ATOP Chapter Forty

In the flurry of activity that swirled and rushed around her, Rachel stood still, holding onto her Benjie, pressing kisses on his chubby cheeks. Suitcases were lying haphazardly in the grass along the path, and Rachel's purse lay hidden somewhere in the pile along with the hat Benjie had knocked off her head. She didn't seem to notice... and if she had, she hardly would have cared. 

"Mommy go bye-bye?" Benjie's eyes were wide and solemn. He looked up at Rachel, laying one tiny hand on her face.

"Jah," Rachel choked back a sob and pressed him so tightly against her that he squeaked from the impact. "Mommy has to go."

"Daddy go bye-bye too?" Benjie twisted in Rachel's arm, trying to catch a glimpse of Ronnie through the crowd that had gathered around him. Only the top of his head could be seen as he bent over a bundle of official-looking documents while Jim pointed things out and everyone else fired questions as fast as they could. It wasn't just the family that had shown up... somehow all the neighbors for more than a mile on each side were gathered in the Stewart's front yard. Even Mr. Pfyffer from the general store and Pop Harding from the soda shop had come. 

"Jah, Daddy must go too," Rachel smiled sadly at her baby. "We will be home soon, I promise," and she smothered him in kisses again, earning a wriggle of protest. 

"Me wants down," Benjie cried, spying his "Unca Doss" in the crowd, but Rachel only held on tighter.

"No, not yet, baby," she laughed. "You will have many days with Uncle Josh, I promise you. Stay with Mommy for now, alright?"

"Aw-wight," Benjie agreed serenely and leaned forward to press a kiss to the tip of Rachel's nose. His lips were still sticky with syrup from that morning's breakfast. "Me go too?"

"Ach, no, no my baby," Rachel laughed again. "You will never go back to Germany, that is certain. I would not ever go back if I did not have to."

"Why Mommy go Joo-minny?"

"Mommy is going to bring back your Aunt Bekah and Aunt Shonie," Rachel's smile wavered, but she kept it on bravely. Half of her was filled with unfathomable joy and the other half was seething with terror. If they should be the wrong girls...! 

"Why are they in... in... Joo..." he gave up on the difficult word and added "Why?" with a shrug of his little shoulders.

"Ach, God help me to explain," Rachel murmured, her face growing a shade paler. "They... they have been lost..." she faltered. "Daddy has just found them and we are going to get them... to... bring them home..."

Bring them home...

Such beautiful words. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Alright, alright, thank you!" Ronnie yelled suddenly over the noise of the crowd. "I get it, okay? It makes sense. You don't have to explain anymore, okay?" 

But his protests didn't make a dent in the rampant suggestions, directions, and explanations of well-meaning but misunderstanding friends and family. They didn't seem to understand the fact that, having gone through literal battle, Ronnie and Rachel could surely handle whatever post-war Germany threw their way. And there were requests too... some wanted detailed reports of the state of affairs in Germany, others warned of undercover Nazis and land mine traps, some hinted darkly at railroads rigged to explode, one suggested that Ronnie's obvious Aryan features might make him a target for Nazi hunters. That last one only got a laugh from him. 

And Mickey wanted souvenirs, of course, and Rudy was right on his heels, wondering if Ronnie couldn't possibly find him a stash of old bullets and shrapnel fragments?

"I've had about all I can take of those, buddy," was the only answer Rudy got. "I wouldn't touch another bullet for all the money in the world. Unless it was for deer hunting, of course."

"Well, dearie..." a voice sighed languidly at Rachel's side and a hand was clapped firmly on her shoulder. "I'm mighty thankful your sisters have been found, praise the Lord... but it's a pity you have to go all the way across the world to get them. Oh, I s'pose you don't mind, you're young and all, but I can't imagine dragging myself across the Atlantic ocean... and Germany such a heathen country these days, tsk, tsk..."

Rachel smiled down at Lynette. In the past months since she had met the older woman, she had come to love these rambles somehow, as grouchy as they could be. By now they had dozens of long winter afternoons behind them, spent at the fireside with warm mugs of tea and slices of rich cake, always a different recipe... and the laughter and tears they had shared, every one of them had worked to heal some of the cracks in Rachel's heart. 

"That'll be the next thing, you'll get all the way over there and there'll be obstructions everywhere... there's bound to be a lot of rubble left over from the war, the railroad lines will be out, there'll probably be soldiers everywhere..." Lynette hadn't stopped all this time, although Rachel had only heard half of what she said. Benjie slid to the ground as Rachel bent to wrap Lynette in an embrace.

"Ich liebe dich, Mamalein," she whispered. "I love you."

Lynette stopped mid-sentence, startled into silence for a moment, and then wrapped her arms around Rachel in turn.

"Well, same to you," she admitted, her voice taking on that pleased-but-not-knowing-how-to-admit-it note. She waved a dismissing hand at Rachel as she let go. "Oh, don't carry on so, dearie, you'll have me all tearing up... Now listen, there's a picnic basket there with all the suitcases, take care that Ronnie doesn't drop it or that fool Josh doesn't fall on it, he's doing those dad-blame cartwheels again, he'll crush the baby, if Emma doesn't watch him... anyway, there's sandwiches in there, and pastries, and snacky things, and cake. Adding it to what Donna and Myra made for you, you'll have enough food to last you all the way across the Atlantic. It'll save money on the boat, y'know."

"Hey!" Mickey's yell as he dangled head and shoulders out of the living room window startled the crowd into momentary silence. "Mac and Katie are on the phone, Ronnie, they wanna talk to you and Rach."

"Haha, he's mine now," Josh laughed gleefully, scooping Benjie up and depositing him proudly on his shoulders as Rachel rushed to follow Ronnie into the house. "Look, Em, we got a kid all to ourselves for weeks!"

"Aw, give 'im here," Emma gushed, dragging Benjie into his arms. "You gonna stay with Auntie Emma, my wittle man? We're gonna have so much fun... we'll play games every day, and Auntie Emma is gonna make cookies, and you can help... we'll put chocolate candies in them... and we can listen to the radio... Aw, sweetheart," she covered him with kisses and Benjie wrinkled his freckled nose at her.

"Nummy cookies," he grinned and wrapped his arms around his neck as he planted a sticky kiss on her cheek. "Me wuvs you, now put me down."

He was accordingly snatched back by Josh and swooped wildly into the house, laughing and screaming all the way, just in time to catch the last half of the phone conversation as Ronnie and Rachel both bent over it.

"Jah, of course, Katie," Rachel was saying. "We will telegraph as soon as we have news. No, I promise, the very moment we can get to a station."

"Calm down, sis," Ronnie laughed. "We'll send a telegram to both Ohio and Minnesota. You won't have to hear the news second-hand, okay? Hey, Mac, listen, buddy... we'll be praying for you, about this whole minister thing..."

"And to speak of these news," Rachel cut in quickly. "The moment you make a decision, you must telegraph us, alright?"

"Ronnie..." Donna pushed through the people that had somehow elbowed their way into her living room. "Ronnie, look at the time!" she urged as he glanced up from the telephone. "You'll miss the train if we don't get you to the station now, come on, hurry!"

"Faster, Daddy, faster!" Benjie laughed from his perch atop his Uncle Josh. He clapped his hands and bounced a few times, eliciting a groan from Josh. "Faster, Daddy, train has to go!"

Ronnie snatched the little boy from his brother-in-law for one last cuddle. And Rachel's heart melted when she saw tears in her husband's eyes.