Home to Paradise. Barbara Cameron

Anna stared down at the quilt in her hands. “I like Peter. I really do.”

      “But?”

      “But I don’t feel the same way about him that I do about John.”

      “Well, from what I hear, Peter might be happy about that.”

      “What?”

      Mary Elizabeth tried to fight back a smile. “You’ve got really good aim.”

      It took a moment, and then Rose Anna realized what her schweschder was talking about. She rolled her eyes. “How did you find out? Nee, let me guess. Waneta told Lavina, and she told you.”

      Mary Elizabeth just grinned.

      “Are you going to tell Mamm?”

      “Do I look like a tattletale?”

      “Ya.” She paused then shook her head. “Nee. That would be our older schweschder. She was always telling on us.”

      Mary Elizabeth laughed. “Well, if I don’t there’s no guarantee Lavina or Waneta won’t, you know.”

      “I don’t know what got into me,” Rose Anna said, remembering. “He was getting into his truck, and suddenly I just saw red. Before I knew what was happening I was making a snowball and throwing it at him.”

      She sighed. “And you know John. He didn’t just keep going on his way. He got out of his truck and started firing snowballs back at me.”

      Mary Elizabeth shook her head. “The two of you have always gone head to head.”

      “Hey, I’m not the one who does that.”

      Her schweschder just looked at her.

      “Anyway, when I ran inside his haus, he followed me. He actually followed me into the kitchen and rubbed snow in my face. In front of his own mudder.”

      “Bet he got a lecture from her,” Mary Elizabeth muttered.

      Rose Anna grinned. “And hopefully his dat heard about it from her and he had something to say to John.”

      “Now that’s just mean! You know he and his dat don’t get along. I bet Amos burned his ears off.”

      “I know.” She giggled. “I wish I could have been there for that.”

      “Shame on you.” Mary Elizabeth tried to look stern. Then she giggled, too.

      “Are you going to tell Mamm?” she asked her again.

      Her schweschder stared at her for so long Rose Anna felt apprehensive. “If she asks me, I have to tell her,” she said finally. “But I won’t go telling her. That would be gossiping.”

      Rose Anna nodded. “Danki.” She sighed. “But like I said, Lavina or Waneta could.” She set her quilt down. “That’s what I get for my behavior. It’s just that John makes me so mad sometimes.”

      “Now he doesn’t make you anything,” Mary Elizabeth chided as she put her quilt down. “It’s how you choose to react.”

      “Look out,” Rose Anna told her as she narrowed her eyes. “I’m feeling like reacting right now.”

      Laughing, Mary Elizabeth ran for the stairs. “You’ll have to catch me first.”

      Linda looked up as they clattered down the wooden stairs. “Well, well, there’s two dainty, ladylike maedels.”

      She turned to her mann sitting at the kitchen. “Do you know these hooligans, Jacob? They look like our dochders, but I’m not schur.”

      He chuckled. “Sounded like heifers coming down the stairs, but ya, those do look like our dochders.”

      Their mudder shook her head and smiled as she poured boiling water into mugs. “I wasn’t schur. Kumm, have your tea.”

      Rose Anna pulled out a chair and sat primly. “Mary Elizabeth was chasing me.”

      “Really?”

      She stared at Mary Elizabeth, then her mudder. She’d learned her lesson about impulsive behavior, hadn’t she? “Nee,” she said after a long moment. “I was teasing her.”

      The four of them shared a break with cookies and tea—well, her dat was having his usual coffee. He never drank tea.

      After a few minutes he got to his feet, saying he had to get back to his chores. He shrugged into his jacket and grabbed up another cookie before heading out the back door.

      Linda went upstairs shortly afterward, leaving Rose Anna and Mary Elizabeth alone at the table.

      “You’re being awfully quiet.”

      Rose Anna stared down into the contents of her tea cup wishing she could find an answer there. “I can’t—Peter—I can’t—” she lifted her hands, let them fall as she shook her head. “I tried to fall in love with Peter. I wasn’t just flirting with him the way you and Lavina thought.”

      She shook her head. “Well, I did flirt with him, and he flirted with me. It felt gut to have a man want to be with me after John didn’t want me.”

      Mary Elizabeth just sat listening.

      “But I don’t feel Peter is the mann God set aside for me.”

      “And who is?” Mary Elizabeth asked her cautiously.

      “John.”

      “If he is—and I’m not saying he isn’t—don’t you think things would have worked out before now?”

      “Sometimes it takes more time,” Rose Anna said firmly. She got up and put her cup in the sink.

      Then she turned to face her schweschder. “And sometimes God needs a little help.”

      Chapter 3

      3

      Mary Elizabeth snorted tea out her nose. “God needs a little help?” she gasped.

      Grabbing a paper napkin from the basket on the table, she dabbed at her streaming eyes. “Rose Anna, sometimes I can’t believe what comes out of your mouth!”

      Rose Anna sniffed. “I don’t see anything wrong with saying that!”

      Her schweschder scooted her chair away from her.

      “Why’d you do that?”

      “When He hurls down a bolt of lightning, I want to be out of the path.”

      “Very funny. God wouldn’t do that.”

      “You’re schur of that, are you?” Mary Elizabeth selected another cookie and bit into it. “Let me know if you’re going to make outrageous statements like that so I don’t choke, allrecht?”

      Rose Anna made a face at her. “I just think since things haven’t happened the way I want, maybe I need to do something about it.”

      “You don’t think you have? What do you call talking to John about it?”

      “I must just not be going about it the right way.” She tilted her head as she studied her schweschder. “You and Lavina both got the mann you wanted. You went after them. So why shouldn’t I?”

      Mary Elizabeth opened her mouth and then shut it. “I don’t think we went after them the way you’re talking about doing with John. Almost as if you’re . . . hunting him down.”

      “I’m just talking about being determined. I’m not going to hunt him down.” She got a mental picture of doing that and almost grinned. After all, she’d been pretty aggressive about pelting him with snowballs.

      The back door opened letting in a blast of cold air. Lavina rushed in carrying a blanket-covered bundle in her arms. The bundle let out a cry.

      “Look who’s