The Hawaiian Quilt (4 page)

Mandy’s brother Mark had kidded her about making a trip to Hawaii by boat, since the ship would be surrounded by water. Mandy’s response was, “I’m not worried about it, because I won’t go anywhere on the ship where I could fall overboard.”

Then her youngest brother, Melvin, piped up. “What if the ship sinks, like the
Titanic
?”

Mandy squeezed the arms on her deck chair.
Leave it up to my
bruder
to give me a hard time
. She could only imagine how horrible it must have been on the
Titanic
, with nowhere to go but the cold ocean water. Even so, she couldn’t let these feelings get the best of her. Thinking happier thoughts, she reflected on how her parents had given each of their five children a name beginning with the letter
M
. Michael, almost twenty-three, had recently married Sarah Yoder. Milo was eighteen; Mark, fifteen; and Melvin, twelve. Mandy would celebrate her twenty-first birthday on January 28. She would be home from her trip way before then and figured her parents would do something special for her. Maybe Mom would cook a big meal and invite Mandy’s closest friends to join them. Or perhaps they’d all go out to one of her favorite restaurants in the area.

Growing up with teasing brothers hadn’t been easy, but she’d survived her childhood—although she had always longed for a sister.

Of course
, she reasoned,
I have my three best friends, and they’re almost like sisters
.

“Are you daydreaming?” Ellen nudged Mandy’s arm. “I’ve been talking to you, but I don’t think you heard a word I said.”

“Oh, sorry. I was deep in thought.” Mandy turned to face her friend. “What did you say?”

“It’s getting windy, and I’ve had enough sun.” Ellen unrolled her sleeves.

“You’re right, the wind has picked up. Why don’t we go check out one of the gift shops? Or would you rather go back to the room and rest awhile before lunch?”

“I’ve been in our room too much already. Let’s go shopping.” Ellen stood and smoothed the wrinkles in her dress. “Maybe I can pick up a few trinkets to give to family members back home.”

The two friends gathered up their things, but before they left the pool area, Mandy paused and took a picture of the little girl she’d been watching earlier.
I hope someday I’ll have a daughter as cute as her
.

Middlebury

“Miriam, it’s good to see you.” Peggy Eash smiled when Mandy’s mother entered her quilt-and-fabric store on Monday morning. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I need some thread.”

“Well, you know where the notions are kept.” Peggy pointed to the notions aisle.

Miriam nodded, picked up a shopping basket, and headed down the aisle. She had almost reached the thread display when she noticed Peggy’s son Gideon. “I’m surprised to see you here this afternoon. Aren’t you still working at the upholstery shop?”

“Things are a little slow there right now, so I have the day off. I’m helping unload a shipment of fabric and some other things that came in this morning.” He brushed his dark hair off his forehead.

“I’m sure she appreciates your help, especially with Barbara gone.” Miriam picked out two spools of thread then stepped aside so Gideon could set down the box he held.

“Have you heard anything from Mandy?” he asked, kneeling beside the box.

“We talked for a while last night.” She dropped the thread into her basket.

“Are she and her friends still on the boat?”

“Jah. They should be almost to Hawaii by now. They’re scheduled to reach land tomorrow.”

“How’s Mandy doing?” He looked up at her with a curious expression.

“She’s fine, but Ellen got seasick on Saturday.”

Gideon’s forehead wrinkled. “You’d never get me on a boat for all those days. I’d probably be grank as soon as I got on board.”

“From what Mandy said, the ship is quite large, so unless the waters get really rough, I wouldn’t think the boat would sway too much.” Miriam picked out a few more spools of thread. “I hope she’s enjoying herself and will return with lots of good memories.”

“Aren’t you worried about your
dochder
being so far from home?”

“I’m not fond of the idea, but as you know, Mandy is twenty years old. I certainly couldn’t forbid her to go. She’s old enough to make her own decisions.” Miriam pursed her lips.
Although if I had my way, Mandy would be here right now—not off on a cruise to see what Hawaii is all about
.

“I didn’t want her to go,” Gideon admitted, “but I gave her my blessing.”

“If you’d asked her not to go, maybe she would have stayed. As long as you two have been courting, I would think she’d want to please you and not go gallivanting off to see what a tropical island looks like.”

“If I’d asked Mandy to stay, she might have resented me, and it could have affected our relationship.” Gideon began pulling new skeins of yarn from the box.

“You may be right.” Miriam hoped Mandy appreciated her boyfriend and would make a commitment to join the church soon. Maybe after this trip, she would settle down and take life more seriously.

The Island of Maui

S
ince Mandy and her friends had stayed up late Monday night, visiting and looking at the stars and the full moon, it was hard to get up the next morning. However, the excitement of arriving at the port in Maui and the sounds of people in the hallway talking got them all out of bed.

Mandy and Barbara had signed up to go with a tour group to the visitors’ center at the Haleakalā volcanic crater, as well as the Ali’i Kula Lavender Farm. Sadie and Ellen would tour the huge aquarium at Maui Ocean Center and explore the town of Lahaina, where many shops and restaurants were located.

