by Tricia Goyer
Charlotte patted Mary Louise’s hand. “I need to slip out early too. If we’re not done in twenty minutes we can slip out together.”
“Welcome, ladies,” Pastor Evans strode to the front of the room. “First of all I wanted to start by thanking you for all the hard work you’ve put in. When Nancy and I first came up with this idea I never expected that we’d have everything done by February 28, the 130th anniversary of the first service that took place in Bedford Community Church, but you did it. Give yourselves a hand.”
Charlotte clapped with the others, but it felt silly, really. It was just cleaning and organizing—something they were used to doing everyday.
When the applause died down, the pastor continued. “My idea for this meeting is that we figure out how we should organize the display case. Also, we need to discuss which items are most important to include.”
“Why don’t we start by sharing some of the items we’ve found?” Nancy interjected. “There are so many good things. Maybe if we pick a few we can better know how to set up the display case.”
“Good idea.” Pastor Evans placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder.
“I found an old handbell.” Stacie Lindstrom waved her hand. “There’s a date on it from 1883, and from the research we found at the library it most likely was the bell that Mabel Olsen, one of the first Sunday-school teachers, used to call her students to class.”
Murmurs erupted around the room, and Charlotte loved hearing the excitement in people’s voices.
“Wonderful.” At Pastor Evans’s words, the room quieted again. “Anything else?”
Mary Louise Henner stood. “Yes, well, in one of the boxes Celia Potts and I found a folder of sermon notes from one of the first preachers in our church.”
“Yes, and the sermons were quite good. Maybe you should read over them, Pastor,” Celia spouted.
Charlotte placed a hand over her mouth and shook her head. It wasn’t the first time she’d been shocked by Celia’s lack of tact.
“I imagine the sermons are interesting,” Pastor Evans commented, amusement lighting his face, “but I’m not sure how well they’d work for a display. I don’t think people would want to stop and read them. Still …” He smiled. “I’d be happy to take a look.”
“What about Charlotte’s find?” Nancy piped in. “Well, actually I was the one who found the items, but they have to do with Charlotte’s family.”
“Yes, Charlotte.” Mary Louise jabbed Charlotte in the ribs with her elbow. “You should talk about the Bible and journal and the story about your great-grandfather.”
Charlotte looked from Mary Louise to Nancy to Pastor Evans. “I don’t know. Like the sermon notes, they really aren’t something that will work for the display.”
“No, I imagine not, but Nancy’s told me bits and pieces. I’d love to hear about it if you’d like to share.” Pastor Evans motioned for her to stand.
“Well, what I found isn’t like these other people’s items. In fact, at first I wished the newspaper clipping hadn’t come up at all.” She took a breath. “I’m sure many of you heard that in 1879 the money set aside to buy the building materials for this church was either lost or stolen while it was in the care of my great-grandfather. I’d heard the story before, but I didn’t know much about it. In our searching through the boxes, Hannah found a newspaper clipping and Nancy found my great-grandmother’s Bible and journal. But more than that, I found something too.” Charlotte clasped her hands together in front of her.
“You see, at first I was curious about the truth. Then I felt ashamed. It’s almost as if I felt people looked at me differently because of what my great-grandfather did.”
“No, Charlotte,” Maxie mumbled. “Surely you didn’t think that.”
Charlotte cast Maxie a soft smile and then scanned the group. “But through some letters Anita shared with me, and some photos from Maxie and then the journal, I found something that I didn’t expect. I—”
“Did you find out what happened to the treasure?” Mary Louise called out from the back of the room.
Charlotte shook her head. “I didn’t figure that out, but I discovered something even better. I learned that even though my great-grandparents went through hard times they were good people. I learned that friends can come alongside you and make all the difference. I also learned that it’s okay to still have joy, even when others judge you without knowing the truth.” Charlotte paused as she replayed her last sentence in her mind. Then she sat down immediately as the face of Kendall popped into her mind.
