Growing up in lancaster.., p.19
Growing Up in Lancaster County, page 19
Leaving the things she had won on the bench, Rachel dashed across the parking lot. Before she reached the Amish people, a group of teenagers got off the tram, blocking her view. By the time the crowd dispersed, the Amish family had gone.
Tears stung Rachel’s eyes. Will I ever see home again, or will I be stuck in this parking lot for the rest of my life?
Chapter 12
Unexpected Surprise
A hopeless feeling swept over Rachel as she returned to the bench. She had prayed and asked God to help her. She knew Jesus hadn’t left her. Yet she hadn’t found Sherry and Dave, and she didn’t know if she ever would. Should she go back to the Lost and Found booth, stay here, or what?
Tears welled in her eyes, and she leaned forward, resting her head on her knees. Please help me, Lord. Show me what to do.
Tap…tap…tap. Someone tapped Rachel’s shoulder. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up. There stood Sherry and Dave!
Rachel jumped to her feet and threw her arms around Sherry. “I’m so glad to see you! I—I was afraid you’d gone back to Lancaster without me.”
“Well, we should have!” Dave shook his finger at Rachel. “We heard our names being called over the loud speaker and went to the Lost and Found to get you, but when we got there you were gone.”
“I—I waited a long time.” Rachel’s chin trembled and she sniffed. “When you didn’t come, I decided to take the tram to the parking lot and wait for you by your car.” She sucked in her breath. “Only your car wasn’t there, and I was sure you’d gone home without me.”
Dave scowled at her. “Leaving the park was a dumb idea! You should have stayed at the Lost and Found booth! What if we’d given up looking for you and had left you here?”
Tears streamed down Rachel’s cheeks, and she wiped them with the back of her hand.
“You’re lucky we decided to come out here looking for you!”
Sherry glared at her brother. “Stop shouting at Rachel! Can’t you see how upset she is?” She gently patted Rachel’s back, the way Mom often did. “Don’t cry, Rachel. We’re here now. Everything’s okay.”
“Are—are we going home?” Rachel asked.
Dave nodded. “I promised our folks we’d be back by supper, so we’d better leave now or we’ll be late.”
Rachel breathed a sigh of relief when she crawled into the backseat of Dave’s convertible a few minutes later. God had answered her prayers. She was on her way home—going back to the family she loved. She had been foolish to want a ride in a convertible so much that she’d taken off without getting permission or letting anyone in the family know where she was going. Rachel knew she would be punished for her disobedience, but she also knew that what she’d done was wrong, so she deserved to be punished.
“Why didn’t you wait for us in front of the Wild Mouse roller coaster?” Dave asked, looking over his shoulder at Rachel.
“I waited a long time there, too, but you never came.” Rachel’s throat felt raw and scratchy from crying so much, and she had a hard time swallowing. “Then a lady came along, and when I told her I couldn’t find you, she took me to the Lost and Found.”
“That’s where you should have stayed,” Dave said as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Sherry bumped his arm. “She panicked, Dave. Don’t you realize how scared she was? Wouldn’t you have been scared if you’d been in her situation?”
“Yeah, I guess so—at least when I was Rachel’s age I would have been scared. I’m sorry for yelling,” Dave called over his shoulder. “I was just worried because you’d run off.”
“I–I’m sorry, too.” Rachel blinked several times as more tears threatened to spill over. “I wish I’d never gone with you to Hershey Park.”
“Didn’t you have any fun today?” Sherry asked.
Rachel looked at the stuffed bear and other things she’d won, lying on the seat beside her. “I did have fun…until I couldn’t find you and Dave.”
“I’m sorry that happened,” Sherry said. “We shouldn’t have left you alone.”
“That’s all behind us now,” Dave said. “Let’s just relax and enjoy the ride home.”
Rachel leaned against the seat and closed her eyes as the cool breeze blew against her face. In a while she would be home where she belonged.
