Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound was faint, a barely discernible rap from downstairs. A neighbor stopping by to let him know that fat little goat had escaped its pen again? The little rascal was more trouble than he was worth. But the old man smiled as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He was reaching for his clothes draped over the rocking chair when he heard the other sound. Not the goat, but the soft mewl of an abandoned kitten. Or a cat that had been injured, judging from the intensity of its cry. Whatever the case, it needed help.
He dressed in the darkness of the bedroom. Black trousers. Blue work shirt. He pulled his suspenders over bony shoulders and then wriggled into his black coat. On his way to the door, he plucked his flat-brimmed hat from the hook on the wall.
The steps creaked beneath his stocking feet as he made his way downstairs. The clock on the wall in the living room told him it wasn’t yet four-thirty. He was thinking about a hot cup of coffee and helping himself to one of his wife’s apple fritters as he went into the kitchen and lit the lantern. He carried it back through the living room to the front door. Setting the lantern on the table, he opened the door. There was no one there. He looked down; surprise quivered through him at the sight of the plastic laundry basket. A quilt inside. But who would leave an injured animal on his doorstep?
Something moved within the quilt. The sound that followed sent him back a step. Alarm fluttered deep in his gut. He pressed his hand to his chest. He’d fathered eleven children; he’d heard enough crying in his lifetime to know this was no animal, but a child, and a newborn at that.
Bending, he carefully peeled away a corner of the quilt. Sure enough, the wrinkled red face of an infant stared back at him. Tiny mouth open. Chin quivering. Hands fluttering.
The old man’s heart turned over. “En bobli,” he whispered. A baby.
He figured he’d held a hundred or more babies in the eighty-one years he’d been on earth. It had been awhile—even his grandchildren were older now—but holding one of God’s children was something a man never forgot. Ignoring the arthritis in his knees, he knelt, plucked the child and quilt from the basket, and brought both to his chest.
“Vo du dich kumma funn?” he cooed in Pennsylvania Dutch. “Where did you come from?”
A rustle from the darkness beyond the porch startled him. Something moved on the other side of the lilac bushes that grew alongside the driveway. Cradling the baby, he stepped back and squinted into the shadows beyond the porch.
“Who goes there?” he called out.
He listened, thought he heard footsteps against gravel, faint and moving away. “Hello? Who’s there?”
The only reply was the whisper of wind through the trees. Whoever had left this child on his doorstep was gone.
“Was der schinner du havva?” What’ve you got there?
He jolted at the sound of his wife’s voice, turned to see her, still clad in her nightgown, a thick cardigan sweater draped over her shoulders, creeping down the stairs, a lantern in her hand.
Taking a final look outside, the bishop closed the door and started toward his wife. “I believe God has sent us a package from heaven.”
She thrust the lantern toward him. Her step faltered; her eyes went wide when she spotted the baby. “Oh Good Lord! En bobli?” She looked from the child to her husband. “Where did it come from?”
“The porch,” he told her. “Wrapped in the deppich, inside a laundry basket.”
Recovering from her shock, she set the lantern on the table against the wall. “Someone left it? But who would do such a thing?”
The bishop shook his head. “A mother who’s lost her way.”
His wife’s eyes attached to the baby. “Oh, poor little thing.” She held out her arms, and he slipped the child into them. Though they were old, they remembered how to handle a baby. He wondered how many times over the years they’d passed a crying infant back and forth as a young couple building their family.
“It’s cute as a button,” his wife purred. “Look at that little nose.”
“Do you think it’s Amisch?” the old man asked.
“The deppich”—the quilt—“is Amisch.”
He looked toward the door. “I wonder how long it was out there in the cold.”
His wife made a sound, as if the thought distressed her. “I bet it’s hungry.” She clucked her tongue. “I don’t have a baby bottle in the house. But I do have some goat’s milk in the refrigerator.”
“Goat’s milk?”
“Easier on the stomach,” his wife told him. “I can use my finger and get a few drops in its belly.”
Looking down at the child in her arms, she trilled. “Witt du wennich eppes zu ess?” Want you a little something to eat?