The Crossroad Read online

  THE CROSSROAD

  By Beverly Lewis

  SEASONS OF GRACE

  The Secret • The Missing • The Telling

  ABRAM’S DAUGHTERS

  The Covenant • The Betrayal • The Sacrifice

  The Prodigal • The Revelation

  ANNIE’S PEOPLE

  The Preacher’s Daughter • The Englisher • The Brethren

  THE COURTSHIP OF NELLIE FISHER

  The Parting • The Forbidden • The Longing

  THE HERITAGE OF LANCASTER COUNTY

  The Shunning • The Confession • The Reckoning

  The Postcard • The Crossroad

  The Redemption of Sarah Cain

  October Song • Sanctuary* • The Sunroom

  The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook

  www.beverlylewis.com

  *with David Lewis

  The Crossroad

  Copyright © 1999

  Beverly Lewis

  Cover design by Dan Thornberg, Koechel Peterson & Associates

  Cover landscape photography by Angus Plummer

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  Published by Bethany House Publishers

  11400 Hampshire Avenue South

  Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

  Bethany House Publishers is a division of

  Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN 978-0-7642-0341-1

  * * *

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:

  Lewis, Beverly, date.

  The crossroad / by Beverly Lewis.

  p. cm.

  Sequel to: The postcard.

  ISBN 0-7642-2239-2

  ISBN 0-7642-2212-0 (pbk.)

  I. Title.

  PS3562.E9383 C76 1999

  813'.54—dc21 99–6719

  CIP

  * * *

  This book is lovingly dedicated

  to my parents,

  Herb and Jane (Buchwalter) Jones,

  whose zeal and devotion to God

  have both inspired and encouraged me

  throughout my life.

  Together, they pastored

  Glad Tidings Temple

  in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,

  during my growing-up years.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Author

  Prologue: Rachel Yoder

  Part One

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Part Two

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Part Three

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Beverly Lewis, born in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, fondly recalls her growing-up years. A keen interest in her mother’s Plain family heritage has led Beverly to set many of her popular stories in Lancaster County.

  A former schoolteacher and accomplished pianist, Beverly is a member of the National League of American Pen Women (the Pikes Peak branch). She is the 2003 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award at Evangel University, Springfield, Missouri. Her blockbuster novels The Shunning, The Confession, The Reckoning, and The Covenant have each received the Gold Book Award. Her bestselling novel October Song won the Silver Seal in the Benjamin Franklin Awards, and The Postcard and Sanctuary (a collaboration with her husband, David) received Silver Angel Awards, as did her picture book for all ages, Annika’s Secret Wish. Beverly and her husband make their home in the Colorado foothills.

  Prologue: Rachel Yoder

  All my life I’ve been drawn to wooded landscapes—thick green groves of maple and sycamore. And weeping willows, ’specially those growing alongside the creek bed. As a young girl, I often crept out of the house just as the sun’s glorious first rays peeped over distant hills, running lickety-split through dawn-tinted shadows of lofty tree umbrellas. Those early-morning ramblings, and the carefree way I felt in the midst of the woodland, gave me cause for living.

  Now, as a young widow and mother, I’m reasonably content to help my parents run the Orchard Guest House, instruct my six-year-old daughter, Annie, in the ways of the Lord—and the Beachy Amish church—and help out wherever I can amongst the People, doing my best to keep up with sewing, quilting, gardening, canning, cooking, and cleaning house with Mam, in spite of things being the way they are with my eyes.

  Here lately, I’ve begun to miss my morning run more than ever, but I daresn’t mention it to Mam or Dat, or they might start pressing me to pay a visit to Blue Johnny or one of the other powwow doctors in the area. Far as I’m concerned, that subject’s settled, ’cause at long last I know the whole story behind my great-uncle Gabe

  Esh—on account of an innocent little postcard, of all things. So I know in my heart of hearts, sympathy healing and Blue Johnny’s ‘‘black box’’ just ain’t for me. Not for any of us, really.

  Ach, such a time we’ve had here lately. On Thanks-giving Day my young nephew Joshua Beiler nearly drowned in the frigid pond back behind Bishop Glick’s house, where a wedding of one of the bishop’s granddaughters had just taken place. I ’spect Josh was just itchin’ to crack through the ice, knowin’ how Lizzie’s boy carries on sometimes.

  My Annie said Cousin Josh was ‘‘a-flailin’ and a-squealin’,’’ carrying on to beat the band about getting himself soaked and freezin’ cold. Well, it was nothing short of divine intervention that our Mennonite neighbor was out driving past the pond ’bout the time Josh skidded out of control and slammed through the surface into the frosty water below. Jah, the boy’s life was spared, and it’s a right gut thing, too, this side of Christmas and all.

