The Path to Piney Meadows Read online

  “Nein,” she muttered, trying to keep her eyes open.

  “If you want, I can take you straight home.”

  She shook her head. “Nein. I must go clean up. Lois did so much work, she did not have time to clean up the mess before the party.” She forced one eye open to watch Chad as he put the car into gear and started to drive. “I do not know why you are doing this, but I am very glad for your help. I am hoping we will be finished by the time Lois returns home. She has worked so hard. It will be good for her heart to come home to a clean kitchen.” Lois would not sleep until her kitchen was perfect, even though she had to get up early for the church service Sunday morning.

  Chad shrugged his shoulders. “It wouldn’t bother me. I’d leave it until the next day. But if it would bother Lois, then I want to help. She really made this all happen without a hitch.”

  As he drove, once again Anna felt herself starting to doze.

  She barely registered the sound of the glove box opening and closing, but then some music started to play. “This will help keep you awake,” Chad said as he turned up the volume.

  It wasn’t loud, and the singer’s voice was reasonably pleasant, but the heavy drumbeat and booming bass line prevented her from falling asleep. She opened her eyes and stared at the knobs, trying to decide if she should let the music annoy her to full wakefulness or try to figure out how to turn the volume down.

  Beside her, Chad grinned. “Not my favorite band, but it’s good driving music, so I thought it would wake you up.”

  Since it wasn’t so loud they couldn’t talk, she decided to leave it be. Since its purpose was to keep them both awake, it was certainly doing its job.

  She turned to him. “I am very surprised that you helped Lois with her cooking.” She was almost more surprised that Lois allowed him to help, but then, they all had so much to do, Lois couldn’t turn down anyone’s help, even a man’s. “All the other men were at the church, moving tables and setting up the banquet room.”

  Chad shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, but there were certainly enough of them doing that without me. I wanted to help where it was needed the most. Besides, I like cooking more than I like moving furniture.”

  Anna frowned. “I have never seen a man cook. I know that Ted made many of his own meals, but I saw what he brought for lunch. He would make sandwiches for lunch, or he would bring leftovers made by someone else. He has never cooked like you. Until he met Miranda, when he returned to us from college many of the mamas invited him for dinner hoping that he would marry their daughters. Then they always gave him food to take home.”

  Chad’s eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened. “I cook my own meals, and I do just fine.”

  Anna froze at his reaction. While she’d been on the phone organizing all the details, she’d been unable to help Lois. But without asking, Chad had immediately stepped in to work. Instead of waiting for a step-by-step of what to do, he’d required no assistance other than initial instruction on how to prepare things that were unfamiliar to him. He’d chopped, mixed, and even kneaded the dough for the buns. He even knew how to pinch off pieces of dough to shape the buns properly.

  Everyone had thought it odd that when Miranda came from the cities she was a terrible cook. Eventually Lois had helped teach her to do fairly well in the kitchen, but this had not been an easy task. Now they had another person from the cities who was exactly the opposite. Chad was an excellent cook—in fact, he was a better cook than Anna.

  Which was rather humiliating.

  “It is odd for a man to cook like this. I do not understand.”

  “I’ve been on my own for a while. It’s not a big deal.”

  She turned to watch him as he concentrated on driving through a drift of snow that had blown across the road. He now wore his new coat, but beneath it he was sharply dressed. Not only were his clothes well-chosen and well-fitted, they had been neatly pressed. Yet no one selected his clothes nor had anyone done his ironing.

  After the banquet, many of the single ladies had gathered around him. He’d impressed many people with his smile and fine manners as well as his good looks. All night he’d moved from group to group, talking to many people. Everyone seemed to like him, even elderly Mr. Reinhart. This man from the cities charmed everyone he spoke to.

  Even Fidette, Lois’s dog, liked him. She’d seen him sneaking Fidette bits of food when Lois wasn’t watching.

  All feelings of sleepiness fled. “Do you like it here in Piney Meadows?”

  His jaw tightened even more. “Yeah. I do. All the people here seem like good folks. I have to admit this is like no place I’ve ever been. Sometimes I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone, and in a flash I’m going to find myself back in my old office, listening to Gary tell me I’ve got to work another weekend.”

  She blinked. “What kind of zone?”

  “Never mind. You wouldn’t get the reference. My point is, this is so different from what I’m used to, and it makes me certain I’ve done the right thing. Everyone here seems so honest and . . . nice. What you see is what you get, if that makes any sense.”

  It did. Her people carried no deceit in their hearts. Hearing him say it, though, told her this was not the way of the people he knew, and it made her heart ache.

  It was good he felt he would be content to live in Piney Meadows, but he hadn’t been here long. Only today had he met everyone in her church, without spending much time with anyone in particular. Talking at a banquet was not the same as living within a community. The more time she spent with him, the more she could see that he did not fit in here—from his habits to his clothes, right down to the horrible music he listened to. Yet, he liked it here.

  Just as she needed his help to learn how to find a job in the cities, he needed her help to learn how to fit in with her people in Piney Meadows.

