Read Online Anna's Crossing: An Amish Beginnings Novel by Suzanne Woods Fisher - Free Book Online Page A

me.
    When the boy recovered from his shock, he scrambled out of the bunk. “Kannscht du mei Schprooch?” Do you know my language?
    Bairn shrugged. “Wennich.” Enough. Mostly forgotten. “Kannscht du Englisch schwetze?” Can you speak English?
    Felix nodded vigorously. “I learn . . . schteik.” Fast.

    Where was Felix? Anna had looked all through the lower deck and couldn’t find any sign of him. Keeping her voice calmer than she felt, she asked Dorothea if she had seen Felix go by.
    They all felt ill. Maria was wretched, Barbara Gerber looked pea-green, Lizzie Mast lay moaning on her bunk, but Dorothea seemed to fare the worst. Ghostly pale, she hadn’t been able to keep anything down for days. Her expression of bleakdismay intensified to one of alarm, but before she could begin to panic, Anna rushed on. “I’m sure I saw him down near the animals.” She skirted around the narrow path toward the front of the ship.
    Anna frightened the chickens by swinging their cages to peer around them. They clucked and fussed at her, but she found no red-haired boy hiding behind them.
    Where was Felix?
    She was struck in the face with the pungent smells of chicken and pig, odors that were so much a part of her life that she seldom noticed them in Ixheim but mixed with the pervasive smell of sick people sent her stomach rolling again. As hard as she tried to keep her mind occupied, she couldn’t stop her stomach from rebelling to the constant roll and pitch of the sea.
    She almost felt like she was drowning in this dark, fetid air, as if she couldn’t breathe. What an awful stench! She had to get upstairs, away from the gloomy lower deck and passengers in utter misery, had to fill her lungs with fresh air, and by now she was fairly confident Felix was up there, prowling around. She could imagine him tumbling overboard when one of those big sails swung around. She had warned him countless times to stay below and out of danger.
    But that is not the reasoning a boy follows.
    As she made her way to the companionway, the ship twisted itself into the trough of a wave and her stomach twisted in the opposite direction. She groaned. The bow slammed onto the water and her stomach clenched. Another roll of nausea rose up and she ran up the stairs as quickly as she could. She took her first full breath of sea air and it filled her lungs, the sunlight and fresh wind revived her. Ah, relief!
    A sailor, washing the decks with a bucket of seawater,eyed her and tossed the bucket right at Anna so she took in a mouthful of dirty salt water. She coughed, choked, tripped, and as she stumbled, a firm hand gripped her at the elbow.
    The scent of sandalwood enveloped her and a low voice spoke into her ear. “Are you all right?”
    “Oh heaven help me,” she said. “I think I’m going to be sick.” She took an unsteady step forward, away from the hand that cupped her elbow and rushed to reach the railing. She gripped the railing and leaned over as far as she dared, sea spray slapping her face.
    Two large hands gripped Anna’s waist and held her steady.
    “Nee. Fattgeh . ” Her voice sounded like a mewling kitten’s cry.
    “Go away?” The deep voice sounded amused. “Go away and let y’tumble on yer head into the sea?”
    “Don’t help me.” She kept her eyes closed so she didn’t have to look at that horrible sailor, see contempt or mockery for her weakness.
    But the sailor ignored her and his calloused hand held her head as she choked and gasped, heaving dry heaves. There was nothing left in her stomach to toss up, but the gentle hand continued to hold her head until the dry heaves stopped.
    “There, lassie, let it pass.”
    Her throat burned, but she was done for now. She straightened up, burning with shame, her face scarlet. She could feel it. She wasn’t sure which was worse, heaving over a ship’s railing or having a brute of a sailor try to bring her comfort. With the back of her hand, she wiped her mouth and realized