Plain Again

by Sarah Price

  “He seems to be trying,” Anna said, her brown eyes staring at the closed bedroom door. “I just hate seeing him like this, Amanda.” Tears welled in the corners of Anna’s eyes, and she wiped at them with her finger.

  “I know what you mean,” Amanda admitted, using her fork to poke at the pie. “He was ever so much better before.”

  “You mean the speech, then?” Anna nodded her head, not waiting for Amanda to answer. “He does get tired early in the evening. The nurse said that is because he is trying so hard and tiring so easily.”

  “How will he ever farm again?” Amanda wondered out loud.

  “Listen, schwester,” Anna continued, taking a deep breath and turning to meet Amanda’s eyes. She reached out to cover Amanda’s hand with her own, a change in her expression. “I have some big news for you. We all agreed that I should be the one to tell you.”

  “News?”

  Anna nodded her head and smiled. “Jonas and I have decided that our place is here, with Mamm and Daed. We’re going to move here in time for the holidays. Need to pack up our things back in Ohio and say our good-byes to folks.”

  An answer to my prayers, Amanda thought. “Oh, Anna, that’s just wunderbar gut news!” she exclaimed, immediately wishing that she could contact Alejandro and tell him the amazing news. With Anna moving to the farm, her problems were solved. Once they were established in Pennsylvania, she could rejoin Alejandro with a clear conscience. “And Jonas is willing? What a blessing!”

  A bigger smile lit up Anna’s face as she nodded. “He is that, indeed. Such a gut man. So kind and focused on God and family. It was his idea,” Anna confessed. “To move here, that is.”

  Amanda raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear this news. “Really now?”

  “Ja, ja!”

  That spoke worlds about the character of Jonas Wheeler. Of course, land was expensive everywhere. Even in Holmes County, land would be hard to purchase. It made sense for Jonas and Anna to return to Lancaster County and take over the Beiler farm in Lititz. But for Jonas to have made the offer without being asked? To volunteer to leave his family and church district? It would be hard on him, that was for sure and certain. He’d have to start over, but with Anna’s help, he’d adapt in a short time.

  “Oh, Anna! That will be such a relief,” Amanda admitted. “I was so worried about what would happen to Mamm and Daed . . . what would happen to the farm.”

  “It makes the most sense,” Anna replied. “And we would not be forced to rent a grossdaadihaus back in Holmes County. No land to farm on our own, just helping one of Jonas’s bruders,” she added.

  And then Amanda saw it. Within a year or two, Anna would be living in the main house with her husband and a baby. Her parents would eventually fulfill their dream of moving into the grossdaadihaus that was connected, the very section of the house where Alejandro had stayed when he first came to the farm and where Amanda was staying now. Eventually, the bedrooms upstairs would be filled with children, who would help with the chores, worship on Sundays, and bring laughter back to the lives of everyone on the farm.

  It was more than Amanda could possibly do for her parents, not even with all of Alejandro’s money.

  “We’ll help in any way that we can,” she offered, knowing that it was a weak offer.

  “I think the nurse is a great help, Amanda,” Anna admitted. “And that electricity in the grossdaadihaus, why, that will be right gut for Daed. Surely the bishop will approve the use of some store-bought fans in the hotter weather.”

  A fan? Amanda wanted to comment that the solar power could be used for so much more. But she checked her tongue. That was not an Amish comment; it reflected more of the changes that she had recently made in her own life. Recognizing that caused her to catch her breath. Had she truly changed so much in such a short period of time?

  Anna hesitated and glanced around, making certain that no one was listening. When she apparently felt comfortable that no one would barge in on their conversation, she leaned forward and whispered, “Tell me about him.”

  “You mean Alejandro?”

  Anna nodded her head. “It was all the talk in Ohio, you know.”

  “It was?”

  “Oh ja!” There was a gleam in Anna’s eyes. “Apparently, there was talk of sending you to Ohio. The younger Amish were hoping it would happen, eager to see what it was like to be surrounded by Hollywood.”

