A Plain & Fancy Christmas

by Cynthia Keller

  “Katie?” she called, hurrying into the room. “We really need to talk about this.”

  By the moonlight that slipped in through the curtains, Rachel could see Katie’s quilt thrown back to reveal only pillows atop the white sheets. She called her daughter’s name again. Silence. There was no one in the bedroom.

  Refusing to acknowledge what she already sensed, she went over to the bathroom. Even if Katie had been in there, she would have heard her mother calling. Still, she threw open the door. The room was empty. Rachel’s heart started to beat faster. She called Katie’s name several times more, her panic growing as she received no response. Crossing the bedroom, she yanked open the closet door. Katie’s new clothes seemed to be there. Then she noticed what was missing: their suitcase and all her daughter’s Amish clothing.

  Rachel ran to the apartment door. The chain lock was unlatched. No one had come in since they had returned from Katie’s school the day before. Which meant that, sometime while Rachel was sleeping, Katie had gone out.

  Her stomach heaved with fear. She grabbed the phone, her fingers trembling so badly she misdialed and had to start again. Come on, come on, she told herself. Gil answered on the third ring, his voice thick with sleep.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s Rachel. Oh, Gil, please help me …”

  He was instantly awake. “Rachel? What is it?”

  “Katie’s gone. She’s not here.”

  “What do you mean, gone?”

  “I was asleep, and she left. Sometime during the night. I don’t know if she went with someone or by herself. But she’s not here, in the apartment!”

  She could hear Nina’s sleepy voice in the background. “What is it, Gil?”

  “Rachel, stay right there,” he commanded. “I’m going to call the police.”

  “Yes, the police,” she repeated, thinking she might faint.

  “Could she really have gone off on her own?” he asked. “Where would she go? Did she have any money?”

  Rachel hadn’t thought of that. She yanked open the desk drawer where she kept the cash that the Lawrences replenished regularly for everyday expenses. There was usually around two hundred dollars there. The drawer was empty.

  “She took the money from here. Oh, Gil, what was she going to with it?”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find her. Just sit tight and we’ll be right over.”

  “Please hurry.” She hung up the phone and broke down completely, her body shaking as she wept in pure terror.

  Chapter 33

  “… and when I came back in, there was Noodle on top of the table, finishing off the loaf of bread I had just put out for dinner and the stick of butter next to it.” Sarah shook her head in amusement as Ellie and Laura laughed. The three were cleaning up in Sarah’s kitchen, having just finished making an enormous pot of beef stew and another one of chicken and rice soup. Fragrant heat filled the kitchen.

  “If we like butter with our bread, why shouldn’t he?” Laura asked. “He just didn’t bother to spread it.”

  Ellie was still smiling as she hung the dish towel on a hook. The camaraderie she had developed with these two women was a source of great pleasure to her, but also one of amazement. Initially, they had been polite and friendly, but that had developed into a warmth and good humor that she now cherished. Being with them had become so remarkably easy. The three of them smiled at the same things—and with the same smile. While the two women had once seemed like strangers on a distant shore, they now felt to her like actual sisters. And this town had started to feel like home.

  Ellie said her good-byes and drove down the road, planning to stop at home to shower and run a few errands before going to work the lunch shift. As she was unlocking her front door, she could hear the phone ringing inside. She rushed to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “Ellie! Oh, thank goodness, you’re there! It’s Rachel.”

  Ellie could hear something frantic in the other woman’s voice. “Rachel? Are you all right?”

  “It’s Katie. She ran away.”

  Ellie caught her breath.

  “She left the apartment sometime during the night. I was asleep. I don’t know where she went.”

  Ellie sank down into a chair. “Oh, no!”

  “The police are looking for her. Gil and Nina are helping me. And Nick. Everyone. But I’ve been wondering if there’s a small chance she somehow tried to go back to the farm. I don’t know how she could do it, but maybe she got on a bus or train by herself.”

