Sunrays peeped over the horizon, illuminating hills that were nearing their peak autumn color, as Holly drove toward town. She kept blinking in an effort to ease the dryness and grittiness in her eyes. Her lack of sleep aside, today was perfect, everything she’d spent years praying for—excellent health-care providers at booths, community support, and a clear Indian summer October day.
“How’re ya holding up?” Ivy leaned back and stretched as far as her arms could go above her head in the buggy. “I could have helped you more last night on the preparations. You didn’t have to order me to bed.”
“I’m great, and that’s what big sisters do—order you young uns around.” She stifled a yawn. “Besides, I need your mind functioning at full capacity if you are going to oversee and direct our setup.”
Although Holly had tied the last bow on the tulle-encased giveaways around three this morning, she felt rejuvenated by the anticipation of this event she had worked on tirelessly for months. It was all coming together. Next time it wouldn’t take more than a year to pull together a solid health fair. She’d made good connections, learned a lot, and taken impeccable notes.
Dew on the grass sparkled as she pulled into Raysburg Field. This simple field was usually empty except to shelter a few horses for Amish customers and workers in the downtown area. But in just a short time, she and the other volunteers would transform it into the most amazing health fair the town had ever seen.
“Arriving on majestic Raysburg Field”—Ivy spread her arms open wide—“our team’s star player: Holly! Will she bring it home or choke in the ninth inning due to staying up all night?” Ivy directed her best baseball-announcer voice into her hand “microphone” as Holly slowed Stevie to a stop in front of the hitching post.
Holly pursed her lips together and glared at her sister, who met her annoyance with a giant grin. “Oh hush, you. I’m not the star player. Those would be the actual professionals who volunteered to be here. Or the brave Amish who will come to get a checkup for the first time.” She shoved a clipboard into her sister’s hands. “If I were you, I’d keep to myself that familiarity with what professional baseball announcers sound like before the ministers realize you do more than just clean when you’re in Englisch homes.” Holly shooed her away. “Now take your pestering and put it to good use.”
Ivy laughed and pretended to swat her older sister with the clipboard. She hopped out of the buggy. Holly had full faith in her little sister to do a great job directing all the volunteers in the setup. Ivy had a knack for getting people to work together but in such a gentle, lighthearted way that they wouldn’t realize how hard they were working.
Holly jumped down, tethered Stevie to the hitching post, and surveyed the green space. It seemed she had timed her arrival perfectly with the rental company who was putting up the tents. There was no time to stand around. The to-do list in her sweater pocket was burning a hole in the fabric. Could she get her portion of the work done and be ready in four hours? Unlike Ivy, who would greet all the workers and volunteers and help them get set up, Holly would hide out in the largest event tent to do all her tasks. She pushed her sweater sleeves up past her elbows, stacked two boxes together, and carried them to a table she would use for giveaways.
The time went by quickly as she put up partitions to provide privacy for the individual well checks. She then put the right equipment in each cubicle according to the marked boxes Julie had given her.
Holly wiped sweat off her forehead and took stock of all she’d done. Oh, signs. She pulled several from a box and hung the appropriate ones on each partitioned section of the tent. This was the largest tent she’d rented, and it now looked perfect for giving people a reasonable amount of privacy. She couldn’t help but grin. Today numerous Amish people who’d ignored their health for years, perhaps for decades, would get a good checkup and consultation.
The flap on the tent door opened. “Excuse me, Miss Zook?” A man in an EMT uniform entered. “The young woman with a clipboard told me to come find you.” He gestured out the tent door. “The fire truck is here, and we were wondering where we need to pull in.”
“Here, already?” What time was it? She reached for her cell, but it wasn’t in her pocket. It dawned on her that she hadn’t seen it since arriving. Her best guess was that in her hurry to get out the door with all the stuff in tow, she hadn’t grabbed her phone.
The man looked at his watch. “It’s quarter of ten. Did I get the time mixed up?”
“Oh no. I just lost track of time.” She imagined the joy of little boys and girls when they got to climb on the massive red fire engine. Excitement pumped through her, making her smile. “Come on. I’ll show you.” Holly stepped out of the tent.
