Chapter Five
Sara was fuming as she got ready to go out and work for the day. She had just finished the dishes from breakfast, and Ben hadn’t lifted a finger to help out at all. Not with anything, many times she had tried to get him to help with chores. But he would simply look at her and go do something else.
She didn’t mind teaching him things about this culture, but he needed to experience it too. How could he do that if he was so darn lazy though? She had all but come out and asked him to help her with the fields today.
“Oh, I sure wish I could find someone to help me plow the field today.” Sara had muttered loudly as he was eating the breakfast she had cooked.
“What about Henry?” Ben had asked her.
“He’s off to school right now.” Sara had answered.
“Okay, how about your grandpa?”
She hadn’t even answered him. She had gotten up and went to the kitchen. “Ask your grandpa?” She muttered under her breath as she began to wash the dishes.
“I guess the fact that he’s old and can’t handle the horses wouldn’t be apparent to some hot shot movie star. Or the fact that even if I asked, he would be too ashamed to help me, and what others in the community would say about him.” She said angrily to the air.
Sara knew that Ben was aware of her own standing in the community. However, what she wasn’t aware of was that he might have no idea what that meant to everyone else. Hopefully, Henry and Sally could avoid too much harm. After all they were young enough that the community could see that they had to stay where they were. If her grandpa had been younger, he would have quickly taken them in. At that point, they might have even decided to kick Sara out of the community. That would have depended on who believed her about Elizabeth or not. She hadn’t known during rumspringa that Elizabeth had sex. In fact, she hadn’t seen much of Elizabeth during that time. But no one in the community would believe that. No her and Elizabeth had always been together, so why would it be different at any point? That’s what they all thought; she could see it in their eyes. She was sure that the vote would have been to expel her right away. She would be placed in exile and never allowed back into any Amish community in this area, and perhaps others.
Her mind was on all of this as she started to get the horses ready for work. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ben as he approached. The horse wasn’t cooperating with her, for some reason he seemed frightened.
As she took her eyes off of the horse to look around at what might be scaring him, she didn’t see anything. The next thing she knew was she was in the dirt, spitting it out of her mouth.
“What in the world did you do that for?” She yelled at Ben.
“He was charging right at you, didn’t you see him?” Ben yelled back. “He would have killed you if he ran you over. What in the hell were you doing?” His voice was loud and carried far.
Sara looked around to see if anyone was going by close enough to hear him. “Can you please lower your voice?” She asked. “I was looking around to see why he was scared. I didn’t see him coming at me. Thank you very much for saving me. I apologize for yelling at you.” She said calmly.
As she had been sitting up in the dirt she had seen Ben calm the horse down and tie him up. “How did you calm the horse so quickly?” She asked. She tried to stand up and almost fell down again. Ben grabbed her quickly, “Did you get hurt?”
“Yeah I think it’s just a little twist though. I can put some ice on it after I get to the house. But I may need your help to get there.” She said.
“No problem just lean right on me if you need too.” He lowered his arm so she could grab on to it. She felt a rush of heat go through her body as they touched.
Flushed she took an unsteady step, but quickly recovered as she felt more of his body press against hers. He had steadied her and quickly moved away though.
“So to answer your question I know all about horses. See I was raised on a ranch in Texas. My parents ran a small one outside of Amarillo Texas. That’s where I grew up, every year since age 2 I knew about horses. I rode my first horse at that age, by age 4 I was riding them alone like they were a part of me. I love them.” Ben’s eyes has been wistful as he talked about growing up. “Don’t ever tell anyone that I’m just a small town country boy, it will hurt my image!” He laughed.
She chuckled. “I can tell you still love horses. I honestly would have never imagined you to be a hard worker though.”
She saw him flinch at the comment. “Well I mean since you’ve been here you’ve done nothing.”
Ben had the decency to at least look embarrassed by her comment. “Looks like I’m going to have to help now. I’m sorry if I’ve seemed so lazy.”
He helped her into a chair in the house and went to get the ice to put on her ankle.