So they all went inside. Erin poured coffee for everyone, Martha jumping in to help. There was indeed an abundance of fresh biscuits. Erin placed a jar of honey on the table, along with some bacon that had been cooked up but not eaten. Perhaps she had expected them to arrive earlier. Or maybe cooking was how Erin handled stress, and it was obvious to Jacob that she was feeling rattled. Because of Anna? Or because of the crowd at the end of the lane? Perhaps it was simply the police presence, which now extended to the front porch. He wanted to ask about that, but before he had a chance, Chloe and Anna began reciting the events of the day before.
Jacob half listened to the various conversations. By the time they had finished eating, Anna and her mother stood and declared they were going for a walk through the garden. They invited Mammi and Erin to join them, but both begged off. Mammi claimed her rocker was calling her name, and Erin said she wanted to put on some soup for lunch. Samuel caught Jacob’s eyes and nodded toward the barn.
They walked there in silence, past the watchful eye of the Cody’s Creek police officer. When they’d entered the barn, Samuel turned toward him. The smile he’d worn earlier had been replaced by a more thoughtful look, nearly one of awe if Jacob had been pressed to describe it.
“Anna’s healing… I still don’t understand it, but I believe it. Ya, I definitely do. I carried her to the bathroom countless times over the last year. I watched that little girl’s heart break and eventually begin to mend. And I prayed. We all did.”
He looked to Jacob for confirmation. They had both taken a seat on overturned crates. Jacob nodded. Yes, they had both prayed for Anna after the accident.
“I believe without a single doubt that Gotte can do mighty things, and He has done something big here—something we may never understand.” Samuel ran his fingers through his beard and leaned forward, his elbows braced against his knees. “But that’s not why I called you out here, son. We have a problem.”
CHAPTER 52
Anna and her mother walked with Chloe out to the front porch. Chloe explained that she needed to go to her office, but she also seemed hesitant to leave Anna without her protection.
“Which is silly, I know, because you have—” Chloe spread her hands to encompass the officer at the corner of the porch and other policemen farther down the lane. “Your own security force.”
Anna frowned and shook her head. “I think they should leave. It’s very disruptive.”
“I don’t think those men and women who are gathered at the lane are bothering the farm, though they do make coming and going difficult.” Martha reached over and looped her arm through Anna’s. “Perhaps in another day or so we won’t need anyone to stand guard on the property. It’s certainly not our way. Thank you for helping Anna get through yesterday, Chloe.”
“It’s a day I’ll never forget.” Chloe reached forward and briefly hugged Anna. She touched her friend’s face once before walking to her car and driving down the lane.
“She’s been there for you since the accident,” Martha said to her daughter. “I remember her coming to the hospital.”
“Ya, she was always there, even through my darkest days.”
“I could tell from your letters that you’ve had your ups and downs, and your aenti has kept me posted. But tell me about your healing. How did it happen, Anna?”
They walked through the garden, and Anna told her everything—about her dark days, about finding a new purpose in the quilting, and about what had started as a summer cold and nearly ended her life. She also recounted the dreams that had plagued her since the accident. She described her despair as her health grew worse and her depression deepened.
“I almost came when it was obvious the cold was lingering. Your aenti would send someone to the phone shack each evening. They would call and tell me to wait one more day, and that the doctor was doing all he could. They would tell me not to worry. Four days ago, I went to the bus station and purchased a ticket.” Her mother stopped, reached out, and ran her fingertips over a white rose. “I was waiting for the bus when Menno showed up begging me to come and help with the birth.”
“How is my bruder?”
“Good now, but if you could have seen him then—” Martha shook her head and they resumed walking.
“The baby is fine?”
“Ya. A few weeks early, but she is doing well. They named her Ruth.”
“Mammi will be happy about that.”
“She seemed to be. She was going to write the boppli her first letter this morning.” Martha motioned toward a bench Jacob and Samuel had placed in a corner of the garden. “You and Mammi—you’ve grown very close, haven’t you.”
“Sometimes I think it was worth moving here, worth everything I’ve been through, to spend the time I’ve had with Mammi. She’s… well, she’s very special.”
Her mother smiled in understanding. “Tell me about the last few days.”
Anna took a deep breath. “The dreams changed two nights ago. They were intense and disturbing in one way, but they were also comforting and wonderful.” This time when she described walking through the wildflowers she went into more detail. She told about the colors, how the petals felt when her hand passed over them, and the rainbows in the sky.
Her mother stopped her. “More than one?”
“Ya. It seemed the sky was full of them.”
Martha turned on the bench so that she was facing Anna. “Did you tell Erin about this?”
Anna thought back. “No. I started to, but… Mammi and I have talked about the dreams before, and she asked me about the rainbow too. What does it mean?”
“It’s not for me to say, Anna. But we’ll share this with your aenti later. I think she’d like to know. You were saying the sky was clear and then you looked up.”
“Jacob, he pointed to the sky.”
“And you saw the rainbows—more than one.”
