Read Online A Quilt for Jenna by Patrick E. Craig - Free Book Online Page A

of him waving wildly in the wind. He began to walk slowly down the lane.
    In a few minutes a wooden post with a mailbox on it appeared out of the storm, and he saw the name Knepp on the side.
    Mark Knepp’s place! I must have walked straight across the meadow without even realizing I was off the pavement.
    Mark Knepp was an old widower. He had a phone and could call for help. That was Henry’s only hope. He was losing feeling in his hands and feet.
    He stumbled to where he thought the Knepp driveway should be. If I remember, the mailbox was out on the lane, and the driveway to the house was down a ways on the right side.
    Henry looked for a light or a shed or anything that would tell him he was close to the house. He stumbled along, panic rising in his chest.
    Just then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a tree limb, torn loose by the wind and falling directly at him. Before he could duck, the limb struck him squarely on the side of his head. Henry crumpled into the snow like a polled ox and slipped into darkness as the snow piled up around him.

C HAPTER T WELVE
    Summer Dreams

    J ERUSHA WAS WORRIED . Henry had been gone a long time, and it was beginning to get dark. The wind was piling snow up against the doors of the car. Jerusha rummaged around in her bag to find the old watch Reuben had given her. She pulled it out and opened the case. In the dim light she could see it was 4:30.
    Jerusha tried to wrap the blanket tighter around her. It was an old blanket that said U-Haul on it in big letters, and it was speckled with large grease spots, but Jerusha folded it and pushed it down under both sides of her. That seemed to keep the cold out a little better. Then she saw a pile of old newspapers on the floorboard behind the front seat. She’d heard of homeless men covering themselves with newspaper when they slept on park benches, so she unfolded several of the papers and spread them over her. As she settled down on the backseat she felt herself begin to warm against the cold.
    Jerusha picked up the box that held her quilt and started to put it on the front seat of the car. Then she paused and opened the box. The quilt lay folded and wrapped in tissue paper. Carefully she pulled it open a little so she could look at it again. Even in the dim light she could see her craftsmanship in every stitch, the beauty of the design, and the shimmer of the silken rose. Her grandmother’s words came back to her.
    â€œEvery trial we have in our life is a fire that burns away the things of this world and purifies our faith, so that when Jesus returns He will find a faithful people who have placed all their trust in Him and worship nothing but Him.”
    Is this the trial You have for me? If it is, why is it so long? Grandmother... Jenna...Reuben...and now I’m trapped in this car—
    The thought hit her like a sledgehammer.
    I might die here! Is that what You are going to burn away with my trials? My life? Does my life mean nothing to You?
    Sobered, she closed the box and set it on the front seat. She put her bag under her head as a pillow and stretched out on the backseat. With a little bit of shuffling and spreading the layers of paper, she found that she was fairly comfortable. She closed her eyes and tried to rest, but thoughts of Reuben and Jenna began to flood her mind. She saw her little girl snuggled in Reuben’s arms as the family sat in front of a fire on a long winter night. Memories of spring days came to her, the three of them sitting together, listening in wonder to the songs of the birds in the trees and drinking in the lushness of the earth waking from a long winter’s sleep. Reuben’s eyes, bold and stern yet with that secret smile always hidden behind them, and Jenna’s little voice whispering those precious words, “I love you, Mama...” All these things haunted Jerusha as she lay in the back of the car.
    Why do You take away the people I love most?
    A knot