A Dream for Hannah (16 page)

“I hear you’re from Indiana,” the girl said.

Hannah replied, “Yes, we live just outside of Nappanee. I’m going to spend the summer with my Aunt Betty in Troy, Montana.”

“Is she Amish?” the girl asked.

“Yes,” Hannah said. “She’s part of a small Amish community in the mountains. She has horses she rents out in the summertime. I’ll be helping her.”

“Not a lot of mountains around here,” the girl said wryly, “except way off in the distance.”

“It is pretty flat,” Hannah agreed. The big sky had awed her during the drive. She saw great sweeping views of grasslands that seemed to go on forever outside the van window. “Big sky country, right? Is that what you call it?”

Jane nodded.

“Have you lived here all your life?”

“I was born here,” the girl said, “and I stayed here. Where else is there to go? You have to have a good reason to travel since the colony pays for it.”

A piece of embroidery on the dresser caught Hannah’s eye. On the bottom of the piece, the name
Jane
was stitched in fine, exquisite lettering.

“Did you sew that?” she asked. “It’s beautiful.”

Jane nodded. “Mom taught my sisters and me. They’re all married now.”

“You do nice work.” Hannah ran her fingers lightly over the embroidered piece. “Do you have horses in the colony?”

“Lots of them,” Jane said. “The boys ride them mostly for work.”

“Can you girls ride them too?”

“Yes, when there’s a chance. Some of the girls like to ride, and some don’t.”

“Do you?” Hannah asked. “It looks like you could ride here for days and never stop.”

“Sometimes,” Jane grinned. “We girls are kept pretty busy with the housework. We all have daily chores. There’s not much time for things like horseback riding. Well,” Jane said, motioning with her hand, “maybe we should get to bed. You must be tired.”

Hannah agreed, and they turned out the lights. Outside the window Hannah could see the expanse of the open sky, now flooded with stars. The sight so drew her, she had to get out of bed to gaze at it for a long moment.

“It’s beautiful,” Jane whispered from her bed.

“Yes,” Hannah said, “very beautiful. I hope the mountains will be as wonderful.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Jane said. “This is about as good as it gets.”

“Perhaps I should stay here,” Hannah teased.

Jane laughed, and Hannah returned to her bed. Moments later she was under the covers and fast asleep.

The morning sun had risen in its glory. Its light streamed full against the side of the Cabinet Mountains. Jake was up early and at his post although signs of fire at this hour were unlikely. Only later, when the mist rose from the ground, could he spot the haze of smoke from any burning fires. An occasional campfire could still smolder from the night before, but he was now trained to notice those differences.

Around mid morning an English girl, accompanied by who he assumed to be her family, came up the trail. Part of his job was to give short tours to hikers who stopped by his station. This was an effort in public relations that was well worth its weight in gold, his supervisor had told him.

Jake was at ground level at the moment the group appeared. Perhaps that was why the full impact of her face wasn’t lost on him. They were already close when he first saw her, and he jerked back, the similarities so shook him. She could have been Eliza’s sister, but that wasn’t possible. This was an English girl.

Unable to take his eyes off her, he blushed with feelings of shame and anger. Memories he had tried to keep buried rushed back with their full strength, undiminished by time or distance.

With great effort Jake managed to croak out a “good morning” to the tall, clean-shaven man in the lead.

“Good morning,” the man replied as he extended a muscular hand to Jake. “Are you open for tours?”

“Certainly,” Jake said. “Would you like to climb the tower?” He wished intensely this guy’s daughter wasn’t with him. His day had just been ruined.

“I do,” the man announced. “Anyone else up to climbing the tower?”

Jake hoped they all would go and he could be away from her face and the intense look in her eyes. When she shook her head, he knew his wish wasn’t to be granted. She had decided to stay on the ground along with who must have been her sister and mother.

Awkwardly Jake stood there, but they ignored him while they conversed among themselves. Her closeness and her indifference to him only added to his feelings of anger. From where he stood, he could see the side of her face. It had the same curve to it, the same outline of the lips, and the same long dark eyelashes. Only slight differences kept him from the obviously impossible conclusion that someone else had also left the Amish.

Only he hadn’t left the Amish, Jake reminded himself. At least he hadn’t in his own mind. He was just trying to get away from the pain, not the life he once knew. In fact, the old life was what he really wanted—a life that had all come to a halt that Sunday evening when Eliza broke the news to him.

In her father’s house, where they had sat on the couch so many times over the years, she had told him. Words were spoken while the gasoline lantern hissed near the ceiling. She had simply and without any expression of regret said that it was over.

“But the wedding is in three months,” he had managed to get out of his parched throat.

“I know,” she had said. “That’s why I am calling it off…while there is still time.”

“But I thought we cared for each other,” Jake had said.

“We do,” she said, still without any emotion, her eyes avoiding his now tearful ones, “just not in this way. I’m sure you will find someone else—someone better suited to you.”

Later he was thankful he had had enough sense to leave when he did. He found his horse in the dark and drove his buggy out of her driveway without any lights on. It wasn’t until he was halfway home that he even noticed he had forgotten the lights. Two weeks later she dated his cousin for the first time.

