A Stranger's Wish (34 page)
Authors: Gayle Roper
Tags: #Love Stories, #Lancaster County (Pa.), #General, #Adventure stories, #Amish, #Romance, #Art Teachers - Pennsylvania - Lancaster County, #Fiction, #Religious, #Pennsylvania, #Action & Adventure, #Christian, #Art Teachers, #Christian Fiction, #Lancaster County
“I…I love you too,” I whispered into his shoulder. “I died a little each day when I thought you were gone forever.” My arms tightened around him. “Don’t leave me again, okay?”
Clarke tilted my chin. “Never,” he said. “I promise.” And he kissed me.
Then we sat together on my rock, his arm around my shoulders, my arms wrapped around his waist.
“About my sister,” he said as his hand played with my hair, my very messed up hair. “Mary Ann showed up unexpectedly Sunday morning. She sings with a Christian contemporary group, and they were driving from southern New Jersey, where they had sung Saturday night, to Harrisburg for afternoon and evening concerts. They dropped her off on the way through, and I was to drive her to Harrisburg. I didn’t even know she was due in the area or I’d have made sure I took you to hear her sing. She has a wonderful voice. I looked for you Sunday morning to take you to Harrisburg with us, but I didn’t see you.”
“I was in kindergarten church. I got an emergency call Saturday night and covered for a woman with a sick child.”
He made a face. “All I knew was that I couldn’t find you before or after the service, and Mary Ann kept saying that we had to go because she couldn’t be late. Then she had this past week off, and she stayed with Aunt Betty Lou and Uncle Bud until Tuesday evening when we went home. I wanted you two to get to know each other, so I called Monday evening as soon as I got home from work, but Jake said you weren’t there. He said he’d give you my message.”
“You called Monday night?” I felt like the guys in that ad about missed calls of consequence because of no bars, only mine was no phone. But he’d called!
“I also called Tuesday as soon as I thought you’d be home from school. When I said I had to leave town and absolutely must see you before I left, Jake said he didn’t know where you were. Finally, when we left for the airport, we stopped at the Zooks’. Mary told me you were at the storage garages.”
“You called Tuesday?”
“And Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. Several times.”
“And Wednesday and Thursday and Friday? Several times?”
Clarke took me by the shoulders and gently shook me. “Do you always repeat what people say? You’ve got to get your own phone again, you know.”
Clarke had called! He had tried to reach me!
“I didn’t know you called,” I said. “Jake never told me. He was mad at me.”
Clarke nodded. “I know. Really mad. That’s why he didn’t mention the first couple of calls. Then he was too embarrassed to tell. But when you came home last night and told him about Mr. Geohagan, he knew he had to contact me and confess.”
“He called you? That’s why you’re here? Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He’s afraid you’re going to beat him up.”
“Not a bad idea. The last few days have been horrible!”
Funny how strong arms can make horrible memories less haunting.
“Anyway,” Clarke said, “Jake called me. I’ve been on the phone, at the airport, in the air, and on the road for hours.”
I noticed for the first time how weary he looked. “All for me?”
“All for you.”
Now that was romantic.
- People find the Amish culture fascinating. What about it attracts you? What bothers you? What did you learn in the course of reading
A Stranger’s Wish
that you didn’t know before? - Mary tells Clarke that people should be able to read the Bible and apply it without help from people like him. Is she right? Why or why not? Read Romans 15:15 and 2 Corinthians 3:5. What is the balance here?
- Did Kristie fail with Mr. Geohagan? Or waste her time? What does God ask of us in terms of our relationships with others?
- Kristie feels misunderstood by her family. Is this an unusual feeling? Have you ever felt it? Over what issues? Read Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:2. What do these verses ask of us?
- Mr. Geohagan blames God for Cathleen’s death. What do you think? Read Galatians 6:7. What is the principle that Mr. Geohagan forgot?
- Jake is a very complex person. He doesn’t blame God for his paralysis, but he blames the culture in which he was raised for keeping him from God. Your thoughts?
- Statistics say that by far the majority of Amish young adults choose to be baptized and join the church. Why do you think this is?
- If keeping the
Ordnung
is so very important to salvation as the Amish say, what about the millions who aren’t Amish and don’t even know the
Ordnung
exists? - There is no denying that law brings structure. We would not want to be without civil law or we’d have anarchy. But law (like the
Ordnung
) that governs one’s spiritual life can also bring rigidity and an obsession with keeping every little detail, as well as the idea of earning one’s way to heaven. Such legality is stifling and demeaning. Read 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 1 Corinthians 10:23. What is the balance you find here? - Disagreeing does not mean disrespecting. Kristie disagreed with the Zooks, with Todd, with her parents, with Jake, with Mr. Geohagan. How does she still show respect to these various people?
- What is your favorite Kristie characteristic? Is it a quality you’d like to develop in your life? How about Clarke? Jake?
GAYLE ROPER is an award-winning author of more than forty books and has been a Christy finalist three times.
Gayle enjoys speaking at women’s events across the nation and loves sharing the powerful truths of Scripture with humor and practicality. She lives with her husband in southeastern Pennsylvania where Gayle enjoys reading, gardening, her family, and eating out as often as she can talk Chuck into it.
Coming in September 2010
the sequel to
A Stranger’s Wish…
A Secret Identity
Table of Contents