The Path to Piney Meadows

by Gail Sattler

  She knew what was going to happen. Ted would be leaving Piney Meadows.

  As his friend, she was happy for him. He would be with people with similar interests—professional people like him—and he would be happy there, involved in a large church and surrounded by fellow believers. But that also meant that once he and Miranda married, he would be leaving Piney Meadows and the furniture factory.

  And that meant once again Bart would be in charge—running the plant, making all the decisions, and doing the marketing. Bart had started the business and made it successful as a small enterprise, but the business had reached a plateau. The best business decision Bart had ever made was to send Ted off to college and hand over the reins when Ted graduated. If Bart once again ran the factory, she could see it slipping back to what it once was, without the strong leadership Ted provided.

  Anna’s stomach made a flip. She didn’t know when Ted would be back or how long he would stay. All she knew was that he would certainly be coming soon, because even with Bart running the factory, Ted would never abandon his guest. Such rudeness was not Ted’s way.

  Thinking of Ted’s guest, her mind wandered back to the previous day, to the time spent with Chad Jones.

  She’d never met a man like him, although admittedly her experience with men was extremely limited. No man except for her papa and brooda had ever entered her mama’s kitchen, and certainly neither had offered to help with the preparation of the Christmas meal.

  Both during the meal and afterward, when her mama and sesta had finished cleaning up, Chad had spoken equally to everyone in her family, making sure no one would be left out of any conversation, including herself, regardless of the topic.

  He had asked a few questions about Piney Meadows, yet she’d been unable to ask anything important about living in Minneapolis.

  The image of Chad seated at their family table appeared in her mind’s eye. Not only was Chad charming and sociable, he was also the most handsome man she’d ever met, and working beside Ted, she’d met many more men than any of her friends. Only unlike so many of the men who came to visit Ted, Chad’s smile seemed genuine, and when he laughed,she could tell it came from his heart and was not done just to be polite.

  As if thinking about him could make him appear, Chad stood in the office doorway, wearing the same leather jacket he had worn yesterday. Looking at him closely, she could see his teeth chattering.

  “How did you get here? Ted told me that he has the keys to your car. Did you walk from Ted’s house without a good coat?”

  He nodded, slapping his upper arms to regain his circulation.

  “Why are you here?” As soon as the words escaped, by reflex she wanted to cover her mouth with her hand. While she wanted to know why he had walked all this way without an adequate winter coat or a hat, she hadn’t meant to sound so rude.

  He smiled, as if he hadn’t noticed. “I’m here to see Bart. Ted wanted me to talk to him.”

  Anna glanced at the office door. “Bart has had the door closed for a long time. I will go tell him you are here. But first, would you mind if I asked you a question?”

  He smiled. “Not at all.”

  She looked first to the right, then the left, just to make sure no one but Chad would hear her words. “What is it like to work and live in the cities? Is it difficult to find a job? Is it difficult to get from place to place? Do you have a good place to live?”

  His smile dropped. “That’s more than one question, and I have to ask you a question first before I answer. Why are you asking?”

  Again, she looked from side to side before answering, then spoke softly. “I am wondering about leaving Piney Meadows and living in the cities, as many of our young people are doing. But my mama and papa will not let me speak of this, so I have questions while I am considering it.”

  “There isn’t a quick answer. I’d need to know what area you’re looking at.”

  “I do not know any areas.”

  His brows knotted. “What parts of the city have you seen, then?”

  “I have never seen any parts. I have only been to Minneapolis once, when we went to visit my friend Theresa and her husband, Evan. I do not know enough of the cities to know what area that was. But Evan was able to find work, so I should also be able to do the same.”

  Chad stiffened. “Are you saying you want to move to a big city like Minneapolis, and you’ve only ever been there once?”

  Anna nodded. “Ja. Can you not answer my questions?”

  At the same moment as Chad’s mouth opened, so did Ted’s office door, and Bart stepped out.

  “Chad, I am glad you have come. I hope you did not wait long. Please come in so we may speak.”

  Before Anna could ask if his answer would be a yes or a no, Chad stood. “We’ll talk later. Excuse me.” He turned to join Bart in Ted’s office, and closed the door behind him.

  Anna stared at the closed door. All she could do was take solace in the fact that her questions had been asked and that Chad had promised to answer. She only had to wait until he came out.

  The longer the door remained closed, the more she was tempted to press one ear to the door to listen to the conversation. In order not to feel so frustrated, she busied herself with the filing and other tasks not requiring intense concentration.

  She was nearly ready to scream in frustration when the office door opened.

  Bart nodded at her. “I am going to give Chad a tour of the plant so he may see the operation. I am expecting some phone calls. Please tell them I will call them back tomorrow.”

  Before she could ask him who he was expecting to call, the two men left the office and disappeared down the hall toward the plant.

  Anna sighed. She could have given Chad a tour of the plant, and in fact, she should have been the one to do it in order to allow Bart to focus his concentration on Ted’s job. When Ted was busy or expecting an important call, he often asked her to give a short tour of the plant to his guests. In the cities, women could do such things.

