Home to Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  Rose Anna hesitated, then glanced around. There were too many women in the room to say anything.

  Picking up on her unspoken signal, Emma worked quickly helping dry the dishes Rose Anna handed her. Their work done, they walked out to the porch where they could have some privacy.

  “Something Isaac said did upset me, but it wasn’t his fault.”

  Emma studied her. “I don’t understand.”

  Rose Anna looked over at the door, then back at Emma. “Can we talk without you saying anything to him?”

  “Allrecht.”

  “John was talking about the movie we’d just seen, and Isaac said he missed them.” She twisted her fingers in her lap. “It made me think about how John doesn’t seem interested in coming home.”

  “I see.”

  “Do you?”

  “I know you’re . . . fond of John. I could see that before he left the community.” She paused and pulled her sweater closer as a cool breeze swept across the porch. “So you’re hoping he’ll come back the way his bruders did.”

  “Ya.”

  Emma patted her hand. “I know it’s hard to watch. It schur was when Isaac seemed so enamored of Englisch ways. But most of the Amish return. You know that.”

  “But not all.”

  “Nee, not all.” Emma sighed and rubbed her abdomen. She looked at Rose Anna. “What else did Isaac say he missed? Besides movies?”

  “Hard rock. And pizza from that restaurant. He said it’s where the two of you went a lot after a movie.”

  Emma smiled. “We did. I seem to be craving pizza a lot in this pregnancy. I’m not schur how much of my craving is for that food or a reminder of a time when I was thinner.”

  The front door burst open and two kinner, a little girl and a little boy, ran laughing to their mudder. Emma leaned down and wrapped them in an embrace. “Of course, times like this I don’t miss those days.”

  Rose Anna glanced over at the door and saw Isaac watching them, his expression full of love for his family.

  He didn’t look like he missed anything at that moment.

  Emma kissed each of her kinner. “Tell your dat that I’ll be ready to go in a few minutes. I need to talk to Rose Anna.”

  “Maybe on the way home we can stop for ice cream?” her son asked hopefully.

  “Maybe.”

  “With sprinkles?”

  “Maybe.”

  They watched as the kinner raced back to their dat, and then the three walked to get the family buggy.

  “So tell me how you convinced Isaac to return to the community.”

  Emma leaned back in her rocking chair and seemed to look inward. “All I can say is it has to be his idea.” She stopped and bit her lip. “I’m sorry, that probably doesn’t seem helpful. But it has to be something he wants to do. Back when Isaac went through his period of not knowing which world he wanted to live in, he was a bit of a bad boy. Like John is. I tried to change him. Then I tried to change myself to win him.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “Please promise me you won’t try to become someone you aren’t to win John’s love. Don’t change to be what you think he wants. Don’t . . . become intimate or anything like that. You won’t end up happy.” She stopped as if she’d said too much.

  A few minutes later Isaac pulled up in front of the house in the buggy. Emma shot Rose Anna a grin. “He may have to come hoist me up out of this chair.”

  Rose Anna stood and held out her hand. Together they got Emma up, and then they stood there laughing at the absurdity of it. They walked to the stairs, their arms companionably twined.

  “So are you going to stop for that ice cream? Your kinner look like little angels.”

  Almost immediately there was an indignant cry from her dochder. “Daed! He pinched me! Daed! Make him stop!”

  That sent Emma into a fit of giggles. “Oh, ya, they are little angels allrecht!”

  Rose Anna watched her walk to the buggy and couldn’t hold back her own giggles as she saw the pained look Isaac gave his kinner.

  12

  Rose Anna tried not to obsess about the first fight she’d had with John.

  But it was tough.

  She felt he’d accused her of being overly interested in getting married. She was indignant at the accusation. Then her conscience chastised her that she had decided to pursue John with marriage as her goal.

  But that hadn’t been the only reason she wanted him. She truly loved him and wanted to see him return to the community for his own salvation. If he returned, and it was to marry someone else, she hoped she could be happy for him. She could do that, couldn’t she?