No, that’s a different situation. She tried to ignore the gnawing in her gut.
She glanced at her watch again and then rose, happy that she had an excuse to leave.
“Going somewhere?” Pastor’s voice interrupted her pace.
She paused and turned. “Yes, I have some girls to pick up. They’re working on a school project. I’m sorry to run out like this.” Her voice didn’t sound like hers; it sounded tight, unnatural. She hoped no one else noticed.
“Yes, I understand. I think Nicole has the same project due soon, but Charlotte, before you run out can you commit to sharing the story you shared with us, maybe on the day of the open house? You’re right that those items won’t work for the display, but the history of the place—and the love of the people—is something we need to hear.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to distract from the main point of the program—you know, the celebration of the founding of the church.”
“Well, your family’s story is part of the church’s story.” Pastor Evans spread his arms wide.
“Yes, I suppose it is.”
CHARLOTTE NOTICED THAT Lily sat quietly in the front passenger’s seat as Emily, Andrea, and Ashley chattered in the backseat. Charlotte’s car was small, and they were squished, but they didn’t seem to care.
“Ashley, that’s awfully nice of you to come and help the girls with their project.”
“Yeah, well, my group’s project is on the food of Nebraska. We met. We cooked. We tasted. We cooked some more. My dad thinks it’s an instant A.” She laughed. “I mean, it’s going to be so tasty. And—”
“Yeah, we aren’t going to have food,” Emily interrupted. “But I was thinking that we should have something really cool to display.”
“These posters will be nice.” Andrea said.
“Yeah, I guess.” Emily twisted her lips, showing she was thinking. “What do you think, Lily?”
“My brother has a toy train. Or at least he had one. I can’t remember if it was made to look old, but something like that would work.” Lily’s voice was soft, and she seemed respectful, different from the times Charlotte had seen her with Nicole. Charlotte waited for Emily or the other girls to comment. None of them responded, and Charlotte looked toward Lily. Her jaw was tight, and Charlotte could tell she felt uncomfortable, out of her element.
“Emily, did you hear Lily? She made a good suggestion.”
Charlotte pulled the car onto their long driveway.
“Yeah, I heard. I was thinking about it. I just was thinking of how that could work.”
“Hey, what about Miss Middleton’s train?” Ashley’s voice rose with excitement.
“Who is Miss Middleton?” Andrea asked.
“Oh, she’s the cool old lady Emily and I cleaned for last year.” Ashley pushed her red, curly hair back from her face.
“Even though I didn’t want to at first,” Emily explained. “But she turned out to be pretty cool.”
“Yes, she was on this thing called the Orphan Train that took orphans who lived in the cities and sent them to be adopted by people who lived in the country.”
“How sad.” Andrea pouted. “I mean how sad that she lost her parents—not how sad that she was adopted or that she moved here and got a new family.” Andrea leaned forward, stretching her arm to pat Lily’s shoulder. “Sometimes moving in with a new family isn’t bad at all.”
Lily smiled, but she didn’t say anything.
Charlotte drove down their driveway, and Toby came bounding toward the car.
“Grandma, do you think it would be okay if I called Miss Middleton and asked to see if we could use her train display for our presentation?”
“Sure. I don’t see why not. She might even like to come and hear the presentation. And maybe you can have her say something to the class. After all, even though she didn’t move to Nebraska until the 1920s she would have known a lot of the people who first settled here.” Charlotte turned off the engine.
“Good idea!” Emily bounded from the car. “I think I’ll call her now.”
SAM SAT NEXT TO KENDALL in the small pickup truck. Kendall’s dad was driving. They drove on a road leading out of Bedford and then turned onto a narrow dirt road that Sam hadn’t even noticed before.”So glad you’re joining us today, Sam. It’s always fun to have another treasure hunter in the group.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, thanks for having me. The other day Kendall showed me some of the cool antiques you guys found. We tried to go to one of the sites, but the road was too icy. I’m glad we’re able to try again with you.” Sam tried to act natural, like he did this every day. But it wasn’t easy. His stomach tightened, and his shoulders tensed. “I can’t believe most of that stuff came from our area.”
