Amish White Christmas Pie (37 page)
Read Amish White Christmas Pie Online
Authors: Wanda E. Brunstetter
“Hello.”
“Is this Frank Henderson?”
“Yeah. Who’s this?”
“Karen Yoder, Will’s fiancée.”
“Did Will make it home okay?”
“No, he’s—” Karen’s voice faltered. “What is it, Karen? What’s wrong?”
“Will was in an accident with his buggy. I’m at the hospital with Mark and Regina, and Will’s still in surgery.”
Frank’s heart thudded against his chest. “How bad is he hurt?”
“I’m not sure. He was unconscious when we found him, and his leg was bleeding really bad.” There was a pause. “I applied pressure, but it just kept bleeding.”
“What hospital is he in?”
“We’re here in Goshen. The hospital’s not hard to find. If you’d like to come, I can give you directions.”
“Of course I want to come. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Frank grabbed a notepad and pen. “I’m ready. Go ahead and give me the directions.”
Moments later, Frank said good-bye to Karen, hung up the phone, and turned to Megan. “I’ve got to go.”
“Go where, Frank?”
“Will’s been in an accident. He’s at the hospital in Goshen.”
“Oh, Frank, I’m so sorry. How serious is it, do you know?”
“Karen said Will’s in surgery, and it doesn’t sound good.”
“Should I wake the girls so we can go with you?”
Frank shook his head. “I might be gone awhile. I think it would be best if you and the girls stayed here and got some sleep.”
Megan slipped her arm around his waist. “I won’t be able to sleep until I know how Will’s doing. Please call when you know something, okay?”
He nodded. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”
“I’ll be praying.”
“I spoke with Frank, and he should be on his way to the hospital right now,” Karen told Regina and Mark when she returned to the waiting room.
Regina clasped Karen’s hand. “I’m so glad. The doctor was just here, and he says Will has a rare blood type that they don’t have in stock and that Frank’s blood may be a match. They need to give Will a transfusion because he lost so much blood.”
Karen sank into a chair. “Frank seems to care about Will. I’m sure he’ll be willing to give his son the blood he needs.”
Regina nodded and moved over to the window. “I just pray Frank gets here in time.”
HAPTER 35
W
ill moaned as he slowly opened his eyes. Three figures stood at the foot of his bed, but he couldn’t make out who they were. “Wh–where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital.”
“Karen?”
“Jah, Will, it’s me.” Karen moved to the side of Will’s bed, and her face came into view.
“What happened to me? How come I’m in the hospital?”
“You were in an accident,” Papa Mark explained. “I was taking Karen home, and we found your mangled buggy on its side along the edge of the road.”
“What about Blazer? Is he okay?”
Papa Mark slowly shook his head. “I’m sorry, son, but your horse is dead.”
Will grimaced. First Ben and now Blazer? He was beginning to think he wasn’t supposed to own a horse.
“We’re sorry you lost your horse, but we’re thankful you’re going to be okay,” Mama Regina said as her face came into view.
“I don’t feel okay.” Will groaned. “My leg feels like I’ve been kicked by a cow.”
“You’ve got several bumps, bruises, and a few broken ribs, but the worst part of your injuries was the artery in your leg that was severed. The doctors did surgery, and your daed gave you some of his blood, so you’re going to be okay,” Mama Regina said, patting his hand.
A lump formed in Will’s throat as a sense of gratitude welled in soul. “Danki, Papa Mark, for giving me some of your blood.”
Papa Mark shook his head. “It wasn’t me. Frank saved your life.”
“Pop gave me blood?”
“That’s right,” Karen said. “When I phoned his hotel to let him know you’d been in an accident, he came to the hospital right away. And when he learned that you have the same rare blood type as he does, he didn’t hesitate to give you some of his blood.” She leaned closer to Will’s bed. “There’s something else you need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s about the note your daed left you sixteen years ago.”
