by Amy Lillard
They walked through the reptile house and into the rain forest section with its little poison frogs and all sorts of exotic creatures that she had never seen before. The penguin habitat and the polar bears, everything was magical and wonderful. She felt as if she had stepped into another world. Then they took the train around over to where the Galapagos tortoises were housed.
“It says here this turtle is almost a hundred years old,” Ezra said, pointing to the little stand that contained information about the creatures.
Sadie shook her head. A hundred years was a long time. The tortoises were wrinkled and slow, but they were somehow beautiful in their own special way.
“Do you want to see the giraffes now?” Ezra asked, pointing toward the penned-in fields where the giraffes were kept.
But Sadie was drawn to the other side. The elephants. “Can we go . . .” She gestured toward the giant creatures.
“We can do whatever you want,” Ezra said.
“Then I want to see the elephants.”
This time, Ezra grabbed her hand and together, fingers entwined, they made their way toward the elephant habitat.
“They’re beautiful.”
Ezra chuckled. “You really think so?”
“Jah. I do.” She leaned against the fence, not so much to get a better view, but to be a little closer to such magnificent creatures.
“Even prettier than the zebras?”
Sadie nodded.
“And the tigers?”
“Jah.”
Ezra tilted his head to one side as if he was trying to get a better angle to view the big beasts. “Don’t get me wrong. They’re great. But what do you see in them?”
Sadie stared at them, trying to find the words to describe how the elephants made her feel. “They’re so big and beautiful, a little cumbersome and yet graceful all in the same moment. Can you see the intelligence in their eyes?”
Looking at the elephants was like seeing a reflection of something bigger than herself. Not in true size, for there was no mistaking the elephants were gigantic compared to her, but somehow bigger at an internal level, as if they held a special place in God’s eyes.
“Okay,” Ezra agreed.
But Sadie had the feeling he was saying that just to appease her. It upset her that Ezra couldn’t see what she saw in the elephants, couldn’t see love and compassion and all things beautiful wrapped up in big feet and wrinkly gray skin. It was as if God was playing some sort of trick on mankind to put something so special in an unlikely package. Sadie wondered if God was waiting on man to discover this specialness that He had hidden.
“I feel sorry for you, Ezra Hein.”
“Sorry for me?” Ezra asked. His eyes were alight with surprise.
“Jah. I feel sorry that you can’t see what I see in them.”
He thought about that for a minute, then smiled. “I guess it’s a good thing I have you here to point it out to me.”
* * *
Ezra had the feeling that Sadie could sit and watch the elephants all day long. In fact, he made a mental note to bring her out to the zoo again with the intention of just going to the elephant habitat and sitting for as long as she wanted and watching these creatures that she had fallen in love with. But for now it was still February and cold. Not terribly bad. Spring was starting to warm the air.
That was the way of Oklahoma. A February day could be seventy or ten degrees, depending on the whim of nature. But for now he thought it best that they get someplace warm, at least for a little while.
Sadie said a sweet good-bye to the elephants, and he led her into the nearby gift shop. There was a café adjacent where they could get something warm to drink. He bought them each a cup of coffee, then they wandered through the gift shop, checking out all the animal-related items for sale there.
There were plastic-molded animals that looked realistic, though they were miniature. There were stuffed animals and postcards, coffee cups and drinking glasses of all sorts. There were even T-shirts and hats and all sorts of clothing for people to buy.
Sadie started looking through the many shirts there on display, while Ezra wandered into the section that housed some of the smaller items.
He wanted something for Sadie to remember today. It had been perhaps the best time they’d had together. When he had set up this date, he wanted someplace they could go and perhaps not be found out or be worried about being found out. After the trouble in Pryor, he felt it was better to go someplace where they would blend in even more. Not that they blended in completely. He supposed to the average person he looked like the average person, but Sadie in her black and prayer kapp, thick stockings, and walking shoes was so obviously Amish that a few people had stopped to stare. She seemed not to notice, or maybe she didn’t care, as she wandered through the zoo’s trails beside him.
He looked at the coffee cups, but there was nothing with an elephant on it. There were ones with the zoo’s logo on them and some that had pictures of some of the newer habitats and creatures, the dinosaur exhibit and the penguins, but nothing with her majestic elephants.
There were postcards, but they didn’t fit the bill. He wanted something beautiful for her to remember today by. Something as beautiful as she considered those big gray elephants out there.
Then he found it. It was the only one left, and he wasn’t sure how he even saw it. But there it was: a silver necklace with an elephant pendant. It was fairly small, maybe no bigger than a dime, with this small indentation for an eye. Its trunk was raised up in salute, and it was perfect. She could wear it everywhere she went and have an elephant with her always. It was beautiful and he knew she had to have it.
“Ezra, look at this.” She held up a pink nightshirt—at least he thought that’s what it was—in front of her. It reached down to her knees. On the front were the intertwining trunks of two elephants that formed a heart. Below that it read I HEART ELEPHANTS.
