Sarasota Dreams (40 page)

“Your mother invited me, and I don’t want to disappoint her,” he argued. “She seems to approve of me as a suitor.”

Peter’s underhandedness confirmed what she already knew from the moment he’d announced his engagement to Clara—marrying him would have been a huge mistake. They walked the rest of the way to her house in silence.

Jeremiah had just gotten off the bus after returning the car to the dealership when he spotted Shelley and Peter walking toward her house. Curious, he followed them from a distance until they reached the sidewalk in front of Shelley’s house. His heart sank, and once again he had to use every bit of self-restraint not to confront them. He didn’t think Shelley was trying to deceive him about not wanting to be with Peter, but maybe she wasn’t ready to let him go.

Competition had always brought out the worst in Jeremiah, but he couldn’t let Shelley go without at least trying to win her over. He’d have to come up with a plan before acting, though, because he knew from experience that acting on impulse would bring him the opposite result of what he wanted.

Jeremiah took a couple of steps toward home when he heard the commotion behind him. Without another thought, he spun around and spotted Shelley’s mother frantically waving her arms, sobbing, and trying to talk to Shelley. Peter hung back while Shelley reached out to comfort her mother. Something bad had obviously happened.

Rather than leave, Jeremiah made the hasty decision to see if there was anything he could do to help. He took off running toward the Burkholder house.

Peter’s lip curled as he spotted Jeremiah running toward him. “What are you doing here, Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah ignored Peter and focused his attention on Shelley and her mother. “What is going on?”

Shelley’s arm remained around her mother’s shoulder as she looked at him. “William has disappeared, and no one has any idea where he could be.”

“I’ll help look for him,” Jeremiah said without hesitation.

“We don’t need you to help,” Peter said. “I think we have this covered without you.”

Mrs. Burkholder’s expression changed to one of confusion. “That was out of line, Peter. We need all the help we can get.”

“Y–Ya, ya, of course,” Peter said. “It’s just that … I don’t know if Jeremiah knows enough about William to be of much help. He might even be a hindrance …” The look on his face showed that he was aware he didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, and he was floundering.

“Where was he last seen?” Jeremiah asked. “And do you remember what he was wearing?”

Mrs. Burkholder sniffled and wiped her nose with her hankie. “He went on break at work, and he didn’t come back when the time was up. He was wearing a purple shirt that someone at work gave him. I remember because I wanted him to wear his white shirt, and we argued about it.”

“Thanks. I’ll start in the area around where he works,” Jeremiah said. “Shelley, would you like to come with me, or do you need to stay with your mother?”

Shelley turned to her mother. “What would you like me to do?” Again, Peter spoke up. “Don’t pull this nonsense, Jeremiah. She’s needed at home.”

Instead of sticking around for a battle of words with Peter, Jeremiah waved. “That’s fine. Instead of wasting time talking, I’m going to go look for William now. Someone needs to let all the neighbors know, so they can be on the lookout.”

Mrs. Burkholder lifted her finger. “I got a new cell phone. Let me give you my number.”

After Jeremiah added her new number to his phone, he sprinted to the bus stop. He rode across town and got off at the car dealership where he’d seen the red sports car. The salesman grinned at him until he realized who Jeremiah was, and then he scowled and shook his head.

“I need a car right away,” Jeremiah said.

“You said you weren’t in the market for a car,” the salesman reminded him.

“I’m not. I just need to borrow one for a little while.”

“Unless you’re in the market for a car, I can’t let you test-drive one. We’re not in the business of loaning cars,” he said, his voice harsh.

“This is an emergency,” Jeremiah said. As he explained what was happening, he witnessed the man’s expression softening.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” the salesman asked.

“I have no idea, but I don’t have time to argue. Will you let me use a car or not?”

The man swallowed hard and then nodded. “Tell you what. If you can give me a description, I’ll take another car and search for him, too.” He glanced down at his feet. “Business has been slow lately, so I don’t have anything better to do.”

Jeremiah nodded and described William. As soon as he had the keys to one of the cars on the lot, he took off for William’s workplace.

William’s supervisor gave him all the information he had and handed Jeremiah a card. “If you find him, please call my cell phone.”

J
eremiah drove in circles, starting with the block of William’s office building. He gradually widened the circle until he spotted the entrance of a city park. On a hunch, he turned and slowly made his way through the mangroves and toward a small clearing of trees. Someone with a purple shirt sat on a picnic bench, so he turned the car toward the small parking area nearby.

As he approached the clearing, he saw William sitting there with his face in his hands. “William?”

The sound of his name caught William’s attention, and he looked up. “What are you doing here, Jeremiah?”

“I came looking for you. What’s going on?”

William’s chin quivered, and he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “I had to get away.”

“Did something happen?” Jeremiah joined William at the bench.

“Myra tricked me.”

“Myra?” Jeremiah pulled the cell phone out of his pocket. “Give me a minute to let everyone know you’re okay, and then I want to hear all about what Myra did.”

Jeremiah called Mrs. Burkholder first. The instant she heard that William was safe, she broke down crying and handed the phone to Shelley.

“Is he hurt?” Shelley asked.

