Orchard of Hope

by Ann H. Gabhart

  It was exciting being fourteen. Jocie had awakened sometime in the middle of the night, looked up at the stars out the window, and thought, now she was fourteen. That sounded lots better than thirteen. She was into her teens. She was on her way to being an adult. She knew worlds more than she had last year when she was just turning thirteen.

  So much had happened since her last birthday. Everything had changed. Everybody had changed. When she’d told her father that at breakfast, he had smiled and said that happened every year. But Jocie thought this year had to be different, special in the changing department.

  All she had to do was look around at the people at her party to prove that. Aunt Love was smiling. She’d been smiling a lot lately. She still quoted just as many Bible verses, but more of them sounded joyful now. Her father was laughing with Leigh as she put the candles on Jocie’s specially ordered chocolate cake. He’d met Leigh at the door and hugged her right in front of everybody. The two of them had even held hands like a couple of teenagers in front of the whole county at the football game. That had to be more than a normal change.

  Tabitha was sitting there right in the middle of them holding her hands over her belly instead of being off in California. She was going to be a mother just any time, and that would make Jocie an aunt. That certainly didn’t happen every year. Miss Sally and Mr. Harvey were sitting on the couch, drinking lemonade and waiting for her to blow out her birthday candles. Jocie hadn’t even known them last year, and now they were like a favorite aunt and uncle, and her father was the pastor of their church. That was a change. A big change. Her father actually having a church again.

  Wes had been there to help her celebrate turning thirteen last year, and Jocie was thankful he was still there to celebrate with her this year. In another month or two he might even get rid of the cast and be able to ride his motorcycle again. She would give all the little packages people had brought to be able to climb up behind him on his motorcycle again and go for a ride through the country.

  Maybe that was a change. In her. She didn’t really care about what she was getting. Of course, she did want the inner tubes for her bike tires her father had promised. She had to carry the air pump with her everywhere now if she wanted to ride her bike.

  Jocie looked around. Everybody was talking, but Jocie sort of kept herself outside the talk so she could watch them. She’d have to write all this down in her notebook later. How everybody had changed.

  Her eyes fell on Zella sitting beside Miss Sally. Zella never changed. Jocie almost felt relieved. She could count on Zella to be the same every day, every week, every month, every year. Even her success matchmaking Leigh and Jocie’s father hadn’t seemed to cheer her up much lately. Not that she’d ever admit she was cranky, but she was. Lately more than usual. Wes said it had to be the hot weather. Maybe Jocie could make Zella her next year’s project—to see if she could change Zella into a kinder, sweeter model. Jocie shut her eyes and tried to imagine it and almost giggled. Some things surely weren’t supposed to change.

  “What’s so funny, Jo?” Wes hobbled over to stand beside her.

  “Everything,” Jocie said. “Not funny. Just great. Having everybody here. And Leigh making me a cake. Do you remember your fourteenth birthday, Wes?”

  “Well, now that’s a long time ago in Jupiter years. Could be I took my first spaceship ride that day.”

  “I wonder what everybody else did.”

  “Probably not what you’re fixing to do. Blow out candles. Miss Leigh’s about ready to light them. You’d better be gathering your breath and thinking up a good wish.” Wes leaned on his crutches and fished a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe the sweat off his face. “We don’t need no extra heat in here.”

  “But I have so many wishes that I don’t know which one to pick.” Jocie watched Leigh arranging the fourteen candles just so.

  “Then wish them all, Jo. Don’t short yourself on nothing.”

  “You’re one of my wishes, Wes. That your leg gets better and we can go riding on your motorcycle again.” She looked back at Wes.

  “Well, wish that one for certain. I’m ready to do some riding.”

  “And I want to wish Tabitha’s baby here and okay. And Aunt Love to be able to remember what she wants to remember. And Daddy to be happy and for Leigh to stay the way she is.” Jocie’s eyes touched on each person as she said their names.

