Return to Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  “Let’s see what I come up with.”

  “Okay. If you promise to let me reimburse you,” Kate repeated.

  “Promise.”

  Pearl appeared in the doorway a little later and signaled to Kate.

  Kate stood immediately. “I’ll be right back.”

  She didn’t return for nearly twenty minutes, and when she did she was frowning.

  “Something wrong?”

  She sighed. “Carrie’s been hurt. Apparently she’s been seeing her boyfriend.”

  Lavina bit her lip. “I wondered if the man I saw her with one day gave her a ring. I almost didn’t mention it to you that day.”

  “I saw it. Remember?”

  “I figured you would. I mean, I guess you have to be observant in your line of work.”

  Kate grinned. “Yeah. Especially if you want to make detective.”

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “Chief of police, too. But let’s not let that get around. Best to keep quiet about that sort of thing. You know how gossip can be a problem in a small community.”

  “How well I know.” The Amish led very private lives, but nothing traveled faster than news on the Amish grapevine.

  Kate looked at her. “You and Mary Elizabeth may be getting another apology.”

  “Oh?”

  She leaned closer. “I didn’t think it was a coincidence that the quilt got stolen here and Carrie was wearing a sparkler, if you know what I mean.”

  Shocked, Lavina stared at her. “You’re not saying she stole it. She couldn’t have. She was in class with us that day.” Then she paused, thinking. “The boyfriend did it.”

  Kate nodded. “That’s some great deductive thinking there.”

  Lavina blushed. “I wouldn’t have thought of it if you hadn’t brought up Carrie and the boyfriend.”

  “Well, like I said, she may come to you at some point and apologize. She feels responsible for him taking it. I don’t believe it’s her fault at all, and I told her so. I think she said something about the class and quilts, and he got to thinking he could make a fast buck.” She sighed. “She paid a price for an innocent conversation. I just found out that he hit her after I talked with him.”

  Lavina’s hand flew to her throat. “Oh, no!”

  “Two of my fellow officers are on the way to see him now, and this time a note of apology isn’t going to keep him out of trouble. This time she’s agreed to press charges. She never would in the past.”

  Lavina was glad the class came to an end a short time later. The news that Carrie had been hurt dimmed some of the pleasure in having the quilt returned. Her spirits lifted when she parked in the lot behind Stitches in Time and got out of the buggy with the boxed quilt under her arm.

  The front display window caught her attention as she walked past it. The colorful, creative work of Leah’s grossdochders was artfully arranged: woven throws and totes by Mary Katherine, cozy quilts by Naomi, and whimsical, warm knitted caps for babies by Anna. Leah’s charming little Amish dolls sat before the orange cellophane flames of a little fireplace. Leah had a reputation for encouraging creativity not only in her grossdochders but also in her part-time employees. There were rag baskets by Emma, and decorative pillows for children in the shape of gingerbread cookies made by Rachel Ann, who divided her skills and time between the shop and a local Amish bakery.

  Surely she’d find some inspiration here for some gifts the women at the shelter could make for Christmas. Hopefully, she wouldn’t also walk out with more new fabric to add to the ever-growing fabric stash in the sewing room at home. Her dat often teased that his dochders and fraa had nearly enough fabric to start their own store.

  ***

  David felt a little uneasy leaving his parents the next morning, but his mudder assured him she was feeling fine and had taken her blood pressure medication on time. His dat obviously had recovered from his bout with heartburn, as he was plowing through a hearty breakfast of bacon, dippy eggs, and biscuits.

  This must be what it felt like to be a parent, he couldn’t help thinking as he got into his truck and headed for work. He wanted to stay and watch over them to make sure they were allrecht, which was ridiculous. They weren’t kinner—they were adults who’d managed to raise three boys and run a farm.

  But he worried.

  Later, he’d give his bruders a call and let them know what had happened last night. They deserved to know.

  He sat with Bill at lunch. Bill eyed David’s sandwich and for once didn’t try to trade him something for it.

  “That doesn’t look like the kind of lunch you usually bring. Maybe I should offer you some of mine.” He bit into his ham and cheese sandwich.

  “I wouldn’t let Mamm pack my lunch last night.” He told Bill what had happened.

  “Man, sorry to hear that. Anything I can do?”

  David shook his head. “No, thanks. Everything was fine this morning. You should have seen the breakfast my father was putting away this morning. They looked better than ever.”

  “We never think about our parents getting old and needing you to worry about them, do we?”

  “I sure didn’t use to. Especially not my dad. He’s always been too . . .” he searched for the right word.

  “Too ornery to get sick?” Bill finished for him.

  David chuckled. “Yeah. But even he can get something like cancer that he has to fight. No one’s immune.”

  He finished his tuna salad sandwich and pulled out a plastic baggie of oatmeal raisin cookies. When he saw Bill’s eyes light up he held out the baggie.

  “Love your mom’s cookies,” Bill said as he bit into one.

  “You’re welcome to come to supper one night.”

  “Not sure I want to beard the dragon in his lair.” Bill popped the last of the cookie into his mouth and reached for another.

  “Chicken.”

