Seasons of Tomorrow

by Cindy Woodsmall

Dora shrugged. “About a third the size of that shed, I suppose.”

  “So it’s about a hundred and twenty square feet.” He turned to Esther. “I need a hundred and twenty square feet of red oak by tomorrow.”

  Esther broke into laughter. “I’m not stealing the floor from under my little sister, even for you.”

  Dora seemed oblivious to Jacob’s stab at teasing. “You can have it. I don’t mind.”

  “See.” Esther winked at her sister. “She’s nicer than I am.”

  “Esther?” Ammon’s voice surrounded them, and Esther stepped outside the shed, looking toward the house.

  “Ya?”

  Jacob didn’t hear another word, and he couldn’t see Ammon, but Esther nodded. “Ya, be right there.” She turned to Jacob. “I need to go. Did we cover everything?”

  “Ya.”

  Esther folded the cash into her palm and put her free hand on Dora’s arm. “You coming up to the house?”

  “I came to lend a hand—whatever you need.”

  Esther grinned. “Denki.” She hobbled toward the house.

  Hoping not to get caught in a conversation, Jacob climbed into his wagon. “You have a good one, Dora. And don’t let your sister steal the floor out from under you.”

  Dora held the bowl up to him. “I made you some cookies.”

  “Well, that was nice of you.” He took the container.

  “I wasn’t sure what kind you like, so I made a variety—peanut butter, sugar, and oatmeal—chocolate chip.”

  “My favorite cookie in the world is oatmeal—chocolate chip. Denki.” He set the container on the seat beside him. “I’ll have contact with delivery-men from Bailey’s shop, so I’ll be sure your container gets to the shop, okay?”

  “You can keep it if you like. I don’t mind. Or bring it by the house.”

  Wow. She was hoping he’d change his mind about dating her again. “I’ll be sure it gets to the shop. Bye, Dora.” He released the brake and tapped the reins on the horse’s back.

  When he left here in less than two weeks, he’d miss having someone to relate to the way he did Esther. Did Ammon have a clue how blessed he was?

  With Jacob’s heart mended and his feeling more optimistic about life, he would try to find a woman who had some of Esther’s qualities. He watched as she climbed the stairs. Ammon held the screen door open for her, and then he glanced up and waved at Jacob.

  FOURTEEN

  From behind the desk, Rhoda picked up the phone to dial Landon’s grandmother. She punched a few numbers before hanging up. He’d left here two days ago, and he’d made it clear he wanted to be left alone. After her lack of support about Leah, he at least deserved for her to respect his request. Besides, she doubted he was there.

  She picked up the spring work schedule. It had seemed doable only days ago. But now? Samuel and Steven were in the field, trusting her to figure out what was absolutely necessary over the next few months and what could be cut from the schedule with minimal damage to the orchard.

  But she couldn’t concentrate. She released the paper, and it floated to the desk. After only a couple of days, she already ached to see Landon. If she hurt this bad, what must Leah be feeling? She had walked through the last two days much as Rhoda had after losing her sister—present in body only. Unfortunately, this was only the start of a very long grieving process.

  Could Rhoda do anything to fix the situation? Even if she could, should she? If nothing had separated Landon and Leah and they chose to marry one day, they would face significant and difficult problems. Leah and Landon would raise their children with modern technology, and Samuel and Rhoda would have to put distance between their homes while raising their children without those things. The Amish ways weren’t easy, and Rhoda’s children would long for all that Landon and Leah’s children would be allowed to have—television, Christmas trees, computer games, and fancy clothes. Later it would be phones, cars, jewelry, makeup, music, and … Well, the list was endless. It’d be painful to raise one’s children always seeing how their cousins had what was forbidden for them. It was a large part of why those who left the Amish were seldom able to keep a healthy relationship with those who stayed.

  An odd noise radiated from the desk, and the old wood seemed to vibrate. What would cause that? Wait … the one new item in the desk. She opened the drawer. Landon’s cell phone shimmied across a stack of papers. Leah had left it here the other day, and later Rhoda had shoved it into a drawer.

