The Hope Chest

by Wanda E. Brunstetter

  Rachel donned her woolen jacket and headed for the greenhouse. She had talked her mother into going back to bed and had left a warm pot of fenugreek tea by her bedside. Mom was resting, and Rachel would be all by herself until Pauline showed up. If the weather worsened, Pauline might not come today. For that matter, they might not have any customers. Who in their right mind would want to visit a greenhouse when the weather was cold and snowy?

  Shortly after Rachel opened the greenhouse and stoked up the wood-burning stove, she heard a horse and buggy pull up. Figuring it was probably Pauline, she flung open the door. To her astonishment, Abe Landis stepped out of a closed-in buggy and offered her a friendly wave. She hadn’t seen Abe since the last preaching service, and then she’d only spoken a few words to him while she was serving the men their noon meal.

  “Those angry-looking clouds out there make me think we might be in for another snowstorm,” Abe said when he entered the greenhouse. He wore a dark wool jacket, and his ears protruded out from under the black hat perched on his head.

  Ears that are a mite too big, Rachel noticed. An image of Silas sifted through her mind. Abe’s not nearly as good-looking as Silas, but then—as Dad often says—looks aren’t everything.

  “What can I help you with, Abe?” Rachel asked, as she slipped behind the counter and took a seat on her stool.

  Abe removed his hat, and it was all Rachel could do to keep from laughing out loud. A thatch of Abe’s hair stood straight up. It looked as though he hadn’t bothered to comb it that morning.

  “I really didn’t come here to buy anything.” Abe jammed his free hand inside his coat pocket and offered her a lopsided grin.

  “What did you come for then?”

  “I ... uh ... was wondering if you’d like to go with me to the taffy pull that’s gonna be held at Herman Weaver’s place this Saturday night.”

  Rachel wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to go to the taffy pull with Abe. He was a nice enough fellow, and she’d known him and his family a good many years, but he wasn’t Silas. If Rachel couldn’t be courted by the man she loved, then she didn’t want to be courted at all. Of course, she could go as Abe’s friend. Still, that might lead the poor fellow on, and she didn’t want him to think there was any chance for the two of them as a couple.

  “So, what’s your answer?” Abe prompted. “Can I come by your place on Saturday night and give you a lift to the Weavers’?”

  Rachel nibbled on her lower lip as she searched for the right words. She didn’t want to hurt Abe’s feelings, but her answer had to be no. “I’m flattered that you’d want to escort me to the taffy pull, but I’m afraid I can’t go.”

  Abe’s dark eyebrows drew downward. “How come?”

  She swallowed hard. “My mamm has a bad cold, and my daed just got on his feet after a painful bout with his back. I think it’s best for me to stick close to home.”

  Abe nodded and slapped his hat back on his head. “Good enough. I’ll see you around, then.” With that, he marched out the door.

  Rachel followed, hoping to call out a friendly good-bye, but Abe was already in his buggy and had taken up the reins. Maybe she’d made a mistake. Maybe she should have agreed to go with him. Wouldn’t having Abe as a boyfriend be better than having no boyfriend at all?

  She bowed her head and prayed. Lord, if I’m not supposed to love Silas, please give me the grace to accept it. And if I’m supposed to be courted by Abe, then give me the desire for that.

  Rachel heard a horse whinny, and she glanced out the front window. A sleigh was parked in the driveway, and she recognized the driver. Rachel’s heart hammered in her chest, and her hands felt like a couple of slippery trout as she watched Silas step down from his buggy and hurry toward the greenhouse. She couldn’t imagine why he would be here. The harvest was done, and Dad’s back was much better. Maybe he’d come to buy a plant for someone.

  Silas rubbed his hands briskly together as he entered the greenhouse. His nose was red from the cold, and his black hat was covered with tiny snowflakes. Dad’s prediction about the weather had come true, for the snow was certainly here.

  Rachel moved toward the counter, her heart riding on waves of expectation. Silas followed. “It’s mighty cold out, and I’m glad we got your daed’s hay in when we did. Guess winter’s decided to come a bit early.” He nodded toward the door. “Say, wasn’t that Abe Landis I saw getting into his buggy as I pulled in?”