  Ellie listened with mounting horror. Somehow, she felt complicit in this situation. Having them stay in her apartment, and for such a long time, had been her idea. Apparently, it had led to something terrible enough to push this most innocent of children to defy everything she had been taught. Ellie couldn’t imagine the girl making her way alone through the streets in the dark, buying a bus or train ticket. Not only could she have been in danger, traveling by herself at night, but the sweet, naïve child who had left here would have never done that. Something must have changed in Katie. Or hardened her. Ellie was sickened by the thought that her actions somehow brought this about.

  Rachel started to cry on the other end of the line. The sound galvanized Ellie.

  “I’ll go look for her. You’ll be at the apartment if I have to reach you?”

  “Yes,” Rachel got out.

  “Fine. I’m on my way right now.”

  Ellie hung up and raced out, back into her car. She tried to think where she should go first. As she drove, she scanned the road, hoping against hope she would see Katie making her way back to the farm. If anything happened to her, Ellie knew she could never forgive herself. Afraid panic would overtake her, she gripped the wheel more tightly.

  “Take it easy and think!” she commanded herself.

  The bus station first. That was how she got to New York and back in the past, so that would be the likely way she would return this time. But where was the bus station around here?

  Nearly passing a gas station, she whipped the wheel to the right, hard, and pulled in, stopping right by the glass door leading to the inside food mart. She left the driver’s-side door open, running in to ask the attendant where someone coming from New York City would get off a bus.

  He thought for a moment. “Lancaster would be best, I guess.”

  Calling out a thank-you, she ran back to her car and headed toward Lancaster. It seemed to take an eternity, but when she got there, she stopped at another gas station to get directions and sped over, her brakes screeching as she parked the car and ran toward the building. She yanked open the door and practically burst inside.

  Over in a corner, Katie sat in a plastic chair, her head down, her suitcase on the ground beside her. Ellie thought her heart would burst out of her chest.

  “Katie!” She flew across the room.

  The little girl looked up. The expression on her face was both relieved and afraid.

  “Ellie?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Ellie gathered the child in her arms. “You’re actually here. How did you get here? Does anyone else know you’re here? Did you call your mother?”

  She shook her head. “I—”

  “Never mind.” Ellie stood up. “We have to find a pay phone.” Holding Katie’s hand, she half dragged her to a window, asking where they could find a telephone, only to be informed there weren’t any public phones there.

  “Miss, would you like to use mine?” A middle-aged man had seen how upset Ellie was at the news, and extended his cell phone to her.

  “Oh, thank you so much!” Grateful, Ellie pressed the numbers to her apartment in New York. Rachel picked up on the first ring.

  “I’ve got her, Rachel, she’s okay,” Ellie said.

  “She’s there, at home? And she’s safe?” Rachel’s voice broke as she started to cry with relief. “Oh, Ellie, you don’t know.… I was so afraid.”

  “You don’t need to be afraid anymore. She’s fine. She took a b
us.”

  Rachel’s voice made it clear how stunned she was, even though she had suggested the idea earlier. “I can’t believe it. I taught her how to get around the streets in case she got lost. She was better at it than I was. But that she understood enough to do something like this …”

  “She’s fine, so you don’t have to worry. She’s home, safe and sound.”

  “I’ll be on the next bus.”

  “Fine. I’ll tell everyone.”

  The idea of her other family members gave Rachel pause. “Yes, everyone,” she finally echoed. “Good-bye.”

  Ellie disconnected the call and gave the phone back to its rightful owner with her thanks. She turned to look at Katie, who was clearly exhausted and upset.

  This was the worst of the Kings’ fears realized, Ellie thought. Right now, though, they had to be told what had happened. She knew they wouldn’t blame her outright, but she would always feel responsible for this mess. She had brought the outside world into their community, and this was the result.

  She put a gentle hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Have you been sitting here long?”

