Read Online An Amish Wedding by Kathleen Fuller, Beth Wiseman, Kelly Long - Free Book Online Page B
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images—Rose in a boat on storm-tossed waves drifting away from him, the eerie lights of a carnival’s Ferris wheel and Rose spinning high to the top in a swinging singsong motion, Rose standing on the edge of a cavernous drop while he tried desperately to reach her. Everything that was human in him recognized the fear, the distance, and he knew he had to tell her the whole truth. It was the only way he was going to be able to stay close to her, but when he opened his mouth to speak, he awoke shivering and knew that dawn couldn’t come fast enough.
“S URE YOU’RE NOT GETTING SICK , R OSIE?” HER FATHER asked with genuine concern when she appeared wan and sleepy at the breakfast table.
“Nee, Daed.” Though she wondered if she actually was sick, as awful as she felt inside. She had spent the night clutching the child’s drawing, examining it by the light of a kerosene lamp from every angle, and was no nearer the truth than she had been standing outside the shack the night before.
She tried to think logically. Ally was not a traditional Amish name, yet she had no doubt the drawing had been a gift of some kind to Luke. It must have slipped from his jeans pocket when he fell. She noticed that the child had drawn faces on the clouds, so that their raindrops looked like tears. What would clouds weep for? And for so young a life’s imagination?
And then that single word: Daddy . The letters had rung through Rose’s mind with all the cadence of a loud and clanging bell, merciless in intensity and reverberating possibility. Luke was twenty-three . . . The child had to be at least four or five, judging from her letter formation . . . That would make Luke eighteen if he were . . . She couldn’t finish the thought, not once the whole night through nor now as she tried to concentrate on her scrambled eggs.
But like a bad canker sore that attracts the tongue, her mind kept running over the possibilities with drawing pain. She and Luke had both had a rumschpringe , but it had been nothing like some she knew. At least for her it hadn’t been . . . She’d ridden in a car once, gone to two Englisch baseball games, and stayed out all night singing round a campfire with some of her Amish friends. She racked her brain for what Luke had been doing and realized she couldn’t fill in all the blanks of time. He’d been to her then what he always was . . . devoted. But friendship or not, she didn’t see him all the time. Could he have met an Englisch girl? Could he have had a relationship that she didn’t know about?
She poked at her eggs and wished now that she would have stayed and listened to his odd request for help instead of running away like a child. She began to pray for guidance as she determinedly ate her food under the watchful eyes of her father and thought that life could be as difficult as navigating in the dark sometimes. Then she recalled the Bible verse that said “all the dark was as light” to the Lord; it gave her something to cling to as she ate her eggs.
L UKE KNEW THAT HE WAS PROBABLY CATCHING R OSE’S family right at breakfast, but he hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. Consequently, he’d poked Mark out of bed with one of his crutches just after dawn, and they now rode through the chill morning air in the buggy.
“I don’t mind takin’ you.” Mark’s teeth chattered as he spoke. “But isn’t this kind of early for working out your differences?”
Luke waved a vague hand at his brother. “Never too early to make things right.”
“Well, I hope breakfast is still on the table. I’d love to have a stack of pancakes made by a woman’s hand.”
Mark soon had his wish. Mrs. Bender hustled them in out of the cold, and Mr. Bender filled their coffee cups before they could get their coats off. Luke glanced at Rose and found, to his dismay, that she looked worn and weary. He had to get her alone to talk, but the Bender men appeared to love company at any hour.
And in truth, though he
“S URE YOU’RE NOT GETTING SICK , R OSIE?” HER FATHER asked with genuine concern when she appeared wan and sleepy at the breakfast table.
“Nee, Daed.” Though she wondered if she actually was sick, as awful as she felt inside. She had spent the night clutching the child’s drawing, examining it by the light of a kerosene lamp from every angle, and was no nearer the truth than she had been standing outside the shack the night before.
She tried to think logically. Ally was not a traditional Amish name, yet she had no doubt the drawing had been a gift of some kind to Luke. It must have slipped from his jeans pocket when he fell. She noticed that the child had drawn faces on the clouds, so that their raindrops looked like tears. What would clouds weep for? And for so young a life’s imagination?
And then that single word: Daddy . The letters had rung through Rose’s mind with all the cadence of a loud and clanging bell, merciless in intensity and reverberating possibility. Luke was twenty-three . . . The child had to be at least four or five, judging from her letter formation . . . That would make Luke eighteen if he were . . . She couldn’t finish the thought, not once the whole night through nor now as she tried to concentrate on her scrambled eggs.
But like a bad canker sore that attracts the tongue, her mind kept running over the possibilities with drawing pain. She and Luke had both had a rumschpringe , but it had been nothing like some she knew. At least for her it hadn’t been . . . She’d ridden in a car once, gone to two Englisch baseball games, and stayed out all night singing round a campfire with some of her Amish friends. She racked her brain for what Luke had been doing and realized she couldn’t fill in all the blanks of time. He’d been to her then what he always was . . . devoted. But friendship or not, she didn’t see him all the time. Could he have met an Englisch girl? Could he have had a relationship that she didn’t know about?
She poked at her eggs and wished now that she would have stayed and listened to his odd request for help instead of running away like a child. She began to pray for guidance as she determinedly ate her food under the watchful eyes of her father and thought that life could be as difficult as navigating in the dark sometimes. Then she recalled the Bible verse that said “all the dark was as light” to the Lord; it gave her something to cling to as she ate her eggs.
L UKE KNEW THAT HE WAS PROBABLY CATCHING R OSE’S family right at breakfast, but he hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. Consequently, he’d poked Mark out of bed with one of his crutches just after dawn, and they now rode through the chill morning air in the buggy.
“I don’t mind takin’ you.” Mark’s teeth chattered as he spoke. “But isn’t this kind of early for working out your differences?”
Luke waved a vague hand at his brother. “Never too early to make things right.”
“Well, I hope breakfast is still on the table. I’d love to have a stack of pancakes made by a woman’s hand.”
Mark soon had his wish. Mrs. Bender hustled them in out of the cold, and Mr. Bender filled their coffee cups before they could get their coats off. Luke glanced at Rose and found, to his dismay, that she looked worn and weary. He had to get her alone to talk, but the Bender men appeared to love company at any hour.
And in truth, though he
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