Abby Finds Her Calling (27 page)

“That’s quite a ways off,” Abby murmured. “Coming from east of town. Can’t tell if it’s the police chasing a car, or an ambulance.”

Zanna closed her eyes, concentrating on the sound. “Way out by Highway 63, maybe? It’s harder to tell with the snow muffling the sounds.”

“Wait—is that the fire bell I’m hearing now?” Abby listened more intently: it seemed a second siren had started wailing, and then came the
clang-clang-clang!
of the big bell Mervin Mast rang when someone spotted a fire, or when his Mennonite neighbors got the call from the Clearwater fire station.

Abby and her sister rushed to the window as loud honking and another siren approached Cedar Creek on the county road. Lamps were lit at Sam’s and the Grabers’, and by the time a fire engine stopped out front, its red lights flashing, Sam and Matt were rushing
from the house. The dogs were barking excitedly, but they sat down in the snow when Matt ordered them to stay put. The two men and James hopped aboard the truck before it sped off down the blacktop.

“Mighty gut thing the bishop allowed our fellas to have scanners,” Abby remarked as she gazed after them. “Think of the places that would burn down if our firefighters didn’t get notified in time.”

Zanna tossed her half-completed rug onto the table and stood up. “Barbara will most likely follow them to see if anybody’s hurt. I’m putting on my boots and going with her.”

“Jah, it’s not like we’re getting any sleep,” Abby remarked. She was pleased to see that Zanna had come out of her low mood. As she and her sister hurried toward the big house, they found Barbara and Mamm hitching Tucker to a carriage. Abby urged Zanna in ahead of her and then pulled a blanket around the two of them in the backseat. They reached around Barbara’s medical bag and some big bottles of water to turn on the flashing lanterns. A pile of blankets and a bag of clothing took up a lot of the space she and her sister shared.

“It’s not gut that it’s gotten so much colder,” Mamm remarked, shivering. “Makes it harder to pump water out in the country.”

“And if it’s a house afire at this hour, it’s likely the folks inside got caught by surprise.” Barbara stopped the horse at the end of the lane so three more pickups with flashers on their dashboards could speed by: their county road was a main route from east to west. “Looks to be serious, with so many volunteers being called out.”

Abby peered ahead through the carriage’s windshield, which was quickly fogging over. A few English had hobby farms out this way, but mostly it was Amish who raised livestock and crops. Other carriages were joining them, keeping to the shoulder so wailing police cars could whiz past them. When a column of smoke and angry orange flames lit the distant sky, they all gasped at once.

“That’s got to be the Ropp place—”

“Jah, it’s their house that sits on that hill,” Mamm murmured.

“—and if they don’t douse those flames soon, they’ll lose their
barns and their milking machines, too,” Abby added. “Looks like the old shed where they kept their buggies and wagons is already gone.” She glanced at her sister, who was staring at the flames in horrified fascination.

Zanna shook her head as though she were clearing away a bad dream. “You don’t suppose Rudy finally got so mad…” She couldn’t seem to complete the thought.

“Oh, Zanna, let’s hope he didn’t do something stupid. Or desperate,” Barbara added in a tight voice. “It’s been one thing after another for that family. When I was looking in on Marian Byler, Carl mentioned that the last time he helped with the chores there, Rudy didn’t offer any pay. Not that Carl wouldn’t have helped anyway, but a new father can use some extra cash.”

Abby considered this as they turned onto the lane where the Ropps lived. “That matches up with what we saw in the house, I’d say. Adah really did need that rug. Her kitchen could have used some paint and fresh curtains, too.”

“Jah, and then there’s Jonny,” Zanna mumbled. “Driving a stretch limo and a Harley, along with his van.”

Their mother glanced back at her, smiling despite her concerns. “Care to translate that for me?”

Zanna focused on the leaping flames, her hand at her throat. “It’s a really long car and a really fast motorcycle. Would you look at—oh, that wall’s falling over!”

They all grimaced as the front of the Ropp house slowly caved in to be consumed by the fire. Firemen dashed around with hoses, while the police kept curious, concerned neighbors a safe distance from the blaze. A fellow in a bucket suspended above a fire truck shot a powerful stream of water toward the side of the house nearest the outbuildings. Terrified bellows came from the barn and the acrid smell of smoke seeped into the carriage.

