My Scandalous Mennonite Diary #11

-Abe

“I’m sorry, ma’am, I…”

“Don’t be sorry, I just want to be sure I heard you right!”

“You did, I’m going to marry your daughter.”

“I thought that’s what you said!”

Mary’s mother is standing before me. She is wearing a black dress, a black head covering, and a red face contorted by rage.

“Tell me, Abe, are you still a clerk at that grocery store?”

“Yes.”

“And you think this will give you enough money to take a wife?”

“It’s not much but it will be enough.”

“Voght shote de mensch? Do you want Mary to starve?” (*Voght shote de mensch means ‘what is the matter with you man?’)

“Listen, I love Mary, I only want the best for her.”

“Love? What do you know about love? You haven’t been courting that long. You don’t even know each other!”

“We know enough.”

“Oh really? You know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think that if you really loved my daughter, you would leave here now and let her find a much more suitable man.”

I can see the expansive star-filled sky through the window. I wish I was out there instead of in this stuffy kitchen.

“What do you think about that Abe?”

Her breath in my face is sour. I can’t take it anymore. I have to have space. I step backward into the kitchen table and then stop.

“I’m sorry you feel that way but we’ve made up our minds.”

“Oh you have, have you?” Mary’s mother turns her attention to her daughter. “Is that true Mary? Is this clerk the man you want to spend your life with?”

Mary blinks as tears trickle from the corners of her eyes. “Yes,” she says in a quiet voice.

“Well, well, what are we going to do about this situation?”

“You might as well get used to it because we’re going to have a wedding as soon as we can arrange it,” I say as I step between Mary and her mother.

“Obah! I can’t believe what I’m hearing…in my own house yet! Just wait until your Father gets in here.”

“Where is Father?” Mary asks with fear plain in her eyes.

Mary’s mother goes to the window and looks through it. “He’s on his way over here right now. Just wait until he hears about all this. Then we’ll see what happens.”