“What are we going to do?” I whispered loudly. “Did he see us? Is he coming inside?”
“I don’t know. With our lights turned down so low, it’s possible he didn’t see us.” She took a sharp intake of breath. “Oh!”
“What’s wrong?”
“The door. I don’t remember locking the door.”
“Oh, Lizzie.” I hated the way my voice sounded, squeaky with fear, but I couldn’t help it. The terror I’d felt on the road back to Kingdom had just returned full force.
“Just stay where you are.” I could barely see her as she lowered herself to the floor and crawled to the front door.
When I heard a click, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Slowly she scooted back to the wall that hid her from prying eyes outside. “Noah keeps telling me to lock that door. Why don’t I listen?”
“Because you don’t like being told what to do,” I hissed.
“Are you really going to start a conversation like that now?” she replied with exasperation. “Can we save the criticism for a little later?”
“Sorry.” I kept myself as close to the floor as possible, which might have been a good idea if Lizzie had taken the time to sweep up after closing the restaurant. I could smell something that reminded me of corned beef and cabbage, and when I moved my hand, I felt a small piece of food crunch under me. No telling what it was.
“What’s he doing?” Lizzie murmured.
I raised my head a bit but couldn’t see clearly, so I crawled a little to the left. Some new piece of dropped food crackled under my knee. “Couldn’t you have swept the floor?” I griped.
She let out a deep sigh. “Well forgive me for not planning to be stalked by your crazed truck driver.”
“He’s hardly my crazed—”
“Hope, will you be quiet and tell me what you see?”
He was still there, his engine idling. Was he looking for someone? For me? I’d just started to tell Lizzie what the truck was doing when it began to move slowly. “He’s leaving,” I said softly, wondering why we were keeping our voices low. It wasn’t as if the man in the red truck could hear through walls. I waited until he drove past the window, and then I picked myself up from the floor, dusted the food off my dress, and walked slowly over to where Lizzie stood, plastered to the wall.
“Where’s he going?” she asked as I stood next to her.
“Down to the end of the street.” I moved closer to the window, several feet from her, trying to watch the truck. His taillights disappeared from my sight. “I’ve got to step outside,” I said. “I don’t see him anymore.”
Lizzie grabbed my arm. “Don’t you dare! He’ll spot you!”
“Nonsense. He’s way down the road. We’ve got to know if he heads out of town. Unless you plan to stay here hiding in the dark all night.”
She loosened her grip on me. “You’ve got to be careful. If he turns around—”
“I’ll get back inside before that happens.”
“Okay.”
She let me go, and I slowly crept toward the door, watching the windows for any sign the driver was returning. When I was certain it was safe, I unlocked the front door and gingerly stepped out onto the porch. I watched as the truck’s taillights reached the edge of town. Then without warning, they disappeared.
Had he abruptly turned the corner? It wasn’t until the last moment that I realized the awful truth. He’d switched off his lights and turned around, driving slowly back up the street. I heard him before I saw him coming toward us and jumped inside, slamming the door behind me. I quickly locked it before grabbing Lizzie and wrapping my arms around her. It was the only way we could both cower behind the wall between the door and the picture window without being seen.
“He’s heading back,” I said, my voice breaking. “And he turned off his headlights.”
“We’ve got to get help, Hope,” Lizzie said in a loud whisper.
“How? No one’s close enough.”
“I’ve got a phone.”
“Who are you going to call?”
“I don’t know. Several people in Kingdom have phones now.”
“Anyone who could get over to the house and bring Noah and the men back to town?” My voice shook so badly my words were hard to understand.
The drone of the truck motor grew louder. The driver would be in front of the restaurant within seconds.
“I-I don’t know. What about Jonathon?”
“He lives too far out of town, and we need help now.”
“Leah’s got a car and she’s only a couple of blocks away.”
I sighed. “But she doesn’t have a phone. Besides, I’m not going out into the street, and I wouldn’t ask her to do it either. It’s too dangerous.”
Lizzie was quiet for a moment. “Hey, I know. What about Berlene? They’ve got a truck, and Avery’s house isn’t that far from the main road. Fairly close to our house. If she could get word to Noah—”
“Papa and Herman took Avery’s truck to Junction City, and I don’t think Herman’s truck is running.”
“Well, for goodness’ sake, Hope, what are we supposed to do?”
The noise of the engine grew louder. It was just outside now. Lizzie and I held each other, both of us shaking. I began praying quietly.
“God, we need your protection. You said you would be our strong tower and our refuge in times of trouble. Help us, dear Lord. Please keep us safe.”
As if the driver of the truck actually could hear us, he suddenly sped up and drove past the building. About a minute later, the sound of his engine faded away. Lizzie and I didn’t move for several minutes. Then she said, “Should we check again?”
