by Jo Ann Brown
Annie hoped it would soon be Leanna’s turn to take marriage vows. But how would it be possible when Caleb hadn’t asked her sister to the mud sale as he’d promised to do a week ago?
“Do you see what I see?” asked Miriam as she came to stand by the door. Its window offered a view of the snowy driveway and the yard marked with footprints where the kinder had been chasing each other.
“What?” Annie asked.
“Your sister and my brother.” Miriam chuckled. She pointed to the twosome, who were standing a few feet from the house. “I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen the two of them talking to each other.”
“They’ve been very busy with their work.” Did her voice sound as strained to Miriam as it did to her?
Caleb and Leanna’s conversation ended, and her sister rushed toward the house at the same time Caleb walked toward his buggy.
Miriam didn’t wait until Leanna had taken off her bonnet before she asked, “So did he finally ask you to the mud sale?”
Annie was pierced by surprise. Why? Caleb talking to his sister and getting her advice on how to ask Leanna wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Her own brother had sought out her insight and Leanna’s when he started walking out with Rhoda. They’d been no older than Becky Sue then, but he kept saying he wanted a female point of view.
“He did.” Leanna kept her gaze on the floor as she lifted off her bonnet and put it on the table with the others. “He’s being very kind because he knows how long it can take to get our family going in the morning.”
“I’m glad you’ll be there to see when your quilt comes up for bid,” Annie said. And she was.
Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t help the feeling she was sliding into a deep pit where not a hint of sunlight would ever reach. No, she wasn’t going to let sorrow overwhelm her as it had Leanna. Rather, she was going to be grateful her sister might escape the darkness left in the wake of her heartbreak.
Half listening while her sister and Miriam talked about the mud sale, Annie was startled when she heard a hiss close to her left ear. She turned and saw Becky Sue crooking a finger toward her.
Annie excused herself, though Miriam and Leanna were so immersed in their conversation she wasn’t sure they noticed her leaving, and walked to where Becky Sue stood near a closed door.
“Is it true?” the teen said.
“Is what true?” Annie wished—just once—Becky Sue would clarify what she was saying.
“Caleb is walking out with Leanna?”
“You know we don’t talk about such things.” Annie didn’t like her stern tone any more than the girl did. Softening it, she said, “Caleb is giving Leanna a ride to the mud sale.”
“And home?”
Annie shrugged. Would Caleb offer her twin a ride home, too? If none of the other Waglers got there, he would. However, at least Lyndon, who was also a volunteer firefighter, would be going and could bring her home.
“Are you okay with this?” Becky Sue persisted.
“It’s nice of your cousin to be so thoughtful.” She wasn’t going to admit she’d set up the whole thing because she wasn’t sure if Becky Sue would keep that to herself.
“I thought you liked him.”
“I do. He’s a nice man and a gut boss.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, but I also know Caleb asked Leanna and I’m glad she’s going to be there for the quilt auction.”
The teen folded her arms over her chest and frowned. “He asked you to join him in doing chores in the barn.”
“How do you know that?”
“I hear things.” Becky Sue shrugged insolently. “Like everyone else does. Why haven’t you accepted his invitation? Don’t you like my cousin?”
“I like him. I don’t like working in the barn.”
Becky Sue glowered at her, then spun on her heel and stamped away.
Annie went in the opposite direction, avoiding where Miriam and Leanna were giggling together as if they were no older than Becky Sue. She paused to grab her coat, bonnet and mittens. Fresh air might help because the house suddenly felt as small as a kind’s shoebox.
The wind had risen again, and Annie ducked her head into it as she strode out into the cloud-darkened afternoon. Was another storm coming? She was beginning to doubt winter would ever end.
Snow clung to her boots, trying to halt her on every step, but she pushed forward until she bumped into someone. Raising her eyes, she nodded to her brother who was talking to some other men who were getting their buggies ready to leave. He started to ask a question, but she turned away before he could.
He didn’t call after her but she heard assertive footsteps give chase. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Caleb behind her. She wanted to groan. He was the last person she wanted to talk to. What would she say to him when he let her know he’d done her the favor she’d asked for?
“Can I have a minute?” Caleb asked as he caught up with her.
“Ja.” She’d be glad to give him more than a single minute, but he should focus on Leanna. “Danki for asking Leanna to go with you to the mud sale.”
He waved that aside as if it didn’t matter. She realized his face was drawn. What was wrong? It couldn’t be because Leanna had agreed. If he hadn’t wanted to ask her, he would have said as much to Annie. They were honest with each other...about most things.
“Joey let Jeremiah Stoltzfus hold him today before the service. He didn’t make a peep.” Caleb’s words fell over one another in his hurry to speak them. “But he screams anytime I’m near him.”
Her self-pity became sympathy for him. She didn’t have any right to feel sorry for herself when events were unfolding as she’d arranged, but Caleb had been hurt over and over by the boppli’s response.