  He stopped his car in front of Lois and Leonard’s house and turned off the engine. As he opened his door, he paused and turned to her. “If you’re tired, I can take you home. You don’t need to help me clean the kitchen.”

  She shook her head. “I want to help. We must be fast, and finish before they get home. If we are not done, Lois will tell you to leave the kitchen and she will do all the work herself.”

  One eyebrow quirked. “Herself? What about Leonard?”

  Leonard was a kind man, but he would not do women’s work.

  Chad certainly had much to learn, and she was going to be the one to teach him.

  After they did the dishes.

  10

  Chad stopped typing as Anna walked into his office with yet another cup of coffee. He’d always been a heavy coffee drinker, but since he’d started here, his consumption had probably doubled. As he looked up and thanked her, he pushed the coaster away from his mouse pad, already accustomed to her routine.

  Very gently, she set the mug down onto the coaster when it was an acceptable distance from his keyboard. Of course, he’d move it back when she left.

  “You are smiling again,” she said as she backed up a step.

  After last night, it seemed he couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah. I can’t believe this is real. It’s even legal.”

  Anna’s brows knotted. “Why would this not be legal? Ted can do whatever he wants with his house. He has wanted to sell it to you.”

  Chad felt his grin widen. Soon he would be the owner of his very own house, complete with his very own mortgage. He’d signed all the papers that Ted had brought with him at the airport. Since Chad had brought Anna along to give her a quick tour of the city before they headed back to Piney Meadows, she’d signed as a witness before Ted and Miranda needed to go into the boarding area.

  On the way home he’d given Anna a quick tour of the downtown and the surrounding area, then headed back to Piney Meadows. They’d talked about the city for about half the trip, until Anna fell asleep, and he drove the rest of the way home in silence.

  Home. This place was now his home. For the first three months, Chad would be paying Ted a ve
ry reasonable rent, and then after three months, after his probationary period at work was over, his rent turned into mortgage payments, with Ted holding the mortgage and no bank involved.

  He stirred the coffee and looked back up at Anna, who had not moved from beside his desk. “Where I come from, when you get a mortgage from a person rather than the bank it’s typically called a ‘granny mortgage.’ Usually it’s a family member whose house is already paid for and they have enough disposable income to live comfortably, so they can afford to have the principle tied up while payments are made.”

  “But that is the way of everyone here. Most of the time it is family who will help with the house and it is always people who live here who do the building, so the cost is very reasonable.”

  He knew a few people back in Minneapolis who had subcontracted their own homes, although businesses, not friends and family, were hired to do the construction. In the end, every one of them had come up with more difficulties and costs than expected and said they’d never do it again. “That’s really good, but I can’t believe that Ted wouldn’t need the money from this house to buy another house in Seattle. Although I don’t know if the price he gave me on this house would even cover his down payment for a house in Seattle. Or Minneapolis, either.” As often as he could, he intended to double up on his payments, both to give Ted some extra money and to get it paid off sooner.

  In some ways, he was going to miss the big city for all the amenities, but last night, signing the legal documents, everything changed. As he fell asleep he’d felt a contentment he’d never known before. Soon the home in which he now lived would be his castle, and in that castle, he was safe. Safe from lies, deceit, and the one-upmanship that had become so much a part of his daily life he didn’t know how miserable he’d been until he found himself at a distance, looking back.

  Realistically, he would never be rich, but he could be comfortable. His salary here was lower, but his living expenses were less than half of what they’d been in Minneapolis. The mortgage payments for an entire house and a huge yard were significantly lower than what he’d been paying for rent. Also, he’d be saving a small fortune on the cost of gas, especially if he continued to walk to work and back with Anna.

  He’d even thought of taking the insurance off the car and leaving it parked for a few months, but that seemed a little too extreme.

  Still, with or without the car, he could be happy with this laid-back lifestyle.

  Anna joined her hands in front of her tummy. “I wonder when they will come back for a visit.”

  “I don’t know. I think whenever Ted can get some time off work they plan to go somewhere exciting for a real honeymoon. I saw both of them picking up brochures for Hawaii at the airport. When he thought we weren’t watching, I saw him kissing Miranda behind his hat.” Even now, the thought amused him. It wasn’t as if no one would know what they were doing, using Ted’s hat to hide from prying eyes as he kissed his new bride. Stuff like that didn’t matter in the middle of a busy airport. In fact, he’d seen a lot of things over the years at the airport that should have been done in private. But he’d learned quickly that Piney Meadows was a very reserved community of very old-fashioned values and would never approve of couples kissing in public, even married couples.

  Anna nodded. “I saw them, too. I must return to my work.” Without any further comment she turned and disappeared through his office door and back to her desk.

  Chad continued typing but had to stop when he needed more information to calculate some expenses. He stood, and leaning over his monitor, he looked through his office door at Anna, who was sitting at her desk, diligently typing.

  She’d been trying so hard to improve her typing, he didn’t want to disturb her. Instead of calling for her to get the figures he needed, he walked to the filing cabinet and pulled open the drawer.

