by Gail Sattler
Ted's breath came out in a puff of white. "I cannot imagine that."
"It's true."
Ted pressed his lips together. He immediately regretted bringing up the subject of Seattle. In a week, she would be gone, and he didn't want to think about that. "Let me help you with the skates."
He tugged off her boots, then squatted behind the shelter of the open door while Miranda remained seated in the car.She had such tiny feet, he felt as if he were doing up skates for his small cousin who attended this very school. As soon as Miranda's skates were securely fastened, he put on his own, and walked around the car to help her out.
She wobbled for a few seconds, then straightened herself.When she was steady enough, he led her through the parking lot and to the newly iced rink.
"There are no sideboards. How am I going to do this?"
He extended his arm. "You can hold onto me."
She grabbed onto his arm and held it in a death grip, but she still didn't move her feet. "I don't know if this is such a good idea. Tonight is opening night, and it won't be so good if I show up in a wheelchair."
"If you are nervous, how about if I pull you?" She released his arm, so he skated a few circles around her, stopped directly in front facing her, and extended both arms. "Give me your hands. It will be fun."
"You can skate backwards?"
"Of course."
She shrugged her shoulders and offered him her arms.
"You will fall that way. You must balance yourself. Hunch down . . . like this." He bent his knees into a partial squat to show her what to do. When she followed his example, he grasped her hands and slowly started backward. When she adjusted her position to balance out the movement, he increased his speed.
At first the terror on her face made him wonder if he'd done the right thing, but after only a quarter of the way across the rink, her eyes brightened, and by the time they were halfway across, she was asking him to go faster.
He pulled her three times around the rink, then had to stop to catch his breath. "I am sadly out of shape. I have not been getting enough exercise, and I have definitely been eating too much."
"It's okay. I think I'm ready to try skating on my own. But I'll still need your help to catch me when I fall."
He noticed that she didn't say "if."
Miranda didn't do very well, but he was pleased that she tried, at least. In the twenty minutes she took to go once around the rink, she spent more time on her bottom than her feet, but he had to give her credit for trying.
She pressed both hands over the back pockets of her jeans."This is fun, but if I do any more, I won't be able to sit for a week."
"I understand. Besides, it is past lunchtime, and you are probably hungry."
He led her back to the place where they had entered the ice, but for some reason, he thought Miranda skated slower and slower. By the time they were ready to step off the ice, she was standing still.
"Is something wrong?"
"This is really strange. I've had enough skating, but I don't want to leave here. Can we stay a bit longer?"
"We can do anything you want."
He led her to the car, but instead of sitting when he opened the door, she turned toward him and rested her hands on his shoulders. "You know what I really need right now? A hug."
He didn't ask why. In fact, it sounded like a great idea.
He slipped his arms around her back and held her tight, knowing that with the busy schedule they had in the next few days, this might be the last time they could be alone together.
Holding her wasn't enough.
He lowered his head to press their cheeks together. The cold of her skin against his came as another reminder that if he didn't do this now, he might never have another chance.
"Ich leewe die," he whispered in her ear, then turned just enough for his lips to find hers and kissed her with all the love in his heart.
She turned her head just enough to break the contact but didn't move away. "If you just said what I think you said, then I love you too," she whispered against his lips, then kissed him again.
Ted no longer felt the cold. The whole world faded while he embraced the woman he loved. The heat of her kisses could have melted the snow around them, and he wouldn't have noticed. The only thing that would have made the moment any better would have been if he could unfasten the buttons of their coats and hold her closer.
The crunching of snow and the giggling of children forced him to break the kiss, but he refused to release her from his arms.
"What are we going to do?" he asked, his voice coming out strangely rough.
"I don't know. You know I can't stay here. Don't you? As much as I want to right now, I know for the long term, it wouldn't work."
"I know that." He'd always known that. He knew it from the moment he first saw her when she got off the plane, and he knew it even when she put the finishing touches on the quilt that she'd made with Elaine and the group of women with the Wednesday morning quilting circle. He especially knew it now, after she had lived here for a year. The simple life their community led was perfect for some, but wrong for others.
For Miranda, it was wrong. No matter how hard she had tried, and she had tried, she wouldn't be happy here for the long term. And her happiness was all that mattered.
From the inside of the car, Miranda's cell phone beeped for a missed call. Miranda wiggled away from him, and he let her.She reached under the seat to retrieve her purse and checked her phone.
"It's a text message from Anna. She says that man you were waiting to hear from called you back."
Ted checked his watch. "This is very important. I must get back to work. We do not have time to stop for lunch as I had planned."
"That's okay." She plopped herself down on the seat and began to loosen the laces of the skates. "We can just go through the drive-thru . . . oops, never mind. You don't have a drivethru here. You don't even have a McDonald's."
"No, but if you phone Elena, she will have a good lunch ready for us to pick up by the time we get there, and we can take it back to the office."
She patted his arm. "No, I have so much to do, you should just drop me off at Lois's house, and you go back to the office and make that phone call. I'll see you tonight anyway."