  Back last week, we had us a time while some of the women were over at Lavina Troyer’s—my father’s distant cousin—butchering chickens. Honest to goodness, if one of the teenage boys—who was helping chop heads off, defeather, and char the birds—didn’t cut off one of his own fingers in the process. ’Course, someone had the presence of mind to wrap the finger, along with the missing piece, and hasten him off to the Community Hospital.

  Then yesterday our cocker spaniel puppy, Copper, knocked over the birdbath in the backyard, breaking several terra-cotta pots along the walkway. Mam scolded the poor thing up one side and down the other; really, ’twas a shame the way she laid into him. But that’s her way of handling most any conflicting situation—take the bull by the horns and show ’um who’s boss.

  Other than those mishaps, we’ve had a real pleasant autumn, I’d say. But just the other day, Mam remarked that she hated to see the ‘‘chillin’ winds come and benumb the posies.’’

  ’Course, I agreed with her, though I can’t actually see the nipped blossoms any more than I can make out my own little girl’s features, but I do remember how the early frost used to make bedding flowers turn dark and shrivel up.

  Mam and I, with some help from Annie,
who pushed up a kitchen chair to stand on, baked a batch of molasses cookies to serve to our B&B guests at our afternoon tea. We topped the morning off with a steamy mug of hot cocoa, and all the while Mam bemoaned the fact that snowy months were just around the corner.

  My heart feels more like the onset of springtime, though I don’t exactly know what’s come over me. Even little Annie seems to notice the bounce in my step. Mam, on the other hand, acts as though she’s downright put out with me, and if what I ’spect is true, she has it in her head that the fruit basket got upset back in September when a New York City journalist paid a visit here at the Orchard Guest House. I’ll have to admit, Philip Bradley did raise quite a ruckus, findin’ Gabe Esh’s love note the way he did. But I believe God put that old postcard in Philip’s hands, and, honestly, I don’t care what the People say or think, or anybody else for that matter. Out-and-out timely was his discovery of Great-Uncle Gabe’s story—hushed up under a covering of mystery far too long.

  “Rachel,” my father said to me last night at supper, “you have no idea what that New York fella did, comin’ and diggin’ up the past, finding Gabe’s note thataway. No idea a’tall.”

  Oh, but I did know. For sure and for certain, Philip was the best thing that had happened here in Bird-in-Hand in recent years, and whether or not the journalist ever returned to do research or write more Plain articles was beside the point. Fact was, he’d changed the entire landscape of a gut many lives. ’Specially mine.

  Part One

  ’Tis the gift to be simple,

  ’Tis the gift to be free,

  ’Tis the gift to come down

  Where we ought to be.

  And when we find ourselves

  In the place just right,

  ’Twill be in the valley

  Of love and delight.

  When true simplicity is gain’d

  To bow and to bend

  We shan’t be asham’d,

  To turn, turn will be our delight

  ’Til by turning, turning we come round right.

  —Shaker Hymn, 1848

  One

  Manhattan’s skyscrapers jeered down at him as he flung open the door of the cab and crossed the narrow, congested street. Behind him, yellow cabs zigzagged in and out of indefinable traffic lanes, blaring their horns. Side by side, late-model cars, shiny limousines, mud-splashed delivery trucks, and pristine tour buses waited for the light to change, exuding puffs of exhaust. Each contributing to the chaos typical of New York City’s business district.

  The glassed entrance to the Lafayette Building, where the editorial offices of Family Life Magazine were located on the thirty-fourth floor, revolved with an endless tide of humanity, ebbing and flowing.

  Pulling his overcoat against his tall lean frame, Philip Bradley pushed through the crush of the crowd, leaning into the bitter December wind. At the portico, he nodded to the Salvation Army volunteer ringing a small but mighty brass bell, the plinking of which added to the hubbub.

  “Merry Christmas,” he called to Philip, and the young journalist stuffed a five-dollar bill—his first contribution of the season—into the donation box.

  “Bless you,” the volunteer sang out.

  May the Lord bless you always… .

  The words had echoed in Philip’s brain these past months, and immediately his thoughts sped back to the unassuming and beautiful Plain woman he had met while staying at an Amish B&B in Lancaster County. A young widow with a delightful little daughter named Annie, Rachel Yoder lived in the quiet farming community of Bird-in-Hand. While on assignment for the magazine, he had gone to research Amish Christmas customs, staying—by mere chance, he’d thought at the time—at Rachel’s parents’ Orchard Guest House on Olde Mill Road.

  “May the Lord bless you always,” had been Rachel’s parting words, and the impact of her blessing and gracious Christian witness had resonated unceasingly in his mind. So much so that Philip had begun to read his Bible again, after years of indifference; even attended church services with his married sister and family, the very church he had once privately sneered.

  Inside the atrium-style lobby, businessmen and women bustled to and fro, their well-polished shoes clattering and scuffing against gleaming tiled corridors.

  The security guard addressed Philip with a nod and “Morning, Mr. Bradley.” He returned the smile and greeting, making his way toward the elevators, where a large cluster of people extended out to the atrium itself.

