Con Sampler

Chapter 6 – Feed Store and More-3

Silas Yoder was finishing up with his last customer when we went back into the feed store. He turned to Mel. “What can I get you today?”

“Good day Silas. I need two fifties of calf crunch.” He nodded and called out to a teenage boy in German.

Mel took out her wallet. As she was counting out money, she said, “We were out to see the puppies. You have some real active ones out there.”

“That we do.”

“I didn’t see Hannah around. I hope she’s well?”

Silas eyed Mel carefully and appeared to be contemplating whether to speak. Finally, he said, “We haven’t seen Hannah. She’s gone off.”

“I see.” Mel said quietly. “Is this her Rumspringa time?”

Yoder was quiet again for several long seconds. He shook his head no. “That time has passed. She was to be married.”

“Silas, I know that Amish folk prefer to police their own. If you would like me to look for Hannah, I will do that.”

“Hannah will be welcome back if she chooses to return home,” was his only response.

Mel nodded at him and wished him well and then moved toward the door.

When we were back underway, I asked, “What was that all about? What’s Rum...Rum...”

“Rumspringa? It’s a tradition in some Amish orders where they give their children some latitude around their 16th birthdays or a little later to decide if they want to join the church and be baptized in it or not. They get to taste a little of what they call the “English” lifestyle...our lifestyle...or, a typical American lifestyle anyway. I didn’t mean to imply a gay lifestyle.”

“And if they decide not to join the church, what happens?”

“They go to live in what they call the English world. They aren’t shunned for that, typically. Once they join the church though, they are accepted as full members and they must comply with all of the expectations of the order.”

“Silas said Hannah’s Rumspringa – I hope I said that right – time had passed. Does that mean she had joined the church?”

“Probably not yet. He did say she would be welcomed back which leads me to believe she hadn’t yet.”

“But he said she was to be married, right?”

“Yes. Amish marriages are typically semi-arranged especially in an area like this one where there are only a few different families who make up the bulk of their community.”

“So, do you think she left because she wasn’t ready to join the church or to marry or both?”

“Those are possibilities, yes. The only way to know for sure is to talk to her and to give her, her father’s message.”

“Are you going to try to find her?”

“I’m not going to try to unless I just happen to run into her, which isn’t likely. You could try to find her though.” Mel looked at me intently rather than at the rutted road we were now following to the family farm.

“Me? Why me?”

“Why not you?” She looked back at the bumpy road but continued to talk, “You can try your hand at investigating a missing persons case. This one will be a challenge for you. You get to try to find someone who has no ID, probably no phone in her name or anything else that’s in her name. It ought to be fun for you.” She looked at me briefly and gave me a toothy grin.”

“You forgot ‘with no resources whatsoever’.” I scowled back at her. “I suppose I could go and hang out at Muddy Misers, drink locally brewed beer and hit up cutesy college aged waitresses about whether or not they’ve seen a breaking Amish girl...”

It was Mel’s turn to scowl.