  “Yup,” Bill responded cheerfully. He glanced at the clock. “Let’s go take care of our deliveries, get out of here for a while.”

  “You’d have enjoyed being along for the ride home last night,” he told Bill as they headed out of the parking lot. “I was with Lavina when we saw the ambulance outside my house. She convinced me it would be faster to take my truck than follow it to the hospital in the buggy. So when my parents were ready to go home, I drove us in the truck.”

  “What a ride that must have been. You and your old man in this Englisch truck. I’m surprised he hasn’t made you get rid of it.”

  David’s grin faded. “No, I think he’s still hoping I’ll get in it one day and do a wheelie as I leave the driveway.”

  “Sorry.” He stared at the road ahead. “I always wondered why the Amish can’t have cars. I mean, is it because they really want to keep those old-fashioned buggies—no insult intended—or is it something else?”

  “Think about it: when you have a buggy you can’t take off in a hurry when you’re mad,” David told him. “And you can’t go very far. So it keeps you near to home to work things out.”

  “I hadn’t thought about it that way. There’s no keeping up with the Joneses either.”

  “I don’t know anyone named Jones.”

  Bill chuckled and slapped him on the shoulder. “It’s an Englisch expression. It means people think they have to have what their neighbors have—actually, they always want to have something better so they can feel superior. So then the people who live next to them try to have even more. And it’s like it becomes a vicious circle—everyone wanting more, more.”

  He glanced at David. “Not a good attitude at all. It’s one of the reasons we buy new cars and trucks each year and spend too much money on everything. Bigger houses, flashier clothes. You name it.”

  “Your truck is several years old.”

  “Yeah, well I’m trying to be less materialistic. Plus I’m saving up. I’d like to go into business for myself one day.”

  “That would be good. You have a head for business. I think you’d do well.”

&nb
sp; “Thanks. Maybe if I do and you aren’t running your own farm then you’ll work with me. We could be partners.”

  “I don’t have much money saved.”

  “Me either.” He laughed. “We’re a pair, aren’t we? Hey, speaking of pairs, have you talked to your brothers about what happened to your parents last night?”

  “I’m calling them after work. I kind of doubt it’ll change anything. Neither of them was interested in coming home when I did. But I still need to tell them.”

  He wasn’t surprised when he talked to Sam and John later when he got home. They were sorry to hear that their mudder had had a crisis with her blood pressure, but they had no sympathy for their dat.

  “Don’t let him drag you down again,” John, the youngest, said bluntly, sounding more like an Englischer than an Amish man.

  David could hear loud music and someone singing along with it in the background. He wondered just how much his bruder was enjoying living in the Englisch world.

  His mudder’s color was better, he noted when he sat down at the supper table. His dat’s, too. She seemed happy to be in her own kitchen.

  They gave thanks for the meal, and David took two thick slices of meatloaf. “My favorite.”

  “I know.” His mudder smiled.

  “Maybe there’ll be some left, and I can take a meatloaf sandwich to work tomorrow.”

  “Maybe.”

  His dat grunted and served himself another slice

  “Bill talked me out of several of your oatmeal raisin cookies today,” he told his mudder.

  “You should invite him to supper some time.”

  “I did.” He slid his glance over at his dat who was absorbed in his meal.

  She frowned, obviously getting his unspoken message. “I made chocolate chip cookies today. You’ll have to take him some tomorrow.”

  “I will.”

  His dat finished his meal and decided he was too full for dessert. He shuffled off to read The Budget in the living room.

  “How was the wedding yesterday? You came home early.”

  David helped himself to more mashed potatoes. “Lavina had a headache, and I offered to take her home so her schweschders could stay.”

  “That was nice of you.”

  “Least I could do. It didn’t look like she was having a very good time. I figure I’m responsible for that. We’d have been married by now if I hadn’t left.”

  “That’s what I guessed.” She leaned back in her chair and studied him as he ate. “She came to visit me every week while you were gone. I like her a lot.”

  “Me, too,” he said with a grin as he set his fork down. “I think after I help you with the dishes I should go see if the headache she had yesterday is gone.”

  “I think that’s a gut idea. And if you need an excuse, you can take back the casserole dish she brought over last week.”

  “I don’t need an excuse,” he told her.

  What he did take was the buggy.

  ***

  Lavina opened the front door and found David standing on the porch.

  “I wanted to see if you were feeling better.”

  She nodded. “I’m fine. Do you want to come in?”

  He shook his head. “I thought I’d see if you’d like to go for a ride.”

  “Schur. Let me get my jacket.”

  “So how is your dat?” she asked the minute she got into the buggy. “I listened to the message you left on the machine.”

  “He’s fine. It was heartburn, just like he’d insisted. He started to give us a hard time for making him get checked out, and then Mamm got sick and we had to stay for a while. I didn’t even know she had high blood pressure.”

  “Your dat’s cancer therapy has been rough on her.”

  “I know.”

  “She’s allrecht now?”

  He nodded. “I brought them home last night.”

  It took her a minute and then she stared at him. “Do you mean you drove them home in your truck? Oh, I’d have loved to be a fly on the windshield listening to what your dat said.”

