Every Friday, Miriam’s family always had a meeting to pray and give thanks to God for sailing them safely throughout the week. It was also a platform for Miriam’s dad, the respectable member of the community to talk to his three daughters to ensure that they were always well behaved.
During these meetings, they always made sure that the family was on track, and they got to hear each girl talk about how their week was. It was also a good platform for them to talk about the challenges that they face and that way, their parents were going to have the ability to guide them. It was a session where everyone had to be free with their personal feelings and not to hold back.
Miriam wasn’t settled. And as usual, Naomi was there to give her all the comfort that she needed. All she wanted to do was make sure that she was in a position to tell her whatever she had in her mind.
“We only have a couple of moments before we eat and go to the family meeting. So if there is something that is bothering you, I think it would be a good thing for you to come clean with me.”
Miriam trusted her big sister more than anyone else in the world. But even Naomi wouldn’t be trusted with such a big secret. It felt as though it was a responsible that she had no other choice but to keep it to herself. But Miriam knew very well how carrying a secret could weigh someone down. So she had no other choice but to tell her sister so that she could help her bear the load of that burden.
“I met with a young lad when I got out of school. He was half Amish and half African. He is from the outside world.” Miriam could feel her sister’s warm smile evaporating away from her face.
“What happened?” Naomi asked with a concerned tone. She cared deeply for her little sister, and she didn’t want anything bad happening to her.
“Nothing happened. It's just that he handed me a cell phone, and I switched it on… I think I have offended God. I have to tell father all about it to prevent myself from getting cursed.”
Miriam was expecting to hear something worse. For instance, they might have kissed or even worse. But a cellphone? No. it wasn’t that much of a big deal. Her reaction startled her sister a little bit. She didn’t think that her sister was going to be the kind of Amish girl to let her off the hook.
“So… what am I supposed to do at this moment?” Miriam asked
“At this moment, you are going to pretend as though nothing has happened. We will walk into the living room and act as though we never had this conversation.”
And with that, Naomi gave her little sister a pat on the back before grabbing her hand and pulling her back into the house.
The clouds had already cascaded through the sky, and they were heavy with rain. It was only a matter of time before the downpour started. The family had to have their meeting as fast as possible so that by nightfall, they would have gone back to sleep.
***
“And now that all is cleared. I do pray that God will guide and protect us from the enemy and his antiques. May the grace of God be with you, my lovely family. Amen.”
“AMEN…” they all responded in unison.
And as they all went to bed, Miriam took a deep breath right before exhaling as slowly as she possibly could. It felt so incredible to have finally someone who could share her feelings. Now she didn’t have to worry about a damn thing.
And as she lay on her soft, comfortable bed made of wool from the neighbor’s farm and spreading the thick, warm cotton blanket, Miriam uttered a silent prayer right before closing her eyes and exhaling her consciousness away. It was such an amazing opportunity just to kick back and think about the wonder that, thanks to that stranger from town, had knocked her off her socks.
She never thought that it would be possible for her ever to lay her hands on a real working cell phone. It felt weird for a moment. But after she pressed a couple of buttons and saw it respond, Miriam almost threw the phone down. It felt as though it had a life of its own. The totally different reaction to a cell phone seemed to have impressed Henry very much.
He promised that the next time he came back to the village to see how his grandmother was faring on, he would bring her his iPad as well as computer and show her how they work. It was against the rules alright, but needless to say, Henry was planning to hide them.
And when she asked Henry why he was doing all this for her, he replied.
“You didn’t have to show me my way back to my grandmother’s house, but you did. So I am doing you a favor by introducing some of these things to you. I know you might be having issues with technology, and I respect that. But come to think of it, we are the same age and curious is everything we are. If it weren’t for this place being incredibly different, I wouldn’t have come.”
Miriam wanted to say something, but she was busy dialing the phone and getting impressed by the kids of noises that it was making that she didn’t bother to construct a sentence.
And now that she was back to her house, Henry was the only person that occupied her mind. Will she be able to see him again? How does a computer work? Does it have a life of its own? There were plenty of questions that she needed answering, and the only person who had them was Henry.
Miriam couldn’t wait for the following day.
Chapter 5
-The day that followed-
Miriam woke up very early in the morning of the day that followed. She quickly went through her chores of feeding the pigs, the sheep and was already preparing breakfast by the time her mom and dad were waking up.
They didn’t suspect a thing since it was in their daughter’s nature to work as hard as possible. And so once Miriam was done with the work, the next thing that she did was to make sure that she was ready to go to school as early as possible. She was hoping that maybe she could hang around henry’s grandmother’s house for a little while just to see how things go before she could go. If she were going to see him, she would maybe engage him further.