  She picked up his cell and tried to figure out how to turn it off. While doing so, she saw a text message from Leah. Leah had a cell phone?

  Rhoda’s heart clenched. Why was she texting Landon if she knew he didn’t have his phone? Then something Landon once explained to Rhoda came back to her. Leah was hoping Landon had gotten another cell phone and had moved his cell number to the new phone. Rhoda turned off the phone and put it back in the drawer. She was useless in this office, and Samuel was bound to need help in the field.

  Rhoda left the barn and was headed toward the orchard when she heard a car on the driveway. She turned and saw Camilla getting out of her vehicle.

  “Camilla.” Rhoda waved and hurried to the driveway.

  Camilla met her halfway and gave her a hug. “We finally found her!” Camilla squeezed Rhoda tightly before backing away, her face radiating excitement. “The private investigator used the information about Saint George that you shared with me, and he called just a few minutes ago to tell me where Jojo works! And she’s there right now. Could you find the time to go with me?”

  Now? “That’s great, Camilla.” Rhoda embraced her again. But with all that had been going on around here and with so much work to do, she couldn’t imagine going with her today. “I’m really sorry, but it’s not a good time.”

  “Oh.” Her smile fell, as did her whole countenance. “Okay. Tomorrow, maybe?”

  Rhoda doubted it’d get any better around here for a long time. “Could you go by yourself?”

  “Rhoda, think of all she’s done to keep me out of her life. Without you I wouldn’t even know she’d had a child. She changed her last name a year ago, and it’s possible she did that so I couldn’t find her. She believes I’m a detriment to my grandchild.” Camilla put an arm around Rhoda’s shoulders. “I think my only chance of connecting with her is you. Why else would you be the one to get the insights that led us to her?”

  “Are you sure she’ll be at work when we get there?”

  Hope filled Camilla’s eyes. “The private detective believes she’ll be there for at least another three hours. After that, he’s not sure what her schedule is, and he doesn’t know where she lives. If she’s renting a place, it’ll be hard for him to discover her address.”

  Rhoda’s pulse quickened. Hadn’t she botched the whole ordeal of finding Jojo enough already? Even though she wasn’t sure what God intended for her to do now that Jojo and Sophia were located, she knew she needed to be there. But what would Samuel think of her leaving when there was so much work to do with Landon gone and Leah too grieved to be much help? Rhoda pulled the two-way off the bib of her apron. “Samuel.”

  “Ya?”

  “Camilla’s here, and …” Rhoda released the talk button, unsure what to say if Steven was within hearing range. He didn’t really know about her intuitions concerning Camilla’s granddaughter.

  “You need me to come in?” Samuel asked.

  “No.” At least a few people should get some work done today. “But they’ve located where Jojo works, and Camilla’s asked if I’ll go with her now.”

  There was silence, and she knew he was weighing everything. “Is that what you think you need to do?”

  Could Samuel own any more of her heart? With all that was going on, he responded as if the only thing that mattered was what she thought about going with Camilla.

  “I think I should go, ya.”

  “Then do so, and I’ll be praying for you.”

  Her nagging guilt eased. “Denki.”

&n
bsp; “Gern gschehne. All the time. You’ll be amazing. How far?”

  Rhoda turned to Camilla.

  Camilla scrolled through a couple of screens on her phone. “It’s outside of Saint George, about sixty miles from here, but it’ll take about ninety minutes travel time each way.”

  “Samuel, it sounds as if it could be dark, maybe bedtime, before I’m back.”

  “Okay, if it gets too late, use Camilla’s phone to call the barn office. I’ll wait up for you.”

  “Will do.” With anxiety making her chest tingle, Rhoda climbed into the passenger’s seat. She had no real sense of why God had dropped tidbits of information into her heart and mind about Sophia and Jojo. It’d been almost a year and a half since Rhoda had heard music and a child’s voice riding on the wind. She’d felt at times that Jojo was in danger, but she had no idea why.

  Was she ready to finally connect with this woman?

  Landon pushed the green beans around on his plate, unable to find one clear thought to hold on to.