“It’s impossible to know what’s going on in a boppli’s head,” she said, putting a solacing hand on his sleeve and trying to ignore the strong muscles beneath the layers of wool and cotton. “It may not have anything to do with what you’ve been doing. Think about how Becky Sue is so tense around you. Maybe Joey thinks she’s frightened of you, so he is, too. A one-year-old isn’t going to understand why his mamm feels as she does.”
“I’d like to believe you’re right, but it’s clear Joey hates me.”
“A boppli doesn’t hate anyone or anything. He’s scared for some reason.”
“Danki for trying to make me feel better, but you’re using different words to say the same thing.”
“Stop it!”
* * *
Annie’s sharp words jerked Caleb out of his morass of shame. He stared at her, wondering why he was startled she wasn’t reacting as he’d expected. She seldom did.
Her voice softened. “I know it bothers you, Caleb, that Joey cries, but he’s a boppli. Like I said, none of us can guess what goes on in his head. He’s a loving kind, wanting to touch us whenever we hold him. He’ll warm up to you when he sees you want to take care of him, too.”
“I’d like to think—”
A sharp ring cut through the gray afternoon as his pocket vibrated against his leg. The sound and the sensation repeated before he could move. Maybe everyone didn’t whirl to stare at him, but it sure felt that way. Fishing the cell phone out of his pocket, he strode away from Annie and the men gathered closer to the house. He tapped the phone screen the way he’d been shown and held it to his ear.
Nothing.
He’d missed the call.
Maybe it hadn’t been important.
He looked at the screen, and his gut tightened as he recognized the number. It belonged to the phone shack that Becky Sue’s family used!
He pushed another button to call back. He grimaced when he heard a busy signal. Giving himself to the count of twenty, he tried again with the same result. He waited another full minute—which felt li
ke an eternity—and made another attempt. This time, he got the same answering machine he had before. Leaving a message to call him as soon as possible, he ended the call.
Walking to where Annie stood, he glowered at the phone. Why hadn’t Becky Sue’s family waited long enough for him to call back? It didn’t make sense. He tightened his hold around the slender phone. It was almost as if they’d done their duty by calling and felt it wasn’t necessary to do anything else.
But didn’t they want to know where their daughter and kins-kind were? Weren’t they worried about whether they were safe and had a place to sleep and food to eat?
He tried to remember what message he’d left. It had been bare-bones facts that the two had been found and Caleb would make sure they were okay until Becky Sue’s family sent instructions about whether they wanted him to bring her home or they wanted to come to Harmony Creek Hollow for a reunion with the runaway teen and her boppli. But if they’d taken time to make arrangements, why hadn’t they waited for him to call and find out what they were?
“Was that Becky Sue’s parents?” Annie asked.
“Ja.”
“Are they coming here?”
He lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted response. “I don’t know. I didn’t answer the call in time, and when I called back, I didn’t get an answer.”
She put consoling fingers on his arm as she had before, and he felt his frustration melt away beneath her warm touch. How did Annie manage to do that with a simple brush of her fingertips on his sleeve?
“The important thing is they called,” she said.
“Ja.” He looked at the phone as he added, “When I tried calling them back, the line was busy.”
“A gut sign someone is in the phone shack.”
How did she always see the best side of every circumstance? While he looked for problems so he could avoid them, she seemed to believe everything would be fine if she moved ahead.
“But then the answering machine picked up.”
Her eyes widened, and he looked away before he lost himself in their enticing depths.
“That’s strange,” she said. “I would have guessed that they’d hang around long enough to wait for you to call.”
“I thought so, too. But—”
Again he was interrupted by a sound from the phone. This time it was a chirping noise.
Caleb looked at the screen to see an announcement that there was a voice mail. Hoping he was remembering the correct way to retrieve it, because it’d been a few weeks since his friend had showed him how to use the various utilities on the cell phone, he tapped the screen before holding the device to his ear. He listened, then lowered it, shocked at what he’d heard. Pushing the buttons again, he held it to his other ear, hoping that what he thought he’d heard was a mistake.
It wasn’t.
“Was that a message from Becky Sue’s mamm or daed?” Annie asked.
Without a word, he handed her the phone. He motioned for her to activate the voice mail, and she followed his silent instructions.
He knew the moment she heard the words that had sent disgust rocketing through him. Her face flushed and tears filled her eyes as she looked at where Becky Sue was emerging from the house surrounded by the Waglers.
The words spoken in a man’s clipped tones were seared into Caleb’s brain. “You’ve got Becky Sue. Keep her. We don’t want her or her boppli here.”
Chapter Eleven
Annie frowned at the windows in the bakery’s front room. Her fingers itched to dip a cloth into hot, soapy water so she could begin to wash the layers of grime from the glass. As soon as the cold weather broke, she intended to give the windows in both rooms a gut cleaning. She imagined how sunshine would glint off the polished glass cases where cakes and pies and cookies and other sweets would be displayed.
