Christmas in Sugarcreek Read Online Free

lonely dinner was still better than most of the meals he’d eaten here.
    Tentatively, he blew on his spoon, then slurped down the first taste of Campbell’s vegetable soup. The broth tasted good enough, the hot broth coating his throat and slowly warming up his insides.
    Satisfied that his meal was the right temperature, he opened the novel to the first page, adjusted the lamp, and proceeded to read the same page three times.
    Frustrated, he closed the novel and leaned back. Knowing he couldn’t concentrate because he was thinking about the wariness he’d spied in Judith’s eyes. And was remembering the conversation he’d had with her father and brother.
    It seemed that it didn’t really matter how long he’d been gone. Memories didn’t fade, or maybe it was reputations that didn’t.
    Because, sure enough, most of the people he’d come in contact with were sure he was still eager to cause trouble.
    What they didn’t realize was his “trouble” had been greatly exaggerated. For the majority of his time in Sugarcreek, he’d spent just the way he was at the moment. Alone, with only the company of a book.
    It was a bitter pill to swallow—knowing that he hadn’t changed all that much over the years. “Here you go, Ben,” he told himself with more than a bit of irony lacing his voice. “Here you are, sitting by yourself yet again. Another big night for you.”
    Ever since he’d turned thirteen, he’d had an angry streak that he fostered, at least in reputation. That had been the year his mother had gone off to “visit” her parents. And had never quite made it back.
    His father had sworn him to silence. So instead of telling people he no longer had a mother living at home, he’d been forced to say that she’d been “under the weather.”
    His father had retreated further into himself, except for bursts of anger directed at him and his sister, Beth. It turned out the only thing that helped Beth was for their father’s anger to settle on him. Then his daed could yell at him to his heart’s desire and leave her alone.
    Which he did with startling regularity.
    All three of them seemed to do all right with that arrangement, at least on the outside. Beth had stayed around after she finished eighth grade, cooking him meals and doing his laundry as best she could.
    In return, he stayed in school another year and gave his father someone to direct his anger toward.
    Out of desperation, Ben tried to take comfort in the knowledge that at least he was protecting his sister.
    But soon he grew up. His famous short temper became shorter, and his sharp tongue became lethal. He became too big for their father to take out his frustration on. Before long, Beth left, too. The moment she turned eighteen, she left for Aunt Beth’s—to live with the woman she’d been named after.
    And after six months there, she had caught the eye of a boy, an Englischer named after Austin or Houston or some Texas city. And though she was young, and though she didn’t know the Englischer with the city name all that well, she eloped with the kid.
    Ben hadn’t heard from her since.
    He knew why. Beth had left Sugarcreek and moved on to show him that it was possible. In her own way, she’d hoped her actions would save him. In the letter she’d left for him, she’d encouraged him to get out of Sugarcreek, too. Too leave the church and get a driver’s license. To start over. But all Beth’s leaving had really done was make his world seem even darker and more isolated.
    He didn’t know why, but he’d never been in that much of a hurry to stop being Amish. He liked the way of life, even if his life wasn’t all that great.
    So he’d stayed and worked odd jobs and argued with his father. But after a while, all of that gave him no satisfaction, either. So he’d left, too.
    Now, three years later, his father was long gone. Ben had come back to take care of the house and put it up for sale.
    He’d intended to only stay in Sugarcreek as