Angels Watching Over Me Read Online Free PDF

don’t?”
    “I just never got into religion.” Now Leah felt self-conscious about her lack of sophistication in a world that Charity knew intimately. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this stuff. I—I like you and I don’t want to say anything more to hurt your feelings.”
    Charity’s face broke into a generous smile. “I like you, too, Leah Lewis-Hall. I have never had an outsider friend.”
    An outsider
. That’s what Leah had been all her life. She and her mother had moved so often, she’d never felt as if she belonged anywhere. And despite the defiant confidence she showed Charity, she was embarrassed by her mother’s five marriages. Why couldn’t her mother just get it right so that they could live like regular people?
    Leah asked, “So is your mother coming later today?”
    “She can’t. I haven’t told Rebekah yet because it will upset her. Baby Nathan is sick with a fever, and Mama must stay with him. Papa is coming tomorrow—Saturday. Until then Ethan and I will have to substitute for our parents.”
    “Maybe you could call your mother later tonight and let Rebekah talk to her.”
    “We have no phone.”
    “You’re kidding!”
    “None of the Amish where we live have phones.”
    “But how did your mother let you know about the baby?”
    “She went into town and used the phone. We are not opposed to using phones, we just do not believe in owning them.”
    This made no sense to Leah. “But if you use phones, why not have one in your house?”
    Charity smiled patiently and, leaning forward, said, “We have no electricity, no cars, no modern things. Life on our farms is as it was a hundred years ago. The Bible says that Christians should separate themselves from the world, that we should be ‘in the world, but not
of
the world.’ We ‘hold fast to that which is good.’ For us, faith is lived out in our community. We marry our own kind, birth our own kind, bury our own kind.
    “We believe that God created all things and that he sustains all creation. We believe that man is sinful and that only the blood of Jesus can redeem us from our sins. We expect to die and go to heaven and glorify God forever. We are not like you, Leah. But also, we are not backward, or stupid, or foolish. We are Amish. And I am not ashamed.”
    Leah listened dumbstruck. Charity was so certain of what she believed that she could speak about it without stumbling over words. And without apology. Leah knew she should respond but she didn’t know how. The sudden buzz of the phone rescued her. Quickly she rose to answer it before it could ring again and wake Rebekah.
    “Hello?”
    “Leah, darling! Neil spoke with your doctors just an hour ago. Can we talk?”

“I ’m stuck in the hospital, remember?” Leah replied. “What else is there to do but talk?” She held her hand over the mouthpiece and told Charity, “It’s my mother.”
    Charity waved and slipped behind Rebekah’s curtain.
    From faraway Japan, her mother’s voice said, “Don’t act sulky, Leah. You’re being cared for.”
    But not by you
, Leah thought. “So what did the doctor tell you?” she asked.
    “Not a darn thing! Honestly, I hope they know what they’re doing at that place. You’d think they could tell us something by now.”
    Leah was disappointed. “They still don’t know what’s wrong with me?”
    “Evidently, according to Dr. Thomas,” her mother said, then quoted, “you’re ‘manifesting symptoms that are consistent with any number of health problems.’ As if that’s supposed to pacify me. At any rate, they’ve scheduled more tests starting Monday morning, and once they can evaluate the results, they
might
be able to diagnose you. There’s no excuse for dragging this thing out.”
    “I don’t want to spend Christmas in the hospital.”
    “I’m sure you won’t have to. But until I get some sort of definitive word from your doctor, I’m not cutting my honeymoon short. That seemed okay with you the last time we