“Not physically. I’ll take him home as soon as I can.”

After he got off the phone with Shelley, he called William’s supervisor. “He seems fine.”

“That’s a relief. We take our job here very seriously, and we don’t like to lose our workers.”

Next on the list of calls was the salesman from the car dealership. “I found him,” Jeremiah said. “As soon as I take him home, I’ll return the car.”

“Why don’t you keep the car for the rest of the day? You might change your mind and decide to buy it.” He cleared his throat. “Even if you don’t want to buy it, maybe it’ll come in handy.”

“Thanks,” Jeremiah said. “I’ll bring it back before you leave.”

“I’ll be here until seven or eight.”

Jeremiah punched the
Off
button and turned his full attention to William. “Okay, so tell me what happened with Myra.”

William grasped the front of his shirt. “Myra gave this to me yesterday and said she thought I would look better in purple instead of my ugly white shirt Mother always wants me to wear.” He sniffled. “She says I have funny-looking clothes, and that is why she didn’t want to marry me.”

Jeremiah understood what William was going through after experiencing it most of his life. “Why did that make you run … er, leave work?”

“When she saw me wearing this shirt, she said I was still funny-looking.”

“That was a very mean thing for her to say,” Jeremiah said.

“I know. I wanted to take off my shirt and throw it at her, but I didn’t have anything else to wear, so I kept my shirt on and left.”

“Sometimes people say mean things to me, too.”

“Does that make you cry?” William asked.

Jeremiah leaned over and propped his elbows on his thighs as he pondered how to answer the question without being condescending. “It used to, but as I get older and hopefully wiser, I realize when people do that, they’re crying out for help.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It means that when people say mean things, they aren’t talking about you. It’s more how they feel about themselves. Happy people who have a good understanding of everyone’s differences generally don’t try to make other people feel bad.”

William’s forehead crinkled, and the corners of his mouth tightened. Finally, he nodded. “I believe you.”

“When Myra said those mean things, did she make sure other people could hear her?”

“Ya. Everyone heard her, and that’s what hurts my feelings.”

“I don’t think she would have said that to you if no one else were listening. I think she was just trying to show off.” Jeremiah straightened up and propped his forearm on William’s shoulder. “She was trying to make herself look smart by putting you down.”

William turned to face Jeremiah head-on. “Myra has always been a show-off.”

“I bet everyone knows that, so they don’t think any less of you for what she said.”

“Everyone does know,” William admitted before growing silent.

“You realize you have a lot of people worried about you, don’t you?”

William frowned and nodded. “Ya, but I didn’t think about that when I left.”

Jeremiah stood and gestured for William to follow. “Let’s get you back home with your family, and I’ll return this car to the dealership.”

“Can I ride up front with you?” William asked.

“Yes, of course you can.”

William’s mood instantly changed as he expressed his excitement over riding in the car. “How fast can you go?”

Jeremiah chuckled. “The speed limit is only forty-five, so that’s as fast as we’re going.”

By the time they arrived at the Burkholder house, William’s tears had dried. His mother and sister waited anxiously in the front yard. Peter was nowhere in sight.

Shelley approached the car, flung open the passenger door, and wrapped her arms around William. “We were sick with worry. Don’t ever do that to us again.”

“Excuse me, Shelley, but I can’t get out with you standing in my way.”

Shelley laughed and scooted to the side. “Then come on. Mother wants to hug you, too.”

After William walked around Shelley toward their mother, Shelley leaned over to talk to Jeremiah. “Thank you for finding my brother. How did you know where to look?”

“I didn’t know for sure, but I remembered that he went to a park last time he wandered off, so when I saw the park, I took a chance he might have gone there.”

Shelley smiled. “We need to have a long talk with William about not wandering off.”

“Or maybe you need to have some way of him letting you know when he needs to get away by himself.”

Shelley’s smile faded as she shook her head. “He should never be by himself.”

“Every man needs to be alone once in a while to think—particularly when he has woman trouble.”

“Does this have anything to do with Myra?” Shelley asked.

“I’ll let William tell you. But don’t force him just yet. He and I talked, and I think he still needs to sort out a few things first.”

Shelley’s eyes narrowed as her voice deepened. “The only thing he needs to sort out is not scaring our mother half to death.”

“Shelley…,” Jeremiah began, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her to back off. If something like this had happened to his own family, there was no telling what he’d do.

“Thank you for bringing him home to us. We can take it from here.” Shelley held his gaze for a few seconds before joining her mother and brother.

Jeremiah sat and watched the Burkholder family huddle before he pulled away from the curb. All the way to the car dealership, he thought about how little he was trusted—even when he did everything in his power to make things right again.

Lord, I don’t know how to make Shelley and her family see that I’m sincere
.

I’ve done everything I can think of. If there is anything else I can do, please show me … and make it obvious because I’m blind to subtle messages
.

He alternated between praying and talking to himself. Ever since he’d left the church, his life had seemed very shaky. He never doubted that coming back was the right thing to do, but having to constantly prove himself was getting tiresome.

“Someone needs to let Peter know that we’ve found William,” Shelley’s mother said after William went to his room. “Shelley, why don’t you call him?”