“I . . . I can’t!” Autumn sputtered, then drew in another breath.
“We have to paddle across the current. Come on. I’ll hold your left arm, and you paddle with your right.” Like rowing a boat, she thought as they climbed back onto their boards.
Autumn’s face was as white as the slab of marble in the entryway of her family’s summer home.
“Ready . . . let’s go!” Sallie tried to sound as encouraging as she could, knowing she had to make it back to shore safely with Autumn.
When, finally, they managed to swim out of the narrow yet powerful current, two lifeguards met them with two life buoys.
“Bethany!” Autumn cheered as the pretty lifeguard reached for her and took her board.
The male lifeguard assisted Sallie, hovering near as he let her paddle toward shore.
“My nanny rescued me,” Autumn gasped, indicating Sallie.
“She kept her wits,” Bethany said, and in that moment, Sallie realized this was the girl she’d seen walking with Kevin. His cousin.
They trudged toward the shoreline, where Autumn collapsed on the beach, holding her small hand to her chest, still gasping for breath. “I’m alive,” she murmured.
The lifeguards stayed right with them till Autumn said she was okay. Sallie wasn’t so sure, her heart still hammering with every beat as she glanced back at the ocean, then at dear Autumn.
“How’d you know to swim parallel to the beach?” Bethany asked Sallie while squeezing water out of her thick ponytail.
“I read about it once.”
“Facts fly out of most swimmers’ heads when they get caught in a rip current,” Bethany said. “You’re really something. Your guardian angels must have been with you.”
Later, when both lifeguards left and Sallie and Autumn had located their beach towels and umbrella, Autumn told her, “I prayed so hard.”
“And God kept us safe.” Sallie embraced Autumn, kissing her forehead, then her cheek, like a frantic yet grateful mother. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“I’ve never been more scared in my whole life.” Autumn’s lower lip quivered. “I know what Bethany said, but you were my angel, Miss Sallie.”
“Well, the Lord was watchin’ over us,” Sallie said, drying off. “I know that for sure.”
They rested side by side for some time, recovering from the terrifying ordeal. Sallie glanced over at Autumn, thankful for the dear girl’s every breath.
Life is ever so fragile. . . .
41
Sallie let no grass grow under her feet when she and Autumn returned to the Logans’ from the beach. She described to Monique what had happened, leaving nothing out.
As they sat together in the living area, it was Autumn who praised Sallie’s efforts to her mother, insisting that “Miss Sallie saved me!”
Monique shook her head in amazement as she gave first Autumn and then Sallie hugs. “Let’s take time right now to thank God,” she suggested, reaching for Sallie’s hand, then Autumn’s. Sunlight spilled into the room as Monique offered a prayer of thanksgiving.
As Connor cooed in his baby bouncer, Sallie felt warm inside, truly cared for and accepted.
Autumn knelt beside the baby and kissed his soft cheek. “I love you, little brother,” she whispered. “I was afraid I’d never see you again.”
Sallie pressed her lips together, finding it impossible to remain composed.
Going to her daughter, Monique sat next to her, wrapping her arms around her. “Oh, honey . . .”
Autumn clung to her mother, who kissed her cheek.
Covering her own trembling lips, Sallie let the tears flow.
———
Later that evening, Autumn shared with Sallie that she’d had some interesting thoughts after her rescue.
“Tell me, sweetie,” Sallie said as they curled up with their feet on the couch in the restful living area, just the two of them.
“I realized that if God could take care of me, all the way out there, He can take care of me in the future, too . . . me and my family.”
Sallie smiled.
Autumn glanced toward the nursery. “My baby brother is worth me not having Mommy all to myself anymore. Sharing her with Connor is okay with me.” She giggled a little. “Well, you know what I mean. . . .”
“Jah, I surely do.” Sallie reached around to give her a big hug, mighty glad to hear it.
The Cape May Promenade Craft Show drew people from all over New Jersey and other surrounding states the following Saturday. No one went hungry with all the boxed lunches and homemade desserts for sale, including peach cobbler, as well as all kinds of mouthwatering pastries. Shoppers could also purchase bonsai plants, painted rocks, teacup candles, jelly bean bracelets, children’s art aprons, cupcake Christmas ornaments, quilted holders for pan handles, and much more.