Watching from one of the decks as the ship entered the harbor with a smaller boat guiding it into place, Mandy’s enthusiasm mounted. After seeing nothing but water for the last four days, it was a thrill to finally spot some green. She could hardly wait to step on dry land and view the beautiful sights awaiting them.

Lahaina

“Wish we could have gone on a tour watching for humpback whales,” Sadie commented as she and Ellen, along with the others in their tour group, started their walk through what appeared to be quite an old town. “Unfortunately from what I read in the brochure, the whales won’t migrate here from Alaska until December.”

“I agree it’s a disappointment, but it’ll be fun to do some shopping.” Ellen gestured to an enormous tree with a twisted trunk, growing across the street. “That tree is certainly unusual. I wonder what it’s called.”

“It’s a banyan,” their tour guide explained. “A lot of them grow here on Maui.” Everyone stopped walking as she told about this particular tree, and how it covered over two-thirds of an acre, with a dozen main trunks. “The Banyan tree was originally brought to Maui from India and planted over 140 years ago. Back then it was only eight feet tall, but now it’s grown to a height of sixty feet.”

Sadie tipped her head back, shielding her eyes from the bright glare of the sun as she studied the monstrous tree. It was nothing like any of the trees they had back home.

With her camera ready, Sadie suggested she and Ellen take their picture by the Banyan tree. Since neither of them had joined the church yet and they wouldn’t put their photos on display, it should be okay. Handing her camera to an older woman who was on the tour, they posed for a picture.

After the photo was taken, they continued the tour, pausing along the waterfront to watch some of the boats going in and out of the harbor. It was a clear, sunny day, and Sadie was glad she’d remembered her sunglasses.

Everyone went their own way for a while, visiting shops. They would regroup at a set time to board the bus that would take them to the Maui Ocean Center. Sadie looked forward to going because she’d read a beautiful pamphlet describing the center’s unique attractions.

“Let’s get one of those.” Ellen pointed to a Hawaiian Shave Ice stand. “It looks similar to an ice-cream cone, only I’ve heard it’s more refreshing.”

“Jah, let’s do.” As Sadie and Ellen started walking, Sadie bumped her toe against the sidewalk and lost her footing. She regained her balance in time to right herself, and kept going.

“Are you okay?” Ellen clasped Sadie’s arm.

“I’m fine. Jarred my back a bit, but at least I didn’t fall. It was embarrassing, but it could have been worse.” Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Sadie moved on.

When they stepped up to the stand, Sadie studied all the different flavors they offered. “Now I don’t know which one to choose.”

“Think I’ll try a coconut-flavored shave ice.” Ellen reached into her purse for the money. “As soon as you decide, we can order, and it’ll be my treat.”

“
Danki
.” Sadie continued to study the list of flavors and finally decided on a
li hing mui
, which meant “salted plum.” In case she didn’t care for the taste, she added a bit of cherry flavor to it, as well.

They sat on a bench to eat the delightful, cooling treats and watched the people from all walks of life passing by. Sadie had thought people might stare, wondering about their plain clothes, but with so many others representing different parts of the world, their way of dressing seemed to go unnoticed.

When they were almost finished with their shave ice, Sadie noticed some syrup from the bottom of the paper cone had dripped out. “Oh, no!” She pointed to the front of her blue dress. “I hope it won’t leave a stain.” She threw the remainder of the treat in a nearby garbage can.

“I packed some stain applicator for the trip,” Ellen said. “When we get back to the ship you can put some on your dress. Good thing we brought extra clothes with us.”

“It’s also good we had our picture taken before this happened.”

“Let’s look for a restroom so you can try to get some of the mess out now,” Ellen suggested.

Sadie picked up her tote bag and held it in front of her dress. “If I can’t get the syrup out with soap and water, I’ll carry my bag in front of me the rest of the day.”

Ellen snickered.

After they located the public restrooms, Sadie took care of the stain as best as she could. Following that, they went into a few of the shops. In one, she spotted some petrified shark’s teeth.

“Were those found here on Maui?” Ellen asked the woman behind the counter.

“No, they were actually discovered off the shores of Florida, along the Gulf of Mexico.”

Sadie thought it would be strange to buy something found in Florida when they were here on Maui, but then she’d also seen souvenirs and clothing in some of the shops that had been made in other countries.

“I’m looking for something inexpensive to take home to my family,” Ellen said after they left the store selling shark teeth. “And I’d like it to be useful.”

“I saw some Hawaiian-made purses at one of the shops. Those might be nice for the women in your family. There are some wooden items in this shop right here that might be useful.” Sadie stepped up to the window for a closer look. “What do you think? Should we go inside and look around?”

Ellen drew in her lower lip and squinted. “Maybe I’ll wait till we visit some of the other islands before I buy any gifts. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunities to shop.”

Sadie shrugged. “Okay, but if we see something along the way that catches our eye, we ought to get it because you never know if you’ll see anything like it again.”