Becca grinned even as she muttered, “I guess we’ll work off the calories tomorrow.”
Then they were rolling again. Soon they had left Dallas behind. The bus continued down the interstate and stopped briefly at Waco, Temple, and Austin. They pulled into the bus terminal briefly in San Antonio, again in the downtown area. All four of them crowded close to the window in order to catch glimpses of the River Walk. Then the land flattened out and they entered cattle country.
“Big ranches out here,” he said.
“Ya? My grossdaddi told me there’s a small community of Amish in Beeville.”
“We’ll pass fairly close to it. To the west, I believe. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some from the Beeville community are helping at our work site.”
“How do you know so much about Texas?” Becca asked. She had taken the window seat when Joshua left to use the restroom. Now she cornered herself against the window and the wall of the bus and studied him. It made him a little nervous to be the focus of her attention, but he also found he liked it.
“Not so much. Just what I read in the Budget.”
“Read the paper, do you?”
“Usually several times because there isn’t much else to read.” He nodded toward the novel she was holding in her lap. “I see you like to visit the library.”
“Guilty. Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep at night.”
“Books help you sleep?”
“Well, not exactly. They keep me awake because I want to see what happens to the characters, but at least they take my mind off the fact that I can’t sleep.”
Joshua didn’t know what to say to that, so he nodded and glanced past her out the window.
“Do you ever have trouble sleeping?”
“Me? Not usually.” He started to tell her about the night before but decided she probably didn’t want to hear his problems. “I think working in the fields helps. Most of the time, even if my mind wants to wrestle with things, my body insists on sleep.”
He didn’t add that often while he was on the tractor his mind dwelled on subjects best left alone.
And then they were talking naturally, and Joshua forgot to be nervous. They discussed the recent slew of marriages in their community, what they were looking forward to about summer, and how members of their families were doing. Finally, they started talking about the mission and what they expected to find when they arrived at the Texas coast.
Joshua was surprised when the bus began to slow down, and then they were entering the area of Aransas Pass. Up to that point, they hadn’t seen much to indicate that Hurricane Orion had marked a path across the area. There had been a few of the large highway signs blown down, and one house in the distance had been destroyed by a small tornado spawned by the storm.
“Eleven tornadoes raked through Texas as Orion moved inland.” Nancy’s voice had taken on a solemn tone, and Joshua tried to remember if she’d always lived in Cody’s Creek. Then it occurred to him that her farm was one of the places hit when the twisters came through in the fall the year before. He didn’t think she’d sustained a lot of damage.
He’d volunteered at many of the job sites in their area. Samuel Schwartz had been the one most affected. Not only had he lost all of his crop, but his niece had been hurt—paralyzed, in fact.
As they were unloading their things from the bus, he noticed more signs of the hurricane. Several buildings next to the bus stop were in the process of being rebuilt, but gaps remained between most of the structures, places with a foundation but no building at all. Had that been the result of Orion?
A white van pulled up behind the bus. On the side of it were the letters MDS, and below that the words Mennonite Disaster Service. Next to the letters was a blue circle. Within the circle were two hands clasped in a handshake. The background consisted of a white cross. Their team leader introduced himself as Jim Snyder. He thanked them for coming and said they would have an introductory meeting in the morning to answer any of their questions.
He looked a few years older than Joshua—thirty or thirty-five, tops. He wore no beard, but then that didn’t mean much. He could be married or not. The Mennonite rules regarding beards, dress, and technology were much more flexible than Amish rules.
As Jim explained that they would be traveling to Port Aransas via a ferry, Joshua looked around. The trip had gone much faster than he had expected, though he imagined that was because he had been sitting next to Becca instead of Alton.
Alton had slept through so much of the trip that he now looked bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Sarah was once again chewing on her thumbnail, something she seemed to do whenever she was nervous.
Nancy clucked—yes, actually clucked—and herded them all toward the waiting van.
But it was Becca that Joshua watched the most closely. When she stepped out of the bus and breathed deeply of the sea air, a smile spread across her face. He realized, not for the first time, what a beautiful woman she was. He heard Levi’s words, “If you keep waiting for the right time, you may never begin.”
Was that what he had been doing? Waiting? Stalling? Allowing his fear to restrict his hopes and dreams?
Because at that moment he couldn’t think of a single reason not to court Becca Troyer.
CHAPTER 25
Becca wasn’t sure what she had expected the Gulf of Mexico to look like. Certainly she’d read about the ocean, the beach, and the rolling waves, but the reality was completely different from the descriptions.
After the MDS van drove onto the ferry, Jim told them they could get out and walk around the boat. Becca was more tired than she would have thought possible. After all, she hadn’t done anything but sit all day. Perhaps that explained her disorientation. It was almost as if a fog had settled over her brain.
She stumbled when she stepped down out of the van, but Joshua caught her. “Careful, Becca. You don’t have your sea legs yet.”
“Sea legs? Didn’t know I needed to bring those.”
