A Dream for Hannah (39 page)

In front of such a small group of people, Hannah could breathe with ease. With Jake beside her, it wasn’t nearly as hard to endure as that sad day back in Nappanee. Here in Montana only a few of the invited relatives could attend due to the distance involved. That also left only the home ministers to perform the ceremony.

Minister Mose Chupp spoke first, and then Bishop Nisley gave the main sermon. Figuring it was her day, Hannah paid little attention to what they said as she kept a demure watch on Jake.

“And now will this brother and sister please come forward if they still desire to be joined together as man and wife,” Bishop Nisley said at the conclusion of his sermon as he motioned with his hand.

Jake rose first, and then Hannah followed him. She said
“jah”
at all the right places, unable to believe this was really happening and not just a dream.

Then Bishop Nisley took both of their hands in his and smiled. She was certain it wasn’t a dream as she heard his voice proclaim, “And now I pronounce you man and wife by the will of God and the authority of the state of Montana.”

He let go of their hands, and Hannah clung to Jake’s hand lest he disappear before her eyes. When he moved back to sit down, she followed. Someone from the back announced the last song number.

As the music began for the last song, tears swelled in Hannah’s eyes. She dared to take a quick glance at Jake only to find tears streaking his face too. Then he turned to her and smiled.

And he wasn’t a dream at all. He was very real.

Discussion Questions

   1. Was Hannah wrong in becoming so starry-eyed when she first found the love poem?

   2. Is the pressure Hannah felt in grade school to have a boyfriend universal, or is it only a Western phenomenon?

   3. Are there better ways in which Hannah could have resisted Peter’s charms?

   4. What additional methods could Kathy and Roy have used to help Hannah overcome her guilt at Peter’s death?

   5. Have you ever considered a trip to Montana and its combination of big sky country and mountains?

   6. Hannah experienced emotional healing while working around Betty’s horses. Do you know of anyone in pain who could benefit from a similar experience?

   7. Jake struggles with his own hurts from being rejected, and it played a large part in his misunderstanding of Hannah. Are there better ways of dealing with hurts, so that overreactions can be avoided?

   8. What caused Hannah to believe that because she found a suitor unattractive, it was possibly closer to God’s will?

   9. Betty makes a lot of assumptions about her sister Kathy’s desires for Hannah’s future. Was she just a poor communicator, or too wrapped up in her own world?

 10. Do you think Jake would have gotten over his bitterness and wanderings, if Hannah and Betty had not met him on the bus?

About Jerry Eicher…

As a boy,
Jerry Eicher
spent eight years in Honduras where his grandfather helped found an Amish community outreach. As an adult, Jerry taught for two terms in parochial Amish and Mennonite schools in Ohio and Illinois. He has been involved in church renewal for 14 years and has preached in churches and conducted weekend meetings of in-depth Bible teaching. Jerry lives with his wife, Tina, and their four children in Virginia.

If you enjoyed
A Dream for Hannah,
be sure
to look for the sequel,
A Hope for Hannah.

One

from
A Hope for Hannah

Hannah Byler awoke with a start. She sat upright in bed and listened. The wind outside the small cabin stirred in the pine trees. The moon, already high in the sky when she and Jake went to bed, shone brightly through the log cabin window.

Beside her she heard Jake’s deep, even breathing. She had grown accustomed to the comforting sound in the few short months since they’d been married. She laid her head back on the pillow. Perhaps it was just her imagination. There was no sound—nothing to indicate something might be wrong.

But now her heart beat faster—and fearfully. Something
was
wrong—but
what?

“Jake,” she whispered, her hand gently shaking his shoulder. “Jake,
vagh uff.”

“What is it?” he asked groggily. He spoke louder than she wished he would at the moment.

“I don’t know,” she whispered again and hoped he would get the hint. “I think there’s something outside.”

Jake listened and sat up in bed with his arms braced on the mattress.

“I don’t hear anything,” he said, a little quieter this time. “There are all kinds of noises in the mountains at night.”

“I think something is outside,” she insisted.

They both were silent a moment…waiting. Hannah half expected Jake to lower his head back to his pillow, tell her the fears were a bad dream, and go back to sleep. Instead he pushed back the covers and pivoted his feet to the floor.

Just then a loud snuff outside the log wall stopped him. They both froze. Hannah didn’t recognize the sound. No animal she knew ever made such a noise.

“It sounds like a pig,” Jake said, his voice low. “What are pigs doing out here at nighttime?”

“It’s not a pig,” Hannah whispered back. No stray pig, even in the nighttime, could create such tension. “It’s something else.”

“But what?” Jake asked, the sound coming again, seemingly right against the log wall.

Hannah lay rigid, filled with an overpowering sense that something large and fierce stood outside.

“I’m going to see.” Jake had made up his mind, and Hannah made no objection.

Jake felt under the bed for his flashlight and then moved toward the door. Somehow Hannah found the courage to follow but stayed close to Jake.

Their steps made the wooden floor creak, the only sound to be heard.

Jake slowly pulled open the wooden front door, his flashlight piercing the darkness as he moved it slowly left and then right.

“Nothing here,” he said quietly and then stepped outside.