  “And make us a few more cakes.” Wes eased down into a chair, then looked up at Jocie to say, “But are you sure you’re doing wishes? All that sounds sort of like the prayer list you was giving me last week. Your healthy-baby prayer. Your Aunt Love’s memory prayer. Your rain prayer. Your leg-healing prayer.”

  “Can’t wishes be prayers or prayers wishes?”

  “Don’t ask me. I’m no prayer expert. I expect you know a heap more about that than I do. But you should wish something for yourself, Jo. That’s what birthday wishes are for. For yourself.”

  “But all that would be for me,” Jocie said.

  Wes smiled at her and reached up to touch her hand.

  “Well, tell you what. You wish all them prayers and blow out all your candles and while you’re doing that, I’ll sit over here and wish something especially for you.”

  “What?”

  “Now you know the rules. You can’t tell your wishes before the candles are out.”

  “But I just told you all mine.”

  “My ears don’t count. That’s like talking to yourself,” Wes said. “Look, I think they’re ready for you. Better hurry before all that fire melts your icing.”

  Leigh started singing “Happy Birthday to You,” and then everybody was joining in. Jocie gathered up all her wish prayers and tried to run them through her mind while she was blowing out the candles. It took every bit of her breath, but she got them all out. Then everybody was laughing and clapping and making her feel loved and special.

  Jocie looked at Wes and wondered if that was what he’d wished for her, because when she thought about it, she was probably the one who had changed the most of anybody in the room. She imagined what she might write in her journal later after everyone was gone.

  Today I turned fourteen. In the year since I was thirteen, I have been given back my sister who was gone for so many years. I have a dog named Zeb. I found out that Aunt Love was young once. I had my father taken away from me and given back. I may have a stepmother before long. I learned for sure without any doubt that the Lord answers prayers.

  She’d be able to write for hours about that. Maybe she should have asked for a flashlight for her birthday so she could write in her journal all night.

  She opened her presents. A book about taking pictures from Wes. Some peppermints from Zella. A pen with red ink from Leigh. A pair of socks from Aunt Love. A notebook from Tabitha. A crystal bell that had belonged to their mother from Miss Sally and Mr. Harvey. But no inner tubes for her bike from her father. She couldn’t be disappointed with all these other things, but she couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. Then her father was calling her out on the porch and there was the most beautiful blue bicycle Jocie had ever seen.

  “And you thought I’d forgotten your inner tubes, didn’t you? Here they are in a little bit different package than you were expecting,” her father said. “From all of us. Leigh, Aunt Love, Zella, Wes, Tabitha, Miss Sally, Mr. Harvey, and me.”

  Jocie looked at the bike and then at everybody watching her and burst into tears.

  Her father laughed. “I think that means she likes it.”

  39

  David should have noticed, but he hadn’t. Aunt Love had to tell him. Jocie’s birthday party had broken up soon after Jocie took a ride down the drive to the road and back on her new bicycle. Leigh left to take Wes and Zella home. David didn’t try to get her to stay longer because he still had to get his sermon together. There’d been no time that morning with all the preparations for the party. He needed to study the Scripture and spend time in prayer to be sure he found the message the
Lord wanted him to preach.

  Prayer was why Miss Sally and Mr. Harvey hadn’t left when the others did. Mr. Harvey wanted to pray with David. Mr. Harvey said he’d been especially burdened the last few days. “I don’t know what it is, Brother David, but I can feel something’s wrong. Like I’m missing something the Lord wants me to do. I was hoping you could help me pray through it.”

  “Well, certainly, Mr. Harvey. Let’s step out on the porch while the women put the cake away,” David said.

  They had hardly bowed their heads when Aunt Love came after him. “I hate to interrupt you, David, but I think Tabitha is in labor. It’s likely she has been all day.”

  “All day?” David said. He had noticed that Tabitha had been extra quiet and had only picked at her cake. “But why didn’t she tell us?”

