricity, television, and other modern conveniences on his side of the house. He didn’t attend the Amish church or wear their clothing. Yet on the other side of a simple door that separated the two sides of the home, his parents lived according to the Old Ways.
    “Who?” Elam asked.
    “Josiah Gingerich,” Dan said. “You probably know him as Joe.”
    “Oh yeah,” Elam said. “He was injured on a loading dock, right?”
    “Yeah, that’s him.”
    “That’s all it took—becoming wheelchair bound—for his church ministers to decide that allowing him to live with his parents so they could help him was the Christian thing to do.”
    “Then that’s all we need to do—take turns getting sick or injured.” Erastus’s chuckle sounded more like a groan.
    “As brilliant as that plan sounds, we have wives who could care for us.”
    “Quill doesn’t. I volunteer him. That would solve all the issues of Ariana not being there.”
    “I know you’re teasing, trying to lighten things up, but I hate this conversation.” Quill dropped his fork on the plate and pushed back from the table. It wasn’t just about Mamm being lonely, or worse, but they talked about Ariana’s departure from