“Look—over there by the garden!” Zanna exclaimed. “It’s Adah and the girls. Must be in their nightgowns, from what I can tell.”

“You’d better get them wrapped in these blankets while I check on the firefighters. That bag of clothes has socks in it, too. I bet they’re barefoot,” Barbara said as she set the brake. “Bring them over to sit in the carriage where it’s warmer. Can’t have them getting frostbite on top of losing everything.” She reached back for her medical bag, her expression grim. “Come get me if you see somebody hurt.”

The night wind whipped their coats and bonnets as they stepped out of the carriage. The roar of the flames was unlike anything Abby had ever experienced. The heat from the blaze gusted around them as they hurried toward the Ropps with an armload of blankets and clothes. “Here—wrap yourselves up!” she called above the racket of the firefighters and their radios.

Zanna rushed over to help Maggie and Becky, hugging them as she asked what had happened. Barbara dropped her bag to embrace Adah while Abby wrapped the poor woman in an afghan. “Are you burned anywhere?”

“No, we got out through the windows,” Adah rasped. Her face was blackened from smoke and her loose hair blew wildly around her shivering body. “We were all sleeping and next thing I knew, the girls were thundering down the stairs screaming about a fire.”

Barbara was examining Adah’s face and hands while she listened. “Where’s Rudy, then?”

The stricken woman nodded toward the house before bursting into tears. “He’s over there helping the firemen, but—but—” She swiped at her face with the sleeve of her black coat. “Well, I couldn’t say this to
him
, but my first thought was that the Lord’s paying Rudy back for the way he ranted in church last week.”

Mamm threw an arm around her. “Now, Adah, don’t go thinking such things!” She crouched in the snow then, to ease a pair of Sam’s heavy socks over Adah’s cold bare feet.

“But it was so awful, the way he talked! He’s been impossible to live with ever since, until—well, I just don’t know what the girls and
I are going to do.” Adah buried her face in Barbara’s shoulder and sobbed. “He got so he didn’t trust the bank. A while back he pulled out all our money and—and—”

Abby’s stomach soured as she mentally finished that sentence.

“Don’t you worry about that,” Mamm insisted as she steered Adah toward the carriage. “Let’s get you back to the house, out of the weather. We’ll put you in Zanna’s room and figure everything out when you’re warm and settled.”

“You go on back with them,” Barbara agreed. “We’ll get rides with these other folks.”

“Zanna, you’d better come along,” Mamm called over her shoulder. “We can’t have you catching your death out here.”

“Gut idea.” Barbara put a no-nonsense arm around Zanna’s shoulders. “You’ve got a couple of friends who could use an ear right now. Denki for coming along to be their blessing.”

Abby could see her little sister wasn’t too keen on leaving, but Zanna knew she’d been outvoted. After the carriage left the driveway, Barbara went around checking the men for injuries while Abby poured fresh water into plastic cups for them. The fireman in the suspended bucket had drenched the house enough to keep the blaze from spreading to the barns, and the other high-pressure hoses had almost doused what flames remained.

As Abby stood beside Matt, Sam, and James, she asked, “Did any of you hear what caused the fire?” The wind nearly blew her words away, so she leaned closer to James as he sipped his drink. He smelled of sweat and smoke, and his eyes were bloodshot in his sooty face.

James shook his head sadly. “The fire marshal will have to figure that one out. But when your house and buggies are gone, and the stuff you’ve had all your life, it doesn’t much matter how it started.”

“We saved his herd, though,” Sam remarked. He downed a whole glass of water in a few gulps before wiping his face on his coat sleeve. “Rudy swears he’s not leaving the place. He says they can live
in the barn, so he can keep up with the milking while they figure out what to do next.”

“Sam, that’s crazy talk.” Abby shivered just thinking about Adah and the girls—or anyone—staying in a barn with the cattle, in December. “They’ve got no way to cook, and no clothes or—”

“Jah, he’s half out of his head. I was thinking he wasn’t quite right when he was acting out at church.” Her brother glanced around at the fellows who were winding up the hoses. “Did I see Mamm taking Adah and the girls home with her?”

“Jah. She told them they could have Zanna’s room.”

