by Mayne, Debby
Mary blushed and lowered her head. Jeremiah glanced over at Abe, who smiled at his wife. The love between them was powerful and evident. Jeremiah sent up a silent prayer that he’d find a life partner who was as perfect for him as Abe and Mary were for each other. He wanted that person to be Shelley, but only if she was the one the Lord had picked out for him.
After they finished eating, Jeremiah watched Abe jump into action helping Mary. His own father had never lifted a finger around the house, but he could see the advantages of pitching in. Mary clearly appreciated Abe’s help, and it gave them more opportunities to interact. Jeremiah filed that in his memory bank for future use. Then he helped as much as he knew how to.
After everything was put away, Mary said she was tired and needed to lie down for a little while. Abe asked him to join him for a walk.
Once he and Abe were far enough away from the house that Jeremiah didn’t have to worry about Mary hearing them, he asked, “Is Mary okay? I don’t remember her getting tired in the middle of the day before.”
Abe chuckled. “Ya, she’s doing just fine for a woman who is going to have a baby in about six months.”
Jeremiah’s eyebrows shot up. “She is? You and Mary are going to be parents soon?” His heart pounded as hard as it would have if he’d been the father. “That’s great! I’m happy for you!”
“We are happy, too.”
“Have you told Mary’s grandparents yet?”
“Neh, so if you don’t mind, I’d like for you to keep that bit of information to yourself. We’ve been asking them to come out to see us, but her grandfather hasn’t been able to get away from the restaurant since they hired that new girl, and the late-shift manager is on vacation.” Abe chuckled. “He’s worried that some of the people will hurt Jocelyn’s feelings about the way she looks and acts.”
“Jocelyn is okay,” Jeremiah said. “And I think she can handle anything people say to her.”
“That is what Mary told him, but he isn’t ready to leave her alone yet.”
“So you and Mary will have to go to town to tell them the news,” Jeremiah said.
“Ya. We are going there on Wednesday.”
Jeremiah looked over toward the land that would soon be his, stretched his arms out, and sucked in a deep breath. This was turning out to be a wonderful day—full of delicious food and the best news he’d heard in ages.
Although Jeremiah could have hung around all day staring at the property, he didn’t want to overstay his welcome, so he thanked Abe, asked him to let Mary know how much he appreciated all the fabulous food, and headed back to his parents’ house in town. As he drove, he thought about having his own land and even building a house to live in with his future wife and children. The image brought a smile to his face like nothing else ever could have—not even his hot-orange sports car that he’d had such a hard time giving up.
Mr. Penner had asked Shelley to stick around later on Wednesday, so he could visit with Mary and Abe when they stopped by his house. The woman who worked as the late-shift manager was visiting family in Ohio, and he didn’t want to leave Jocelyn in charge yet.
“Mind if I eat first before we get slammed?” Jocelyn asked.
“Sure, that’s fine. I’m not all that hungry anyway.” Shelley hadn’t seen Jeremiah in several days. She knew he’d gone over to the Glick farm and had lunch with Abe and Mary on Sunday, so she’d planned to chat with Mary about it. But Mary hadn’t come by the restaurant lately, which Shelley thought was odd.
Jocelyn leaned over and waved her hand in front of Shelley’s face. “You okay?”
Shelley startled. “Um … ya, I’m just fine.”
“You seem out of sorts lately. Anything you wanna talk about?”
“Neh. I have a lot on my mind lately.”
“I can imagine.” Jocelyn started walking toward the kitchen to get her meal. She stopped and turned back to Shelley. “If you ever want to unload, I’m a good listener.”
“Thanks, Jocelyn.”
Shelley doubted Jocelyn would ever understand anything about her life—from being Mennonite to having a mother who was falling deeper into depression and a brother who’d never be completely independent. Sometimes her life felt weighty and more than she could bear until she prayed and allowed the Lord to remind her through scripture that there was more to life than what she had on earth.
