An Amish Holiday Family

by Jo Ann Brown

  “Do you trust me?” Dougie asked as he fell into step with Robert up the sloping sidewalk.

  “You’ve given me your word you’ll let us get your things out of that house. I’m going to trust you unless you give me a reason not to.”

  The boy didn’t reply, but Robert couldn’t miss how he walked a little taller. Again Beth Ann’s voice filled his head.

  Dougie has to be willing to trust us.

  Robert understood she meant they needed to trust the boy, too. He hoped he could, but the thefts hung over everyone’s heads. If Dougie was involved with those...

  He pushed that thought from his head as he turned with the boy toward the apartment. One step at a time, and he had to believe God would lead him to the answers about the thefts, about the children, about Beth Ann and about what he should do with the job offer in Rutland. He hoped it’d be soon.

  * * *

  Christmas was two days away. Most of the volunteers had gone home for the holidays. For the first time, Beth Ann saw Evergreen Corners as it had been before the flood and would be after Amish Helping Hands and the other agencies closed up shop. The tattered remains of the covered bridge remained the sole blight on the village, but Gladys had reassured both her and Robert yesterday she was still chasing down possible funding. It was ironic Beth Ann soon would have more money than she’d ever imagined. Yet it wouldn’t be enough to rebuild the covered bridge. That would require in the millions of dollars.

  She knew she was redirecting her thoughts from Robert and the children. Dougie had given her the computer toy and another electronic device, and she’d accepted them without comment. He’d been subdued, so she’d no clue what he was thinking.

  Robert acted as if the luscious kisses in the buggy had never happened, and he hid his thoughts from her.

  Tommy was bouncing off the wall in anticipation of their gift exchange on Christmas morning. So far, he’d revealed he couldn’t say what he planned to give her, but it had a cotton tail and antlers and was purple and he’d made it himself without much help from Gwen.

  Only Crystal seemed unchanged. She acted oblivious to what was happening around her, having discovered A Little Princess. Beth Ann wondered if the tale of a child who lost both her parents and was consigned to living with strangers was the best thing for Crystal to read when her own life was in an upheaval, but said nothing. If the story gave Crystal comfort and entertainment, Beth Ann was grateful.

  Though everyone seemed determined to act as if everything was as it should be, she couldn’t pretend she didn’t hear the mumbles underlying the Christmas preparations. The thefts had people worried about the safety of their families and homes. She heard speculation about the thief’s identity. The guilty looks in her direction told her what the whispers hadn’t.

  Dougie was suspected of being the thief because he’d been seen with the new toys. She did hear a few whispers about how she might have bought the items for the boy, because she was coming into a lot of money. The amount she chanced to overhear was more than ten times what her aunt had bequeathed to her. She guessed someone had listened to her phone call at the community center, and gossip had swept through the town faster than the floodwaters had after Hurricane Kevin.

  She despaired that the only way to clear Dougie’s name was to find the actual thief. She had an idea, but needed Robert’s help. Hoping he’d agree, she went to the last project house where he was working on the roof. If he wouldn’t help her, she’d try to make the plan work anyhow. She didn’t want Deana returning on Christmas Eve and learning about the accusations aimed at Dougie. The social worker might yank the kids out of the house, and that would destroy any hope of Beth Ann giving them a happy Christmas.

  * * *

  As darkness and cold settled with thickly falling snow on the village in the darkest hours after midnight on Christmas Eve, Robert crouched in one corner of the mayor’s garage. Beth Ann’s plan had been simple. Leave the door unlocked and valuable tools in plain sight. At the project house and on the way through the village, he’d talked to everyone he met about storing the tools overnight. He hadn’t shouted the words, not wanting to be too obvious, but he hadn’t kept his voice down, either.

  He wondered if his knees, aching with cold and hours of squatting, would straighten enough to propel him toward the door if someone took the bait. He’d had time while they waited in the cold to tell Beth Ann about his job offer, but he hadn’t. He’d told himself over and over she was already too upset about the upcoming visit from the social worker. His news could wait.