  As he reached for the file he needed, a sniffle sounded behind him.

  He spun around. “Anna? What’s wrong? Are you crying?”

  She sniffled, then reached for a tissue to blow her nose. “It is nothing. I am fine.”

  “Are you sure? Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head.

  He waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. She just kept typing.

  “Okay. I’m going back into my office now.” But he didn’t move; instead he continued to watch her.

  She nodded and resumed typing without turning.

  With Brittany, he’d learned the hard way—when she said she didn’t want to talk about something, she really did. But with Anna, everything she said, she really meant. His gut burned to ask her what was wrong, but his brain said to listen to her words, so he went back to his own office as he’d said.

  He’d barely finished his report when Anna returned. No evidence of tears marred her face. It was almost as if he’d imagined it, but he knew he hadn’t.

  “Now you have signed papers to make you the owner of the house, does it mean you intend to become a permanent resident of Piney Meadows?”

  He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest. This kind of lead-up to a conversation sounded ominous, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for it. He didn’t want to come down from the high he was currently feeling. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time, and he wasn’t ready for it to end. “Yes,” he muttered and waited.

  She cleared her throat. “Please forgive me for saying this, but even more than Miranda, your ways are of the cities.”

  He stiffened and frowned. “That’s right. I’ve only been outside of Minneapolis a couple of times.” Just like she’d only been outside of Piney Meadows a couple of times, and one of those times had been yesterday, with him.

  “Then you will need to learn more about our people and living in Piney Meadows. You have been very kind to help me improve my typing. I would like to help you settle in to living in Piney Meadows.”

  He sat back and considered Anna’s offer, and what she was really saying. Until Sunday, he’d been busy concentrating on his new job and enjoying the peace at night. He hadn’t really thought about day-to-day living once the snow melted and he would be interacting more with the people in this community. He didn’t know what they normally did when they could go outside without worrying about freezing to death.

  Once, Anna had mentioned fishing. He’d never been fishing in his life. He went to the market to buy fresh fish with their innards scooped out and ready to season and throw on the barbecue. Every day, he realized a little more just how rural and isolated this community was. At the wedding reception he’d talked as much as he could to as many people as he could. He didn’t know how it happened, but by the end of the evening, he’d found himself surrounded by single women.

  He’d done his best to be polite, but he hadn’t managed to escape to join the circle of men on the other side of the room.

  Yesterday, at the church service, the enormity of his new situation had finally hit home. He’d realized he truly was one city mouse in a field of country mice. Monday to Friday, here at the factory he was the boss, and everyone respected him as such. But on the weekend, he was supposed to be just another resident of Piney Meadows, and he felt lost. Even though many had tried to include him in their conversations, he couldn’t relate to very much of what had been said.

  In order to make this gentle community his home, he needed to learn their ways, with or without cable television, and participate in the lifestyle. After all, their lifestyle drew him to this place.

  He leaned forward and folded his hands on the desktop. “I’m going to take you up on it, but I don’t think you realize how much you’re offering. I’ve got a lot to learn, both about living the rural life and about your Mennonite ways. If you can guide me through this, then I truly want to repay the favor. Instead of just helping you with your typing, I’m offering to tutor you through some online business courses. It will mean a couple of evenings a week and will have to be here at the office, where we can access the Internet and have two computers logge
d in at the same time.”

  Her brows knotted, and he could see she was thinking very seriously about both his offer and what he needed from her.

  “Ja. I think that would be of good benefit for both of us.”

  He extended one hand to shake on their agreement, but all she did was stare at it, like shaking hands was a foreign concept.

  He retracted his hand and again crossed his arms over his chest.

  Of course. Here she was a woman in a man’s world. She wasn’t going to shake hands with a man to seal the deal. He had her word, and her word was enough.

  He’d already learned something.

  “I’ll find a good starter course to get you going, and we’ll go from there.”

  “And I will help you meet people next Sunday, when everything is back to normal.”

  The need to shake hands burned in him, but he didn’t move. “Great. Now let’s get back to work.”

  Anna looked down at Chad’s Bible, which lay between them on the pew. He’d told her that he’d had it for years, yet when the congregation turned to the verses to follow along with Pastor Loewen’s sermon, she hadn’t seen any writing in the margins.

  None. Not a single note. From the condition of the cover, she could see that his Bible was not new, yet the pages were pristine, with hardly a wrinkle or crumpled page. Most of all, not a page had handwriting or notes of any kind.

  She’d never seen anything like it.

  Yet, he did know where the books were, even if he did find verses faster in the New Testament than in the Old.

  He sang well and he appeared to know most of the hymns; however, she also knew that he had taken guitar lessons and could read music.

  After Pastor’s closing prayer, most of the congregation rose to begin exiting the sanctuary. Instead of rising at the same time, Chad rested one hand on hers to keep her seated with him.

  “Let’s wait for a minute. On the way into the sanctuary, I noticed a lot of people watching me. Let’s give the place a chance to empty out a bit.”