ATOP Chapter Sixty-Two

"Welcome to my humble abode," Mickey grinned half-heartedly as he gestured around his room with a dramatic flourish. "You can have the bottom bunk. Top's mine." He tossed an extra pillow towards Jakob who caught it, returning a half-hearted grin of his own.

"Nice room," he managed and Mickey shrugged nonchalantly before collapsing grandly into his ragged old armchair. 

"Yeah, it ain't much, but it's comfortable. Used to share it with Ronnie. Feels like forever ago already. The girls were in the room 'cross the hall, before they got married, but that room's turned into Mom's sewing room now. The guest bedroom is kinda mostly storage right now. But I don't mind you bunking with me for a little while."

"But not for a long while, eh?" Jakob laughed and then trailed off. Still holding the pillow, he sank onto the bottom bunk and turned his eyes thoughtfully toward the window.

"So..." Mickey interrupted the silence rather awkwardly. "You... um... live in New York?"

"Jah..."

"With your cousins."

"Jah, jah..." Jakob shrugged.

"You... um... you got a girlfriend?"

"No... do you?"

"Yup," Mickey grinned wickedly. "I do."

"Lucky guy," Jakob smiled. "What is she like?"

"Aw, she's the prettiest girl in the whole world," Mickey leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "Wavy black hair, big black eyes, the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. Like... like stars. That's what they look like. Eyes like stars. And a laugh that sounds like music."

"You have the soul of a poet, my friend," Jakob smiled wider. "What is her name, this girl with eyes like the stars?"

"Um..." Mickey stared at the ceiling harder, as if hoping a name would suddenly appear there. If Rebekah found out he had claimed her as his girlfriend... well... he didn't even want to begin imagining the consequences. "Becky?" 

"Becky?" Jakob looked at him quizzically. "You mean... like... like Bekah?"

"Oh... yeah... something like that," Mickey laughed awkwardly. "Whaddya know? Kinda like... like Bekah..."

"Speaking of the stars..." Jakob smiled dreamily. Tossing the pillow aside, he propped his chin in his hands. "Have you noticed Bekah's eyes?"

Had he noticed... Mickey wanted to throw something harder than a pillow at the guy.

"She is lovely, is she not," Jakob went on, oblivious. "I cannot tell you the joy I felt when I found her and Shonie's names in the paper... I had thought them... dead... all these years... Bekah is the first and only that fate has returned to me. My... my family... none of them made it through..." his shoulders slumped. Mickey stopped devising ways to pound him and sat up a little straighter.

"I... I'm sorry..." he muttered. "That's... rough..."

"Well..." Jakob sighed. "I am learning to live with the sorrow. And I find I get by somehow. Elohim hu tov... God is good..." he glanced upward, reverently. "Can I ask you a question, my friend?"

"I s'pose."

"Are you a Christian?"

"Um... yeah..." Mickey tried to force his thoughts into a rational pattern. They didn't seem to be all that Christian just now.

"I assume that all your family is?"

"Yeah."

"How is Bekah taking that? She... well... she is very strong for the Jewish ways. I cannot imagine her living with people who do not believe as she does. It has been easier for me... my cousins all follow our faith. And I am working towards making it to Israel yet. Bekah and I used to dream of going together. I have been wondering... hoping..."

Oh, just shut up, Mickey wanted to snap at him. If anyone's gonna take Bekah to Israel, it will be me. Just go back to where you came from, so help me, if you dare take her away from me...

"It's been hard for her," he answered truthfully. "I pray that she will settle in... feel at home here, feel safe with us. I..." he trailed off.

"It is a long hard road to feeling normal again," Jakob murmured. "Just to feel like a human being again. In charge of your own life."

"I can't imagine," Mickey grimaced. "I..." he glanced toward the window and sighed. "Ever played baseball?"

♡♡♡

Wiggly barreled across the yard, looking like a giant cotton ball in the grass. Benjie was right on his heels, laughing delightedly, chubby hands stretched out as he just barely reached the puppy, who managed, as usual, to evade his eager grasp. Intent in his escape, the little dog hadn't counted on Shonie, who came from the other direction and scooped him up before he had a chance to reroute himself. Shonie seemed to have a remarkable calming effect on Wiggly and he quieted immediately, nuzzling his snout against her shoulder as she hugged him close.

"Mickey?" Donna stepped out of the back door, a covered dish in her hands. "Mickey Stewart, get over here and help me, please! I have all these dishes that need to come outside..."

"On it, Mom!" Mickey dropped his bat and glove where he stood and, dashing up to the house, swooped the dish rather recklessly from his mother's hands and hurried it over to the table that had been set up in the backyard. 