Rachel had just drifted off when—thump, thumpety, thump!—the car shuddered and bumped along. Rachel knew something must be wrong.
Dave steered the car to the shoulder of the road. He got out, went to the passenger’s side, and kicked the front tire. “That’s just great! We’ll be late getting home now for sure!”
Rachel sat up straight. “Wh–what’s wrong?”
“I’ve got a flat tire!”
“Can it be fixed?”
“I can’t fix the tire, but I do have a spare.” Dave reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
“What are you doing?” Sherry asked.
“I’m calling Mom and Dad to let them know we’re going to be late.”
“That’s a good idea,” Sherry said.
Rachel thought about asking Dave if she could call her folks, but she changed her mind. It could be several hours, and maybe not until tomorrow, before someone in the family checked the answering machine in their phone shed.
When Dave hung up the phone, he went to the trunk of the car and got another tire. “You two will have to get out of the car while I change the tire.”
“Can we help?” Sherry asked as she and Rachel scrambled out.
Dave shook his head. “Just stand back from the car and stay as far away from the road as you can. There’s a lot of traffic, and I don’t want either of you getting hit.”
Sherry and Rachel did as Dave said. While they watched him change the flat tire, Rachel couldn’t resist the urge to nibble a fingernail. It was getting late, and she knew Mom was probably home from town by now. She most likely would have read the note Rachel had left on the table and would think she was still at Orlie’s. When it was time to start supper and Rachel still wasn’t home, Pap would probably go over to the Troyers’ house to get her.
Rachel bit the end of two more fingernails. Only I won’t be there, and Orlie will tell Pap that I never went there. Tears stung the backs of her eyes. Will they be worried and think something bad happened? Will they search for me or call the sheriff?
“Are you worried?” Sherry asked. “Sometimes I bite my nails when I’m worried about something.”
Rachel studied her hands. Her finger nails didn’t look very nice when she chewed them. “I know I shouldn’t bite my nails,” she said. “Mom tells me that whenever she catches me doing it, but I only bite mynails when I’m feeling nervous.”
“Are you nervous right now?”
Rachel nodded.
Sherry draped her arm across Rachel’s shoulders. “Don’t be nervous. Dave will be finished with the tire soon, and then we’ll be on our way home.”
“I’m gonna be in big trouble when my folks find out where I went.” A tear slipped out of Rachel’s eye and dribbled onto her cheek. “My brother calls me a little bensel, and I guess he’s right.”
“What’s a bensel?” Sherry asked.
“A silly child.” A few more tears fell, and Rachel wiped them with the back of her hand. “I’ll never go anywhere again without my parents’ permission.”
“It’s as much my fault as it is yours,” Sherry said. “I shouldn’t have invited you to go unless your folks were home and said it was all right.”
Rachel shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, I—”
“The tire’s fixed!” Dave opened the car door. “So if you two will quit jabbering, we’ll get back on the road.”
Sherry wrinkled her nose. “You don’t have to be so mean.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled, “but I’m feeling stressed right now.”
Rachel could understand that. She felt stressed, too. But then she remembered what Grandpa had said about rejoicing in every circumstance—even in the midst of troubles, and she smiled. At least they would soon be home.
When Dave pulled his convertible into Rachel’s driveway, her heart beat faster. He’d just turned off the engine when Mom and Grandpa rushed out of the house. Pap, Henry, and Jacob stepped out of the barn.
“Rachel, where have you been?” Pap shouted as Rachel, Sherry, and Dave got out of the car. “I just returned from Orlie’s, and he said you hadn’t been to his house all day.” He motioned to the phone shed. “I was about to phone the sheriff.”
“Jah, and because of you taking off, we can’t go to supper tonight,” Jacob said, scowling at Rachel.
“You—you were going out to supper?” she asked.
Pap nodded. “We planned to take you out for a belated birthday supper, but now that will have to wait.”
Rachel’s eyes filled with tears. “I—I did something I shouldn’t have done, and I’m so sorry.”
