Sarasota Dreams (52 page)

Mom took off a few minutes later, leaving Charles and Pop in the family room. Instead of turning on the television as he normally did, Pop turned to Charles. “Want to talk about tonight?”

Charles thought for a moment then shook his head. “Not really. I don’t have much to say.”

Pop smiled. “Yeah, we’ve pretty much said all we can for now, haven’t we?” He reached for a magazine on the end table.

Charles left Pop and went up to his room to study his lecture notes, but his heart wasn’t in the lessons. He had too many other things to think about.

An hour later Charles heard the sound of Mom pulling into the garage. He didn’t have to be asked to help unload the car. He was out the door before she got out of the car.

Once all the bags were inside, Charles helped her put everything away. He lifted the butter out of a bag and studied it. “When was the last time you bought real butter?”

Mom smiled. “I can’t remember. All I know is that food tastes much better with real butter, even though it does have way more calories than I should have.” She put an armload of things into the pantry. “I’ve noticed that the Mennonite women don’t even mention diets or calories, and most of them seem perfectly healthy.”

“Remember they walk or ride those three-wheelers they call bikes, so they’re working off the calories.”

“True.” She shoved a couple of cans into the pantry and closed the door. “I think downsizing our house and belongings will have a positive effect on us.”

“It already has.”

“We still have too much. Even if we choose not to give up TV, why do we need one in every bedroom?”

Charles pointed to the one attached beneath a kitchen cabinet. “When was the last time you watched that one?”

Mom poured herself a glass of water and leaned against the counter to drink it. “It seemed like a good idea when I had it installed.”

Charles laughed. “I remember you saying you could watch the Food Network and cook along with your favorite chefs.”

“Who has the time?” Mom finished her water and put the glass in the dishwasher before turning back to face Charles. “And that leads me to something else. Today wasn’t the first time your dad and I have talked about putting the house on the market.”

“So when do you think you’ll do it?” Charles waited for that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach to return, but this time it didn’t.

“Soon. We need to get it ready to show.”

“I’ll help.”

“Good. We’ll need to get rid of the clutter in the closets and paint. That should help make it more presentable.”

“If you want me to, I can trim all the shrubs back along the front of the house,” Charles offered. “I might even ask Ruthie for advice on planting some flowers.”

Mom smiled. “That’ll be a nice touch.”

They chatted for a half hour about some of the things they could do to make the house more attractive to prospective buyers before Pop joined them. “If you fix this place up too much, we won’t want to move.” Pop walked up to Mom and put his arm around her waist. “We need to stay in prayer throughout this process.”

“That goes without saying,” Mom agreed. “And we don’t need to let up afterward. I have no doubt this will be difficult on some levels, but as long as we lean on the Lord, those difficulties will be overshadowed by the blessing of doing His will.”

Charles couldn’t move; he was fascinated by his parents’ unity in this decision. They’d always gotten along, with the exception of a short time after Jennifer’s death, but this decision was clearly the most bonding experience he’d ever witnessed. Even though he’d had a sliver of doubt about his parents being able to give up so many of their worldly possessions before now, he was certain of their convictions at this moment.

“C’mere, son,” Pop said, motioning Charles to join them.

Mom pulled him closer. “Group hug.”

Pop chuckled as they huddled together. “I have a feeling we’ll be doing quite a bit of this in the days to come. It’s not gonna be easy, ya know.”

“Of course it won’t, and that’s what’ll make the experience even better,” Mom said. “Working hard as a family to make this become a reality will help us as long as we’re all on the same page.”

Pop dropped a kiss on Mom’s head. “I’ve been blessed.”

“Do you think they’ll go through with it?” Papa asked Mother the next morning during breakfast.

Ruthie sat at the table and sipped her coffee as her parents discussed the Polk family. She’d wondered the same thing. Being without many of the possessions most outsiders had was never a problem for her, but she suspected it would be difficult to give up some of what they called conveniences.

Mother lifted one shoulder in a half shrug as she stood to get more coffee. “We can only pray for them and hope that the Lord keeps them on the path of His desires.”

“Do you ever want anything we don’t have, Esther?”

“Why would I?” she replied as she sat back down. “I have everything I need and want right here at the table.” She smiled at Ruthie.

“How about an automobile or a television?” Papa asked. “Or a dishwasher or microwave oven?”

Mother’s eyes widened playfully. “Can you imagine me behind the wheel of an automobile? I can barely steer the bike you bought me.”

Ruthie chimed in. “Sometimes I think a television would be fun.”

Mother and Papa both snapped around to face her. Papa nodded. “I imagine a little bit of television would be fun, but from what I hear, it becomes an addiction that’s hard to break.”

“Anything can become an addiction,” Ruthie said. “But we’re so busy I can’t imagine when we’d fit it in anyway, so we’re just as well off without it.”

Papa’s eyes sparkled as he nodded. “You are so right, Ruthie. We are very well off, and we need to always remember that.” He stood and pushed his chair back. “I better get moving. I’ve got more than enough to do today.”

As soon as Papa left, Mother and Ruthie cleared the breakfast dishes. As they worked, they chatted about what they had to do all week.

“Papa wanted me to come in early to finish posting the weekend’s receipts before the new girl starts,” Ruthie said. “I don’t understand why he wants me to train someone to do what I’ve been doing since I was a teenager.”

“He wants a backup, just in case you’re not able to work,” Mother reminded her. “We’ve also been talking about how to help you overcome your shyness.”

“I don’t need someone else working in the store to help me with that.” She tried to hide the fact that her feelings were hurt. “I’ll work on it, I promise.”

Mother smiled and patted her arm. “It’s time for you to experience more things, Ruthie. We understand your not wanting to have a rumspringa, but you do need to prepare for life as an adult. You never know what surprises the Lord might have in store for us.”