The baseball game had disbanded about half an hour ago, although Mickey had kept it going as long as possible. Despite all his efforts, the rest of the players were simply too tired and thirsty to keep it going. And Rebekah, who was usually the best batter of all of them, besides Josh and Mickey, simply didn't seem to want to play today. This confused Mickey, who tried every tactic in the book to revive her interest in the game. She had said something about not wanting to mess up her hair and had finally retreated to sit by the fire and carefully brush the dust from her dress. 

"I don't get it," Mickey groaned as he flung himself onto a haybale beside Ronnie, having finished carrying the food out for Donna. "She's not acting like herself today... she loves baseball. We should try again after supper, maybe everyone was just hungry."

"What, we played for two hours, that's not enough?" Ronnie shook his head, laughing. "Kid, you and your obsession with baseball..."

"Naw, it's more than that," Mickey propped his chin on his hands and stared dismally into the fire. "Baseball is the greatest distraction on earth... but it doesn't last forever." 

"Not sure what you're talking about, buddy, but you'd better grab a hot dog before everyone eats 'em all."

"There are so many Jews here," Mickey muttered. "How on earth are we having hot dogs?"

"Kosher hot dogs," Ronnie grinned. "They're beef. Rachel made me go all the way to some fancy shop in Cleveland for 'em. And guess what... they're way better than normal hot dogs. Not that I would really remember, I've been deprived of pork for... a long time."

"How's that going for you?" Mickey laughed. "No pork, I mean."

"Meh... I'd give anything up for my Rachel," Ronnie stared across the yard to where Rachel stood talking to Lynette, baby Judah asleep in her arms. "She's worth anything and everything."

"Aw, you guys are mushy," Mickey wrinkled his nose and elbowed his big brother. 

"Yeah, just wait till your turn comes," Ronnie elbowed back. "Little Mister Smarty-Pants."

"It ain't ever gonna come." Mickey groaned and hid his face. 

"Oh, come on," Ronnie's tone went from teasing to slightly concerned. "What kind of talk is that? You okay?"

"Yup. Just fine." Mickey grabbed a marshmallow from a forgotten open bag on the empty haybale beside him and stuffed it into his mouth. 

"Coulda fooled me." Ronnie moved closer and lowered his voice to an almost-whisper. "Unless I'm greatly mistaken, and I don't think I am, you've got a Bekah-sized problem here, right?"

"You know too much sometimes. How do you even do that?"

"Doesn't take a genius," Ronnie grinned and nodded towards the opposite side of the circle where Jakob and Bekah were sitting together, talking earnestly. In German, no less. "I'm guessing you and Jakob won't get to be very good friends, eh?"

"I don't need anymore friends," Mickey grumbled miserably. "Also I wish I could speak German. And how much does it cost to get to Israel?"

"Daddy!" Benjie toddled up, half-carrying, half-dragging Wiggly. "Can Wiggly have a marshmallow?"

"Um..." Ronnie chuckled. "Probably not. And you shouldn't either, Li'l Squirt, you've had so much sugar you'll never get to sleep tonight."

"No sleeping," Benjie giggled. "You hafta chase me aaall night." He shrieked with excitement when Ronnie scooped him up and tickled him without mercy. Mickey glanced at Rebekah again and groaned inwardly. Why must her eyes shine like that? They seemed to be dancing in the firelight. And he didn't like the way she was smiling up at Jakob. Nor the way Jakob was looking down at her. It was as if no one else existed in all the world but the two of them. Mickey suddenly felt like crying, and he hated that feeling.

Benjie finally managed to free himself of his daddy and ran off after Wiggly, still screeching at the top of his lungs. Ronnie followed Mickey's gaze towards Rebekah.

"Hey, lemme tell you something," he leaned closer again. "At risk of sounding like one of Emma's crazy books, true love usually does get through, okay? But it's not because of happily-ever-afters or fairy tale magic or anything like that, it's because God knows what He's doing with your future. And if you and Bekah are meant to be, He'll work it out somehow. And if you're not meant to be, then... well, it'll be rough, trust me on that one, but it'll be better in the end than you ever thought it would be."

"But... some things are just so impossible," Mickey grimaced. "Look at them! And he... is a Jew. I'm... what... Scottish-English-Swiss something-or-other?"

"Well, I'm Scottish-English-Swiss something-or-other too," Ronnie chuckled. "And look at my Rachel. Think I could have worked that out on my own... found the woman of my dreams like that? I had to let my heart be broken, get dragged halfway across the world, go through some of the worst nightmares I never even thought possible just to find her..."

"Someday I wanna hear more of that story from your side, by the way. I've heard Rachel's in great detail, more than once."

"Eh, I'm not much of a story teller. But hey, don't worry so much about Bekah. You're both young, you'll figure it out yet."

"Maybe. And maybe we won't." Mickey groaned. 

"Well, just give it time. And prayer."