A Heart Made New (10 page)

The sinking sun reminded her that she had to get home. She’d promised Luke she’d be there to help with supper. More importantly, she’d promised Mary she’d be home more. The twins needed her. The needs of her family tugged her in one direction, the needs of a young woman with child tugged her in another. If her
Aenti
Louise were here, she’d say Annie should do what Jesus would do. Family would take care of family, but who would take care of a woman and her child in a strange place with no family to help?

Unable to answer that question, Annie hurried along the sidewalk, intent on reaching the blacksmith shop. Josiah would give her a ride, as usual. She would come back tomorrow and look for Charisma and Gracie. Sadie would give them food to eat. They were probably staying in the town’s only motel—the bed and breakfasts cost too much. She’d look tomorrow.

Resolute in her plan, Annie turned left, ducked past a lady pushing a double stroller, and took another left. Two pink shirts bobbed in front of her. Charisma was holding Gracie on one hip while she tugged open the door of a dusty green minivan. Gracie screamed and kicked. “Stop it!” Charisma glanced around, her face red from exertion and something else—fear. “You have to get in.”

“Don’t wanna get in. No. No. No!” The little girl’s screams got louder. Gracie’s flailing arm connected with her mother’s cheek and a bare foot landed in her stomach. The woman doubled over and let go of the child. Gracie landed on her backside on the hard cement. Screams turned to wails.

Charisma plopped down on the curb next to her daughter and put her face in her hands. “Gracie, please, please, you have to get in,” she sobbed. “For Mommy. Please.”

Annie sidled up to the van and peeked in. Food wrappers and paper bags cluttered the front seat. The middle overflowed with blankets. In the rear sat brown sacks stuffed with clothes. No wonder Gracie didn’t want to get in. It looked like a dirty, cluttered, makeshift home. If they were staying in the motel, why were all those bags of clothes still in the car?

Annie knelt down next to Charisma and put her hands on the weeping woman’s shoulders. “Are you all right?”

Charisma didn’t look up. She started to rock back and forth. “Please, Gracie,” she whispered.

“Sorry.” The little girl threw her chubby arms around her mother’s head. “I sorry, Mommy. I sorry.”

Charisma cried harder.

Annie squeezed her shoulders. “Can I help you?”

“You again.” The woman raised her tear-stained face. “Why would you help me?”

“You’re living in your van. You need help.”

Charisma’s face went from red to white. She popped to her feet. “We are not living in our van. It’s just messy. We’re messy people, okay? Have you ever taken a cross-country trip in a car with a three-year-old? They’re messy. That’s all. You can’t tell people we’re living in our car.”

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean…I won’t tell anyone anything.” Annie stood. “Who would I tell? I just want to help.”

“You’re not gonna tell SRS?”

“What is SRS?”

“Come on, you can’t be that innocent! Even with the dress and the bun and the bonnet, you have to know about SRS. Social and…something services. They take kids away from parents who don’t take good care of them.”

“Are you not taking good care of Gracie?”

Charisma nodded toward the van. “What do you think?”

Gracie stood on her tiptoes and patted her mother’s belly. She giggled. “Baby, baby, baby!”

Charisma squeezed the girl’s hand without seeming to realize it. “Don’t you see? They might not understand about the van. You can’t tell. Promise me you won’t tell!”

“I won’t tell. I want to help.”

“Why?” Charisma sat Gracie on the front seat and handed her a ragged brown monkey. “You don’t know me. Logan tried to rob you.”

“You need help. I can help.”

“How? Are you going to give me money so I can put gas in the car? Are you going to give me money for a motel room?”

“I don’t have any money.” Annie gave everything she made at the bakery to Luke. She fumbled for a way to help. Something. Anything.

It hit her. “You can come home with me. We have room at our house. We have lots of food. We can share.”

Charisma’s mouth dropped open. “Are you crazy? Or like some kind of nun or something?”

“I’m not crazy and I’m not a nun, I promise.”