“Would your mother care if you had that?”
He saw that rebellious light in Sadie’s eyes flash, then she seemed to think about it without that surge of emotion. “I don’t see why not. There isn’t anything in the Ordnung about nightshirts with elephants on them.”
“Then you should have it.”
He hustled her to the counter, not giving her even a second to change her mind about the nightshirt. He handed the necklace to the cashier and gave her a look that he hoped the gray-haired lady behind the counter could understand. He wanted the pretty silver trinket, but he didn’t want Sadie to know about it. Some things needed to be a surprise.
With age came wisdom, and the woman gave a small nod before slipping the necklace into a small bag, then putting it inside the larger bag where the T-shirt was now stored and ready to go.
Ezra paid the bill while Sadie gushed. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” His heart swelled at the sight of the pure happiness on her face.
Together they left the gift shop and headed out of the zoo park, back to the parking lot.
“Next time we need to buy a camera.”
Sadie’s eyes grew wide. “Oh my goodness! I didn’t even think of that.”
“I think it would be fun, don’t you?”
“Maybe we can buy one of those disposable ones that they have there in the shop.”
Ezra nodded. “That sounds like a great idea. Then you can take all the pictures you want of those silly elephants.”
“They aren’t silly.” She shot him a mock-serious look.
“I know, I know, don’t get your dander all up.”
Sadie crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. “Never joke about elephants again.”
“Never,” he promised with a smile.
* * *
“Do you want me to drop you off at the library?” Ezra asked.
Sadie nodded. She hated having to sneak around and see Ezra like this. But after the day they had spent together, she felt as if she would do anything as long as she could spend time with him.
Did that mean that she loved him? Probably. But now the thought didn’t fill her with dread and anxiety. She loved Ezra Hein. A Mennonite boy. The idea warmed her from the inside out, and she wanted to climb to the highest place she could find and shout it to all of Wells Landing, hoping that even the people of Taylor Creek could hear. So what if he was Mennonite and she was Amish? They would figure out a way.
Ezra wasn’t like Zach Calhoun. Zach could’ve never become Amish. It would have been too hard for him, but they were so much alike, the Mennonite and the Amish.
And it would all work out. She knew it.
He pulled his truck into the library parking lot and eased it into one of the spaces. Leaving the engine running, he put it into park, then turned to face her. “I’m glad you came with me today.”
“So am I.” Sadie smiled at him, her heart growing bigger each time she looked at him. He was perhaps the most handsome man she had ever met, and he wanted to spend time with her. It was a beautiful thought. And if God put them together, then surely there wasn’t anything wrong with it.
“Do you have your sack?”
Sadie nodded.
“Let me see it.” Ezra held out his hand for her to give it to him.
“Why do you need it?” she asked, even as she offered it to him.
“Maybe there’s a surprise in here.” He grinned.
“Another surprise?”
He didn’t answer with words, just stuck his hand into the bag and pulled out another small paper sack that had been tucked inside. She had no idea how it had gotten there. She hadn’t noticed it when they were at the gift shop, but she had been so wrapped up in happiness and elephants that she hadn’t been paying a great deal of attention.
“Today was special,” Ezra said. His smile had dimmed and his eyes turned serious, but in a good way. Intense, and dare she hope, loving . . . ? “I wanted you to have something to remember today by.”
“I have a shirt.”
Ezra shook his head. “You need something more special than that.”
He pulled a small box from inside the little paper sack and opened it.
Sadie held her breath as he lifted out a thin silver chain. A small pendant hung there, an elephant with smooth curved lines and a soft shiny finish.
He opened the clasp and reached around her neck to place the necklace there.
Sadie used every bit of energy she had not to pull away. She was torn. She wanted that beautiful necklace so badly, that memento of today, the one thing that Ezra had picked out in the store just for her, but . . .
“The Amish don’t wear jewelry.” Her words were barely a whisper. But they felt heavy in the air around her.
Ezra sat back and stared at her for a moment. “I don’t understand.”
Sadie wanted to touch the necklace, finger its smooth lines, claw it from her body. It felt fiery and hot through the fabric of her dress. She wanted to take it off, but she wanted to leave it on forever. Confusion had become her constant companion.
“It’s okay to go to the movies, but it’s not okay to wear jewelry?”
Sadie shook her head. “It’s not okay to do either one of those things.”
Ezra snorted. “Now I really don’t understand. So it’s okay to go against the Ordnung and go to the movies, but it’s not okay to go against the Ordnung and wear a necklace. You Amish have entirely too many rules.”
Sadie felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. “It’s beautiful.”
“But?” he asked.
She had a decision to make, and she had to make it right here. Right now. She and Ezra had so many differences, ones that they would have to see through to the end of their relationship.
“Do you love me?”
He stared at her for so long she wasn’t sure that he would answer. It was on the tip of her tongue to take back her question when he sighed. “Yes.”
She hadn’t realized how thick the tension hung in the air until he said that one word and effectively dispelled it.