Ruthie assumed Mother was talking about the possibility of Ruthie eventually getting married and deciding to stop working outside the home. But there would be plenty of time if and when that ever happened. She didn’t say anything, though, because Mother had already started talking about her Bible group.

An hour later Ruthie was in the store’s office, lining up the numbers and making sure they balanced with the actual cash receipts. Since business was generally slow on Monday mornings, Papa walked around the store checking to see what they needed to order. Rosemary, the new girl Papa had hired, wasn’t due in until right before lunch. He wanted to spend some time with her showing her around before Ruthie was supposed to take her to lunch at Penner’s.

Papa had informed her that he was hiring Rosemary sight unseen, simply because he trusted Rosemary’s aunt and uncle who’d agreed to let her stay with them when she first moved to Florida. She was from Ohio, and she didn’t know anyone outside her family, so they’d hoped she could become acclimated by working and getting to know the Kauffman family. She and Ruthie were the same age.

Satisfied with how quickly the numbers balanced, Ruthie underlined the totals. She glanced up and saw Papa watching her. “How long have you been standing there?”

He grinned. “Long enough. Rosemary should be here any minute.”

Ruthie stood and stretched her arms over her head. “I’ve been sitting in one place too long.”

“Then would you mind taking over out here while I run to the bank?” He lifted his bank bag and waved it around.

“Of course I don’t mind.” The store rarely got busy on weekday mornings, and sometimes they didn’t have a single customer during the ten minutes it took Papa to walk the block and a half to the bank, hand the deposit bag to the teller, and walk back.

“If Rosemary gets here early, show her around the store.” With that he left.

Papa wasn’t back as quickly as usual, so Ruthie assumed he either got sidetracked by a friend who wanted to chat or he wanted to be away when Rosemary arrived. He’d been commenting lately about how Ruthie needed to overcome her shyness. Normally that bothered Ruthie, but today she didn’t mind.

Ruthie had just straightened a couple of the shelves where Papa had pushed some merchandise aside to count stock when she heard the door open. She glanced up in time to see a short, blond-haired woman wearing a dark gray skirt, lighter gray long-sleeved blouse, and a crocheted hair cover walk in.

“Hi,” Ruthie said. She suspected the woman might be Rosemary, but she didn’t want to assume anything. “May I help you?”

“Is Mr. Kauffman here? My name is Rosemary, and I think he’s expecting me.”

Until this moment, Ruthie didn’t think she’d ever met anyone shyer than she was, but Rosemary looked frightened. Her heart went out to the woman.

“I’m Ruthie Kauffman, his daughter. Papa said if you arrived before he came back from the bank, I should show you around the store.”

Rosemary’s lips quivered as she smiled. “Okay.”

For the first time in her life, Ruthie had the upper hand, making her feel confident and outgoing. “Have you ever worked in a store before?” Ruthie asked.

Rosemary shook her head. “No. The only work I ever did was help people with their children and some light housekeeping.”

“You’ll need to talk to customers if you work here,” Ruthie said. “Can you do that?”

The brief hesitation let Ruthie know Rosemary wasn’t sure what to say. “I … um … if you tell me what to say, I think I can.”

Ruthie never thought she’d see the day when someone else asked her how to talk to people and help customers in the store. She’d always been self-conscious about doing it before, but Rosemary was counting on her, and Papa wasn’t here. If a customer walked in, she’d have to act confident.

She continued showing Rosemary around. As they walked by the front window, Ruthie leaned over and glanced down the street. Papa sure was taking his time. She didn’t see any signs of him.

A middle-aged couple walked in and asked if they carried anything they could bring back home to their granddaughter. As Rosemary watched, Ruthie asked how old the child was, whether it was a boy or girl, and if he liked animals. Once she had the answers, she showed the couple some children’s T-shirts, an alligator pencil, and a juice cup shaped like an orange. The couple bought all the items and walked out of the store happy that they didn’t have to go anywhere else.

“You make it look so easy,” Rosemary said. “I’m not sure I can be that good with people.”

“Sure you can. Remember that the customers aren’t grading you. They’re thinking about what souvenir to buy and take home to show that they’ve been to Florida.” Papa had told Ruthie this so many times she had it memorized. “Tell you what. When Papa comes back, I can show you the books. After we go over that, we can come out to the sales floor. You can observe today, and next time you come to work, I’ll let you handle the easy customers.”

Rosemary blinked, smiled, and nodded. “Thank—”

Papa walked in and caught their attention. “You must be Rosemary.” He smiled, but Ruthie could tell something was bothering him.

R
uthie told Papa how she’d shown Rosemary around. “And now that you’re back, I’d like to show her the books.”

  A frown replaced his smile for an instant, but he quickly recovered. “That’s a good idea. I’ll tend to things out here.”

Rosemary cast a curious glance toward Ruthie, but she didn’t say anything as they walked back to the store office. Once seated, Ruthie behind the desk and Rosemary in a side chair, Ruthie leaned over and saw Papa rubbing the back of his neck. She could tell he was worried about something, but based on how he was acting, she couldn’t very well ask about it in front of Rosemary—especially not on her first day.

“Did your uncle tell you how many hours you’d be working?” Ruthie asked. “I knew you were coming, but Papa and I didn’t discuss your hours.”

“He wasn’t sure, but your father said I’d start out part-time and work up to full-time if I like the job … and if you and your father like me.”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll like you just fine,” Ruthie assured her. “Wait right here. I’m going to ask Papa how long he wants you here today.”

Ruthie found Papa in one of the aisles. He was bent over, counting items on a shelf where he’d left off earlier.

She touched his shoulder. “Papa, I have a couple of questions.”