The dining room was slow, which allowed both Jocelyn and Shelley to eat a little something before the crowd arrived. Shelley had just served the customers in the corner booth when she glanced up and saw Jeremiah walking toward her. She tried to be nonchalant when she greeted him, but the instant she opened her mouth, merely a squeak came out.
“Mind if I sit over there?” he asked, pointing to one of the empty tables in the dining room.
“That is fine,” Shelley replied, her voice softer than usual. “I’ll be right with you as soon as I bring these orders back to the kitchen.”
As soon as she got out of Jeremiah’s line of vision, Shelley stopped, took a deep breath, and tried to regain her composure. After not seeing him for a while, she’d managed to put him out of her mind—at least, she thought she had.
“Want me to take over?” Jocelyn said as she breezed by.
“Whatever for?”
Jocelyn offered an understanding grin. “Atta girl. Keep that attitude, and you’ll be able to fool him into thinking you don’t care. Guys like girls who play hard to get.”
“I’m not—” Shelley stopped herself to keep from defending herself, which would make it seem as though she was playing a game with Jeremiah. Well she wasn’t, was she? She paused for a moment to think about it. No, she definitely wasn’t playing any sort of game. She pushed that thought from her mind and plowed ahead.
After she felt that she could hold a decent conversation with Jeremiah, Shelley went back out to take his order. He asked for a piece of pie and some milk.
“Is that all?” she asked.
“Yes, I had dinner. I just wanted to stop by and see you.”
Shelley allowed a smile to tweak her lips. “You don’t have to order dessert if you’re not hungry.”
“I can always make room for some of Mrs. Penner’s delicious pie.”
“Okay, I’ll bring it right out.” Shelley turned and started toward the kitchen when she heard the jingle at the door. She turned around and saw Mr. and Mrs. Penner walking in, followed by Abe and Mary—all of them wearing broader grins than she’d ever seen on any of them. She glanced over her shoulder and spotted Jeremiah with the same expression. They were all definitely on to something, and she felt left out.
As Shelley placed a slice of pie on the plate and poured Jeremiah a glass of milk, she mentally lectured herself to act normal. She squared her shoulders and headed out with Jeremiah’s order in both hands.
He was still grinning as she approached his table. Mary, Abe, and the Penners stood on the other side of the restaurant chatting with one of the customers.
“Here you go, Jeremiah. Will there be anything else?”
Jeremiah shook his head and gestured toward the other side of the booth.
“Join me?”
Shelley blinked. “I can’t do that. I’m working.”
“You don’t look too busy to me.”
She was about to argue with him, but Mr. Penner’s voice stopped her. “Go ahead and sit down, Shelley. You’ve worked hard all day. You’ve earned it.”
Not one to argue with the boss, Shelley sat down across from Jeremiah, awkwardly fidgeting with the edges of her apron. She glanced at him but quickly looked down at the table.
“I wanted to share the good news with you,” Jeremiah said.
Shelley braced herself. Often other people’s good news was her bad news, like when Peter had told her he was engaged to another woman, so it could have been anything, including courting someone else. The notion of that bothered her more than she wanted it to.
“Do you want to hear it or not?” he asked, his smile f
ading as a look of concern covered his face.
She looked up at him and nodded. “Yes, of course I’d like to hear your good news, Jeremiah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. You acted sort of strange there for a moment.” He put down his fork, rubbed his hands together, cast a brief glance over toward the Penners, and then faced her again. “I am about to be a landowner.”
“A landowner?”
He nodded. “Abe and I have worked out a deal for me to purchase some of the land he isn’t farming. I’ll continue to work for him until we get everything in place.”
“That’s nice. I mean, you’ll be able to grow crops, right?”
“Yes, and I’ll continue to work closely with Abe.”
“I’m very happy for you.”
Shelley started to stand, but Jeremiah placed his hand on her wrist and tilted his head toward the table. “Please stay. I’m happy, and I want to tell you all about it.”