  “She says she didn’t want to ruin Jocie’s birthday party, but she got up with a backache. You know some women labor in their backs first. And there seems to be some rhythm to her pains. I’ve no doubt she’s having contractions.”

  David’s heart started pumping harder and his hands felt shaky. He wanted to run somewhere, do something, but he wasn’t sure what. “There’s still time to get her to the hospital, isn’t there?”

  “It might have been better if she’d told us sooner,” Aunt Love said. “It is a good drive to Grundy. I’ve got Jocelyn trying to reach the doctor.”

  David looked at Mr. Harvey who smiled and patted him on the back. “Now don’t you worry about me, Brother David. You go take care of the girl. Looks like you might just be a granddaddy before the night’s out.”

  “I’ll pray for you on the way to Grundy,” David promised. He started down the porch steps toward the car.

  “Hold on there, Brother David. Don’t you think you’d better take the girl with you?” Mr. Harvey said and laughed.

  David stopped. “I guess that would be best, wouldn’t it?”

  He didn’t know who looked the most scared when he went back into the living room—Jocie or Tabitha. Or maybe himself if he’d had a mirror, he thought. Jocie looked at him and said, “The doctor said to bring her on in. Right away.”

  “All right.” David made an effort to keep his voice calm. “Why don’t you go get Tabitha’s suitcase, Jocie?”

  Then Tabitha stiffened. Her eyes got big and she held her breath.

  Aunt Love leaned over her. “Keep breathing, child. In and out. And keep thinking on the Lord who is able to help you.” She pulled out a verse of Scripture. “‘Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.’ Now breathe. Slowly, in and out.” Aunt Love looked around at David. “Maybe you’d better take a few deep breaths too, David.”

  Tabitha grabbed hold of Aunt Love’s hands. “You’ve got to go with me, Aunt Love. Please.”

  “It’s going to be all right, Tabitha. You’re going to be fine.”

  “But you have to go with me.” Tabitha sounded ready to cry. “You and Daddy both.”

  “Your sister can’t stay here by herself,” Aunt Love said kindly. “Not all night. And first babies sometimes take awhile.”

  David was hoping so. If not all night, then at least until they reached the hospital in Grundy. “Maybe we should just call Dr. Markum or maybe get the ambulance,” he said.

  “No, she needs to be at a hospital and the ambulance would take longer than you driving,” Aunt Love said. “Jocelyn will just have to go with us, but I don’t think they allow children on the maternity floor at the hospital.”

  “I’m fourteen now,” Jocie said as she came back with Tabitha’s suitcase.

  “That might be old enough,” Aunt Love said.

  “I’m sure it is. I think it’s thirteen,” Miss Sally spoke up. “But your Aunt Love is right about first babies, Jocie. It promises to be a long night. Why don’t you just come home with us instead? You can spend the night and go to church with us in the morning.”

  “Church,” David said. “Maybe I should try to find someone to fill in for me in case I can’t make it on time.”

  “Now don’t you be worrying a bit about us out at Mt. Pleasant,” Mr. Harvey said. “You make it if you can, and if you can’t, me or one of the other deacons can carry on. We’ll make out at the church just fine. You just take care of your girl.”

  So it was settled even though her father never really asked to see if that was what Jocie actually wanted to do. And the truth was, Jocie wasn’t sure which she’d rather do. She thought it might be exciting to be there when Stephanie Grace made her entrance into the world, but at the same time, when Tabitha got all stiff and started groaning, it was scary. It might be better to skip over being part of the laboring process and just wait and see the baby once she was here.

  Jocie carried Tabitha’s suitcase out and put it in the trunk while her father got Tabitha settled in the backseat. Jocie tried to think of something encouraging to say to her sister. Something like good luck or hope everything comes out okay, but neither of them sounded right. Jocie was leaning into the car to just say good-bye when Tabitha dug her fingers into Jocie’s arm and said, “Start saying your baby prayer.” Then she was going stiff again with her eyes wide open almost as if surprised by what was happening.

