Read Online A Stranger's Wish by Gayle Roper - Free Book Online
Authors: Gayle Roper
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Action & Adventure, Love Stories, Christian fiction, Religious, Christian, Adventure stories, Pennsylvania, Amish, Lancaster County (Pa.), Lancaster County, Art Teachers - Pennsylvania - Lancaster County, Art Teachers
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was silent about me.
When I went through to my stairs in Jake’s addition, I could hear his TV faintly in his front room. Did he have a social life, friends he did things with, or did he spend every Saturday night in front of the tube?
I got ready for bed slowly, weighed down not only by the humid August heat but by my thoughts about life and its complications. I hated it when I started thinking before I fell asleep. It guaranteed a restless night and a relentless morning headache. In a stab at getting a good night’s rest, I imagined myself picking up my thoughts about Mary and her worries and Jake and his sterile life and putting them in the chair by the window to bother Big Bird throughout the night.
But I couldn’t rid my mind of worries about Todd.
Here I was, twenty-seven years old, twenty-eight in November. For two years I’d been dating one man. At my age, that often meant marriage. Mom and Dad certainly hoped so. Todd was, after all, a lawyer.
“Not engaged yet, Kristie? But he’s so nice and handsome.”
“Not yet, Mom. Be patient.”
Unspoken was her thought that Todd would rescue me from the artsy life I was living. In Mom’s mind I was as Bohemian as they came, spending all my time kicking up my heels and accomplishing little. She had no concept of the thought and planning and time that went into a watercolor. She didn’t understand that the actual painting itself was only part of the process.
I climbed into bed and plumped the pillows behind me. I took a pencil and a piece of paper. I titled it TODD: GOOD QUALITIES. It didn’t take me long to make an impressive list.
1. Fine Christian
2. Good lawyer
3. Good salary
4. Active at church
5. Handsome
6. Intelligent
7. Loves me
I stopped and bit the eraser off the pencil. I spit it out and grabbed another piece of paper.
TODD: BAD QUALITIES
1. Thinks my ideas and preferences are dumb
2. And me too
3. Has no sense of humor
I placed the two lists side by side.
Dear Lord, do seven good qualities mitigate the force of three bad ones?
And what would Todd say if I told him about the key?
“What? You took a key from a man you’ve never seen before in your life, making a promise with who knows what implications? Who was this man, Kristie? Can you trust him? Was he setting you up for something? Why’d he give you the key and not his family or a friend? What are you supposed to do with it? What if he dies?”
He would run his hand through his hair the way he always did when he got upset. “Kristie, you should have thought!”
It’s terrible when you can’t even have a mental argument with someone without him pointing out your foolishness.
I snapped off the light and slid down on my pillow. Well, I might not have been thinking when I took the key, but I was thinking now. Too much.
I woke to the rattle of a buggy and the clopping of hooves. I glanced at the luminous dial of my clock radio. Three a.m. Ruth and Elam were home.
Almost immediately I heard a second buggy pull into the drive. Aha! Someone other than Elam was bringing Ruth home. Curious, I went to my window, but I couldn’t see anything because of the jutting of the ell.
I hoped Ruth’s romance was running more smoothly than mine. Of course, that wouldn’t be hard.
I went back to bed and fell into a fitful sleep, only to waken at dawn. I lay there with the predicted headache and listened to the morning farm noises. John and Elam would be in the barn feeding the animals and milking the cows, the extent of their Sunday labors. Mary and Ruth would be fixing a simple breakfast, after which the family would go to church, scheduled today at Uncle Sam Zook’s farm over toward Paradise. I smiled. Going to worship in Paradise.
I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but after a half hour of tossing and turning and muttering threats at myself, I finally admitted that I was awake for the day whether I liked it or not. I sighed and got up. I went in to the living room
When I went through to my stairs in Jake’s addition, I could hear his TV faintly in his front room. Did he have a social life, friends he did things with, or did he spend every Saturday night in front of the tube?
I got ready for bed slowly, weighed down not only by the humid August heat but by my thoughts about life and its complications. I hated it when I started thinking before I fell asleep. It guaranteed a restless night and a relentless morning headache. In a stab at getting a good night’s rest, I imagined myself picking up my thoughts about Mary and her worries and Jake and his sterile life and putting them in the chair by the window to bother Big Bird throughout the night.
But I couldn’t rid my mind of worries about Todd.
Here I was, twenty-seven years old, twenty-eight in November. For two years I’d been dating one man. At my age, that often meant marriage. Mom and Dad certainly hoped so. Todd was, after all, a lawyer.
“Not engaged yet, Kristie? But he’s so nice and handsome.”
“Not yet, Mom. Be patient.”
Unspoken was her thought that Todd would rescue me from the artsy life I was living. In Mom’s mind I was as Bohemian as they came, spending all my time kicking up my heels and accomplishing little. She had no concept of the thought and planning and time that went into a watercolor. She didn’t understand that the actual painting itself was only part of the process.
I climbed into bed and plumped the pillows behind me. I took a pencil and a piece of paper. I titled it TODD: GOOD QUALITIES. It didn’t take me long to make an impressive list.
1. Fine Christian
2. Good lawyer
3. Good salary
4. Active at church
5. Handsome
6. Intelligent
7. Loves me
I stopped and bit the eraser off the pencil. I spit it out and grabbed another piece of paper.
TODD: BAD QUALITIES
1. Thinks my ideas and preferences are dumb
2. And me too
3. Has no sense of humor
I placed the two lists side by side.
Dear Lord, do seven good qualities mitigate the force of three bad ones?
And what would Todd say if I told him about the key?
“What? You took a key from a man you’ve never seen before in your life, making a promise with who knows what implications? Who was this man, Kristie? Can you trust him? Was he setting you up for something? Why’d he give you the key and not his family or a friend? What are you supposed to do with it? What if he dies?”
He would run his hand through his hair the way he always did when he got upset. “Kristie, you should have thought!”
It’s terrible when you can’t even have a mental argument with someone without him pointing out your foolishness.
I snapped off the light and slid down on my pillow. Well, I might not have been thinking when I took the key, but I was thinking now. Too much.
I woke to the rattle of a buggy and the clopping of hooves. I glanced at the luminous dial of my clock radio. Three a.m. Ruth and Elam were home.
Almost immediately I heard a second buggy pull into the drive. Aha! Someone other than Elam was bringing Ruth home. Curious, I went to my window, but I couldn’t see anything because of the jutting of the ell.
I hoped Ruth’s romance was running more smoothly than mine. Of course, that wouldn’t be hard.
I went back to bed and fell into a fitful sleep, only to waken at dawn. I lay there with the predicted headache and listened to the morning farm noises. John and Elam would be in the barn feeding the animals and milking the cows, the extent of their Sunday labors. Mary and Ruth would be fixing a simple breakfast, after which the family would go to church, scheduled today at Uncle Sam Zook’s farm over toward Paradise. I smiled. Going to worship in Paradise.
I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but after a half hour of tossing and turning and muttering threats at myself, I finally admitted that I was awake for the day whether I liked it or not. I sighed and got up. I went in to the living room
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