  “Jah, it was Abe.”

  “Did he buy out the store?”

  She shook her head. “Nope, didn’t buy a thing.”

  Silas raised his eyebrows. “How come?”

  “Abe stopped by to ask me to the taffy pull this Saturday night.” Rachel stepped behind the counter. “Can I help you with something, Silas?”

  He squinted his dark eyes, and Rachel wondered why he made no comment about Abe’s invitation.

  “I came by to see if you have any poinsettias. My mamm’s sister lives in Ohio, and she’s coming to visit next week. Mom thought since her birthday’s soon, she would give her a plant.”

  Rachel stepped out from behind the counter. “I believe we still have one or two poinsettias in the other room. Shall we go take a look-see?”

  Silas followed silently as they went to the room where a variety of plants were on display. Rachel showed him several red poinsettias, and he selected the largest one.

  Back at the battery-operated cash register, Rachel’s hands trembled as she counted out Silas’s change. Just the nearness of him took her breath away, and it irked her to think he had the power to make her feel so weak in the knees.

  “Seen any interesting birds lately?” Silas asked after she’d wrapped some paper around the pot of the plant and handed it to him.

  Glad for the diversion, she smiled. “I saw a great horned owl the other night when I was looking up in the tree with my binoculars. The critter was sure hootin’ like crazy.”

  Silas chuckled; then he started for the door. Just as he got to the shelf where Rachel’s hope-chest items were placed, he stopped and bent down to examine them. “These look like some mighty fine dishes. Mind if I ask how much they cost?”

  “The price sticker is on the bottom of the top plate.”

  Silas picked it up and whistled. “Kind of high, don’t you think?” His face turned redder than the plant he held. “Sorry. Guess it’s not my place to decide how much your folks should be selling things for.”

  Rachel thought about telling Silas that it wasn’t her mom or dad who had priced the dishes, but she didn’t want him to know she was trying to sell off her hope-chest items. It was none of his business. “I hope your aunt enjoys the poinsettia,” she said instead.

  Silas gave a quick nod and opened the front door. “I hope Abe knows how lucky he is,” he called over his shoulder.

  Rachel slowly shook her head. “Now what in the world did he mean by that? Surely Silas doesn’t think Abe and I are courting.” Of course, she hadn’t bothered to tell him that she’d turned down Abe’s offer to escort her to the taffy pull. But then, he hadn’t asked.

  Rachel moved over to the window and watched with a heavy heart as Silas drove out of sight. She glanced at the dishes he’d said were too high-priced and wondered if he had considered buying them, maybe as a gift for his aunt’s birthday.

  “Guess I should lower the price some.” Rachel felt moisture on her cheeks. She had been trying so hard to be hopeful and keep praising God, but after seeing Silas again, she realized that her hopes had been for nothing. He obviously had no interest in her. Rachel wondered if God even cared about her. Hadn’t He been listening to her prayers and praises all these months? Didn’t He realize how much her heart ached to be loved by Silas?

  ***

  As Joseph finished up his chores in the barn, he kept going to the door and checking to see if Pauline’s buggy had shown up at the greenhouse yet. Ever since that day when he’d seen Anna at the restaurant, he’d been stewing over things, and he
thought he might feel better if he talked to Pauline about it. She’d been understanding and willing to listen the last time he’d discussed Anna with her, and she had been full of good advice. Only trouble was he still hadn’t found it in his heart to forgive his sister for leaving home and going English on them. It still pained him to think of Anna dressed in fancy clothes and wearing her hair cut short, and the idea of her and Reuben living in the fancy English world gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  Joseph peered out the barn door one more time and was happy to see Pauline’s buggy coming up the driveway. He slipped out the door and ran toward the greenhouse. Pauline was just getting out of her buggy when he arrived.

  “Guder mariye, Joe.” She offered him a friendly smile. “It’s good to see you.”