  Couldn’t it?

  He prayed they’d be able to nab the thief before Deana arrived and heard the rumors in the village. Beth Ann’s scheme to prove Dougie wasn’t the thief had seemed like a gut one in the middle of the day. He wondered if they’d been fooling themselves.

  Then came the sound of furtive footfalls. He thanked God they weren’t coming down the stairs from the apartment where the kinder were warm in their beds. No, the person was walking from the street.

  Beth Ann leaned toward him and whispered, “Someone’s coming.”

  He put his finger to her lips, but jerked it back as sweet, warm tingles climbed his arm and into his heart. He couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. Not when he had no idea how the thief—if the person pushing the door wider was the thief—would react to being caught in their trap.

  Beside him, she shifted, and he guessed she was trying to see who was entering the garage. Whoever stood in the doorway was backlit by the lights from the streetlamps, light sifted by the snowflakes that merged with the silhouette into a strange pattern. A coat, hat and scarf further disguised the person’s shape and height.

  There was no disguising the person’s intent. A hand reached out and grabbed the toolbox he’d left close to the door.

  He jumped to his feet and threw his arms around the thief. Shocked by how slight the person was, sickness flowed through him. Was Dougie really the thief?

  The person struggled, and the ski cap flew off, revealing long hair that slapped him like a hundred separate hands. The thief threw both of them against the wall, the concussion slamming through him. He refused to let go, and the thief kept fighting.

  A light blazed through the garage. Beth Ann gasped from beyond the flashlight she held, and he looked at the thief. A woman! He made sure his hold was secure but wouldn’t hurt her. She cursed at him with language he hadn’t heard since his daed dropped a heavy sledgehammer on his toe.

  “What’s going on down here?” came a shout from the door. Dougie!

  Robert tightened his arms as the woman redoubled her efforts to escape. “Run to Gladys’s. Call 911!” he shouted as the woman tried to flee again.

  Instead of obeying, Dougie ran into the garage. He gulped twice before asking, “Mommy? Mommy, what are you doing here?”

  Beth Ann rushed forward to catch Dougie before the little boy could reach Robert and the woman. Shock widened her bright green eyes when she looked from the kind to the red-haired woman Dougie had called Mamm.

  The truth hit Robert as hard as Kim Henderson had. Somehow she must have slipped away from the rehab center. She’d been stealing tools and selling them to get the drugs she craved. It was a scenario none of them had imagined.

  The next few minutes became a blur as the cops were called and put handcuffs on Kim. Robert held his arm around Dougie’s shoulders. Both to comfort the boy and to keep him away from his mamm. Sorrow rushed through him.

  “Don’t let them hurt Mommy!” cried Tommy from the snow-covered stairs as the police guided a thrashing Kim to their patrol car.

  “They won’t.” Beth Ann picked up the little boy and drew Crystal to her. “They want to help her.”

  “How? By throwing her in jail?” cried Dougie, pulling away.

  Robert caught him again. Dougie stopped trying to elude him when the patrol car door closed, the noise loud in
the quiet night.

  As Beth Ann guided all three kinder up the stairs, the patrol car pulled slowly away from the curb and out into the thick snow on the street.

  Closing the garage door, Robert turned to find Gladys behind him.

  She put a hand on his sleeve. “We’ll take care of this. Go help Beth Ann. She’s going to need you more than ever.”

  “Ja.” He nodded his thanks and took the stairs, three at once, not caring about the snow that threatened to send him crashing to his knees on every step.

  He bumped into Beth Ann when he opened the door, but she moved aside without speaking. Her face, shadowed in the dim light from the kitchen, looked as if she’d aged a lifetime since they’d captured Kim Henderson in their simple trap. He took her place by the door, and she faced three angry, terrified, confused kinder.

  “You can’t see her now,” she said in a tone that suggested she’d already repeated those words several times.

