The third one. Fortunately, her father had already scraped the last of the mashed potatoes from the serving bowl. Rufus smiled blandly into the beam of Beth’s face.She sat on his right. On his left was Johanna, and across the table sat Essie. Their uniform hairstyle accentuated the similarities of their features, differentiated only by different eye colors. The Stutzmans were living in their own home—and not a minute too soon, which was an opinion Rufus kept to himself. When Beth invited him to dinner as a way to say thank you for his help in readying their home, he assumed his whole family would be there. He came straight from Mo’s motel after installing some trim. Even then, he assumed his family would arrive in the second buggy at any moment. Only when he saw how the dining room table was set did he realize he had been singled out for the invitation. “Tell us what you’ve been working on, Rufus.” Ike Stutzman tore a corner off a slice of bread and steered it into his mouth.
