A Christmas Bride in Pinecraft

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  She felt bad for manipulating him, but not bad enough to actually regret what she’d done. For weeks now he’d been a great friend to her. More than anything she wanted the opportunity to return the favor. “I’m glad about that,” she said quietly.

  With a sigh, Josiah slid her backpack from her shoulders. “Come on, then. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Then, just like that, he turned and started walking. For the first time, he didn’t even look back to make sure he wasn’t going too fast. As she trailed behind him, Effie gave praise that she’d become so much stronger. It looked as if she was going to need two strong legs and a great resolve to get through the next few hours.

  Twenty minutes later, as they approached his house, Effie was starting to wonder if she’d been just a bit too full of herself. Josiah lived in an area she hadn’t been aware existed.

  Though it was only a little to the south of Pinecraft Park, it felt miles away from her neat and tidy street. Most houses looked to belong to Englishers, based on the number of cars and other vehicles resting in driveways. Josiah’s home was at the end of a narrow cul-de-sac, about a block away from some small hotels, a convenience store, and a rather dilapidated apartment building.

  He led the way to a tiny run-down one-story home. It looked kind of sad and neglected: Weeds littered the front yard, the paint on the white siding was peeling, and old cardboard boxes rested on the slanting front porch.

  Josiah wore a resigned look as he climbed the front steps. Effie wondered if he was preparing to introduce her to his family or merely bracing himself for whatever had called him home in the first place. She made sure to keep her expression blank and calm. As if she walked into homes like this all the time.

  Just before he opened the door, he turned to her, his lips set in a grim line. “Things will go better if you don’t say much, okay?”

  She nodded. Right now she felt like she couldn’t say a word if her life depended on it, so he needn’t have worried.

  “All right. Let’s get this over with then so I can take you home.”

  As Effie followed him inside, she couldn’t help but shiver. His words sounded like a warning.

  Chapter 16

  Where have you been?” a voice barked from a chair in the living room.

  Effie felt Josiah’s body tense next to hers. “School, Daed,” he said.

  “Your bruder was supposed to make sure the school got my note.”

  “I did get it. I got here as soon as I could.” After motioning for her to stay put by the door, Josiah stood in front of her. “When did you get back?”

  “Couple of hours ago.”

  As she watched Josiah become even more agitated, Effie stepped backward up against the wall. Inside the house, the air was warm and thick and smelled stagnant. Two empty bottles rested on a table nearby. Papers and dirty clothes were piled up against one of the doors in the hallway to her right. Effie was torn between wishing she could grab Josiah’s hand and pull him out of this place and hanging her head in shame. It seemed she had taken much in her life for granted.

  “Are you staying for a while?” Josiah asked, continuing the stilted, painful conversation.

  Instead of answering Josiah, his father barked a request. “Someone from that school of yours called. Again. A social worker is coming by. You need to clean this place up.”

  Glad that Josiah couldn’t see her, Effie inhaled sharply. His father sounded so gruff and angry. Effie could feel the tension between them. And his words were confusing, too. Had he really been gone? Had Josiah been living here with just his brother?

  “I’ll start with the kitchen,” Josiah said at last.

  “Gut.” After what sounded like a yawn, his father added, “Get busy, boy.”

  When Josiah immediately turned toward the kitchen, Effie followed on his heels. Inside, the mess was about what she had expected: Dishes were stacked on counters and piled high in the sink. Everything looked neglected and dirty. Not dirty like someone had forgotten to clean up the evening’s dishes; dirty like no one had cleaned anything in weeks.

  At the sink, she located a bottle of dish soap, turned on the faucet, and began hunting for a cloth or sponge of some kind with which to scrub.

  “You canna do this, Ef,” Josiah said with a pained look.

  “Sure I can.” Pleased to have found a reasonably clean-looking dishcloth, she wet the corner of it and set to work on a plate.

