Read Jenny's Choice (Apple Creek Dreams #3) Online
Authors: Patrick E Craig
Jenny's Choice (Apple Creek Dreams #3) (19 page)
“
Ja
, and the story does not stop with Jonathan’s death, my
dochter
,” Jerusha said. “It goes on until you die. You don’t know which pieces you will discover tomorrow, but they are there, already determined by
die Vorkenntnisse des Gottes
. He has already planned them. Now let me show you one more thing as a reminder.”
Jerusha moved the quilt until the rose was under her hand. “Look! Do you see it?”
Jenny looked but couldn’t see what her mama was pointing at. And then she remembered and looked closer. There it was! In the center of the rose, a small key-shaped piece of red silk was so finely stitched that it was almost invisible.
“
Ja
, Jenny, a key. The Lord had me add it to the quilt so that we would always remember—”
“That He is the key to our lives, and without Him we cannot hope to comprehend what is happening to us and why?”
“
Ja
, Jenny, and if you put your life into His hands, He will guide your path, and you will understand everything.”
“I had forgotten all about the key.” Jenny looked more closely at it.
“It’s the strangest thing. Mama, did you know that Rachel has a key-shaped birthmark right above her heart? She’s had it since the day she was born, and it’s almost the same color as the rose. That makes me think I was wrong in what I wrote to Jonathan. Maybe
Gott
is still speaking to us through the quilt. Perhaps the journey is not over after all. In fact, we may be coming to a new beginning. That’s a hopeful thought.”
The Journals of Jenny Hershberger
F
OR
J
ENNY, THE FOLLOWING DAYS
were filled with much soul-searching and contemplation. The questions came rushing at her heart like hailstones in a driving wind. What was
Gott
doing? What about Jeremy? What about the book? And the other books that lay unwritten in the recesses of her heart—what about them? How did the quilt fit into everything that was happening? Was
Gott
using it the way He had with her mama? What was He trying to show her?
At the end of a week, she realized that she had never felt such an intense need to write, and it became clear to her that she was to tell the stories of her family. As she looked back at all that had happened to her and everything she had learned, she began to sense that this was the task that had always been ordained for her. So as the first snow began to fall and Apple Creek fell into the slumber of winter, Jenny Hershberger began the work that would become a lifelong endeavor.
December 6, 1980
Slowly and softly the flakes drift past my window. The cold December wind is bitter, and the trees groan with the
weight of the freshly fallen snow, their naked branches lifted like the arms of starving men. At times, the pale moon peers through the stream of clouds as though through cracks in the night. The storm rumbles across the unmoving heavens, and weary travelers look to these broken fragments of moonlight to light the way home. As I watch the night sky, I remember how Jonathan described the
Ordnung
of our faith. He said it is like the stars that guide sailors at night on a dark sea.
Gott
has set me on a journey, and I am sailing a dark sea. I will need the boundaries of my faith to keep me on course, but I must be sure that I listen for His voice and let His Word be a light unto my path. I see now that my whole life has resolved to this one pinpoint of time. A door has opened, and if I step through, I think I will find a strange, wonderful way set before me. And as I set sail, let all that I do or say bring glory to Him.
Jenny took up her unfinished book and began to go through it, making revisions and changes. She tried to remember what Jeremy had taught her about editing, but it was a grueling process. Even though she wanted to spend all her time writing, she had her part to play in the family. She had Rachel to care for and everyday tasks to do. After a few weeks, though, she settled into a routine. Reuben got up every day at four to care for the stock and do the chores. Jenny got up with him and made coffee, and together they went out to tend the farm. Jenny loved these cold winter mornings with Reuben. They didn’t say much but worked quietly, tending the cows and feeding the chickens.
When the sun peeked over the eastern hills, Jenny went into the house. Jerusha had Rachel up for school, and the three of them fixed breakfast. When it was ready, Rachel fetched her
grossdaadi
, and they ate their morning meal together. Once Rachel was off to school, Jenny went to her room for two hours of writing.
Often Jerusha stopped by Jenny’s door to listen to the clacking of the typewriter keys and lift a prayer for her
dochter
. Sometimes there would be long periods of silence. Once she heard Jenny exclaim, “
Du Schlecht’r
!” followed by the sounds of a sheet of paper being torn roughly from the typewriter and wadded into a ball.
Jerusha called through the door to her daughter. “Jenny Hershberger! You should not use bad words!”
There was a moment of silence, and then Jenny answered. “Yes, Mama. I’ll be more careful.”
Jerusha smiled and went on about her day. After two hours, Jenny came out of her room, and the two women spent the day cleaning, baking, preparing meals, or washing clothes. When Rachel came home, Jenny sat with her to go over what she had learned in school.
