A Simple Hope: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel (25 page)

Rachel’s jaw dropped in surprise. The girl seemed too young to be a drifter. A moment later her surprise shifted to shock as the young woman climbed the rest of the embankment revealing a flash of bare legs. Rachel blinked, her mouth a round O of surprise.

The Englisher girl’s eyes were round and full of fear, like a deer ready to spring. She shifted a piece of dark fabric in front of her bare lower body, but it did little to cover the expanse of pale flesh from her hips to her boots.

“Hey,” the girl said, forcing a smile. “Are you James’s sister?”

This girl knew James? “No. I’m … his friend. Who are you?”

“My name is Shandell. I … um …” She shifted uncomfortably, shivering and apparently trying to hide behind the dark, wet fabric. “This is so embarrassing and awkward. I slipped in the mud and gunked up my jeans, so I rinsed them in the river and … and now I just want to get inside to warm up a little.”

Well, that explained why the girl was half naked, though Rachel couldn’t imagine what she was doing here. “Better get inside,” Rachel said.

Shandell bolted toward the door, leaving it open behind her, and Rachel followed her in, feeling like a stranger in this very familiar place.

Inside, a fire burned heartily in the stove. Rachel turned away as the girl began to step into some pants, but not before noticing that the plastic chairs were arranged across from the bench, like a little living room, and the floors, walls, and ceiling had been swept clean. She placed her hamper and bags on the old wooden table beside neatly arranged toiletries and a little blue book of children’s Bible stories.

“That’s better,” said Shandell. “Sorry about that. I don’t usually run around outside in my underwear.”

Rachel turned back to find Shandell wearing flannel pajama pants under her hoodie. “I’m glad for that. But I’m wondering what you’re doing here.”

“I’m staying here until I can get a ride home, back to Baltimore. That’s where I’m from. I traveled up here with a friend and sort of got stuck on my own with no money and nowhere to stay.”

“And you know James?”

Shandell nodded. “He said I could stay here, only … well, I don’t want to get him in any trouble. He said his parents wouldn’t approve, so please don’t tell them.”

“It’s not my place to tell.” Though she could not lie if someone asked about this girl. “And how long have you been here?”

“James found me on Sunday, but I won’t be here much longer. My mom is driving out from Baltimore to pick me up after work tonight. In fact, I was planning to walk into town today to leave her a message about where to meet me, but that was before I messed up my jeans.” Shandell pushed her hood down, revealing black hair with an unusual blue glow, the color of the twilight sky.

From up close, Rachel could see that Shandell was more a young woman than a girl. What was her story? “Did you run away from home, then?”

“At the time, I didn’t think so.” Shandell looked over the wet jeans, frowning. “But, yeah, I guess I was running away. But I’m looking forward to going back now. Do you have any experience with hand-washing? Look at this mud. I was going to heat up some water and add detergent.”

“Hot water can lock in a stain. Better try cold.” Rachel took off her coat and pushed back her sleeves. “Let me have a try.”

“Oh, thanks!” With a wobbly smile, Shandell handed Rachel the jeans and powdered soap. “I’ll be right back! I left the buckets of fresh water behind.”

“Mind you don’t slip,” Rachel called after her.

“I won’t.” As Shandell blew out the door, Rachel noticed that her pajama pants had little drawings of Minnie Mouse on them. She was familiar with Disney characters; Rose used to collect Disney books and stickers, until she decided she was too old for cartoons.

This Shandell was an interesting girl, very contrary. Blue hair and Minnie Mouse pajamas. A woman and a girl at the same time. As she spread the pants on the floor and sprinkled soap flakes over the mud stains, she saw that this day was going to hold far more surprises than she’d planned.

An hour or so later, Rachel held her breath and the reins as Mark and Edna helped James into the buggy.

“Easy does it,” Mark said as he crouched on the running board and helped lift his brother into the seat. Rachel tried not to stare, but it seemed to her that James was pushing up with his legs. Was that her imagination?

She turned away, not wanting James’s family to see the cloud of worry in her eyes. When she had met Shandell this morning, it was clear that the girl needed help. But now she was beginning to wonder how it had become so tricky to follow the Golden Rule and the rules of the Ordnung.

Thank goodness James was soon in his seat and ready to go. Rachel called to Patches, the horse, and soon they were trotting down the lane, approaching the highway that bordered the north side of the Lapp orchard. Last night’s heavy rains coated all the grasses and bushes, and the water drained into the ditch alongside the road. The world was damp and sodden. Just
like my heavy heart
, Rachel thought.

“You’re awfully quiet today,” James said as Rachel paused at the end of the road to check for traffic. “What’s the matter?”

“I got up extra early,” she said, trying to tamp down her hurt and annoyance. What sort of fella kept a girl hidden from his family … and from his best girl? “I had a surprise planned for you.”

“For me?” He tipped his head down so that the brim of his black hat blocked his eyes. “You do enough for me, Rachel.”

“Well, I wanted to do something special. And I walked back to the sugar shack to set it up.”

He lifted his chin, his dark eyes meeting hers. “The sugar shack?”

“Ya. And it turned out, the surprise was on me.”

“Because she found me there, in a very embarrassing situation,” came a low voice from the back of the buggy.

James’s head whipped around, his face suddenly gone white as a sheet.

Shandell popped up from the backseat and leaned forward, propping her head between Rachel and James.

“Ach!” James slapped his chest. “You two have more power to shock than a bolt of lightning.”