  Granny’s fork clinked against her plate as she stabbed several beans. “I’m glad you came back to see me. The way you packed your bags and left here on Monday, I was really worried.”

  He’d stayed away for only two nights, but they were the two longest of his life. “I’m sorry about that, Granny. I had to get away and think.” And he couldn’t stay here for more than a night. The temptation to try to sneak visits with Leah would be too great.

  “Leah came by here yesterday. I told her you’d thrown a suitcase into your truck, and I didn’t know when or even if you’d be back.”

  As much as he longed for a decent good-bye with her, he knew talking to her would only make the inevitable harder to deal with. It could cause both of them to hold on to hope, and there just wasn’t any. “Maybe it’s for the best that she thinks I’m already gone.”

  “If it helps, I agree with what you did. You sacrificed your job and the freedom to see your girl so her dad has no reason to insist she return with him. Leah told me more than once that she’d never been as excited as the day she got to leave Harvest Mills, Pennsylvania.” She took a drink of her soda. “It took guts, Landon, and I’m proud of you.”

  Landon cut the beans into tiny pieces with no intention of eating them. “There is nothing to be proud of. I lost my temper with Leah’s dad and gave him what he wanted. And that’s just a piece of the story.”

  “Do you want to tell me the whole thing?”

  “I need to.”

  Her sunken eyes peered out from almost transparent, wrinkled skin. “I like listenin’ to you.”

  He had a good family. Since he was the only child of an only child, they were a small family, but he couldn’t imagine marrying someone his family feared was wrong for him. Should he ask that of Leah even a year from now?

  He told his grandmother the complete story of Leah and him, including the argument that took place before he unloaded on her dad. “Granny, she believes what she said—that my loyalty to Rhoda comes ahead of her and that I’m more interested in holding on to my job than to her. She thinks the reason I’m not standing up to her dad is because I want to be a partner at the farm.”

  “She was upset.”

  “Leah often says what she truly means when she’s upset. And if I discount what she really thinks, it would come between us years from now.” He stood and raked the scraps from Granny’s plate onto his.

  Granny put leftovers into a plastic container. “Her dad can’t expect you not to contact her for a year. You agreed to that in the heat of the moment.”

  Landon grabbed the washrag and began scrubbing the plate as if force could remove the dark blue flowers. “I’ve known for a long time that loving Leah would probably mean letting her go. I don’t blame her.” He turned on the hot water, put the stopper in the sink, and squirted in dish-washing liquid. “I just didn’t realize that one push from her dad would do the trick. But maybe he’s given us both the out we needed.”

  Granny set two dirty pans beside the sink and grabbed a drying towel. “I think you were and are still way too upset to make decisions about your future.”

  “Maybe. But it’s done.”

  “What are you going to do for a job?”

  “After I left here Monday, I contacted some friends, and I have a couple of leads.”

  “You’ve really enjoyed working on the farm.”

  “Yeah, I like being outdoors.”

  “And the horses.”

  Landon couldn’t manage a smile, but he appreciated the fact that Granny didn’t forget much of anything he told her about himself. “True.”

  “You’re not staying around these parts, are you?”

  He rinsed his hands and dried them, leaving the pots to soak. “No.”

  Her chin quivered, and she put her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. “It’s not the ending we were hoping for.”

  Tears pricked Landon’s eyes. “That it’s not.”

  FIFTEEN

  The glass double doors swooshed open, and Rhoda followed Camilla into new territory: an office supply store. Rhoda wasn’t sure what she expected to see in a store like this, but the white lights reminded her of snow reflecting the sun, and aisle after aisle was packed with items she’d never thought of anyone needing.

  Throughout the drive here, Camilla had clung to the steering wheel as if it were trying to get away, and now she looked stiff and pale. Maybe the electric lights were washing out her color. Rhoda touched her shoulder. “You okay?”

  Rather than answering, Camilla stared at a young woman behind a long counter with a sign that said Print Shop. “That’s her. That’s Jojo.”

