by Leslie Gould
She nodded her head, and her eyes pooled with tears.
I told her that her Mamm and Dat would be back soon, but that made her mouth turn down, so I changed the subject, asking how she liked her little sister. She smiled at that. Caring for Bella was easy—but she was predictable, unlike most children. She couldn’t even talk, let alone run away.
What did that say about me? Disappointed with my thoughts, I tied her apron, grabbed a blanket from the bed, wrapping her in it, and then scooped her up, trying to hold her away from my damp dress. It was easy to love Bella simply for who she was. Was that something I could learn to do for all of God’s creatures—including my friends and family?
As I carried her out of the tent, we heard Jessie’s voice, and Bella smiled again.
“Look at you,” Jessie said, strolling toward us as if nothing had happened. “Out of your wet things already. That’s what I’m going to do.”
As I put Bella in her chair, Jessie turned back toward me. “Denki,” she said. “You saved the day.”
I shook my head. Martin and Ben would have been there soon enough. Or Phillip would have rolled Bella onto the dock. But I was thankful I’d been there to help, to make things a little easier.
I left then, passing Phillip and the boys on the trail back to the lake a minute later. He smiled and thanked me again. The boys smiled too but didn’t say anything.
The Berg family was good for Phillip—and he was good for them.
I was genuinely grateful for what God had planned for Phillip Eicher. But I couldn’t help but wonder what his plan for me might be. Perhaps he’d forgotten I was in need of one.
As I neared our camp, I didn’t hear or smell horses. Leon and Mervin hadn’t returned yet. Maybe they, going against everything the Amish believed in, had attacked each other up the trail over Hannah. Maybe one of them was badly injured. I shook my head at the ridiculous thought.
As I neared the tents, Cate woke up, or maybe Robbie woke her. She shuffled over to the fire, carrying him. “I didn’t mean to sleep so long,” she said with a yawn.
Then she sniffed . . . and smiled. “Guess I’ll go change him first.” She headed back toward the tent, Robbie high in her arms, his head resting on her shoulder and his bottom up in the air. He stared at me with his big brown eyes, his curly hair a tangle on his forehead.
I asked Bea, who sat at the picnic table, if Hannah had returned. “I haven’t seen her,” she said. “What happened out on the lake? I heard yelling.”
I told her and then went to our tent to change my clothes, putting on my last clean dress. There was no sign that Hannah had been in the tent.
As I climbed out, I heard hooves on the road. Leon and Mervin rode the horses down the lane, stopping at the trailer and dismounting. I started toward them, hoping Hannah was with them, as Leon led Storm to the other side of the trailer.
“Did you find her?” I called out.
Mervin turned toward me, his hand on Lightning’s bridle. “We thought she was with you.”
“You weren’t looking for her this whole time?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Mervin said. “Why would we? Didn’t you catch up with her?”
My face flushed as I shook my head. “What were you doing all that time, then?”
“Leon was teaching me to ride.”
“Oh,” I said. “I thought you hated horses.”
He shrugged. “Hannah’s been asking me to learn to ride for a couple of years. I thought today was as good a day as any.”
“So after what happened in the meadow you and Leon are friends?”
Mervin shrugged again. “We aren’t enemies.” He nodded toward the west. “I hope she beats the storm.”
“Jah, me too.”
“What if she’s lost?”
“She isn’t,” I said. “If I could find my way back, she can.”
Mervin shook his head at me. “I didn’t take you to be so coldhearted.”
I tilted my head. “Coldhearted? Really?”
“She’s your best friend.”
“Jah, it’s not that I’m not worried about her. I think she’s staying away on purpose . . . but I guess that isn’t reason to be any less concerned.” A sense of panic grew inside of me.
He took his sunglasses off his face. “What do you mean?”
“I’m afraid she’s not doing well.”
Mervin’s face grew pale, and then, still holding on to Lightning, he called out, “Hannah’s missing!”
Leon poked his head around the trailer, followed by Storm. “We’d better go look for her.”
Pete started down from the campsite. “How long has she been gone?”
“A couple of hours,” Mervin answered.
Martin and Ben approached, still carrying their fishing poles, followed by Pete, who asked, “Where was she last seen?”
“Up in the forest, off the trail,” I answered.
A worried expression settled on Pete’s face. “Who was she with?”
“Well,” Mervin said, “she was with Leon, until Molly insulted her and then chased her through the forest.”
“Mervin!”
He turned back toward me.
“That’s not what happened,” I said.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Pete asked, looking straight at me.
“Because she was saving little Bella Berg from drowning in the lake,” Ben answered.
“What?” Mervin asked.
“That’s not exactly true,” I said. “I just helped get her out of the lake. And into dry clothes.” Which may have distracted me from being as worried as I should have been about Hannah. I should have alerted the others sooner.
“Let’s go find her,” Leon said, leading Storm all the way around the trailer. Then he looked up at the sky. “I hope that’s not an electrical storm on the way.”
Chapter
17
Pete and Leon took off on the horses. Mervin and Martin headed toward the lake, determined to backtrack the route I’d taken down the hill, in case she’d hurt herself and wasn’t able to make it back to camp on her own.
Ben and Beatrice headed out past the trailhead, thinking Hannah might have become disoriented and ended up on the road. That seemed unlikely, unless she’d decided to hitchhike home, which I was sure she wouldn’t, no matter how despondent she felt.
“You can go ahead and join the search,” Cate said. “I know you’re worried about her.” She held up the whistle around her neck. “I’ll blow as hard as I can if she comes back to camp.”
I looked toward the road.
“I’ll feed Robbie,” she said.
