Christmas in Apple Ridge

by Cindy Woodsmall

  Tobias bounced up and down. “Can I go?”

  “Not this time, champ.” Daniel pushed down on the top of Tobias’s straw hat. “We might not be home until the wee hours of the morning, and if we arrive that late, your uncle will need some sleep, and your Daed will need your help tending to the horses the next morning.” Daniel pulled a five-dollar bill from his billfold. “You’ll agree to work for me, ya?”

  “Wow.” Tobias took the money, staring at it with wide eyes. “I’m available anytime.”

  “Gut. I’m glad to hear it.”

  It dawned on Levi that by going to Toppers, he’d be fifteen to twenty minutes from Sadie’s place in Stone Creek. “What time does the horse auction begin?”

  “Around eight, most likely. Of course, as usual, you and Tip will stay at Toppers while I find some lonely girl to take to dinner.”

  Daniel’s dating habits were questionable at best, but at least he seemed to be trying to find someone. Still, it seemed odd how quickly Daniel could connect with a woman only to lose interest within the same evening.

  Daniel’s plans aside, it was around one now, and it’d take two hours to get there. If Sadie were home, that meant he could visit with her for a couple of hours before the horses were on the block. Daniel didn’t need him to help buy the horses, only to pair each animal with a trainer.

  “Levi?”

  He looked at Daniel. “Sure. Just let me jump in the shower. I’ll be ready in ten minutes.” He headed for the house.

  “The horses don’t care what you smell like,” Daniel hollered.

  “Ten minutes.” Levi hurried into the house, hoping he would see Sadie tonight.

  The wooden floors of the old store creaked as Sadie carried a large sign to the window. She taped it to the glass: For Sale.

  It seemed as if her hopes of having enough money to go back to Peru hung in the balance more than ever, teetering under the weight of yet another unexpected change in her world.

  She turned, taking a long look around her, enjoying the sights and smells of the old-fashioned place. In her mind’s eye she could see Loyd and Edna the day she’d wandered in here. She’d said she was looking for work, but she needed so much more than that. She’d been broken and mortified by Daniel. Although she hadn’t told Loyd or Edna about her former fiancé, they seemed to understand what she needed and took her under their wing. At the same time, they taught her how to earn a living while her heart mended.

  Now, as unexpectedly as a summer storm, Loyd had fallen ill, and Edna insisted on getting out from under the pressure of running the store.

  “Sadie.” Blanche, her coworker and a roommate, held up a large cardboard box. “Do you need another one?”

  Edna had told them to get all their crafts off the shelves and to return what they could to the manufacturers. After some advertising, they would put everything else into a one-day-only, going-out-of-business sale.

  “Ya. Denki.” She took the box and moved to the candle aisle.

  Edna insisted on rearranging her life so she didn’t have to focus on anything but Loyd. The elderly woman had been ready to be free of the store for a long time, but Loyd enjoyed the work too much to let it go. Edna hadn’t set foot inside Farmers’ Five-and-Dime since Loyd’s stroke two weeks ago, because she hadn’t left his side for a moment.

  Sadie pulled jars of her homemade candles off the shelves. Seeing Edna and Loyd like this made her ache all over, confirming her suspicion: life was easier if one never let in anyone else. If two hearts grow to become one, what happens when one stops beating? Sure, Loyd and Edna had good fruit to show for their years together, but today’s heartache seemed to weigh heavier than all the harvests of yesteryear.

  Maybe she was wrong. She hoped so, for the sake of all who’d ever married.

  Someone tapped at the front door.

  “I’ll get it.” Blanche headed that way.

  They had a huge sign on the door that said Closed, but people knocked on the door anyway. This old place had been open six days a week since the early fifties.

  Old habits died hard.

  “Sadie,” Blanche called, “there’s a man here to see you. I didn’t recognize him, so I told him to wait outside.”