  “It’s good to see you, too.” He motioned toward her buggy. “Could we sit in there awhile and talk, or do you have to get into the greenhouse right away?”

  “I’m a little earlier than usual, so I have a few minutes to spare.”

  “Great.” He opened the door on the side of the buggy closest to her and helped her inside. Then he went around and took a seat on the other side.

  “Is something troubling you, Joe?” she asked. “You look upset.”

  He grunted. “I saw her the other day.”

  “Who?”

  “Anna.”

  “Did she come to your place for a visit?”

  “No. I ran into her at the restaurant in Lancaster where she works as a waitress.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  “Fine, as far as I could tell, but she doesn’t look like Anna anymore.”

  “You mean because she’s not wearing Plain clothes?”

  “That, and she’s cut her hair real short.” Joseph gritted his teeth and gripped the buggy seat so tightly that his fingers ached.

  “I’ll bet she did look quite different.”

  Joseph sat staring straight ahead.

  Pauline reached over and touched his arm. “Did seeing Anna that way make you feel sad?”

  “Not sad, really. More mad, I’d have to say.” He grimaced. “I could hardly stand to see my sister looking that way, and since I’m not supposed to do any business with a shunned member of the church, I walked out without letting her wait on me.”

  Pauline offered him a sympathetic smile. “I thought you were going to forgive Anna and move on with things.”

  “I can’t go against the church and do business with her.”

  “I’m not suggesting that.” She paused a moment and flicked her tongue across her lower lip. “I just think you need to forgive Anna for hurting your family and treat her kindly when you do see her.”

  Joseph shrugged. “Probably won’t be for some time, ’cause I’m not likely to go back to that restaurant again.”

  “She might come here for a visit, though.”

  “Not if Dad has anything to say about it.”

  “He’s still angry, too?”

  He nodded. “I think it would take something big for him to let Anna come home to see any of us.”

  “Big, like what?”

  “Like a death in the family or something.”

  Pauline shook her head. “Let’s hope there’s nothing like that on the horizon.” She reached over and took hold of Joseph’s hand. “I’ve been praying for you, Joe. Praying for all your family.”

  He smiled and squeezed her fingers. “Danki. I appreciate that.”

  CHAPTER 23

  For the next few days, snow poured from the sky like powdered sugar, but by Saturday morning, the weather had improved some. So Rachel convinced Joseph to hitch up the sleigh and drive her to the variety store in Paradise. It was the second week of December, but there was still a chance that people would be looking for things to give as Christmas presents. She’d finally sold some towels and a few pot holders from her hope chest to a couple of customers who’d come into the greenhouse, but she needed to get rid of the dishes, the kerosene lamp, and the tablecloth.

  Thomas Benner was more than happy to take Rachel’s things in on consignment, although he did mention that they would have had a better chance of selling if she’d brought them in a few weeks earlier. Rachel sure didn’t need that reminder. She wished she’d never started filling her hope chest.

  By the time Rachel left the store and found Joseph, who’d gone looking for something to give Pauline for Christmas, snow was beginning to fall again.

  “We’d best be gettin’ on home,” Joseph said, looking up at the sky. “If this keeps up, the roads could get mighty slippery. I wouldn’t want some car to go sliding into our sleigh.”

  “You’re right; we should leave now.” Rachel climbed into the sleigh and reached under the seat to withdraw an old quilt, which she wrapped snugly around the lower half of her body. “Brr ... it’s turning cold again.”

  Joseph picked up the reins and got the horse moving. “Jah, it sure is.”

  Rachel glanced over at her brother. He seemed to be off in some other world.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Sure. Why do you ask?”

  “You seem kind of pensive today.”

  “I was just thinking about something Pauline told me the other day.”

  “Oh? What was that?”

  He shrugged. “She’s been giving me some advice lately.”

  “What kind of advice? Or would you rather not say?”

  “I don’t mind saying. It might feel good to talk more about it.”

  “More about what?”

  “The way I’ve been feeling about Anna going English.”

