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about a fellow.
    Lily rose and went back to the dresser. She opened the lid to the box of hairpins and removed one after another from her bun till her blond hair tumbled over her shoulders and down her slender back.
    â€œ Ach , Lily, what’re ya doin’? We haven’t had evening prayers yet.”
    â€œI’m goin’ to bed early.” The mirror reflected Lily’s pained expression.
    Eva shifted, troubled. They never let their hair down before evening family worship.
    Yet Lily began to brush her long tresses, making dramatic sweeps as she went to sit on the opposite side of the bed, away from the door. She hadn’t ever slept on the side nearest the hallway. Eva suspected she was afraid of the dark as a child. In the spring and summer, when they kept their door and windows open for ventilation, Lily seemed quite content to sleep on the opposite side of the bed, with Eva as a buffer of sorts.
    â€œHonestly, sister, you’re too tired for Scripture reading?”
    â€œI am,” Lily admitted. “And for much of anything else round here, too.”
    Their eyes locked and held for a moment. Lily was the first to look away.
    â€œWhat’s really botherin’ ya?” Eva got up and stood near the dresser.
    â€œMy heart pains me.” Lily continued brushing. “Somethin’ terrible.”
    â€œMissin’ Mamma?”
    Lily placed her brush on the dresser. “We keep losing the people we love  . . . and now the house where we grew up. Where does it end, Eva?”
    â€œYou won’t lose me ,” Eva reassured her.
    Lily teared up.
    â€œIs something else worrying ya?” Eva asked gently.
    Lily was silent for a moment.
    â€œSister?”
    â€œIf only you knew.” Lily was staring now at the wooden quilt hanger across the room, where their mother’s prettiest quilt was on display, the most beautiful Dahlia pattern Eva had seen in all of Eden Valley, or anywhere in Lancaster County, for that matter. It was the last quilt Lily and Mamma had made together, just the two of them, before Mamma took sick.
    â€œIt’s Mamma, ain’t so?”
    â€œI miss her all the time.” Lily leaned her head gently on Eva’s shoulder and began to cry like a child.
    â€œI understand. I truly do.” Eva slipped her arm around her. “Go ahead, sister. The Lord sees and knows your heart.” Such were the very words Naomi used when Eva couldn’t keep back her own tears.
    â€œWhy’d Dat and Mamma both have to die?” Lily’s pitiful sobs filled the room, and Eva guessed there were many more why s in her sister’s mind, simmering just below the surface.
    â€œI miss them, too,” Eva offered, trying to be strong yet sensitive. Poor, dear Lily.
    â€œDo ya ever think ’bout what Dat would want ya to do with your future, if he was still alive?” Lily asked.
    â€œWell, we know , ain’t so?”
    Lily pulled a face. “For me to join church and settle in with the People, jah ?”
    â€œWhy sure.” She looked at her sister, pretty as a daisy. “Why turn up your nose at that?”
    Abruptly, Lily straightened and dried her wet cheeks with a hankie from her dress pocket. “That’s just it. I don’t know if this is the life I want. Don’t you ever wonder what else is out there?”
    â€œMy life is here, Lily. But of course I have private moments when I wonder what Gott has planned for me, like anyone else.” Eva brushed back her own tears. “Losin’ our parents might be a test to see what we’re made of  . . . like Job of old.”
    Lily’s shoulders drooped and she moved to the wooden wall pegs, where their long nightgowns hung on hangers. Lily’s were a lovely pale pink, and Eva’s plain white. “Like I said, I’m all tuckered out, sister. I’m weary of tests.”
    Eva returned to sit on the bed, then leaned back and