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drive widened out so the buggies could turn around, and before the paddock where the horses grazed and the gate opened into the orchard, the men had drawn up chairs in a circle to visit and joke and make plans for their fields. Jacob waved as he saw her coming along the gravel drive.
    She waved back, and called, “Dinner is ready—time to wash up.”
    Jacob slapped his knees and got up, tossing a joke over his shoulder to the other men as they folded up the old wooden chairs that were too rickety to use in church, and took them into the barn. They straggled up to the house—her father-in-law, his oldest son Joshua and Joshua’s two boys, Caleb, Corinne’s cousin Ezekiel King, and a man she didn’t know. Was this the relative she’d mentioned before? The husband of one of the women in the kitchen?
    But no, he had no beard. She looked away as Ezekiel caught up to her. “Sarah, it’s good to see you. Caleb tells me Simon is working in Colorado. How is he?”
    She shook his hand. Zeke, according to Corinne, was the family jokester, so you never knew what he was up to. Every time Michael had talked about him, it had been with a reminiscent smile. “He’s well, Zeke. I just had a letter from him today, in fact—all about a trail ride with some Japanese businessmen.”
    For once, she had been the one to surprise Zeke King, and not the other way around. “Caleb said he was working on a dude ranch, but I couldn’t believe it was true.”
    “It’s true. He and his buddy Joe are looking after the horses, from what I understand—and, I hope, keeping themselves as separate from bad influences as they can.”
    “It’s big country out there,” said the stranger. “More country than people, I think. He’ll be all right.” He held out his hand. “My name is Silas Lapp.”
    Zeke finally remembered his manners. “And this is Sarah Yoder, my cousin Corinne’s daughter-in-law. She was married to Corinne’s second boy, Michael, before the Lord took him.”
    Sarah shook his hand. “Have you been to Colorado, Silas?”
    “I have.”
    Anxious to get everyone to the table, Sarah turned and chivvied them toward the house. They’d be the last ones seated at this rate. But at the same time, she was vitally interested in finding out even the smallest things about the state, which might as well be a foreign country, it was so unlikely she’d ever get the chance to visit.
    “I hope you’ll tell me a little about it. I want to picture my boy somehow, and the only way I’ve been able to do it so far is to check books out of the library.”
    “We’ll have to talk it over at dinner, then.”
    And he was as good as his word—especially since the only two chairs left at the table when they finally got inside were right next to each other at the opposite end from where Sarah and Caleb usually sat on Friday nights.
    After a silent grace, when plates and cups began to clatter, Silas passed the big bowl of potatoes to Sarah and said, “Where is the ranch your boy works on?”
    “The postmark is Buena Vista, so that must be the nearest town with a post office, but he mentioned once that the ranch is in a place called Cottonwood Springs.”
    Silas smiled, a look in his eyes as though he was appreciating a memory. “The closest Amish settlement would be in Monte Vista, then.”
    “Is that close enough that a boy in Cottonwood Springs might have an opportunity to go to church?”
    If so, she would write to Simon that very night and suggest it—even if they had to ride one of their trail horses to get there.
    “No, I don’t think so. It’s a hundred miles or more—but there is a bus service.”
    So far? Imagine living a hundred miles from church. Her mind could hardly take in a country so vast. “I could write and suggest that for his next weekend off. Denki. ” And she smiled at him, determined to join him in looking on the bright side. Even if the boys were too far away to ride in one day, just knowing there were some of