“Sorry, James. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“I’m not in trouble. Why are you riding in the back of the buggy?”

“I was going to walk into town to call my mom, but Rachel said she would take me to a phone that I could use. I’ll walk back to the sugar shack from there and pack my things up.”

“This isn’t wise,” James said. “You shouldn’t be in the back of the buggy. Folks will be talking if they see you.”

“Now you’re worried about what folks might think?” Rachel demanded. “Have you gone crazy? Verhuddelt?” Unable to contain herself any longer, Rachel launched into Pennsylvania Dutch.
“Taking in an Englisher girl when your father has warned you to keep to Plain folk? Sneaking around behind your parents’ back? And hiding it from me, too? Me, James.”

“So … I’m not hiding it from you anymore,”
James returned in Deutsch.

“Only because you got caught!”
Rachel exclaimed.

James folded his arms, a gesture that said he was closed off to her once again. This was not what Rachel wanted. She wanted to be his partner. She wanted him to count on her and trust her.

“Umm, guys?” Shandell spoke up from the back. “I don’t speak that language, but I get the drift. I’m really sorry.”

James turned to Rachel and asked in Deutsch:
“Do you know the story of the Good Samaritan from the Bible?”

Rachel let out a breath. “Ya, I know the Good Samaritan,” she said in English. “But this is different.”

“I know that story, too,” Shandell said. “It’s a classic.”

“She knows the Bible,”
James said in Deutsch.
“She is a good girl, Rachel, a person who has fallen on hard times like the Jewish man in the story. I gave her food and a place to stay. Very small acts of kindness compared to the sacrifice of our Savior. And have you forgotten Jesus’s commandment to love your neighbor as yourself?”

“I am thinking about the Ordnung,” Rachel said in English. “About respect for parents. About following the rules set by the bishop.”

“This is true,”
James continued in Deutsch,
“but when I was caught between the two sides, I chose to help a person in need, and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to draw you into it for this very reason. It’s not so simple, is it? Shandell reminds me of my sister Verena, and if she were to be stuck somewhere during her rumspringa, I would pray that a stranger would give her food and shelter.”

Rachel pictured Verena … then she thought of her own sisters, Rose, Bethany, and little Molly. It would be a terrible thing if anyone in her family got stranded without a friendly face in sight. A few nights ago, James had come face-to-face with Shandell and he had needed to make a quick decision. Who was Rachel to question his choice—especially when he had risked angering his parents to help a girl in need?

“I hope you two aren’t arguing over me,” Shandell said. “ ’Cause I’ll be out of your hair tonight.”

“We don’t argue,” James said flatly.

“Really? You could have fooled me.”

Rachel turned to take in the man she loved, his dark eyes smoky and distant, and the young woman with a baby face and strange blue hair. It was all so peculiar, like a feverish dream. But it was real, and there was no denying that this was the way Gott intended her day to go. The Almighty did not make mistakes.

It was verhuddelt, all right.

“
T
hat’s a phone shanty?” Shandell stared at the little shingled shack painted white, which seemed to spring from the corner of a farmer’s field. “It’s so cute! Like a country phone booth.”

“My family shares that phone with a few other neighbors,” James explained. “No one will mind if you use it.”

Shandell hopped out of the buggy and waited as Rachel came around to open the shanty door. “I thought that Amish people weren’t allowed to use phones.”

“We can use them, but we cannot have the phone lines running to our house.”

“Well, I appreciate you letting me use this. I’ll pay you back someday. Really, I’m going to come back and make up for all the nice things you’ve done for me.”

“You don’t need to do that,” James said. “But you do need to make your call so we can continue on. There’s folks expecting me at the clinic, and it won’t do to keep them waiting.”

“I am on it,” Shandell said, stepping inside. It was an old-fashioned phone with big numbers to press. Quickly, she tapped in her home number and waited for an answer, hoping against hope for Mom, though Shandell knew her mother probably had to work this morning.

“Hello?” Phil’s voice made something curl inside her. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing him again, but she had promised herself that she and Mom were going to work out a plan so that Shandell was no longer responsible for cooking for him and cleaning up after him.

“Phil, it’s me, Shandell. Is my mom there?”

“No. You know she’s working,” he said, launching into a mini lecture about how her mother didn’t have the time or means to live a life of leisure.

“Right. Sorry. I promised Mom I’d call her today. We need to coordinate the store where she’s going to pick me up.” Shandell had picked a place in town, knowing that it would cause way too much suspicion to have Mom meet her on the country road that passed by the Lapp orchard.

“Picking you up?” he asked. “Hold on a second. Let me get something to write with.” She thought she heard him talking to someone else, but then maybe it was the TV. “Okay, where are you again? I’m supposed to write down exactly where you are.”

“I’m in a little town called Halfway. There’s a convenience store on Main Street that’s open all night. It’s a 7-Eleven, I think.”

“The Halfway 7-Eleven,” Phil said, and there was a low sound in the background. Was someone else there?

“I have to go. Just tell Mom I’ll wait for her at that store.”

“Actually, your mother’s not the one coming to get you,” Phil said.

“What?” Shandell held the handset of the phone closer as disappointment
seeped in, cold and chilling. “What are you talking about?”

“You know your mother’s busy. Her work schedule’s crazy. And we had another volunteer. You’ve had a visitor here. He came by twice this week. He’s sitting here now.” Phil chuckled. “It’s your boyfriend, Gary.”