Seasons in Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  Lavina hurried to the car and got in the back seat, apologizing profusely for holding them up.

  “You feeling okay?” Kate asked her as she looked in the rearview mirror. “You look a little pale.”

  “I’m fine,” Lavina said as she buckled her seat belt.

  Something in her tone made Mary Elizabeth turn and stare at her. Lavina was indeed looking pale. And she’d dashed into the bathroom just as they were supposed to walk out to Kate’s car. Once again she wondered if her schweschder might be going to have a boppli . . .

  Kate started the car, backed down the driveway, and then pulled out onto the road leading to town. “I’m glad both of you could come today. We have a special guest visiting this morning.”

  “Oh? Who?” Mary Elizabeth wanted to know.

  “You’ll see,” Kate said mysteriously.

  The room they used in the upstairs of the women’s shelter was full of women chatting and sewing when they arrived, but there was no visitor yet. It was a happy place where Mary Elizabeth and Lavina enjoyed volunteering once a week. Mary Elizabeth took the fabric out of the shopping bags and placed it on shelves built into one wall of the room and immediately some of the women had to look at it. Most of them didn’t get into town to shop at the stores, so it was the treat that she’d thought it might be to have something new to use in their quilting and sewing projects.

  Kate passed out the week’s quilt block, and the three of them walked around saying hello and checking to see if anyone needed help.

  Carrie, one of the women staying at the shelter, walked in and smiled. Mary Elizabeth couldn’t help thinking the woman looked so different these days. Back when Mary Elizabeth started volunteering less than six months ago, Carrie had come into class with a black eye and a sullen attitude. She had made it clear she didn’t think there was any point in attending the class. Later, when she’d seemed to change, it hadn’t been for a good reason. Like many of the abused women here, she’d been persuaded to see her ex-boyfriend. Apparently, he was as abusive as her ex-husband had been.

  Their relationship hadn’t ended well. Carrie’s innocent remark to him that some Amish women were teaching quilting at the shelter had led him to steal a quilt from them. The quilt had been recovered with Kate’s help but not before her ex-boyfriend had hurt her for helping with the investigation. Carrie had apologized and started attending classes, where she actually began enjoying learning how to sew with the other women who lived here.

  The class was nearly over when Mary Elizabeth glimpsed movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw Leah, the owner of the Stitches in Time shop in town, walk in.

  Kate jumped up from the chair she’d been sitting in at the front of the room and rushed to greet her. The two stood chatting at the back of the room. Leah nodded at Mary Elizabeth when she saw her looking in her direction.

  After a few minutes, Kate and Leah walked to the front of the room.

  “Why do you suppose Leah’s here?” Lavina whispered to her.

  “I have no idea.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Mary Elizabeth grabbed her hand. “Where are you going? They look like they’re about to say something.”

  “I have to run to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She rushed from the room.

  “Ladies, please stop sewing for a minute,” Kate raised her voice to get the attention of the class.

  The sewing machines stopped and everyone looked at her expectantly. Mary Elizabeth marveled at how quiet it got. You could have heard a pin drop.

  “Some of you may know Leah here. She’s the owner of Stitches in Time in town. Leah has been very generous to us. She’s donated fabric and supplies from her shop because she believes in what we’re doing.”

  Spontaneous applause broke out. Leah blushed. A spry, white-haired Amish woman in her seventies, she wasn’t used to being acknowledged like this.

  “Leah has more energy than anyone I know,” Kate continued. “She came to me with a very interesting proposal she wants to talk to us about today.” She gestured at Leah to speak.

  “I’m so happy to be invited to meet all of you today and to see what you’ve been doing,” Leah began, smiling as she looked around the room. “I’ve been sewing all my life, and there’s nothing I love doing more. But, I also love seeing others enjoy sewing, so Kate and I have come up with an idea that we’d like you to consider.”

  A ripple of excitement ran through the room. Mary Elizabeth glanced at the doorway, wondering what was taking Lavina so long. She was going to miss Leah’s announcement.