Since Mr. Penner had ordered her to sit down, she decided to remain and listen to Jeremiah’s chatter about what he wanted to do with the farmland. She couldn’t help but get caught up in his excitement.
“I’ll start out with more citrus, and since Abe has oranges and grapefruit, I’m planting lemon and lime trees. It’ll take a few years before they produce enough, so I’ll add tomatoes, peppers, and whatever else I can get to grow.”
“Do you know how to do all that?” Shelley asked. “After all, you haven’t been working on the farm all that long.”
“I know the basics, and I’m still learning. But like I said, I’ll work closely with Abe. He told me about a county extension course that I can take to learn some of the science of farming.”
Jeremiah had come a long way in a very short time. Shelley hoped he was as sincere as he sounded.
“And as soon as I can, I plan to start building a house on the land.”
She was uncomfortable as she felt his gaze lingering on her. “A house is nice.”
“I want a house big enough for a family.”
Shelley’s heart twitched. “Yes, of course.”
“Shelley? Look at me.”
She slowly widened her eyes to look directly at Jeremiah, but she didn’t know what to say. He didn’t speak either. Their gazes locked for several seconds before Mr. Penner joined them.
“So, Shelley,” the older man said. “What do you think about Jeremiah having his own farm?”
She welcomed the diversion. “I think it’s wonderful. He’ll be a very good farmer—I’m sure.”
Mr. Penner chuckled. “I obviously interrupted at the wrong time. I’ll leave now.”
Shelley jumped up from the table. “Oh no. I need to go help prepare the dining room for tomorrow.”
Mr. Penner glanced over his shoulder. “Ya, that’s a good idea.” He leaned toward Shelley and lowered his voice. “Jocelyn is still a bit slow, but she seems to be working out just fine. Now that you’ve worked with her for a while, how do you like her?”
Shelley considered how friendly Jocelyn had been with her and how much the customers seemed to like her. “I like her.”
“Good. She’s not much past twenty, and she still has a lot to learn.” Mr. Penner straightened up and tugged at his suspenders. “My decision to hire her wasn’t a bad one like some people thought it might be.”
As Shelley took off toward the kitchen to get a couple of rags and cleaner for the tables, she heard Mr. Penner and Jeremiah exchange a few more comments. When she heard the jingle at the front door, she thought they’d all left. However, she came back out and spotted Jeremiah still sitting at the booth.
“I thought you left,” she said as she wiped his table clean.
“No, I’m sticking around to take you home after you close the restaurant.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she argued. “I can walk home.”
“I know I don’t need to do that, but I want to. It’s important to me.”
Shelley accepted the fact that Jeremiah wouldn’t take no for an answer, so she finished cleaning up as quickly as she could. Jocelyn had gotten better about knowing what to do, so Shelley didn’t have to give her as much instruction.
She removed her apron, placed all the rags and towels in the laundry bin, and walked out to the dining room. Jeremiah wasn’t there.
“Looks like you got ditched,” Jocelyn said.
“That’s fine. I like walking home. It gives me time to think.”
Jocelyn leaned back, narrowed her eyes, and shook her head. “If I didn’t know you, I’d think you were lying through your teeth.”
“Lying through my teeth?”
“Yeah, that’s like lying, only worse.”
Shelley couldn’t imagine a lie worse than a regular lie, and she didn’t see how doing it through her teeth would change it. “I am not lying.”
“I know you’re not. You’re the real deal.” Jocelyn winked and playfully laughed. “I need to get outside since my car is in the shop. My ride will be here any minute.”
“Would you like me to wait with you?” Shelley asked.
“No, you go on ahead. I’ll be just fine.”
The second they stepped outside, Shelley spotted Jeremiah standing over by his car talking to one of his old friends. She felt awkward and shy, and she wasn’t about to go up to him while he was with that stranger.
She hesitated for a split second and then stepped down off the curb, being careful not to turn around and look at Jeremiah. She’d gone about ten feet when she heard Jeremiah call out to her. She stopped and turned around.
