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Grace Given

By Beth Shriver

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Prologue

Ripples of pink clouds covered the blue, Texas sky. The sun slowly dipped behind a large oak tree that was almost invisible against the fading darkness. Elsie and Katie walked down a dirt road leading to their family farm after a day at a neighbor’s quilting bee.
“I like the orange with the yellow patches.” Katie flicked her thick, amber curls away from her blue eyes.
Elsie shook her head. “Not me. I like green with the yellow.”
Katie frowned and kicked a rock down the lane ahead of them.
Elsie thought of a compromise, a frequent gesture she made on her part involving her sister. “What if we do all three?”
As they chatted about the patches needed to complete their quilt an unfamiliar rumbling noise made them pause. Elsie stopped and looked behind her as a car drove up causing a cloud of dust to fall around them. Her kapp blew off and the driver started whistling.
The three other young men in the car heckled them and laughed. “Hey sweetie, show us more.”
“How about some leg, Amish girl.” The driver called out to her.
“Hey, ladies, stop and talk to us.” Another yelled over to them. “No harm in being friendly.”
Elsie had never felt dirty like this. With each word she felt as if they had thrown a handful of mud at her. She sucked in a breath when the car came to a halt and the driver got out. His dirty, blond hair was slicked straight up and his blue eyes hardened as he took her in.
The passenger side door opened and a tall, skinny, young man walked around the front of the car. He looked Elsie up and down and moved toward her. She took two steps backward then took off running. Her heart beat out of her chest, but she didn’t stop until she got to the gravel road leading to their house. Elsie bent over puffing and holding her side. Katie was close behind catching her breath.
Katie turned around. “They didn’t follow us, thank God.”
Elsie glanced around, no one saw them.
“Elsie, Katie. Are you all right?” Their daed’s booming voice came from behind them. “I saw you running all the way up the drive.” His height and hefty build made him appear intimidating, unlike the gentle man that he was.
“Nee, we’re fine.” Katie answered before Elsie could think of what to say.
He eyed them suspiciously and nodded. “Okay then.” He lumbered away but looked back once.
“Do you think he believed me?” Katie asked with concern.
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Elsie wasn’t sure what to do but now that they hadn’t told him it became a lie, a secret. Elsie didn’t want the burden of either.
“I don’t want to upset him, or mamm. Nothing really happened anyway.” Katie shrugged.
“It would have if we hadn’t gotten away from them. They had something bad on their minds.” Elsie frowned at her. “It was embarrassing what those boys said. What if someone thinks we invited the attention?”
“They would know better than that.” Katie scoffed. “And they didn’t have a chance to do anything with the way you ran off so quickly.”
But Elsie wasn’t so sure. Katie liked attention, especially when a young man smiled her way. “Well, I guess it’s done.” Elsie tried to put it out of her mind as they walked to the house, hoping they had made the right decision not to tell anyone. And she prayed it wouldn’t happen again.
Three weeks later Katie disappeared, and Elsie’s heart was broken for more than just one reason when Jake left with her.

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