Anna again recounted the dream, down to the last detail she could remember. Describing everything sent goose bumps down her arm.
“And when you woke you could walk?”
“Ya. I didn’t realize it right away. I opened my eyes, looked out the window, and heard Mammi reading the Bible.”
“She did that every morning?”
“Every morning, every afternoon, and before I slept.” Anna cocked her head to the side. “It was like being bathed in Scripture and prayer three times a day whether I needed it or not.”
They sat there for another few moments wrestling with the miraculous nature of what had occurred. “At first it frightened me a little, but now I’m sure—absolutely certain—that Gotte will guide me.” She shook her head. “But I still don’t understand why this happened. Why me, and why not others?”
“It’s not for us to say or even to understand, but I might have an idea as to why.”
Anna glanced at her mother in surprise. It was so good to be with her, to have her near and to hear her opinion on all that had happened. She’d understood why her mother couldn’t stay after her accident, and though she would have liked to have gone home with her, she’d also felt a need to stay in Oklahoma. Now it seemed as if her two worlds had joined together again, if for only a few days, and she felt a peace that was precious.
“If you understand why I was chosen, among all the people who are hurting, to receive God’s healing touch, please tell me. I’m all ears. Because that baffles me.”
“Maybe I should start with Mammi. She’s always been a very special person from the time I first met her, when I started dating your dat. My own mother was a fine woman, but a bit distant if you remember.”
“I do.”
“She wasn’t an openly affectionate person, though she cared for us all in her own way. You never would grow hungry or cold with Mamm. She provided for our needs.” Martha reached out and touched Anna’s arm. “Remember that, dear. People show their love in different ways. Sometimes what we take as indifference is merely a person’s particular manner.”
Anna nodded, wond
ering what she was getting at.
“Mammi was different, though. She always had an almost childlike faith. At times it was frustrating because she didn’t seem to have the same questions the rest of us did. When some tragedy would strike—whether it was death, drought, floods, or illness—your grandmother would smile and carry on.” She laughed in spite of herself. “That’s precious in someone as old as your grandmother, but in a younger woman it’s sometimes hard to understand. How could she stand over the body of a loved one and not shed a tear? Your grandmother—she would be quoting the Psalms and rejoicing.”
Anna could picture that well enough.
“As I’ve grown older I’ve learned to respect your grandmother’s faith and to try to learn from her. Maybe somewhere deep inside I always knew that her faith would make a difference in our lives, but I didn’t know how. I certainly never envisioned… this.”
“This? You mean—”
“Does it surprise you so much? Yes, I think your grandmother is responsible for this miracle. We all prayed for you, Anna. I shed many tears, as I know your father and aenti and onkel did. The rest of the family back in Goshen didn’t forget about you for even one day. You were always in our hearts and our prayers. But we probably didn’t believe that our prayers were making a difference.” Martha smiled. “Don’t look so shocked. We’re not saints. We believe in God’s holy Word, and we hope, but we have doubts like everyone.”
“Not Mammi.”
“No. Your grandmother’s faith is complete. She’s a special one.”
“And you think her prayers healed me?”
“Only God can heal, but I believe He smiled on your grandmother the day He healed you.”
Anna allowed her mother’s words to sink in. Finally she said, “Mammi asked me once if I believed in miracles. I didn’t know what to tell her. I didn’t think they were even a possibility.”
“But for Mammi, there is no limit to what God can do.”
“I’ve barely had a chance to talk to her since yesterday morning. I think I’d like to go back now and see her. I think you may be right. It feels right, and the way that she studies me from behind those big glasses… well, I think she understands more about this than she’s admitting.”
Together they walked back to the house. Martha joined Erin in the kitchen, but Anna walked over to where Mammi was sitting by the front window, her Bible beside her and her knitting in her hands. As Anna walked across the room, she had every intention to pull up a chair and sit and have a good chat with her grandmother. But then Mammi glanced up, a smile tugging on her lips and the joy of her secret in her eyes.
Anna went to her knees beside her grandmother’s chair. “I didn’t know, Mammi. I didn’t understand. You were always there for me. Through every dark night and every bitter morning.”
Her tears began to run in rivulets down her cheeks, but Anna didn’t bother to wipe them away. “You never doubted, and your prayers… God heard them, didn’t He?”
Mammi set aside her knitting and put her hands gently on Anna’s head. The warm, soft, gentle touch of her grandmother’s hands calmed Anna’s spirit.
“God always hears His children.”
“But you were faithful to ask, weren’t you? To ask that I be healed?”
“I only asked for God’s will. I asked for Him to use you and me, Anna. And it would seem that He has.”
CHAPTER 53
During lunch, Samuel explained the situation with the officers stationed outside. Anna could tell her onkel had already shared the information with Jacob because he chimed in from time to time clarifying a point.
“The local police simply cannot handle a situation of this magnitude,” Jacob said. “They do not have enough officers.”