As the weeks and months passed, Jenny found a deep and quiet rhythm settling into her life. Time was no longer measured in minutes and hours but in days and sunsets and the cycles of the fields and the farm. She was connected to the land and the land was forever. She began to see deeply into the ways of her people, and there was comfort and safety in her connection to the Plain way. Her family was like a living history of the Amish. In it she saw the past and the future—recorded in the unending cycle of work and rest. She drew strength from her mama and papa, and they encouraged her to unveil the gift God had placed within her.
“Whew!” Jenny said, letting out a sigh. “I’m almost finished with my revisions. Only six chapters to go. It’s been
sehr schwierig
, but I’ve learned so much.”
“What will you do now that the book is almost finished?” Jerusha asked from her seat on the couch. “You are still under the
bisschop
’s instruction not to publish it.”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if it will ever be published. Right now I might simply be creating a legacy for Rachel and her children and for our people. I’m filling my journals with stories of our family, and as I write them, I’ve started to uncover the deep reality of my own faith. There is great peace in being part of a way of life that has flowed unchanged for centuries.”
Jenny rose and stood in front of the fireplace. Her face became animated as she began to share her dreams with her mother.
“I’ve been praying a lot about what to do next, and I think I’m ready to write Jonathan’s story. If I can just put it down on paper, I’m sure I’ll find solace and comfort in it. You know, Mama, writing is almost like talking to someone about your problems. I know I share with you, but when I’m putting it down on paper, I seem to clear my mind of the things troubling me.”
“Your papa and I have seen the healing come since you began your journals. That’s why we encourage you to go on. You have written more besides the book?”
“Yes, Mama. Sometimes when the words don’t come so easy, I just stop and write what’s in my heart. I also have notebooks filled with different things I discovered when I was working at the library. And I have the study I did about our family when I was still in
schule
. They’re like a treasure box full of rare and precious things, and as I read them again and again, always they inspire me. I feel as if I have the whole history of our family inside me—all the way back to Switzerland and even earlier. It’s like I’ve already written it, and the story is just waiting for me to set the words free.”
Jerusha looked at her daughter and smiled. Jenny had changed so much in the past few years. She was her own woman, strong and beautiful, and Jerusha knew that the fires of her trials had refined her as pure gold.
Dr. Schaeffer came into the room with Bobby and a nurse.
“Bobby!” Jerusha said. “I know you had something to do with finding me. Thank you.”
“If it wasn’t for Bobby, you wouldn’t be alive today,” Reuben said.
Bobby took Jerusha’s hand. “I’m grateful to God that I was able to help,” he said.
Jerusha and Reuben looked at each other and smiled.
Dr. Schaeffer came to the bedside, peered over his glasses, and said, “Well, one of our patients is doing better, I see.”
“One of our patients?” Jerusha asked.
“Well, there’s this one too. She came in with you.”
Dr. Schaeffer pointed to a smaller bed pulled up next to Jerusha’s. A little girl lay in the bed. Her eyes were open and she lay looking at Jerusha solemnly.
“You found me,” she said to Jerusha. “I was lost, and you found me.”
Jerusha stared at the little girl. For a moment she thought it was Jenna. But it couldn’t be Jenna. Jenna was gone. And then she remembered everything—the storm, the wrecked car, the cabin. She remembered God’s healing touch and holding this little girl through the long nights.
The child started to try to get out of bed, to move to Jerusha’s bed, but Dr. Schaeffer moved forward. “I don’t think—”
Bobby tapped him on the shoulder. “I think I just heard a nurse calling you, Doctor. They need you in the ICU.”
The doctor looked at Bobby and then at Reuben and then to Jerusha and the little girl.
“Yes, I believe you’re right. I’ll be on my way.” He turned and left.
Reuben walked around to the little girl and picked her
up. He placed her in the bed beside Jerusha. Jerusha took the little one into her arms.
“What’s your name, darling?” she asked softly.
“My name is Jenny.”
Reuben and Jerusha looked at each other in amazement, and then tears began to flow down Jerusha’s cheeks. She pulled Jenny close against her breast.
“
Thank You, O my Lord! Thank You.
”
Reuben knelt beside the bed and took them both into his strong arms. And though the wind blew and the storm raged outside, inside their hearts it was spring in Apple Creek.
Jenny stopped typing. She was finished with the final revision. The story of Jerusha and Reuben, of Jenna and Jenny was complete. As she read the words, Jenny knew a chapter of her life was closing. A strange foreboding came over her, as though something had left her life that she would never find again.