A Simple Amish Christmas Read Online Free PDF

learned with patients that often their first memories were their clearest. “The police have no leads.”
    “Why are the police involved?”
    “You don’t remember anything?”
    Confusion clouded his face now, and Annie was sure if she felt his pulse she’d find it had accelerated. He shook his head and attempted to sit up straighter.
    “Let me help you.” She plumped his pillows, positioned them behind his back and head.
    “The first thing I remember is waking up in the hospital, with Dr. Stoltzfus and your mamm standing over my bed.”
    Annie thought of waiting until her mamm had returned to tell him, but she knew there would be no putting her dat off. She also suspected he wouldn’t rest until he’d had the entire story.
    “Someone hit your rig when you were driving home from Samuel’s. Someone in a car. You’re lucky to be alive. You lay there in the cold for hours, which is why we’re worried about pneumonia. It’s why you have such a heaviness in your chest.”
    Jacob frowned but didn’t interrupt her.
    “The mare was still alive when Samuel arrived, but maimed. He had to put her down. Then he stopped a motorist and borrowed a cell phone to contact Dr. Stoltzfus. He called an ambulance and met you at the hospital.”
    “And my legs?” The question came out harshly, like a rock dropping onto the ground.
    “The left one will heal quickly. The right is a more complicated break and has grown infected.”
    Jacob clenched his jaw, the lines across his forehead creasing as he did. It was an expression she had seen occasionally as a child, and it never signaled anything good.
    Jacob had been a kind, gentle father—but he’d also had an extremely stubborn streak. Rebekah had often teased his genealogy could be traced back to Noah himself because Jacob was stubborn enough to build an ark during a drought.
    Annie saw that stubbornness in her father now. She wanted to reach down and kiss his weathered cheek.
    Instead, she poured him more water.
    He drank it, then asked, “How long until I can work again?”
    “Samuel says it will be later winter, maybe spring before you’re even walking.”
    She had returned the cup and pitcher to the stand, straightened his covers, and walked to the door—determined to bring him something to eat—when he finally spoke. His words didn’t startle her, but neither were they exactly what she expected.
    “Samuel Yoder is a gut friend, and I consider him a smart man in such matters.”
    “ Ya , I expect he is.”
    “But smart men are sometimes surprised by things they haven’t lived long enough to see, things they can’t understand.”
    Annie thought she heard a desperation behind his words, but then again perhaps it was the exhaustion speaking. She nodded, went into the kitchen, and prepared him a simple breakfast.

     
    In the early afternoon, he woke again and reached out for her hand.
    “What is it, Dat ?”
    “Are you home, Annie?”
    “Of course. I’m right here.” She checked his forehead, wondering if fever had set in, if the infection had worsened—but his skin was cool to her touch.
    “I mean are you home for good? Are you here to stay this time?”
    She looked into his blue eyes, crinkled with concern, and ran a hand down his brow. “ Ya. I’m home to stay.”
    “So you’ve put your rumschpringe behind you?”
    Annie understood then what he was asking. She also understood she wasn’t only answering because he was ill, or from a desire he rest and not worry.
    She was home to stay.
    Wearing her plain clothes, surrounded by her family, among her community—this was where she belonged.
    She had known it all along. Why had she ever left?
    There were things she had longed to learn, yes.
    She knew them now, and she would find ways to use them.
    God would show her ways to bless others.
    “I have put my r umschpringe completely behind me.”
    Jacob closed his eyes, satisfied at last. “Your mother will be froh . Now all you need to do is choose one of the