Free Katie's Redemption by Patricia Davids

asked if Katie could supply her with several more. Pocketing the cash, Katie thanked the saleswoman and gave her Elam’s name. If she helped him earn some extra income, it might make up in some small way for the fact that she’d had to part with his gift like this.
    Once outside the building, Katie retrieved her suitcase and hurried toward the bus station. Main Street in Hope Springs ran north and south past shops, a café and small, neat homes with drab winter yards. Traffic was light. Only an occasional car passed her. Each time she heard the fast clip-clop of a buggy coming up behind her she couldn’t help but think of Elam and Nettie and how kind they had been to her.
    In a secret place in her heart, Katie foolishly wished that Elam would come after her. She knew better, but the wish remained.
    She prayed he and his mother were not offended by her abrupt departure. She’d tried to explain herself in the note she’d left, but words were inadequate to thank them for all they had done.
    The bus depot lay at the far side of town just off the highway. Relief flooded through her when she saw the large blue and gray vehicle still idling beneath the corrugated iron awning outside the terminal. A man in a gray uniform was stowing a green duffel bag in the luggage compartment. She stopped beside him. “Is this the bus going west?”
    “It is.”
    “Can I still get a ticket?”
    He slammed the storage lid shut. “If you hurry. I’m pulling out in five minutes.”
    “I’ll hurry.”
    Inside, she rushed to the ticket window, but had to wait for a couple, obviously tourists, to finish first. She glanced repeatedly at the large clock on the wall.
    When it was finally her turn, she said, “I need a ticket to Yoder, Kansas.”
    The short, bald man with glasses didn’t look up, but typed away at his keyboard. “We don’t have service to Yoder. The nearest town is Hutchinson, Kansas. You’ll have to make connections in St. Louis and Kansas City.”
    “That will be fine. How much is it?” She pulled the bills from her pocket.
    “One hundred and sixty-nine dollars.”
    Her heart dropped to her feet. That was thirty dollars more than she had. This couldn’t be happening. She’d come so far. She’d even sold Elam’s gift to her child. Rachel began squirming and fussing. Tightening her grip on her daughter, Katie said, “Are you sure it’s that much?”
    He looked over his glasses. “I’m sure. Do you want a ticket or not?”
    “I don’t have enough, but I have to get on this bus.” What was she going to do?
    “We take credit cards.”
    “I don’t have one,” she admitted in a small voice.
    “Then I can’t sell you a ticket. I’m sorry.”
    “Please, I have to get on this bus today.”
    “Do you want to buy a ticket to St. Louis instead of Hutchinson?” he suggested.
    “No.” What good would it do to arrive in a strange city with no money and no one to help her? It would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. She turned tolook over the waiting room. Besides the tourist, there were two Amish men, both in black suits with wide-brimmed, black felt hats and long gray beards. The only other person waiting to board was a young soldier in brown-and-green fatigues.
    Rachel began crying in earnest. Any pride that Katie had slid away in the face of her growing desperation. She left the ticket counter and approached the Amish men first praying they would treat her with the same kindness the Sutter family had shown her.
    “Sirs, I must get on this bus, but I don’t have enough money to reach my destination. Could I beg you for the loan of thirty dollars? I will pay you back, I promise.”
    The men stared at her a long moment, then one spoke to the other in German, but Katie understood them. “She looks like a runaway. We shouldn’t help her. We should send her back to her family.”
    “Jah.”
    The bus driver pushed open the outside door and said, “All aboard.”
    Katie clutched the black gabardine