by Naomi Miller
She took a breath and closed her eyes for a moment, as if trying to gather her thoughts. “I have to say, the most inspiring part of the trip was when I visited the National 9-11 Memorial Complex.” Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “The reflecting pools sit where the Twin Towers stood before. I admit, I didn't even take time to visit the museum, because of the memorial.” This time, the tears fell silently. Mr. O'Neal handed his wife a handkerchief. With a wavering smile, she dried her tears, only to find them replaced with more.
Finally she spoke again. “When I visited the memorial, I cried buckets as I stood before it. After that, I went back to my room, ordered room service, and went to bed early. It was all too much, too emotional, too heart-breaking, too awful when I remembered the shock and horror I felt on that terrible day.”
She shook herself a little then, smiling. “Well, that was it for me. I had planned to do a little more sightseeing, but instead, I went down to the gift shop, bought several paperback books and a few snacks, then returned to my room.”
Still sniffling a bit, Amelia took a deep breath before continuing. “I stayed in my room all the next day, reading, relaxing, pretty much feeling the toil from the traveling, plus the shopping and the tour. It was probably a good thing because the next morning was when I was to board the Royal Princess.”
At that point Mr. O'Neal looked over at the girls. “Maybe we should call it a day. I'm going to take my lovely wife home and fix her something to eat. You girls get plenty of rest tonight. You'll need it tomorrow.”
* * *
Mrs. O'Neal didn't speak to her husband again until they arrived home. When they pulled into the wide drive, she turned to him with a smile.
“Are ye alright then, love?”
She assured him she was fine and took a deep breath before adding that she wanted to talk to him about Bella. “I've been wanting to talk to you about her for some time now. I just didn't know everything there was to know until now. I wonder dear, if you would join me in prayer for her?” Andrew nodded happily. He was always happy to pray with his dear wife. And after he prayed for Bella, he would thank God—as always—for his dear, sweet Amelia. He felt abundantly blessed to have her for his wife.
God was indeed good. All the time.
“That sounds just fine, Milly, love.” And he winked at her as he stepped out of the car. She might not admit it, but he saw the smile in her eyes whenever he called her by the name that had only begun as a way to tease her. That is was now a special thing between the two of them was as unexpected as it was exciting.
He moved around the car to open her door and the two of them walked into the house together.
“Andrew, that little girl needs our help. We can't send her away.”
He nodded. “I agree, love. I only wish we knew more about the circumstances. Do ye know anything about the father; who he is, where he is?”
Amelia could only shake her head. “I tried twice, but she wouldn't answer. I have no idea why she wouldn't. . . or couldn't answer the question, but at that point she was getting upset, so I dropped it and had her lie down awhile.”
Andrew looked over at his wife then. The sadness in her voice was nearly heart-breaking. “I can't help but wonder about it. She seems determined to stay and Ada Mueller has agreed to let her stay with her.”
“Then she will stay. Whatever ye want us to do to help, we'll do, love.”
Amelia sighed a little as she continued. “When I called Ada to let her know what was going on so she could watch out for Bella. . . she was not surprised.” She looked thoughtful. “That must mean she has known for some time now.” She stopped a moment and looked over at Andrew, her expression one of confusion and disbelief. “And you know, that is a mystery all its own. Ada Mueller has been the town gossip since before I moved here. But she took Bella in and never has she said anything about her. She may have even known about Bella's situation from the very beginning.”
“Tis a strange thing indeed, that she never said anything about it to anyone, especially you.” Andrew agreed. “And now, Milly, I'm in the mood to cook you something special for dinner. Would you be willing to come chat with me a bit while I cook?”
“Hmm. I suppose I could—if you behave yourself.”
“Now, you know I'm always truthful with ye, so I won't be promising to behave myself. On the contrary, I'm hoping to misbehave a little, if you know what I mean.”
Laughing, Amelia walked with her husband to the kitchen.
— EIGHT —
After supper, Katie told her mamm that she had something she needed to do at the bakery. After putting on her jacket and gloves, she left the house quickly, giving no one time to question her about what she needed to do at the bakery—at this hour.
Once outside, she took a shortcut and walked across the field towards the road, watching for a familiar car. As she came near the road, she found Travis already waiting for her. “Are you ready?”
“Jah. I've been wanting to do it again. The last time we did it, we had so much fun.” Buckling her seatbelt, she sat back to enjoy the ride to town.
She wasn't nearly as nervous as she had been the last time. She was actually looking forward to it this time. And she hoped Travis was too.
They could have met right after work, but Katie was afraid someone might catch them. And that would ruin everything. So she had talked Travis into going home for supper, then coming around to her house to pick her up, before sneaking back to the bakery, where they would be alone and no one would be around to stop them.
* * *
After locking the door behind them, Travis went to work, moving several tables nearer the counter. Then he went to the storage room to fetch the ladder.
Katie was opening the large sheet of paper she had made notes on, paying special attention to the designs.
“Are you ready to begin?”