The dirt road narrowed until it was no more than two tire tracks leading toward a grove of trees in the distance.
“Yes, most people have no idea what’s in their own backyard.” Mr. Richardson laughed. “And we don’t want everyone to know. If people knew what we were up to then we’d be out of work, out of treasure.”
“If you say so, Mr. Richardson.” Sam felt his stomach tighten more, and he hoped his grandma and grandpa wouldn’t say anything about what he’d already told them.
“Please, Sam, call me Hank. I’ve told you that before.” He sighed. “Mr. Richardson sounds like my father.”
“Okay, Hank.”
The road ended in a small cluster of trees and Hank jumped out. Sam did the same, pulling on a hat and gloves.
“See that small hill over there?” Hank pointed to a hilly area near the farthest tree.
“Yeah.”
“That’s not a hill. It’s an old soddie. You can tell by the size. Hills around these parts are more gently sloped and they’re wider.”
“So that’s where we’re going to look?” Sam moved in the direction of the soddie.
“No, Sam, wait.” Kendall’s voice halted his tracks. “We need to grab our gear first.”
“Yeah, sorry. I was getting too excited.” Sam turned and saw her lifting the metal detector out of the truck. As Sam took the metal detector from her, an uneasiness came over him that he couldn’t shake.
Kendall reached back and grabbed the shovel and pick.
“Uh, Kendall. Is this private property?”
“Yeah, it is. But—”
“Kendall, Sam!” Hank’s voice called from up ahead. “Hurry. We don’t have all day. We don’t want anyone to see us.”
“Coming,” Kendall called, hurrying ahead.
Instead of following, Sam just stood there, feeling like a fool.
Why didn’t I figure this out sooner? I’m so stupid.
Ever since Kendall started talking about the treasure hunts she went on with her dad, he’d thought it sounded like fun. Up until now he hadn’t considered it might be illegal.
Great. What should I do now?
He looked down at the metal detector in his hands. Suddenly it felt like he was holding a loaded gun ….and he had his finger on the trigger.
“Sam!” Kendall called, hurrying ahead. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”
Sam took a deep breath and followed. “Maybe we won’t find anything,” he mumbled to himself. “Then I won’t have to worry.”
DINNER WAS FINISHED and Emily was glad that Grandma had asked Christopher to help with the dishes. Grandma and Grandpa hadn’t been their usual cheery selves at dinner, and Emily guessed it was because Sam wasn’t home. He was most likely out with Kendall again. No one knew. All Emily knew was that he’d left a note on the counter that had read, “Be back before 9. Will eat when I get back.”
Emily took a sip of the hot cocoa Grandma had made her and tried to focus on the notebook in front of her. Andrea and Ashley were at the other end of the table, working on the posters, and she and Lily were supposed to be working on the presentation. Instead, Emily stared at her notes for a least a minute without really seeing them.
Lily jotted something down in her notebook, but she didn’t say anything.
“Oh, my goodness! Andrea, how do you even pronounce that word?” Ashley pointed to a large word on the poster. “Czech must be the hardest language ever.”
Excited by Ashley’s interest, Andrea launched into an impromptu Czech lesson.
As she sat there trying to concentrate and trying to ignore Ashley’s loud voice, Emily suddenly wished she hadn’t invited Ashley to come over. She’d felt bad because they hadn’t been spending time together, and Ashley had offered to help, but Emily could see now it wasn’t a good idea. Emily had just been getting to know the other girls, and Ashley’s presence seemed to throw things off balance.
“That’s cool about Miss Middleton, you know, letting us take the train to school,” Lily offered.
“Yeah, I nearly had to shout into the phone for her to hear me, but when she finally understood, she said it was fine. She also said it was a replica of an old steam engine—the kind that brought settlers to Nebraska, so it fits with our project.”