He waited until he was sure she was steady on her feet, and then he followed her to the side of the ferry. She had trouble processing so many different sights and sounds at once. The cry of seagulls filled the sky, and a few children standing at the end of the boat reached into a bag and pulled out pieces of bread. The birds dipped and dived, plucking the bread from the outstretched hands before flying back out over the water.
The sun had nearly finished its journey toward the horizon. A vast array of colors splashed across the evening sky and then bounced off the water. Becca realized her mother would love to draw what she was staring at, and that thought made her suddenly homesick, though she’d been away for less than a day. She’d brought her journal. It occurred to her that she could write down descriptions of what she was seeing. Perhaps if she were detailed enough, her mother would be able to paint a set of coastal cards.
“Not a bad place to serve on a mission team,” Joshua said.
Becca swiped at hair that was pulling loose from her kapp. “It looks so peaceful. It’s hard to imagine a storm that could cause so much destruction.”
“Most of it was over in Corpus and on the island.” Nancy had walked up beside them. “There was also quite a bit of destruction in Kingsville which is to the southwest. By the time the storm turned inland, much of its fury was spent.”
“Other than the eleven tornadoes.” Joshua opted to hold his hat rather than risk losing it.
“Yes, the tornadoes caused some damage but no loss of life. Unlike the actual landfall of Orion—which took twenty-four souls.”
Alton and Sarah had moved closer and were listening solemnly. Becca was sure that each was remembering the tornadoes that had struck their small community. Compared to the destruction Nancy was describing, theirs seemed minor. But then tragedy was never minor when it happened to someone you loved.
“What are we going to be working on?” Alton asked.
It was the first indication Becca had seen that Joshua’s brother had any i
nterest in their mission. At one point during their bus trip, while Alton was asleep, Joshua had shared with her the fact that this was her grandfather’s idea. When Joshua had asked Alton about going the day Levi had visited their farm, Alton had merely shrugged and asked, “Do I have any choice?”
Joshua hadn’t considered that a rousing sign of enthusiasm, but Becca wasn’t sure what he could have expected. No one liked being given an ultimatum, and that was basically what they had done to Alton—though for good reasons, she was sure.
Now Alton stood, bracing his hands against the side of the boat and closely watching the approaching shoreline. It occurred to Becca then that perhaps Joshua’s brother was merely bored back home. Certainly that could happen. She felt that way at times—an itch of restlessness, the occasional daydream about what life might be like elsewhere. It wasn’t a sin to wonder about other people and places.
Could it be that the life of a farmer was not the life Alton was meant to live? And if so, perhaps he could find his calling here, in Port Aransas, while they worked to alleviate the pain and suffering of others.
Then he turned and winked at Sarah, and Becca’s lofty ideas popped like a balloon at a birthday party. It could be that they would be lucky merely to keep Alton out of trouble, and she planned to watch him closely with Sarah. That girl had been through enough without having her heart broken because she was the only available Amish girl around.
Which wasn’t quite true.
Becca was available, but the thought of herself in a relationship with Alton caused laughter to bubble from her lips.
Joshua glanced at her, an eyebrow raised in question, but she only shook her head. They were nearing Port Aransas, and it was time to climb back into the van.
The tiredness she’d felt before had fallen away, and her mind began to clear as a ripple of excitement pumped through her veins. Three weeks living on a beach sounded like a real vacation to her. No gardening. Only her own laundry to do. And mostly they would eat light—cereal and sandwiches and such, so the cooking would be minimal. She hadn’t realized how much she needed a change until she hurried back into the van and buckled her seat belt, feeling like one of the characters in the books she loved to read.
It was just the six of them in the van. Nancy was up front, sitting next to Jim. They were talking about the weather and the work that lay ahead. Sarah and Alton were discussing what they hoped to do while on the island—beachcombing for Sarah and surfing for Alton. Joshua sat beside Becca. He’d leaned forward to ask Alton what, if anything, he knew about staying upright on a surfboard.
And then the ferry docked and the attendants began motioning for the vehicles to drive out onto the street. As they trundled past the dock area, suddenly everyone in the van fell silent.
In vacant lots along the road, piles of debris were stacked up six, eight, even ten feet high. Certainly taller than Becca. To her it looked like a towering mountain of trash. In the fading light, she could just make out boards, parts of a ship, a couch, even a ragged teddy bear thrown onto the heap.
“Why hasn’t the debris been carted away?” Joshua asked.
“Oh, it has been,” Jim replied. “They’ve been taking off more than a hundred trucks a day since Orion hit. But every day people bring more. These are the designated lots for dumping, or people can wait until the disposal company reaches their property.”
“But Orion hit seven months ago,” Sarah said.
“True. It’s hard to conceive the amount of debris when you have a hurricane like Orion. The wreckage you’re looking at is a result of wind damage as well as flooding. We saw this in Galveston as well. After Ike hit in 2008, the Gulf Bank debris collection site received an average of four hundred and fifty trucks a day. A year later, they were still receiving truckloads from the damaged areas.”
