“Your bus is here,” Derek repeated when she didn’t move.
Heidi straightened up and looked around the bus terminal where she’d left Derek all those years ago. Only thing was, it was happening now. This was it; the moment she’d left Derek, gotten on the bus and ridden right out of his life. This wasn’t like the other time she’d been back there. Derek was thinner and boyish. She reached out and touched his smooth shaven face. “Derek, it’s you.”
“I hope so.” His lips twisted with amusement.
If he was young, then that meant … “I’m young again.”
He laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now stand up and put one foot after the other, or you’ll miss that bus and you’ll blame me for you nodding off.”
With one hand to her head, she looked over at the bus bound for New York. The queue was quickly getting shorter as people boarded. Then she looked back at the love of her life.
“What are you waiting for?” He stood and tried to pull her to her feet.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He smiled at her and sat back down. “Do you mean it?”
“Jah. I’m staying. I’m never going anywhere again.”
He chuckled and hugged her to himself. “I was praying you’d stay and if Gott answered my prayers then I told Him I would find the courage to ask you something. Will you marry me, Heidi?”
His words were blurted out and it wasn’t even a romantic moment. Heidi’s eyes filled with tears when she thought that Agnes would’ve liked a proposal like that. Now she realized she wasn’t only back where she belonged, she was going to get to live out all those precious moments she’d missed, both happy and sad. “I will marry you.”
“Do you really mean it?”
She nodded as she willed the tears not to fall. “I do.”
“And you’re not going to think of leaving—ever?”
“Never again.”
He chuckled. “I’m the happiest man in the world. That's the best Christmas gift ever.”
As they hugged again, she knew that all the success she’d worked so hard to achieve and all the money in the world paled in comparison to the riches she had with Derek and the community. These were riches that wouldn’t fade.
He jumped to his feet, reached over and picked up her bag and swung it over his shoulder, while she held on tight to her grandmother’s book.
“Before you take me home, I want to visit Dat.”
“He’s at your place where we just left him.”
Heidi laughed, remembering she still lived with her parents. She’d get to spend time with her father all over again. “Good.”
As she rode in the buggy next to Derek, he couldn’t stop talking and making plans for their future. He worked with his brother, Ben, in a dairy farm and thought he was going to do that forever, but Heidi knew he’d end up doing what he loved for a living.
“Your folks will be so pleased you changed your mind about going.”
“Jah, they will be.” She couldn’t wait to see her father again, and see the younger version of her mother.
“You go on ahead and I’ll be in soon,” Derek said as soon as they arrived.
Heidi jumped down from the buggy and burst into the house. Her parents were in the living room. Her father was reading his Amish newspaper and her mother was eating something. Both had teacups on a low table in front of them, by the backdrop of a crackling fire. “I’ve decided not to leave.”
She stared at her father and wanted to run and hug him, but they never did that in their family.
He simply nodded. “What made you change your mind?”
“I … I can’t say.”
Her mother smiled at her. “I’m so happy. I would’ve worried about you every single day.”
“Nee, we would’ve left you in Gott’s hands, Heidi,” her father said.
A knock sounded on the door. “That’s Derek. He drove me back. Come in, Derek.”
Derek walked in with her bag and Heidi took it from him and pulled out her grandmother’s book and handed it back to her father. “It was a very interesting book, Dat.”
“You read it?”
“All of it. And I read a lot of the recipes.”
“And you don’t want to keep it?” he asked.
Heidi shook her head. “Nee.”
He chuckled. “Perhaps you’ll want to give it to one of your kinner when they’re thinking about leaving the community?”
She stared at him open-mouthed. Did he know something about the book?
“You liked it?” her mother asked.
“Nee, I mean, jah, it was interesting.” She looked back at her father. “I want you to keep it here, Dat.”
“You’re giving it back to me?”
“That’s right.” Heidi stared at her father and he gave her a knowing smile. She didn’t want to risk keeping it in case it had something to do with her travels. Then she remembered she didn’t have it with her when she’d been hit by that car. She’d left it at the café.
“What’s in that book?” her mother asked looking between the two of them.
“It’s a kind of ‘travel’ book,” Heidi’s father told his wife.
It was then she wondered if her father had traveled across time somehow too. She looked around her childhood home; it was weird to be back.
“I’ll keep the book with me until you want to share it with the kinner you’ll have some day.”
“Who did she marry? Did Agnes marry Malachi, Dat?”
He chuckled. “That’s a complicated question. My father was Bruno King.”
“Oh. What happened to Malachi?”
“Who’s Malachi?” her mother asked, looking at her husband.
Heidi said, “A friend of Agnes, and by the way she talked about him I was hoping that they would end up marrying, that’s all.”
