It was time to stop the lies.
She stood up from the ground-cover strawberry bushes and stretched her back. “You know how my dad was a newcomer to Kalona and talked funny?”
“Yes, but it seemed impolite to mention it.”
Sarah forced her mouth to pronounce the words even though it was hard for her to believe. “He was from New York City, where he was in the Russian mafia.Hisdad was the head of their mafia thingee, but they call it a bratva. So, he was, like,high up.”
Katie’s gasp echoed from her phone.“No!”
“Inever knew. It’s still crazy to think about it. As far as I can figure out, he moved to Iowa to get away from it. Anyway, you know how I had this aunt who came out of the woodwork after my parents died, and I talked to her sometimes?”
Katie’s breathless answer was rapt.“Yes.Mary Varvara Bell. I always thought Varvara was an exotic, foreign name.”
“It turns out that she took over the mafia from my grandfather, and she’s the head mafia boss now. I did something to piss her off, and now she’s going to kill me.”
“What did you do?”
Rue crept into her voice. “As far as I can tell, it’s that I exist.”
“Yeah, that’s all it takes to piss my mother off sometimes.”
“Anyway, I need some corn-fed Iowa muscle around the house for a couple of days. Can I borrow Martin?”
Scratching fluttered down the phone line as if Katie were getting busy. “When do you need him?”
“I think tomorrow night is when things might get real, but this situation may take a week or more to blow over.”
“I’ll send Martin over with his varmint rifle and a casserole, and I’ll put the word out that you need help with men and food.”
The word.Katie was going to put outthe word.
Gossip this prime would be the main topic at quilt shows and livestock auctions foryears.Sarah did not know how she would hold her head up in public.
And the word would spreadfastthat afternoon, pinging from phone calls to chat rooms to texts.
Sarah winced atthe wordgetting back to Abigail. “Do me a favor and hold off on talking to people for fifteen minutes? I need to call Abigail Yoder. I didn’t mean to spill quite this much, and Abigail needs to hear it from me.”
“Will do,” Katie said. “And good idea. That nephew of hers, Amos, needs something productive to do. This will be good for him.”
On Sarah’s next call, Abigail Yoder was less sanguine about Sarah’s revelations. “Iknewthere was something more going on with your father. He didn’t settle in here quite right.”
Looking back, her father’s restlessness had manifested in his lack of improvements to the farm as if he’d only intended to stay a short while and so many other moments of her life. “I don’t think he understood country life.”
“This seems a lot more dangerous than if you’d just overheard something while you’re away.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “It might be.”
“I don’t like it, Sarah. I don’t like it at all. Have you thought about leaving for a while? I don’t mind having Charlie and HowNow over here. They’re well-behaved. It would be a good project for Amos to watch over your crops for a few weeks or more. That boy needs something productive to do.”
“It’s my land, Abby. I can’t be foisting the responsibility off on others. People would talk.”
“Oh, people are going to be talking, all right. You should leave the menfolk on your farm to defend it and should come to stay with me.”
Impossible.“I’m a good shot. Half my meat comes from deer and pheasant season. I’m going to stay.”
“I don’t like this, Sarah. I don’t like thinking about someone coming to hurt you, and I don’t like thinking about you staying on your farm with dozens of men descending on your place. I heard Tiffany Meeks’s pastor gave a sermon last week about the problems withpredatory males.”
Sarah laughed at the thought. “I’ve known Martin Williams, Joe Johnson, and Robbie Meeks since we went to kindergarten together. Joe took second place in the home goods sewing division at the state fair last year. Your husband and I made mud pies together when we were three. I don’t think these are the predatory males he was talking about.”