“I love you too,” she breathed. They loved each other—surely that meant something. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Sometimes I get confused and lose sight of what’s important.”
Ezra nodded. “It happens to all of us.”
Sadie smiled. “Tell me it’s going to be okay.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Ezra said. He reached out a hand and touched her cheek.
Sadie closed her eyes, absorbing every detail of his skin against hers.
“Does this mean you accept my gift?” He seemed to be holding his breath as he waited for her answer.
Sadie nodded.
His smile was wobbly, but filled with hope. He reached up and tucked the beautiful silver chain and its charming little elephant under the neckline of her dress. Despite the February temperatures, the pendent felt hot against her skin.
“No one has to know it’s there.”
She wanted to nod, know that it was all going to be okay, and despite his words from a few moments ago, her own confidence was waning. “I have to go.”
Confusion wrinkled his brow, but he didn’t protest.
“Next week?”
Sadie swallowed hard, then gave a quick nod. “Next week.” She reached for the door handle, fumbling as she tried to get out of his truck. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the nightshirt as she walked to the restaurant. She supposed she could tuck it under her coat. Hide it away like she had that tiny elephant necklace.
She slid to the ground, suddenly needing to be away from him and all the churning emotions that he brought out in her.
“Sadie?”
She turned to face him, shaking her head to stay his words. “Thanks for a lovely day, Ezra.” Then she slammed the door on anything else he might’ve said.
Chapter Eighteen
One more week and it would be March.
Chris dusted off his hands and climbed down from the hayloft. One more week and he had three months to figure out how to tell his parents that he was going to Europe. That he had been secretly squirreling away money to make a trip of a lifetime, one that no Amish man had ever made before. At least not that he had ever heard.
The secret was tearing him in two. But he couldn’t tell them yet. No doubt his father would toss him out on his ear. For all the talk of the Amish being forgiving, there were some things a man couldn’t come back from. And Chris was certain this was one of those, as far as his father was concerned.
He had to tell them now or start baptism classes. He crossed to the wall where all the tools were hung and grabbed up the pitchfork. He stabbed one of the big bales of hay and dragged it down to the stables. As much as he would like to unburden his heart and tell his parents of his plans, the best thing to do was carry on like everything was the same. Even when it wasn’t.
He stopped spreading the hay as a weird sound came from above him. Was that . . . ?
He leaned the pitchfork against the wall and headed out into the yard. Shielding his eyes from the noonday sun, he peered up at the roof of the two-story barn.
“Johnny?”
“Yeah?” His brother’s voice drifted down from somewhere on the back side of the barn.
Chris started through the double Dutch doors, ’round to the other side. He stepped into the corral and peered up at the roof once more.
Johnny was crawling around like some Englisch superhero, nailing down pieces of the corrugated tin.
“I thought you were going to wait for me to help you,” Chris hollered up to his brother.
Johnny finished pounding down the nail, then hollered back. “You were busy.”
Chris shook his head. “Never too busy for you.”
Though the sun was to his back, Chris saw Johnny shrug. “No worries.”
“Want me to come up and help?”
“That’s all right. I’m almost done. I’ll be down in a minute.” Without another word he went back to work.
Chris shook his head and started back to the bar
n. His brother was one of the hardest-working people that Chris knew, and he admired him for his dedication to this piece of dirt. He was glad Johnny liked the farm, because he wouldn’t be able to get away from it fast enough.
From outside the barn he heard the sound of an angry dog barking. He recognized one of the dogs as his own blue heeler, Beau. But the other dog did not sound familiar. He hustled through the barn, wondering if the stray had come up and Beau was simply defending his turf or if something else was afoot.
When he came out on the yard side of the barn, Beau had definitely proven ownership of the property. The black and tan mutt that had wandered up was on the run as Beau chased him through the yard and toward the road. Before they got to the narrow driveway lane, another dog rushed up. This pooch had short tan fur and a vicious growl.
The mutt rushed the dogs from the side, hurtling them toward the side of the barn. Chris took his hat off and headed toward them, thinking he would wave them away.
Before he got there, they crashed into the ladder Johnny had set up against the side of the barn.
And everything happened at once. Beau managed to get the upper hand on both dogs and chased them clear to the road. Chris barely registered his dog’s victory as a strangled cry rent the air. A dull thud sounded and Chris whirled around as the tall aluminum ladder crashed into the yard with a metallic crunch, missing his brother’s broken and crumpled body by inches.
* * *
Sadie rushed through the swooshing glass doors at Pryor Medical Center. She had to find Chris, and she had to find him now.
Tears ran in hot trails down her cheeks as she searched the waiting area and the drawn faces of the patients and loved ones sitting there. In her frantic state, she had to survey the room twice before she saw him, sitting in a dogleg corner all by himself. His hat was gone and one of his suspender galluses had fallen off his shoulder. But he was there, her Chris.
She rushed over to him, nearly falling in her haste to reach him as quickly as possible. She dropped to her knees before him, grabbing his hands.
“Chris?”