Jo Brown - An Amish Christmas Promise

That was a prayer she said every night before sleep, because if she had to leave, it would be in an attempt to escape from Leland Reber once and for all.

The first project meeting for Carolyn’s new house was scheduled for ten the next morning. Initially it had been set for eight, but she was signed up to serve breakfast. Some volunteers and government officials came in RVs, and they brought their own food. However, most arrived eager to work with tools and skills and not much else. Fortunately, fewer locals were depending on the community center’s kitchen to provide their meals because some sections of town now had electricity again.

But the steady whir of generators hadn’t decreased in the center of the village. Long orange extension cords snaked from the four in the school parking lot.

She stepped over the cords with care, holding Rose Anne on her hip. The little girl had woken with a sore throat. Though Carolyn suspected it was because she’d been yelling too much yesterday in games at the day care center, she agreed to the child’s demands to stay with her. Kevin had been glad to have his friends to himself, and Rose Anne seemed to perk up as soon as they headed toward the school.

Carolyn reached to open the door, but a hand stretched past her to grasp the handle. Seeing Michael and his two friends, she greeted them. She hadn’t been sure if they’d be coming to the meeting, too, and she was glad to see the men who’d invited her and the children to share supper with them the previous night.

Rose Anne wiggled to get down as soon as Carolyn carried her into the school. The little girl threw her arms around one of Michael’s legs and begged him for a piggyback ride.

“You don’t have to do that,” Carolyn told him.

He gave her a quick smile. Squatting, he waited for the child to lock her hands around his neck before he stood. He kept one arm against her to keep her steady as he loped a few yards along the hallway and back again.

“Go, horsey!” she called in excitement.

He set her on her feet, though she pleaded for another ride.

“One ride per customer,” he said, tapping her freckled nose.

“Later?” Rose Anne persisted.

“Let’s see what later brings.” Carolyn put her hands on the child’s shoulders and smiled her thanks to Michael. “I warned you offering rides to the kids last night was going to get you in trouble.”

“ Gut trouble, though.”

“We’ll see when all the children in town are asking for rides after you’ve put in a full day’s work.” She took Rose Anne by the hand and began walking toward the gym.

The three men followed her, talking in Deitsch . The words fell like precious rain on her ears, but she chatted with Rose Anne as if none of what they were saying made sense to her. She wasn’t surprised the men were eager to get started. No plain man was accustomed to sitting in a classroom when work waited to be done. When she’d been growing up, every man she’d known had toiled from before sunrise to after dark. It didn’t matter if the man was a farmer or had a job in one of the nearby factories or owned his own shop. Being idle wasn’t part of the Amish lifestyle.

A woman Carolyn didn’t know stood in front of the gym’s closed double doors. Everything about her pose shouted she would tolerate no nonsense. When Carolyn said her name, the woman checked it on the clipboard she carried.

“Please wait out here,” the woman said. “We’re running about a half hour behind schedule.”

“All right.” Carolyn walked to the plastic chairs. Dropping into one, she lifted Rose Anne onto her lap. She should have borrowed a book from the day care center to keep the little girl entertained.

Michael sat next to her as his friends walked down the hall. Before she could ask, he said, “They’re going to go look for something to do for the next half hour.”

“You don’t need to wait with us.”

“The time will go faster if you’ve got someone to talk to.”

Sliding Rose Anne off her lap when her niece began to wiggle, Carolyn told her to stay in sight. The little girl nodded and began to jump from one black tile to the next on the checkered floor.

“I appreciate you staying here, but it’s not necessary,” Carolyn said, keeping her eyes on the child who could scurry away like a rabbit running from a dog. “I’m not sure I want the time to go faster.”

“Nervous?” Disbelief deepened his voice. “Why? These people are here to help you.”

“It’s not easy to ask others for help.”

“I get that.” He leaned back, crossed his arms over his chest and stretched his long legs out, much to Rose Anne’s delight as she began to leap over them. “But you’ve got to think about your kinder —I mean, your children.”

“They’re pretty much all I think about.” She wondered why it was so easy to be honest with Michael, whom she hadn’t known two days ago. “I’d do anything to make sure they’ve got a safe place to live.”

“Even deal with bureaucrats?” He reached out to steady Rose Anne when she almost tripped over his boots.

Carolyn smiled. “When you put it that way, going through this meeting isn’t too much to ask, is it?”

“Only you can answer that.”

“I thought I did.”

His laugh resonated down the otherwise empty hall. “Do you always speak plainly?”

“No.”

“I guess I should feel honored.”

“I guess you should.” She was about to add more, then realized the little girl was partway around a corner. Calling Rose Anne back, she said, “I shouldn’t have given in to her make-believe sore throat this morning. I should have insisted she stay at day care.” She crooked a finger at her niece who was edging toward the end of the hall again. “They’re accustomed to having me around, especially Rose Anne. She’s been going to nursery school, but it’s not the same as being left at the day care center all day, every day.”

“So she convinced you to let her come with you.”

“She didn’t have to try hard.” She held out her hand, and her niece ran over to take it. “I like spending time with my Rosie Annie.”

The little girl giggled as she leaned on Carolyn’s knee. “I’m sweat smelling, like a rose. That’s what Mommy always says.”

“Maybe not always, but you do smell sweet today.” She ruffled the child’s silken hair. Rose Anne had no memories of her real mother, and Kevin seemed to have forgotten Carolyn was his aunt. She thanked God every morning and night for that, though she prayed there would come a time when she could be honest. “Last night, you were dirty. It took a while to get you clean so you smelled as sweet as a rose again.” To Michael, who was grinning at how Rose Anne had called herself “sweat smelling,” she added, “We’re pretty much limited to a bucket of water each.”

“When can I take a big-girl bath again?” Rose Anne’s voice became a whine. “I miss my bath tube and my floatie fishies.”

She means bathtub , Carolyn mouthed so Michael could read her lips. When he nodded his understanding, she said aloud, “I can’t tell you when, but it’ll be...” She didn’t want to give the child a specific date because she didn’t have any idea how long it would take to build their new house. And she didn’t want to talk about the plastic toys Rose Anne called her floatie fishies. They had washed away with everything in the house.

Michael stood, then dropped to one knee beside her niece. That brought his eyes almost level with Rose Anne’s. “I can tell you when your new house and new bathtub will be ready. It’s going to be right after Christmas.”

“Christmas is a loooooooong time away,” Rose Anne argued.