  “The store next to mine came up for sale recently, and I’ve decided to buy it and open another shop,” Leah said. Her blue eyes sparkled. “I like to encourage creativity in others, and I want to have local crafters sell their work there. I’ve seen some of the work you ladies have been creating, and I want to offer you the opportunity to sell your work there.”

  There was a ripple of excitement in the room. Leah paused and let the women chatter for a few moments before going on. “I thought I’d call it Sewn in Hope, and I’m planning to be open in two months, so there will be plenty of time to sell crafts made for Christmas gift-giving.”

  She smiled and stepped aside for Kate.

  “I want you to be thinking about what you’d like to make and sell, and we’ll take one or two samples to Leah to approve for sale,” Kate said. “I think this is a wonderful way for you to make some money to save up for when you’re ready to move into your own places. And Pearl has said she’ll see to child care a few hours each day so you can work right here.”

  Lavina hurried back into the room and took her seat next to Mary Elizabeth. “What did I miss?” she whispered.

  “Wait until you hear what Leah’s planning!” Mary Elizabeth whispered back.

  4

  It took a long time for the room to empty.

  As the women filed out of the classroom, they chattered excitedly. It did Mary Elizabeth’s heart gut to see them this way. In the months she’d been volunteering here at the shelter with Lavina she’d seen so many of these women come in scared, sometimes bruised and beaten . . . beaten down, in Kate’s words. Often they had only the clothes on their backs. And the kinner . . . if they had kinner, those poor little ones were even more scared.

  Gradually they began to feel safe. Protected. Supported. Some of them drifted into the classroom and became interested in the quilting and sewing crafts. Some of them drifted out after they said it really wasn’t for them. The kinner clung to their mudders and looked too old for their years. Velcro kids, Kate called them, desperate to hold onto the only security in this scary world they knew. Gradually, as they saw their mudders relax and felt the love and support here, they smiled and played and went back to being kinner again. Ellie lingered with her mudder and chatted with Leah about how she’d sewed the tiny quilt that covered the doll she carried in her arms and never let go of.

  Mary Elizabeth waited with Lavina—actually, Lavina had slipped from the room again in a pretty big hurry—and watched Carrie approach Kate.

  “I want to apologize,” she said.

  “For?”

  “When I came to this class the first day, I said it was a waste of time. Why should we bother with it? No one was going to hire us to sew a quilt. We’re not Amish.”

  “Well, you were right,” Kate said, unoffended. “Leah’s not asking anyone to sew a quilt and pretend it’s been done by an Amish woman. But the shop will offer quilts, and there are plenty of things the women here can make to sell there. And they’ll take the same skills everyone’s learned in the class.”

  “Well, anyway, I’m sorry for the attitude I showed. You’ve been great to start the class and show up here each week when you could be home putting up your feet.”

  Kate laughed and tucked the quilt she’d been working on in her tote bag. “Thanks. I love doing it. And sometimes I put my feet up here and sew.”

  She paused and looked up at Carrie.
“Actually, what you said stayed in my mind and when I was in Leah’s shop recently we got to talking. A few weeks later she called me and wanted to chat about her idea for the new shop. So you might say what you said to me that day led to this opportunity for the women here at the shelter.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. Wow.” She settled the strap of her purse on her shoulder and picked up her tote bag. “I’m thinking maybe you could help me get everyone organized with what they’re going to do. I figure you were pretty good with people working at the bar like you did.”

  “Yeah, I could do that. Yeah.” Carrie grinned.

  “See you next week.”

  “See you.” Carrie walked over to put her project box on the shelf.

  “Sorry things took so long today,” Kate said as she walked downstairs and on out to the car with Mary Elizabeth and Lavina.

  “We wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” Lavina said.

  “You were out of the room a lot of the time,” Mary Elizabeth reminded her.

  “Everything okay?” Kate asked Lavina as she unlocked the trunk of her car and put the tote inside.

