Promise to Cherish by Younts Elizabeth Byler

Author:Younts, Elizabeth Byler [Younts, Elizabeth Byler]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Howard Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It didn’t take long before Poughkeepsie was in the distance behind them. Christine laid her head back on the bus seat in an effort to momentarily forget the hospital, forget Jack, and forget that she was still deciding on whether or not to go to one of the homes. She couldn’t run away from the baby growing daily below her heart. A baby she still thought of as a medical diagnosis. The letter from the maternity home was folded neatly in her purse. After days of considering and remaining undecided, leaving with Eli temporarily seemed like the best option. It would give her time to decide what to do without the pressure of her hometown staring at her soon-to-be-growing abdomen.

Christine exhaled.

“Are you okay?”

Christine was startled to hear Eli’s voice. She opened her eyes and looked right at him. He’d been so quiet since they sat on the bus, not having said more than, “This seat all right?”

“What?”

“You sighed and I was wondering if everything was okay.”

She only nodded. Nothing she could think to say sounded right.

Eli gave her his crooked smile and she smiled back but returned her gaze to the passing fields and occasional small town. She wasn’t sure how to answer him. No. Of course, everything was not okay. In a matter of a few weeks she had been found unconscious, fired from her job, realized she was pregnant, rejected by Jack, encouraged to go to a home by her mother, and then, at the last minute, decided to flee to an Amish community. It was odd and peculiar how she had gotten to this point. She shifted in her seat before her backside became numb. The bus was all but comfortable. The seats were stiff and her ears rang from the loud engine.

She turned back to Eli. He was looking down at a periodical in his hands—some dreadful pulp magazine. She thought about Wally and how he and Eli had become friends over reading those stories. She surveyed the cover: a soldier on a horse, his spear aimed at some shirtless man wearing war paint. Why would anyone read such rubbish? Especially a pacifist. Her eyes journeyed to his chiseled face and she could tell he hadn’t shaved that morning. There was a subtle shade of blond covering his jawline. He swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Eli’s eyes peeked over at her and a smile crossed his lips.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.” She pushed her glasses up. “You actually like those magazines? I thought you read them only for the patients.”

He shrugged. “I guess it passes the time.”

“That cover looks awfully violent—I’m surprised your church lets you read fiction like that.”

Eli raised a single eyebrow. “Are you baiting me?”

“I’m just curious. Why is it okay to read that garbage when you don’t even believe in fighting?”

He looked away and inhaled. Christine had gotten to him. Though she hadn’t meant to start something, she wasn’t being very kind, challenging him the way she did. But it was a true curiosity.

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