Patricia Davids - A Hope Springs Christmas

Sarah looked around the building and remembered the many hours she and Jonas had spent poring over the company books and inventory, trying to stretch a nickel into a dollar to make ends meet. They hadn’t seemed like good times back then, but now she cherished every moment she and her husband had spent working and struggling together.

God took him too soon.

Memories, both good and not so good, filled her mind. As she looked around, it was easy to see traces of Jonas everywhere. The chair where he sat as he ordered supplies was still waiting at the counter, as though he might return at any minute. Of course, Levi used it now.

The workbench Jonas made from scrap lumber had stood the test of time, but it had been shifted from its original position. So had the boxes of parts that once lined the wall above it. Now, they stood along the west wall, closer to where the bulk of the woodwork for the buggies took place. It was a better spot, and she could see why Levi had done it.

She said, “You have made many changes in here. I see you moved the workbench to beneath the south windows. Was that for better light?”

He didn’t answer. Sarah crossed to the workbench Jonas had fashioned and laid her hand on the worn wood. She could almost feel him here beside her. Looking out the window, she realized that Levi had an unobstructed view of the narrow street outside and of her kitchen window across the way.

How many times had she sat at that table and cried, worried and prayed since Jonas’s passing. Had Levi seen it all?

She glanced toward the buggy frame. He was no longer underneath it. He stood, wrenches in each hand, watching her with a guarded expression on his face.

* * *

Levi wondered if she realized how pretty she was with the early morning sunshine streaming through the window, bathing her face in golden light. Her features were as delicate as the frost that etched the corners of the glass behind her.

Her white kapp glowed brightly, almost like a halo around her heart-shaped face. Her blond hair, carefully parted in the middle and all but hidden beneath her bonnet gave only a hint of the luxurious beauty her uncut tresses must hold. Only a husband and God should view a woman’s crowing glory. For a second, Levi envied Jonas’s right to behold Sarah’s hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back.

The ribbons of her kapp were untied and drew Levi’s attention to the curve of her jaw and the slenderness of her neck. To his eyes, she grew more beautiful with each passing year. It was no wonder Jonas had fallen in love with her.

Levi dropped his gaze to his feet, afraid what he was thinking would somehow show in his eyes. She was his best friend’s wife. It was wrong of him to think of her as beautiful.

“Do you mind?” he asked.

When she didn’t answer, he looked up. She glanced out the window and then at him.

“Do I mind what?” she asked with an odd inflection in her tone.

He waved his arm to indicate the shop. “The changes?”

“Nee, it is your workspace,” she said quickly.

“Goot.” He returned his tools to the wooden tray and carried it to the workbench, sliding it into its place on the end of the counter where Jonas had kept it.

Levi hadn’t been much younger than the twins were now when the local sheriff brought word that their parents were dead. They had both drowned when their buggy was overturned and swept away while they had been trying to cross a flooded roadway.

Jonas had come to the house and offered Levi a job when he was ready. Levi never forgot Jonas’s kindness in treating him like an adult, like a man with responsibilities instead of like a boy who needed someone to look after him and his siblings.

As Jonas taught Levi the buggy-building trade, Levi had quickly realized Jonas would have been smarter to hire someone who already knew the business rather than an untried teenager.

When he mentioned his thoughts on the subject, Jonas had laid a hand on Levi’s shoulder and said, “I want to work with someone I respect and enjoy being around. You and I are a good fit. Besides, if I teach you how to do a thing, I know it will be done right.”

Levi never forgot that moment. He became determined to learn everything Jonas had to teach so that his respect was not misplaced. In that, Levi believed he had succeeded.

Sarah had followed Levi to the counter. She asked, “Do you mind my helping out until Grace returns?”

“Not much choice,” he conceded gruffly.

“I’m sorry that my advice to Grace sent her racing off so quickly. I honestly thought she would talk it over with you and the two of you could decide when a good time for her visit would be. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Grace can be impulsive.” To his surprise, it wasn’t all that difficult to talk to Sarah. His throat didn’t close around the words and keep them prisoner as it usually did.

She laughed aloud at his comment. “That’s an understatement.”

Levi cringed and felt the heat rush to his face. Was she laughing at him or with him? Did it matter?

Sarah said, “I’m at your beck and call, so put me to work. What needs doing in here today that Grace would normally do?”

What he wanted was for her to go home. The workshop was his sanctuary. How could it be a place of peace with Sarah in it? She disrupted everything, including his thinking.

He said, “Nothing I can’t handle.” Now maybe she would leave.

“I can at least clean up.” She turned around, grabbed a red rag from the box he kept them in and began straightening his workbench, moving his tools around and brushing at the bits of loose wood on the countertop.

He didn’t like people touching his stuff. “Don’t mess with my tools.”

She paid him no mind. “I’m not messing with them, I’m cleaning off your workspace.”

“Stop,” he pleaded.

She held up a lone drill bit. “Where does this go?”

“Take it home with you,” he snapped abruptly.

He shut his mouth in horror. He’d never spoken harshly to anyone.

Sarah stared at him for the longest moment and then chuckled with delight. “You are so amusing, Levi. And Grace told me you don’t have a sense of humor. Take it home with me, how funny. I’ll find where it goes. You get back to work and pretend I’m not even here.”

Like that was possible. He turned away before he said something he would surely regret.

She kept dusting. “I’ll have this cleaned up in no time. I remember how to do inventory, too. It won’t be long before the end of the year. Might as well get a jump on it. I’ll start on that when I’m done with this.”

“No need.” Inventory would take days. Days with Sarah underfoot wasn’t something he wanted to endure. He needed to be able to concentrate. She didn’t take the hint.

“I don’t mind. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy being out here. Don’t you love the smell of leather and wood? It’s comforting knowing that each piece on the walls around me has a place and a function. I’m glad I told Grace I would help. This place could use some sprucing up, though.”

Jonas had often said that Sarah had a one-track mind when she wanted to do something. Levi didn’t know how true that statement was until three hours later when she was using a long-handled broom and an overturned bucket to reach cobwebs that had hung from the rafters longer than she had been alive.

Unless he took her by the arm, led her to the door and locked it behind her, he was going to be stuck with Sarah until Grace returned.

Please, Lord, let Grace’s visit be a short one.

Levi drew a deep breath. It was almost lunchtime, and he hadn’t gotten nearly enough done. His eyes were constantly drawn to where Sarah was working.

He had orders to fill and much to do in the coming weeks. When there was snow on the ground, many Amish families brought their farm wagons and buggies in to be repaired while they used their sleighs. With Christmas less than a month away, he was sure to get swamped with work soon.