Sam nodded. “I’ll tell Vernon about how Rudy’s planning to rough it out here… see if the bishop can’t convince that fella to come in out of the cold—in more ways than one.” Her brother’s expression sobered. “I can’t help wondering if he might have caused the fire—either on purpose, for some desperate, crazy reason, or because he got careless. Or just mad. He’s been awful hotheaded lately.”

“Zanna had the same thought.”

James’s eyes widened as he surveyed the watery heap that had once been the Ropp farmhouse. Embers still glowed here and there, and steam rose from the ruins. “If the inspector points a finger at Rudy, things will get a lot worse before they get better. It’s probably a gut thing you got his family tucked away safe.”

“Lots of things to consider.” Sam handed Abby his glass. “I’ll see you at home, sister. We’ve done all we can do until daylight.”

Zanna sat at the window of Abby’s spare room, looking out into the cold, starry night. As she brushed her hair, images of the fire refused to leave her mind… the brightest glaring orange she’d ever seen giving off such intense heat… the fluttering of fabric and paper scraps that glowed around the edges as the wind whisked them off… the terror on Adah’s face as she said they had no money in the bank.

The Ropp girls hadn’t said much during the ride back, but Zanna
knew how it hurt to need so much help from other people… how their dat’s behavior in church had exposed more than they’d wanted folks to know. They were still in shock from watching as their home was swallowed up by those raging flames, but soon enough the hammer would hit the nail.

Had all of Rudy and Adah’s savings been stashed away in that house? What had happened to Jonny’s dat, that he’d turned in on himself and couldn’t trust the bank—and had nothing but mean, critical words to say to his wife and daughters?

Before she’d made a conscious decision about it, Zanna’s feet were taking her back down the hall. She shrugged into her coat. It was crazy, thinking Jonny would answer his phone at this hour—or believing her call would influence him—but somebody had to tell him about his family’s catastrophe. Even if he’d vowed never to return to Cedar Creek, maybe he’d pass the word and his brother, Gideon, would respond to the news differently.

And maybe he’ll punch the
ERASE
button when he hears the sound of your voice. Not like he’s ever called you back after last time…

Zanna hurried down the long, snowy lane, burning with the certainty that she had to do
something
for the three women staying at Sam’s. Adah Ropp might not be her favorite person, but maybe… maybe Jonny’s critical, busybody mamm had been trying to help her by insisting that the father of this baby be held accountable. Amazing, how six weeks spent mostly by herself had changed her thinking.

She slipped into the little white shanty and shut the door against the bitter wind. Before she lost her nerve, Zanna punched the numbers… waited during the first ring, and the second one, knowing Jonny probably had his cell phone turned off at this predawn hour.

“Yeah—hey, it’s Jonny Ropp. If you want a ride to town—or need a driver for long-distance trips—I’m your guy!” his recorded greeting said in that breezy way he had.

Once again the sound of his voice did crazy things to her. The
baby kicked her, and she nearly slammed down the receiver before the
beep
prompted her to record her message.

“I— Jonny, it’s Zanna, and you’ve got to come home,” she said into the phone. “Your house just burned to the ground. Your mamm and sisters are staying at Sam’s, and… well, we’re thinking all their money got lost in the fire, too, and—just do the right thing, okay?” she added in a faltering voice. “You and Gideon and the girls are all your folks have now.”

She hung up, feeling scared and nervous yet exhilarated. Maybe Jonny wouldn’t call back, but she’d sent him word, hadn’t she? She’d done what she could to help friends who couldn’t help themselves.

Zanna stepped out of the phone shanty, noting the edge of crimson-peach along the horizon. As she hurried toward Abby’s house, the fierce wind blew her hair back from her face; she hadn’t bothered with a bonnet because it was a nuisance while talking on the phone.

Just for a moment, she recalled the same sensation of freedom—the sense of dangerous, delicious exhilaration—she’d felt while riding on the back of Jonny’s Harley with her hair down, the last time she’d seen him… the way her body had tingled whenever he’d held her hand as they’d walked through the moonlit countryside so many nights with the crickets serenading them. Jonny Ropp’s smile and sweet affection, all those evenings they’d slipped away together, had proven that beneath his handsome bad-boy mask, he was more gentle and sincere than folks knew, despite the way he’d left Cedar Creek.

Just for a moment, Zanna allowed herself to admit she was crazy in love with that fellow even if it would come to nothing. She slipped back into her little room at Abby’s and slept better than she had in weeks.