Return to Paradise. Barbara Cameron

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      Tell us all about the quilt class,” Mary Elizabeth said the minute the three of them gathered in the sewing room the next day. “How was it? Did you enjoy it?”

      Lavina thought about it as she threaded a needle. “I did. The shelter is a big old house just outside town. You can’t tell it’s a shelter from the outside because they have to keep it secret that it’s where these women and children live to keep them safe.”

      “That’s sad,” Rose Anna said, her forehead puckering as she thought about it. “I can’t imagine having to be afraid of my boyfriend or my husband when I have one.”

      “Or having to worry about having a place to live or clothes and food for myself and my kinner,” Lavina said.

      “Kate said sometimes the women have to leave their home with only the clothes on their back. Some of the women looked like they had so little.”

      She remembered the worn jeans and faded shirt Carrie had worn and how she’d wondered what she’d wear to a job interview.

      “But when I walked in the door it looked like a home,” she told them. “A group of women were sitting in the living room talking and a mother was feeding her boppli a bottle. Several kinner were watching television. A big yellow bird was talking about the alphabet and a blue puppet kept asking for cookies. It was called Sesame Street and the kinner were laughing and looking happy.”

      She knotted the thread. “It looked very much like a home, a regular Englisch home. And the sewing room where we taught the class—well, where Kate taught it and I tried to help—was very much like this one.”

      Picking up the quilt she’d been sewing, she smiled. “It made me feel good that the women and the kinner had a home after what Kate said they’d been through.”

      Rose Anna frowned. “Is there anything we can do?”

      “You want to help with the quilting classes?”

      “Well, that wasn’t what I was thinking.” She turned as their mother came into the room and took a seat. “Mamm, I was wondering if we had some things we could donate to the shelter Lavina visited yesterday. You know how places like that always need things.”

      “You mean some quilts?”

      “I was thinking more like that fold-up trundle bed we haven’t used in years.”

      “We could do that,” Linda said, looking thoughtful. “There might be some other things we can donate. Ask the person who runs the shelter what they need, and then we can let people at church know.”

      “Allrecht.”

      There was a knock on the front door. Linda went to see who it was.

      “I guess it makes you thankful for what we have, doesn’t it?” Mary Elizabeth asked. “We have our parents, a warm home and good food, and our church.”

      Lavina nodded. She started to speak but stopped when her mother returned to the room.

      “David’s here to see you.”

      “Danki.” She set the quilt she’d been sewing aside and hurried from the room.

      She found David sitting on the sofa in the living room. He stood when she walked into the room.

      “Could we go for a ride so we can talk?” He looked so serious.

      “Allrecht,” she said. “I’ll get my jacket.” She grabbed up her jacket and bonnet and let her mother know she was leaving the house. When she walked outside with David she was surprised to see the Stoltzfus family buggy.

      “Did you get rid of your truck?” she asked as she climbed into the buggy.

      “Nee. Nellie needed exercising.”

      She studied him as he checked traffic and pulled out onto the road. She wondered if the horse really needed exercise or if he’d taken the buggy because he missed the old family horse.

      They rode for a time without speaking, the only sound the clip-clop of Nellie’s hooves on the road. The air was chilly, but she was warm enough in the buggy.

      “I wanted to talk to you,” he said finally, not looking at her.

      Another long pause followed. He found a place to pull over and turned to look at her. “I wanted to ask your forgiveness. I shouldn’t have left without seeing you first.”

      “Nee, you shouldn’t have,” she said, trying to stay calm. “How could you?”

      Before he could speak, the words poured out of her. “Do you know how I felt? I thought we meant something to each other.”

      “We did.” He stared down at his hands, then looked up and stared at her. “Can you forgive me?”

      “I’ve tried,” she admitted, tearing her gaze from his to stare out the window. “You don’t know how hard I’ve tried. A year, David. You were gone a year, and you couldn’t even write to me. I didn’t know where you were, if you were allrecht, anything.”

      She heard the pain and accusation in her voice and bit her lip. What good did it do to say these things now? But emotions—pain and anger and feelings of rejection—were welling up, boiling over. She didn’t know she felt so strongly. She’d been taught to believe in extending forgiveness to those who wronged her all her life, and the one time she’d been given the opportunity to practice what she believed she failed miserably.

      “I hurt you. I’m sorry.”

      She didn’t need to look at him to know he meant it. She heard the regret in his voice.

      “Why didn’t you ask me to go with you?” she asked quietly.

      When he didn’t respond she summoned the courage to look at him. She’d never spoken to him like this. But she wanted answers.

      “What could I offer you?” he said finally. “I had practically no money. No property. No job.” He sighed. “No future.”

      She stared at him. “You had yourself. You had your two hands and a strong back to make your future with me by your side.” She paused. “You had your heart that I thought held love for me. What more could I want?”

      Turning, she stared out the window, not seeing the landscape outside. “I would have gone with you.”

      “Like Ruth in the Bible?”

      “Ya.”

      “I didn’t want you to give up your family.”

      Confused, she turned back to him. “What?”

      “They would have shunned you if you’d left the community.”

      “You said you hadn’t decided to become Englisch.”

      “I haven’t.”

      “So СКАЧАТЬ