Free A Dream for Hannah by Jerry S. Eicher Page A

up.”
    “There you go,” Kathy said, jumping on the explanation. “It was probably just the dog.”
    Roy shrugged and remained unconvinced. “I just don’t like it—that’s all I can say.”
    Hannah kept her eyes on her bowl of oatmeal, not because she was trying to hide anything, but because she felt hope stir inside of her. Perhaps Peter had come…had tried to reach her window.
    Miriam glanced in her direction. “I didn’t hear anything.”
    “Me neither,” Emma said, “but then our bedrooms are on the other side of the house.”
    “I didn’t either,” Isaac, for once, spoke up. “When I go to bed, I sleep. That’s what beds are for.”
    “Yes, we know,” Kathy said with a laugh. And then she looked to Hannah. Under her mother’s gaze, she felt a flush on her face.
    “Is there something wrong, Hannah?” her mother asked.
    Hannah shook her head. “No.” Her hopes to see Peter didn’t quite qualify as something being wrong.
    Kathy, using her mother’s intuition about these things, asked, “You don’t know anything more about the noises last night?”
    “Not really,” Hannah said unconvincingly.
    When her mom didn’t seem satisfied, she pressed on. “Hannah, if you do know something, you’d best tell us now. If we find out another way, it won’t sit well with us.”
    Hannah didn’t know how to answer.
    Kathy watched her a moment longer and decided to act on a motherly hunch.
    “Is this about a boy?” she asked.
    Hannah came up with the best answer she could think of without lying. “Well, I could wish it was about a boy, couldn’t I?”
    Kathy laughed out loud. “You silly girl! I guess you’re old enough for wishes like that, but remember you’re still young. There’s still plenty of time. Someone is out there for you.”
    “What are you talking about?” Roy asked.
    Kathy said, “I think she was hoping it was a boy coming to see her.”
    “Who would do something like that?” Roy asked. “It’s not even Friday night. Besides…I wouldn’t let the boy who sneaks around into the house. She will do it the proper way—not with lights in the windows.”
    Hannah nodded, for reasons she couldn’t quite understand, close to tears. A few slid down her cheeks, and she put down her spoon to wipe them away.
    “Now, look what you’ve done,” Kathy said. “You’ve broken her heart.”
    “It needs to be broken from ideas like that.”
    “That’s not what I meant,” Kathy said. “It’s not that anyone would actually come. I’m sure Hannah wouldn’t allow it. It’s the wish that a boy might care so much that he’d want to come.”
    Roy looked skeptical.
    “I wouldn’t want it to actually happen either,” Kathy assured him. “It’s just the wish, I guess, that counts.”
    “Did you want me to come around to your window when I was dating you?” Roy asked.
    “Well, you never thought of doing something like that,” she said as she began clearing the table now that breakfast was over. Hannah got to her feet to help.
    “That’s not what I asked,” he replied, waiting for an answer.
    Kathy finally came over and gave him a hug. “You did just fine.”
    Roy grinned but shook his head. “I still don’t think it’s proper…or in order.”
    “I know that,” she said, “and I’m sure Hannah knows it too.” Kathy gathered up a stack of dirty dishes and headed for the kitchen sink. “Girls just have dreams sometimes.”
    Hannah felt stabs of guilt at her mother’s words of confidence. Would she really go out with Peter or did she just want him to come to the window?
    Her beloved poem had somehow awakened her to love, and she couldn’t turn back now. Love was now her dream. And Peter was the object of that dream. He was a good boy, and she trusted him.

     
    Hannah didn’t have to wait long to find the answer to what she would do if Peter did come, for it was the very next evening a soft rapping sounded on her windowpane. Hannah had just come into her room, slipped