ATOP Chapter Twenty-Two

"The house should be ready to move into before Thanksgiving and oh, I am so excited, already planning the menu for..." Emma paused in her reading of Katie's letter aloud as Josh interrupted.

"I want to know. Does that sister of yours ever talk about anything other than that house? Besides singing the praises of Mac, that is."

Emma could hear the teasing grin in his voice and didn't bother answering. But she folded the letter and slid it into her apron pocket before swinging up on the fence rail beside him.

"You've had a long enough lunch break, Scout, shouldn't you be getting back to that field?"

"Oh, drat the field," Josh groaned in protest. "I've worked enough this morning for six men. Besides... who wants to bother with harvesting when they've got an Emma around?" he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, grinning wider.

"Well, look. You can see Ronnie way over there... he's still working! "

"Zackly my point. He ain't got an Emma. Besides... it looks like it's gonna rain soon and I don't wanna get drenched."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, low and quiet. Josh gestured dramatically towards the horizon as if to prove his point. Emma only shook her head at him, jumped down from the fence, and began gathering up the remains of their lunch.

♡♡♡

On the opposite side of the valley, Ronnie heard the thunder and glanced up at the rapidly-darkening sky with a frown. Rain at harvest was never welcome. He wouldn't have time to finish before... and then the crops would have to dry again. Thunder rolled again and he sighed. Nothing to do but put the harvester in the barn and wait it out. But a flash of lightning streaked the gray sky and he remembered Rachel with a jolt. Thunderstorms... 

♡♡♡

Josh had turned his own harvester towards the barn, Emma walking alongside and swinging her empty picnic basket, when they saw Ronnie tearing across the fields on foot, running as if the lightning was out to get him. The tractor stood idling in the middle of a cornrow, right where he had left it.

"Huh." Josh shrugged. "Guess he doesn't wanna get wet either. Figger I should go get his tractor?"

♡♡♡

At the first thunderclap, a plate had slipped from Rachel's hands and shattered into fragments at her feet. Icy fingers of terror were curling round her heart. Lightning flashed and her knees gave way. She sank to the floor amid the shards of porcelain, shaking like a leaf.

Another thunderclap. Darkness raced across her memory. 

A picture of the streets of Monschau, narrow and black with wet red flags hanging from every window, outlined in the eerie streaks of lightning. Wind whipped wet, bedraggled hair around her face, her soaked skirt flapped at her knees... distant shouts and the footsteps of imaginary pursuers drove her relentlessly, wearily on... deeper and farther into the middle of nowhere. She didn't know where she was going... and she was alone.

"Rachel?" 

The door opened with a bang, boots clattering noisily through the hallway. She dragged herself halfway up, felt a sliver of glass slice across her skin and cried out in pain and fear. It was hard to see reality through the blinding memories... and she was still alone on the road that led from Monschau to... nowhere at all.

"Rachel... Rachel, what's wrong?" 

It was the feeling of his arms around her more than his voice that at last managed to pierce through the dream world of terror that surrounded her. She clung to him, trembling, desperately afraid to let go. She couldn't be alone again... she would die if he left her now. She tried to tell him so, but her words seemed to be coming out wildly incoherent... and yet he seemed to understand anyway.

"Shh, sweetheart, I'm here," he whispered, pulling her away from the broken glass and gathering her closer against his heart. "I'm here... and I'm staying long as you need me... God knows you've always been there for me..."

"The thunder... I can not bear the thunder," she sobbed, hiding her face against him. "And the lightning... I saw the red flags in the flash of the lightning... blood red flags lining the streets... ach, Ronnie... I did not know where to go... so alone, so alone..."

"Never alone again, not while I'm living," He had sat her down beside him on the couch and had pulled away enough to check her bleeding hand, but she still clung to him with her other arm, her face buried in his shoulder. 

"I... I... I b-b-buried him... in the... the st-storm..." she stammered and drew a gasping breath between shaking sobs. "And then... then I... I ran... alone... in th-the rain..."

"If I could stop the storm, I would," Ronnie muttered, glancing up from her hand long enough to glare at the black clouds outside the window. "Your hand, Rachel... it's an awful bad cut... let me call Emma?"

"No... please..." Rachel whimpered, curling closer against him. "My... my hand is fine. Just... just... hold me..."

"Remember..." Ronnie whispered as he bound her hand in a clean handkerchief, his fingers gentle. "Remember..." he paused to press a kiss to her forehead and wrapped her in his arms again. "Who makes the rain fall. He's in control, and you know that, Rachel-mine. See how His power is shown in the thunder and lightning... no one could stop a storm, though they try to turn the world upside-down... try to see it that way, Rachel-mine. God is still in control, and He shows it through His storms."

She didn't answer and he fell silent. The thunderstorm grew louder, the lightning flashed brighter, and the rain sounded as if it would drill a hole right through the roof. Every thunderclap left Rachel shaking and sobbing. Not knowing what else to do and hating this helpless feeling, Ronnie prayed silently. 

Bring peace to her soul...   

And he wished he could find that peace himself...

The storm slowed. The thunder quieted to a soft rumble as light began to peep through the clouds that were black no longer, just a pale gray. Something was shining out there in the sky and Ronnie stood, lifting his trembling Rachel in his arms. He didn't tell her what he was doing... just carried her out in the rain without a word.

"There," he murmured as she lifted her head in surprise. "See His promise? There... there is your shining hope, my Rachel..." and he pointed toward the rainbow.

"Gott ist gut," Rachel whispered, her tears mixing with the raindrops as she lifted her face to the sky. "Ach, Dear Heart... God is so good..."