“Jah.” She said, a little breathless. “Travis, can I tell you a secret? I went to the Bishop this time, to ask if it would be allrecht to do it. He said as long as it wasn't too fancy, it would be allrecht. I'm glad he agreed. I couldn't do it if he had said nee—and I really want to do it.”
“Then there's nothing to stop us. Just be careful, please.”
* * *
Excitement filled her. This time she didn't feel guilty at all as she climbed the ladder. . .
Dear Gott, please guide my thoughts and my hands. Allow gut to kumme from it and let it be a blessing to someone. And please Gott, let me not have hochmut, but to be thankful for the blessings you give me.
Beginning at the top, right in the middle, Katie used a light color to stencil the letters “Happy Valentine's“ on the large window. Then, climbing down off the ladder, she stenciled the letter “Day”.
She moved away from the window, checking the position and finding it nearly perfect. Heading back up the ladder, she then filled the space inside the letters with deep red paint. Once again, she climbed down the ladder and painted the last word.
Below the words, Katie drew what looked like a big ship. Just above it, she added a couple of beautiful, gold wedding bands, locked together.
Once that was done, she moved to one side of the window, stenciling in hearts, flowers, and delicious-looking candies. Choosing several paints, she finished them, before moving to the other side of the window to add more hearts, flowers, and candies.
She carefully painted an intricate pattern of swirls and flourishes all around the design, slowly painting in each tiny curve and curl. When she had finally finished, she stood back to look at the full picture. Travis stood just behind her, so close she could feel the warmth coming from his body as he stood ready to hand her anything she might need to touch up her work.
“It's beautiful Katie. I know you don't want to be prideful, but can I just say that God has truly blessed you with an astonishing gift.” His words sent a little shiver through Katie and she quickly closed her mouth, fearful that she might say something wrong and mess up this wonderful momen
t they were sharing.
It was nearly a minute before she was able to concentrate on the picture in front of them—and when she was finally satisfied that the window was ready, they headed to the kitchen to clean up the brushes and put away the ladder and paints.
Travis had just leaned towards Katie, rubbing at the paint on the brush he was cleaning, when he heard the back door open.
* * *
Mr. and Mrs. O'Neal walked in to the kitchen, looking not at all surprised to find Travis and Katie together.
“I had a suspicion that you two were up to something when Sean encouraged me to take Amelia home early for supper. He knew about this, aye?”
“You told Sean about it?” Katie asked Travis.
“Yeah, and I should have known better. Boy, he can't keep a secret at all.” Travis looked disgusted.
“I think it's very sweet of you both to go to so much trouble.” Mrs. O'Neal reached over and took Katie's hand, paying no attention to the paint that would certainly be transferred to her own hand. “We saw the window before pulling around to the back. It's just lovely. So romantic. Everyone in the community is going to love it.”
“Mrs. O'Neal, Katie was chatting about your trip last November earlier and I have to admit she's got me intrigued now. Is there any chance you would tell us how you two finally got together. . . and ended up married?” Travis asked as the four of them stood there in the semi-darkness of the kitchen.
“Aye, we'd love to share our adventure with you both, wouldn't we, Amelia? Why don't we go into the front area and sit down at one of the tables. We don't want to keep you out too late, but we'll share a bit of our story.”
* * *
“Amelia, you start, then I'll come in at times and fill in the gaps.”
“All right, dear.” Amelia answered with a smile. “I checked out of the hotel early on Thursday morning and headed for the port where the ship was docked. I got there early and was on the ship in less than an hour. I had to wait awhile to go to my room, but I found a comfortable place to sit and wait.” Mrs. O'Neal smiled at her husband. “I can still hardly believe I had no idea you were boarding the same ship. . . maybe even at the very same time I was.”
“Aye, well let me cut in here. I had no idea on Tuesday that Amelia was taking a cruise until I left the bakery and went back to the cafe. The problems between us had started months before, but I had no idea what had happened until that day.” Mr. O'Neal took his wife's hand in his and kissed it before going on.
“Sean mentioned something that day about talking to Amelia months before. He had heard me say after my wife died that I would never re-marry, and he repeated it to Amelia. Needless to say, her heart broke at the idea.” He smiled over at Amelia before going on. “She must have thought I was just flirting or being deceitful about my intentions. All summer long I was miserable, not knowing what I had done, but knowing something terrible had torn us apart.”
Mrs. O'Neal patted his hand, trying to console him. “But it all worked out, Andrew. God worked it out.”
“Aye that He did. And once I knew what the problem was, I knew I had to fix it right away. I didn't want to wait another day.” He turned back to face Katie and Travis then. “So I found out that Amelia was taking a cruise, and the details—“
“I still don't know who told you.” Amelia broke in. “I asked the girls, but they assured me it wasn't them. How on earth did you find out, Andrew?”
“Milly dear, now please don't ask me to rat out my informer. It was someone who cared deeply for both of us. When I assured them that I could fix our relationship, they told me where to find you. But it was only by God's blessings that I was able to get tickets to fly to New York and onboard the ship.” He took her hand in his and gave it a quick kiss—and Mrs. O'Neal swatted playfully at him, but then she smiled and gestured for him to go on.