“There was no note.”
“Jah, there was.” Karen opened her pocketbook and removed the recipe card she’d put there before leaving Will’s house. “After you left the house and the company had gone home, your mamm gave me the recipe for White Christmas Pie, and I discovered Frank’s note had been written on the back side of it.” She held the card in front of Will’s face.
He squinted. “I can’t make out what it says. Could you please read it to me?”
Karen nodded and cleared her throat. “‘Dear Will, I’m going to make my delivery, and then I plan to look for another job. I’ll be back for you soon. Mark and Regina will take good care of you until then. Love, Pop.’ ”
“So there really was a note.”
“I found the card on the counter the morning your daed left,” Mama Regina said. “But it was lying faceup, and I didn’t turn it over before I put it back in the recipe box.”
Will swallowed hard as tears clouded his vision. “I need to see Pop. Do you know where he is?”
“He’s in the waiting room,” Mama Regina said. “I’ll go get him.”
For the last fifteen minutes, Frank had been pacing the floor of the waiting room, berating himself for the things he had done in the past. He had so many regrets…so many things he wished he could change.
He sank into a chair, closed his eyes, and let his mind carry him back in time…back to the day of his accident….
Frank flipped on the radio and searched for a country-western station. He needed something to lift his spirits and take his mind off the guilt he felt over leaving Will behind. He felt sure Will would be well cared for while he was gone, but that wouldn’t make him miss the boy any less
.He finally found a station playing his favorite kind of music, but he couldn’t seem to relax. Besides the fact that the roads were icy, making him feel tense, he couldn’t stop thinking about Will
.Does Will understand the reason I left? How did he react to my note? Will my boy be happy living with people he hardly knows? Does he realize how much I love him?
Frank strained to see out the window. It had been snowing hard ever since he’d crossed into North Dakota. His windshield wipers could barely keep up with the moisture hitting the front window
.I’ll pull over at the next truck stop. Maybe a cup of coffee and a sandwich will revive me a little.
The car in front of Frank swerved unexpectedly to the left. He figured the vehicle must have hit a patch of ice, so he lowered his speed. The car swerved again, this time to the right. Then it spun around and headed straight for Frank’s truck!
Frank turned the wheel sharply to avoid a head-on collision, but as his tires slipped on the ice, he lost control. As the car collided with Frank’s truck, he held on to the steering wheel and screamed, “Somebody help me! I’ve got to get back to Will!”
“Frank. Frank, are you sleeping?”
Someone touched Frank’s shoulder, and his eyes snapped open. Regina stared down at him with a peculiar look on her face.
“I…I wasn’t sleeping,” he mumbled. “Just remembering some things from the past.”
“I came to tell you that Will’s awake, and he wants to see you.”
“He…he does?”
“Yes, but before we go in, there’s something I think you need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“After you left our house last night, I gave Karen the recipe for White Christmas Pie.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Karen found your note—the one you wrote for Will and asked me to read to him after you left.”
Frank’s mouth dropped open. “Where’d she find it?” “On the back of the recipe card.”
A tremor shot up Frank’s spine as a rush of memories washed over him. “Now that I think about it, I did write the note on the back of a recipe card, and I left it lying on the kitchen counter.”
“I’m sure you did, but the card must have gotten turned over somehow; I ended up filing it away without seeing the note. The card’s been in my recipe box all these years, and that’s why we never knew you had written a note.”
Frank pulled his fingers across his stubbly chin and shook his head. “No wonder Will didn’t believe me.”
“Would you like to see Will now?”
He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Yes, I would.”
“I still can’t believe you found Pop’s note,” Will said as he looked up at Karen. “I really thought he was lying.”
“Sometimes when we’ve convinced ourselves of something, it’s hard to believe the truth even when we hear it.”
Will grimaced. “What I still don’t understand is why Pop never came back to get me or wrote any letters letting me know he hadn’t forgotten me.”