Uncle Plats

by Aqua Allsopp

  The old man at the table was the first to find the strength to attempt to lift it. His voice was noticeably streaked with emotion as he turned to Levi.

  “Is this true, are you Abigail’s son?”

  “Well, my mother’s maiden name was Abigail Schwartz. If that’s the Abigail you mean, then yes.”

  Before Levi had arrived at the end of his sentence he saw when the old man began to tear up.

  “What does Abigail want now?”

  The old lady’s tone was sharp and stinging.

  “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but my mother died last week.”

  Levi addressed this news to the old man, as he had a sneaking suspicion that this man may be his grandfather.

  “Of some English disease I’m sure.”

  Levi had expected a comment like that to come from the old lady, but this time it was one of the younger women. From her face Levi estimated that she was in her fifties or sixties. His mother had passed at sixty-two, could this be his aunt?

  “Damaris.”

  The man sitting across from her sharply rebuked her and Damaris immediately shrunk into herself. The man then turned back toward Levi, the expression on his face was contemplative but lurking beneath that was carefully concealed contempt. Levi took an immediate dislike to this man.

  “Actually, the doctors said she was perfectly healthy. Her body just shut down. My theory is that she just got tired of living without my father.”

  This time it was the old lady who replied.

  “At least she got married. I’m surprised she wasn’t just shacked up with some man. How did you know to find us here? I can’t imagine your mother told you about us.”

  Levi’s demeanor was a lake of calm, but on the inside, he was raging. If this was how her family was, no wonder his mother left. He decided to let the first comment slide and only answer the question.

  “No, she never did. I thought she was an orphan until I was packing up her stuff the other day. I found a packet of letters from a Levi Schwartz, dated after I was born. I was on my way home to New York when I decided to come see if anyone in her family was still alive.”

  The old man rose from the bench and made his way over to Levi.

  “I’m Levi Schwartz, your grandfather.”

  He extended an arm for Levi to shake, which Levi did, and felt an immediate bond with the old man. His grandfather was the only person in this room he felt had actually loved his mother.

  The old man proceeded to introduce everyone in the room and explain how they were related to him. The quiet couple was his Aunt Bethany and her husband. The self-righteous old lady was his grandmother and her second in command was indeed his aunt. The man who had scolded her was her husband, Abaddon Byler. He, in total, had three aunts—Bethany, Damaris and Edna, and three uncles—Jonah, Caleb and David. All of them were married with children and grandchildren.

  At the mention of the name Abaddon Byler, Grandpa Levi noticed a very slight twitch of his grandson’s hands, almost as if he wanted to ball them into fists. Obviously the name deeply disturbed him, as Levi could tell from this short interaction, that his grandson was one cool customer. Despite the disparaging remarks his wife had thrown around about his mother, the boy had given no noticeable reaction, but, the mere mention of the name “Abaddon Byler” was enough to evoke twitchy fingers. How curious. He tucked that observation away for a later date and invited him to stay for breakfast.

  Half of the party was not exactly happy about the recent developments, but no one seemed to have the bravado to question Levi, that is, Levi the 1st… or 221st. Which reminded Levi the 2nd or 222nd.

  “Is Levi a family name?”

  This time it was his Aunt Bethany who answered. All along she had seemed rather quiet, but he got the feeling that was not due to a lack of desire for conversation, but rather a lack of courage.

  “Yes, you are the fifth Levi in the family. The first Levi was a founding member of this Amish community. His signature is even on church Ordung!”

  “Ordung?”

  “Yes, that’s the unique set of rules and principles that this community operates under. You see each community has their own unique Ordung and…”

  “Bethany!”

  His grandmother rebuked her and Bethany seemed to somehow diminish in size. The man sitting across from Bethany turned toward Sabine Schwartz, Levi had learned that was her name, with outrage in his eyes and said, “She’s my wife now Sabine, she’s no longer your daughter. Which means only I decide when she should speak and when she should be silenced.”

  “Well if you kept her on a tighter leash…”

  “Sabine! Be quiet. I do not want to hear another word from you, Gideon is quite right. If he takes pleasure in Bethany’s lectures, what right have you to deprive him of it? Continue Bethany.”

  Grandpa Levi suddenly seemed more imposing than he had thirty seconds ago when he had been peacefully eating his rather bland breakfast of cornmeal mash and listening to his daughter talk. While it had appeared all along that Sabine was the dominant partner in the relationship, it suddenly became clear that Levi had the final say.

  Bethany seemed to be determined not to talk, until she met the loving and gentle gaze of her husband. Levi had felt rubbed the wrong way about the speech Gideon had used to scold his mother-in-law, years of instilled feminism rebelled at the notion of a woman speaking merely for her husband’s pleasure. But, that look of encouragement and support that Gideon sent her way, assured him that all that was just speech to appease the community in which they belonged.

  “Well...” Bethany hesitantly regained her voice.

  “I was saying, each church have its own Ordung which tells the community how to behave and function.”