  The thought that Ted would be leaving and Bart once again running the plant made her stomach churn. Bart’s marketing was quite poor compared to Ted’s. In time, they would get fewer orders, and fewer orders meant a downturn in production, causing many of the people there to lose their jobs—one of them probably her. She suspected that Bart was well aware that Ted did a better job than he did, because she’d never seen him as stressed as he’d been today.

  Now, more than ever, she needed information about moving to the cities and finding a job.

  The longer she waited for Bart and Chad to return, the more anxious she became.

  Two minutes before it was time to go home, Bart and Chad returned.

  For the first time that day, Bart smiled; Chad did not. Bart stepped closer to Chad, resting one hand on Chad’s shoulder. “Anna, this is Chad Jones. He is going to take over for Ted and manage everything. Chad, this is Anna Janzen, your secretary.”

  Chad watched as a myriad of emotions playing like a movie in slow motion passed over Anna’s face. Disbelief, confusion, shock, then almost as though the words scrolled on her forehead, fear over what she’d told him less than an hour ago. At most businesses, telling the boss you were looking for another job meant instant dismissal, especially in a position where that person knew the company secrets, like an executive secretary would. Of course, finding a job here wasn’t as simple as in Minneapolis, where anyone could either check the want ads or take a bundle of resumés and walk from business to business handing them out. Often, depending on the industry, a person could put his or her name out to competitors hoping to get the inside scoop, and it wouldn’t be long before a person had a new job offer.

  It wasn’t like that here. Bart had told him their factory was pretty much the only employer in town. All the other businesses in town were small and family-owned. When anyone needed help, they simply asked a family member or a friend of the family. Of course, this was a family-owned and operated business as well, but it had grown be
cause unlike any of the other businesses here, this one marketed beyond its own small town to the big cities.

  Both Bart and Ted had said a lot of good things about Anna. Even if she planned to quit, it would be a long time before that happened. In the meantime, he would make the best of it. He smiled at Anna to reassure her that her job wasn’t in jeopardy because of what he knew. “I look forward to working with you.”

  That she sagged with relief was unmistakable. Beside him, Bart turned his head and looked at him, his expression asking for an answer that Chad didn’t want to give.

  Chad had experienced tenfold what it felt like to be dissatisfied, which was why he’d left his job the way he had. However, unlike him, Anna wasn’t in a position to walk off the job and jump into another one. He knew nothing of her skills. But from what Bart had told him, this was her first job, and she hadn’t taken any business courses, because there was no place here in Piney Meadows to take them. He also knew she hadn’t taken any courses online, because during Christmas dinner her father made some very disparaging remarks about computers, so he knew there wasn’t one in her house.

  From what he’d learned in his meeting with Bart, this business wasn’t quite on the ground floor, but it was close. He’d also learned that they liked it that way.

  Bart stepped back. “Just in case you agreed to accept this position, my wife has made a special supper, and I would like you to be my guest.”

  Chad’s mouth opened, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. This had definitely been the strangest job interview he’d ever had. It hadn’t taken long to describe his qualifications—he’d handwritten a resumé while Bart watched him, including when Chad counted on his fingers the years he’d worked at previous employers. Bart and Ted had gone off the speakerphone for an alleged private conversation. Since they hadn’t asked him to leave the room so they could talk in private, he’d heard every word Bart said. When they put Ted back on the speaker for a few more questions, it also hadn’t taken long for Chad to say that he was more than ready to move away from Minneapolis and settle down in Piney Meadows.

  What hadn’t been so easy was when, still on the speakerphone, they’d started questioning him about his belief in God, and his life as a believer.

  He hadn’t known what to say. While what they’d done was illegal, Chad wasn’t ashamed, and wanted to be upfront with them. He agreed with everything they said and he’d been a faithful churchgoer all his life until the last couple of years. Yet Bart and Ted had asked him questions he’d never had to think about and didn’t really have answers to.

  Still, in all things, he was honest. If they were looking for a super-religious, pious, holy man, it wasn’t him. He honestly told them he hadn’t been to church for over a year, and at that point he’d felt they were ready to escort him to the door. After a very telling silence, Ted’s voice came over the speaker, asking if he prayed every day. Chad had answered honestly. He didn’t pray every day, but he did pray most days. He didn’t tell them he felt God had stopped listening to him a long time ago. Maybe some foolish part of him hoped God might hear just one small request, even though it never happened.

  God hadn’t answered a single one of his prayers. He had a demanding and overbearing boss who lied to him, or at least he’d had one until he quit his job on a whim. His fiancée, whom he’d been living with, left him while he was at work and didn’t leave a forwarding address. Since the lease was in her name, when she pulled out he got evicted from the apartment, because he could no longer afford it on one salary. His friends were too busy to spend much time with him, especially now that he was single again and all of them were in relationships. Even his parents were too busy to spend much time with him. They’d bought a motor home, signed up for a time-share, and were seldom in town now that they were retired.

  The only thing that had gone right for him in the last year was happening right now. These very nice, honest, albeit rather caught-in-a-time-warp-old-fashioned people had offered him a job. All he could do was be honest about everything and promise that he would do his best.