  Looking even more upset, he added, “What I mean is that I don’t want you to do our dishes. I don’t even want you here.” Pulling the cloth from her hands, he stared at it like he wanted to rip it into pieces. “I never wanted you to—”

  “Josiah, stop,” she blurted. Pulling the dishcloth from his hands, she added gently, “Believe it or not, I’ve washed my share of dishes. I’m from a big family and my mother entertains a lot. This is nothing. Please, let me do this.”

  His lips pursed together. “Nee.”

  “You need my help and I want to help you.”

  His expression turned hard. “I never wanted you to see where I live, Effie.”

  “I don’t care where you live.” She turned to face him. “Don’t you understand, Josiah? For months now, you’ve been walking me to class and helping me with my books and my locker. Now you’re even coming home with me so I can ride the bus. I want to do something for you.”

  She didn’t dare mention how his presence in her life had made everyone see her in a new light as well. Now she wasn’t just the girl with the braces—she was Effie, Josiah’s friend.

  Her climb in social status had been enormous. And though her mother would claim that such things didn’t matter, her mother had also not been in seventh grade in a very long time. Until a person had been stared at or ignored or teased for days at a time they had no idea what it was like for Effie to be able to walk down the hall and have people say hi to her.

  “None of that matters.”

  “It does to me. It’s meant a lot to me. Please let me help you. I’m glad that I can do something for you at last. It makes me feel like I’m not such a burden.”

  “You’re not a burden.”

  “Josiah, what are you doing?” his father called out.

  “Nothing, Daed.”

  “You’re lying. I hear it in your voice. Who’s here?”

  “Just a friend.”

  “You need to clean, boy.”

  When Josiah tensed, looking like he was either about to yell or cry, Effie made a shooing motion. “Go work on something else,” she mouthed. “I promise, I can wash dishes just fine.”

  She kept her smile firmly in place until he was out of sight. Then and only then did she dare let her true emotions show on her face.

  Josiah lived in a terrible situation.

  And something was very wrong with his father.

  AN HOUR LATER, WHEN she left his house, Effie knew she had to do something to help him. She’d stayed long enough to hear Josiah’s dad yell at him about almost everything under the sun and long enough to meet Peter, Josiah’s brother, who’d looked surprised to see that Josiah had brought a friend home.

  She’d stayed just until a car pulled up in front of the house. That’s when Josiah had practically pushed her out the back door. “Go on home. Sorry about . . . about everything.”

  “Don’t apologize. I’m glad I stayed.” She’d tucked her head then and started home. It was a longer walk than she was used to, easily six or seven blocks. But she’d be able to do it. Actually, she’d never been so glad that her brother Zack had encouraged her to do her leg exercises as she was at that moment.

  When she walked up her driveway, her mother ran out. “Effie, where in the world have you been?”

  Effie’s spirits sank. She’d been so wrapped up in Josiah and his kitchen and everything else that she’d completely forgotten that her mother was going to be wondering what had happened to her. “I went over to Josiah’s haus.”

  “You did?” Her voice hardened. “Well,
you should have told me that you were planning to do that.”

  “There wasn’t time. It was only decided after school.”

  “Effie, I was worried,” she said as she ushered Effie inside. “I had no idea what had happened to you.”

  She saw the look of concern on her mother’s face, heard the love and worry in her voice, smelled the scents of supper and furniture polish and her mother’s favorite lemon candles, and burst into tears. Her life was so different from Josiah’s! It was so different that it hurt her heart. She felt so bad for him.

  “Oh, Mamm,” she said through a wash of tears. “I’m so blessed.”

  Immediately, her mother’s fierce expression faded into one of sheer concern. “What’s brought this on? What is wrong?”

  But Effie simply cried harder.

  Mamm wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You aren’t crying about me being mad, are you?”

  Effie shook her head as she hiccupped. She tried to settle herself, finding comfort in her mother’s gentle demeanor.

  “What happened?”