“Stay here. I’ll look.”
I prayed silently as I opened the front door and once again stepped outside. I looked down the street in the direction the truck had gone, as well as the other way. Downtown Kingdom wasn’t large. It wouldn’t take much time to circle around it and show up in front of the restaurant again. However, the street was completely silent. I waited for a while, hearing nothing but the rain. Finally I went back inside.
“I think he’s gone,” I said, locking the door behind me.
“But we have no idea if he’s coming back,” Lizzie said as we stood in the dark room. “I know you won’t like this, but I’m going downstairs to get Noah’s extra rifle.”
“Lizzie, no!” I cried. “The last time I was near a gun, I got hurt. Please don’t—”
“Listen, Hope,” she said firmly, “I have a child upstairs, and I have no intention of trusting that flimsy door to protect her from some nut who wants to kill us.”
“But we prayed, Lizzie. God will protect us. I know He will.” I quoted the Scripture verse in Isaiah that Noah and I had prayed when we were penned in by the trucks on the road.
She was silent for a moment. “I believe that promise, Hope, and I do trust God to help us. Has it occurred to you that maybe He’s telling me to get the rifle? I pray I won’t have to use it, but I don’t intend to leave us unprotected.”
There it was again, the dichotomy of faith. Believe in God but have another plan in case He fails you. I didn’t argue with Lizzie, because Charity was her child, not mine. Somehow it didn’t feel right, but this wasn’t the time to argue over our interpretation of Scripture.
Lizzie jogged to the kitchen and turned on the light before going to the basement. The glow from the kitchen brought some illumination into the dining room. I went back to the window, watching in case the truck returned. A couple of minutes later, Lizzie entered the room, rifle in hand. She leaned it up against the wall. After what had happened earlier in the day, just seeing it made me shiver.
“We’ve got to get a message to Noah,” she said. “I’m going to call Berlene. Even if she doesn’t have their truck, Avery’s horse is there and she can ride it down to the Millers’ house. They don’t live far away. Ebbie can hitch up their buggy and drive to our house.”
“But that will put him out on the main road,” I said, my voice catching. “What if that man is out there? What if he sees Ebbie? He’ll try to run him down the way he did Avery!”
Lizzie twirled around, and I could see the worry in her face. “Do you have a better idea, Hope? The only other people with phones are too far away or too elderly to help us. This is the only thing I can think of.”
“I couldn’t take it if Ebbie was injured,” I said, tears filling my eyes. “If anything happens to him because of me—”
“But it’s not just you, Hope,” she said firmly. “It’s all three of us. It’s Charity too.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say. Lizzie went to the kitchen to call Berlene while I sat down at a nearby table and stared at the shadow of Noah’s gun in the corner. Somehow, looking at that rifle made the debate between Jonathon and Ebbie seem clearer than it had before. Both men wanted to protect the people they loved, and both men were torn between their faith and their fear. Was a gun a symbol of our human strength? Was it a substitute for our ultimate trust in God?
I didn’t know the answer, but for the first time, I understood the question. Jonathon and Ebbie were good men. Both trying to find the right way. And sometimes the right thing was hard to see. I still wasn’t sure what I believed, but I was able to quit judging either one of them. God knew their hearts and He loved them. No matter what.
A few minutes later, Lizzie came back into the dining room. “Have you seen him again?” she asked, walking toward me.
“No. It’s quiet outside. I think he’s gone.”
She sat down next to me. “Listen, I’m sorry if I sounded harsh earlier. I didn’t mean to. I’m just upset that we have to go through this. To think that some numbskulls think they have the right to terrorize innocent people makes me angry. Forgive me for taking it out on you.”
“Of course I forgive you,” I said. “You’re my best friend.”
She reached over and gave me a quick hug. “I love you, Hope. You know that, right?”
“Yes, I do. And I love you too.”
“I don’t doubt that at all. No matter how rotten I act, you never treat me any different. I’ve learned more about love from you than from anyone I’ve ever known.” She chuckled. “Except Noah, of course.” She grabbed my hand. “You’ve always been there for me. When I needed to get away from Kingdom, you were willing to put yourself on the line to help me.”
Lizzie was referring to an incident that occurred when she was only eighteen years old. An unhappy teenager who felt ostracized by an unplanned pregnancy, she’d asked me to help get her and her baby away from Kingdom. On one of my trips to Flo’s, I took her to Washington, where she got on a bus and traveled to Kansas City so she could start a new life.
“You know, the strangest thing about helping you leave was that no one could believe I had it in me.” I shook my head. “I know people think I’m very mild mannered, what you’d call a wimp, but most of the time, I’m just content.” I stared down at the floor. “I’m not like Jonathon. I don’t have any causes. I only react when I have to. Unfortunately, I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.”