Was this love? Miriam had absolutely no idea since she had never really felt that way, and it was starting to feel as though she was a little tense. But yes, she was starting to have some feelings with this lad from the outside, as the Amish always referred to the outsiders. But whatever she was feeling, Miriam knew too darn well that she wasn’t supposed to let her feelings out for any apparent reason.
“You are going to school a little bit early today child.” Her mother finally said, throwing a careful glance at her daughter.
“I have to be there early, mother. There are some things the teacher taught, but I didn’t quite catch. So I am making haste so that I can meet with Sam and some of our friends so that we can discuss the same.”
Her mother was a little bit suspicious. But she knew that she had done a marvelous job raising her Miriam, and there was nothing that anyone could do to make her spoils. Besides, most of the families were already up and were tending to their farms while their little ones were up preparing to go to school.
“Just take care and make sure that you grow up to be an exemplary Amish girl that will attract the finest men from the finest families to ask for your hand in marriage… just like your sisters.”
“I will Mama. Thank you. Oh, and there is no need for you to milk the cows, I have already done so.”
Her mother was impressed. But then again, that was just typical of her daughter. She was always full of surprises that one. So she leaned forward and planted a loving kiss on her forehead before letting her go to school.
***
As soon as she got freed, Miriam got hold of her skirt, pulled it up a couple of inches close to her knees and took off, making sure that she was dodging all the puddles of muddy water from the previous downpour.
Miriam only got to take a breather as soon as she got to the last place she parted with Henry. That was when it hit her that Henry didn’t have any obligations to make him wake up that early. And for a moment, that made her a little bit sad. She decided to give herself some hope, and so she waited under a tree while gazing into Henry’s grandmother’s house as quietly as she
possibly could.
It was extremely cold, and Miriam had to wrap her cotton scarf much tighter around her neck and waited. There was a slight wind that occasionally blew past the huge tree and caused some cold drops of water to fall on her. That made her angry. But for some moment, Miriam wasn’t going to be derailed at any given moment. All she wanted to do was get her hands on a mobile phone once again.
And speaking of the mobile phone, there was absolutely no way that Sam was going to believe that he held the phone the previous day.
For a moment, it felt as though she was having a dream come true. It felt as though she was in a totally different dimension. The way she pressed the phone, and it buzzed in response. That right there was a phenomenon feeling that she didn’t even for one second wanted to let go off. It was incredible.
And as she sat there waiting, Miriam knew that she wanted to have that feeling again. And even though she was raised to repel modern technology, Miriam was starting to have some serious second thoughts about the whole thing. And for a moment, she even thought about being the champion for change in her community.
But that thought was cut short by another wave of morning gale that knocked hard against the tree, shaking the water from the leaves and branches and poured it all overheard. It felt as though it was some premonition.
It was like God was punishing her for going against the teachings that her forefathers have been preaching. But for a moment there, Miriam decided to put off the superstitious switch for a moment and just think about his countless possibilities that new technology would bring to her village.
Of course, there will be new businesses, an improved quality of life and most of all, being open to the rest of the world. To her, exposure was the most important thing that a human being could ever have. Miriam always felt that the world is like a book. And going from one place to the other is like reading the pages while staying in one place and getting used to only one lifestyle is like reading only one page of an entire book.
And as Miriam was seated there thinking about how she was going to blow her best friend away with her new achievement, another wave of breeze hit the tree, sending raindrops all over her head. Miriam felt like exploding with anger. She hated it. And with one glance at the house and seeing that nobody was up, she decided to hit the road. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.
And from a religious point of view, Miriam thought that maybe it was never meant to be after all. Crestfallen, she fastened her backpack and gradually trotted towards school lest she got late.
Chapter 6
-The teacher’s point of view-
“No freaking way! You are just pulling my leg! There is no way to touched a cellphone, how did it feel?”
Miriam just stood there with an ear to ear smile, salvaging each and every single moment that was presenting itself to her eyes. Sam was clearly in a miasma of confusion and that always made Miriam happy.
“Well help me out… who gave you the handset? How did it feel? Come on! Aren’t you going to say something or are you just going to stand there and smile as though you were the devil himself? Tell me! Tell me right now!!”
Miriam would have kept him in the dark if she wanted. But from seeing just how her best friend was dying to hear all about it, she was left with no other choice but to spill the beans. So she cleared her throat, and right after looking left and right for anyone who was curious and seeing none, Miriam proceeded.
“Remember yesterday when I broke off from the rest of you and walked home in haste?”
Sam nodded his pinhead vigorously.
“…well, I met with this young man, roughly our age. He was from the outside world. He dressed in fine leather that had pressed in the refinery, and he looked attractive. He was lost, and I helped him find the way home. So he told he that his phone didn’t have a network, you know, the same network that our teacher keeps trying to explain but nobody understood. So he pulled it out, and he allowed me to touch it. Can you imagine how cool that was?”