The midmorning sun was bright, and she once again noted how perfect the weather was for a health fair. But where were the Amish? It dawned on her how quiet things were as she’d set up inside her tent. There should’ve been lots of voices as background noise while she worked for the last twenty or so minutes.
The different medical vendors were ready to go under large white event tents that had bold print signs advertising their services. In the center of the field, the tables of healthy fruits and vegetables donated from the locally owned grocery store down the road stood in full bounty and made her mouth water. In her nervousness about getting everything done on time this morning, she had forgotten to eat breakfast. As she led the EMT toward the place the truck would park, she walked by teens from the nearby Englischer high school who had set up a few health-themed science fair exhibits. They were standing around and giggling among themselves.
She smiled broadly. “Good morning.”
She received an out-of-sync chorus of hellos.
“The truck should go right over here.” She gestured to a roped-off area on the field that had a sign marked EMT. The EMT removed the flagging that stretched from one stake to another and signaled to the driver, who waved at them and pulled the truck into the space.
Holly searched the field, looking for groups of Amish or rigs. Where was everyone? She pointed. “You can set up your twelve-lead EKG screening in this tent. You have the sign, correct?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Are you sure of the time?” Judging by the sun’s position, the man had told her correctly. But if that was right, why weren’t more Amish people here?
He pulled out a phone and looked at the time. “My watch is right. It’s now five till ten.”
Holly’s heart turned a flip. Something was wrong. Five minutes before time to start and almost no one was here? “I thought we’d have more people by now.”
The EMT shrugged. “I was thinking the same thing.”
She thanked him and left. Maybe there was a large gathering on the other side of the tents that were looming in front of her. She hurried across the grounds.
Almost no one except volunteers and vendors. What was going on?
She took a deep breath, trying to quell the rising panic that threatened to knock her feet out from under her. She had counted ten Amish so far. Ten. They were expecting nearly two hundred. Had the wrong information about the starting time gone out to people? That didn’t seem possible. She’d made the flyers herself and triple-checked everything.
She hurried through the center of the grassy field, nodding and smiling at the medical vendors. She hoped her smile seemed genuine and hid the anxiety eating at her. Everything and everyone was ready and waiting for her people.
At last she reached Julie’s station. A few Englischers were there, probably people who’d been shopping in the area and were drawn to the field by the tents, bringing Holly’s visitor count to around twenty-five.
“Hey there, Holly Noelle.” Julie smiled as if nothing were out of the ordinary. “You look like you need to sit down for a spell.” Julie pulled out a plastic folding chair.
Holly shook her head. “What happened, Jules?” Tears brimmed, threatening to spill over. “Where are all my people?”
Julie shrugged. “Sometimes these things happen, but I don’t know why our turnout is this bad. Are you sure your bishop was as supportive as you thought? Perhaps there was some dissention you were unaware of.” Julie separated different papers with information on diabetes into stacks.
“Surely not!”
“Well, all we can do is make the best of it, right? Try to spread the word that my first fifteen-minute diabetes class will begin in a few minutes in case the visitors didn’t see the posters.”
Holly’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. Although Julie was being so kind, Holly was quite aware of how valuable her time was as a medical professional, as was the time of all the people who had volunteered. Holly had been the one to push for this fair, to contact all the vendors, to ask that people donate their time and resources. This fair represented more than a year’s worth of work for her.
Tears filled her eyes again. Where could she go to get a minute alone? She walked around to the opposite side of Julie’s tent, away from the eyes of the volunteers and the very small crowd that had come, and took a deep breath. How could today be such a failure?
Her legs shook, and she sat down in the dew-covered grass, not caring if her dress got wet. Hidden away from the meager number of visitors, she drew her knees to her chest and covered her face with her arms. She finally allowed the tears to fall, darkening the fabric of her half apron and plum-colored dress.
Today was supposed to quietly honor her Daed’s life, to acknowledge the huge hole he’d left while finding ways to prevent others from experiencing a similar unnecessary loss. But now the funds for advertising, renting tents, and providing medical supplies were gone. So much effort for nothing. How could she ask the health-care professionals and vendors to come to another fair after this fiasco?
The disaster of this health fair, Lyle’s stroke, and the looming concerns about Greene’s ability to stay open long term—it was all too much.
How could she possibly fix it all?