  She debated only a few seconds before making the decision to share. “Oh, Mamm, it was terrible. Josiah got a note at school that said he had to come right home. And he looked so agitated that I went with him because I didn’t want him to face whatever was wrong alone. And then . . . and then when we got there . . .” How could she put into words just how his house had looked? How mean his daed had sounded?

  “What happened?”

  “His father said Josiah had to clean up because a social worker was coming over.”

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “A social worker?”

  “Jah. I’m not even sure why. All I know was that nothing had been cared for and it was obvious that his father hadn’t even been living there. Mamm, Josiah was surprised to see him.”

  “Oh, dear.”

  “And when his bruder Peter showed up, Josiah looked scared to death. Peter glared at me and whispered to Josiah that I should never have been there in the first place. And I felt so guilty because Josiah had kept telling me that he didn’t want me to go home with him but I wouldn’t listen. So I only made things worse.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “I’m fairly sure I did. It was bad. Really, really bad.”

  Her mother sat down on their large, comfortable couch. “Oh, my.”

  “Josiah looked so alone, so, well, sad, I couldn’t just leave him, Mamm,” she added, taking a seat next to her. “Not after everything he’s done for me at school.”

  Her mother brushed a stray tendril of hair away from her face. “Of course not.”

  Around another hiccup of tears, Effie added, “I went right to the kitchen and started doing dishes. There were dishes everywhere. And Mamm, they hardly have any food. When I put a bottle of juice in the refrigerator, I saw what was inside.”

  “What did you see, dear?”

  “Niks! Practically nothing. There wasn’t anything other than a couple of condiments. And all I found in one of the kitchen cabinets were a couple cans of soup.”

  “That poor boy.” She swallowed. “Those poor boys.”

  “After I cleaned up the kitchen as best I could, I tried to offer to clean the bathroom but Josiah wouldn’t let me. Then, when a car pulled up, Josiah made me leave. I’m so worried about him.”

  “I know you are. I’m worried, too.”

  “And I feel awful, Mamm. He must have felt so obligated to help me. And here he has so much else to worry about.”

  “I know, but perhaps he needed to concentrate on your problems. Sometimes it’s so much easier to concentrate on other people instead of one’s self.”

  Effie blinked, thinking that her mother was probably right. The whole time she’d been at Josiah’s house, she hadn’t been thinking about anything beyond washing all those dishes.

  “Effie, you were a good friend to him today.”

  “Was I? I hardly did anything.”

  Her mother looked at her directly, then spoke. “I debated about whether to tell you anything, but I guess you deserve to know the truth. Josiah is having quite a tough time at home. Not only has he been going hungry, I’ve heard stories that his father is in a . . . well, in a bad way.”

  Effie felt her lip tremble. “He is.”

  “I wanted him to have some decent food, but also to be around our house, too. I wanted him to feel comfortable here.”

  “I think he has been.” And she was glad for that, but now that she’d seen what his home was like, she wondered if she’d completely misread his reasons for coming over. Maybe he hadn’t been trying to be her friend. Maybe he’d really just been hungry.

  Mamm clicked her tongue, as if reading her mind. “Now don’t look at me that way, Effie. And you mustn’t convince yourself that he only came over here for something to eat. He has become your friend. And a good one, at that.”

  “You think so?” She hated that she was even thinking about herself at a time like this.

  “I know so. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He genuinely likes being with you, Effie. I’m sure of it.”

  “What can I do to help him?”

  “Just what you’re doing now. I talked to Emma Hilty and she and Jay are going to deliver several baskets to some needy families in the area. One of them is going to be Josiah’s house.”

  “Nee, Mamm. That ain’t enough. We need to help him now.”

  Her mother studied her, seemed to come to a decision, then walked to the door. “Let’s go, then.”

  Effie rushed to her side. “Where are we going?”

  “I think it’s time we paid a visit to some people who know a whole lot more about helping those in need than we do.”

  “Who is that?”

