12

Chad flipped through his Bible to the right chapter and pulled his pencil out of his pocket. Following along as Leonard read the verses out loud, he hoped that Leonard would soon stop reading and make his point, so he could start writing.

Any other time, Chad didn’t mind just following along, but today the lines were starting to blur. He needed something to keep him awake.

Anna had started bringing him to Bible study meetings not long after she’d offered to help him get involved with the community. Here, reading the Bible and studying together went hand in hand with socializing with friends. Naturally, she’d brought him to Leonard and Lois Toews’ home because they were the first couple he had met, and he quickly became comfortable with them. As Anna said, he’d come to know everyone who came here on Monday nights—and everyone came regularly, so therefore, he did, too. He’d made quite a few friends. He’d probably even learned something, too. Even if he hadn’t, his perspective seemed to be changing. Some pretty rotten things happened to a lot of people in the Bible, something no other group he’d been to church with had ever pointed out. After everything that had happened to him, this topic grabbed his interest.

If only he could keep his eyes open.

Just like Anna said, the chickens hardly made any noise, but he must have gotten up twenty times to check on them. Then, every time he ventured into the kitchen he’d sat on the floor for a while, watching them sleep, wondering what to do with them when they woke up.

He’d stayed awake half the night, watching a couple of completely conked-out baby chickens.

He’d predicted a number of things about living in a small, rural community, but nothing could have prepared him for having farm animals in his kitchen. Or that this was apparently normal here.

This place defined normal under a completely different set of rules.

He was coming to terms with the dichotomy of roles between the men and the women. At first he’d thought it was like living in the Dark Ages, and very unfair. But as he lived among them and worked with the men and women in the factory every day, he learned that the roles weren’t as black-and-white as they appeared on the surface. At Leonard and Lois’s home, Lois was every inch a housewife, and Leonard was the sole income earner, being the principal at the local school. After getting to know them as a couple, Chad had no doubt about who ruled the roost in the home and it wasn’t the half wearing the pants in the family. Away from home, Leonard ran the town’s high school with complete efficiency. No one questioned or disputed his authority or his judgment. His word ruled at the school, most often without consultation. But at home, everything done was an agreement between the two of them, and if Lois didn’t agree on something, it didn’t happen.

It worked for them, and they liked it that way. They were comfortable in their lifestyle, and very much in love with each other, even after being married for more years than Chad had been alive. They were happy with their routine and each other, and in the end, that was what really mattered.

Half listening to Leonard reading, Chad turned his head slightly to watch Anna as she very diligently followed along. He wondered if domesticity in her household would be a democracy with her husband as well. He actually couldn’t see it being any other way. Unlike many of the women he’d met who lived here, Anna didn’t hesitate to stand up for herself. At least she did with everyone except her father. Peter seemed like a fair and honest man, but everything in his world was black-and-white, including the way he felt about the position and duties of the women in his household, especially his daughters.

Because of that, Chad didn’t mind helping Anna improve her skills in order for her to make her own way in life and become independent from her father. Yet, even though she wasn’t happy under her father’s strict regimen, from everything he’d seen in the four months he’d been living here, what she was planning was extreme. Not many people, male or female, did what she was planning to do. Those who had left the protective wing of Piney Meadows, and gone to college had done so with full emotional support from family and friends.

At the same time, from what he gleaned, most who did seek an education outside Piney Meadows, and then a career, didn’t return.

He didn’t want to see that happen with Anna.

As much as he was reaping the benefits of Anna’s improved skills, he didn’t want her to reach the point where she would follow her decision to leave and not come back.

“Why are you looking at me? Have you lost your place?”

In a flash, his eyes came into focus and he snapped out of his musings. He grinned at Anna. “I was just thinking.” He grinned wider. “About you.” About how one day soon, he’d forget she was his assistant and kiss her.

Her eyes met his, she paled, and then broke into a charming blush.

She lowered her head so that she looked like she was intently studying her Bible. “I have no idea why you would be thinking about me, but this is not the place. Stop it.”