  “I didn’t know what to do. I got here, but then …” she trailed off.

  “It’s okay, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you’re here and you’re in one piece. Now let’s get back to your grandparents’ house.”

  Filled with dread, Ellie led her back to the car and started out for the farm. When they arrived, she took Katie by the hand and opened the kitchen door.

  Sarah, Laura, and Leah were all there. They turned at the sound of the door.

  Sarah, standing closest to it, saw their visitors first. “Katie! I didn’t know you were coming home.”

  Katie’s expression didn’t suggest she was happy to be home. It was such an uncharacteristic expression, all three women looked at her with concern.

  “Where’s your mother?” Laura asked.

  Her eyes on her shoes, Katie said something too quietly for them to hear.

  “What was that?” Sarah asked.

  Ellie realized distress must have been evident on her own face, as the women looked at her and she saw they immediately knew something was wrong.

  “I drove Katie home from the bus station,” Ellie said, wondering how best to explain the situation.

  “What do you mean? Where is Rachel?” Sarah asked.

  “She isn’t here.” Ellie realized she wasn’t going to come up with any good way to break this news. “Katie left New York City last night without telling her mother. Somehow, she got to a bus station and rode here all by herself.”

  Laura’s hand flew to her mouth.

  “No!” Sarah gasped aloud.

  Sarah came around to bend over slightly in front of Katie, who looked into her aunt’s eyes. “Your mother didn’t know you left or where you were going?”

  Katie shook her head.

  “You just disappeared.”

  “Rachel called to tell me she was missing. I just spoke to her again, and she knows Katie’s home. She’ll be on the next bus back,” Ellie informed them.

  “What did she say?” Sarah wanted to know, as if trying to comprehend.

  “That Katie ran away, and the police had been looking for her. She cried with happiness that Katie was here and okay.”

  “It is no thanks to her that Katie is okay.” Leah had said nothing so far, and the icy tone she used now was one Ellie had never heard from her. “She put her child in harm’s way, and now is thankful that nothing happened? I warned her about going to that city!”

  Ellie wanted desperately to ask Katie what made her do something so drastic to get back to the farm, but she knew it wasn’t her place to do so. She also understood her presence was unwarranted and probably unwanted at this point. No one spoke or looked over as she let herself out.

  Ellie had planned to eat supper at Sarah’s that evening, but decided it would be best if she stayed away. She didn’t want to be an interfering presence in the family’s crisis. Even though she had come to feel like a true member of the family—as much as a non-Amish person could be—she knew this was a time to remember that she was, in fact, still an outsider and always would be.

  Carson was working late, and she was off that night, so it wasn’t until she got hungry much later at night that she fixed herself a sandwich, and sat down alone at her table to eat. As she bit into it, she was startled by the sharp buzz of her doorbell. She was hard-pressed to guess who would be visiting her so late on a cold December night. Before opening the door, she asked who it was. She was shocked to hear the reply.

  “It’s Rachel.”

  She stood outside, one of Ellie’s small suitcases on the ground beside her, looking cold and utterly dejected.

  “Come on in.” Ellie grabbed the suitcase and waved her in from the frigid air.

  “I’m sorry,” Rachel said, stepping inside, “I had to borrow one of your bags because Katie took—”

  Ellie made a dismissive gesture to indicate the suitcase wasn’t important. “Please, let me make you some tea.” She glanced outside as she pulled the front door shut, but didn’t see a taxi or buggy pulling away. “How did you get here?”

  “I walked.”

  “From the bus station?” Ellie went to fill the teakettle with water.

  “I took a taxi from the bus to my house. But my parents won’t let me in. So I walked here.”

  Ellie stopped what she was doing and stared at her guest. “What do you mean, your parents won’t let you in?”

  “My mother doesn’t want me to see Katie. She says I knew it was the wrong thing to do, to take her there, but I did it anyway. For selfish reasons. She said I shouldn’t ever be allowed to see Katie.” Rachel was fighting back tears.