“But, Hope, that’s wisdom, isn’t it? Picking the battles that are important? When it comes down to it, you’re the strongest person I know. You won’t compromise what you believe.”
I smiled. “Maybe that’s my problem now. I don’t know exactly what I believe. Sometimes I wonder if I ever will. I can see everyone’s point of view, and they all sound right. At least tonight I’ve decided not to worry about it anymore. God’s the ultimate judge. Not me.”
Lizzie nodded. “You’ll find the truth, and when you do, no power on earth will be able to change your mind. Noah’s a lot like that.”
“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but I’m so glad you and Noah found each other.” Even as I said the words, I wondered if I would ever have the kind of relationship Lizzie and Noah had.
“Me too. And you’ll find the same thing someday. I’m sure of it.”
“I hope you’re right. Were you able to reach Berlene?”
“Yes. She’s going to drive her truck over to the Millers. It’s having transmission problems, and she can’t get it out of second gear. If it wasn’t messed up, she’d drive all the way to our house and alert Noah herself. Hopefully she’ll make it. She did say she’d call back and let us know what’s going on. Oh, and Berlene gave me the number of the motel where your father’s staying. She suggested you call him and tell him what’s going on.”
I shook my head. “If I do that, he’ll rush home. Running Avery’s store is important to him. I don’t want him to cut his trip short.”
“I think he would want to know that man was here in Kingdom, Hope, but it’s your decision.”
“I’ll tell him when he gets back. Anyway, I don’t think we’re in any real danger now. If he planned to return, surely he would have done it by now. With God’s help, Ebbie should reach Noah before long.”
We sat in the dark for quite a while, waiting for word from Berlene. About thirty minutes later, the phone rang and Lizzie jumped up to answer it. I listened to the rain while I waited.
As I sat there, I began to wonder about the red truck. Maybe it wasn’t the same one I’d seen on the road. Although the thought made me feel a little better, there was one big hitch with that theory. No one in Kingdom had a red truck. Almost all our vehicles were painted black or dark blue. Avery’s dark green truck was about as daring as anyone ever got. Although I’d never said it out loud, down deep inside, I felt that if you had to paint your car black to keep your neighbors from being jealous of you, your neighbors had problems bigger than any amount of paint could ever fix.
The door to the kitchen swung open, and Lizzie came out. “Great news. Berlene got to Ebbie’s house, and he’s on his way to get Noah.” She came over and sat down next to me. “Berlene said Ebbie was really upset, and after she told him about the red truck, he hitched Micah up and drove down the road like someone had set him on fire.”
“Yes, he would,” I said softly.
Lizzie made a grunting sound. “I hope you don’t mind my saying this, but Ebbie doesn’t act like someone who’s moved on. I think he’s still crazy about you.”
“He’s the one who broke the engagement.”
“Because he believed you loved someone else.”
I was silent for several seconds. “Jonathon is a wonderful man, you know. He already saved my life once. And the way he cared for me after Sophie’s gun went off . . .”
Lizzie frowned at me. “Of course, if he hadn’t started this whole vigilante thing, Sophie might not have had access to a gun, and you wouldn’t have been put in danger in the first place.”
“He’s trying to keep us safe, Lizzie. I . . . Oh, never mind. I’m exhausted, and I don’t want to talk about this right now. Besides, I put the situation in God’s hands tonight. I don’t intend to be with anyone until I know for certain he’s the man God has picked especially for me.”
Lizzie reached for my hand. “Oh, Hope. I’m so glad to hear that. I hope you’ll stick to it.”
I smiled and patted her hand with my other one. “This is one decision I won’t change. I’m determined to wait on God.”
“I can always count on you to do the right thing. You’re so—” She suddenly stopped and sniffed at the air. “Do you smell something?”
I nodded. “Could you have left the stove on? It smells like something’s burning.”
“I was just in there. I think I would have noticed, but I’ll look again.” She jumped up and hurried into the kitchen while I waited. The strong aroma of smoke continued to get worse. A few seconds later, Lizzie came out of the kitchen, a puzzled look on her face. “The stove’s turned off, and I checked everything else.” Suddenly her eyes got wide. “Charity! I’ll be right back.” She rushed up the stairs. I got up and ran after her. When I reached the landing, the smell was stronger. Lizzie came into the living room from Charity’s room. “Nothing’s burning up here. What in the world . . . ?”
At that moment, I caught a glimpse of something out of the living room window that made my blood run cold. I rushed over to get a better look. Flames were coming from a building down the street. I turned to look at Lizzie with horror.
“It’s the church! Oh, Lizzie! The church is on fire!”