  Over the course of breakfast, Levi learned a lot about Amish culture and society thanks to his Aunt Bethany, including the fact that Amish communities didn’t speak English but their own language, called Pennsylvania German and also known as Pennsylvania Dutch. Bethany came alive as Levi seemed to show interest in the history of the community. Although her English wasn’t as smooth or flawless as his grandparents, she was still impressively proficient. More proficient, he concluded, than his Aunt Damaris who quite often looked rather confused as Bethany dominated the breakfast conversation with her lesson on Amish life. Levi came to the conclusion that his Aunt Bethany was a history buff.

  After breakfast ended, the younger men, that is, his Aunt Bethany’s husband Gideon Miller, and his Aunt Damaris’ husband Abaddon Byler, went off to work at their respective crafts. Their wives then went home to tend to their houses. Levi, on the other hand, sat on the front porch with his grandfather.

  “Don’t mind your grandmother. She loves your mother. She just has a particular dislike for the outside world since your mother left.”

  “Why?” Levi asked, confusion shading his tone.

  “When your mother left, Sabine lost a child, one of her babies. She didn’t know how to handle that, who to blame. If she blamed herself, she’d probably go mad, so she blamed the only thing she could, the place where your mother decided to go, the modern world.”

  Silence descended between the two Levis, Levi the 5th felt a twinge of sympathy for his tough as nails grandmother, but he had some questions that needed answering before he completely embraced that sympathy.

  “Do you know why my mother left?”

  Levi looked at his grandfather from the corner of his eye as he asked this question, almost as if to judge his reaction.

  Grandpa Levi had the distinct impression that Levi was not asking to receive an answer to his posed question. But rather, was asking so as to determine an answer to an unspoken question that only Levi knew.

  “I asked her that once in a letter. She told me it was because she wanted to go to Juilliard, and Sabine would have never approved.”

  “Did you believe her?”

  There it was again, that look like his grandson was weighing his heart against a feather.


  “Not quite. While it was true that her mother wouldn’t have approved, I have the final say, and I would have allowed her to go if she had asked. This she should have known. It’s not unheard of for kids to leave the community to go to college. Leah Graber was the last one to do it, smart girl that and pretty, pity she’s unmarried. The men must be blind.”

  Levi noticed when his grandson began to minutely relax into his chair, apparently whatever he had deciphered from Levi’s reply had put his mind at ease.

  Levi sat there in silence for a while. Now that Levi had determined the trustworthiness of his grandfather, he contemplated whether he should tell him what he knew. But, something inside of Levi told him that this was not the time, so he swallowed the burden once more.

  With that decision made, he felt more at ease to ask those questions that his curiosity had awoken.

  “How come you speak such good English? Aunt Damaris wasn’t as good as you and grandma. Aunt Bethany was pretty proficient but not as good as you two.”

  “It’s because of the nature of our trade. I was a carpenter by profession so to sell my wares I used to have to go into town and negotiate with the English. Your grandmother used to come along before the kids, so she picked it up to. We used to talk to each other in English around the house when the kids were growing up, so I assume that’s where Bethany picked it up. Then again, her husband is also a carpenter and speaks very good English, so he could be encouraging her to practice. That’s how they met you know? Gideon was my apprentice.”

  “Why did you speak English around the house? I thought Pennsylvania German was the main dialect spoken around the community?”

  “It is, which is why English is the perfect language to use when discussing private things. Great way to keep the whole community out of your business.”

  That surprised a chuckle out of Levi as he admired the twinkle of mischief in his grandfather’s eye. He now knew why he was named after this man. Levi looked at his phone. It was still rather early but New York was far away and now that he had met his grandparents, he wanted to go home and map out a plan of attack before he did anything else.

  “I should be getting home now, it’s getting late.” With that Levi got up from the porch chair and a few seconds later his grandfather followed him.

  “Will you be back?”

  Levi asked as he followed his grandson to the porch steps.

  “Am I allowed to?”

  “Yes, our Ordung isn’t as strict on outsiders visiting.”

  “Then I’ll be back this Friday and I’ll spend the whole weekend with you.”

  “Sabine! The boy is leaving!”

  There was no reply from inside the house as Sabine decided to play deaf. So Levi reached in to hug his grandfather, a gesture which he politely returned. But Levi was under the impression hugging was a foreign gesture to his grandfather. He made his way down the stairs and to his car and said, “I’ll see you this weekend.”

  He assured his grandfather one more time, then got in his car and drove off. On the drive home Levi realized that for the first time since he read those letters, felt a bit lighter.

  *****

  The week passed with Levi in his townhouse, unpacking boxes and dodging Elizabeth. He had wanted the time away from his grandparents to formulate a plan of attack based on what he had read in those letters and the information he had gathered on his first trip. However, Friday came sooner rather than later and he found himself just as lost now as he had been on Monday. Nevertheless, he took to the road before sunrise to head to Pennsylvania.

  He arrived just before lunch to find his grandmother home alone. Grandpa Levi had apparently taken off to teach a carpentering class for the young boys of the community. His grandmother’s frosty attitude hadn’t thawed in the five days he had been gone. So in an attempt to endear himself to her, he offered to help her around the house. Sabine immediately set him to work, doing everything from cleaning windows to wringing out laundry and hanging them out. His last task before his grandfather finally returned was peeling a whole bucket of potatoes.

