Chapter 22
22
A week later, Lois stood at the window of Paradise Found and held her hands over her ears as the concrete truck’s mixer spun in the parking lot. First it had been the excavators. Then the pounding to build the foundation frame. Now the concrete company had arrived. What havoc Moses had wreaked. He’d created as much chaos in her outer world now—and the world of her feathered friends—as he had in her inner world five years earlier. Her anger toward Moses nearly matched her sadness about Menno.
She ground her teeth. There was no way all the birds would stay in the woods. They probably believed a gigantic woodpecker had moved into the field. She was trying to accept that the property was changing and there was nothing she could do, and jah, the new market would help Amy and her family and others in the community, but the loss of the birds weighed heavily on her.
Why did Scotty have to sell the shop and land? Why did Moses have to buy it?
At noon, Moses came into the shop and told her to take a lunch break. “I insist,” he said. “I’ll take care of things here.”
She scootered to the post office. She was happy to get away from the sound of the concrete truck.
She had two letters. One from Randy and one from Menno. She read the one from Randy first. It was an exact copy of the one he’d sent before, except he’d added, You’re being very disrespectful not to reply to my letters. She hadn’t written him back, but she hadn’t meant to be disrespectful. She simply had no idea how to answer him.
Then she read Menno’s. It was postmarked Saturday.
Please forgive me for not meeting you. I had an unforeseen emergency and no way to contact you. I hope you can see past my letting you down and continue with our correspondence.
Lois put the letter back in the envelope and slipped both letters into her apron pocket. She needed to go to Delaware and look for Menno. She wouldn’t write him again until she had evidence he actually existed.
When she returned to the shop, Moses was ringing up a sale for an Englisch woman. When the customer left, Lois asked, “Would it be all right if I take Friday off?”
A puzzled expression passed over Moses’s face.
Lois pulled Randy’s letter from her pocket. “I’ve had a letter from my brother in Big Valley.”
“Is everything all right?”
“I think so.”
“Sure. If Evelyn is okay working by herself.”
“Denki.” She felt bad about her deception, but she wasn’t going to tell Moses what she was up to. She called Evelyn’s grandmother’s phone and left a message. Then when she heard the back door close, she called Dave, the driver her family had often hired from the time they first arrived in Lancaster County.
He had a cancellation that day and said he could take Lois. Just before six, Evelyn called back and said she was fine working by herself.
“I’ll be gone before you arrive,” Lois said. “But I should be back by midafternoon. I’ll help close.”
“All right,” Evelyn said. “I’ll see you then.”
Lois hung up the phone feeling better than she had since the day Menno hadn’t shown. He hadn’t come to see her—but that didn’t mean she couldn’t go find him.
Friday morning, Dave arrived at seven thirty, before Moses or the builders arrived. Lois climbed in the back, not feeling comfortable enough to sit up front even though she’d known Dave for years. He’d been the one who drove Mamm and her to the funeral home after Dat passed. He was the one who drove her to Big Valley five years ago. He was the one who drove Amy to Big Valley to collect her. He was a kind older man and happy to see her.
Lois had checked the distance on her atlas the evening before. The trip was eighty miles. The first section was through the Pennsylvania countryside and across the border into Delaware. Lois marked the moment with a smile—her first trip outside of Pennsylvania. The next section was through the southern suburbs of Wilmington. The last third of the trip was through farm country.
When they reached Byler’s Corner, a market came into view.
“I’ve heard about an Amish market over here,” Dave said. “But I’ve never been.”
“Jah...” Lois nearly pressed her face to the window. It appeared to be a big market.
“I’m not quite sure where this address is,” Dave said. “But it’s right around here somewhere.” He slowed. “Oops, I missed it. I’ll drive past the market and then come around again.”
On the way back, Lois looked for the street address too.
“It should be right here, on the right.” Dave stopped the car.
There was a building and to the side of it a shed. “I’ll get out,” Lois said, “and see if I can find it.”
“I’ll park a block down on the righthand side. Take your time.”
“Thank you.” Lois climbed out and pulled her last letter from Menno from her pocket. She reread the address, then turned toward the store across the street. That address almost matched Menno’s, but it was odd numbered. She headed to the market building. Was that what Moses had in mind for the Paradise Amish Market? The thought left her unsettled for a moment. She went into the building, but there wasn’t an office or mailboxes. Just a lot of booths with people, many of them Amish, selling baked goods, vegetables, quilts, garden benches, honey, and so much more.
She went out the side door toward the shed. In front of it was a locked mailbox with a keyhole. When she reached it, she saw the address on the side. It matched Menno’s. She knocked on the shed. No one responded. She tried the doorknob. It was locked.
She turned on her heels and returned to the building, asking vendor after vendor if they knew Menno Stoltzfus. None of them did. She wouldn’t bother asking anyone in the outdoor booths.
There was no doubt about it. She’d been tricked. Whoever Menno was, he wasn’t trustworthy. Amy was probably right—most likely he didn’t even exist. Someone was using the mailbox for the circle letters. And her letters. No, Jane’s letters.
She continued down the street to where Dave had parked. When she climbed into the back seat, he simply inquired, “Where to now?” She appreciated that he didn’t ask whether she’d found who she was looking for.