About half of the buildings on the road they traveled down were surrounded by yellow Caution tape. In other places, the site had been cleared of debris, and only a concrete foundation indicated that something had once existed there. They passed three, then four, and five buildings that had survived the storm—seemingly unscathed. Five buildings in the ten-minute drive it took them to reach their destination.
Temporary structures had been built in some places. Apparently, groceries were being sold out of trailers, but they looked nothing like mobile buildings Becca had seen before. She’d looked up FEMA trailers at their local library. Those had looked like small mobile homes. These structures were quite different. When they slowed at a light, Becca saw the letters FEMA written on the side of one. Then she noticed that similar structures were everywhere. They were serving as stores, medical offices, and even homes. Many were stacked two and three stories high, and to Becca they looked almost like freight train cars—only nicer and with doors and windows.
Jim turned down a street, continued for another block, and then pulled up to the curb and parked.
More temporary structures were stacked two high on the south side of the street, and cleared home foundations sat on the right. Two homes had been rebuilt. They looked cozy and efficient, and they provided a beam of hope in an otherwise desolate picture. Next to those two homes was an empty lot, followed by three other homes that were in various stages of completion—one looked nearly finished, though there was still scaffolding along one wall. Another had the frame up but little else. And then there was a third where nothing had been built, but boxes of supplies sat waiting, covered with a tarp.
Which one would they be working on? And who were the people who would eventually live there?
Becca’s mind filled with questions as they made their way out of the van. She wondered where they were supposed to sleep and eat and bathe.
As they stood on the street, an elderly gentleman with a black dog pulled up behind them. He was driving a pickup. The dog waited for permission, though it was clear it wanted to run and welcome them. At least Becca hoped it had a welcome in mind. The beast was rather large, but it didn’t look like an attack dog.
The night was quiet, with little traffic noise, so she could hear the man as he opened his door and said, “Come on, Quitz. Let’s meet the new folks.”
CHAPTER 26
Charlie tried to not be critical of the folks standing in front of him. He’d helped coordinate work sites with MDS for months now—the good folks of Mennonite Disaster Services had arrived within days of Orion, and they had done amazing work. This time was different though. These people would be working to finish Alice’s house.
Did they have any experience at all? Could they be counted on to show up rather than skipping a shift to play in the sand and surf?
Would they be able to finish Alice’s house in time for her to move into it in two weeks as she’d planned?
He pushed his worries to the back of his mind and hurried over to say hello.
“I’d like you all to meet Charlie Everman and Quitz,” Jim said. “He acts as a liaison between the people we’re helping and MDS.”
“I’m a retired English teacher and a longtime resident of Port A.” Charlie stopped to clear his throat, as he fought to hold his emotions at bay—emotions that too often intruded upon his day and stole his sleep at night. “In other words, I’m an old codger who hangs around the job site.”
Laughter sprinkled throughout the small group.
Jim slapped Charlie on the back and then made introductions. “Nancy has experience working with MDS before.”
The older woman nodded slightly.
“Joshua and Alton are brothers, and this is their first mission trip.”
Joshua was the older of the two and also looked to be more serious. Alton kept whispering to the smaller of the two girls.
“Sarah and Becca are from the same community as Joshua and Alton. In fact, they’re all from Cody’s Creek, Oklahoma.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Charlie admitted.
The group smiled knowingly at one another, as if they’d heard that response before. They must have come from a fair
ly small town.
Joshua said, “We’re to the east of Tulsa.”
“Tulsa I’ve visited,” Charlie said. “Thank you for coming. Actually, one of the homes you’ll be working on, the one that is seventy percent done, belongs to a very dear friend of mine. You’ll meet Alice and the kids this weekend. Until then, they send you their deepest thanks.”
He swiped at his eyes and pulled in a deep breath.
The group seemed to sense that this was an emotional moment for him. Then one of the boys spoke up—Alton, if Charlie remembered correctly. He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen with a thin build, blue eyes, and blond hair. “What’s the dog’s story, Charlie?”
The Labrador pressed against Charlie’s leg when he reached down to touch the top of her head. “She was to be our last dog, which is why we named her Quitz.”
Again polite laughter filled the night.
“She saved me. I suppose you could say she’s an angel sent by God—an angel who has been with me for years now.” His eyes flicked toward the ocean. “She literally plucked me from Orion’s waters, but that’s a story for another day.”
There were groans and accusations of Charlie being a tease, but the group seemed to relax. The ice had been broken, and they were a team now. At least Charlie hoped that was the case.
“I’ll take the guys to see their luxury accommodations,” Jim said.
“And I’ll escort you ladies.”
They crossed the street to the FEMA trailers, and Jim and his charges climbed up to the second level. Jim spoke with the two Amish boys—though Charlie supposed they were not boys but men. He needed to quit thinking of anyone under thirty-five as a boy. Joshua and Alton followed Jim into their trailer.
Charlie pulled a key out of his pocket, unlocked the door, and then he handed the key to the older woman.
“Danki.”
He’d learned from previous work crews that danki meant thank you, but he only knew how to respond in Texan. “You’re quite welcome, ma’am. If you don’t mind my coming in, I’ll point out a few of the features.”
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