  “She’s our mother!” Dougie’s lips trembled in the same uneven tempo as his hands as he held them out in a voiceless plea. “They’re going to throw her in jail! Throw her in jail and throw away the key. That’s what Aunt Sharon said would happen if she got caught again.”

  “No!” cried Crystal and Tommy at the same time. “Not Mommy!”

  Crystal ran across the room to Beth Ann. “Don’t let them hurt Mommy.”

  “Nobody’s going to hurt her,” Beth Ann said. “Everyone wants to help her.”

  “Don’t put her in jail!” insisted Dougie. “How’s that going to help her?”

  Robert wondered what he could say to reach the kinder. “Dougie, it’s the best thing for your mamm.”

  “What do you know about what’s best for her? You don’t know her. You think she’s a bad person.”

  “You’re right. I don’t know her, so I can’t judge her. But I’ve seen how she abandoned you and your sister and brother in a house falling down around you.”

  “She can’t help it! She’s sick.”

  “She’ll get the help she needs if she’ll stay where there are people to help her.”

  “We could help her.” He whirled toward Beth Ann. “You can help her, can’t you, Lady Bee? You’ve helped us, especially Tommy. He’s walking much better.”

  “Dougie,” she began, “I don’t know how—”

  “That’s not true! You didn’t know anything about taking care of kids, but you took us.” His mouth dropped into a fierce frown. “Or were you doing it for yourself? Do something good for the poor kids of a druggie, and you get everyone to think you’re wonderful?”

  “Enough!” she snapped in a tone he’d never heard her use.

  Anger.

  She was angry and wasn’t trying to hide her feelings. Her eyes blazed with green fire that threatened to scorch the boy if he spoke another word.

  Knowing what he risked, for his own anger was surging, he ordered, “Douglas Henderson, be quiet! You need to listen to Beth Ann. She—”

  “Enough from you, too, Robert!” She continued to scowl at Dougie, but her voice softened. “Where did you get the idea I agreed to take care of you because I wanted people to think I was wonderful?”

  “That’s what Aiden Bryson said,” the boy said.

  It took Robert a moment to place the name. It belonged to the boy Dougie had hit at school. “What?”

  “That’s what he said before I knocked him on his butt.”

  “I had no idea,” she whispered. “I thought he said something about you and Crystal.”

  “He did! Me and Crystal, we know we’re not what people say. You’re a good person, Lady Bee, and he shouldn’t have said nasty things about you.” He gulped. “I’m sorry I just did that, too.”

  “Don’t ever be sorry that you’ve told me how you feel. Not ever.” She pulled him to her and put her arms around him as he buried his face against her coat. He began to sob, as if every ache in his heart was released. When the other children moved closer, she widened her arms to bring them into her embrace.

  Robert never had felt so alone as when he stood outside the circle of love in front of him. Not even in his darkest hours after Rachel had run away and he’d wondered if God had deserted him, too, as their daed’s rage focused on him. He didn’t step forward, despite knowing she’d welcome him as she did the kinder.

  He hung his head. He didn’t deserve to be part of their affirmation of love. Not after nearly losing his temper...again.

  A knock at the door behind him startled him. Beth Ann looked up, her face lined with worry.

  Robert opened the door. A policeman stood on the other side, his uniform almost concealed in snow. It was falling even harder and blowing on erratic gusts of wind.

  “Does Beth Ann Overholt live here?”

  As she nodded and went to the door, the kinder looked at one another in horror. Robert wanted to reassure them the officer wasn’t here to take her away, too. But why was the cop at her door? The capture of Kim Henderson should have cleared Dougie from any suspicion.

  “Can I come in?” asked the policeman, who gave his name as Curt Tannahill.

  She nodded and motioned for him to enter.

  The policeman looked around the small room and at the three kinder huddled together on the sofa. Sympathy lengthened his face, but his expression became cool again as he turned to Beth Ann.