  Though not an impatient man, Philip glanced at his watch, wondering where he might’ve been in the earlymorning scheme of things if he hadn’t left his apartment twenty minutes earlier than usual. He made a mental note to give himself an extra ten tomorrow. It might help alleviate his increased feelings of stress, what with traffic surging in ever-increasing swells—weekly, it seemed.

  Philip shifted his briefcase, waiting for his turn in the elevator, recalling a recent predawn stroll—a ramble, he’d called it—while in Amish country. There had been something exceptional about that particular day; the memory lingered fondly in his mind. Something about the quietude, the beauty of witnessing the sun’s lustrous, silent rise over the horizon, breaking upon distant hills, spilling a rose-stained glow across the earth.

  Something ever so special, he thought, recalling an Amish expression. He couldn’t seem to shake the images and emotions of that singular short week, and he did not know why. Was it the tranquil, slower pace of things he longed for? The farm-fresh aroma of cows and soil?

  Philip found himself thinking of Rachel, missing her—though in a non-romantic sort of way, he was absolutely certain. They were worlds apart, and both he and Susanna Zook—Rachel’s determined mother—had recognized the all-important fact at precisely the same moment. Nevertheless, the enticing thoughts prevailed to the point that he had to shove them aside lest he not focus sufficiently on his journalistic assignments.

  “Bradley!” a man called through the crowd, standing a few feet from the elevator doors.

  “Hey, Henning,” Philip replied with a grin. Richard Henning was a lead photographer for the magazine. Red-haired and sporting a goatee, he was a brilliant artist, if not a little overzealous at times. But most New York photojournalists were known to be pushy and demanding. They had to be.

  “Just caught your Amish piece. Keep it up, and I’ll be working for you someday,” Henning said.

  “You could do worse,” Philip joked.

  The elevator door opened and they followed the crowd inside.

  Philip turned to Henning and whispered, “So … you liked my Christmas feature?”

  “Yeah, yeah, but the photos were weak. You didn’t give ’em much to work with. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Uh-oh. Here we go.” Philip chuckled.

  “No, this is good. Hear me out. I’m thinking about a photo essay … featuring the Amish.”

  At the mention of the Plain People, a number of heads turned. Henning dropped his voice. “I think we could get Farrar, Straus, and Giroux interested if you’re on board.”

  Philip cringed. Most likely, the young photographer had no knowledge of Plain folk and their ways, probably didn’t know they would shy away from being the subject of a photograph.

  The elevator doors opened at the thirty-fourth floor, and the mass of humanity poured out. He followed Henning past the law offices of Abrahms and Hampshire to the double doors of Family Life Magazine. They opened to an enormous room of congested cubicles housing busy writers and copy editors. The entire floor was abuzz with the low but steady hum of computers, ringing phones—cell and otherwise—and human voices, people scrambling here and there. Philip waved at several co-workers in his section, then turned to Henning and motioned to his cubicle.

  Henning started off in the opposite direction. “Give me a minute!” he shouted, and then he was gone.

  Philip’s writing space was clogged with vital paraphernalia: newspaper clippings, snatches of notes for interviews, email addresses,
and an occasional phone number. His computer stood ready, centered on his desk, a telephone off to the left, and his married sister’s family portrait—framed in oak—to the right of a wide red canister of pens and pencils. The picture included Janice, her light brown hair pulled back on one side, her tall blond husband, Kenneth, sporting a jovial smile, and their perky, flaxen-haired daughter, twelve-year-old Kari.

  A bespeckled brunette in a navy blue pantsuit knocked on his partition just as Philip was logging on to the computer. “Great piece, Phil.”

  Looking up, he smiled at Beth, a top-notch copy editor for the magazine. “Thanks … but you make me sound good.”

  “So, any truth to the rumor?” she asked, ignoring the kudo.

  Philip scratched his chin. “Okay, I’ll bite. What rumor?”

  “That you’re joining the Amish.” She stood at attention in the doorway, as though waiting for an answer.

  “My buggy permit hasn’t shown up in the mail yet. Until then, all plans are on hold.”

  Beth laughed. “Don’t ask me to ride with you.” She wiggled her fingers at him, then headed across the room.

  Philip turned back to his desk and thumbed through his Rolodex, locating the address for his late-afternoon interview. Congressman Thomason, New York state senator. A man who, at the age of fifty-eight, had become an adoptive father. The perfect feature for next June’s Father’s Day issue.

  Meanwhile, Henning had returned looking like a hungry puppy. He sat in a chair in the corner of the cubicle, slurping a cup of coffee and staring intently at Philip.

  “I know that look,” Philip said.

  Henning’s smile turned dubious. “So … I come up with these incredible ideas, and all you want to do is shoot them down. That’s what our friendship’s come to?”

  Philip sighed dramatically. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

  Henning’s smile broadened, and he affected his best Ross Perot impression. “Here’s the deal.”