She hesitated a moment.
“Lois?”
“Have you ever been to the Delaware shore?”
“A long time ago.”
“Would you mind going again?”
“Not at all,” he answered as he pulled back onto the road.
Lois waded in the Atlantic Ocean as killdeers scurried over the sand, darting back and forth at her feet. The screams of gulls filled the air, and in the distance pelicans flew above the waves.
She fantasized that Menno would show up, somehow knowing she’d been looking for him at the market, somehow knowing to follow her to the Delaware Seashore State Park. She chuckled wryly at how ridiculous she was. “Give it up,” she said out loud. “Menno is a figment of your imagination.”
She picked up a rock and held it in her hand. Then she threw it into the ocean—it didn’t go very far—and said, “Goodbye, Menno!” as it plunked into the water. A bigger wave came rolling in toward her, and although she started backing up it still lapped the bottom of her dress.
She thought of her parents at the Maryland shore as newlyweds nearly forty-five years ago. If only they had come to the seashore again before they’d died. If only her family hadn’t always been scrambling to make ends meet after they left Big Valley.
She turned toward the trail that led to the parking lot. Dave was standing at the top of the hill as if guarding her. She waved, then turned back to the killdeers and the Atlantic to whisper goodbye.
When she arrived back at Paradise Found, Amy was pulling her buggy around as if leaving. Lois quickly handed Dave a check for the agreed-upon payment and thanked him. Then she grabbed her bag and scrambled out of the back seat of the car and called out to Amy, “Wait!”
Amy pulled back on the reins. “There you are. Evelyn said you took the day off to go to Big Valley. I was worried.”
“I’ll explain.” Lois hurried around to the other side of the buggy and climbed up. As she sat down, she said, “I didn’t say I went to Big Valley, although I implied it. Moses must have told Evelyn. I went to Delaware.”
“After Menno?”
“Jah.” Lois slumped against the back of the seat. “No surprise, I didn’t find him.”
“I’m sorry.” Amy shot her a sympathetic smile.
“You were right—he is like one of those online people.” Lois explained about the locked mailbox. “Basically, I fell for a fake person.”
“I wish I hadn’t been right,” Amy replied.
“Jah, me too.” Lois took her peanut butter sandwich from her backpack. She and Dave had stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe on the way home. “Want half?”
Amy laughed. “Sure. Just like when we were in school.” Back then they shared all their food, picnic-style.
“I have apple slices and cookies too.” She’d given a plate of cookies to Dave. “Peanut butter.”
“Of course you do.” Amy took the half sandwich. “Now what?”
“I had another letter from Randy. He said Nathan is still willing to marry me.”
Amy groaned. “You’re not thinking about going back to Big Valley, are you?”
“I might if it wasn’t for Nathan.”
“And the fact your brother wants to marry you off.”
Lois held her sandwich in midair and sighed. “My life, as it is, in Paradise Township isn’t sustainable.”
“But it is. You have a job. An apartment.”
“And a bishop who doesn’t want me living alone and a boss who wants the apartment and who barely tolerates me.” Though Moses had been nicer lately.
“Do you regret not seriously pursuing John?”
Lois hesitated for a moment and then said, “No.”
“You don’t sound very convincing.”
Tears stung her eyes but not over John. “He wasn’t right for me, and he’s too nice for me to pursue just to use him so I can stay here.”
Evelyn opened the front door of the shop. “Lois! Can you come in? I have a question.”
“I’d better go.” Lois took a bite of the sandwich and gathered up her bag. “Denki for listening.”
“Any time,” Amy said.
Lois blew a kiss to her friend, jumped down, and hurried into the shop.
On Monday afternoon, she scootered to the pond and then made her way along the run to have something current to write to the circle letter. A ruby-throated hummingbird buzzed by, and then a fledgling bluebird hopped along on the other side of the run. As she turned to go, a male goldfinch pecked at a dried purple coneflower a few feet away. Lois froze and watched it for a few minutes, committing the image to memory.
When she reached her scooter, she waited as an Amtrak train flew by. Then she continued on to find the Strasburg Rail Road train had stopped at the Paradise station. From there she scootered to the post office. She had a circle letter from Teresa and a letter from Menno. Why had she been so trusting? She felt the same way she had after Moses dumped her, before she arrived home and found Mamm unresponsive in the apartment. All by herself. Lois shouldn’t have gone to the river that night.
She took a giant step to the garbage can and dropped Menno’s letter inside. She wasn’t ready to return to her apartment and listen to the construction racket outside her window. She’d make one more stop.
When she arrived at the care center, she scanned the parking lot. No sight of Moses’s SUV. No doubt he was at the shop, conspiring with the builders.
She parked her scooter and headed inside. This time she knew the drill. She signed in, took a visitor badge, and turned left toward room 134.
When she arrived the door was half open. She knocked.
“Come in, dear,” a sweet voice said. Anna .
Lois pushed the door all the way open. Anna sat in front of the window, an empty chair beside her. “Hallo, Anna. It’s me—”
“I know.” Anna smiled and patted the chair beside her. “Lois, come sit.” She turned back to the window. “Let’s watch the birds together.”