  “Ms. Henderson has the right to a single phone call, but she’s insisting she wants to speak with you in person, Ms. Overholt.” He tugged at his heavy vest. “We don’t usually make house calls in situations like this, but with you Amish not having phones, the chief thought this would be the simplest.”

  Robert wasn’t surprised Beth Ann didn’t correct his assumption she was Amish.

  She began, “The children and I—”

  “Just you, Ms. Overholt.” His eyes shifted to the kinder and away. “You’re the one she wants to see.”

  She nodded. “Robert, will you be okay staying with the children?”

  He heard the question she didn’t ask. Last time someone had wanted to speak to her alone, he’d been mad. But he’d been wrong about her meeting with the social worker alone, and he’d be even more wrong if he insisted on going with her to see Kim.

  “Of course,” he said, though he wanted to insist he go with her. “Let Kim know we’re praying for her.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, and was gone.

  Crystal and Tommy began crying again, and Dougie sniffled, trying not to sob, too. Sitting on the sofa, Robert held out his arms and offered them the silent comfort his daed had denied him. He hoped it would be enough.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Officer Tannahill gave Beth Ann a sympathetic look before motioning to follow him down a hallway. Dawn had arrived while she sat in the reception area, trying to be patient. Outside the one window she could see from her bench, the snow had thinned to the occasional flake, but various officers coming into the building had reported almost a foot had fallen.

  Beth Ann wished Robert had been able to come with her. She longed to reach out and take his hand as she would have one of the children’s. The comfort of someone familiar, someone who represented normalcy. She wanted that connection to prove this wasn’t an appalling nightmare.

  Each door along the hall was shut, but she heard voices behind a few she passed. Someone laughed from a closed room, and she flinched. What could be funny in a place like this?

  The officer, his thin face set in stern lines, looked to be about the same age as the children’s mother. Had he gone through school with Kim Henderson?

  “You can wait here, Ms. Overholt,” he said with the slightest motion of his head toward a door to the left. Opening it, he pointed to a single table with two chairs. The room was otherwise bare. No calendar or window broke the institutional green color of the walls.

  Beth Ann felt
queasy. She wished Kim Henderson hadn’t been so insistent the only person she’d talk to was Beth Ann.

  Another door opened, and Kim walked in, wearing an ill-fitting jumpsuit and handcuffs. Seeing her in the bright light made Beth Ann realize how the woman resembled her children. She had the same bright red hair, though hers was mussed, and her face shared Crystal’s delicate shape. Her eyes were like Dougie’s had been when Beth Ann first met him on the village green. Filled with fear and anger. Dark circles surrounded them, and Beth Ann wondered when Kim had last slept.

  A female officer led Kim to the table and latched her cuffs to it before stepping back. Neither she nor Officer Tannahill left the room.

  “I hear,” Kim said in lieu of greeting, “you’ve been taking care of my kids since that no-good sister of mine dumped them and headed to Vegas.”

  “I’m Beth Ann Overholt, and, yes, they’ve been staying with me.”

  “I hear you’re rich.” Her lips twisted in an impotent sneer. “Not that you dress like a rich woman. Where did you find that shapeless dress?”

  Beth Ann ignored the question. “Where did you hear something like that?”

  Kim shrugged. “I don’t know. From a bunch of people. Guess it’s the talk of Evergreen Corners how some plain woman hit the lottery. I didn’t know you Goody Two-shoes played the lottery.”

  “I don’t.”

  “But you’re loaded.” She didn’t make it a question.

  “I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to talk about your children.”

  “Are they okay?” The question created the first crack in Kim’s hard demeanor, and Beth Ann felt sympathy stirring anew in her heart for the woman.

  Knowing she must be honest, she said, “I hope they will be. It’s not easy to see your mom arrested.”

  “It’s not like it’s the first time.”

  Beth Ann closed her eyes and sent a request heavenward for the right words to break through Kim’s hard facade so they could talk.