  And they gave him the job.

  Chad looked at Anna, who was looking up strangely at him.

  For a moment, his breath caught. The first time he’d seen her had been during the Christmas play. She’d been an angel then, and she certainly looked like an angel now, which he really needed. His nerves were still on edge with this situation, but just looking at her calmed him. Completely unadorned with makeup, she was still pretty. Without a fancy, expensive haircut, her soft brown hair should have been boring, but it wasn’t. But what held him were her eyes. Big, beautiful, hazel eyes. Honest eyes, with depth that went all the way to her soul. Eyes that told him that everything would be all right.

  He spoke to Bart, while he was looking at Anna. “I would love to be your guest.”

  Bart spoke behind him. “That is good. Anna, I will call your parents so that you may come and we will talk.”

  She nodded and didn’t speak.

  From Anna’s reaction, this appeared to be a normal event, so Chad told himself that he didn’t have to be nervous, but he still was. He’d never had a job where he was invited into the home of the owner. He couldn’t help feeling this interview wasn’t over, but at the same time, he felt good. For the first time in a long time, something in his life had gone right.

  Since Bart and Ted felt that praying was so important, tonight, maybe, he’d pray that everything would keep going this way.

  Bart turned and walked back into Ted’s office. “I will get our coats. Let us go. Odelle has been busy cooking all day, and I do not wish to make her unhappy if we make her wait.”

  6

  Chad dabbed at his mouth with the napkin, using it in an attempt to stifle a burp. The only other time he’d eaten so much in one meal had been yesterday, at Susan and Peter’s home for Christmas dinner. He’d expected today to eat Bart and Odelle’s leftovers, but everything today was fresh-cooked, maybe with a few recycled ingredients, but nothing obvious. Odelle had cooked a meal fit for a special guest, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

  He wasn’t special. He was just an ordinary guy. But the conversation had made him feel like he was a miracle dropped in on them from God. Everything he’d seen had shown him a solid company base, even if all their systems were a few decades behind the times. But then, that was the backbone of the company—building solid and well-crafted, heritage-type, old-fashioned furniture that looked like it had been built in another century. It wouldn’t be hard, after a few software updates, to bump their fiscal operation up to the current decade. It also wouldn’t be hard to update their marketing efforts with their current clients. Of course, first he’d have to spend some serious time with Anna, who apparently knew more than the owner about what made this business tick. But it was ticking, and ticking well, just a little slow.

  Odelle smiled at him. “I know Susan would have sent much food home with you. But I hope you will at least take home some of my Schinkje sleesch to enjoy.”

  Chad nearly choked on the sip of his coffee. Home. He didn’t have a home. Not in Minneapolis, and not here in Piney Meadows, either. For now, he couldn’t even sleep in his car if he wanted to, despite the fact that he would probably freeze to death if he tried. Ted still hadn’t sent his keys, his drivers’ license, or his wallet.

  Even if he had the money and his credit cards, Piney Meadows didn’t have a hotel or motel. Since the town wasn’t a tourist mecca, he also doubted he would find a bed-and-breakfast. Come to think of it, he wondered if a town like this even had an apartment building where he could find a place to rent, which is what he’d assumed he would do.

  He forced himself to smile back politely. “I would love to take home some of the . . . uh . . . what you said. It’s delicious, and you’re making me feel very spoiled. You’re a fantastic cook.”

  Odelle waved one hand in the air and blushed. “Ach. You are being kind. But I do love to cook. It is good to have more people to cook fo
r, since my daughters are married.” At the word married, Odelle turned to Anna. “I also had planned to invite William today, but he had told me of other plans. He had made promises for tonight.”

  Interesting. Today at the factory William hadn’t been at his desk, he’d been in the factory taking stock of the materials. Chad had met William briefly, but hadn’t had a chance to talk to him or be introduced as his new boss. The first person he’d need to talk to in order to become more familiar with the business and their financial status would be the company accountant.

  Now, Odelle’s words reminded him that in addition to assessing everyone’s skills and level of responsibilities, he’d also need to be aware of the relationships between the employees. Nothing had been said during her family’s Christmas dinner, but apparently there was more between Anna and William than merely being fellow employees.

  Tomorrow, Bart would officially introduce him to all the staff, he’d be given an initiation into each department, and then, when things settled down, he would talk privately with Anna to learn the personal details he needed to know. Here, he wasn’t just the new kid on the block; he was an outsider to this lost-in-time community. He would always need to be aware of all the interpersonal relationships so he didn’t cross any lines or offend. He’d also have to learn more about this community in order to interact effectively with them.

  Since Anna was his new personal assistant, he needed her to advise him.

  He turned to Odelle. “Thank you for a wonderful supper. I’m honored that you would prepare such a special meal just for us.”

  Odelle blushed, turned, and muttered something in German.

  Bart stood. “Come. Let us sit in the living room to talk.”

  Chad also stood, waiting for the ladies to precede them out of the kitchen. They both stood, but instead of leaving the room, they began clearing the table. Chad understood that they would need to pack up the food and get it into the fridge, so he followed Bart to the couch.