Home to Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  “How does a dog do that?” Rose Anna asked her, intrigued.

  “The dog can sense when a person starts to experience anxiety or panic and helps distract them, makes them feel more secure. I think one could help Brooke.”

  “I’ve heard something about this,” Kate said as she picked up her cup of coffee.

  “What kind of dogs do they use?”

  “Mostly German shepherds, some Labrador retrievers and golden retrievers, but sometimes smaller dogs are used. They’ll evaluate what’s best for Brooke and what’s available.”

  “Are they expensive?”

  Jenny shook her head. “The organization covers the cost. They get donations from people.”

  “I’ll have a talk with Malcolm, see if I can take Brooke to him if he needs to see her. As I’ve told you, Pearl tries to keep men away from the shelter since the women and children have been traumatized by them.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Their food came, and the talk turned to talk about jobs and family and children. And in Jenny’s case, grandchildren.

  Rose Anna fell silent She felt . . . insignificant compared to these two accomplished women who had such dynamic jobs. Husbands. Children.

  She frowned. She’d been raised to avoid envy, yet here she sat doing that very thing. And Kate and Jenny were both older than she was. It wasn’t like they were her age and had done all that they had.

  “Rose Anna? Something wrong with your food?”

  She looked up at Kate. “No, why?”

  “You’re frowning.”

  She blushed. “I was just thinking of something.”

  Kate’s cell phone rang. She excused herself to answer it, and when she came back she looked harried. “I have to go by the station. Rose Anna, I hate to impose on you. Would you be able to take the box to the shop for me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Great. Thanks.” She pulled bills from her purse and laid them on the table, scooped up the uneaten half of her sandwich, and hurried away.

  “I hope Brooke can get help,” Rose Anna said as they resumed eating. “You know what she said to me one day? She told me she hoped she wouldn’t have to stay at the shelter long. Her home had become a prison before she had to leave it. She said she didn’t want to feel she’d gone from one prison to another.”

  “ ‘Stone walls do not a prison make / Nor iron bars a cage.’ ”

  “What?”

  “Sorry. Thinking out loud, remembering something from my college days. I was an English major. It’s from ‘To Althea from Prison,’ a poem by a seventeenth-century man named Richard Lovelace. Reading the poem helped me a lot when I was recovering from my injuries and felt I was trapped in my wheelchair and would never walk again.”

  She set her fork down. “Brooke has a tough road ahead, but there are people to help her starting with Pearl, you, Kate, and Malcolm.”

  “I can’t help her. All I do is teach a quilting class.”

  “Brooke said you talked to her that day she climbed under the sewing table and then you got Kate. And you’ve treated her like a normal person since then, talked with her, really listened to her. It means a lot to her.”

  She looked up as their server approached. “What do you have for dessert?”

  Rose Anna thought about what Jenny said on the way to the shop. She’d never been told she was a good listener. As a matter of fact, her schweschders often teased her about talking too much, and it was true that she loved to talk.

  She wondered if she’d listened enough to John . . .

  When she walked into the Sewn in Hope Shops she was surprised to see Naomi, one of Leah’s grossdochders, behind the counter.

  “Where’s Carrie?”

  “She had a doctor’s appointment, so I’m filling in.” She glanced at the wall clock. “She’s running a little late. Here, put that box down on the counter, and let’s see what you’ve brought.”

  They spent the next few minutes pulling out crafts with Naomi exclaiming over them.

  “I was just so pleased with Grossmudder when she came up with the idea to open this shop to help the ladies at the shelter,” she said. “We all know that domestic abuse isn’t just an Englisch problem. I was lucky that I saw I was engaged to a man who was an abuser,” she told Rose Anna quietly.

  Shocked, Rose Anna stared at her. “He hurt you?”

  “Not with his hands. He never hit me. But I saw how controlling he was, how he could make me feel . . . less than myself. Being around Nick when he drove Grossmudder and me to Pinecraft the winter she hurt her ankle gave me a chance to see how a man should treat a woman.”

