Amish Christmas Memories

“I suppose.”

“Can you remember his name?”

“Nein.”

“Older or younger?”

She closed her eyes and tried to picture her family, tried to recall anything from her past, but to no avail.

Her heart was racing and her mind was spinning off in a dozen directions, but she couldn’t quite grasp even one solid piece of information about her former life—other than she had a brother. Was he worried? Was he looking for her?

Finally, she motioned for Ida to continue with the list of symptoms. They knew she had a concussion, the doctor had confirmed as much, but it helped to know that the things she was feeling and experiencing weren’t unusual.

“‘Dizziness or blurred vision.’”

“A little yesterday, when I first woke up in the hospital.”

“‘Headache.’”

“Ya, especially when I try to remember.”

“‘Nausea or vomiting.’”

“Not since I started eating.”

“‘Sensitivity to light.’”

“That’s on there?” She scooted closer and peered at the sheet. “I tried going outside for a few moments earlier, but the sunshine felt like a pitchfork in my brain. I found myself wishing I had my sunglasses.”

“Another puzzle piece. You have a bruder and you wore sunglasses.”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Perhaps.” Ida tapped the last item on the list. “What about balance problems? Any trouble there?”

“I’m not sure. Let’s check.” Rachel jumped up and pretended to walk a straight line, holding her hands out to the side. She pivoted and started back toward Ida, touching her nose with first her right and then left index finger as she walked. Ida began to laugh, and then Rachel began to laugh, and soon they were giggling like schoolgirls.

And, of course, that was the moment that Caleb walked inside, a frown pulling down the corners of his mouth. Why did he always seem to be disapproving of her? She pitied the woman that did decide to marry him or even date him. Caleb Wittmer might be a good man, but he wasn’t much fun to be around, and life should include some fun. Shouldn’t it?

“We’re about to head over to see the alpacas.”

“Oh, well, I hope it goes well, dear.”

“Actually I was wondering...”

“About?”

“Lunch.”

Ida started laughing again, and then she spread her arms to encompass the pile of goods their neighbors had brought. “We’ve been pretty busy in here.”

“I see that.”

“Our neighbors brought all of these things for Rachel.”

“Wunderbaar.”

“Honestly I forgot about making lunch, but I’ll throw some sandwiches together.”

Caleb nodded as if that made sense. His mother brushed past him, humming as she went into the kitchen.

“Let me guess.” Rachel couldn’t have stopped the smile spreading across her face if she’d tried, which she didn’t. “You’re not used to eating sandwiches.”

“Actually I can’t remember the last time Mamm didn’t have lunch waiting on the table.”

Rachel attempted to make sympathetic noises, but it probably came out like she’d managed to choke on something. She knew she should keep her mouth shut. Instead she said, “Men can make a sandwich, too, Caleb. Maybe you should give your mamm a little bit of a break here. Having me around? It’s a lot of extra work.”

He narrowed his eyes and pulled in a deep breath.

Rachel immediately regretted baiting him.

“Your community has been very nice. They even brought me some appropriate clothing.” Oops. She’d done it again.

Instead of aggravating Caleb, he seemed to relax. Perhaps poking at one another felt like safe ground to him. “That is a gut thing. I see you even have several kapps and bonnets there.”

He picked one up. Unfortunately, it happened to be on top of the pile of underclothes. When he glanced down and saw the stack of underthings, he dropped the bonnet, turned a bright shade of red and then pivoted and fled from the room.

Rachel grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it so that he couldn’t hear her laughter. Which felt so much better than worrying about what Caleb thought of her—that question was behind the laughter. She didn’t want to think about that, though, or about why it mattered.

She needed to remember who she was. Borrowed clothes, a guest room in someone else’s house and Caleb looking over her shoulder to see if she was following the rules were not how she wanted to live the rest of her life.

Chapter Three (#u2b1d1c03-f850-5246-9a57-b45354f86271)

Caleb bought the seven alpacas that afternoon.

His father had finally said, “You saved the money yourself. If it’s what you want, then give it a try.”

“Strangest animal I’ve ever seen” was his mother’s only comment.

Caleb spent the rest of the week making sure the alpacas had adequate space in the barn, reinforcing fencing where he would pasture them and generally getting to know the strange beasts.

His parents came out once a day to check on the animals and his best friend, Gabriel, had been by twice. Mostly he’d laughed at Caleb’s feeble attempts to interact with them.

As for Rachel, she hadn’t stepped outside of the house at all. If anything, she’d seemed physically worse on Wednesday and Thursday. At one point, his mamm had walked down to the phone shack and contacted the doctor, who had called in a prescription for nausea and told her to be patient. “These things take time” were the doctor’s exact words.

So Caleb was surprised when he was in the field with the alpacas on Friday morning and looked up to see Rachel leaning against the fence. She wore a proper dress and coat, plus one of the outer bonnets she’d been given, though there was little wind and the sun had melted away every last trace of snow. She also sported sunglasses, an old pair of his mother’s if he remembered correctly. In the crook of her arm she was carrying a bowl that his mother used to dump scraps into.

“Nice to see you outside.”