“I couldn’t just go home with a stranger.” Despite the words, Charisma’s expression said she was thinking of the alternative. She glanced at Gracie, who tossed the monkey over the back of the seat and grabbed a dirty plastic fork with an equally dirty hand. Charisma licked cracked lips. “Could I?”

“My name is Annie Shirack. Now you know me. Come with me to my brother’s shop. We’ll come back in the buggy for your things or you can drive the van to our house. Josiah will tell you how to get there.”

“I can’t take the van. It’s out of gas.”

“Then we’ll get your clothes and come back for it later. My family will help.” Annie sent up a little prayer that she wasn’t overestimating Luke’s charitable instincts. He had so many children to support already. “We all will.”

Her face pensive, Charisma traced a square in the dirt on the car window, then added a roof and a door. “Won’t your parents think it’s weird, you coming home with a pregnant girl and a little kid?”

The question stung. It shouldn’t. It had been more than a year. She should be used to the idea by now. “My parents passed away. I live with my brother and our family. We have lots of children at our house. One more won’t make a difference.”

Charisma chewed a ragged fingernail.

“Mommy, I want PBJ. PBJ.” Gracie rapped on the seat with the fork. “PBJ.”

“PBJ?”

Tears rolled down Charisma’s face. She smeared them on the sleeve
of her T-shirt. “Peanut butter and jelly. She wants a sandwich.” Charisma choked back a sob as she tugged Gracie from the car. “She’s hungry and I can’t feed her. All right? I can’t feed her.”

“I happen to be a very good cook.” Annie took the bag Charisma had draped over one arm. “You’re going to love my sandwiches.”

Now she just had to convince Luke this was a good idea.

Luke…and Leah.

I
s it true?” Bishop Kelp’s harsh tone scraped across Josiah’s ears like sandpaper. “The Kauffman girl is here in Bliss Creek?”

The stares of every man in the room bored into Josiah. David shifted next to him. Josiah took a breath and let it out. He had done nothing wrong. He forced himself to straighten. Ignoring Luke’s furious face, he met Bishop Kelp’s gaze head on. “It’s true, but—”

“You saw her?” Luke stood. “Why am I just hearing about this?”

“Luke, sit.” Bishop Kelp pointed to the bench. “Sit quietly.”

Luke subsided.

“She arrived yesterday. I didn’t talk to her before she decided to come here.” In the silence as the men waited for Josiah to explain, David cleared his throat. His breathing sounded ragged. “I didn’t know she was coming, and I didn’t ask her to come.”

“Did you advise her to return home?”

Josiah wiped sweaty palms on his pant legs. “I did, but she…she seems to have other plans.”

“Other plans?”

“She’s coming to see you.” Josiah took a deep breath. “She says she wants to join our community.”

Bishop Kelp leaned back in his seat and exchanged glances with Deacon Altman. No one spoke for a moment.

Luke squirmed on his bench. “That’s just—”

The bishop held up a hand. “Luke, we will have no further discussion about this until the girl comes to me.” His gaze whipped back to Josiah. “You will have no contact with her at all. Until we know what her true motives are, nothing has changed. This girl brought you nothing but trouble. You’ve come a long way, Josiah, but the road back is short.”

“This wasn’t my doing—”

“But you said nothing to us. That leads me to believe you were considering your options.”

“I…” Had he been considering his options? Despite the urge to storm out, Josiah forced himself to stand still. A rustling sound made him glance toward David. His friend had slipped past Mark and was angling for the door. Some friend. Probably didn’t want to be associated with the black sheep of the community anymore. Fine. “I told her she should go home.”

A true statement. But had he meant it? Josiah’s gaze caught Paul Yonkers’s. Miriam’s brother’s stare made his skin turn icy. Josiah forced his gaze back to Bishop Kelp. “She said she’s spending the summer with her cousin over on Voelcker Lane.”

“Then we’ll not see your buggy on Voelcker Lane this summer.”

Josiah forced a nod. “I have plenty of work to do.”

