Return to Paradise. Barbara Cameron
block and then started sewing it up. “My man wouldn’t talk to our minister and said counseling was for dummies. It was bad enough that he hit me, but when he hit my little boy I knew we had to leave.” She glanced around the room. “We came here.”
She finished sewing a seam, lifted the foot on the sewing machine, and pulled out the quilt block. After she clipped the thread she held the block up and examined it critically. “What do you think?” She handed it to Lavina.
“Good job,” she said. “Nice straight seams.”
Edna took it back and pinned another piece. “This is fun. How long you been quilting?”
“My mother gave me a piece of fabric and a needle and thread when I was five,” Lavina remembered. “I’ve been sewing ever since.”
Lavina moved on when Edna went back to work. When she saw that Kate sat at a table doing some handwork on a quilt, she approached her and quietly told her about Carrie’s dilemma.
“Pearl can help her with that,” Kate said cheerfully. “She’s started a clothes closet for the women for job interviews and such things. She put out a call to her female friends and there are some nice suits and dresses. I’ll tell Carrie before we leave today.”
The time flew by. It felt like they’d only been there a half hour, but before she knew it Kate began putting supplies back on the shelves. The women tucked their work in project boxes and stored them on shelves, saying goodbye as they left the room. Lavina checked the clock on the wall and saw that two hours had passed.
“I don’t need you to fix my life!” she heard Carrie shout.
Lavina spun around and saw Kate frowning as Carrie stomped out of the room.
Kate sighed. “That went well.” She carried the box of quilt blocks to the shelves and stored it, then turned to Lavina. “Ready to go?”
They walked outside and got into Kate’s car. Lavina waited until they were out onto the road headed home.
“I’m sorry Carrie yelled at you,” she said. “Should I have not told you what she said?”
Kate glanced at her briefly then focused on the road. “I get yelled at all the time. I’m a cop, remember? We’re not real popular.” She made a turn. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a difficult time for Carrie and the other women.”
They chatted about the class and soon Kate pulled into the drive of Lavina’s house.
“So,” she said, turning and meeting Lavina’s gaze. “Are you going to join us again next week?”
“I don’t know how much help I was.”
“You helped a lot. Don’t let Carrie scare you off. We never know how much we can help just by showing up ready to try.”
“Okay,” Lavina said. “I’ll be happy to.”
“Great.” Kate grinned. “See you next week.”
Chapter 4
4
Tell us all about the quilt class,” Mary Elizabeth said the minute the three of them gathered in the sewing room the next day. “How was it? Did you enjoy it?”
Lavina thought about it as she threaded a needle. “I did. The shelter is a big old house just outside town. You can’t tell it’s a shelter from the outside because they have to keep it secret that it’s where these women and children live to keep them safe.”
“That’s sad,” Rose Anna said, her forehead puckering as she thought about it. “I can’t imagine having to be afraid of my boyfriend or my husband when I have one.”
“Or having to worry about having a place to live or clothes and food for myself and my kinner,” Lavina said.
“Kate said sometimes the women have to leave their home with only the clothes on their back. Some of the women looked like they had so little.”
She remembered the worn jeans and faded shirt Carrie had worn and how she’d wondered what she’d wear to a job interview.
“But when I walked in the door it looked like a home,” she told them. “A group of women were sitting in the living room talking and a mother was feeding her boppli a bottle. Several kinner were watching television. A big yellow bird was talking about the alphabet and a blue puppet kept asking for cookies. It was called Sesame Street and the kinner were laughing and looking happy.”
She knotted the thread. “It looked very much like a home, a regular Englisch home. And the sewing room where we taught the class—well, where Kate taught it and I tried to help—was very much like this one.”
Picking up the quilt she’d been sewing, she smiled. “It made me feel good that the women and the kinner had a home after what Kate said they’d been through.”
Rose Anna frowned. “Is there anything we can do?”
“You want to help with the quilting classes?”
“Well, that wasn’t what I was thinking.” She turned as their mother came into the room and took a seat. “Mamm, I was wondering if we had some things we could donate to the shelter Lavina visited yesterday. You know how places like that always need things.”
“You mean some quilts?”
“I was thinking more like that fold-up trundle bed we haven’t used in years.”
“We could do that,” Linda said, looking thoughtful. “There might be some other things we can donate. Ask the person who runs the shelter what they need, and then we can let people at church know.”
“Allrecht.”
There was a knock on the front door. Linda went to see who it was.
“I guess it makes you thankful for what we have, doesn’t it?” Mary Elizabeth asked. “We have our parents, a warm home and good food, and our church.”
Lavina nodded. She started to speak but stopped when her mother returned to the room.
“David’s here to see you.”
“Danki.” She set the quilt she’d been sewing aside and hurried from the room.
She found David sitting on the sofa in the living room. He stood when she walked into the room.
“Could we go for a ride so we can talk?” He looked so serious.
“Allrecht,” she said. “I’ll get my jacket.” She grabbed up her jacket and bonnet and let her mother know she was leaving the house. When she walked outside with David she was surprised to see the Stoltzfus family buggy.
“Did you get rid of your truck?” she asked as she climbed into the buggy.
“Nee. Nellie needed exercising.”
She studied him as he checked traffic and pulled out onto the road. She wondered if the horse really needed exercise or if he’d taken the buggy because he missed the old family horse.
They rode for a time without speaking, the only sound the clip-clop of Nellie’s hooves on the road. The air was chilly, but she was warm enough in the buggy.
“I wanted to talk to you,” he said finally, not looking at her.
Another long pause followed. He found a place to pull over and turned to look at her. “I wanted to ask your forgiveness. I shouldn’t have left without seeing you first.”
“Nee, you shouldn’t have,” she said, trying to stay calm. “How could you?”
Before he could speak, the words poured out of her. “Do you know how I felt? I thought we meant something to each other.”
“We did.” He stared down at his hands, then looked up and stared at her. “Can you forgive me?”
“I’ve tried,”