He sighed and walked around to the driver's side, where he opened the door and sat sideways on the seat to remove his skates. He didn't want to take her home, but they had no choice. Tonight was the start of the five- day run of performances for the play. Regardless of what he wanted for his own purposes, this was why she had come.
They drove to Leonard and Lois's house in silence. When he walked her to the door, instead of kissing her as he burned to do, he gave her a quick brush on the lips to avoid giving the neighbors a show, and stepped back. "I will see you later tonight." It wasn't enough, so he leaned forward and kissed her again quickly, one more time. "Do not forget, I love you."
"I love you too. Now you go take care of business, and I'll see you at the church. If we don't have a chance to talk, it'll be great, and God's message will shine through, as it should. And that's the reason all this has happened."
Miranda held hands with William on one side and Anna on the other and bowed to the roaring applause. In her own church, for a normal presentation, an audience of believers never clapped for any performance, no matter how good they were. Certainly, none of Ted's church members would ever clap.
This thunder of applause meant that the people who had enjoyed the show were exactly the ones they wanted to host, people from beyond the community of Ted's church and the towns beyond, people who didn't know that Mennonites don't clap in church.
The same thing had happened after every evening's performance.
Today was Christmas Eve, and not only had the sanctuary been packed to capacity, the standing-room-only section had also been filled. All tickets had been distributed, so the number of guests had been divided evenly among the five nights. With the audience numbers preassigned, they had allo
wed enough extra room so that people who came without a ticket could stay, even though many of them would have to stand. Experience had taught her that many of the people who attended church on Christmas Eve came to church only this one day of the year.With this arrangement, no one would be turned away.
God was good.
In all five performances, no one had wrecked their lines except Pastor Jake, but he bluffed his way through and everyone managed to go with the flow. On the second night, Mr.Reinhart had again placed himself on the wrong side of the townspeople group. When everyone around him figured out that it would take too much time to help him work his way over the cords and wires to move to his proper place, they all rearranged themselves into a mirror image of their positions, so all the motions and movement flowed, just the opposite way from what they'd practiced.
Miranda had only looked into the bucket three times over the five performances, and not once had she felt like throwing up.
God was very good.
The applause continued, so they all bowed again, smiling for the crowd of strangers, many of whom would hopefully become brothers and sisters in Christ. There would be many prayer meetings tonight. Then everyone would go home, ready to be with their families on Christmas morning.
Miranda squinted through the spotlight, looking toward the piano for Ted.
She had a two a.m. flight out of Minneapolis, and they had to leave soon so she could catch it. Even if she didn't get any sleep, she was going to be with her dad on Christmas morning.
Finally, the applause ended and the crowd began to disperse, allowing the cast to leave. But Miranda had yet to spot the face she really wanted to see.
Miranda gathered up her skirts and trudged off the stage.While the flowing dress she'd worn as Mary was comfortable enough, every time she moved she seemed to step on an edge of the loose skirt. She could hardly wait to change back into her old jeans. She gathered the skirts up in her arms and slowly made her way down the stairs, one step at a time so she wouldn't trip. Just as she reached the floor and released the armfuls of fabric, her cell phone rang.
Miranda smiled. It would be her dad, asking how everything went and confirming that she wasn't going to miss her flight.
The area code showed the call as originating from the Seattle area, but the number on her call display was not one she recognized.The name shown wasn't a person, but the name of a business. Which meant this call was for Ted.
She couldn't believe someone would call for business so late on Christmas Eve. She almost answered to tell whoever it was what she thought of such rudeness, but to do so would have been even ruder.
Instead of rushing off to the ladies' room to change, she headed for the piano to find Ted. She found him talking to a man in the crowd. Of course, the phone had stopped ringing by the time she found him.
"Miranda, it is a good thing you are here. I must talk to you.It is very important. But first, I would like to introduce you to Chad Jones. I think you will find that Chad has an interesting story to share."
She turned to Chad and smiled graciously. "Good evening, Chad. Sorry to interrupt." She handed her cell phone to Ted."I don't know who this person is, but someone called for you a few minutes ago. It must be terribly important for them to call on Christmas Eve like this. You might want to call them back."
Ted pushed the button to read the number. His eyebrows arched when the number appeared on the screen. "Excuse me.I must find a quiet place and call him back. This is very important.I will not be long."
Ted disappeared around the corner, leaving her alone with Chad. All she wanted to do was change out of her costume, but she couldn't be impolite to a stranger. She turned to him."I hope you enjoyed our play."
He smiled. "Yes. I did. It wasn't at all what I expected to see in a place like this." He paused. "Please don't take that the wrong way. It was really good, which is why I was so surprised.You have a talented group of people here."
"Yes, we do." The ability and willingness to do their best at something they'd never done before was like nothing she had ever seen. Being here was an experience she would never forget, on so many levels.