  “Oh, my,” Ellie whispered. This was even worse than she had feared. “What about your father?”

  “He wouldn’t come to the door.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Ellie came over and sank down in a chair next to Rachel. “You’ll sleep here, of course.”

  Rachel managed a small smile. “Thank you.”

  Ellie’s heart broke for both Rachel and her child. “Do you know why Katie ran away?”

  “It was a lot of things, but I know what finally made her leave.”

  She told the story, then sat back, misery on her face.

  “Tomorrow, we’ll sort everything out,” Ellie said, getting up and reaching for the suitcase with Rachel’s things. “Now it’s time for you to sleep. Luckily, I never got around to moving the bed out of my second bedroom here, so you have your own room for as long as you need it.”

  “Thank you again.”

  Ellie couldn’t bear the sadness in Rachel’s eyes. “It will be all right,” she whispered, more to reassure herself. “We’ll make it be all right.”

  In the morning, Ellie bundled up against the cold and left without seeing Rachel, only the closed door to her room. At the barn, Isaac, Moses, and Judah offered subdued greetings. They were usually quiet, but today there was near-silence as they all worked. By now, Ellie was adept enough to do her part without instruction or supervision. When she finished, she told them she wouldn’t be staying for breakfast, receiving nods in return. It hadn’t been an angry silence, she reflected as she drove home, but a sad one. There was trouble, and one family member’s trouble was everyone’s.

  Ellie walked into her still-dark house to find Rachel sitting at the kitchen table, fully dressed, drinking a cup of tea.

  “May I turn on a light?” Ellie asked.

  Rachel nodded, so she flicked on the overhead light but adjusted the dimmer to keep it low. She sat down across from Rachel.

  “Did you get any sleep?”

  Rachel set down her teacup. “Here’s the problem,” she said, as if they were in the middle of a conversation. “I shouldn’t have brought Katie with me to New York, although I can’t see how I could have left her behind. But I should have. I was the one who needed to go there, not her. It was selfish, and being selfish is
a terrible thing. But could I really not spend time with my family when I had this chance? Or not have her get to know them?”

  “I might not be the one to ask. Look at what I did—I forced you and everyone else to let me meet you all. I didn’t even try to find out whether you wanted that or whether it would be a good thing for everyone else involved. I forced my way in. I even moved down here, just like that!”

  “Are you sorry you did?”

  “No, oh, no. It’s been one of the best decisions I ever made. But now I have to ask myself, at what cost to you? I pushed you to take my apartment, and from that, everything else followed.”

  Rachel’s eyes widened. “Don’t think that! You can’t! It’s not true.” She sighed. “Once we both got the letter, it all had to happen the way it did. Even if you hadn’t come here, and I had gone on pretending nothing had changed, sooner or later I would have wanted to meet my other family. You made the first move, so I got to pretend I didn’t want any part of it. But I was lying to myself.”

  “Wow.” Ellie got up to make herself a cup of coffee as she considered Rachel’s surprising admission. “So now what do we do?”

  “I realized some things on my bus ride, some things I wasn’t quite ready to face. Until this forced me.” She closed her eyes momentarily as if it was too difficult to look at Ellie while she confessed. “There is something about me that’s not Amish, that must be from the part of me that’s a Lawrence daughter. I want to learn.”

  “Learn? Learn what?”

  “I want to study. Gil gave me books to read, and we would talk about them. I loved that so much. At night, if I wasn’t working on a quilt, I sat up with some book he lent me, and I was completely happy. Some days, while Katie was at school, I went to the public library just to sit there and read. Then, when I saw those students at A.J.’s school …”

  “But how? You’ve already gone through school here.”

  Rachel bit her lip. “I don’t know how. But I have to.”

  Ellie stalled for time, slowly pouring milk into her coffee cup before returning to the table. She was at a loss for words, but Rachel didn’t wait for her to say anything else.