Autumn held hands with both her mother and Sallie, proclaiming that she was in a “love sandwich,” which made Sallie grin.
The weather was pleasant for the all-day event—not as hot and muggy as it had been previously that week. Occasionally, the three of them stopped to listen to roving musicians and other local talent scattered throughout the different sections of the promenade.
When Autumn spotted a tented area featuring mirrors and wall-sized initials adorned with seashells, Sallie let go of Autumn’s hand to look for an A.
“Oh, wouldn’t this be perfect for your room here?” Sallie said, quickly discovering that the A’s must have been exceptionally popular with customers, as there were none left.
“What letter are you looking for?” a pleasant-looking middle-aged woman asked, a floral hair clip on one side of her shoulder-length brown hair, a seashell necklace about her throat. Her eyes caught Sallie’s and lingered. She seems to know me, thought Sallie, finding it peculiar. Or is it just my Plain attire?
“A for Autumn,” Sallie said, offering a smile.
“And S for Sallie,” Autumn said, laughing as she moved closer to the long table where the exquisite seashell-adorned initials were displayed.
Around that time, the brunette lifeguard arrived at the tent. Casually, she slipped behind the table and took a seat next to the craftswoman, grinning over at Autumn, who looked up just then and spotted her.
“Mommy, this is one of the lifeguards who helped Sallie and me back to the beach. Her name’s Bethany.”
“I’m thrilled to meet you.” Monique reached across the display table and shook her hand. “Thanks for helping my daughter and her nanny.”
Sallie nodded her head at Bethany. “Do you make these?” she asked, gesturing toward the initials.
“Sometimes I help my aunt with them.” Bethany glanced at the woman who was still searching for A’s and S’s. “By the way, Aunt Cathy, this is the little girl and her nanny I was telling you about,” Bethany said, introducing them politely.
Sallie held her breath. Was this Kevin’s mother?
“It’s wonderful that you’re both safe.” The lovely woman smiled jovially and reached out to shake Sallie’s hand. “Bethany here tells me that you knew enough to swim out of the rip current.”
“Yes,” Autumn said, looking adoringly at Sallie. “Miss Sallie rescued me.”
“Well, that’s a blessing, for sure. Many swimmers panic and are lost to the sea.”
After a moment, Sallie changed the subject and asked about her wares. “How’d you get interested in doin’ this?”
“I saw a mirror frame decorated with shells at the nature center and got the idea to make initials in a similar fashion,” Cathy told her.
“Look, I found an A,” Autumn announced, reaching for Sallie’s hand. “But there’s no S for you.”
“Well, do ya ever take special orders?” Sallie asked.
“Of course,” Cathy said, nodding her head. “Simply jot down your name and phone number.” She gave Sallie a tablet and pen.
“We’ll be headin’ home next weekend, so I’ll have to pass.”
Cathy shook
her head. “We can package it and mail it to you, if you’d like.”
Sallie pondered that, picturing her room at Essie’s. “Okay, that’ll be just fine.” She wrote down her name and her Lancaster County address.
“Here’s my business card in the meantime,” Cathy said, handing it to her.
“Denki.” Sallie gave her cash for the purchase.
Cathy lifted her gaze for a moment. “Are you . . . uh, would you happen to know my son Kevin?” she asked.
Caught off guard, Sallie glanced at Autumn, feeling tongue-tied, realizing that Kevin’s mother likely would’ve been Amish had her parents remained in Nickel Mines.
Autumn was grinning, so Sallie had to say something. “I do know him, jah.”
“What a nice surprise to meet you, Sallie. Kevin’s talked quite a lot about you.” The woman smiled at her again, then returned her attention to writing the receipt. “Thanks very much for stopping by. You may expect your package to arrive in a month to six weeks.”
“There’s really no hurry,” Sallie said, then thanked her again, feeling all self-conscious. What did Kevin tell her?