The tramp of feet interrupted Jake’s thoughts as the men descended the tower’s wooden stairs. “It’s a nice view,” the man announced to the women.

“We can see it from here,” his wife told him with a smile. “We’re perfectly alright.”

As the group headed back down the trail, Jake noticed that one of the young men whom he had assumed was a brother took the girl’s hand in his in a clearly unbrotherly gesture.

He glanced away from the sight. The hurt in his heart cut even deeper, and his anger smoldered against the unfairness of it all.
I’ll never trust a girl like that again,
he told himself.
Never.

Fourteen

The next morning, Mr. Bowen insisted on leaving the Hutterite community early. Rising early, the travelers were able to eat breakfast at the eating house with the first round served to the men. Ham, bacon, eggs, and pancakes were all eaten at the long communal table. Hannah had never seen such a thing in all her life.
Different,
she thought, but she supposed it worked if you grew up with the custom.

The sun came up as the van full of Amish passengers drove away from the colony. Billings was an hour away, and two hours beyond that, the mountains started. Hannah sat transfixed, watching the view through the windows of the van. The scenery was so different from Indiana. Mountain after mountain appeared from the flat country and faded away, and then more appeared even taller than the ones before.

Sometime in the early afternoon, Mr. Bowen took the Thompson Falls exit off of the Interstate and drove up highway 200. From there they drove the west side of the Cabinet Mountains on highway 56 and arrived in Troy by four thirty.

“Do you have the directions to your aunt’s place?” Mr. Bowen asked Hannah as he pulled to a stop in front of the town hall. Its gray stone front was offset by the colors of the American and Montana state flags flapping in the breeze on a tall flagpole.

“Yes,” Hannah said as she handed the paper to him.

Mr. Bowen studied the directions and then proceeded north out of town. A mile or so later, he turned into a driveway and past a mailbox fashioned like a mini log home with
Mast
printed plainly on the top.

The house looked rustic with its unpainted, rough-sawn log siding. The barn had the same kind of siding. Two horses stood at the rail fence nearby.

Hannah wasn’t sure this was her aunt’s home. She hesitated, and Mr. Bowen asked her, “Do you think it’s the right place?”

Alvin said, “There are no electric or phone lines around. It could be the right place…unless the English live rough around here too.”

“I doubt it,” Mr. Bowen ventured and said to Hannah, “Why don’t you go to the door and see if this is the right place.”

Hannah climbed slowly out of the van. Once she was out of the van, the full smell and feel of this new land hit her. She could hear the rush of water flowing heavily and fast in the distance. Trees were everywhere. Through the branches were the outlines of mountains surrounding her on all sides. Timidly she walked toward the house.

To Hannah’s great relief, her Aunt Betty opened the door, just then, her white apron dusted with flour. “I thought I heard a van drive up, but with all the sounds around here, you can’t be sure. We’re so glad you’re finally here! Where are your bags, Hannah?”

“In the van. We weren’t sure this was the right place.”

“Oh, it surely is,” Betty said. “I know we don’t look like the Amish places back East. But this is the West, and things are a bit different. It took a little getting used to for me too. But we just love it now. Welcome to Montana.” Betty wrapped her arms around Hannah in a tight hug.

Betty then approached the van and shook hands with all of the others in turn. “I’m so glad to see all of you. It seems as if it has been years since we’ve had visitors although I’m sure it hasn’t been. If you had the time, I would start with the questions now, but I guess they can wait till Sunday. I suppose everyone is in a hurry to get to their places so I won’t hold you up.”

“Yes,” Mr. Bowen ventured, “I should get these people dropped off. It’s been a long trip for everybody.”

“I suppose you’re exhausted yourself, having to drive so far,” Betty said.

“I am,” Mr. Bowen agreed, “although today’s drive wasn’t quite as long as yesterday’s.”

Naomi smiled from her seat in the second row. “He did real well. I haven’t had a better driver in a long time.”

Mr. Bowen nodded his thanks.

“Well, like I said,” Betty repeated, “you can tell me all the news on Sunday.”

She turned to Hannah as the van pulled out and gushed, “So what do you think of the West?”

“I haven’t had much time to think of anything else,” Hannah said. “It’s absolutely beautiful—so different.”

“Do you think you’ll like it?” Betty asked without much apprehension in her voice and wrapped Hannah in another big hug. “It’s so good to have you here.”

“I’m glad to be here. It’s so big…all around.” Hannah motioned with her hand.

“That it is,” Betty agreed. “God must have really used His imagination when He made this country.”

“You think so?” Hannah asked, stirred by the thought.

“Yes,” Betty said confidently. “As I have said to Steve, the East is made for the practical people. You know, for the ones who make the money. It’s for those who keep the country running, but the West is made for people who
dream.”

Hannah gasped. “But I didn’t come out here to dream. I came to help you.”

“I’m sure you will,” Betty said. “Now let’s show you your room, and then we can look at the horses. Supper is waiting to be made after that. Dreaming will be on your own time.”

Hannah frowned. “There won’t be much dreaming for me. I came out to get over dreaming. I want to be practical—to work and help you. That’s what I came for.”

“There will be time for both,” Betty said as Hannah picked up her suitcase and followed Betty inside. “Now, let’s go inside, and you can see your Uncle Steve and your cousins.”