  Sadie went toward the glass door. Her eyes widened as she reached for the handle. The man was facing the other way, with his hat in his hand, but there was no mistaking those loose curls of golden-brown hair. Of course, if his hair wasn’t a dead giveaway, there was the neck brace too. A smile tugged at her mouth for the first time in quite a while. She opened the heavy door, and the bells suspended over the entryway clanged as she stepped outside.

  He turned awkwardly, having to move his whole body because of the neck brace. There was a smile on his tan face, but what she noticed most of all was the spark in his eyes.

  Sadie put her hands on her hips. “Well, look at you, standing on your own two feet.”

  “Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  “It is indeed.” She’d heard energy in his voice when they spoke on the phone, but this was the first time she could see vitality in his expression.

  They moved away from the door, going a little farther onto the sidewalk as if they wanted some privacy. “What are you doing here?”

  “There’s a horse auction nearby.”

  “Decided to sell Amigo and get a new friend, did you?”

  He chuckled. “No, nothing like that. Just helping a friend make some decisions. He doesn’t need me for a while, so I had the driver drop me off at your place. I walked here from there.”

  “Good thing I was findable, or you’d be calling that driver to come back. You do have your phone, right?”

  “Still there.” He tapped his pocket. “I took a chance, figuring if you could find me in a dark field without trying, I could find you in a small town if I were willing to do a little searching.”

  “Gotta appreciate a man with confidence.”

  “I was right, wasn’t I?”

  “It’s my understanding that you did indeed find me … I think.”

  Faint dimples appeared when he grinned. Heat radiated from the white concrete, and she considered asking him to step inside.

  His expression became thoughtful, and his smile faded. He pointed at the For Sale sign in the window. “What’s going on?”

  “Loyd, the owner, had a stroke a couple of weeks back.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Why didn’t you say something about that?” He sounded concerned, perhaps for how this would affect her.

  “Truth is, until a few days ago, I couldn’t make myself talk about it, not on the phone or in a letter. I finally wrote you about it. You’ll get a package soon with a letter explaining what’s going on.”

  “Oh, ya. I received one today, but I didn’t get a chance to open it.”

  “Now you don’t have to. Although you may wish you’d read it rather than hear me whine about how this stinks for Loyd and Edna, the town folk, my roommates, and …”

  “You.”

  “Sorry, I can be really selfish at times.”

  “I know you’re hurting for the Farmers, but this has to put pressure on you too. I can’t see where it’s selfish to admit to feeling the strain.” He shifted. “I saw that there’s a rodeo demonstration and fair at the park. I think a lot of people are starting to leave now. Would you care to see what we can?”

  “It’s Stone Creek Day at Stone Creek Lake. They have booths of crafts and a petting zoo with farm animals, some blow-up bounce castles for the children, and other family stuff.”

  “Stone Creek Lake?” He tugged lightly at the neck brace. “What’s next, Stone Creek River?”

  “Ya. We have that too.”

  “Of course you do.” His grin made the tan lines around his eyes disappear.

  “Stone Creek River starts about five miles south of here. If you named horses like they named places around here, you could have an Amigo Friend.” She raised an eyebrow, trying to keep a silly smile off her face.
<
br />   “Or an Enemy Enemigo.”

  “A river by any name would flow just as deep and swift and surely sparkle just as much under the August sun.” Her goal to keep a straight face while teasing him was impossible.

  “Did you just twist Shakespeare?”

  “Are you an Amish man who knows Shakespeare?”

  “I know all there is to know, which boils down to maybe three lines. That was one of them.”

  She giggled. “That’s all there is to know?”

  “That’s more than I’ll need in this lifetime.”

  “True, and your knowledge about equals mine.” She broke into a grin. How fun to be able to talk with him whether he was injured in a field, in the living room of his home, on the phone, or here. “But Shakespeare must’ve been quite a writer for people like us to quote his work some four hundred years later.”

  “Never thought about it. But I can tell you something I have thought about”—he wiped sweat from his forehead—“getting under some shade trees.”