  That comment caused Amanda to laugh. “It’s not like that, Anna.”

  “Then tell me,” she whispered, reaching out to grab Amanda’s hand. “What is it like?”

  How could she start to explain? Amanda wondered.

  “I can’t answer that question, I reckon. It’s too hard to describe,” Amanda finally said. “It’s just so . . . different. But even though I don’t like all of the crowds and the women and the noise and the constant travel, it doesn’t really matter.”

  “Women?” Anna’s eyes grew larger as she questioned her younger sister. “What do you mean by that?”

  “It’s hard to understand. I didn’t at first,” she confessed. “But women like Alejandro.” Not true, she told herself. “No, they like Viper, the image that he portrays to the media and to his fans. They scream and yell for him. They throw things like flowers and little gifts at him. They cry when they see him. I’ve never seen such a fuss before, and I have to admit, it was most strange and intimidating in the beginning.”

  Anna gasped. “I can’t believe you!”

  “It’s true. He had warned me about it when he was here at the farm,” she continued. “Warned me that women would try to . . .” She let the sentence fade, not willing to share that part of Alejandro’s past with her sister. “Well, they just aren’t always nice women, ja?”

  “I reckon not!”

  “None of that matters,” Amanda hastened to say. “That’s not who he is. You see, his fans don’t really know him at all.” That thought saddened Amanda. She paused, mulling it over in her mind, her eyes glazing over as she looked away. “It’s the man behind the image, the man who took care of me in New York, the man who saved me from the paparazzi here at the farm, the man who loves me . . . that is the man that I love and married.”

  “Enough to have left all of this?” Anna said, gesturing with a wide wave of her hand. “Our upbringing? Our land? Our religion?”

  Amanda pursed her lips as she contemplated how to answer. She had known that it was coming: the million-dollar question that everyone wanted to ask, but few dared. But she was surprised that the question came from her own sister, and after such a short time reconnecting. There was just no way to explain to Anna how she felt . . . how Alejandro made her feel.

  “Do you remember that time before Aaron was born?” she began. “When Mamm took us to that Englische doctor she was seeing. We had to wait in the sitting room and there was that book, the colorful one with the mice that talked and the mean stepsisters?”

  A frown creased Anna’s forehead. “Ja, I do remember that,” she whispered.

  “Do you remember how we sat there, looking at the book, but we didn’t really understand the story?”

  Anna smiled. “Oh ja, it was all in English and we had barely learned how to read yet.”

  “But there was that one part, the part at the end, where the pretty woman was dancing with the handsome man.”

  “He was a prince!” Anna smiled as the memory came flooding back to her.

  “Ja, a prince.”

  Anna laughed once again. “Oh, we thought we were going to get in an awful lot of trouble if Mamm came out and caught us looking at that fancy book. But we were so young, and the dress and the woman and the man . . . they were so beautiful, weren’t they? A prince with his princess. Things that we knew very little about, ain’t so? But that book sure made it look right nice.”

  Lifting up her hand, Amanda pointed her finger into the air, too aware that her wedding ring sparkled on her hand as she did so. “That is how I feel with Alejandro,” she said slowly. �
�I feel like a princess in his arms.”

  The joy left Anna’s face, and she stared at her sister. Amanda waited for her reaction, the silence that fell between them long and awkward.

  Finally, the silence was broken.

  “But you are forgetting something, Amanda,” Anna whispered. “There was no God in that story. Where’s God in that story? Where’s God in your story?”

  The sorrow in her sister’s eyes caught her off guard. How could her sister question her faith in God? How could she not see that God was behind every aspect of her relationship with Alejandro? From the accident to the hospital to the time spent on the farm, it had been his hand guiding the man and the woman together.