Each day, Caleb brought in a product he wanted to sell at the bakery and asked her opinion. She’d sampled whoopie pies as well as cookies and cake and cinnamon rolls. Every one had been delicious, a sure sign that the bakery would be a success.
For the past week, she and Caleb had been working on the main room of the shop. He’d repaired windows and started nailing down the loose floorboards, replacing some that would no longer fit into place. She suspected he was easing his frustration with Becky Sue’s parents by slamming the hammer into the boards. Several times a day, he tried calling their number and he left dozens of messages.
None were returned.
How could parents wash their hands of their kind and kins-kind like that? Annie couldn’t come up with an answer for that puzzling question.
She felt her own frustration fall from her shoulders when she drew in a deep breath. The astonishing aroma of chocolate chip cookies would, she decided, never grow old. She was eager to sample Caleb’s recipe, which added a touch of maple syrup to the dough. He was baking them today to check the temperature in the double ovens and make sure he wouldn’t burn products when he was ready to open the doors in a few weeks.
At the happy chirp of the timer, she went into the kitchen and grabbed a pot holder and the waiting trays of cookie dough he’d prepared before he went out to pick up some debris that had blown against the building during the previous night’s storm. She opened the wide door on the ovens, which had more controls than she’d imagined any appliance could. Switching the two trays and resetting the timer, she let the enticing scent of baking cookies swirl around her.
She slid the cookies off the tray and put another batch in their places, so they could go in when the others were done. Feeling like a naughty child, she picked up a warm cookie. She took a bite and grinned. The rich flavor of maple syrup was subtle but enhanced the luxurious chocolate and pecan bits mixed into the dough.
Golden maple syrup...
Annie glanced at the kitchen wall that remained a boring white. The plans to go to the hardware store to get paint had been pushed aside day after day while they finished tasks inside the building. Supplies had arrived and had to be unpacked. A couple of roof slats had been cracked by an ice dam, so Caleb had spent a day repairing the damage where water seeping past the broken slats had turned a section of the ceiling brown.
She looked at the calendar where Caleb crossed off each day. They had five weeks before opening day. Would they make it?
The door opened and Annie started to greet Caleb. She choked on the cookie when Leanna walked in.
“What are you doing here in the middle of the afternoon?” Annie asked after taking a gulp of water to wash down the crumbs. “Isn’t today your day to work at Mrs. Beattie’s house?”
Leanna untied her bonnet. “She asked me to skip this week because her daughter’s visiting. I thought I’d stop by and see what’s been keeping you so busy.” She hung her bonnet by the door. Scanning the space, she whistled. “This is fancier than I expected.”
Annie began to explain how Caleb had bought the appliances and extra cabinets from Mr. Summerhays. When her twin frowned, Annie realized how defensive she sounded.
“It was a blessing that the appliances were available,” Annie said as she hurried to finish.
“I guess it would have been dumm not to take advantage of such an opportunity, ain’t so?” Leanna stood in the center of the room so she could take in every inch of it. “How many bakers is he planning to hire?”
“I don’t know.”
“He can’t intend to use all this by himself.”
“I told him, though he hired me to run the cash register and deal with customers, I’d be willing to help with baking.” Annie gave a careless shrug. “Of course, it’s going to depend on how many customers he gets and what products they buy.”
Leanna began to count on her fingers. “Whoopie pies, all sorts of cookies, fresh bread and biscuits, cakes and, of course, pies. Especially shoofly pie. That seems to be everyone’s favorite plain treat.”
“Komm, and I’ll show you the front room where the customers will shop. We’re still working on it.”
As she led the way into the other space, Annie held her breath. Would Leanna see past the work still to be done? Annie no longer saw the stained walls or how the glass display cases needed their doors set into place. Instead she imagined the walls painted a soft shade, and tables and chairs on one side filled with happy people and others gazing at a chalkboard listing products along with their prices as more eager customers stood in a long line winding out the door.
“I didn’t think it’d be this big,” Leanna said. “The counter and display case don’t take up much room.”
“I suggested that Caleb put some tables in for customers.”
“That would fill up the empty space, ain’t so? Is he going to do it?”
“He’s deciding.”
“What’s to decide? If people come in and the place looks empty, they’ll think there’s something wrong and go away.”
“He’ll make up his mind when it’s the proper time,” Annie said, though she agreed with her sister.
“I hope he doesn’t wait too long. Isn’t he opening at the beginning of May?”
“Ja.” Why was she trying to justify Caleb’s decisions to Leanna? He was her boss, and the choices he made for the bakery were his and his alone. “Want a cookie?”
“Sounds gut.”
Leading her twin back into the kitchen, Annie went to the ovens a second before the timer beeped. She exchanged the trays again, then motioned for her sister to select a cookie or two.
The door opened, and the icy wind swirled through the kitchen, making the May opening seem a long, long time off. Annie wrapped her arms around herself, but the motion couldn’t stave off the cold.