  A kind came running into the shop through the entranceway from the adjoining Stitches in Time shop. She was the image of Naomi. “Mamm! Is it time yet? You said we were going to go to Rachel Ann’s for a gingerbread cookie. Is it time?”

  Naomi gave her youngest dochder a fond smile. “Not yet. Lizzie. We’ll go as soon as Carrie gets back.”

  “But I’m hungerich,” she said, looking at her mudder imploringly.

  “Those are my grossdaadi’s favorites,” Rose Anna said. “Mamm and I haven’t made them in a long time.”

  She glanced at the wall clock, then at Naomi. “I could take her and pick some cookies up for my grossdaadi. I like to get him a treat now and then.”

  “Are you schur?”

  “Of course.”

  Naomi reached beneath the counter and handed Lizzie a jacket. “One cookie, Lizzie. No asking Rose Anna for more, understand?”

  Lizzie nodded and looked very serious. She slipped her hand into Rose Anna’s and beamed up at her. “Can we go now?”

  Rose Anna laughed. Lizzie reminded her of herself as a kind. Her schweschders always said she had a knack for getting her own way. “Anything we can bring you, Naomi?”

  “I wouldn’t turn down a snickerdoodle.” She pulled a ten dollar bill out of her pocket and handed it to her dochder. “Why don’t you get a dozen mixed cookies and we’ll share them with Grossmudder and your aentis?”

  “We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Rose Anna told her, and they walked out of the shop.

  ***

  John didn’t often treat himself to a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, but today had been a really good day.

  He had his paycheck in his pocket and work lined up for the next month. And his job had been two doors down from the shop, so he figured he would give himself a treat. Coffee and maybe a piece of pie.

  A pretty Amish woman was walking toward him. As she got closer, he realized it was Rose Anna.

  She appeared to recognize him at the same time he recognized her. A little girl he knew as one of Leah’s great-granddaughters held her hand and skipped beside her. He held the door open for them, and Rose Anna smiled as she preceded him inside.

  “I didn’t expect to see you in town,” she said as they took their place in line.

  “Working a job and decided to treat myself to coffee.”

  “I dropped off some things after the quilting class,” Rose Anna told him.

  “We get to buy some cookies,” Lizzie informed him. She held out the money clutched in her fist. “I’m going to buy a gingerbread man.”

  Rachel Ann came out of the back carrying a tray of fresh baked cookies. She greeted them, and her gaze fell on Lizzie. “There’s my best customer!”

  “My mamm said Rose Anna could bring me to get a gingerbread cookie since she has to stay at the shop,” Lizzie told her. “And I get to pick out a dozen mixed cookies.”

  “Wunderbaar! Let me set this down, and I’ll box up your cookies myself.” She turned to her clerk. “Will you put these out for display?”

  John watched Lizzie as she moved down the line of glass display cases. She stood with her hands behind her back and leaned closely to study each of the baked selections.

  Rachel Ann presented the box of cookies to Lizzie, accepted her money, made change, and invited her to come again.

  “I’ll be coming to the shop
with my mudder next week,” Lizzie said. “I’ll come see you again then.”

  John happened to glance at Rose Anna just then and caught her smiling at the little girl. Then Rachel Ann was asking Rose Anna what she wanted, and she ordered a dozen gingerbread men to take home.

  “Aren’t you getting any coffee?” he asked when she accepted the box and turned to leave.

  She shook her head. “I just had lunch with Jenny Bontrager. I offered to bring Lizzie here since Naomi was busy.”

  “Can I have my cookie now?” Lizzie asked.

  “May I.”

  “May I?”

  “Schur.”

  “Aren’t we going to sit at a table like when Mamm brings me?”

  Rose Anna hesitated, then nodded. “We can’t stay long. I don’t want your mudder to worry we got lost.”

  Lizzie laughed. “We won’t get lost. I know how many steps back to the shop.”

  “I bet you do,” Rose Anna murmured.

  They walked over to a table by the window and sat down.

  “John? What will you have today?”

  “Hmm? Oh, coffee and a slice of pumpkin pie.”

  “Coming right up. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll bring it out to you?”