“See to it that you do it and nothing else.” Bishop Kelp stood. “These are difficult times. Circumstances force us to spend more time doing business among the Englischers. We must not lose sight of the Ordnung. Each one of you is responsible for making sure your families remember that. They look to their husbands and fathers to set the example. To follow the Ordnung.”

His gaze traveled to Luke, then Josiah. “Don’t let them down.”

He strode from the room and the deacons followed close on his heels. Silence reigned for a long moment. Then men began to discuss the situation among themselves. No one looked at Josiah, for which he was supremely grateful.

Then Luke wormed his way through the crowd. His face contorted with anger, he leaned in close to Josiah’s ear. “Get out to the buggy. Now.”

A
nnie put her hands on her hips and surveyed the street in front of the blacksmith shop, first left, then right. Bill Cramer drove by in his old green pickup truck. Michael Glick waved as he passed in his buggy. She waved back. No sign of Josiah. She nibbled at her lower lip, trying to decide what to do next. She needed Josiah to take Charisma and Gracie out to the farm. The longer it took, the more likely Charisma would have second thoughts. The idea of little Gracie sleeping in that van during these hot, humid nights caused a feeling of dread to settle in her stomach. She had to help them. She turned to her cousin Caleb, who leaned on the stanchion where horses were usually tied. “When Josiah dropped me off this morning he said he would be here after the horse auction. Have you seen him?”

“After the auction we all went to the meeting at the bishop’s.” Caleb lifted his hat and resettled it on his head. “He’s probably licking his wounds after the talking-to the bishop gave him.”

“Talking-to?” The dread whirled in the pit of Annie’s stomach. Someone had mentioned Sarah Kauffman’s visit to the blacksmith shop. It had to be. “For what? What did the bishop say?”

“I best leave the telling up to Josiah and Luke.” Caleb chewed on a toothpick, then tossed it in a nearby trash can. “I reckon I better get those horses shod. Josiah was supposed to do them, but I’ve got
a feeling he may be mighty late by the time Luke gets through with him.”

Gracie squatted on the sidewalk and picked at a green blob of chewed gum. Charisma swooped down on her and swatted her hand away. “Gross! Gracie, stop it!”

“Let me take her.” Annie hoisted the little girl to her hip. “Caleb, do you think you—”

The clip-clop of hooves against the asphalt made Annie swivel. Josiah? No. She adjusted Gracie’s squirming body. David. Josiah’s friend. Nothing more. God’s plan, she reminded herself. God’s will. She forced herself to smile and wave.

David pulled up on the reins and brought the buggy to a halt. His gaze wandered over Charisma, who crossed her arms and adopted a bored look, and then Gracie. “Did Josiah get back from the meeting yet?”

“Everyone seems to be looking for Josiah. He’s a popular man.” Caleb chuckled. “You probably know better than I do where he is.”

“I had to leave the meeting a little early.” David didn’t smile. “Tell him I was looking for him, will you?”

“He’ll be here—soon as Luke gets done with him.”

“Horsie, horsie!” Gracie crowed. She struggled to get down from Annie’s arms. “Pet horsie.”

Annie held on tight to the girl, but her attention centered on David. “What happened at the meeting?”

David wiped his pale, sweaty face with a white handkerchief. “It was pretty short.” He stopped, his fingers tight on the handkerchief. “I wish I’d been able to give Josiah some support, but I had to leave.”

“You were sick?”

“I’m fine now.”

Naturally, he wouldn’t talk about it. Not to her. Dread leaped and plummeted, making Annie feel ill herself. “What exactly did the bishop say to him?”

David shook his head. “You’ll have to ask him.”

Annie silently counted to ten. She didn’t want to ask David for any
favors. He’d made it clear how he felt about her being in his life. But she couldn’t afford to let Charisma stand here much longer. She could ask for David’s help, friend to friend. They’d been friends since their days at school, hadn’t they? She quickly made the introductions, then turned back to David. “I need your help,” she said.

“To do what?”

“We need a ride. But first, we need to pick up Charisma’s things from her van.”