  It was hard to believe, but she liked the idea of spending a little time with Levi. “I’ll be right back.” She went inside the store and told her roommates she’d meet them at the house later. Edna had given each of them an area of the store to pack up, and as long as she got hers done before Monday, it didn’t matter when she did it. She hurried out the door, grateful for the distraction.

  Levi pulled his attention from the random items displayed in the store’s window. “Ready?”

  “Ya.”

  They walked down the sidewalks of the historic downtown. After a while they stepped into a café and ordered a couple of cold drinks to go. The conversation stayed light as they discussed the weather, Tobias, how well their handiwork was selling, and how Levi was progressing with the training of a yearling. It seemed as if Levi knew she couldn’t talk about what really weighed on her. Not yet.

  She had tough decisions to make now that the store was closing, and talking about them with someone who had nothing to gain, no reason to try to steer her one way or the other, was like a godsend.

  But was he as he appeared, or was she so desperate for answers she was seeing what she wanted to? She prayed, asking for guidance on whether to turn to Levi for advice.

  They meandered across the thick grass of the park, watching as some people were dismantling their booths. Children milled about with leashed dogs. Across the way, men led horses to trailers while other workmen dismantled the arena that had been set up so riders could demonstrate some of the stunts they would perform at next month’s rodeo.

  Levi took a sip of his orange soda. “Looks as if maybe you shoulda set up a booth here to sell your goods.”

  “The city doesn’t allow the town shops to set up booths for Stone Creek Day. Since I work for Farmers’ and they sell my stuff there, I fall under the can’t-have-a-booth category.” She played with the straw in her cup, poking at some ice chips. “I was boxing up the last of my craft items when you showed up.”

  “I could take them back with me. Beth would be happy to put them on consignment in her store.”

  Sadie paused, staring at him. That was a great offer—if she could snatch it up and not analyze it to death.

  Levi lowered his drink. “You have a look on your face like the one I get when I’m baffled by a horse’s behavior and unsure what to do to get him to do what I want him to do.”

  If he was this intuitive with his horses, he was no doubt a remarkable trainer. “I’m sort of baffled by all of life right now.”

  “Been there a dozen times. Want to tell me about it?”

  She did, but the idea of actually sharing her thoughts made her squirm. What if his opinion affected her final decision and he was wrong? “Maybe later.”

  They remained there, a few yards from the lake, taking in the sights. A cooling breeze played with the strings to her prayer Kapp. A baby cooed nearby, and she searched for it.

  A few feet away a woman sat on a blanket with a little one dressed in pink and wearing a silky headband. The baby girl was about six months old. She sat on her mother’s lap. The woman smiled at her child. “Is that right?” She waited for the baby to respond. “You tell Mommy all about it.”

  The baby seemed mesmerized by her mother, cooing as if her tender sounds actually formed words. A toddler in a beige dress was asleep on the blanket next to the woman and her baby. The mom brushed black hair off the sleeping child’s neck, her face glowing, as if this moment made up for all the nights of walking the floors while her little ones wailed.

  Sadie and Levi headed toward the lake. Behind them a huge ruckus broke out. Men and women shrieked, yelling words Sadie couldn’t make out. Some were grabbing their children and scattering. A man’s voice rose above the clamor. “Stop him! Somebody grab a rein!”

  A black horse appeared out of nowhere and thundered toward them.

  Sadie slung her drink to the ground.

  Levi grabbed her hand, and in one fell swoop, he tugged her forward and forced her arms straight out, as if she were a scarecrow. “Stay.” Despite his neck brace and not being able to turn his head, he took off running, pointing to people as he went. “Get behind a tree!”

  People scattered, obeying his command. The path cleared—all except for Sadie, who stood like a target.

  Everything was happening fast. Maybe six or eight seconds had passed since the chaos began. Sadie’s head whirled the way it had when she was a child and her Daed spun her by her arms around and around, her little legs gliding through the air.

