Generous Orchid - Chapter 4
New beginnings are exciting, and oh-so-hard
When I look back over my life, I see many new beginnings. Do you? Which one stands out to you?
It’s easy to say, “It will all work out,” unless you are the one on the threshold of a new home, a new job, a new life, a new beginning.
It’s a trust journey. You and God. You and your people. It may feel risky and uncertain and exciting, all at the same time. In Chapter Four of Generous Orchid, Annabelle faces the joy and uncertainty of the beginning of her new home land. She doesn’t know what is ahead. She isn’t sure if her skills as a nurse will be welcome. As much as she believes this is Joseph’s dream, it has become hers as well.
Again, thank you for coming along with me on this new adventure of fiction. I’m the same Suzie you’ve known all these years, but this has been my new beginning. I adore you and am grateful for you.
As we jump into Chapter Four of my historical novel, Generous Orchid, don’t hesitate to share your new beginning with me. I’d be honored to pray with you and cheer you on. If you haven’t read the previous chapter, you can find it here:
Chapter Four (Generous Orchid)
Annabelle lay awake. Joseph shifted beside her as a snore escaped his lips.
Days had melted into weeks. Their conversation on the brig was never brought up again and she and her husband moved slowly toward each other, though their words were formal and polite.
Though Annabelle regretted her lies, she did not regret her choice to come on this journey in spite of the child growing in her womb.
To pass the time she, William, and Joseph played word games in the evenings. Joseph studied fine sermons by Spurgeon in the faltering light. They indulged themselves by reading excerpts from dime novels loaned to them by the Captain, though at first Annabelle frowned at the westerns with gunplay and light-hearted romance.
As days passed and the clipper brushed over the waves, passengers scoured the horizon for signs of land: A twig floating in the water. A solitary bird soaring in the distance.
The crew convinced William that if he put salt on the tail of a bird he might catch one. Thrice, he had dashed across the deck spilling precious salt in pursuit of the lone speck in the sky.
Captain Ratliff boasted that the California clipper was sailing six to eighteen nautical miles per hour and they were making grand time, though to Annabelle it seemed they were on a timeless journey where hours melted like butter in the sun.
“Wake up. Wake up!”
Annabelle jerked upright at the sound like a yowling tomcat filled the cabin. William raced by, his red hair streaking behind him like a rooster’s tail. He scrambled over the boxes of their assorted belongings and leaped into their bed, his face scrunched tight with excitement. “You’ve got to see it,” he said. “Wake up, I say!”
“I’m awake, son.” Annabelle protected her growing stomach with her hand as her excited son jostled over her, and held back a smile as he scraped his skull on a low-hanging beam.
“Ow!”
“What is so important, child?”
He clambered to his father. “Papa! Wake up!”
Joseph gently pushed his son out of his space. “There’s no room, sailor.” He peered through weary eyes. “It’s too early in the morning for such noise.”
“Land, Papa. I saw land!”
“What did you say?”
“I saw land!”
“Well, what do you know?” Joseph jumped out of bed and smashed his head into a beam. “Ow!”
Annabelle laughed out loud at the pair. They stood in front of her smiling like two sheepish jack-o-lanterns. Her husband held out his hand and she clasped it as he helped her to her feet.
“How do you know? Did you hear the crew calling out?” Joseph asked.
Pink ebbed from William’s hairline to his ears as he pulled at the patch on his pants. “I couldn’t sleep so I went out on deck. . .”
“William!”
“I know, mama, but I wanted to see what they were doing.” He squirmed, and then a grin burst onto his face. “If I am not in too much trouble, may we go out and see it together?”
Joseph grabbed his trousers jammed his feet into the pant legs.
Annabelle tousled her son’s unruly hair. “Our new home is quite a way off, but if you saw land, we must welcome it together.” She wrapped her blanket around her. “It seems like forever since we got off the train in San Francisco and boarded this clipper, doesn’t it?” A smile escaped as she anticipated solid land and open spaces. She grasped the silver horsehair brush and clutched William, ignoring his fierce protests as she slicked down his unruly hair.
“The wind will just muss it.”
She held him tight, brushing his hair as if he were a mewling kitten. “It isn’t proper to climb out of bed and go on deck. Even if you have already done so.” She gave him a fierce look. While Annabelle brushed Williams’ locks into submission, Joseph drew out a folded map and sat on the edge of the bunk. He traced an imaginary path, pointing to the spidery lines that formed China. “See this? We will have curved in here, and are sailing by the Yellow Sea.” He traced the route with his finger. “This is Shanghai. That will be our first stop to replenish supplies. The sailors will unload some of the freight they loaded in California and then they’ll load new cargo like tea and spices and silk to return to the States. We should be in Shanghai for one day and night and then leave the next morning for our new home.” He looked up. “We can go ashore for a few minutes. I am told it’s not near as grand as Tientsin, but it will give us a taste of our new home.”
Annabelle let go of William, bending to peer out the port window.
William balled his fists together. “Papa, it’s not time for geography. My hair’s all fixed and time’s wasting.”
Joseph held out the colored map. “Annie, we will hug the western coast of the Pacific. See how this side of China almost looks like a woman’s shoe?” He put his finger on the tiny dot marked Tientsin. “Our new home is located right between the arch and the heel. It’s one of the largest seaports in China. We’ll travel just to the north of the Gulf of Chihli and the North China Plain.”
“Are we ever going to go on deck? Please, Papa, please. Captain might need me.” William fell back on the bed.
Joseph folded the map carefully. “Yes, we’ll go right now.” He turned to face Annabelle. “Will you join us?”
“Perhaps we should organize our things first,” she said, grinning. She pointed at the trunks stacked against the wall. More were stored underneath. “There is so much to do.” She laughed out loud at their mutual expressions of dismay.
“It will be days before we get to leave,” William said.
“Or at least hours,” Joseph said, joining in.
“Go,” she said, winking. “I’ll join you in a moment.”
William grabbed his shoe and pulled it on, tugging with all his might. Joseph pushed his feet into his boots and ran his hand through his hair. They both laughed as William leaped about like a frog in a rainstorm, one shoe snug and the other hanging from his heel. As the pair left Annabelle threw caution to the wind, dressing quickly to join them in the celebration.
On deck, her husband devoured the distant land range with his eyes as if a starving man seeing belly timber for the first time. William clung to the rail and shouted, waving his arms. A handful of passengers cheered as they clamored to the deck for their own view.
