Such a tiny baby, thought Aquilla, opening the screen door and glimpsing a tan car parked in the driveway. She asked the woman to have a seat on the soft settee and offered some iced meadow tea. Shaking her head, the woman said she couldn’t stay long and glanced down at the sleeping babe in her arms.

Tentative, Aquilla took a seat across the room and wondered what was on the pretty Englischer’s mind.

“I’ve come to confess,” the woman said, looking away as tears sprang to her eyes. “Something I should have done more than a year ago. You see, I committed a terrible crime against you and your family.”

Perplexed, Aquilla sat there, unmoving.

She shook her head and rocked the baby slightly, then continued. “I was drunk out of my mind that day . . . made a wrong turn off Route 340. In the murkiness of the evening—and my own stupor—I swerved when I tried not to hit a young girl walking along the road . . . and hit what I mistakenly thought was an animal.”

Her words penetrated Aquilla’s heart.

“Not until I heard on the radio that an Amish boy had been killed by a hit-and-run driver on Cattail Road did I know . . . I had struck your son.” The young woman reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a newspaper clipping, her hand trembling. “This is how I knew where to find you.” Again, the woman’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m here to plead for your forgiveness, even though I know I don’t deserve it.” She broke down weeping.

Aquilla’s hands were so clammy that she clasped them together all the more tightly, as if hanging on to herself was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

“I was so horrified, I checked myself into a rehab in Philly, but I should have turned myself in to the authorities instead.”

Shocked, Aquilla coughed, then managed to find her voice. “Never did I expect to come face-to-face with the person who . . .”

The baby began to stir, and the young woman reached down to touch the infant’s face. “I was such a mess back then. I hadn’t found the Lord yet . . . or, I should say, He hadn’t found me.” She went on to explain that, after months in rehab, where she met a man who said he loved her, she discovered she was pregnant. “By December, I was very much alone again, and so down on my luck. I decided to attend a Christmas Eve service not far from my studio apartment, and a compassionate middle-aged couple there took me under their wing and introduced me to Jesus. Up until my baby was born ten days ago, they’ve been encouraging me along in this new life I’ve embraced . . . ‘discipling me,’ as they say. They urged me to own up to my wrongdoing.”