“All right, then.” Dawdi accepted the full glass and again sat at the small round table in the corner of the room near the windows. “Want some sweets to go with it?”

“Do you?” she asked, guessing he was hoping for some from Mamm’s constant supply.

“S’pose I had my fill at the fellowship meal earlier, so I’ll be content with this wunnerbaar-gut root beer your Mamm makes.” Dawdi eyed her like he sensed something was up. “I daresay you’re not yourself.” Studying her, he tilted his silvery-white head.

“Actually, Evan’s the one who’s not himself anymore,” she said, going on to share that her own twin didn’t seem interested in listening to her.

“Well, it ain’t like Evan to dismiss his sister.”

She shook her head. “Or anyone.”

“Lest ya forget, this is the same young fella who, as just a lad, would go round the orchard lookin’ up and thankin’ the trees for their fruit and the birds for their song, filled with gratitude to Gott.”

Ellie sighed. “I remember that, too.”

“That same young boy is still in there, somewhere. We may not see it right now, but we’re not givin’ up on him, ’cause the Good Lord sure hasn’t.”

“It’s so hard to recognize any of that in this Evan.”

Dawdi nodded slowly, his gray eyes misty. “I s’pect he might need to know that your love for him is constant in spite of his poor behavior.”

She felt so softhearted around Dawdi. “Do ya think you might be able to talk to him? Would ya?”

“Straighten him out, ya mean?”

“Seems like Dat’s been tryin’, but nothin’s worked. I thought you might be able to get his attention.”

“Well, I could try, but Evan’s grown now and has to make his own decisions under Gott. There’s no forcin’ the heart to shift in a direction it ain’t ready to go in.” Dawdi took a drink, then set his glass down in front of him, his fingers still wrapped around its base. “You remember the proverb ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’”

“I know it well.”

“Hard as it might seem to ya, we have to believe that the godly instruction your Dat and Mamm have given Evan all these years will carry him through.”

“What if that means waitin’ till Evan’s old, like the verse says?” She’d sometimes wondered about that. “And if he makes bad choices, will he have to suffer the consequences?”

“Our Lord is sovereign,” Dawdi said, his expression serious. “Come what may, we should never second-guess Him.”

Ellie drank some root beer, pondering all that Dawdi had said. “What if my parents’ teaching doesn’t hold for Evan? I mean, he’s not interested in bein’ baptized yet.”