The Bridge of Peace by Cindy Woodsmall Page A

keep it up and knew we had to come up with a better plan, so I came on home.”
    Home . The reality around her didn’t match the hopes she’d once had for this place.
    Ada wiped another round of sweat from her brow. “Before leaving the bakery, I called Stoltzfus Blacksmith Shop. I know it’s an hour away by carriage, but it’s the only blacksmith I know. I didn’t reach anybody, so I left a message.”
    “Okay, that’s a start.” Deborah poured Ada a glass of ice water. “Couldn’t someone at the bakery drive to where the carriage is parked to pick up the rest of our goods?”
    “That would only solve getting our goods to them. I haven’t made the drop at Sweet Delights either. I asked the folks at Select Bakery if they could help me out. But two of their people always walk to work, and the other one’s car is on the.… She called it something. I didn’t recognize the word, but someone dropped her off at work, and clearly her car doesn’t work any better than my horse.”
    “Fritz,” Deborah offered. “Cara uses the word.” She wouldn’t say it aloud, but the truth was, everything about her and Ada’s lives was on the fritz. Was that how Mahlon felt? Like he’d never get ahead but was too trapped to do anything about it?
    “Where is she?” Ada asked.

    “Hmm?” Deborah looked up, wondering how long she’d been lost in her own thoughts. “Who?”
    “Cara.”
    “Oh, ya. She and Lori are doing some yard sales. She called it window-shopping. I’m pretty sure she packed them a picnic lunch too and plans to spend the afternoon at Willow Park.” Deborah reached her hand across the table. “I’ll find the pushcart and get our goods to both bakeries. At least you made most of the deliveries to the farthest one out.”
    “I guess it’s good they open first and want the items earliest.”
    “Maybe if I unhitch the mare and walk her slowly, she can make it to the barn without the need of borrowing someone’s horse trailer.” She slid the envelope with the money to pay the propane bill to Ada. “I better not pay that bill. Looks like we might need that cash today.”
    Ada took a sip of the water. “We made a few dollars today from what the bakeries sold yesterday but only enough to cover food for the next couple of days and fresh supplies for our next round of baking. I’ve got that birthday cake order for tonight, and I can’t wait any longer to get started on it. If you can get the goods to the bakeries and the horse back home, we’ll figure out everything else when you return.”
    “Ya, you’re right. First things first.” Deborah went to the barn, found the pushcart, and started walking toward Select Bakery.
    The sting of feeling overwhelmed and incapable pricked her like hundreds of bees. Before Mahlon left her, she’d had confidence. She missed soaring on the winds, feeling strong and beautiful and hopeful. Had those feelings been a lie? Lately she messed up everything she touched, from making cakes to tending to their horse.
    If this business failed, she hated to think what that would do to Ada. She’d lost her only child to the world.
    The now-familiar questions started pounding at her again. Why? Why didn’t I know Mahlon wasn’t in love with me? Why did life have to become so hard, so humiliating and lonely?

    She didn’t hear anything from God. Maybe He couldn’t be heard over the river of her own whining. As much as her bellyaching disgusted her, it didn’t begin to express how she really felt. She wanted her life back. The one … the one Mahlon ran from?
    It didn’t make sense to want that.
    She spotted the horse under a tree, waiting patiently to be rescued. Rosie had her right front hoof barely touching the ground. Deborah set the legs to the pushcart on the ground and moved to the horse, caressing her head and nose. The poor thing nuzzled against Deborah’s touch. What an awful price Rosie was paying for Deborah and Ada’s negligence.
    “I can’t seem to get