Forbidden Fruits

A Story by BrokenBONEZ

This is a comedy about the budding relationship between an Amish girl and her cousin. It is all meant to be a joke.

Esther was like any other 15 year old Amish girl. That is until her cousin Ezekiel moved to Lancaster from Ohio and suddenly threw her life into turmoil. A torrid secret relationship began with an increasingly jealous boyfriend sensing that he was losing his fiancés love and a free spirited Ezekiel doing everything to earn it. Would it be Elijah or Ezekiel? Torn between Biblical faithfulness and raw English passion only Esther could choose which path to follow.

Chapter 1

Esther stood by the side of the road, briskly swinging the weed-whacker back and forth through the tall weeds. Its rhythmic hum made the chores so much easier that she barely considered it work at all. Her legs, stained green and numbed by the flying debris, were strong and ankle-less. Her dress, made the night before, blew in the breeze like a sheet on a clothes line, the sweat stain down the center of her back drying in the breeze, cooling her as God intended. So engrossed in her chores was she that she did not notice the black buggy slowly approaching her from behind.

The sweat, pouring down her forehead, stung her eyes and had become unbearable so she paused from her chores to wipe her brow with her sleeve. Releasing the trigger, the weed-whacker changed its tone from a high pitched scream to a low buzz, black smoke spitting out from its small exhaust. That is when she noticed Elijah standing on the wagon in the field in front of her. He had just had his sun-bleached blonde locks cut and the lines were straight and handsome. He was catching the hay bales and stacking them in neat piles so they could later be unstacked and then restacked in neat piles in the barn. He turned his gaze towards her and their eyes met. He raised his arm in a kind wave, his sweat drenched armpits stood out in stark contrast to the rest of his pale blue shirt, a testament of his hard work and devotion to Gods commandments. Esther smiled and waved back, giggling to herself. They had been exchanging waves for many years now and Esther felt that things were starting to really heat up. She thought that maybe at next month’s barn party and volleyball game she might look at him until he noticed and looked back at her. A slight smile filled her face.

Just then she noticed the eerily common black buggy slowly approaching her. But she did not recognize the buggy, nor did she recognize the horse, so she turned and faced it, squinting to see who it could be. Several minutes later it pulled up to her and the small side window slid open, a fine looking lad popped his head out. Esther noticed immediately that the lines of his hair were just as straight as Elijah’s, if not straighter. He glanced at the house then turned his attention back to her.

“Is this the Slotzfus farm?” He asked in a commanding dutchified accent.

“Yah.” She replied, “My pa is Abel Stolzfus.”

“Well you must be Rachel?” He asked, smiling.

“She’s my sister.”

“Oh, Mary then?” He quizzed

“Other sister.”

“Ezra?”

“Sister.”

“Rebekah?”

“Sister.”

“Naomi?”

“Sister.”

“Anna?”

“Sister.”

“Sarah?”

“Ma!”

The young man paused and glanced skyward, deep in thought. He mentally scanned through all of the female biblical names he knew, counting them out on his fingers. He scanned through them again, counting them out on his fingers once more. Then he did it a third time, again. Suddenly his face lit up and he proudly raised his finger into the air.

“Esther?” He pronounced proudly.

A smile filled her face, “Yah, I’m Esther, how did you know?”

“I’m your cousin Ezekiel from Ohio!”

“My cousin Ezekiel or my nephew Ezekiel?” She asked

“Cousin.”

“First, second or third?” She inquired.

“Don’t know.” He said “I reckon maybe first?”

“Are you Amos’ Ezekiel, Esau’s Ezekiel or Isaac’s Ezekiel?” She asked.

“My pa’s Amos’.”

“Oh, okay, so we never met.” Esther said nodding.

“Yah, we never met. On account of I’m from Ohio.”

Just then Elijah walked up and wiped his earthen covered hands down his sweat soaked chest, then wiped them down his skintight black cotton pants. He pulled off his straw hat and used his forearm to swipe the sweat from his brow then he offered an outstretched hand to the new stranger.

“Can I help you?” He asked suspiciously.

“I’m Ezekiel, Amos’ son from Ohio. I’ve come here to help out for the harvest.”

“Well we’re just cutting some alfalfa for the cows and then we have to cut the corn for the cows, then we need to milk the cows, so your timing is perfect. C’mon I’ll put you to work.” Elijah said spinning around and heading back to the wagon and the horses. “You can help me stack the hay for the cows on the wagon.”

“All right!” Ezekiel said happily, “Just let me hitch my buggy to a tree.”

“Over there.” Elijah said, pointing towards a large maple tree by the farm house.

“Well, it was nice meeting you.” Ezekiel said to Esther, offering his hand to her.

“Oh!” she said flustered. No boy had ever been so physically intimate with her and she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to his unexpected advances. She uncomfortably extended her index finger and he took it into his rough calloused hand. She gushed and felt weak and covered her face with her free hand.

Ezekiel’s hands were strong, calloused and hard as leather, the way a man’s hands should be. The skin, cracked and abrasive, was covered with filth stains that could never be fully cleaned and his nails were hard and thick from shoveling manure and husking corn. The smell of his sweat filled her nostrils and suddenly Esther was feeling things she never experienced before. Here was a fine looking lad touching her in ways she had never been touched before, and he knew her name and everything.

“Well, I gotta get to work.” He said, sliding back into the buggy.

As he steered the buggy over to the maple and tied the horse in place Esther replayed the past five minutes over in her mind again and again. Not since she graduated school, 3 years prior had she felt this way for a man and those feelings were always only for Elijah. Suddenly overcome with guilt, she looked up and scanned the field for Elijah. He was there, but luckily he was focused on whipping the horses.

After a few moments Esther pulled the cord on the weed-whacker and resumed her work. But her mind was now filled with thoughts of the lad named Ezekiel, her mysterious cousin from Ohio. And she could not wait for next months barn party and volleyball game so might stare at him until he notices and stares back at her.