“Where was I? Hmm. . . I called a travel agent; who worked a miracle with the tickets. Then I packed a bag, called Sean to say I was leaving, and drove straight to the airport. I had a couple of hours to wait, so I logged onto the ship's website to make a few extra arrangements.”
“What sort of arrangements?” Katie asked.
“I'll get to that in a moment. When the plane landed it was very early in the morning. I found a cafe that served breakfast, then I took a cab to Tiffany's. I asked him to wait, and afterwards he drove me directly to the ship, with not much time to spare.” Andrew winked at his wife before looking back toward Katie.
“All right Katie, now for those arrangements. . . when Amelia went to her cabin, she found a dozen red roses with a note that simply said, 'To the love of my life'.” Mrs. O'Neal was nodding as he went on. “The next morning, coffee was delivered to her cabin with another dozen roses. This time the note said, 'Please let me explain'.”
Amelia took over then. “Well, you can imagine my surprise when I read the notes. The first one was the biggest surprise. I was wondering who did it? I was certain Andrew didn't know where I was—or so I thought. And, it made me so nervous, I ordered dinner in my room. When I finally left my cabin and went to breakfast, guess who showed up just after I was seated?”
“Mr. O'Neal!” Katie almost shouted.
“Aye, ye're right, Katie-girl. I knew I had to work fast, so I told Amelia what I had learned from Sean—and how wrong he was. My intentions were honorable.” He smiled over at his wife. “It took a bit of convincing, but thankfully, she eventually believed me. After breakfast I never left her side, except when she retired for the evening on Friday. But before that, we took a walk in the moonlight and I pulled out the box I had picked up from Tiffany's.”
Amelia looked up at her husband then with such a smile, both Travis and Katie looked away for several seconds before Mr. O'Neal took over the story again.
“Well, we can share lots of things we saw during the cruise later, but I guess you'd be wanting to know how Saturday went. It didn't take much to convince the Captain to marry us—and with very few arrangements we stood before him at twilight and exchanged vows. Afterwards I gave up my cabin and joined my lovely wife in hers, which was roomier and had a balcony.”
“Andrew, what did you expect? I made my reservation months before you did. You were lucky you had a room at all.”
“Aye, Milly. That I was. But the luckiest day ever was the day I met you.”
“Sometimes I can't tell if you're being serious or throwing out some of your blarney,” Teased his wife.
“Maybe to others, aye, but I'd never throw out blarney to you, my love. And never again will I ever take you for granted.”
“And I pray that I never take you for granted, either, Andy.” Then she turned to face the two of them again. “Katie. . . Travis. . . learn from our mistakes. Don't allow a misunderstanding to blind your path.” Mrs. O'Neal squeezed her husband's hand again, then looked at the two young people.
“I know you care for one another. And I know you have difficult decisions to make. Don't make choices based on anyone else. Be certain of what you want—or what you need—in the future. And when you determine who and what it is you need most, don't back down. Don't let anything get in your way. Be happy.”
— NINE —
On the ride home, both Katie and Travis were quiet. Travis seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, too. Katie wondered if he was thinking of her.
She thought of all the times she had spent with Travis—and the special way he made her feel. He had crept into her heart without her even being aware of it.
When? She didn't remember.
Now it seemed to her that he had always been there. And how was she supposed to make a future without him. Did she even want to try?
The last words Mrs. O'Neal had said to the pair of them before she and Mr. O'Neal had left kept replaying in Katie's head.
Don't make choices based on anyone else. Be certain of what you want—or what you need—in the future.
But how could she do that. She knew her parents—and her church—expected her to
attend the instruction classes and then to be baptized. Her parents had been patient, but they had hinted—even spoken—to her about joining the church.
Katie knew that if she chose not to be baptized, they would be hurt. But wasn't that exactly what Mrs. O'Neal had been trying to tell them—not to make a choice based on others, like family. . . or church.
Do I really have a choice? Could I really choose Travis? And if I choose Travis, am I putting him above Gott?
She looked over at Travis. He was driving slower than usual. She kept wondering what he was thinking. Is it even possible that Gott would be allrecht with me leaving my church and following Travis? I don't even know where Travis attends church. . . if he attends church. . .
Watching him in the bright moonlight, she allowed herself to wonder what it would be like to have this always. . . She had ridden in buggies before with buwes who had driven her home after singings. . . but riding in the car with Travis was so different—more intimate somehow. They were closed in together in the small space, and his hand was usually on the knob of the gearshift between their seats. . . so close to her leg that he could reach out and touch her easily.
He never had, but there was something about knowing that he could if he wanted to that made the drive in his car feel much more romantic than she had ever felt on a buggy ride.
Could she do this for the rest of her life? Could she leave behind the buggies and ride in cars all the time? Could she leave behind the plain life? Could she live in his world all of the time?
She kept watching him as he drove along the narrow country lane, thinking perhaps he would look over at her sometime, but he kept his eyes on the road.
I know you care for one another. Don't let anything get in your way. Be happy.