  Couldn’t she?

  She didn’t even know if they were friends anymore. She hadn’t heard from him for two days.

  So she concentrated hard on her work and hoped she looked serene and unconcerned because she didn’t want her schweschders teasing her.

  The effort proved too much. When everyone went downstairs for a break she decided to take a walk. “Going to get some fresh air. Back in a while.”

  The family knew she liked to walk so they left her alone. So maybe she’d done a gut job of covering up how upset she was feeling.

  Rose Anna lifted her face to the warm rays of the sun. It was a perfect spring day in Paradise . . . one of those rare days when the breeze was warm but not too warm. Birds were singing and the scents of flowers blooming almost—almost—drowned out the scent of the freshly applied manure and fertilizer on the fields on each side of the road.

  She found herself singing a hymn as she strolled. Such a gut God to provide so wunderbaar a day. Spring was short in Lancaster County and so each day must be appreciated, she told herself.

  But her spirit still felt dull and depressed. Even the sight of sunny yellow daffodils bursting in bloom weren’t perking her up.

  When she came to the point she knew was a mile from her haus, she turned around. She was just two farms away when she saw a van Englisch drivers used to transport passengers. The side door slid open, and an elderly, white-haired man stepped out.

  “Grossdaadi!” she cried and began running toward him.

  His head came up and he grinned. “Rose Anna!”

  He held his arms open, and they hugged.

  “Oh, Grossdaadi, I missed you so!” She clung to him, blinking back tears until she heard the driver clear his throat. She stood back so Grossdaadi could hand the driver some bills, and then he took the handle of his rolling suitcase.

  “Let me do that,” Rose Anna insisted.

  “What’s this?” he asked her, flicking his finger at the tears on her cheek.

  “It feels like you’ve been gone forever.” She’d been so self-absorbed and so miserable since the fight with John she’d forgotten Grossdaadi was due home today. He’d brightened up her day like her walk hadn’t been able to.

  “Look who I found on my walk!” she called as they went in the front door.

  Her mudder came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Abraham!” She rushed forward to hug him. “It’s gut to see you! Did you have a nice time in Pinecraft?”

  “I did, but it’s gut to be back. Nothing like home. Where’s Jacob?”

  “In the barn, of course. You’re just in time for lunch. Are you hungerich?”

  “Always. You know me.” He chuckled.

  They walked into the kitchen just as Jacob came in the back door.

  “I made your favorites since I knew you were coming,” Linda told him.

  “Food’s his favorite,” Jacob said. He embraced his dat. “So you finally remembered where home is.”

  Grossdaadi sat at his usual place at the table, and Rose Anna sat beside him.

  “Figured you needed some help planting.”

  “Your timing’s as gut as usual,” Jacob said with a grin as he washed his hands at the sink. “It’s pretty much done.”

  He winked at Rose Anna. “So, what’s new with you, kind?”

  “The usual. Quilting and tea
ching quilting at the shelter.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That’s all?”

  She shrugged and nodded.

  “I was hoping for a game of checkers with John.”

  “Daed will be happy to play with you.”

  “But—”

  Linda set a bowl down in front of him. “Chicken and noodles. Your favorite.”

  His eyes lit up. “Schur missed your cooking.”

  Her mudder took her seat and looked at her mann.

  Jacob said the blessing, and Grossdaadi dug into the bowl of chicken and noodles. He took a bite and smacked his lips. “Nobody makes this better than you, Linda.”

  “That’s because your Miriam taught me how to make it the way you like it.” She smiled. “I think of her every time I use one of her recipes.”

  “Or quilt,” Rose Anna spoke up. “Grossmudder taught me how to quilt. Mamm, too,” she said quickly.

  “But your grossmudder taught you the most,” her mudder said without taking offense.

