Home to Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  “But I just got here.”

  “I’m not staying.”

  “Oh, you’re a party poop. Usually Amish guys like to cut loose when they get away from home.” She frowned. “Come to think of it, you’ve never been much fun. Come on, loosen up.” She stood on tiptoes to kiss him and wobbled so that she had to grab at the counter to steady herself.

  He stared at her. Why had he thought he’d like to see her? He suddenly had an image of Rose Anna. Determinedly he shook it away.

  “I’m going. Do you want a ride or not?”

  “Not. I can get a ride easy.” She turned her back on him and refilled her cup.

  John grabbed his jacket and started out. He didn’t see Simon anywhere or he would have thanked him for inviting him.

  Outside the air was cold but welcome. The apartment had been stuffy with so many people jammed in the small space and some of them smoking who knew what.

  He got into his truck and rolled down the window to let in some fresh air. Just as he stuck his key in the ignition, he saw two police cruisers pull into the lot. He waited, letting the engine warm, curious to see where the officers—one male, one female—were headed.

  They went straight up to Adam’s apartment, and one of them knocked on the door. Someone opened it, and loud music poured out, then stopped abruptly.

  John couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief that he’d left when he did. The officers didn’t go inside, but there was an extended conversation going on with whoever answered the door. He presumed it was Adam. One of the officers stepped aside as several people left. A few minutes later the officers returned to their car.

  He pulled out and headed home.

  A block later, he caught a glimpse of flashing lights in his rearview mirror. With a sinking heart, he pulled over and shut off the engine.

  Officer Kate appeared at his window. Relieved, he smiled and greeted her. She took the driver’s license and registration from him then to his utter shock told him to get out.

  “I wasn’t speeding.”

  “I know. You were just at the party?”

  He nodded. “I just had one beer. And not even the whole can,” he said, remembering how Becky had helped herself to it.

  “Get out of the vehicle, please.”

  And there, beside the road he’d traveled all his life, he learned what a Breathalyzer test was and how humiliating it was to follow the directions to show he wasn’t driving under the influence.

  ***

  Something seemed different when Rose Anna walked into the quilting classroom early one morning.

  Two women were already sewing at the front of the classroom.

  Lannie stood by the table at the rear of the room where Brooke sat sewing. She sucked at her thumb and stared wide-eyed, then turned to Rose Anna.

  She pulled her thumb from her mouth. “Doggie!”

  Doggie? Had she learned a new word? The kind’s mudder had confided she’d been slow to talk.

  Then the head of a German shepherd emerged from behind the table. Rose Anna jumped.

  “King. Sit.” Brooke looked up and gave her a tentative smile. “Rose Anna, meet my new buddy. Kate had me talk to her husband, and he hooked me up with an organization that pairs veterans who have PTSD with service dogs. It’s a new experience having a dog like this.”

  “I thought such dogs were only for blind people.” Rose Anna set her tote bag on a nearby table.

  “So did I.”

  Rose Anna couldn’t help thinking how magnificent he was. He had big, expressive brown eyes and the typical Shepherd markings. His tongue lolled as he watched her.

  “He’s supposed to help me deal with my anxiety. We’re only here until noon, and then we’re being picked up to go for more training.”

  She frowned and glanced nervously at the window. “I dunno. I think I might go back to my room and wait there.”

  Rose Anna watched, concerned, as Brooke’s breathing became jerky and perspiration beaded her forehead. She clutched her fabric with shaking hands.

  Oh my, Rose Anna thought, her heart sinking. Brooke was having an anxiety attack like she’d done the first week she’d attended class.

  And then before she could say anything King moved closer, put one of his paws on Brooke’s knee, and whined. They gazed at each other, and then Brooke began petting his head. Long moments passed. Her breathing eased as she focused on the dog, and she seemed to become calmer. She hugged the dog, eased back, and began to sew again.

  Relieved, Rose Anna took her things to the front of the room.

  Kate came in a few minutes later. Rose Anna quietly told her what had happened.