  He glanced around the shop. It was always a popular place, and today all the tables were filled.

  “John! Come sit with us!” Lizzie called.

  He walked over and took a seat. “Thank you, Lizzie.”

  “I’m thirsty, Rose Anna. May I have a carton of milk? I still have money left from Mamm.”

  Rose Anna plucked a paper napkin from the holder on the table and wiped gingerbread crumbs from the little girl’s mouth. “ ‘If you give a mouse a cookie.’ ”

  Lizzie laughed. “I have that book!”

  “I know. I saw it at the shop once. Ya, you may have milk.”

  “Here,” John said, handing her two dollar bills. “Use this.”

  “Danki, John.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t bite,” Rose Anna told John as they watched Lizzie walk over to the counter.

  “I’m not afraid you will.”

  She fixed him with a steady gaze. “Really? You looked like you’d rather sit anywhere but here.”

  “Guess I’m still finding it hard to believe we have a truce.”

  “The only snowballs around here are in the display case,” she pointed out.

  “Snowballs?” Rachel Ann set John’s coffee and pie on the table before him. “Did either of you want a snowball cookie?”

  Startled, he glanced up. “Uh, not me, thanks, Rachel Ann.”

  “Nee, danki,” Rose Anna told her. “We were just . . . discussing the bad winter we had.”

  Lizzie returned with her carton of milk. John watched Rose Anna help her with opening the carton and inserting a straw. She was good with children. He wondered how long it would be before she married and had them. He knew how much she wanted that. She just didn’t understand he couldn’t give her those things.

  “Isn’t the pie gut?” she asked quietly.

  “Hmm? No, it’s fine.” He didn’t realize that he’d stopped eating while he watched her. To prove it he finished the pie in a few big bites and sipped his coffee.

  A sucking noise drew her attention away from him. Lizzie grinned showing two missing front teeth. “All gone.”

  She gathered the carton and the little paper plate her gingerbread man had been served on, took them to the nearby trash bin, and dumped them. Then she looped the handles of the bag that held the box of cookies and looked expectantly at Rose Anna. “I’m ready to go. Unless I can have another cookie.”

  Rose Anna stood. “You remember what your mudder said.”

  Lizzie sighed. “Ya.” She turned to John. “Danki for the milk.”

  He smiled at her. Such a polite little girl. “You’re welcome.” His gaze lifted to Rose Anna. “Good to see you again.”

  She nodded. “You, too.”

  John sat there watching them leave the shop and walk past the window. Rose Anna glanced in as they passed, and their gazes locked. Then Lizzie must have said something for she turned her attention to her.

  The shop bustled with people all around him, but strangely John felt lonely. He finished his coffee, disposed of his trash in the bin and left, grateful that he turned in the opposite direction from Rose Anna and Lizzie so he didn’t have to see them again.

  ***

  “Hope you weren’t worried,” Rose Anna told Naomi when they walked into Sewn in Hope a few minutes later.

  “Nee. I figured Lizzie talked you into eating her gingerbread man at the coffee shop. She loves going there on the days she comes to work with me.”

  She glanced at the clock on the wall and frowned. “I am getting worried about Carrie, though. I hope nothing’s wrong. She didn’t think she’d be long.” She bit her lip. “I have a quilting class to teach in a half hour, but I suppose Leah or one of my schweschders could teach the class if I have to stay here.”

  “I can help if you need me,” Rose Anna found herself offering impulsively. “I don’t have to rush home.”

  Naomi’s frown cleared. “That would be wunderbaar.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve loved helping with the quilting classes at the shelter.” She gestured at the shop. “And it’s the least I can do after Leah and all of you have done so much for the women there. This shop has given them a purpose, a way to make some money to help themselves.” She paused. “Hope.”

  “We’re so happy at how people are responding to it,” Naomi told her. “This is the first lull since I came over today.”

  “We got the cookies,” Lizzie told her mudder. “Here’s your change. I got milk, but John gave me the money for it.”

  “John?”

  “John Stoltzfus.” His name came out with a little lisp because of her missing front teeth.