  “We’re going to go visit with Bishop Metz. Then I think we’re going to talk to Beverly and Eric over at the Orange Blossom Inn, too.”

  “Why Beverly and Eric?”

  “Beverly knows a lot of people in the community and I do believe that Eric has some experience being in a similar situation to Josiah and Peter. It’s time that all of us worked together to make a difference for those boys. Now.”

  Effie liked that. She liked the idea of actually doing something. Of making a plan. But most of all, she wanted to be Josiah’s friend. And that meant doing everything she could to make sure he was going to be okay.

  Chapter 17

  December 19

  When the doorbell rang at seven o’clock at night, the last people Beverly expected to see was Ginny Kaufmann and her daughter standing on her front stoop. “Hello,” she said with a tentative smile. “This is a nice surprise.”

  “Hi, Beverly. I hope this isn’t a bad time?”

  Though Beverly was friends with the whole Kaufmann family, they didn’t usually call on each other out of the blue. But since they had so graciously let her sleep at their house the evening of the robbery, maybe things had changed? “Did you two come over for tea?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Nee. We actually came over to seek advice from Eric.” Looking rather agitated, Ginny craned her neck. “Is he around, by any chance?”

  Beverly was now really surprised. She couldn’t imagine what Ginny and Effie could need from Eric. “He is. He’s sitting out on the back patio.” After ushering them inside, she gestured toward the back door. “Let me take you back.”

  With a sigh, Effie nodded. Ginny slipped an arm around her, then turned to Beverly. “Would you be able to join us, too? I, um, think maybe you both could give us a lot of gut advice.”

  More curious than ever, Beverly nodded. “I’d be happy to join you. May I get you girls something to drink first?”

  “I’m fine. Effie?” Ginny asked.

  Effie shook her head. “Nee. Danke.”

  Beverly was fairly curious by the time she’d led the women outside and they’d all said hello to Eric. After they were all sitting down, she said, “So, um, how may Eric and I help you?”

  “It’s not about me—it’s about my friend Jo
siah,” Effie said.

  Looking a little embarrassed, Ginny stared at Beverly and Eric. “Beverly, I know I promised that I wouldn’t say anything, but I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said about Eric’s past.”

  Though she felt like the bottom of her world had just fallen out, Beverly simply stared.

  Eric’s eyes narrowed. “Pardon me?”

  “Eric, I hope you don’t mind, but the other day Beverly shared with me that you once had some trouble at home.” Ginny looked even more pained. “I’m really sorry, Beverly. I know you are probably mighty upset with me.”

  “Upset” was putting it mildly. She was equally embarrassed and horrified. But she had no one to blame but herself. She should have known better than to share her worries with anyone. As the silence between them all stretched taut, Beverly could practically feel Eric’s heated glare.

  “I’m the one who should be apologizing, Eric,” she said around a swallow. “The morning after you told me about your past, I was so confused and upset that I went for a walk. When I ran into Ginny, I shared some of what you told me.”

  Eric braced his hands on his knees. “I never told you to keep my past a secret, Bev. You don’t need to apologize.”

  But of course, everything in his posture told a different story. He looked pensive. Almost like he was afraid Ginny was going to ask him twenty questions about his past. Beverly felt terrible.

  “Are you worried about me or something?” Eric asked.

  After glancing at her daughter, Ginny cleared her throat. “Of course not. We came here for advice. I thought it was the right thing to do.”

  “What do you want to know?” Eric asked slowly.

  Ginny took a breath. “This afternoon, Effie shared with me that her friend Josiah and his brother have been very likely living on their own.”

  “Josiah’s daed was there today, but I don’t think he’s around much,” Effie blurted. “He also doesn’t sound very nice. At all.” After a pause, she mumbled, “I saw a bruise on Josiah last week, too.”

  Eric glanced over at Beverly, confusion in his eyes. Beverly shrugged. She was just as at sea as he was.