  Grossdaadi glanced around, then looked at Rose Anna. “Don’t you tell your schweschders, but you were her favorite. She said Lavina and Mary Elizabeth teased you too much because you were the youngest.”

  Linda set a slice of pie in front of him. “More coffee?”

  He grinned. “Ya, danki.” He dug into the pie.

  “Tell us about Pinecraft, Grossdaadi.”

  “It’s just like you’ve heard,” he said between bites of pie. “You really can walk outside your rental and pick an orange off a tree. I did a lot of playing shuffleboard. Took some nice walks. And caught some fish. They have this fish there in Phillippi Creek. Never saw anything like it. Greenish-brown fish with a long snout. Looked like something from the dinosaur age. Got these big teeth.”

  He leaned over and made chomping noises at Rose Anna.

  “Stop!” she said, giggling.

  “My friend told me they can get to be three, maybe four feet long. Up to two hundred pounds. Not gut eating, though.”

  He finished his pie and looked hopefully at Linda who nodded finally and served him another small slice. “Saw my first alligator, too, I did.”

  Grossdaadi leaned over again and made snapping noises with his teeth at Rose Anna. “Had even bigger teeth than the garfish.”

  She giggled and gently smacked his arm. “If you chomp me, I won’t be able to bake your favorite cookies.”

  He drew back and tilted his head as he studied her. “Well, kind, when will you bake me some?”

  “This afternoon.”

  “Guess I won’t bite you then.” He turned back to his pie.

  “Let’s not go overindulging him again,” her mudder warned. “I distinctly remember the doctor wanted him to take off a few pounds last time I took him for a checkup.”

  “Maybe you’d like to work off those two pieces of pie helping me in the barn,” Jacob suggested.

  “Kinda tired from traveling,” he said. “Maybe after I take a little nap.”

  Rose Anna heard a knock on the front door. “I’ll get it.”

  She couldn’t have been more shocked when she opened the door and found John standing on the porch.

  “Hi,” he said. “Can we talk?”

  She hesitated.

  “Please?”

  She wanted to hold her heart safe from him. He’d hurt her so. But finally she relented. “I can’t stay long. Grossdaadi just got back from Pinecraft. I want to spend some time with him.”

  “Do you mind if I say hello to him?”

  She shook her head and walked back to the kitchen. “Mamm, Daed, I’m going for a short drive with John.”

  “John! When are you coming to play checkers with me?”

  “I hope to soon,” John told him as he slid a wary glance at Rose Anna.

  “Gut, gut,” Amos said. “Well, I’m going to take that nap. Linda, wake me for supper if I’m not up before then.”

  “I’ll be schur to.” She appeared to be trying to keep a straight face. But a smile won.

  “Leave the dishes and I’ll do them when I come back.”

  “Allrecht. I’ll do that.”

  Rose Anna grabbed her light sweater from the peg and followed John out to his truck.

  She wondered just what he had to say.

  ***

  John stared at the steering wheel, but he didn’t start the truck. “I want to apologize.”

  She gave him a wary glance. “You do?”

  He nodded. “I shouldn’t have said such a thing to you.”

  “You hurt my feelings.” She heard the petulance in her voice but couldn’t seem to help it.

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Why did it take you so long to tell me that?”

  “Want to see?”

  Rose Anna frowned. “See?”

  John glanced in the rearview mirror and then pulled out onto the road, heading toward town.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see,” he said mysteriously.

  “Remember I said I didn’t want to be away long.”

  “I know.”

  13

  We have a special guest today,” Kate told Rose Anna when she walked into the quilting class.

  “Who?” She set her things down on the front table and wondered at Kate’s barely suppressed excitement.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  It had been an interesting week so far, she thought. First, Grossdaadi had returned. Then she’d been introduced to Willow’s lovely little foal.

  Women filed in and nearly every seat was filled at the tables. Still no special guest had appeared.

  And then someone vaguely familiar walked in and set a cardboard box down on an empty table. She wore a black mini-dress and hair tinted pink at the ends. It took Rose Anna a moment to recognize her.