  “Looks like it’s going pretty well,” Kate said.

  She walked over to the bin where the week’s quilt blocks were stored. As women filtered into the room, she and Rose Anna greeted them and passed the blocks out.

  Soon the room was a hive of activity with women talking cheerfully as they sewed. Some worked on their quilt blocks. Others sewed projects for the consignment shop. Children worked on their own crafts or colored at the little table in the corner.

  Rose Anna sighed. This was her second favorite place in her world. The first, of course, was the sewing room at home.

  “Everything okay?” Kate asked her.

  “Fine, why?”

  “You sighed.”

  “It was a happy sigh. Like a happy cry. I am so glad my sisters got me to come here.”

  Kate grinned. “Me, too.” She covered a yawn. “Sorry, I had to work some overtime last night.” She paused. “You might have heard something about it.”

  Rose Anna frowned. “No, why? Did something bad happen near my area?”

  “No. It’s just you know how word gets around in a small town about what the police do.”

  “Didn’t hear about anything.” She watched Kate yawn again. “You should have slept in this morning. I could have taught the class.”

  “And miss this? No way.” She stood. “I think I’ll go downstairs and get some coffee from Pearl. You want some?”

  “No, thanks.”

  That was odd, Rose Anna thought. What was Kate saying—or not saying? She hadn’t heard of anything happening.

  She shrugged and decided to walk around the room again.

  Edna came rushing in. “Sorry I’m late. But I got the best news. I got a job! I start Monday!”

  She was instantly surrounded by the other women who wanted to hug her and hear all the details. Edna had been at the shelter for some time, and she’d had trouble finding a job.

  “Just think. I can move into my own place in a month or two.” She turned to Rose Anna. “Where’s Kate? I wanted to tell her. She let me know she heard about an opening and had a friend give me a ride to the interview.”

  “She’ll be back in a minute. She just went for a cup of coffee.”

  Edna glanced around the room. “It’s strange, but I’m going to miss this place. It’s been my home. And the classes. I’m going to miss them so much.” She teared up, pulled a tissue from her pocket, and wiped her eyes.

  Kate walked in and when she saw Edna crying hurried forward. “Oh no, you didn’t get the job?”

  “I got the job!”

  “Happy tears,” Rose Anna told her with a grin. “She’s crying happy tears.” She felt her own eyes tear up as Kate embraced Edna.

  “I have a friend who teaches,” Rose Anna told Kate when everyone settled back into sewing and Edna went to tell Pearl the good news. “She told me she always feels a mix of emotions when her students graduate. She’s happy for them but sad to see them go. Now I know how she feels.”

  Kate nodded, blinking hard as she sipped her coffee.

  “It’s important what you and Pearl do here,” she told Kate.

  “You, too,” Kate said. “And I couldn’t have started the classes without Lavina, and later, Mary Elizabeth and you.”

  “You’d have done it all on your own. You’re a strong woman.” She tilted her head and stud
ied Kate.

  “I doubt that.”

  “Doggie! I want hug doggie!” Lannie cried.

  “He’s a working dog, sweetie,” her mother told her. “We don’t pet them when they’re helping their owner.”

  But the request was moot—they watched as Brooke left the room, King at her side. It was eleven a.m., Rose Anna noted.

  “She stayed longer than usual,” Kate noted quietly. “Maybe King is going to help her.” She sighed. “It’s been a good morning. A good morning indeed.” She turned to Rose Anna. “I’m glad I came. I can go home and sleep. I don’t work again until Saturday.”

  Saturday. Rose Anna remembered she’d be seeing John at Mary Elizabeth and Sam’s house on Saturday.

  She nodded. “Yes, a very good morning,” she agreed and picked up her quilt to sew.

  9

  Saturday had finally come.

  Rose Anna woke just as weak dawn light crept into her bedroom window. John would be at Mary Elizabeth and Sam’s house today. It was perfect timing—he’d be there for several hours and witness his bruders and their fraas. Surely all that marital bliss would influence him to think about going down that path with her.