  “But you see, God is at the core of it, Anna,” Amanda replied evenly. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” she quoted from the Bible. “Alejandro is certainly not plain, and he’s definitely not Amish, but that does not mean that God is not at the core and center of his life. He thanks God every day, every minute of the day, for having blessed him with so many opportunities. And he is fixated on giving back to help others achieve their own dreams.”

  A soft sigh escaped Anna’s lips as she shook her head. “Nee, schwester,” she said. “I meant where is God in your life?”

  The shift in the question caused Amanda to remain silent. It sounded more like a statement than a question. And indeed, it was not a question that she had considered in the past. Not really. Yes, she prayed to God, she read the Bible, she did all that she could to honor her upbringing while being immersed in Alejandro’s very Englische lifestyle. Still, her focus had shifted to supporting Alejandro rather than obeying God’s will.

  At that moment, the door opened and Jonas walked through it, a gust of cold air following him. He glanced at his wife, his eyes lighting up from behind his glasses. Quickly, he removed his coat and hung it on the peg by the door. “Getting cold out there,” he said. “Think it might flurry tonight.”

  Anna continued to watch Amanda as though waiting for a response. When neither spoke, Jonas shuffled his feet, realizing that he had interrupted a sisters-only discussion and one that appeared to be quite serious. He quickly excused himself and began to head toward the staircase.

  Amanda stopped him as she stood up abruptly and glanced at the clock. “Getting late. Reckon I’ll go retire for the night,” Amanda mumbled, aware that she had avoided answering Anna’s question. With an attempt at a light smile, she retreated to the grossdaadihaus.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Missing you, A.

  Concert was good last night.

  VIP people missed seeing you too.

  Crowd loves the new music video.

  We played it on the screen while performing.

  Love you, Princesa.

  V.

  Texas was definitely not his favorite state. He was glad that he was playing a different city each night. A busy schedule meant that each day flew by much faster. By the time he was finished with a show, he’d be escorted to his bus and driven to the next city. Mornings always brought radio interviews, and afternoons were spent with reporters. He managed to sneak in a few visits to the local gym while on the road and found that working out kept his mind focused.

  Despite the constant motion of his life, he worried about Amanda. The snowstorm sounded serious with over six inches in early December. The community had been caught off guard by road conditions that had been poor for two days. The only good news was that the paparazzi had seemed to dwindle away. Whether it was the lack of activity or the increasingly cold weather, Amanda had reported that she hadn’t seen anyone camped out at the end of her parents’ driveway for three days already.

  Small blessings, he told himself.

  He had tried to call her earlier, but her phone just rang and rang. He suspected that she had forgotten to carry her phone with her, for he doubted that she had left the farm. He had warned her about taking the buggy anywhere, especially after his publicist had forwarded him two news clippings about horse-and-buggy accidents, one in Indiana and one in Pennsylvania, from trucks trying to pass them on the road. Knowing the aggressive way that the paparazzi pursued their targets, he didn’t want her taking any chances. Even if they were no longer lingering nearby, it did not mean that they had abandoned their interest in her.

  When he had left Amanda at the airport, he had felt a tugging at his heart. She looked so despondent as she was escorted down the corridor to board the plane. For a long while, he had stood at the window, watching until the plane was finally pushed backward in order to taxi to the runway. He ignored the pleas of the men beside him, members of Mike’s team who often traveled with Alejandro when Mike was back in Los Angeles. He didn’t care if he would be late to catch his flight to Phoenix. It was a private charter and it could just wait, he thought as he continued to watch the plane taxi out of sight.

  After Phoenix, he had traveled to Houston on Wednesday, thankful that Mike had scheduled multiple appointments and interviews for that day, as he had nothing else to do since the concert was on Thursday evening. And then began his five-city tour of Texas over a two-week period of time, broken up by a quick jaunt back to Los Angeles for three days to work on a new music video that was due for release before Christmas.

  In all of that time, Amanda was never far from his mind. He would text her several times a day, often before meeting with people. His free time was limited, but he wanted her to know that he was thinking about her.

