Home to Paradise. Barbara Cameron

kinner. We didn’t see each other for years.”

      She shifted in her chair. “Then I got hurt and came here to recuperate. I could barely walk, was suffering from depression, and didn’t know where I was going with my life. And there was Matthew still next door. This time with three adorable children. And he was a widower. This time things worked out, as you know.”

      Rose Anna absorbed what she’d said. “So what you’re saying is it came down to timing.”

      Jenny smiled slowly and nodded. “That’s the perfect way to put it. God’s timing.”

      They went back inside, and Rose Anna thought about what Jenny had said.

      Timing. Just how much time was she supposed to give John? It felt like she’d been waiting for him for forever.

      Chapter 4

      4

      Thanks for the ride,” Rose Anna told Kate as she got into her car. “Mamm needed the buggy today.”

      “It’s no problem,” Kate said cheerfully as she pulled out onto the road and headed toward town. “I wanted to talk to you about Brooke.”

      “Is she okay? I haven’t seen her for weeks. Is she ever coming back to the quilting class?”

      “Yes and yes.” Kate glanced at her then back at the road. “I’ve stopped by to talk to her a couple of times, and a friend from a counseling center did as well. When she does come back we should put her at a table in the back of the room, away from the windows. Pearl said she has an additional table she can set up in the room.”

      She paused. “The thing we have to do is help her feel comfortable when she comes back. She’s embarrassed she had an anxiety attack so bad she climbed under the table that day.”

      “I’ve never experienced what she has, but anyone can have an anxiety attack. I remember someone I knew had one years ago. She was afraid of going to the hospital for an operation.”

      “I wouldn’t wish one on my worst enemy.”

      Rose Anna remembered her conversation with Jenny on Sunday and told Kate that she might stop by for a class sometime soon.

      “That would be nice. They enjoyed her last time she came. It can get to be isolating at the shelter. They can’t come and go as they’d like since so many of them are hiding from their husbands or boyfriends until we can put the abusers in jail.”

      She shivered. “I can’t imagine living like that.” Then she looked at Kate. “I’m not saying we don’t have abusers in my community. That would be lying. You and I know it’s not an Englisch problem.” She thought about how Lavina had told her Amos, John’s dat, had talked to his fraa when she visited their house one day. A man didn’t need to raise his fists to hurt a woman. Cruel words were almost as bad. Thank God Amos had changed, had learned before it was too late.

      Now if he would only repair the rift between himself and John, his youngest sohn.

      She sighed.

      “You okay?”

      Rose Anna nodded. “I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.”

      “I’ve been told I listen well.”

      She tilted her head and studied Kate. “I know you do.” She bit her lip.

      “It’s an open-ended offer. Any time you want to talk about anything just let me know.”

      “You’re a good person, Kate Kraft.”

      “You, too.” She pulled into the driveway of the shelter and turned off the ignition. “If you’re not ready to talk about whatever made you sigh so sadly, let’s go have some fun quilting.”

      Relieved, Rose Anna nodded. Funny how someone so different from her had become such a good friend, one who understood her so well. “Let’s go.”

      They went inside, climbed the stairs to the quilting classroom, and found it full of women who were already sewing and chatting happily.

      And sitting at the table at the very back of the room, away from the windows, sat Brooke staring very seriously at a quilting block in front of her.

      “Go help her,” Kate suggested.

      “But wouldn’t you be better?” Rose Anna asked. “I—”

      “Go. She needs to start feeling normal. Show her how to quilt. We know what happens when women come to this class and start sewing.”

      So Rose Anna walked over to Brooke. She smiled. “Hi. I’m glad you came back to class. Would you like some help with that block? It’s one of my favorites.”

      “I could use all the help I can get. I don’t have any experience sewing. Well, other than sewing up a gash in my leg one day when the medics had bigger injuries to take care of.”

      She grinned self-deprecatingly. “Guess I should thank that home economics class they forced me to take in high school. I’ll show you my stitches someday.”

      Rose Anna stared at her as she slid into the seat next to Brooke. “You really did your own stitches? I was the biggest baby you ever saw when I had to have stitches at the emergency room. I can’t imagine putting a needle in my skin. Or going without that shot they gave me before they did the stitches.”

      She glanced at Kate helping a student at the front of the room. “You and Kate have lived such different lives than me. Mine has been so . . . boring compared to yours.”

      “I’ll take boring,” Brooke said fervently. “Boring sounds pretty good to me right now.”

      Rose Anna nodded. “Let me show you how to piece this block. Sewing is very soothing once you get the method. I think you’ll like it. The class has been very popular here at the shelter. Especially since Leah started a shop in town to sell what the women create.”

      Brooke watched her pin the block. “I doubt I’m going to get good enough to sell anything.”

      She glanced around and frowned at the windows. Rose Anna saw her hands shake. “I hope I won’t have to stay here long. Home became a prison before I had to leave it. I don’t want to feel I have to stay here a minute longer than I have to. I don’t want this place to become another prison.”

      Rose Anna’s fingers faltered on the straight pins she was using to hold two pieces of material together. Home had become a prison? How sad. And sadder still to have to be here at the shelter. Pearl made it as safe and pleasant, homelike, as she could, but it still was a hiding place no matter how homey she’d made it.

      Home should be a place to feel safe and happy and loved. She knew she’d been lucky to have a good home with her family all her life. She wondered if she had ever told her parents how much she appreciated what they’d given her.

      Brooke slid the material under the foot of the sewing machine and then fumbled looking for the lever to set the foot down. Rose Anna showed her. These machines were electric, different from the treadle ones they had at her home, but some things were the same.

      She sewed a seam and examined it. “Oh, it’s so crooked.”

      “I think it’s a pretty good effort for a first time. But if you’re not happy with it, the seam ripper here is a great tool to rip the seam out and do it again.”

      She showed Brooke how to use it and nodded approvingly when she sewed the seam again.

      “That’s nice and straight,” Rose Anna told her. “Good job.”

      Brooke smiled briefly but avoided her eyes. “Thanks.”

      “Sometimes I wish there was a tool to do that with bad decisions.” Rose Anna frowned. Brooke looked pale, and a fine sheen of perspiration had covered her face. “Are you feeling all right?”

      “Excuse me. I have to go.” She bolted from the room.