“I’m lookin’ forward to us working together.” Lena added that Mimi was upstairs for a while and wouldn’t be able to hear them, wanting Rebekah to feel completely relaxed and not worried that she would have an eavesdropper. “The front room’s all ours.” Lena led the way and suggested Rebekah sit in a chair where the light came in from the window behind her.
“The more sunlight, the better,” Rebekah said with a smile.
Before they got started, Lena asked if Rebekah would like some coffee or hot cocoa.
“Denki, but nee . . . I’m all set.”
“And I’m ready, too,” Lena said, giving McGuffey’s Pictorial Eclectic Primer to Rebekah, apologizing for its somewhat childish bent.
Rebekah studied the book’s cover. “This looks like the first reader I had in school, many years ago.”
Lena perked up her ears. “Starting with something easy like this will give you confidence,” she told her.
But Rebekah seemed intent on talking about other things. “Alas, my Mamm was sickly back when I was a schoolgirl, and I was the only daughter still at home after a whole slew of brothers, so I missed a lot of school. It fell to me to help Mamm.”
Lena listened, intrigued.
“And I was mighty shy, too. Nearly afraid to speak even when the teacher would have me read aloud in a group with the other pupils in my grade.”
Lena was getting a better picture of things. “Did ya ever tell anyone? Your Mamm, maybe? Or the teacher?”
“Nee. After a time, I got better at mingling in with the other readers, movin’ my mouth when they would read, knowin’ that even when I could sound out the words, I couldn’t keep up.” Rebekah sighed. “By the time I was older, I was needed more at home, so I went from the schoolhouse to my mother’s kitchen, helpin’ every which way I could.”
Lena sensed her frustration.
“My own children, as they were growin’ up, prob’ly thought I wasn’t interested in reading to them, so it’s been an embarrassment, to be sure,” Rebekah told her.
“Well, you’re here now.”
Rebekah’s smile at that was sheer pleasure to Lena.
“Let’s get started,” Lena said, eager to see how challenging this would be. She asked Rebekah to read the first line from the page she’d selected. Rebekah went slowly, stumbling over a few of the words but doing fine with the simplest ones. After that, Lena asked her to read it several more times, and on the fourth time, she read along with Rebekah, this time slightly faster. They repeated that approach with each new line. At last, Rebekah had to stop for a moment. “No one’s ever taken time to do this with me.” She sighed audibly. “I really want this to work.”
They read together for a full hour, sounding out the more difficult words together as they came up. As she prepared to leave, Rebekah looked at Lena, tears springing up in her eyes. “I never dreamed I’d have the chance to learn to read English better.”
“Let’s make that your goal,” Lena said, not wanting to promise the sun and the moon. At the same time, she certainly did not want to throw a damper on the woman’s enthusiasm, either.
———
Later, when the postal truck arrived, Lena quickly pulled on her coat and scarf and scurried out to the road, anxious to see if there were any letters from home. What was it about the landscape of home that stirred up her heart and captured her mind? It was so much easier now to appreciate the life she’d once had.
She let out a joyful jah when she saw several letters from Michigan—all of her siblings had written—and so had Mammi Schwartz.
And there were two from Hans!
Oh, she could scarcely wait to see him over Christmas. They were making plans by mail to attend a couple of youth-related activities during the holiday, as well as spend some time with Hans’s family.
So very soon!
CHAPTER
13
That evening, Lena and Mimi sat in companionable silence in the small sitting room between the kitchen and the large front room, working on a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle of a snowy farmland scene. Harley had left the house to help his eldest son, Aaron, with an equipment repair.
After a time, Mimi moved to the comfortable chair and began her knitting while Lena continued to find pieces that fit along the puzzle’s border. Mimi’s knitting needles flew as she worked, the clicking pattern a familiar rhythm as Lena worked on the puzzle, making good progress even on her own, considering she was used to doing these big puzzles with her brothers and sisters.
Later, feeling homesick, Lena went to sit across from Mimi and leisurely reread her letters, relishing the recent one from Mammi, a portion of it dictated to her by Chris. I can’t wait to see you at Christmas, Lena Rose. I miss you! The words warmed her heart and caused a lump in her throat. The letter continued with Chris telling about his part in the school’s Christmas Eve play. I’m going to be a shepherd boy in the manger scene, Mammi had written for him. Dawdi’s letting me use one of his canes for my staff. I’m mighty glad you’ll be here to see the play!
She reread the letter from Wilbur, too. He’d written that she’d be surprised at how much the younger boys were growing in her absence. Especially the twins and Chris.
Mimi’s lips were pursed tightly as she concentrated on the next row of knitting. “It won’t be long now and you’ll be home for Christmas, Lena Rose.”
“Jah, in about three weeks,” Lena said, wondering how soon to purchase a bus ticket. And Hans was planning to meet her at the bus depot. Oh, she could scarcely wait!
She went over to add another piece to the puzzle, then gazed out the nearby window at the gray sky, a contrast to the white landscape below. The prayer bench and rose trellises were now solidly covered in snow. Where does