Sam was already in cloud-cuckoo-land. He had absolutely no idea of what was going on. He tried to imagine in his wildest dreams on how a cell phone would feel like in his hands, but he just couldn’t make that up.
“Ok, so can I get to meet this young man? Please? I need to see a cell phone!”
“Well, it's not my call because it's not my cell phone. But I am sure that if we find him, Henry won't mind showing the cellphone with us. In fact, he said that if he came back to see his grandmother, he would bring his computer for me to see!”
“NO WAY!!!”
“YES!” Miriam responded, her eyes widening and her jaws hitting the floor.
“But wait… isn’t that against the rules?”
“Yes, it is against the rules. But so is bringing watches, cellphones, and all the other aspects that we consider to be the devils work. But hey, he can sneak it in.”
“Perfect.”
***
The lesson was interesting as usual. Getting to learn all about the different cultures around the world was the most exciting thing that ever happened in an Amish class and needless to say, each and everyone was attentive indeed.
All, but Miriam. She thought the teacher wasn’t giving them all the information that they needed to know. And at one point, she was tempted to start asking the relevant questions. Miriam, just like the rest of her classmates, wanted to know where their teacher stood with technology.
But as the lesson was continued, Miriam just couldn’t help it any longer. So despite Sam’s protests under his breath, she went ahead and put up her hand. And just like that, the attention shifted from the teacher to Miriam to the point that the teacher couldn’t ignore her.
“Yes, Miriam. Do you have anything that you need to get off your chest?”
“Yes, ma’am… as a matter of fact, I have things I need to get off my chest. First of all, what is your opinion about the introduction of technology in the Amish community?”
The entire class now shifted their attention from Miriam to their teacher. Mrs. Obrien smiled. She knew right away that Miriam had asked her a trick question alright. But she knew that she had to do something so as to brush her off.
“Ok, even though I always feel as though my personal opinions on such matters are entirely irrelevant, I still want to think that the issue is open to discussion. Just like I have always been telling you time, and again, everything in the world operates on Curate’s Egg Hypothesis – every advantage has a disadvantage.”
Miriam wasn’t satisfied with the kind of evasive response that the teacher had given them. But she didn’t want to push her since it would be defiance, and that had its fair share of penalties. So she thanked the teacher and shut the hell up.
Mrs. Obrien knew that Miriam wasn’t satisfied despite thanking her. She was doing that so as to avoid a standoff that, in the Amish community will disrespecting the elders. As a teacher, she knew that the Amish kids were probably the most curious since they have been denied privileges – with good reason – that the other kids around the world had.
So the least she could do was to give them a more resounding answer. So she cleared her throat and took a deep breath. She knew that she was about to break a rule. But it was for the sake of the kids that she had grown to love so much.
“I know that this might sound a little bit out of context or out of line, but I solemnly think that it is about time we started compromising a little bit. Our children keep on lagging behind and cannot fit in the outside world because of our norms. I think we can make it work… if the Muslims did it, then why not the Amish.
“And please, I will deny if any of you directs this notion to me. I was just giving you an opinion, not an idea for you to build on and get to upstage your parents. Remember, respecting the elders is a very important Amish quality – the one quality that has made us survive this long as Puritans. Don’t ever forget that.”
Chapter 7
-The Shocking revelation-
Miriam wasn’t good at put
ting off ideas that kept on flowing through her head. And even though her teacher told her and the rest of her classmates not to develop that idea and upstage their parents in future, she just couldn’t bring herself to that point where she would stop thinking about it.
How incredible would it be for the Amish children to go to school and get to use the internet to do their research other than having to go through old, stuffy books looking outdated information? To her, that would have been a great thing. In fact, it would have empowered the Amish people beyond any reasonable doubt. But that was something different.
Naomi sneaked behind her little sister as she struggled to pull the bucket full of water from the well and pounced on her, almost startling her to death. Yes, Naomi was supposed to be the mature one but when it was all about being sisters, it was a hard thing to do in the end.
“JESUS SISTER! You almost scared me to death.”
“But you didn’t die. Did you?” Naomi joked as she tickled her sister.
“If you keep on tickling me, I will drop the bucket into the well and papa will have you for dinner.” Miriam laughed as she tried not to let go of the rope.
Naomi finally stopped on realizing that her little sister was laughing too hard, and an accident could occur at any given moment. She took the role and helped her pull the water up then took a few steps and emptied the clean water into the trough where the pigs were drinking after spending the entire day eating up.
They were a few weeks shy to hitting the gallows and so their father was in the last stages of fattening them.
Miriam knew her big sister way better than she had given her credit. She knew that Naomi was trying to get some information out of her at the end of the day. She just didn’t tickle her that way and got playful unless she needed something from her.
“Come on sister, tell me… what can I do for you this time?”
The Time Turner Page 12