  “You didn’t ask him for it did you?”

  Lizzie shook her head. “Promise.”

  “He offered,” Rose Anna told Naomi.

  “Lizzie, go put the cookies on the table in the back room next door. And don’t help yourself to any.”

  Naomi waited until Lizzie raced off through the entranceway to Stitches in Time then turned to Rose Anna. “So how is John? I haven’t seen him since he helped Peter and Sam some with renovating this shop.”

  “He’s fine.”

  “Fine? That’s all you can say?”

  She shrugged. “We didn’t talk much.”

  “Probably not with Miss Chatterbox along.” She tilted her head and studied Rose Anna until she wanted to fidget. “I always thought the two of you would end up together.”

  The shop door opened, and the bell atop it jingled.

  Naomi turned her attention to the customer who’d entered. “Welcome.”

  “Saved by the bell,” Rose Anna murmured.

  She glanced over at Stitches in Time. How could she be so close and not see if they had any new fabric? She hurried over knowing she was using it as an excuse to avoid Naomi’s curiosity about John.

  Her emotions were swirling inside her. She hadn’t expected to see him in town and was more surprised than she’d expected.

  So surprised, in fact, that she hadn’t even been able to figure out how to use the opportunity to further her plan. And even more than the surprise had been seeing his reaction to her with Lizzie. It had been obvious in the first seconds after he’d spotted her approaching the coffee shop even though he’d quickly schooled his expression.

  Why had he been thrown off by seeing her with the kind? The Amish believed in helping each other, and the women were always minding each other’s kinner when needed.

  And why had he seemed to watch her so intently as she helped Lizzie while they sat at the table? Was it possible—nee, it wasn’t possible that he thought about having kinner of his own. The Amish grapevine carried news faster than the Englisch Internet. Some said he was enjoying his single life.

  She knew he was gut with ki
nner. She’d seen how he was with his nephew Mark. And Lizzie was an especially charming kind.

  It was one of the reasons she wanted him to be her mann—after all, being a good dat was an important quality for a mann. She wanted kinner, lots of them.

  She walked into Stitches in Time and felt at home like she always did. She’d been coming here since she was younger than Lizzie. Her mudder had given her a shopping basket and let her choose fabric for her first quilt.

  Leah had designed the shop to look like a room in an Amish home. The weather might still be cool and dismal, but inside, a fire crackled merrily in the little fireplace, and it was cozy and warm. Coffee and the cookies Lizzie had chosen were set out for all to enjoy. Baskets of scissors and sewing supplies were arranged on a big wooden table for classes in quilting and knitting that were offered several times a week.

  Bolts of colorful fabric were set on tables arranged around the room with one wall filled with cubbies overflowing with yarn in every color and texture. Shelves held all kinds of kits for shoppers to take home and make sewing, quilting, and knitting projects.

  Mary Katherine, Leah’s oldest grossdochder, sat at her loom weaving something in spring colors. She glanced up and waved, so Rose Anna walked over.

  “That’s lovely,” she said, watching as she wove the warp through the pink, lavender, and robin’s egg blue fibers.

  “I’m enjoying working with these colors,” Mary Katherine said. “I’m hoping we’ll have a nice spring. We’re setting up the display window with things to make for spring and summer.”

  “Spring is always too short in Lancaster County. We go from a long winter to a few weeks of spring, and then suddenly it’s a long, hot summer.”

  “I agree.”

  Leah walked over. Well, she seemed to bounce over, thought Rose Anna. She didn’t know anyone with the energy Leah had.

  “Gut to see you,” she told Rose Anna. “We have some new fabric.”

  “You get new fabric too often for my budget,” Rose Anna said with a groan. But she walked over to check it out. Several of the bolts of fabrics were bright and cheerful spring and summer colors that would work well for some baby quilts. She carried them over to the cutting table where Leah cheerfully cut the required lengths.

  Naomi appeared in the entranceway between the two shops. “Carrie just called. She’s not going to make it back in time. Are you schur you wouldn’t mind teaching the lesson?”