  Levi disappeared behind a tree—and she was standing in the horse’s path! Was he crazy?

  The massive creature charged straight at her. Earth flew from its rumbling hoofs, but she couldn’t budge.

  A moment later Levi lunged forward, grabbing the horse’s rein before throwing himself onto its neck. In a flash he was atop the animal. “Whoa!” Levi’s voice carried calm firmness while she wanted to scream like a banshee—if only she could find her voice.

  “Whoa!” He pulled on the reins, and the horse slowed, prancing as it did, finally coming to a halt twenty feet from her.

  When Sadie could take her eyes off the horse, she looked behind her. Levi had put her ten feet in front of the blanket with the mother and two children. If the horse had gotten past him, he’d intended for her to scare it away from that spot. The mom had gotten to her feet, terror on her face, with the baby clutched in her arms. If the horse had kept coming, Sadie doubted the mother and child could have gotten to safety. What if she’d tried to grab her toddler first?

  Impossible.

  Sadie’s heart pounded. “Are you okay?”

  The woman sank to her knees, rocking her little one. “Yeah.” The toddler awoke, unaware of what had happened. She brushed sweat-matted hair from her face and crawled into her mother’s arms, next to the baby.

  “Thank you!” another voice said. It was the same one that had begged for someone to stop the horse.

  Sadie searched for the speaker.

  A large man was struggling to breathe as he made his way toward them. He waved toward Levi, not that Levi saw him. “I’ll be there as soon as …” His voice faded while he gasped for air.

  Levi eased off the horse, moving much slower than when he’d gotten on. Had he hurt himself? He held the reins, stroking the horse and talking to it in a low, soothing voice. When Levi came toward Sadie, he led the horse. Levi put his free hand on his chest before moving it to her shoulder. “That was scary. Much more so than me landing in a hayfield.”

  He’d thought so clearly, covering possibilities that were just now dawning on her. If he’d simply scared the horse away from the woman on the blanket with her two little ones, the rampaging animal could have trampled other children or even adults. By hiding behind the tree, he avoided scaring the horse and sending him off in a different direction.

  Sadie’s legs shook, and she looked for a place to sit. She needed a few moments to absorb what had just happened. Her first thought when he mov
ed into action was outrage that he’d dared to put her in harm’s way while protecting himself. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “I think I hate horses.”

  “Don’t do that.” He patted the horse’s neck. “They’re like people—good hearts, occasional bad judgment, and sometimes volatile reactions when scared.” Levi tilted his head, studying her eyes before he smiled. “You’ll be fine in a bit. I can see it.”

  She drew a deep breath, surprised to find that she believed him despite how she felt.

  “Excuse me.”

  They turned at the man’s voice to find the woman from the blanket standing next to a man who now held the sleepy toddler. “I can’t thank you enough.” The man’s voice cracked. “You did that for us, and you’ve got a neck injury.” The man shook Levi’s hand.

  For the next few minutes, people gushed over Levi, thanking him and asking if he was okay. The owner retrieved his horse, also grateful for what Levi had done. When the man learned what Levi did for a living, he asked for a business card, and Levi gave him one.

  Sadie and Levi moved to a bench that faced the lake, neither one talking. He had to be more drained than she was. The dad of the two little ones brought them cold drinks and a bag of popcorn.

  Sadie opened the can of Sprite. “Did you hurt your neck?”

  Levi set his drink on the bench between them. “I don’t think so.” He opened the popcorn and held it for her. “This collar is like wearing a cast. It protects against another break while allowing the healing to continue.”

  “That’s good.”

  They grew still, staring at the lake for a long time. Her thoughts drifted. Surely a man who reacted in the best interests of innocent bystanders could be trusted with her puny problems.

  Ducks waddled over to them, and she tossed bits of popcorn and watched sunlight sparkle on the water.

  She ate a few pieces of popcorn. “When Daed finds out about the store closing, he’ll insist I come home.” She tossed a few more pieces onto the ground.