Adoring Addie by Leslie Gould

frustrated, but even then I couldn’t tell what they were saying.
    So far tonight—probably worn out by the activity of the day—they were quiet.
    I lit my lamp beside my bed and sat atop the sunshine-and-shadows quilt I had made last year. It was for my hope chest, the one I didn’t have, so I put it on my bed instead.
    All of my other hope-chest items were in a hamper on my floor, which was the only element of untidiness that existed in my otherwise completely ordered space.
    Neither Mutter nor Aenti Nell ever came into my room, so they didn’t know I didn’t use the hand-me-down hope chest my mother had given me.
    It had been hers.
    And I didn’t want it.
    Not using it was the most rebellious thing I’d ever done—until I talked to Jonathan at the picnic and encouraged him to come calling tonight.
    My dresses hung on pegs across the room. A three-drawer bureau, to the side of the French doors, held all my other clothes. The top was bare except for the only added decor in the entire room—a canning jar filled with cosmos, the white, pink, and fuchsia flowers bending downward.
    My parents’ door opened with a creak. Sometimes Mutter couldn’t sleep and wandered the house. I’d so hoped tonight wouldn’t be one of those nights—but it seemed it was.
    I ventured to my window, and although I was tempted to step out onto my balcony more than I’d ever been before, I didn’t. Jonathan was definitely late. Even though we hadn’t specified a time, we both had to get up early in the morning.
    I valued punctuality in a person. It was one of Phillip’s qualities I appreciated.
    After another ten minutes, sure Jonathan wasn’t coming at all, I retreated back to my bed and pulled my nightgown from under my pillow just as the hoot of an owl interrupted the still night. I sprang to the French doors and flung them open. Sure enough, Jonathan was waiting in the courtyard, below the branches of the elm tree. Without stepping out, I waved and then motioned for Jonathan to wait over by the willow tree, away from the Haus.
    I didn’t want Mutter to see him through the kitchen window.
    I turned off my lamp, slipped down the stairs, and started for the front door, guessing Mutter was in the kitchen.
    Daed’s voice coming from the archway startled me. “Out for a stroll?” He had a bowl in his hand.
    Speechless, I nodded.
    He smiled. “Tell Phillip hello.”
    I pursed my lips.
    â€œYou have my blessing, Addie.” He grinned. “Lighten up. We couldn’t be happier about the two of you. I told Phillip that today.” He held up the bowl. “And by the way, the date pudding is delicious. Best you’ve ever made.”
    I smiled at him, although I doubted he could tell in the darkness, snatched up the pair of flip-flops I kept at the front door, and slipped out. I felt like a cheat—but not enough to tell him the truth or, worse, not go. It was the first time I’d ever deceived my father.
    And the first time I’d ever taken such a risk.
    I fled the house and hurried around the side. At least Timothy had left for the evening and wasn’t drinking behind the barn. And I didn’t think he’d taken Danny with him.
    The full moon shone above the willow, illuminating the tree and Jonathan. Glancing back once to make sure Daed hadn’t followed me out the door, I hurried across the lawn.
    â€œWhat a night,” I said as I reached Jonathan, barely aware of the mosquito that had landed on my arm. I swatted it away.
    â€œJah.” He gazed at me, his eyes full of emotion.
    My face grew warm at his intensity.
    He held out his open hand to me. On his palm was a thin piece of wood the size of a bookmark. “It’s for you.”
    He’d etched a simple Engel in the wood, her face turned upward, her wings spread wide. I closed my hand around it. “Denki. It’s beautiful,” I said, running my