“Hey, Shelley, hold on a sec. Remember? I’m taking you home.”
“I can walk.”
“No, I’m taking you home.” He said something to his friend that she couldn’t hear and then jogged over to her. “That’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. In fact, he’s the one who advised me to return to my roots.”
“I thought you did that of your own accord.”
“I did.” Jeremiah waved to the man. “But Kyle was the first person I told I wasn’t happy in that lifestyle.”
“Did he take offense?”
“No, I don’t think so. He said he thought people would accept me if they were sure I was sincere.”
He opened the passenger door, and she got in. Shelley stared after Jeremiah’s friend until he took off in his truck.
After Jeremiah got into the driver’s seat, Shelley asked, “What was your friend Kyle doing over here in Pinecraft?”
“He was making a delivery to one of the businesses.”
As they waited at a traffic light, Shelley decided to get Jeremiah talking about the farm, since that seemed to make him so happy. “When will you actually have your own land?”
“Abe is working something up, so we can eventually move the property to my name. Even before that, I’ll work it like it belongs to me. Once I have it paid off from the money I get from the crops, it will be all mine.” He cleared his throat. “Well, mine and my family’s.”
“How will you do that while still working for Abe?”
Jeremiah rubbed the back of his neck. “It’ll be a lot of hard work, but like Abe said, I can do it this way, wait until I have enough money saved, or never have my own land.”
“What made Abe think you’d even want to do this?”
“We used to talk about it when we were kids. Even though he’s a year younger, I always looked up to him because he was the smartest and most focused kid I ever knew.”
“I guess I never really paid that much attention to Abe,” Shelley said. “I was too busy at home.”
Jeremiah squinted as he pointed toward Shelley’s house. “Isn’t that your brother out on the front lawn?”
Shelley turned and looked. “Yes, it’s William. What is he doing?”
“I can’t tell. He has his face on his knees. Looks like he might be sick or something.”
As soon as Jeremiah pulled up in front of Shelley’s house and stopped the car, Shelley hopped out and ra
n over to her brother. Jeremiah remained in the car for a couple of minutes, but William wasn’t budging. He turned off the engine, got out of the car, and walked over toward Shelley and William.
“Need any help?”
Shelley was confused. “He’s sobbing, but he won’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“Let me see what I can do.” Jeremiah drew closer and squatted down beside William. “Hey, buddy, what’s the matter?”
William’s sobbing grew softer, but he still didn’t look up. Shelley felt helpless and had no idea what she should do.
Jeremiah pointed toward the house. “Maybe you can go inside and see if something is going on in there.”
“I don’t want to leave William alone.”
“You’re not,” Jeremiah reminded her. “I’m right here. I won’t leave until I know everything is okay.”
Shelley went through the motions of walking into the house, calling out her mother’s name, and getting no answer. This had happened before, but in the past William had been either in his room or out in the backyard.
Her parents’ bedroom door was closed, so she knocked. There was no answer. She slowly opened the door and saw the outline of her mother under the blanket on the bed.
“Mother, are you not feeling well?”
Her mother made a muffled sound and moved a leg. Shelley walked a little closer until she could touch her mother.
“What’s going on, Mother?”
Her mother moaned and then threw the blanket away from her face. “Go away. I’m not feeling well.”
“Have you spoken to William?”
“Neh. He opened the door, but I told him I needed to rest.”
“Where’s Father?”
“He hasn’t come home from work yet.” Her mother pulled the blanket back over her head. “Why don’t you cook something for you and William?”
“All right.” Shelley tiptoed out of the bedroom and went back out to the front yard. Her mother had seemed sad for years, but lately she’d gotten worse, and nothing Shelley did helped.
When she joined Jeremiah and William outside, they were sitting on the grass talking. Jeremiah glanced up and motioned her over. “William was just telling me that your mother is very sick. He’s afraid she’s going to die like your grandmother did when she wasn’t able to get out of bed.”