  However, it was her phone call after she had arrived home that had stuck with him. The news that her sister, Anna, had told Amanda that she would be moving home with her husband to take over the farm had made his day. Their separation would be almost over, he had told himself, mentally counting down the days until he could be with her once again. They had agreed that she would fly to Miami, just before Christmas, just three weeks from now. And then, he had vowed, there would be no more days and weeks apart. With her sister and brother-in-law at the farm and the hired help that Alejandro was committed to continuing, there was no further reason that Amanda could not be with him.

  Of course, he had to get to that point in time.

  “Viper?”

  He looked up at the man who approached him. “¿Sí?”

  “Sound check?”

  Alejandro sighed and stood up. It was always something, he thought, wondering when his life had become so overscheduled. After his Dallas concert on Saturday night, he had four days until he needed to return to Texas and then start heading north to Kansas and then Wisconsin. He had contemplated scheduling a trip to Pennsylvania until he had learned that Mike had booked time in the recording studio in Los Angeles.

  “Los Angeles? Again?” Alejandro had mumbled when Mike had told him the news. He had always hated Los Angeles, with its traffic, smog, and crowds of people. Concrete City, he called it in private.

  “What did you say? ‘Again?’ Perhaps you’d like to explain what that’s supposed to mean!” Mike had snapped back. “Last time I checked, you were a businessman, Alex, a leading artist in the entertainment industry. You don’t stay that way by avoiding LA, of all places! And you certainly won’t stay that way by running off to hide on Amish farms in Pennsylvania!”

  While he hadn’t appreciated Mike’s crude approach, he knew that he was right. After all, he needed to record new songs and tape another music video. Without new material, fans would lose interest, and once lost, it was hard to regain.

  Disappointed, Alejandro had rationalized that it was better this way. Without Amanda to distract him, he could probably get both things done and crossed off his list before the holiday. Afterward, he’d have plenty of time to spend with his wife since he didn’t have much scheduled in January beyond meeting up with the band to practice his new songs and with the choreographer to practice new dance routines with his backup dancers.

  He had a lot planned for January, starting with some time alone with Amanda, cruising the islands on the yac
ht. He’d have some of his friends flown down to meet with them when the yacht reached St. Maarten, a great island for partying, snorkeling, and fishing. Carlos had managed to arrange for her passport to be expedited, and Alejandro was eager to show her the world. From what little he had shown her of the United States, he knew that she would continue to find everything that he showed her to be completely fascinating and awe inspiring.

  It was Andres, his security guard, who found him in the corridor heading from the backstage lounge toward the stage.

  “They want you to see the video,” Andres said. “Issue with the big screens projecting it.”

  “¡Ay, Dios!” There was always something. Tonight was the big debut of his new music video during the concert. Didn’t he pay people to take care of these things? Technical glitches and incompetence were two things that he had absolutely no patience for, especially when he paid so well to avoid both.

  He hurried to the front of the stage and joined a group of men dressed in jeans and T-shirts. One of them was his technical director, Johnny, and Alejandro spoke directly to him. “How bad?” he asked, getting straight to the point.

  “Projector ain’t working,” Johnny answered. “We can’t show it.”

  Alejandro stared at the man before him. Can’t wasn’t a word in his vocabulary. “I suggest you fix the problem, Johnny,” he said, speaking slowly, careful to enunciate each word, a trick that he had learned long ago, which helped mask his anger. “You have a backup system, no?”

  “Yes, but it’s not nearly as good as the one we’ve been using,” the man admitted, avoiding eye contact with his boss.

  “That’s not what I want to hear.” He glanced around at the other men. “I want it fixed, and I want to see the video within the next thirty minutes, entiendes?” While he spoke to the group of men, he was staring directly at Johnny. “I suggest you jump on it, chico.” Without another word, the men hurried away, their heads bent together as they regrouped in order to meet his demand.