  Mary Elizabeth saw Lavina blush, but she nodded and got into the back seat.

  Kate dropped them at their house, and Lavina hurried ahead of Mary Elizabeth. When she walked inside, Lavina was closing the door of the downstairs bathroom.

  Mary Elizabeth walked into the kitchen. Her mudder was slicing a loaf of bread.

  “Did you stop for lunch on the way home?” her mudder asked.

  “Nee, Kate wanted to talk to us—the class—about something. Mamm, listen, I’m worried about Lavina. I think something’s wrong with her.”

  Linda looked up. “What is it?”

  “I swear, she’s been running to the bathroom every ten minutes. That’s where she is now.”

  “Nee, I’m not.” Mary Elizabeth jumped guiltily and spun around to see Lavina standing in the doorway.

  “Are you allrecht, kind?” Linda asked. She hurried to press her lips to Lavina’s forehead to check for fever.

  Lavina laughed and hugged her. “Don’t treat me like a boppli, Mamm. I’m just going to have one.”

  Linda drew back and stared at her, then she threw her arms around her dochder and hugged her. “Oh, I’m so happy for you!”

  Mary Elizabeth hurried to her side and hugged her. Worry turned to joy in a moment.

  “What’s going on?” Rose Anna wanted to know as she walked into the room.

  “David and I are having a boppli!”

  Rose Anna screamed and joined in on the group hug.

  Their dat found them like that, bound in a group hug in the middle of the kitchen.

  “What is going on?” he asked approaching a bit warily.

  Linda pulled away, wiping her eyes on a tissue. “Jacob, we’re going to be grosseldres!”

  “Lavina?” he asked, looking at her for confirmation.

  “Ya, Daed.”

  He held his arms wide and all the Zook women piled into them.

  Mary Elizabeth knew she would remember this moment for the rest of her life.

  * * *

  Her journal slipped out from under her pillow when she climbed into bed.

  Mary Elizabeth stared at it for a long moment. She hadn’t written in it for a long time, but something made her tuck it under her pillow every morning anyway.

  She pulled the quilt up around her and flipped to the last page she’d written on. The page was blotched and in places the ink had run. No wonder. She’d been crying as she wrote about the visit she’d made to see Sam. All the hurt came back now as she stared at the page. He’d refused to return to their community, said he was sorry that she was upset but he wasn’t returning to the community.

  She’d cried that day. She’d cried as she wrote in her journal. And she felt tears welling up now as she held it in her hands.

  Did it matter that he hadn’t met her gaze that day and avoided looking at her every time he saw her at his bruder David’s farm since then?

  She blinked away the tears, determined not to spend one more second, one more tear over him. Closing the journal, she turned to put it on the bedside table, but the moisture in her eyes caused her to misjudge the distance and the book fell on the floor. Leaning over, she picked up the book and the slip of paper that had fallen from it. She set the book on the table and leaned back to look at the paper. “My wish list for my mann,” she read.

  She remembered when she’d written it. Katie, a friend of hers, had told her she’d made such a list once. Mary Elizabeth had thought it was silly at the time—the kind of thing that daydreaming maedels did. And it was actually a little arrogant. After all, she’d heard all her life that God set aside the right person for you so telling Him what you wanted was telling Him how to do His job, wasn’t it?

  But she’d sat down and composed such a list. And a short time later she’d found herself looking at Sam Stoltzfus one day and realizing he was everything she’d put on her list.

  So she put the list in the journal and forgot it. After all, she had the real thing.

  But everything had changed. She sat up in bed, reached for a pen on the bedside table.

  And took a deep breath and began a new list.

  * * *

  “So did you hear the news?”

  Sam sat on the grass in the shade of a tree and pulled a bottle of iced tea from his lunch box. He drank half of it down and recapped it before he looked at Peter. “What news?”

  “Leah is opening up a second shop.”

  Sam grinned. “I had no idea you’d taken up quilting.”

