CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Amy
Two Weeks later
“I can’t believe you’re leaving soon,” Jane said, holding up her martini. “To Amy, the smartest girl we all know.” It was girls night out at the Thirsty Turtle . All the gals I’d waitressed with over the years sat round the table— toasting my success—and pigging out on pizza and hot wings. I felt honored they all came, some of them after working the night shift with bags under their eyes and barely any sleep in the last twenty four hours. I knew how tough some of their lives were. It meant a lot to me, that they’d made the sacrifice.
“Wow,” said Meggie. “I’m so proud of you. You really did it the right way. I didn’t even graduate high school and now well… you know.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked without thinking. Not only had Meggie not graduated high school but she had two kids and she was only twenty one.
“It just is…” Meggie began dropping her gaze.
“Maybe if you kept your legs crossed,” quipped Jane. “We’d be toasting you here and sending your ass off to college instead of another goddammed baby shower.”
Meggie chuckled. “Nah. I like sex too much.”
“And too many times with too many men,” said Phyllis. Meggie rolled her eyes but then everyone broke out in laughter. Phyllis was with a new man almost every other week, but at least she was smart enough to use birth control. The rest of the girls were either married and just making a few extra bucks, or single with boyfriends.
It made me think.
I knew college wasn’t forever, just a year—or less if I convinced my professors to let me boost up my curriculum. Just me and my books and the good old computer. I didn’t want to go back to being alone all that time. Brock had made me see what I’d been missing and what I missed most was friendship with a man. Yes…and sex! The thought of that sexy head between my legs made my nipples harden painfully and heat bloomed. I missed his touch. I missed his voice. I missed…him.
Brock had shown me what it was to be a woman. I’d never known sex could be so…exhilarating—or that my insides would turn to jelly at the commanding tone of his voice. He was both forceful and gentle. Enthusiastic, yet patient. I sighed. It’s over, you idiot. Stop thinking about him. Focus on his actions instead. And for god’s sake keep your mad!
I couldn’t go backwards. Brock’s actions were unforgivable. While it made me uncomfortable that he paid off my mortgage, I probably could have come to terms and forgiven him. But taking the money from a charity? How could I ever look him in the eye knowing what we’d done? How could I look myself in the eye?
I ate the last of my curly fries and pushed the plate away when a warm hand covered my own.
“So… Amy….I hear the house is up for sale,” Jane said. “I thought you were going to keep it.” She squeezed my hand, knowing how hard that decision must have been for me. But how had she known? I hadn’t advertised it anywhere.
“I did too, but I had a long talk with dad. And get this, he knew all about Penelope and wasn’t a bit surprised.”
“No way!”
“Yup. When I said I wanted to bring him home, he told me he liked it at the nursing home. That he had no intention of leaving if he had the choice. I insisted we could get a private nurse, but he got this weird look in his eye. Turns out he has a girlfriend.”
“Wow. Didn’t see that coming, did you?”
“Nope.”
“You think he’s telling you the truth?”
I laughed. “I saw her. I can’t say for sure if she feels the same about him, but he did point her out.”
“I can’t believe it. Well, at least he’s not lonely, right? That should make it easier to stay in school this time.”
“Yup. I can live on campus, and not worry about him, or the house or anything really.”
“You’ll have the money from the house and the scholarship for tuition. Sounds like it’s all coming together.”
“It is. Things are falling into place. One minute I was destitute, about to be evicted and now…”
“Do you have any serious buyers on the line?”
“I think so. There’s a family who lost their home. If they like it, they’ll pay cash. No bank. No nothing.”
“Well, that’s convenient.”
“Right, but it doesn’t make sense. We’re not talking about a mansion here. How is it a family can just buy my house like that?”
“You know what they say? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
“It’s just strange. I hope it’s all legal. I don’t want anyone knocking on my door some day and saying I sold my house to the mafia or something.”
Jane giggled. “Don’t sweat it, woman. It’s about time good things started happening you.”
I looked at her for a long time. “Maybe but… I’m starting to wonder why.”
***
Three days later
At two o’clock sharp, and in the pouring rain, there was a soft tap-tap-tap on my front door.
The new owners.
Excited, I glanced around the living room for the last time with butterflies in my stomach.
I couldn’t wait to move on. I was anxious to live my life again. I’d come to grips with selling my family home in a big way—so I’d stripped the house bare of anything that made it mine. I wanted the new would-be owners to see all the possibilities, envision the house as their own. I’d taken nearly all of the furniture and everything except my bed and put them in storage the day before. I wanted the place to look as big as possible. I hoped they’d imagine their own things around the place. The only things I left up were the curtains on the windows.
I really wanted this family to be the ones. They had three children and two dogs plus a grandmother that would occupy the house. I felt good knowing there would be life in the house again.
When I opened the front door, four shining faces stared back at me. Two adults, and two children.