  Her father pushed Jocie back and shut the door. He gave Jocie some last-minute instructions about being good at Miss Sally’s house and praying and putting up the cake, but the words got all jumbled up and didn’t make much sense. Jocie smiled at him and promised to do it all. Then she stood on the porch and watched the car until it disappeared down the road.

  Miss Sally came over to stand beside her. “She’ll be fine, and the next time you see her she’ll have a sweet little baby.”

  “I’m a little more worried about Dad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so jumpy.”

  Miss Sally laughed. “That’s the way it is with men. The women have to do the laboring to get the babies here while the fathers fall apart at the seams.”

  “But Daddy’s not even the father,” Jocie said.

  “He’s the father of the mother. That might be even harder. But he’ll be okay. He’ll settle down and say a prayer and the Lord will get him through it.” Miss Sally put her arm around her. “Come on. Let’s get that cake put away and the dishes washed up so we can go on home. We have to go by the church for a minute, and Harvey has a cow he needs to check on before dark. More babies on the way.”

  “Do you think he’ll let me go with him? I love baby calves.”

  “I’m sure he’d be tickled to have some company. And we’ve got several little babies right now. Cute little things. I saw them frisking around together this morning out in the field back behind the house,” Miss Sally said. She gave Jocie a little push toward the door. “Now go gather up your church clothes and a nightie, and I’ll start on the dishes.”

  The sun was on the way down by the time they got to Miss Sally and Mr. Harvey’s house. Mr. Harvey got out of the car and picked up his walking stick. “We’d better not waste any time, Jocie girl. It’ll be too dark to see whether the little bugger has come or not if we don’t get a move on it.”

  “How do you know which direction to go in the field to find the cow?” Jocie asked as she fell in step beside him. She liked Mr. Harvey. He was easy to talk to and always had some story to tell that could make her smile. She had a special section in her journal for his stories of the old days. Her favorite was the one about how he’d gotten lost in the woods once when he was just a little boy, and his old coon dog, Jake, had tracked him down and led him home.

  “That’s easy enough,” Mr. Harvey said now. “They always just go straight to the hospital field.”

  “You don’t have a hospital field,” Jocie said, disbelief in her voice.

  “Nearest thing to it. A cow gets ready to calve, she just moves right over to that hill yonder and goes to it.” Mr. Harvey pointed across the way. “See, I think I can make out the old girl over there already.”

  Sure enough, the cow was picking at the dry grass with her new calf cur
led up beside her. She raised her head to moo softly, and the little calf clambered to its feet.

  “No need bothering her,” Mr. Harvey said, stopping a respectable distance from the cow. “We can see they’re both fine from here.”

  The calf took a couple of staggering steps and then moved with more assurance straight to the cow’s udder to suck. The cow reached around and touched the calf’s back with her nose.

  “I wish I had my camera,” Jocie said.

  “It is a peaceful picture. The way of nature. Birth and life and death, a continuing cycle.”

  Jocie looked from the calf to Mr. Harvey. “But we don’t like to talk about the death part.”

  “No, we don’t, but it’s part of God’s plan. Man is born and has his time on earth, but the day comes to us all when we must move on to our eternal reward.”

  “Aunt Love’s always quoting stuff out of Ecclesiastes about that. A time to be born. A time to die. You know, that chapter with all the opposites. She’s on me all the time with that one about a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. I’m not too good at the keeping silence part.”

  Mr. Harvey laughed. “Well, some of us have a harder time with the time for silence than others, I suppose. Come on, let’s head back to the house and see what Sally’s found us for supper.”

  “We should have brought some of my birthday cake.”

  “Oh, I’m sure Sally has something sweet in the cupboard for us. She generally does. We’ll have you a good birthday supper.”

  “It is still my birthday, isn’t it?”