Read Online Hope Chest by Wanda E. Brunstetter - Free Book Online Page A

curious as she was about where Anna had been and why she’d come home without her kapp or apron, Rachel knew it was best to obey her parents. She would have a heart-to-heart talk with her rebellious sister tomorrow morning. Until then, she’d be doing a whole lot of praying.
***
    As Anna sat on the porch swing, waiting for her sisters to go inside the house, her mind swirled with confusion. If she told her folks the truth about where she had been all day, it wouldn’t just get her in trouble. She would be breaking a promise she’d made not to say anything yet about her plans.
    She closed her eyes and clenched her fingers until they dug into the palms of her hands. If I make up a story to tell Mom and Dad, and they find out later that I lied to them, they’ll be crushed, and I’ll be in big trouble; that’s for certain sure.
    Someone touched Anna’s knee, and she opened her eyes. Her mother had pushed her wheelchair even closer to the swing, and her father stood directly behind the chair. “Anna, are you ready to tell us where you’ve been all day?” Mom asked in a near whisper.
    Anna swallowed around the lump in her throat as tears blinded her vision.
    “You’d best be tellin’ us now.” Dad’s wrinkled forehead and squinted eyes let Anna know that he was nearly out of patience.
    “I ... uh ... was with Silas Swartley all day,” Anna said in a shaky voice. She sniffed a couple of times and blinked in an attempt to clear away her tears.
    Mom’s lips turned into a smile. “Why didn’t you just say so in the first place? We have nothing against Silas; you know that.”
    “What about your apron, cape, and kapp?” Dad motioned to the front of Anna’s dress, devoid of its cape and apron. “You had all three on when you left home earlier. How come you’re not wearing any of ’em now?”
    Anna drew in a deep breath and blew it out quickly. “Well, I ... uh ... the thing is—”
    “Quit thumpin’ around the shrubs and tell us the truth!”
    “I’m not wearing my apron and cape because I spilled ice cream all over myself.”
    “And the head covering?”
    Anna’s face heated up. She was getting in deeper with each lie she told, but she felt like a fly trapped in a spider’s web and didn’t know what to do.
    “Answer your daed’s question, Anna,” Mom prompted. “Where’s your kapp, and why aren’t you wearing it now?”
    “Silas ... well, he wanted to see how I would look with my hair down, so I took the head covering off and removed the pins from my hair for a short time.”
    Mom gasped, and Dad stomped his foot.
    “I know it was wrong, but it felt right at the time, and after I pinned up my hair again, I forgot to put the kapp back in place.” Anna glanced toward the buggy shed. “Guess I left the kapp, along with the apron and cape, inside the buggy.”
    “We’re glad you and Silas are courting, but we can’t have you running off like that without telling us where you’re going,” Mom said, reaching out to pat Anna’s knee again.
    Dad shook his finger in Anna’s face. “And I won’t stand for you taking off your kapp and letting your hair down in front of Silas. Is that understood?”
    “Jah.”
    “You’re a baptized member of the Amish church now, not some eegesinnisch —willful—teenager going through her rumschpringe days.”
    Anna stared down at her hands, folded in her lap. “I know, Dad, and I’m sorry. Don’t know what came over me, really.”
    Mom smiled. “You’re in lieb, that’s what. Young people do all kinds of things they’d not do otherwise when they’re in love with someone.”
    “That doesn’t give her the right to be doin’ things she knows are wrong and could get her in trouble with the church,” Dad put in.
    Mom lifted her hand from Anna’s knee and clasped her hand. “She knows what she did was wrong, and I’m sure she won’t do it again. Right, daughter?”
    Anna nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks. She knew what she had really done