  “Jamie! I haven’t seen you in years!”

  They hugged.

  “Steve and I were in town for a quick visit with family, and I stopped by to say hello to Leah.” Jamie explained. “She told me what Kate had started here and said Kate would like me to talk about quilting.” She turned and offered her hand to Kate. “It’s wonderful what you’ve done.”

  “It’s been such fun,” Kate said simply. “And the shop wouldn’t have been possible without Leah’s help.”

  “And neither would my career.”

  “You’d made a success of yourself without my help.” Leah said. “You had the talent—and the drive.”

  Jamie spun around. “Oh, I didn’t think you were going to be able to come!”

  “I’m sure my granddaughters can handle things just fine without me for an hour or two.” She gazed around the room. “So wonderful to see how the class is doing. Everyone looks so happy!”

  “Sewing’s good for the soul!” a woman sitting near them said.

  “True, true,” Leah said, smiling. “Well, I’m going to find a seat so you can get started.”

  Kate introduced Jamie and explained that she was a former resident of Paradise who’d earned her art education degree here and now had her art quilts displayed in galleries in New York City.

  Jamie was the same sweet and humble woman she’d been when she worked part-time at Stitches in Time around her college studies. She talked about how she’d started out fascinated by the quilts sewn by Leah and her granddaughters at Stitches in Time. She’d found herself wanting to do something different and slowly evolved into doing the art quilts.

  She and Kate held one up and showed it to the women.

  “It’s kind of like doing a picture or a painting in fabric,” Jamie explained. “I sketch out my idea and then cut the fabric and lay it out on a big table or the floor, see if it looks the way I want it to. Then I do a lot of appliqué work basting and then stitching the pieces on the background. Sometimes these quilts go together quickly because I’m working with big pieces.”

  They set that quilt down and picked up another. “And then there are the quilts like this one that took weeks to f
inish.”

  Jamie paused and smiled. “The point I want to make is there’s no wrong way to design and make a quilt. You should be creative and do what you love. Where would we be if so many years ago women had not sat down with pieces of leftover fabric and made something useful and beautiful with them?”

  She glanced at the window.

  After displaying a few more quilts, she opened the floor to questions, and there were many. Kate had to finally call for a last question a half hour later, and Jamie beamed at the enthusiastic reception the women gave her as they thanked her for coming to speak.

  The four of them went out to lunch afterward. Jamie shared photos of her husband and two children.

  “So I guess you’re not sorry you left Paradise,” Rose Anna said as she gazed at the photos of the tall buildings of New York City.

  Jamie shook her head. “You know, Jenny Bontrager once told me that from the air the fields in this area look like a quilt. I looked out the window of the plane and saw what she meant. It was hard to leave the place I’d been born in. But Steve and I both knew New York City was where we needed to work.” She smiled as she tucked the photos back into her purse. “We couldn’t be happier.”

  Rose Anna had made a dozen or more Around the World quilts and daydreamed over them as she stitched, but she’d never wanted to explore beyond the Lancaster County line.

  “I’ve missed this,” Jamie said as she dug into her shoofly pie for dessert. “I can’t buy it in New York City.”

  “I’ll give you the recipe,” Rose Anna told her. “It’s really easy to make.”

  “I think living here with two cultures that are so different—Englisch and Amish—made it easy to adjust to how diverse the Big Apple is.”

  “I always wondered why they call it the Big Apple,” Leah said.

  “I have no idea,” Jamie told her, laughing.

  On the way home, Rose Anna thought about what Jamie said about having to move to where she could do the work she loved.

  John had been forced to find whatever work he could do in town when he and his bruders left the farm. She knew he didn’t love farming as much as David and Sam did, and he wasn’t the type to complain. But he’d had to work two and three jobs to support himself.

  Now that he’d added working at the horse farm, he was even busier but she’d never seen him happier.