Monique motioned toward another tent across the way, and Sallie and Autumn followed.
“That lady was so nice,” Autumn said, slipping on her little red sunglasses. “Thanks for the seashell initial, Miss Sallie . . . a souvenir of our summer together.”
“Oh, you’re welcome, sweetie.” Sallie glanced at the business card. Cathy’s Creations—Cathy Kreider of Norma, New Jersey.
“Ach, what a coincidence,” she whispered.
42
After Sunday lunch with the Logans, Sallie rested at the cottage, her nap distressed by watery dreams of sinking into the depths of the ocean, thrashing about no matter how much she willed herself to stay calm.
Jerking awake, she gasped for breath and heard knocking at the front door. She scrambled to her feet and wandered out to see Autumn, who stood there wearing the baby carrier with Connor tucked inside. “Hullo, you two,” she said, relieved to see them.
“Did we wake you up?” Autumn asked, stepping into the cottage.
“I was just taking a snooze. It’s so hot and muggy out.”
“Be thankful for air conditioning, Mommy always says.”
“Ain’t that the truth!” Sallie followed Autumn into the living area and sat next to her on the sofa. “I’ll miss that for sure when I return home.”
“Not as much as I’m going to miss you. But at least I’ll have Connor for company.” Autumn smiled down at him. “Watch how he follows my finger,” she said, demonstrating. “He’s starting to reach for my hair, too.”
“I think he likes his big sister very much.” Sallie was tickled, seeing Autumn this attentive to her baby brother. It’s good to see them bonding at last.
“He’s so adorable.” Autumn leaned close and kissed his soft pink cheek. “Oh, by the way, Daddy says we should go on the dolphin-and-whale-watching cruise this week,” Autumn said. “Want to?”
“That’s a great idea.”
“And Rhiannon wants to go, too. Is that okay?”
“Fine with me, if her grandparents approve.”
Autumn talked about the school friends she’d be seeing again soon, but none seemed as special to her as Rhiannon. “I wish I could see her more often,” she said sadly.
Sallie’s thoughts flew to Kevin, but she dismissed them. “We must make every minute count during our last week here, ain’t so?”
“Funny—Daddy said the same thing at breakfast.” Autumn pressed her cheek against Connor’s fuzzy head. “Are you looking forward to going home, Miss Sallie?”
Lately, Sallie hadn’t wanted to think much about that. “Honestly, it’s hard to think of leavin’ Cape May.”
“Well, what’s it like living on a farm?”
Sallie could almost imagine the golden edges of the cornstalks, signaling high summer . . . Mamm and Frannie would be out picking blackberries and blueberries, too. She told Autumn that mothers would be sewing up a storm before their children returned to the one-room schoolhouse the fathers were preparing for classes once again.
Autumn looked spellbound. “What else?”
“Let’s see, by now the pumpkin vines have been sprouting perty yellow flowers, and come October, the biggest pumpkins you’ve ever seen will be all lined up for sale on our roadside stand, catching the attention of passersby.”
“Like at Duckies Farm Market?”
“Jah, a lot like that.”
“Do you work in the barn, too?” Autumn asked.
“Sometimes, ’specially in the winter. I help to keep the water troughs from freezin’ up, so the cows won’t grumble. And, ach, can they ever.”
Autumn giggled. Connor was growing droopy eyed, clearly at home next to his sister’s heart.
Sallie told her about helping her father make sure the hay wagon was in good working order. “My sister and I groom the horses, too—I don’t mind doin’ that at all.”
“You seemed to have lots of fun with Frannie when she visited.”
“Oh, ever so much,” Sallie said.
“So . . . your family would miss you if you married Kevin,” said Autumn quietly, locking eyes with her.
Sallie tried not to look shocked. “Kevin and I were friends, sweetie, and that’s that.” Sallie sighed, quickly changing the subject. “What day should we go on the cruise, do ya think?”
“Mommy’s checking the weather, hoping for a clear day.”
“Clear is gut, jah.”
Autumn bobbed her head and said she’d check which day once her mother got off the phone. “She’s talking to Grandma Logan while Daddy swims laps.”