“Too bad she isn’t feeling well enough to come too, you know, to tell the class about some of the people she knew.”
“Yeah, I hope she’s not too sick. She sounded pretty frail on the phone. But I’m going to talk to Grandma later when she’s not so stressed about my brother and see if she has any other really, really old friends. Maybe there are others we’ll be able to interview.”
“Yeah, I bet my grandma does too.” Lily leaned back in her chair and folded her arms on her lap. “But the last thing on earth I’d do is ask her for help.”
Emily frowned. “Why?”
“Are you kidding? If I told her about the project she’d go crazy getting involved in it. She’d hire someone to build a replica of Bedford 1880 for us. She’d sew us period costumes. She’d build a time machine to take us back so we could ride the train ourselves.”
Laughter burst from Emily’s lips. “Okay, I have to admit that would be cool.”
“Yeah, I suppose so. But some things don’t have to be perfect. I try to tell my mom it’s okay to just do a good job without having to make yourself be better—or look better than everyone else.”
Emily nodded and didn’t know how to respond. Grandma and Grandpa always encouraged her to do her best, but they didn’t get crazy about it.
Emily straightened in her seat. “Oh! Oh!”
Lily turned to her, eyes wide. Even Andrea and Ashley turned to her to see what was so exciting.
“I just remembered. My grandma has an old journal that was my great-great-great grandmother’s, and she wrote some stuff about the trains.”
“Really?” Lily flicked Emily’s shoulders. “Well, go get it already. We can use that. I mean, really use that. We can read a journal entry and then describe more of what was happening in the area during that time. It’s perfect.”
Emily jumped from her seat. “Grandma!”
“In here.” She heard Grandma’s voice coming from the laundry room. “If you can’t find me it’s because I’m buried under these piles of clothes.”
Emily peeked into the laundry room. Her grandma was bent over with her arm reaching deep into the dryer pulling out warm clothes. “Grandma, do you have time, you know, to show us that journal? The one your great-grandma wrote?”
Charlotte straightened, and her face brightened. A minute ago she had seemed tired, but now her eyes were alert and she smiled.
“Of course. I’d love to. I even
went back this morning and put bookmarks on the pages I thought you’d be interested in. I thought about using sticky notes but I didn’t want to mess it up. The paper’s really thin.”
“Cool, well, whenever you’re done here, Lily and I would like to look at it.”
Emily turned, but her grandma gently grabbed her arm, pulling her into the room. “Is Lily okay? It seems like something’s bothering her. She doesn’t seem to be her typical self.”
“Yeah, I actually don’t mind. I don’t like her typical self.” Emily covered her mouth with her hand. She couldn’t believe she’d actually said that out loud. “Oops. I, uh, just think she’s not used to us. I think she’ll start acting more, uh, normal when she’s more comfortable.”
Grandma nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.
The phone rang and Emily went to get it, but Grandpa was already in the kitchen, staring into the empty cookie jar. He picked up the receiver.
“Hello?”
Emily stood at the end of the kitchen counter, listening in, wondering if it was Sam. Wondering if he was going to get chewed out.
“Oh, hi.”
Nope, not Sam.
“Yes, it’s good to hear from you. I haven’t seen you around church much.”
Emily searched her mind, trying to remember who had missed church lately.
“You are? I’m sorry to hear that.”
Sorry to hear what?
“Oh, that’s good.” Grandpa nodded and pulled the phone back from his ear, as if the person on the other end was talking really loud.
“Who is it?” Charlotte sidled up to Emily.
“I’m not sure.”
“Really, that’s kind of you, Miss Middleton. Okay, I’ll tell her. Yes, if she can’t do it tomorrow, I can. Yes, it’s a quiet time of the year around the farm, but spring is right around the corner.”
“It’s probably about the train,” her grandma said, leaning close.
“Yes, and you too. Good night now.” Grandpa hung up the phone.
