Amish Jedi: In a City Far, Far Away

Episode 8.2 ~ SpongeBob SquarePants

"Mmmm..." I inhale the steam wafting up out of my mug, just the slightest hint of cinnamon. 

We each serve ourselves pizza and chew in silence, enjoying the light breeze wafting through the window. Cold air doesn't carry foul scents like warm air does.

"Did you grow up here?" I ask, usually I don't like to pry but I'm curious. 

"Born and raised... Well, I was born in the hospital, but I've been here since."

Chew. Chew. Chew. Swallow. "And your parents? Did they move?"

Leah wipes her hands on a white napkin. "They were killed in a train accident four years ago. I was your age."

I set my slice down. "I'm sorry."

She shrugs. "I'm coping." Her gaze fixes on something outside the window. "I started Tea & Tales with some of the life insurance money. The work keeps me sane."

"That's stories for me. I can't imagine facing life without them," I confess. 

She nods, and I know she gets me. She's a reader. An avid one at that. "You know, Betty's a bit hard at times, but I've never seen her treat anyone the way she treats you." Her gaze returns to me. "You don't have to tell me, but what happened between you two?"

Now I can't meet her eyes, so I stare out the window at the building across the street, where Betty lives, only quite a few floors below. "The first time I ever met my aunt was when she came home for my grandmother's funeral. I was thirteen." I smile halfheartedly at a distant feeling. "I was actually excited to see her. I imagined she would understand me, like Grams." 

"I'm guessing you were wrong."

"She acted like my grandmother's death was my fault. Like I could have stopped the cancer if I didn't exist. 

"At the funeral, I sat next to Gramps, holding his hand. He and I were close. But when she walked in wearing an Amish outfit one of my aunts lent her, she told me to go sit with the other children a few rows back."

"It was her mom," Leah says in almost a whisper as if plucking a thought from Betty's mind. 

"She moved away before my mother was ever born and never talked to them. I didn't even know her. And Grams... she was everything to me..."

"What'd your grandfather do?"

"He scooped me up and set me on his lap. Betty took the spot where I'd sat, and she left without speaking another word to me. I can't even remember if she came for the meal after the funeral." I take a deep breath before plunging on again, skirting over the parts I can't bring myself to tell. "I didn't go to Gramps's funeral. I could barely function. I just curled up in his armchair and didn't leave for days. I thought Betty would let me be, but after the funeral, she came into the grossdaddi—that's a house attached to the main house for grandparents to live in—and demanded to be left alone with her parents' things."

Leah places her hand over mine. 

I shake my head still staring at nothing out the window. "Daed had to pry me from the chair—I was furious with him for days. I screamed at her. Horrible things, I think. I can't remember exactly now. I told her she didn't even know him. That I loved him and she didn't. Things like that." I let my gaze fall to my empty plate.

"You were hurt."

"I'm still hurt."

"I think she is too," Leah says softly. "Not that that excuses her behavior." 

"I can't stand her. I suppose the feeling is mutual."

"She let you move out here."

I sniffle. "Yeah, I still can't understand that one."

"Do you think she did it for your grandparents?"

I shrug. "It's a little too late."

Leah shakes her head. "As long as we have breath in our lungs, it is never too late to show people we love them. If that is what Betty's motive is, then she's trying to show her parents the love she denied them when they were alive to you."

I snort. "Snape loved Harry better."

Leah chuckles lightly, and then picks up our plates and takes them to the sink. "So, dinner's at five..."

"Are you joking?!"

Leah sets the dishes to dry, towels her hands, and then turns to me leaning against the counter. "You love your grandparents?"

"Of course."

"She's their daughter."

"Grrrrrr."

"I'll take that as a yes."

I roll my eyes and take a drag on my hot chocolate, returning my gaze to the window.

"I can't believe Sarah tripped you in front of Jason." Leah returns to the seat across from me. "She's getting desperate."

"I don't know why. Jason's wrapped around the spike of her six-inch heal."

"He didn't seem happy about what she did."

"But he didn't say anything to her."

"You don't know that."

I set the cocoa down. "I was there."

Leah frowns. "Jason wouldn't scold her in front of us. He'll keep the peace until dinner with her family is over, and then he'll bring it up."

I stare into the dregs of cocoa at the bottom of my mug. "I told him he was going to act like this when she returned. That's what we fought about."

"I had wondered."

"You didn't know?"

"I knew you all fought, but that's not really something new for you."

"Yeah, well..."

"Someone needed to say something. I guess it's best it was you."

I raise a brow.

Leah nibbles on her bottom lip for a second before saying, "You affect him in ways the rest of us don't."

"You mean I make him mad as hell?"

Leah laughs. "Yes, I suppose you do have that effect on each other." 

"Glad to be of service," I mumble but feel a bit lighter after eating and talking with Leah.

She has to return to work. "People need Tea and Tales," she argues when I point out that everyone else—including Jason—is closed for the holiday. "Patrick's not," she says. I suppose that's how he got out of Betty's this morning. I need to open a store.