“What did you do?” Mom asked, slipping her arm around Rachel’s waist.
“I went to Hershey Park.”
“Hershey Park?” Mom and Pap said at the same time.
Rachel nodded; then she motioned to Sherry and Dave. “This is Sherry and her brother, Dave. I met Sherry at the farmers’ market last summer, and I saw her again when Grandpa and I went to the Bird-in-Hand restaurant a few weeks ago.” Rachel gulped in a quick breath. “When I was heading to Orlie’s to show him my new skateboard, Dave and Sherry drove by and stopped to say hello. Then they said—”
“We said we were going to Hershey Park, and I invited Rachel to join us,” Sherry said.
Mom looked at Rachel and scowled. “And you agreed to go without getting our permission?”
Rachel nodded slowly. “I—I thought no one would miss me.” She sniffed. “I thought no one cared about me anymore.”
Henry shook his head. “That’s just plain foolishness, Rachel. How could you even think such a thing?”
“Ever since Hannah came home from the hospital, everyone has made over her and ignored me—unless they wanted me to do some chore.” Sniff! Sniff!
“It’s true, we have made over the baby, and you have been asked to do more chores.” Mom pulled Rachel to her side. “But it’s not because we love Hannah more.” She shook her head. “We love all our kinner [children] the same, and when there’s work to be done, we’re all expected to pitch in and help.”
“That’s right,” Pap agreed. He moved closer to Rachel. “If you felt no one cared about you, you could have said something so we could make things right instead of running off to Hershey Park.”
Rachel nodded. “I know what I did was wrong, and I promise I’ll never do anything like that again.”
“I should hope not.” Pap squeezed Rachel’s shoulder. “We were very worried when we didn’t know where you were. We were afraid something bad had happened to you.”
“That’s right,” Jacob agreed. “Pap paced the barn floor after we got back from Orlie’s.”
“And your mamm was pacing inside the house,” Grandpa said.
Mom nodded. “Jah, pacing and praying.” “While I was at Hershey Park, I got separated from Sherry and Dave for a while,” Rachel said. “I was praying then, too.”
Grandpa patted Rachel’s head. “And God brought you safely home to your family.”
“Speaking of home,” Dave spoke up, “Sherry and I need to go now. I don’t want our folks to worry.”
Rachel moved over to Sherry and hugged her. “Come by sometime and visit if you can.”
Sherry nodded. “I’d like that. Maybe you can come to our place and visit me, too. We live in a big white house just down the road from the Plain and Fancy farm.”
Rachel looked at Mom.
Mom shook her head. “I’m sorry, Rachel, but you won’t be going anywhere except to church for the next several weeks. You’ll not be allowed to have any company for a while either.”
Rachel didn’t argue.
Sherry climbed into the car beside Dave. “Oh, Rachel, don’t forget your skateboard and the stuffed animal and other things you won.”
“I’ll get my skateboard, but I don’t want the other things,” Rachel said. “Why don’t you keep them?”
“Are you sure?”
Rachel nodded as Sherry handed her the skateboard.
“I’m very sure.”
“Thanks, Rachel.” Sherry smiled as Dave started the car. “See you soon!”
Rachel turned and started for the house. “Is Hannah awake?” she asked Mom. “I’d like to hold her.”
“She’s sleeping right now, but you can hold her after supper,” Mom said.
“And after you’ve washed and dried the dishes,” Pap added.
Rachel nodded. She was so glad to be home she’d be willing to do any chore without complaint. Anything but feed and water Jacob’s hairy mutt, that is.
“Before we go inside, I have something to give you,” Grandpa said.
“What is it?” Rachel asked.
“It’s a late birthday present. Remember when I told you a few weeks ago that I’d ordered something for your birthday but it hadn’t arrived yet?”
She nodded. “I’d forgotten about it.”
