The Memory Jar by Tricia Goyer

Author:Tricia Goyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780310335115
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2012-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

19

These days, two weeks after Jathan left, morning always seemed to come too early. Sarah rolled over in bed and listened as Dat and Andy shoed up and headed out to the barn. Even though their spread in Montana was much smaller than the one in Kentucky had been, there were still cows to milk, horses and pigs to feed, and eggs to gather.

Once, when she was working at the store, someone had asked Sarah if they sold alarm clocks. The customer had been surprised to hear Sarah didn’t own one and hadn’t seen one either. Mem’s rattling of the cookstove as she lit it and started breakfast was the only clock that ever woke Sarah. And that “alarm” was happening right now as she stretched. Sarah needed to get down there to help. She wasn’t usually this slow about things, but maybe today was different because her mind carried so many thoughts.

Had Jathan received her letter? Had she been foolish to send it?

No. She guessed he would be happy to have heard from her so soon. Even though that last evening he’d acted as if nothing special had happened between them, a hundred other looks and smiles before that moment told her something had.

It wasn’t as if she’d been trying to force anything through her letter either. What had been heaviest on her heart was just to let Jathan know that she cared and that she hoped things were going to change for the better. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on, just something that came to mind as she prayed for Jathan. It was as if God was speaking to her heart. “I have something in store for him, Sarah. Just you wait.”

Sarah lay there just a moment longer, offering up prayers for Jathan’s father. She pictured Jathan’s face as he stood by his father’s bedside. She pictured weariness from the journey mixed with a pained acceptance of what he’d have to do to provide for his family. She pictured him lost — not stuck in the cold, dark woods but lost in his own search for fulfillment. To the outside world, the Amish were plain, simple people. But wasn’t it the quest of every man and woman — Amish and Englisch alike — to find one’s purpose? To discover a way one’s work could brighten one’s heart so it didn’t feel like work at all?

“Sarah, yer not ill, are you?” Mem’s voice traveled across the living room and slipped under her closed door.

“No, Mem. Sorry. I’ll be out in a minute yet. Annie told me to come in late today. She said I was looking weary and in need of rest.”

She rose, scolding herself for not getting up. Not only must she help Mem with morning chores, but she had to go to work.

Maybe that’s what truly caused her to linger. Once she got to the restaurant, she’d see that empty booth and remember again so clearly that Jathan was gone.

Forty-five minutes later, when she was on her way to work, Sarah’s brother Andy and her sister Evelyn were finishing chores.

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