“I’m so sorry we’re early. I know you said two-thirty but we…well…” A woman who looked about thirty-five, glanced at an older woman beside her who was holding a little girl’s hand. “We were so excited we couldn’t wait.” The mother was tall, thin, and blonde dressed in a long dress with a tiny white cap on her head. Two thin white linen ties dangled by the side of her kind face. She was carrying a toddler with a thumb in his tiny mouth. I was delighted to see the baby and he smiled on me.
“No trouble at all,” I said. “Come in. Come in.” They scooted inside but were hesitant to walk the rest of the way in. It was then that I noticed the long dress that stopped mid-calf on the little girl as well. There was no mistaking the way they dressed. I didn’t know much about Mennonite or Amish, but I recognized their clothing.
“We shouldn’t be here,” said the older woman with a raised brow. “The elders will build us another house.”
The blonde woman stared at her. “We’ve been over this. There are too many homeless, and what would we do in the meantime? My children cannot live in a shelter for a whole year.”
The old woman didn’t budge but stood with her arms folded over her chest, frowning.
“You heard Jacob, and a year is just an estimate. The barns have to be built first, which will take time. And what of the families who have lost their men?”
The fire. They’re talking about the fire. Suddenly, I felt like I were eavesdropping.
“It is God’s wish that we should live simply, and not lean on the charity of others,” said the older woman. Her words seemed harsh but there was a kindness to her tone.
The younger woman stared at her mother, a horrified look upon her face. “I’m not letting my children grow up in a shelter.,” she repeated. She appeared desperate, at the end of her rope, but not at all helpless. Never helpless. She straightened her spine and shifted the baby to her other hip as she looked at me.
“I’m sorry, and I should have introduced us. My name is Sarah. This here is little Jacob. This here is Mary and my mother is Elizabeth. My mother doesn’t understand how desperate we’ve all become. We normally take care of each other, raise our children together, pray, raise barns and homes when needed. We believe in helping ourselves but…” Her eyes clouded with tears. “It’s just been so hard. So many…. So many lives. So many homes just… gone. I prayed about this…a lot. And God showed me to you.”
I was completely taken aback at her words. I had no idea how to take what she meant, but suddenly selling my house to her seemed the right thing to do.
Except for business purposes, Sarah came from a culture that mostly shut out off from the outside world. They didn’t have computers, phones, or even radios. I wondered how she heard about my house being up for sale. As if answering my unasked question she told me.
“After the fire destroyed so many homes, a group of men approached the Elders. They said they wanted to help us rebuild, but there were just too many. We were already living in shelters, so they said they would buy us new homes to live in. New ones, says I! Why would you give us new ones? He said there was a fund set up for just that purpose, and the money came from a very rich man. Someone he’d actually never met. Can you imagine? A man giving out houses and no one ever heard of him? Part of me thought, this man must be an angel, but then I knew that wasn’t the way of the world. God wants us to suffer sometimes and He expects us to pay our debts, so how could I pay a debt to someone I never met? Although I had to admit, the offer was very tempting.”
“It’s God’s law,” said Elizabeth kindly.
“So then I started thinking. Why couldn’t we pay it back, and who cares if we know the identity of the man or not. We said we would do it as long as they charged us interest and the money went back into the fund. We wanted it used for other families just like ours.” Her face fell. “It wasn’t an easy decision and my husband and I asked God’s help in deciding what to do.”
I didn’t understand what she meant, but I didn’t want to embarrass her by asking. I didn’t have to.
“Jesus said, ‘take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,” said Elizabeth proudly.
Sarah bit her bottom lip. She translated. “God’s law forbids us to have debt.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know where the money was coming from, but something inside me jumped a little bit.
I took a deep breath, my nerves jittery, hoping I wouldn’t offend Sarah or Elizabeth with the question I couldn’t help asking. “And you don’t know where the loan is coming from? I mean, it’s not really any of my business, and you certainly don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but…”
“No, that’s all right,” said Sarah. “All we were told is the money comes from a man who fights fires. I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as he allows us to pay him back.”
My heart squeezed inside my chest.
“It’s true, we are blessed with this offer,” admitted the older woman. “But I still don’t like it. Are you sure we have permission to… ?”
“I’ve already talked to the elders, mother,” Sarah said gently before she turned back to me with a grin.
Elizabeth huffed and she and the little girl wandered about the room.
Sarah whispered, “I sort of figured out who he is. I…. I kinda saw someone’s newspaper one day. I get these…feelings you could say.”
“Feelings?”
“Yeah, about people sometimes.”
“And you know who he is?”
“I think so. It’s that fireman. The one that was almost killed when the tree fell on top of him. It’s him we are beholding to. He’s set up charities to rebuild our homes. Since we couldn’t do such a thing, he made us an offer of a loan.”
My mouth nearly dropped on the floor. One donor. I guess he’s got a lot of cash. It couldn’t be.