Amish Redemption. Patricia Davids

clean and sat with her hopeful gaze fixed on Ada.

      Laughing, Mary scooped up her daughter and headed out the door. Bella tried to follow, but Mary shook her head. “You stay with Mammi. We’ll be back soon.”

      Bella gave her a reproachful look, but turned around and headed to her favorite spot beside the stove.

      Mary soon had her good-natured mare harnessed and climbed in the buggy with Hannah. She glanced at the rapidly approaching storm clouds. They did look threatening. The sky held an odd greenish cast that usually meant hail. Should she go, or should she stay home? She hated to miss an afternoon of fun with her friends.

      She decided to go. She would be traveling ahead of it on her way to the Sutter farm and Tilly was a fast trotter.

      Mary wasted no time getting the mare up to speed once they reached the highway at the end of her grandmother’s lane. She glanced back several times in the small rearview mirror on the side of her buggy. The clouds had become an ominous dark shroud, turning the May afternoon sky into twilight. Streaks of lightning were followed by growing rumbles of thunder.

      Hannah edged closer to her. “I don’t like storms.”

      She slipped an arm around her daughter. “Don’t worry. We’ll be at Katie’s house before the rain catches us.”

      It turned out she was wrong. Big raindrops began hitting her windshield a few minutes later. A strong gust of wind shook the buggy and blew dust across the road. The sky grew darker by the minute. Mary urged Tilly to a faster pace. She should have stayed home.

      A red car flew past her with the driver laying on the horn. Tilly shied and nearly dragged the buggy into the fence along the side of the road. Mary managed to right her. “Foolish Englischers. Have they no sense? We are over as far as we can get.”

      The rumble of thunder became a steady roar behind them. Tilly broke into a run. Startled, Mary tried to pull her back but the mare struggled against the bit.

      “Tilly, what’s wrong with you?” She sawed on the reins, trying to slow the animal.

      Hannah began screaming. Mary glanced back and her heart stopped. A tornado had dropped from the clouds and was bearing down on them, chewing up everything in its path. Dust and debris flew out from the wide base as the roar grew louder. Mary loosened the reins and gave Tilly her head, but she knew even the former racehorse wouldn’t be able to outrun it. They had to find cover.

      The lessons she learned at school came tumbling back into her mind: get underground in a cellar or lie flat in a ditch.

      There weren’t any houses nearby. She scanned the fences lining each side of the road. The ditches were shallow to nonexistent. The roar grew louder. Hannah kept screaming.

       Dear God, help me save my baby. What do I do?

      She saw an intersection up ahead.

       Travel away from a tornado at a right angle. Don’t try to outrun it.

      Bracing her legs against the dash, she pulled back on the lines, trying to slow Tilly enough to make the corner without overturning. The mare seemed to sense the plan. She slowed and made the turn with the buggy tilting on two wheels. Mary grabbed Hannah and held on to her. Swerving wildly behind the horse, the buggy finally came back onto all four wheels. Before the mare could gather speed again, a man jumped into the road, waving his arms. He grabbed Tilly’s bridle as she plunged past and pulled her to a stop.

      Shouting, he pointed toward an abandoned farmhouse that Mary hadn’t seen back in the trees. “There’s a cellar on the south side.”

      Mary jumped out of the buggy and pulled Hannah into her arms. The man was already unhitching Tilly, so Mary ran toward the ramshackle structure with boarded-over windows and overgrown trees hugging the walls. The wind threatened to pull her off her feet. The trees and even the grass were straining toward the approaching tornado. Dirt and leaves pelted her face, but fear for Hannah pushed her forward. She reached the old cellar door, but couldn’t lift it against the force of the wind. She was about to lie on the ground on top of Hannah when the man appeared at her side. Together, they were able to lift the door.

      Mary glanced back and saw her buggy flying up into the air in slow motion. The sight was so mesmerizing that she froze.

      A second later, she was pushed down the steps into darkness.

Chapter Two

      Pummeled by debris in the wind, Joshua hustled the woman and her child down the old stone steps in the hope of finding safety below. He had discovered the cellar that afternoon while investigating the derelict property for his father. He hadn’t explored the basement because the crumbling house with its sagging roof and tilted walls didn’t look safe. He couldn’t believe anyone had lived in it until a few months ago. Now its shelter was their only hope.

      The wind tore at his clothes and tried to suck him backward. His hat flew off and out of the steep stairwell to disappear in the roiling darkness overhead. The roar of the funnel was deafening. The cellar door banged shut, narrowly missing his head and then flew open again. A sheet of newspaper settled on the step in front of him and opened gently as if waiting to be read. A second later, the cellar door dropped closed with a heavy thud, plunging him into total darkness.

      He stumbled slightly when his feet hit the floor instead of another step. The little girl kept screaming but he barely heard her over the howling storm. It sounded as if he were lying under a train. A loud crash overhead followed by choking dust raining down on them changed the girl’s screaming into a coughing fit. Joshua knew the house had taken a direct hit. It could cave in on them and become their tomb instead of their haven.

      He pressed the woman and her child against the rough stone wall and forced them to crouch near the floor as he huddled over the pair, offering what protection he could with his body. It wouldn’t be much if the floors above them gave way. He heard the woman praying, and he joined in asking for God’s protection and mercy. Another crash overhead sent more dust down on them. Choked by the dirt, he couldn’t see, but he felt her hand on his face and realized she was offering the edge of her apron for him to cover his nose and mouth. He clutched it gratefully, amazed that she could think of his comfort when they were all in peril. She wasn’t screaming or crying as many women would. She was bravely facing the worst and praying.

      He kept one arm around her and the child. They both trembled with fear. His actions had helped them escape the funnel itself, but the danger was far from over. She had no idea how perilous their cover was, but he did.

      He’d put his horse and buggy in the barn after he arrived late yesterday evening. One look at the ramshackle house made him decide to sleep in the backseat of his buggy while his horse, Oscar, occupied a nearby stall. The barn, although old and dirty, was still sound with a good roof and plenty of hay in the loft. His great-uncle had taken better care of his animals than he had of himself.

      Joshua hoped Oscar was okay, but he had no way of knowing if the barn had been spared. Right now, he was more worried that the old house over their heads wouldn’t be. Had he brought this woman and her child into a death trap?

      * * *

      Terrified, Mary held Hannah close and prayed. She couldn’t get the sight of her buggy being lifted into the sky out of her mind. What if they had still been inside? What if her rescuer hadn’t appeared when he did? Was today the day she was to meet God face-to-face? Was she ready?

       Please, Father, I beg You to spare us. If this is my time to come home to You, I pray You spare my baby’s life. But if You must take Hannah, take me, too, for I couldn’t bear to be parted from her again.

      The roar was so loud and the pressure so intense that Mary wanted to cover her aching ears, but she couldn’t let go of Hannah or the apron she was using to cover their faces. The horrible howling went on and on.

       Make it stop, God! Please, make it stop.