  So he told her about his dat’s reaction. “I’m glad you insisted I take the truck. I got there quicker. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Allrecht.”

  “Yesterday, I told you that I’d missed church, the people here. I wanted to say more but you weren’t feeling well.”

  She nodded. “Go on.”

  “I’m staying, Lavina. No matter what happens. Whether Daed lives or dies.” He took a deep breath. “And whether you’ll give me that second chance I want, or not.”

  She blinked. “Well, that was blunt. The last part, I mean.”

  He pulled over on the shoulder of the road and took her hands in his. “I’m laying it on the line with you. I want to be with you and make it up to you, all you’ve been through. I think we can have the future together we talked about once.”

  He looked down at their joined hands. “And if Daed lives through this and goes on to farm for years to come as I hope he will, that’s fine. I’ll figure out some way to get my own farm one day.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  “It won’t be. But it’s harder to think about a future, Lavina. Can we see if we can make a future together?” He squeezed her hands. “I know you’re afraid to trust your heart to me again. I promise you, I won’t hurt you again.”

  “You can’t promise me that.”

  “You’re right. I’ll probably mess up. But we can work it out because I’m not going anywhere. I’m not running away from my problems—and you—again. I promise.”

  He saw the doubt on her face. “Look, I want us to get married, but we don’t have to decide that now. I wasn’t finished with the classes to join the church before I left, so there’s no way the bishop will let us talk to him about getting married now anyway. So we take it slow, date, enjoy getting to know each other again. I save to buy us our own place.”

  She took a deep breath, then another, and then she nodded slowly. “Allrecht.”

  David glanced around and then he gave her a quick, fervent kiss. He picked up the reins, spoke to Nellie, and got the buggy back on the road.

  “So where are we going for our first official date?” he asked her.

  “Dinner at that fancy restaurant wasn’t a date?”

  “I guess it could be,” he allowed, in too good a mood to disagree.

  “Let’s go to our favorite place.”

  He didn’t need to ask where that was. And he was grateful that she wanted to go there, since going the first time after he’d returned hadn’t been the most successful.

  They found their favorite table empty and grabbed it. David bought hot chocolate and a slice of pumpkin bread and the apple tart for Lavina.

  They sat drinking their hot chocolate and talking until they were told the shop was closing.

  “Just like old times,” she said, grinning at him as they walked out. “There’s just one thing that would make things perfect.”

  “What’s that?” he asked her as he helped her into the buggy.

  “If your bruders would come home to Paradise.”

  He got into the driver’s side and turned to her. “Lavina, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I talked to both of them yesterday and told them about Mamm and Daed. I was hoping they might say something about coming back. But they weren’t interested.”

  Disappointment swept over her face. “I think Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna have been hoping they would since you came back.”

  “Maybe if our dat had showed any signs of changing,” David said. “I couldn’t lie to them about the way he was when I came back. What good would that have done? If they had given up their apartment and come back and found out he was just as miserable as ever, they’d be furious with me, and they’d be right.”

  She sighed. “You’re right. It’s such a shame he has to be the way he is. You know, sometimes when people go through things like cancer it changes how they look at things. They try to
show their families that they appreciate them, love them.”

  “You’re talking about Marvin King. But he was never like my dat. He was a loving, caring man before he got sick with cancer.”

  “True.”

  “Why do you suppose God gives us the family we have?”

  “That’s a strange question.”

  “You never asked yourself that?”

  David pondered that as the buggy rolled down the country road. The moon was only a sliver of a moon filtering through the bare tree branches beside the road, so it was dark and mysterious.

  “You’re nothing like him, thank goodness,” she was saying. “I watched you for a long time wondering if you’d turn hard and bitter with the way he treated you.”

  Surprised, he turned and stared at her. “You did?”

  She nodded. “But you didn’t.”

  “Then I worried that we’d have a marriage like your parents.” She shivered. “But I’d never allow you to talk to me the way he does.”

  “I had no idea you worried about something like that.”

  But he had wondered if all marriages were like theirs, until he spent more time at Lavina’s house and seen that her parents had an entirely different relationship. Visits to the homes of his male friends had shown warm, loving parents and that reassured him as well.

  The band of his hat suddenly seemed too tight. He took it off, set it on the seat between them and ran a hand through his hair.

  “Now are you getting a headache?”

  He glanced at her and chuckled. “A bit of one. I don’t know how all this is going to work out.”

  He fell silent, wishing he could figure out a solution. “We’ve talked about pooling our money and buying a farm together, my bruders and me. But with the land prices in Lancaster County . . . well, we just can’t save fast enough. Prices are sky high and going higher.”

  “God’s got a plan for us,” she said slowly. “I figure it’s a lot like this road. We can see just a little ahead but not all the way home. But maybe all we need is to see just a little ahead. I mean, we have to trust.”

  She found herself remembering what Leah had said: “We live by faith not by sight.”

  Leaning back in her seat, she pulled the buggy blanket up. “I wonder what would have happened if I’d trusted God more last year. I listened to you being so upset with your dat, but I kept planning how it would be when we got married. I decided we’d still be married even when things were falling apart. I should have listened and been open to things changing.”