  Wouldn’t it?

  She lay in bed for a few minutes and enjoyed a little fantasy of what that would be like.

  And woke an hour later. Shocked at what she’d done, she jumped from bed and dressed quickly.

  Her mudder looked up in surprise when she clattered down the stairs and rushed into the kitchen. “In a hurry?”

  “I overslept.”

  Linda raised her eyebrows. “You’re not often up this early.”

  She walked over to the stove and poured herself a cup of coffee. “I promised Mary Elizabeth I’d help her today.”

  “I know. I’m going, remember? I would have gotten you up if you didn’t come down soon.”

  She took a sip of coffee and winced when she burned her tongue.

  “Slow down. We’ll get there soon enough.” Linda rose and pulled a tray from the oven. She transferred pancakes from it to a plate and set it before Rose Anna.

  “Where’s Daed?” She asked as she spread butter over her pancakes then doused them with maple syrup.

  “He ate already and went out in the barn.” She glanced at the kitchen window. “Looks like we’ll have a pretty day. It’s warm-ing up.”

  The back door opened and her dat came in. He strolled over to her mudder and handed her a clutch of wild violets. “Found these in the yard.”

  Rose Anna watched them exchange a tender look. She couldn’t help wondering if John would be more in favor of marriage if he’d experienced such scenes with his parents. She knew from talking to him and Lavina and Mary Elizabeth how harsh Amos Stoltzfus had been with their mudder as well as with his sohns. It was so sad. Amos had changed after he had the cancer and went into remission, but he and John still couldn’t seem to get along the way his bruders did with their dat.

  “Rose Anna? Something wrong with the pancakes?”

  “Hmm?” She dragged herself back from depressing thoughts. “Nee. They’re gut like always. I was just thinking about something.”

  Linda rose to find a little vase for the violets. “I packed some food if you want to put it in the buggy, Jacob.”

  “Schur.” He picked up the wicker basket and headed out again.

  Her mudder turned to her. “I put the brownies you baked last night in the basket. I’m so surprised your dat didn’t find them.”

  Rose Anna finished the pancakes quickly and walked over to the kitchen window. She laughed and shook her head. “He’s out there poking through the basket.”

  Linda marched over to the door, opened it, and yelled her mann’s name. When she shut the door and turned back she was chuckling. “He almost dropped the basket.”

  She snatched up her jacket and purse. “Ready, Mamm?”

  “I’m beginning to wonder why you’re so eager to go clean and paint.”

  “It’s fun seeing how they’re bringing the old farmhouse back to life, isn’t it?” Rose Anna responded pertly.

  “If you think I don’t know when you’re up to something, you have another think coming,” her mudder murmured as they drew on their coats and picked up their purses.

  A few minutes later Jacob pulled the buggy into the drive of Mary Elizabeth and Sam’s farmhouse. John’s red pickup was parked by the barn.

  Linda slanted a knowing look at Rose Anna. “Well, well, look who’s here.”

  Rose Anna gave her mudder her most innocent look.

  She could tell by her expression that she hadn’t fooled her.

  Everyone was gathered in the kitchen enjoying coffee and cinnamon rolls. Standing together she thought how alike the bruders looked.

  Her gaze immediately landed on John—far and away the handsomest of the three to her—as he picked up a hand-sized roll. He looked up and nodded at her as he bit into the roll.

  “I’m so glad you could come!” Mary Elizabeth greeted them.

  “Where are Lavina and Mark?” Linda asked as she shed her coat.

  “She’ll be here soon,” David assured her. “Mark was fussy last night, so he’s having a nap.”

  Mary Elizabeth took her coat and held out a hand for Rose Anna’s. “Have some coffee and be sure to try Waneta’s rolls. They just came out of the oven.” She went to put the coats in another room.

  Rose Anna had just eaten breakfast, but she walked over and poured herself a cup of coffee so that she could get closer to John.

  “Glad you could come to help today,” she told him as she added cream to her cup.

  He shrugged. “I try to help where I can.”

