The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,65
checks missing. The cash was there. A book of stamps, several business cards she’d collected from local vendors. She drummed her fingers on the end table, holding the wallet with her other hand. She flipped through her credit cards, found her driver’s license, her AARP card, and even two extra bobby pins clipped next to her credit cards.
She took a deep breath. Maybe her mind was going. Everything seemed to be just as it should be.
BY THE TIME Katie Ann ripped open the box, the portable phone wasn’t ringing anymore. She picked it up and searched through the packing for a note, but the only thing besides the phone was what appeared to be an extra battery. She jumped when the phone rang again. She’d used a cell phone on rare occasions before, so she knew how they worked. This one flipped open.
“Hello.”
“Katie Ann! Gut, gut. You got the phone.”
“Eli?” She knew exactly who it was, but she was at a loss for words, so she waited for him to explain.
“I got your letter about Martha yesterday. I went right out and had this phone shipped overnight to you. I charged the batteries at the store before I shipped it.” He took a breath. “I realized that by the time you got my letters, then I got yours, well . . . too much time was passing. How is Martha?”
“Ach, she’s gut. It turned out to be a very small cyst.” She still couldn’t believe he had sent her a phone.
Katie Ann gave Eli the details of the past few days, even explaining about Arnold.
“Katie Ann, it’s so gut to hear your voice. And I couldn’t have you running out to the barn in bad weather to talk on the phone.” He paused. “Is this okay? I mean, the phone?”
“Lots of people have cell phones. Our bishop isn’t keen on the idea, but he doesn’t make much of a fuss. But the money, Eli . . .”
He laughed. “They have this thing called the family plan.
Only ten dollars! So now we’re family.”
Something about his statement warmed Katie Ann from head to toe. “I see.” She brought her hand to her chest, closed her eyes, and pictured his face.
“Katie Ann, I’m going to Jake and Laura Jane’s for supper.
I just wanted to make sure you got the phone.”
“Danki for the phone, Eli. You didn’t need to do that.” Katie Ann wondered how often he would call her, and if she would ever call him. She knew it would be easy enough to charge the phone at Martha’s house.
“Can I call you when I get home later?”
She smiled. “I’d like that.”
After they hung up, Katie Ann warmed up some soup. As she sat on the couch eating it, she eyed the box in the corner of her living room. It was an indoor swing for Jonas that Lillian had given her as a gift recently. Lillian had told her that she used a swing when both Anna and Elizabeth were babies, and that it was a lifesaver. Samuel had offered to put it together, but her brother-in-law was so busy that Katie Ann assured him she could do the job.
It was later in the evening, once Jonas was settled, when she started to put the swing together. She searched for the right nuts and bolts to attach the legs of the swing. Even though she’d sorted the parts into piles, she was confused about the directions and frustrated. She jumped when the cell phone rang on the kitchen counter.
“Wie bischt?”
Katie Ann smiled when she heard Eli’s voice. “I’m gut, but I’m having trouble putting a swing together for Jonas. How was your supper with Jake and Laura Jane?”
“Laura Jane invites me to supper when she makes chicken and wafers, my favorite. What’s the problem with the swing?”
“Too many nuts and bolts.” She waited awhile for a response, but nothing. “Eli?”
Silence.
She pulled the phone away from her ear and realized the battery was dead. She picked up the extra battery Eli had sent but couldn’t figure out where to install it. She tinkered with the phone, then opened the instruction book that had come in the box with the phone. After about fifteen frustrating minutes, she had the other battery installed.
Ten minutes later Eli called again. “Dead battery, no?”
His voice was light and cheerful, but Katie Ann was annoyed by her own inability to handle such simple functions in a timely manner. First the swing, now the phone.