  Rhoda cupped Camilla’s elbow. “Just keep moving.” She didn’t know what the next move should be, but they needed a moment to think and settle their emotions. If they handled this opportunity with Jojo wrong, they might never get another. Rhoda guided Camilla to the computer-paper aisle where they could still see Jojo. Rhoda picked up a package of pink computer paper, trying to look like a customer.

  Father, please. Give us wisdom.

  Camilla kept her eye on the young woman. “I’ve aged a lifetime since my son died …” Her words were low and mumbled. “And she looks as young as the day I first saw her.”

  Rhoda glanced at Jojo. She’d been a teenager coming out of an abortion clinic the last time Camilla saw her. The current Jojo looked healthy and vibrant, but it was clear she wasn’t a teen. Actually, she looked her age, early to mid twenties.

  Camilla nudged Rhoda with her elbow. “You doing okay?”

  “Nervous, like you, and I have no idea what to do now.”

  Even after months of praying regularly about this reunion, Rhoda had no idea what to say to Jojo, not even how to approach her. What kind of opening line could they use? “Hi, I know you’ve changed your name, trying to hide for some reason, but I’ve brought your child’s grandmother to you.” Or “Remember Camilla? Her son was the one who got you pregnant.”

  Rhoda shook her head. “I thought … I’d hoped God would tell me something by now.”

  “She’s still with a customer. Better to wait until he leaves before we approach her.”

  Rhoda looked back at Jojo. A man about ten years older than Rhoda stood at the L-shaped counter Jojo worked behind. But Rhoda’s gut said he wasn’t a customer. Despite their businesslike behavior, she felt a vibe coming from both him and Jojo that said they cared for each other.

  Camilla was breathing in short, labored puffs. “Look, he’s counting and stacking papers. Maybe he works here, but he doesn’t have on a uniform or a nametag.”

  “He works here.” Rhoda was sure of it, but she kept stalling, hoping for wisdom to drop from heaven before she approached the counter.

  Here’s some wisdom for you, Rhoda. Do something before Camilla passes out and you’re stranded without a driver in a town somewhere outside of Saint George, Maine!

  Right. Time to act. But she should approach Jojo without Camill
a beside her. Rhoda pinned Camilla with a stare. “Stay here.”

  Camilla nodded.

  Rhoda walked to the counter. The workspace was on one side of the double-wide entrance-and-exit doors. On the other side were several clerks at checkout counters. Rhoda moved close enough to read Jojo’s nametag: Joella.

  Jojo was talking to the man about when she got off, and as she did, she extracted papers from a huge copier and stacked them. The man had on a wedding ring. Rhoda moved to the farthest spot from where he stood.

  Jojo glanced at her and froze for a moment before offering a polite smile. “Be right with you.”

  Amish dress caught a lot of people off guard. How ironic. What had originally been intended to make the Amish so bland that no one paid them any mind now caused them to stick out like a sore thumb. “Take your time.”

  Jojo stacked the items as she got them out of the copier. The man remained at the counter, counting the papers and putting them in a line in front of him. Rhoda’s heart pounded as her intuition told her that Jojo was in some sort of danger.

  Jojo put a large stack in front of him and came to Rhoda. “May I help you?”

  Had Rhoda ever felt this nervous before? Was it because she feared letting God down again? Or did she fear Jojo’s reaction? “I hope so … or maybe I can help you.”

  “Excuse me?” Jojo studied her, a crease between her brows.

  Think, Rhoda. “I have the strangest story you’ve ever heard, but you need to hear it. Could we talk?”

  “Pictures, copies, or notary issues?”

  Rhoda ducked her head. “It’s personal.”

  “Personal?” Unlike Rhoda, Jojo didn’t rein in her voice.

  The man looked up, studying them. He appeared to be a protector, and indeed he wanted to be, but some dark secret shadowed him.

  Rhoda tried to swallow. Maybe explaining too much was a mistake. Should she simply start with provable facts and leave out how intuition had gotten them here? “My name is Rhoda Byler, and I’m a neighbor of Camilla Dumont.”

  Jojo’s eyes narrowed, but she tilted her head, looking as if she may have misheard Rhoda. “You’re who?”