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“Earth to Brad? Seriously – wake up!”
Brad snapped out of his daydream and looked up into Delores Watkins’ disgusted face. She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, wonder boy, but it’s reached the point that I don’t care. If you don’t start paying attention, I’m going to be the one sending you out to the sewage treatment plant!”
Brad shook his head. “Sorry, Delores. What was that again?”
She sputtered in exasperation. “I’ll just send you an email. Assuming you still read those?” she snapped, and swept out of his office. The door slammed impressively behind her.
Brad closed his eyes. Delores was right, he was going to have to come back to his own life sooner or later. Sooner, if he wanted to keep his job.
He massaged his brow with one hand. He had an interview with the city mayor at 1 p.m., and he had to crank out a 1,000-word story after for the evening edition.
And he didn’t know how he was going to do it. He was a wreck.
It had been a week since he’d driven the truck away from the King house, and he hadn’t gone back. But yesterday he’d received a tearstained letter from Jemima.
He reached into his pocket, unfolded it on his desk, and read it again for the thousandth time.
Dear Brad,
I wanted to tell you I’m so sorry for all the bad things that have happened since you asked me to marry you. Please don’t think hard thoughts about Daed, he is going to church tomorrow to repent and he is truly sorry.
Brad put a hand to his head and massaged the little throbbing spot between his eyes.
I didn’t know what to say when you asked me to come with you. I love you with all my heart, and I want to marry you, but I love my parents too, and I love God, and I don’t know what to do. It’s true that you might not understand what it means for me to marry you, and how could you, you’re not Amish, and I didn’t want to harp on it or make you feel bad.
I wouldn’t blame you if you never came back, or if you decided to break our engagement and find another girl. Like that blonde girl I saw you with once in town. She was very pretty and I could tell that she liked you a lot.
This part of the letter was heavily smudged, and was marred with watery blotches and signs of many revisions. Brad ran his thumb softly over the fuzzy lines.
I don’t know what to do now, except to tell you that I will love you until I die. And to give you back the beautiful ring. I wouldn’t be able to wear it anyway, because we don’t wear jewelry, but I kept it under my pillow and looked at it a lot. But you might want to give it to some other girl, someday.
Brad sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the little ring. Jemima had enclosed it in her letter. He turned it between his fingers, and it winked at him forlornly.
So if I don’t see you again, I will understand, and I will pray that God sends you a beautiful Englisch girl who makes you very happy, and also that maybe someday you come to know Him, because that’s what I have always prayed since I first knew you, and is the best thing that could happen.
So, if that is what you decide, I hope you go ahead with your own life, and forget you ever met me, and find someone who makes you happy. And I will go on, too, but I will always be glad that I found the George Washington letter, in spite of all the trouble it caused me, because it brought us together for awhile.
Love,
Jemima
Brad folded the letter carefully, put it back into his pocket, and pulled his hands over his face.
That evening, he stumbled through his front door and dropped his backpack on the floor. He’d been sitting all day, but he was bone tired. He stretched, massaged his back, and walked to the refrigerator. He pulled out a TV dinner, peeled back the plastic cover, and stuck it in the microwave.
The microwave beeped, and he pulled the tray out, stirred the contents, and brought it over to the table.
He looked down at his dinner. It was a disgusting brown blob.
Brad sank into a chair and poked at his food. He couldn’t help wondering what Jemima was doing at that moment. Having dinner with her family? Or maybe, not just with her family. Maybe one of those Amish guys was there, too.
He picked up a plastic knife and fork and jabbed the meat patty. It wouldn’t be long before they were all back at her house. Jemima’s letter had made it clear that she was setting him free, and by implication, getting free herself. That news would travel fast.
He paused, staring vacantly into space. The thought of some other guy putting his hands on Jemima made him want to claw his own eyes.
But if he wasn’t right for her, maybe he should be big enough to wish her happiness with someone else. Like she’d been trying to do for him.
He speared a chunk of meat and put it in his mouth.
After dinner, Brad went straight to bed and lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was exhausted, but couldn’t go to sleep for a long time. And when he finally did nod off, he was wracked by terrible nightmares.
He tossed and moaned on his pillow. He was back at the King farm again, and he was begging Jemima to come away with him, but it was like he was a ghost. No matter how he shouted and shook her, she gave no sign of having seen or heard him. She sat in her chair, sewing placidly, as if he wasn’t there. Her parents sat beside her, reading, and no one paid any heed to him at all.
Then the door opened, and the dark-haired Amish guy came in smiling with a bouquet of roses. He presented them to Jemima. She took them shyly, and smiled back at him.
Brad ground his teeth, and shook her arm, and tried to get her to hear him, but instead, she stood up, and took the boy’s hand, and they walked to the center of the room.
An elder appeared out of nowhere, an old Amish guy with a long white beard and a Bible. Jemima and the dark-haired guy stood before him, heads bowed, as he prayed over them. To Brad’s horror, he pronounced them married, and Jemima’s parents rushed over to kiss Jemima, and shake the boy’s hand.
Then the smiling groom swung Jemima up in his arms, and carried her up the stairs and out of sight.
Brad sat bolt upright in bed, and yelled out hoarsely.
It took him a long time to realize that he was in his own apartment, and that it had just been a dream.
