A Quilt for Jenna by Patrick E. Craig Page A

blurted out a biting response. “Shouldn’t I have something to say about who courts me?”
    The blank look in her daed ’s eyes surprised Jerusha. The question she asked hadn’t even registered. “What?” he asked.
    Jerusha plucked up her courage and asked the question again. “Shouldn’t I be allowed some choice as to whom I may or may not marry?”
    This time she saw the anger rise her daed ’s face. “You will do as I tell you, dochter ,” he said curtly. “This is not a decision you need to concern yourself with.” And with that he turned and walked out of the room.

    A week passed, and Jerusha had become a silent guest in a quiet house. When her father asked her do something, she answered with a simple “ Ja, Daed ,” but nothing more. She did her chores and worked on her current quilt, but she withdrew herself from the family life and spent more time in her room alone. How could her daed , with whom she had always been so close, treat her in such a demeaning way? On the one hand she was glad she could stop thinking about Reuben and put him behind her, and yet on the other hand she was miserable because her heart ached to see him again.
    Late one night she awoke to a tapping sound. Rousing herself, she went to the window. Reuben stood there with his fingers to his lips. “Come out,” he mouthed silently.
    She shook her head. “I can’t,” she mouthed back.
    â€œPlease,” he said quietly, and the look in his eyes captured her heart.
    Throwing on her coat and her boots, she slipped silently out of her bedroom, through the sleeping house, and out the back door. Reuben was there waiting, motioning for her to keep silent and follow him. They walked silently and quickly through the barnyard to the back of the barn. Jerusha’s heart was pounding so furiously, she felt that it would wake the county.
    When they were far enough from the house, Reuben spoke. “Your father has refused to let me court you.”
    â€œI know,” she answered. “Actually, I think it’s probably for the...”
    Jerusha didn’t get the words out of her mouth before Reuben took her in his arms and kissed her, softly at first and then with passion. Jerusha felt herself slipping into a vortex, surrendering and sinking into him. Then suddenly she jerked away and slapped his face.
    â€œStop!” she cried. “You have no right to touch me like that.”
    Reuben went white, and then she saw anger in his eyes. He stood staring at her, swaying for a moment in the moonlight, and then he mastered himself. He lowered his face to hide the flush of shame that suffused it.
    â€œI’m sorry, Jerusha.” It was the first time he had spoken her name, and the sound of it on his lips was like a balm to her rage.
    â€œYou’re right, it’s not my place to be so...so familiar with you,” he said. “Forgive me. I can only excuse myself by saying that you have completely and wonderfully captured my heart, and to be away from you has tormented me. I am in love with you.”
    â€œBut how can you know that you love me?” she asked. “We have only spoken two times.”
    â€œI don’t know, Jerusha, but if you can tell me honestly that you do not feel the same toward me, I’ll leave this town and never return.”
    There! It was out in the open, thrown down like a gauntlet.
    She stood silently for a long moment, and then she lowered her eyes and said softly, “ Ja , I love you also.”
    Everything that had happened in her life up to that moment seemed to break off and go crashing down in a heap around her. Everything she had been, everything she had planned...all of it was turned into dust in the wonder of this moment.
    She wondered if she could ever turn back now from whatever should lie ahead.

    The wind struck Henry’s car, and shook it like a rag. Jerusha jerked awake in the back, still