  “He helps himself to any food he can find for free,” Sam teased, elbowing him so he could get closer to the platter of rolls on the table. “Have you figured out how to cook anything other than ramen noodles?”

  “I’ve always known how to cook more than ramen noodles,” John said defensively. “And tell me what you know how to cook. I’d say you’re a lucky man to have gotten married to such a good cook as Mary Elizabeth.”

  David chuckled. “Got you there, Sam.”

  John turned to his older brother. “And you got lucky as well.”

  Linda gave Rose Anna a knowing look.

  John licked icing from his fingers. “And it sure doesn’t hurt that Mom is living in the dawdi haus at your farm and bakes rolls such as these, does it?”

  She sipped her coffee thoughtfully. So was John saying that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach? She’d make sure some of the double fudge brownies she’d baked and brought today made their way home with him when he left.

  Providing her dat hadn’t sneaked too many of them before her mudder had caught him rifling through the wicker basket.

  The men finished their coffee and rolls and headed upstairs. Mary Elizabeth had said that they’d be sanding the floors in two upstairs bedrooms. The women would be scrubbing walls in two other rooms in preparation for painting them on another workday.

  “I’ll clean up the kitchen and then be right up,” Rose Anna told Mary Elizabeth and her mudder.

  Once they were upstairs she found a box of plastic baggies in a cupboard, slipped a couple of brownies into one, and tucked it into her purse. She wanted to make sure that they weren’t all eaten up so she could send some home with John.

  She heard footsteps on the stairs and spun away, walking quickly to the sink.

  ***

  John walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see Rose Anna there.

  He scooped up a box of sandpaper that had been left on the kitchen table. “Each of us thought the other one took this upstairs,” he said with a grin.

  “How is work going?” she asked him before he had a chance to leave the room. “I heard you got a new job taking care of horses.”

  “Word sure gets around.”

  She nodded.

  “It’s part-time. I’m helping at the Zimmerman horse farm.”

/>   “Probably doesn’t seem like work, does it, since you love horses so much? I remember how you used to go out and sleep in the barn with your family’s horses.” She frowned. “Of course, that was often because of your dat being so hard to get along with.”

  Touched that she’d remembered, he shrugged and tossed the box from hand to hand. “Sometimes it was nice being out there with them instead of him. It’s no fun mucking stalls at the horse farm, but the other day when I exercised Midnight I was thinking I’d pay the owner to ride that horse. But don’t tell him I said that.”

  She returned his grin. “He won’t hear it from me.”

  “Hey, John, did you get lost on the way to the kitchen? Or are you down there eating all the rolls?” they heard Sam call down from upstairs.

  “I’m coming!” he shouted back. He cast a glance at the rolls.

  “I brought double fudge brownies for dessert,” she told him.

  “Those are worth waiting for. See you later.”

  He met Mary Elizabeth on the stairs as he went up.

  “What’s taking you so long?” he heard her ask Rose Anna when she got downstairs. But he didn’t hear her answer.

  John spent several hours helping Sam and David sand then stain the floors in two rooms. Every so often he could hear the women laughing and talking as they worked in the next room.

  Then he heard the women descend the stairs, and a short time later delicious smells drifted up.

  Mary Elizabeth appeared in the doorway. “Ready to eat?”

  “Always,” he told her and he was the first one to make it downstairs and wash up. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on one of Rose Anna’s double fudge brownies. She’d made them many times for him after she’d offered him one from her school lunch years ago.

  Lunch was a hearty chicken and noodle casserole and dishes of stewed tomatoes and green beans canned after the fall harvest. He ate hungrily. The work had been hard, and since he didn’t often get home cooking like this, he ate his fill and more.

  Rose Anna sat opposite him eating far less than he did. She’d always been delicate, he mused, and ate little. Her mother was a wonderful cook, so she certainly didn’t lack for delicious meals. And he knew from eating often at their house that Rose Anna and her sisters were good cooks as well. She had been small as a young girl and stayed slender as she got older.