Oh, yeah. She had his number. He leaned closer to her, so no one in the room could hear his words. “I’m always amazed at how organized and tidy your notes are and how you color code everything in your Bible. Want to show me how you do that?”

She kept her head lowered. “That is not what you are thinking. Shhh. Dü mottst horjche. You must listen.”

Since Leonard was still reading aloud, Chad didn’t have to follow along to pay attention. He halfheartedly listened to Leonard reading, but he watched Anna.

“Pay attention,” she whispered without raising her head.

He grinned even wider. “How did you know I was watching you?”

“I just knew.”

Just like he knew she’d know. Working side by side every day and then spending most evenings together, even in a crowd setting, they were getting to know each other pretty well. And the more he got to know her, the more he was coming to like her. A lot. She was different from any woman he’d ever met, not just because of the quaintness of her upbringing or the simplicity of her ways. She was intelligent and resourceful and had a sweet and gentle heart. Most people he knew would be bitter if they felt trapped in a situation like hers—he was no shining example himself. But Anna always saw the good in people and was resourceful in every situation. If this had been at another point in his life, he would have asked her out on a date to see where the relationship went, and he had a feeling it would go well. One day, she’d make the right man a very happy husband, and he wondered what it would be like to be that man.

He felt his heart start to pound. He didn’t know why he’d just had that kind of thought. He wasn’t in any spot to think about a committed relationship—or any relationship. He’d been that route and been dumped when he’d really pressed for marriage. He’d thought it had been the right thing to do, given the situation.

He looked down at the pages of his Bible, wide-awake now. He forced his mind back on track and back to where he was. Since he’d lost the flow of the passage, he flipped back a page and read all the verses in the section Leonard was reading aloud, finishing at the same time as Leonard quieted.

Leonard raised his head for a few seconds to address everyone in the room. “Now, after seeing what those closest to Jesus did when times were not so easy, turn to Jeremiah 6:16 and read it with me.”

Since it was an easy book to find, Chad found it at the same time as everyone else. “Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”

Chad stared at the page. He didn’t read much Old Testament, but it was like God had a message just for him. Not that Piney Meadows was that ancient, but it was a few decades behind the times. Still, the bottom line was that these people were good and their ways were good. Even though he still had a lot of things to work out here, with them, he was finding rest for his weary soul.

Maybe God really hadn’t forgotten about him after all.

Maybe God wanted him to go back to the almost-ancient ways, complete with chickens and all else that went with it.

He listened to Leonard talk about standing at the different crossroads in life. Of course, Chad already knew he’d come to a major crossroad in his life and had made his decision. He’d looked at where he was and where he was destined to go if he continued living at his broken home, working for his rotten boss, and he’d taken another path. He’d walked off his job and headed north. This was where he’d ended up.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anna staring at him but saying nothing. Instead of meeting her eyes, he lowered his head and reread the verse.

He didn’t have a highlighter or an assortment of colored pens like Anna, so he underlined the verse with his pencil, drew some arrows and stars around it, and then dog-eared the page before he turned to the new verse Leonard directed everyone to find.

When the lesson was at an end, he remained silent during the discussion. This had hit too close to his heart, and he wasn’t ready to discuss it.

After the closing prayer, he joined the men while the women, including Anna, fussed with tea and brought out some delicious homemade muffins. He was getting to like tea, and he was going to get fat partaking of all the goodies he kept eating everywhere he went. This time, because he had to get home to his chickens, he was the first to get up to leave. Since they’d walked there together, Anna also prepared to leave with him. The second the door closed behind them, Anna gave him a look he was coming to know quite well. She might as well have had a neon question mark hovering over her head.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he grumbled. “Let’s just go home.”

He wasn’t surprised that she seemed to read his bad mood, and she kept silent as they walked. He didn’t know how she did it, but just her presence made him feel better. By the time they reached her front door, he was more on track.

Except he wanted to kiss her.

Apparently, Anna had no such thoughts. She stepped forward and reached for the doorknob. As she pulled the door open, she turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Goode nacht. Good night. I will see you tomorrow morning for work.”

She stepped inside, and the door closed in his face.