“Your mother seems to have more time to herself than when I first arrived,” Sallie mentioned, “which is nice.”
Autumn beamed, adding, “She is, and I’m going to help her more.”
“Connor is one seelich little brother . . . which means he’s blessed to have you as his big sister.”
Autumn grinned. “And I’m seelich, too.”
“Absolutely.”
Sallie’s heart leaped up when the phone rang in the cottage Monday evening, after another full day at the beach. She hurried to the phone, wondering who was calling.
Then, seeing the 717 area code on the ID, she knew it had to be someone from home, most likely her sister Frannie. Not Kevin.
“Wie geht’s, Schweschder?” she answered.
“Hullo, Sallie. It’s Essie.”
“Well, how nice!”
“We’re lookin’ forward to your return.”
“Won’t be long now.” Hearing Essie’s voice, she suddenly missed the whole family.
Then, unexpectedly, Essie mentioned Marion and Gladys, Perry’s younger sisters. “They stopped to talk with your Mamm and me after our walk today, askin’ when you were coming home. So I took the liberty of sayin’.”
“Perry might’ve put them up to it. He’s been writing to me this summer.”
“Sounds smitten.”
“Well, reading between the lines, jah.” She felt a little presumptuous saying that, but she knew it was true.
They talked about all the canning going on, and the womenfolk gathering for this and that. “’Course, there’ll still be plenty to do after your homecoming—we’ll all have a lot of fun together.”
After they said good-bye, Sallie sat down and wrote to her circle-letter friends in upstate New York. Then later, she read through each of Perry’s weekly letters, wondering if it was possible to feel for him what she’d felt for Kevin. Maybe, she thought. In time.
She recalled their plan to talk at summer’s end. Perry will want to see me when I return. And with that, she placed the panda bear in the closet and closed the door.
The whale-and-dolphin cruise began at one o’clock that Wednesday afternoon—a three-hour journey around Cape May. Dozens of bottle-nosed dolphins swam on either side of the boat, diving for fish and playing in the wake. Sallie was awestruck at seeing
these playful mammals up close and was delighted the Logans had suggested this final outing.
Sitting at the front of the boat, Sallie, Autumn, and Rhiannon listened as the marine biologist on board shared interesting tidbits while occasionally pointing out dolphins. They even spotted a couple of newborn dolphin calves nuzzling their mothers. Sallie was surprised to hear that the mammals slept with half of their brain wide-awake in order to surface and breathe.
The captain also humorously told the crowd that his yellow Labrador retriever swam with one particular dolphin nearly every day in the spring and summer, just off the shore from his house. This brought a round of laughter from the children on board. But for Sallie, the best part was learning that dolphins were sometimes known to rescue injured people, or those in danger of drowning, by helping them to the surface for air.
When the marine biologist invited questions, it occurred to her that, one day, Kevin might hold a captain’s position on a boat somewhere in the world, probably as a hobby. But she wouldn’t spoil the moment by reminiscing about that aspect of the best and worst of all summers. Challenging as these last weeks had been, there was no going back now.
Sallie observed wide-eyed Autumn and Rhiannon, their arms entwined as they enjoyed their final vacation days together. Till next year.
At the touch tank on the boat, Autumn and Rhiannon actually kissed the horseshoe crab for twenty years of good luck, all in fun. And Autumn said she made a secret wish, too, grinning right at Sallie.
———
The first sighting of a forty-foot humpback whale brought a burst of enthusiasm and glee from the other tourists. Sallie stared at the nearly heart-stopping phenomenon as the enormous creature glided gracefully out of the water, then slipped back into the depths, its tail slapping the water behind it. By the close of the tour, she had counted a total of six humpback whales.
“A truly good day out on the water,” the captain deemed it, and Sallie had to agree. A fitting finale to my time here.
43
Sallie shielded her heart as Monique drove out of Cape May on the planned Saturday, past the old bandstand at Rotary Park and Washington Square, the Lobster House, and then onto the bridge spanning the Delaware Bay.
The Ebb Tide Page 22