“My mudder did marry a man called Malachi Arnold.”
“She did?” She stared at her father.
“Jah.”
“What happened to him?”
“I’m being confusing. Malachi was my vadder, but I don’t remember him. He died when I was two, and when I was five, Mamm remarried. When I got older, I changed my name to King because he was the only vadder I ever knew.”
Heidi blinked back tears. “That’s so sad. He died?”
“He did.”
“She found love again, Heidi,” her mother said. It was just like her mother to disregard emotions. They were always hidden in their family.
“You knew all that, Mamm?” Heidi asked.
“Jah, I just didn’t know his name was Malachi. I knew your vadder’s real Dat died.”
“I’m so sad. He died so young.”
“He went to—”
“A better place, I know, but he didn’t get to see his son grow up.”
Her mother gasped and Heidi realized her mother thought she shouldn’t have said it for some reason. Heidi had always been out of step with her parents. “Sorry, Dat.”
“I would like to remember him, but I don’t. Bruno King treated me as his own right from the start.”
Heidi thought back to Agnes and how she’d gotten to know her well. She was going to say what was on her mind and they’d have to deal with it. “I feel like I know Agnes now from her diary, and I’m just so sad that she married Malachi and then he died.”
“There is another diary. More than one, come to think of it,” her father said.
That was such good news. “When she got back home, she wrote more?”
“Jah, when she married my vadder, Malachi.”
“She was just falling in love with him when she wrote that diary all about her travels. I’m sad they didn’t have a long and happy life together.”
“Jah, you said that already, more than once,” her mother said.
“Tomorrow is guaranteed to none of us, Heidi.”
Heidi stared at her father. She was sure she had read something like that in Agnes’s diary.
“Remember, it’s here for your kinner to read one day,” Dat looked at the diary that now sat atop the low table in front of the couch.
“Speaking of Heidi’s future kinner ….” Everyone looked at Derek, and then he said, “I have asked Heidi to marry me and she has agreed.”
Mrs. King gasped. “Is that why you came back, Heidi?”
“Maybe,” Heidi smiled and stared into Derek’s eyes.
Derek leaned over and said to Heidi, “I’m going to the bishop’s haus now and tell him you’ve agreed to marry me and let’s see how fast we can do this.”
Heidi nodded. The faster the better, as far as she was concerned.
“I hope that’s all right with the both of you,” Derek said to Heidi’s parents.
“We’re happy if Heidi ’s happy,” her mother said. “I’ve always wanted a son, and now I’ll have one.”
He smiled and looked at Mr. King, who hadn’t said a word. “Mr. King?”
“You’re my dochder’s choice. I’ve raised a sensible maidel.”
When her father smiled, Heidi knew both of her parents were happy, each in their own way.
“Derek, how about milk and cookies, or some kaffe?”
“Nee, denke, Mrs. King. I have the bishop to speak with.”
Heidi couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips. After Derek had said goodbye to her parents, she walked him out of the haus.
At the front door he turned around, and said, “I’m so happy, Heidi. We’ll have a wunderbaar life together. I’m going to start looking for a home for us.”
She nodded and it was hard to keep from him that they’d buy the old Henderson home and have three beautiful children. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, but first, she’d have to wait and see if things happened the same as when she’d lived them. “There has never been anyone else I’ve ever considered marrying.”
He laughed. “Good to know. And it’s the same with me.”
“We’ll have a happy life together.”
“Can I stop by and see you tomorrow?”
“Of course you can. Stay here the whole day if you’d like to.”
He gave her a huge grin before he got into his buggy and drove away. She watched the buggy through the half-opened front door until it was a tiny speck in the distance and then until it disappeared altogether.
Even though it seemed she was taking a giant step backward, being back at her parents’ again, she headed inside to spend as much time as she could with her father. She might even find out more about Agnes’s life.
Heidi’s mother was more than a little surprised when she asked if Mamm had the ingredients on hand to make Mammi Agnes’s Christmas cake. Heidi had seen it in the diary somewhere. When she saw it had to be served hot, she decided to make it on Christmas Day, if time permitted.
Agnes’s Fruit and Nut Christmas Cake (with date and walnut topping).
Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups dates, finely chopped
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
1 cup walnut pieces
Flour
Method:
Heat oven to moderate heat, about 350°F
Combine dates and baking soda, then pour boiling water over the top and let stand.
Combine sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon, nuts, and enough flour to make a thick mixture.
Pour into a baking dish, place into oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
Topping recipe:
2 cups chopped dates
2 cups chopped walnuts nuts
2 cups water
2 heaped tablespoons flour
coconut for sprinkling just before serving.
Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat
Cook until thick.
Spread over cake while hot.
Sprinkle with coconut while still hot and just before serving.