  Peter scowled at him. “Don’t be a jerk. She needs help doing some renovations on the shop—it’s next to Stitches in Time.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Heard it from my mudder—who heard it from Fannie Miller who heard it from—”

  “Never mind. In other words, from the Amish grapevine.”

  “Right. Anyway, Leah’s mann died last year, so he can’t help her like he used to. So I stopped by to see what I could do.” He took a big bite of his sub and chewed. “If you’re interested, this could be our first project together.”

  Sam looked at him. Peter sat there looking so calm, eating his lunch and talking about making the renovations on Leah’s shop the first project.

  Of the company, he’d asked Sam to think about joining him just two days ago.

  “You’re serious.”

  “Very.”

  “You’d give all this up.” He waved his hand at the controlled chaos of the construction going on around them.

  “Dead serious.”

  “You move fast.”

  “Got to jump on opportunities, you know?”

  “You sure do. You talked about starting your own company just two days ago.”

  “Told you, been thinking about it for some time. Then this came along. I’m thinking it’s a sign. God’s giving me the go-ahead.”

  “It’s one job.”

  “And then we’ll get another.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  Peter just looked at him. “You can’t know we won’t.”

  Sam didn’t have any answer to that. He kept eating his sandwich even though he was getting pretty tired of eating bologna. It had been on sale, and pennies counted when your budget was as tight as his was.

  “So why’d Leah decide to open another shop? Seems like she’s pretty busy already with Stitches.”

  Peter finished his sub and started on an apple. “She says it’s a craft shop. Women from a local shelter are going to sell their stuff they sew there.”

  “Shelter?”

  “Yeah.”

  Sam searched his memory. It seemed to him that the last time he’d seen Lavina and Mary Elizabeth, they had talked about teaching quilting at a women’s shelter.

  “So, you in? Leah wants us to get started next week. We can do it a few afternoons a week after we get off here. Then we can see how it goes with o
ther work, quit this job when we have enough business coming in.”

  Sam stared at the sandwich in his hand, at his patched work pants. Things had been tough since he’d moved into an apartment with John. Rent was high, then there was gas and insurance and the payment he made to David on the truck. Some extra money would come in handy. It wasn’t the farming he loved, but it was work.

  “That sounds reasonable.”

  “We’ll make a great team,” Peter told him, clapping him on the back. “I come up with the ideas, you rein me in a little.”

  “And your girlfriend reins you in the rest of the way?” Sam asked him with a grin.

  “Ya,” Peter said, chuckling. “Say, she sent along some oatmeal cookies. Want one?”

  “Are they any better than the last batch?”

  “She’s getting better.” Peter held out the bag.

  Sam took one and bit into it. Or tried to. It was hard as a rock. “You’re right,” he mumbled around a bite. He hoped he hadn’t chipped a tooth. “Look, Boss is waving us back to work.”

  When Peter glanced over, Sam tossed the cookie aside and hoped a squirrel had better luck.

  “So anyway, I told Leah I’d see if you could stop by with me after work today to take a look at things.”

  Sam had known Peter for a long time, but he’d never seen him move so quickly on anything.

  “Schur.”

  “Maybe you can give me a ride there?”

  “How would you have gotten there if I hadn’t said yes?”

  Peter set his lunch box in the front seat of the truck. “Knew you would.” He loped off to the ladder set against the house, climbed up, and moved out of sight.

  Chuckling, Sam put his own lunchbox into his truck and returned to work installing windows. Like many of his fellow Amish men, Sam had never been inside Stitches in Time, Leah’s quilt and crafts shop. Peter led the way and seemed a lot more at ease in the land of fabric and crafts and . . . the bustle and chatter of women.

  Two of them, very familiar, stood at the front counter. To his utter shock, one of them was Mary Elizabeth.

  “Peter! Sam!” Leah cried. “So glad you both could come by today! I want to get started quickly on the new shop. Mary Elizabeth, do you want to walk over with us? She’ll be helping us coordinate with the women sewing the crafts we’ll sell in the new shop,” she explained.