“And though we would rather not have any outside presence, it seems we have no say in that.” Samuel ran his fingers through his beard. “The two-lane road is public property, and the crowd there is growing. Instead of folks losing interest in Anna’s story, it seems that more people show up every hour. Yesterday there was a news crew from Washington, DC, and a movie van from California.”
“So you’ve already agreed? The governor’s special task force is coming here?” Erin frowned at her food, which she was again scooting around on her plate rather than eating.
“For now, yes.”
Anna glanced around the table. No one seemed shocked by the news, but her mother and aunt were frowning.
“Why do we even need them?” Martha asked. “Perhaps if the police leave, the people will leave.”
“We hope, given time, that they will,” Samuel said. “But until that happens, it doesn’t seem wise to turn away the help. Even Levi is afraid the people would crash through the barricade the police have set up. They would be here at the house before we had a chance to stop them.”
“I think I should talk to them.” Anna had taken a big bite of corn bread, so the words came out somewhat distorted and she had to repeat herself.
“Why would you think that?” Samuel said. “Those people are trying to profit off you or get a big story. I don’t know when they’ll go away, but certainly something else will grab their attention soon. That’s what Officer Starnes thinks, and I agree with him. Wait this out, and eventually things will return to normal.”
Anna wasn’t sure if things would ever be normal for her again. Would standing up and walking across a room ever seem ordinary? Would there come a day when she didn’t revel over the feel of her toes against the wooden floor? She doubted it, but she kept those thoughts to herself.
“We’re fortunate the governor has offered to provide men from a special task force to help with our protection.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Anna said.
“The way it was explained to me, these folks are normally used to help with security for visiting dignitaries, especially in small towns where resources are limited.”
“I’m not visiting, and I’m hardly a dignitary.”
“True, but what has happened to you is special, Anna. Normally…” Samuel glanced around the table, taking in each person seated there. “Normally I would remind you of your commitment to Scripture and to our Ordnung, both of which call us to be a separate people. But there are times when our lives and the lives of the Englisch cross paths. This is one of those times. I think the governor and the bishop are right. We need help.”
So it was decided. The officers from Cody’s Creek would hand off the protection of the Schwartz family to the governor’s task force. Jacob touched Anna’s shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen, “See you tonight?”
“Ya, sure.”
He trailed his fingers down her arm, and Anna couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face. She hadn’t had time to consider what her healing meant to her and Jacob’s relationship. Did they even have a relationship? Could the dreams she’d harbored possibly come true?
Everyone began moving in different directions.
Anna’s mother ducked her head close to Mammi, and they spoke in a whisper. What was that about? Mammi nodded and Martha glanced up at Anna, as if she wanted to say something. Anna started to ask her about it, but Martha quickly shook her head. Erin had begun clearing the dishes.
Anna glanced around, and then she moved forward and stopped her onkel, who was headed back outside. “How did the governor even know about us?”
“He read a newspaper story—one written by Chloe. He said it touched his heart, and then he called the police department here to see how he could help.”
Samuel clumsily patted her arm, and Anna remembered him picking her up. She remembered the way he cared for her each day when she couldn’t walk.
“Everything will be fine, Anna. You concentrate on staying well.”
She didn’t think that would be necessary. She knew, deep in her bones, that she didn’t need to fear returning to her wheelchair. As to everything being fine, she wasn’t so sure. Her aenti and onkel had become much more sociable since her illness, but they
were still very private people. She didn’t like the idea of their quiet lives being paraded before the public, and she wondered how long it would take for the pressure to begin to take its toll. She remembered her time in the chapel and the sense that God had everything under control. She looked down at her legs, and she had no trouble believing He could handle a crowd of gawkers.
She was standing in the mudroom, watching Samuel and Jacob walk across the yard to the barn, when her mother walked up behind her. Martha put her hands on Anna’s shoulders, turned her around, and kissed her forehead.
“Could you come into the kitchen? Mammi and I would like you to speak to Erin.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
“You’ll see. It’s important, Anna, and I think that now—well, I think now is the time that we share everything with her.”
CHAPTER 54
Erin was seated at the table when Anna walked back into the room. She was staring down at her hands, which were folded on top of the table. A dishcloth sat discarded beside her. Mammi had taken the place to the right of her, and Martha sat on the left. Anna’s mamm nodded toward the seat across from Erin, and Anna took it quickly. Whatever this was about, she could tell it was serious.
What now? Was someone else sick? Had something happened while she was gone the night before?
But no one had mentioned anything at lunch. Whatever was going on, it didn’t seem to include Samuel or Jacob.
“Anna, your mammi and I would like you to tell Erin your dreams.”
“My dreams?”
“Yes, especially the one where you walk through the wildflowers. But perhaps you should start at the beginning.”
Erin glanced up, and Anna realized her aenti had no more idea as to what was going on than she did.
Her mother and Mammi shared another glance, and then Mammi removed her glasses and polished them on the hem of her apron. “Do you remember in Joel and again in Acts when God’s Word talks about dreams?”
Anna shook her head. She knew dreams were described a few times in the Bible, but she couldn’t recall the specific section of Scripture Mammi was talking about.
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