  “That bonnet looks good on you.”

  A familiar voice commented, accompanied by a foreign, but very masculine laugh.

  Levi self-consciously jumped up from his chair and blushed a little as his grandfather and the stranger chuckled in unison.

  Levi’s grandmother had insisted on him wearing an apron and bonnet if he was going to be working in the kitchen. He wasn’t sure if this was actually due to sanitation concerns or if his grandmother just got a kick out of seeing him squirm. Either way in the name of family he had conceded, much to the amusement of his grandfather and the stranger.

  “Sabine must like you, that’s her favorite bonnet.”

  That had the stranger cracking up even harder, at which point Levi jerked the bonnet off his head. Unfortunately Sabine walked in at that moment.

  “What you think you doing? You’re not done peeling. Bonnet back on!”

  Sabine took the bonnet from Levi’s grasp and then forced him to bend so she could reach his head and put it back in place before bustling off to the kitchen sink to continue washing dishes. Levi straightened up with a pout and a blush.

  “Sabine, doesn’t he look a bit like you when you were younger, dressed like that?”

  By this time Levi didn’t think the stranger could laugh any harder, he was proven wrong when his grandmother replied. She turned from her washing to contemplate Levi’s appearance before frankly proclaiming.

  “No, the boy is too ugly.”

  At this, the stranger began crying with laughter and struggling to breathe. Grandpa Levi had to pound him on his back when he began to choke on the air. Levi, tired of being laughed at, went back to work peeling the potatoes before his grandmother told him off for lollygagging.

  After Levi had finished peeling potatoes and practically ran out of the kitchen leaving his bonnet behind, his grandfather showed him to his mother’s room, where Levi would be staying. On the bed was a pile of a few more masculine pieces of Amish garb for Levi to wear for the weekend. His grandfather told him they were actually his from when he was younger, so they may be a bit small. However, when Levi changed, he found that they fit perfectly. He was introduced to the stranger who had nearly died from laughter and it turned out to be his Uncle David. They all had a nice lunch, where the conversation was once more at his expense, he took it in stride, and even hammed it up a bit. By the end of lunch he swore he even saw the corners of his grandmother’s mouth twitch a little at his antics.

  For the rest of the day he assisted his grandfather with a few chores around the yard. Levi was getting the full Amish experience which, while tiring, also made him feel included. Working side by side with his grandfather actually did a lot to strengthen and deepen the bond they already shared.

  That night the whole Schwartz family had a reunion, with all his uncles, aunts and cousins coming over to meet him and have dinner. Levi learned so much about his family history, mostly from his Aunt Bethany who was feeling particularly talkative that evening. Most of his aunts and uncles were able to speak English in some form or other so they regaled him with stories of his mother, her childhood, her personality and such things. By the end of the night he was not only stuffed with food, but also with family. He decided to walk both off as he went for a stroll, the allure of finally having a large family had distracted him from his reason for coming here and he needed to think a little.

  *****

  Levi was taking an introspective walk by himself after dinner when he heard what sounded like crying. He made his way over to where he thought the sound was originating from, behind a tree in the forest. It wasn’t until he had stepped inside the trees that he realized how foolhardy this plan was, the trees were so close together that they blocked out moonlight. Thus, as soon as he stepped inside the mass of trees his only light source was cut off. But, what if it was a child crying because they too had stepped off the beaten path and couldn’t find their way
out? So with all these possibilities swimming around his head, Levi made his way further into the darkness.

  He would say, that if he ever became blind, he could probably survive. After all he did successfully follow the faint sounds of sniffling to the source of the crying, but he couldn’t exactly say he found the source more like the source found him.

  “Damn!”

  Levi exclaimed after his head bashed violently against the forest floor.

  A decidedly feminine gasp of outrage sounded from somewhere slightly to his left and Levi figured he had found the source of the crying. He realized that he must have tripped over the feet of the distraught young woman.

  “Get off me! Who are you? And how dare you use such filthy words. If the minister ever knew you were using language like that it’d be shaming for you.”

  Levi gently extricated his legs from the Chinese Knot they had formed with the lady in the night.

  “Well considering I’m not Amish I doubt there’d be much he could do.” That declaration was followed by a groan as Levi levered up his sore body so he could stand.

  At that declaration the woman abruptly jumped to her feet, obviously not fond of the idea of being vulnerable around a man she hadn’t known her whole life.

  “What is an English doing lurking on Amish lands in the middle of night? “

  “Half English”

  “What?”

  “I’m only half English, half Amish”

  “I do not understand.”

  “My name is Levi Hendricks, I’m Abigail Schwartz’s son.”

  “Abigail Schwartz? I’ve only ever heard of her in rumors and whispers… that still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

  “I just finished having dinner with my grandparents and I came for a walk when I heard crying. I thought it might be a kid lost in the forest, so I came to investigate.”

  Levi couldn’t see the face of the woman he was talking to because the forest was so dark, so he wasn’t even sure if he was addressing the right direction.