Hannah looked around Jake toward the edge of the porch. “It was around the corner,” she whispered.

Jake walked slowly toward the corner of the house, but Hannah stayed on the porch near the front door.

Jake stopped momentarily and then stepped around the corner of the house. Hannah could only see a low glow from the flashlight. In the distance, by the light of the moon, the misty line of the Cabinet Mountains accented the utter ruggedness of this country. During the day, the sight still thrilled her, but now that same view loomed dangerously.

For the first time since they’d moved into the cabin after their wedding, Hannah wondered whether this place was a little too much for the two of them. Was a remote cabin, a mile off the main road, and up this dirt path into the foothills of the Cabinet Mountains, really what she wanted?

“It’s a bear!” Jake’s voice came from around the corner. “Come take a look—quick—before he’s gone.”

“Gone,” she whispered.

“Come see!” Jake’s urgent voice came again.

Again Hannah found courage from somewhere. She stepped around the corner of the house and let her gaze follow the beam of Jake’s flashlight, which now pierced the edge of the clearing around their cabin. At the end of the beam, a furry long-haired bear—as large as the one she’d seen once at the zoo—stood looking back at them, its raised head sniffing the air.

“It’s a grizzly,” Jake said, excitement in his voice. “See its hump?”

“Then why are we out here?” Hannah asked, nearly overcome with the urge to run, desperate for solid walls between her and this huge creature.

“The men at the lumberyard said there aren’t many around,” Jake said in her ear. “Mostly black bears down in this area.”

“Shouldn’t we be inside?” she asked the question another way, pulling on his arm. “It’s not going away.”

“It will leave sooner if we stay in sight rather than go inside,” he told her, his light playing on the creature whose head was still in the air and turned in their direction.

“Well, I’m going inside,” she said, her courage now wholly depleted.

“It’s going,” Jake announced, so she paused. They watched, fascinated, as the great creature bobbed its head and disappeared into the woods.

“It’s gone,” Jake said, a bit disappointed. “That was a grizzly.”

They turned back to the cabin, Hannah following Jake’s lead. As they stepped onto the porch, Hannah considered their front door. Suddenly the solid slat door—so bulky before—now looked thin, an unlikely protection against the hulk that had just disappeared into the dark tree line.

“What if it comes back?” she asked.

“It won’t. It’s just passing through,” he assured her. “They don’t like humans. They’re wanderers anyway. It’ll probably not come this way again. Ever.”

Not reassured, Hannah shut the door tightly behind them and pushed the latch firmly into place.

“Bears hang around,” she told him. “This one could come back.”

“Then we’ll deal with it. Maybe the game warden can help. I doubt it will return, though.” Jake was fast losing interest and ready for his bed again.

Jake snuggled under the covers, pulling them tight up to his chin. “These are cold nights,” he commented. “Winter’s just around the corner. I have to get some sleep.”

Hannah agreed and pulled her own covers up tight. Jake’s job on the logging crew involved hard manual labor that required a good night’s sleep. She didn’t begrudge him his desire for sleep.

“I sure hope it doesn’t come back,” she said finally.

“I doubt it will,” he muttered, but Hannah could tell he was already nearly asleep.

To the sounds of Jake’s breathing, she lay awake and unable to stop her thoughts. Home, where she had grown up in Indiana, now seemed far away, a hazy blur against the fast pace of the past few months.

What is Mom doing?
she wondered.
No doubt she’s comfortably asleep in their white two-story home, secure another night just like the night before and ready to face another day just like the day before.

Thoughts of her earlier summers in Montana—tending to Aunt Betty’s riding stable—pushed into her mind. This country had seemed so glorious then, and she had dreamed of her return.

First had come the wedding—she smiled in the darkness. After a flurry of letters and Jake’s visits as often as he could, Betty had received her wish for a wedding in Montana. Hannah’s mother realized it was for the best. After the plans for Hannah’s wedding to Sam Knepp ended in a disaster back home in Indiana, there was no way either Roy or Kathy would go through that embarrassment again. Even Jake was in favor of the wedding in Montana—here where they had met.

Their hearts were here in Montana now—close to the land and the small Amish community just off the shadow of the Cabinet Mountains. But now Hannah asked herself if living out here in the middle of nowhere was really for their best. Then she was thankful that at least she was with Jake—better here with Jake than anywhere else without him.

But as she lay in the darkness unable to sleep, she found herself wishing for close neighbors. She wished she could get up now and walk to the front door, knowing that someone else lived within calling distance—or at least within running distance if it came to that. Now, with a bear around, a night wanderer with mischief on his mind, there was nowhere to go. She shuddered.

She wondered if she could outrun a bear, even if a neighbor’s house stood close by. She pictured herself lifting her skirt for greater speed. How fast could bears run? Could they see well at night to scout out their prey?

Hannah shivered in the darkness and listened to Jake’s even breathing, wondering how he could sleep after what they had just seen. A grizzly! Jake had been sure of it. A grizzly sniffing around their cabin, outside their bedroom wall. Why was Jake not more alarmed? He had even seemed fascinated…as if it didn’t bother him at all.