She tried to be discreet as she looked at the corner where Ted had gone. She had only hours left here, and she wanted to spend every minute she could with Ted, not a stranger. She again smiled at Chad. "Where are you from? I'm curious to know how you found out about our play."
"It's funny you should ask. I actually didn't intend to be here. I was driving around and got lost, then I ran out of gas down the block. The gas station was closed, and the church looked like something was going on with all the people and lights, so I walked in and got a very pleasant surprise."
So much for the megabucks Ted's church had spent on advertising. Not only that, this man didn't even have a preassigned seat ticket.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it. We—"
Her sentence was cut off by Ted's abrupt return. Instead of looking annoyed at being disturbed by a business phone call, he was smiling like the cat that had just swallowed the canary.He hadn't even left his hat on the rack at the door; he was still holding it in his hand.
Miranda was curious about what had him acting so strangely, but more than anything else, she needed to change out of the cumbersome costume, and then they had to leave for the airport. Her suitcase was already packed in Ted's car, so all she had to do was make a quick trip to the ladies' room, and they could leave. Knowing her time would be short, she had already said her good-byes and expressed her thanks to Pastor Jake, Len and Lois, and everyone else she was leaving behind.
"It was nice meeting you, Chad. I'm going to go change, and then Ted and I have to leave quickly. I have a plane to catch."
Ted shook his head. "I will be dropping Chad off at my house before we go. He is going to stay the night."
Not caring that she looked rude, Miranda grabbed Ted by the elbow and dragged him away from Chad. "Are you crazy? You don't know him or anything about him. It would be one thing to have him at your house while you're there, but you aren't really going to leave him at your house unattended all night while you take me to the airport, are you?"
"It is okay. We had a good talk, and I trust him. Besides . . ." Ted pulled a wallet and a set of keys out of his pocket.". . . he has given me his wallet, which contains his driver's license, credit cards, and a couple of hundred dollars as a security bond. His car is out of gas, yet he has also given me his car keys. Brian will not open the gas station on the Lord's birthday, but he did remove a few necessary parts so Chad's car will not start, even if the gas tank happened to be full and he had a spare key hidden."
"Oh!"
"If you wish to change, you should do that now. It will take a few extra minutes to drop Chad at my house and show him where to find the things he needs. He is also hungry and will make himself something to eat."
"If you've eaten all the leftovers I put in your fridge, tell him that there's a can of—" The ringing of the phone cut her sentence short. "That's got to be Dad! But the tone means he's texting."
Ted's face paled. "Your papa? Wait!"
Miranda flipped the phone open. "This is weird. It says, 'U shd no tht ur young man asked 4 my'—"
Before she could press the button to flip the screen to read the whole message, Ted grabbed the phone out of her hand.
"Hey!" she shouted as he held it high above his head. She reached out to grab it back, but he didn't relent. Knowing he wouldn't expect it, she tensed, hunched down just enough, then jumped up high and grabbed his wrist. Ted's eyes widened, but instead of releasing the phone, he dropped to one knee. While Miranda held tightly to his wrist, he pressed his other hand to his chest, covering his heart with his hat.
"Ted? What are you doing?"
"I planned to ask you this in the car, where we could have some privacy, but . . ." He inhaled deeply. "I love you, Miranda.You have made my life complete, and I cannot live without you. Wells du miene fru siena? Will you be my wife?"
"I . . . but . . ." Mira
nda's head swam. She had prayed every day for the past month for guidance if she should stay in Piney Meadows. Nothing had happened to give her a strong feeling about staying. In fact, the opposite had happened. So much had told her—emphatically—that she did not belong here.
"I have asked for your papa's permission, and he has given me his blessing to ask you. I have also been offered a job in Seattle, which I will accept if you will have me as your husband."
"A job? In Seattle? Are you saying that you'll give up everything here just for me?"
"What I have here is not important. I can buy another house, and Onkel Bart has given me his blessing to leave and be with you. The furniture factory will not fail just because I am no longer there. The only thing that will fail will be my heart if I cannot be with you."
"But I know how much you hate it when you have to travel to any of the big cities for your business trips."
He smiled. "That was true, but I have thought about this. It was not so much that I hated being in the cities. It was that I have hated being forced to leave my home and be compelled to go with other men who, when business is done, took me to places where I did not want to go, to do things I did not want to do, and I could not leave." His voice lowered in pitch. "I will love you forever. Wherever we have our home, it does not matter where that will be. As long as we are together, that is all I want."
Miranda's throat clogged up, preventing her from speaking.Still clenching his wrist in a death grip, she quickly looked around her. Many people were openly watching them, and with Ted down on one knee and not wearing his hat, it didn't take a lot of guesswork to know what he was doing.
He hated being a spectacle. He especially valued his privacy, yet he was exposing his heart for all to see.
She cleared her throat. "I love you so much, but I can't let you give up everything for me. You need to marry a nice Mennonite woman."
"That is what I am doing. I am asking a wonderful Mennonite woman with a kind and gentle heart if she will be my wife."
"You're completely sure this is what you want to do?"