“Well, come with me, and I’ll show you what I ordered.” Grandpa led Rachel to his greenhouse. When he and Rachel stepped inside, he pointed to a box wrapped in white tissue paper. “Go ahead, Rachel. Open your gift.”
Rachel tore the wrapping away from the box and opened it. When she lifted a wooden sign out of the box, her mouth dropped open. “Grandpa, this says GRANDPA AND RACHEL’S GREENHOUSE.”
Grandpa nodded. “That’s right, Rachel.”
“But I—I don’t understand.”
He patted her back. “Someday, when I retire, this greenhouse will be yours.”
Tears welled in Rachel’s eyes, and she hugged Grandpa. “Danki, Grandpa. This is the best birthday present I’ve ever had; and being back home with my family makes it even more special.”
As Rachel and Grandpa walked back to the house, she thought about the rest of summer. Even though she might not be able to go anywhere for several weeks, she would enjoy every day right here at home. And that was exactly where she belonged!
Jumping to Conclusions
Dedication
To the students and teachers of the Walnut
Valley School near Walnut Creek, Ohio.
Getting to meet you was great!
Glossary
abastz—stop
ach—oh
an lauerer—eavesdropper
appeditlich—delicious
baremlich—terrible
bensel—silly child
blos—bubble
boppli—baby
bopplin—babies
brieder—brothers
bruder—brother
bussli—kitten
buwe—boy
daed—dad
danki—thanks
dumm—dumb
gaul—horse
grank—sick
grossdaadi—grandfather
grossmudder—grandmother
gut—good
heiraat—marriage
hund—dog
iem—bee
jah—yes
kapp—cap
katze—cats
kinner—children
kinskinner—grandchildren
kumme—come
lecherich—ridiculous
maedel—girl
mamm—mom
missverschtand—misunderstanding
munn—moon
naas—nose
naerfich—nervous
pescht—pest
peschte—pests
retschbeddi—tattletale
schmaert—smart
schnarixer—snorer
schnuppich—snoopy
schtann—stars
schteche—sting
schweschder—sister
umgerennt—upset
verhuddelt—mixed-up
wasser—water
windel—diaper
wunderbaar—wonderful
zoll—inches
Bass uff, as du net fallscht! Take care you don’t fall!
Guder mariye. Good morning.
Ich kann sell net geh! I cannot tolerate that!
Mir hen die zeit verbappelt. We talked away the time.
Raus mitt! Out with it!
She dich, eich, wider! See you later!
Was in der welt? What in all the world?
Wie geht’s? How are you?
Chapter 1
Good News
Jumping to Conclusions
RACHEL YODER—
Always Trouble Somewhere
Book 7
I’m going out to get the mail!” Rachel Yoder called to her mother as she raced out the back door.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Rachel’s brother Jacob shouted as he dashed out the door behind her. “Getting the mail is Buddy’s job!”
Rachel screeched to a halt and whirled around to face Jacob. “Since when is it Buddy’s job to get the mail?”
“Since I started training him to open the mailbox.” Jacob grinned at Rachel, and the skin around his blue eyes crinkled. “Today I’m gonna teach him how to take the mail from the box and then bring it to the house and put it on the kitchen table.”
Rachel snickered and waved her hand. “Like that’ll ever happen. That big, hairy hund [dog] of yours isn’t schmaert [smart] enough to get the mail.”
“Jah [Yes], he is. Buddy’s the smartest dog I’ve ever owned,” Jacob insisted.
“That’s because he’s the only dog you’ve ever owned.” Rachel blinked her eyes several times. “Buddy’s nothing but trouble!”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
“Is not.” Jacob pointed at Rachel. “You’re the one who’s trouble!”
Rachel frowned and shook her head. “I am not trouble!”
“Jah, you are.”
“Am not.”
“Are so.”
“Am not. Buddy’s the troublemaker, and he’s not schmaert enough to get the mail!”
“He is so schmaert enough, and I’m gonna prove it to you right now!” Jacob dashed across the yard and yanked open the door to Buddy’s dog run.
