Pokrewne

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Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Carl Ashmore [Time Hunters 01 The Time Hunters (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
Beth Kerry [Because You Are M Because You Tempt Me (epub)

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.“Please tell me what happened.I must know everything,” she pleaded.Their pallid faces told the dreadful truth.“I’m sorry, my precious daughter,” Dat said at last.“You don’t mean.” She paused, trying to breathe enough to speak.“Jacob isn’t.” She simply could not voice the impossible word.“Is Aaron.?”Mamma nodded slowly, eyes glistening.“Jacob and Aaron died in the accident.”“It’s a miracle of God that Annie is alive,” added Dat, his voice sounding strangely stiff.Mam took Rachel’s hand in her own.“We’ll stay right here with you, till you’re released to go home.”Home.Rachel moaned; her whole body shook.Home could never be the same for her.Not without Jacob and Aaron.Overcome with grief, she closed her eyes, blocking out her mother’s somber face.Mam’s words were compassionate and true, yet Rachel could not comprehend a single one.Jacob.Aaron dead? How can this be?Her head throbbed with the truth, like a cumbersome weight against the long, flat hospital pillow.How it pained her to lean back.No matter what she did, her head ached, and her heart anguished for her dear ones.She wished she might’ve held her sweet little Aaron as he lay suffering on the road.It plagued her that he had died alone at the accident scene, that he might’ve called out for her—“Mamma, oh, Mamma, I’m hurt awful bad!”—or worse, that he could not utter her name at all.She placed her hands on her womb, her flat, lifeless womb, longing for her unborn child as well.More than anything, she wished to join her husband, her son, and their tiniest little one in heaven.Life without Jacob would be ever so lonely.Unbearable.Life on this earth without her darling boy would be intolerable.How could she face the years ahead? How could she bear the pain, missing them so?Someone wearing white floated into the room, and although Rachel assumed it was the nurse coming with a sedative, a blanket of numbness fell over her before she ever felt the needle penetrate her skin.Esther and her husband arrived the next afternoon.They had hired a Mennonite van driver to rush them from Holmes County to Lancaster.In the space of half a day, they’d come.The reunion was a tearful one, and Rachel repeatedly searched Esther’s dewy brown eyes, taking in the familiar rosy cheeks and the oval shape of her cousin’s face.Esther had worn her best blue cape dress for the occasion, though her black apron was a bit wrinkled from the trip.“You’ll need someone to look after you and little Annie for a while,” she insisted, kissing Rachel’s forehead and holding her hand.“Levi and I will be more than happy to stay till you’re back on your feet.”“I’m so glad you’re here.”“I came to help, to bear your sorrow,” Esther pledged.“Levi and I can stay as long as need be.” She explained that their children were with close Amish friends in Holmes County.“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Rachel said, her voice breaking.“Didja know that I must’ve written you a letter the night before the accident? But I don’t remember writing it now.Mamma found it in my apron pocket.” She motioned to the small closet.“It’s in there somewhere,” she said before giving way to a fresh spasm of grief.Esther hugged her cousin.“Shh.I’m here now.We’ll get through this, jah?”When Rachel was able to compose herself, Esther sat on the edge of the hospital bed, their hands clasped.They talked quietly of Annie and how glad they were that the child had been spared, along with Rachel.“The Lord surely kept the two of you alive for a special reason,” Esther said, her eyes still wet with tears.Rachel didn’t quite know what to think of that—being kept alive for a special purpose.God’s sovereign will was not to be questioned, of course.Yet it was difficult to hear Esther go on so, especially when Rachel sincerely wished the Lord had taken her home to Glory, too.Why had God let her live?Mamma and Esther moved quietly to the window, encouraging Rachel to rest a bit.She heard the lull of their discreet whispering—Jacob’s or Aaron’s name slipping into the air every so often—but, honestly, she did not care to know what was being discussed.Funeral plans, most likely.With the thought of such a thing—a funeral for her dear ones—horrifying mental pictures flashed before her eyes: the car roaring into the wagon, Jacob’s body broken beyond recognition.She shook her head as if to shake off the visions, shutting her eyes tightly against the persistent images.“No!” she cried out.Mam and Esther turned their heads.“What’s that, dear?” Mam called to her.And Esther rushed to Rachel’s bedside again.She breathed heavily as the painful memories slowly receded.Then suddenly a new insidious notion sprang at Rachel—that the accident had been her fault.Hers.Taking a deep breath, she blurted, “I never heard the alarm! We slept through.If we hadn’t overslept—if I’d heard the alarm clock like always—we’d never, never have taken the shortcut.We wouldn’t have been at the Crossroad, and Jacob and Aaron would be alive today.”“Mustn’t trouble yourself,” Esther was saying, stroking Rachel’s arm.“Mustn’t go blamin’ yourself.”But Rachel felt she had to express herself while this one memory was still alive in her.“We were rushing to market.requiring the horse to gallop.Oh, Esther.”“The accident wasn’t your fault,” her cousin repeated.“Believe me, it wasn’t.”Mam was on the other side of the bed now, leaning over to reach for Rachel’s free hand.“The horse became frightened and leaped into traffic, is all.”“I.I don’t remember any of that,” she confessed as she wept.“How do you know this?”“There were witnesses,” replied Mam.“People saw what happened and told the police.”This was the first she’d heard any talk of police and witnesses.Why, the whole thing sounded like some made-up story.Esther continued to hover near.“You mustn’t dwell on what was, Rachel [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]