  Rachel noticed the wrinkles etched in her brother’s forehead. “How have you been feeling about the whole thing?”

  “Not so good. Not good at all.”

  “I don’t think any of us feels good about it, but it’s a fact we can’t change, so as Mom said after her last letter from Anna came, ‘We must accept Anna’s decision and quit brooding over it.’”

  Joseph nodded. “Pauline said pretty much the same thing, only she took it a step further by telling me I needed to forgive Anna.”

  “Pauline’s right about that. We all need to forgive Anna for leaving home the way she did—including Dad.”

  “I’m workin’ on it,” Joseph mumbled.

  “Glad to hear it.” Rachel smiled. “So, why don’t you tell me what you got Pauline for Christmas?”

  He smiled, too, and his mood seemed to brighten. “I bought her a pair of gardening gloves and a book about flowers.”

  “She should like that since she enjoys working in the greenhouse so much.”

  Joseph nodded. “She’s sure changed a lot here of late, don’t you think?”

  Rachel bit back the laughter bubbling in her throat. “I think you’ve been good for her.”

  His dark eyebrows lifted. “You really think so?”

  “I do.”

  “Well, she’s been good for me, too.”

  “She’s not worried about your age difference anymore?”

  He shook his head. “Doesn’t seem to be.”

  “And you’re okay with it?”

  “Jah.”

  “I’m glad.” At least things were going well for someone in Rachel’s family.

  “Come spring, I’m thinking about asking her to marry me.” Joseph glanced over at Rachel. “Don’t you go sayin’ anything to anyone about it, though, you hear?”

  “Oh, I won’t. It’s not my place to be doing the telling.”

  “I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you and Silas.”

  Rachel grimaced. “It wasn’t meant to be, that’s all. I just have to learn to be content with my life as it is. There’s no point in hoping for the impossible. Job in the Bible did, and look where it got him.”

  “Think about it, Rachel. Through all Job’s trials, he never lost hope.” Joseph glanced over at her again and smiled. “In the end, God blessed Job with more than he’d lost.”

  Rachel drew in a deep breath an
d released it quickly. “I guess you’re right, but it’s not always easy to have hope. Especially when things don’t go as we’d planned.”

  “Life is full of twists and turns. It’s how we choose to deal with things that makes the difference in our attitudes. Take Silas, for example ... I saw him the other day and mentioned my encounter with Anna at the restaurant.”

  “What’d he say?”

  “He didn’t seem all that affected when I mentioned Anna’s name.”

  “Well, what could he say, Joseph? Anna’s a married woman now, and there’s nothing Silas can do about it.” She sighed. “I’d been hoping that he might take an interest in me, but it doesn’t look like that will ever occur. Truth is, not much of anything I hope for ever seems to happen.”

  “Our hope should be in the Lord, not in man or in our circumstances.”

  Rachel stared straight ahead. She didn’t want to talk about Job, hope, or even God right now. She was too worried about the weather. The snow was coming down harder, and the road was completely covered. She watched the passing scenery, noting as they approached the one-room schoolhouse that the yard was empty. No Amish buggies. No scooters. No sign of any children or their teacher. “School must have been dismissed early today. Teacher Nancy probably thought it would be best to let the kinner go before the weather got any worse,” she commented.

  “Jah, you’re probably right.”

  They rode along in silence until a rescue vehicle sailed past, its red lights blinking off and on and the siren blaring like crazy.

  “Must be an accident up ahead.” Joseph pulled back on the reins to slow the horse.

  Rachel’s body tensed. She hated the thought of seeing an accident, and she prayed one of their Amish buggies wasn’t involved. So often, horse-drawn carriages had been damaged by cars that either didn’t see them or had been traveling too fast. Lots of Amish folks had been injured from collisions with those fast-moving English vehicles, too.

  Their sleigh had just rounded the next bend when they saw the rescue truck stopped in the middle of the road. Flares threw light along the highway and on a dark blue, mid-sized car pulled off on the shoulder. Rescue workers bent over a small figure. Several Amish children clustered around, and the sheriff directed traffic.