“What about dinner? I made creamed chicken. The noodles are in the box.”
“Oh.” She glanced toward the schedule and then said, “I’ll work on that too. But hurry,” she said. “You can catch up with Beatrice and Ben.”
“Denki.” I grabbed my sweatshirt and flashlight from our tent and hurried after my sister. But from about fifty feet away, I could hear her bickering with Ben.
“We should go up the trail,” he said.
“Why would we do that? Leon and Pete have that covered.”
“We might be able to see her in the trees from foot, where they’d miss her from the horses.”
“Not if she doesn’t want to be found,” Beatrice said. “We’re going on the road.”
I stopped, unable to bear the squabbling. If they were going up the road then I’d go up the trail.
The air had cooled with the coming storm but the wind had stopped. I wiggled into my sweatshirt, slipped the flashlight in the pocket, and marched up the trail once again.
The overhead clouds darkened what was left of the day, as did the towering trees above me. I zipped my sweatshirt and increased my stride. I was certain Hannah could have found her way out of the forest, if she’d wanted to.
Unless she’d been injured.
I doubted any animals would have hurt her. Most of the wildlife around would be far more afraid
of her than she of them. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine Hannah being afraid of much. But she might have fallen. Or twisted her ankle. Or hit her head on a limb.
Or perhaps she was trying to stir up more drama, trying to get everyone to feel sorry for her.
But what I most feared was that she’d had an episode like she’d had a couple of years ago and couldn’t function.
An owl hooted deeper in the forest. A slight breeze picked up through the treetops. Needles, pinecones, and twigs fell around me. I brushed the top of my Kapp and continued on.
When I reached the meadow, I searched the edges of the forest, but couldn’t see anything—except for trees. Even though it wasn’t sunset yet, I began to feel ill at ease being by myself.
A shiver ran through me.
What if someone had taken Hannah?
I exhaled slowly. That was ridiculous.
Maybe the dog that scared Lightning the day before had attacked her.
I shook my head. No. The dog had startled the horses, but it didn’t seem like a ferocious creature. In fact, under normal circumstances I was sure I’d really like the dog—much more than the horses.
The owl hooted again. In the distance, thunder crashed.
I hurried away from the middle of the meadow to the edge of the trees. A minute later thunder crashed again. It wasn’t any louder, and because I hadn’t seen the strike, I had no idea how close it was.
“Hannah!” I yelled, turning to the place where she’d left the trail that afternoon. “Where are you?” I didn’t really expect that she was close by, but with an electrical storm on the way, the situation had turned dire. Not just for Hannah but for everyone out looking for her too.
I stepped off the trail and into the underbrush, squinting in the dim light, trying to track Hannah’s earlier flight—but it was useless. After a few minutes, I decided finding my way to the hill over the lake had been more of a fluke than it had been based on my own skills. Maybe getting lost was easier than I’d thought. I decided to go back to the trail.
When I reached the meadow again, more thunder, this time louder, rolled out from the west. A moment later the sky lit up with a flash of lightning. I counted out loud to five, then the thunder crashed. I started back down the trail.
The storm could be on top of me in no time.
The next strike wasn’t any closer, but the one after that was—only two miles. The ionized scent of electricity charged the air.
I wondered how the horses were doing and expected Leon and Pete to come racing down the path at any time, but they didn’t.
The next strike flashed about two miles away. As the thunder crashed again, the rain began to pour. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my Kapp and hurried even faster. A couple of times I tripped over tree roots in the trail. The third time, I fell to my hands and knees. Only the top layer of dirt had been pelted by the rain, making just a bit of mud. I brushed my hands together and flicked my skirt, attempting to dislodge the mud. When that didn’t work, I brushed it as best I could and hurried on.
The next crash of thunder came from east of me. The storm had passed over the top—directly toward where Hannah most likely was. Perhaps Leon and Pete had headed that way too. And Mervin and Martin.
I froze on the trail for a moment. It had already passed over Beatrice and Ben, on the road. Surely they’d known not to stay out in the open. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to Ben or Beatrice.
Tears stung my eyes. Or to Hannah.
Or Leon.
Or Pete—with a baby on the way and all.
Poor Cate must have been worried sick back at camp. I began running. It was nearly dark by the time I reached the end of the trail, so I took my flashlight out and turned it on.
I heard voices in the distance, above the rain.
“Hannah!” I yelled.
“It’s Beatrice” came the reply.
“And Ben.”
I waved my flashlight in that direction, illuminating the falling rain. A moment later, my sister stepped into the beam of light and then Ben did too. They were both drenched.
“We were nearly struck!” Ben called out.
“We were not,” Beatrice countered. “It was a mile away, at least.”
I turned back toward the camp and kept walking, having no desire to listen to them. Hopefully the storm had forced Hannah back to camp too—maybe I just hadn’t heard Cate’s whistle.
When I reached the trailer, I waved the flashlight toward the makeshift corral. It was empty. Then I shone it toward camp.
“Is that you, Molly?”
“Jah,” I answered.
Cate stood under the canopy with Robbie in her arms, the lit lantern hanging in the middle.
“Is Hannah back?” I asked.
“No.” Cate held her nephew close.
“Anyone else?”
She shook her head.
As Beatrice and Ben came up behind me, the rain slowed, but we all crowded under the canopy. A few minutes later the rain stopped, leaving a fresh, clean scent.
“I’ll see if I can find some dry wood to get a fire going,” Ben said.
“Denki,” I said. “Let’s go change out of our wet dresses,” I said to Beatrice. “Although I’ll have to change back into one of my dirty ones—I only brought three.”
“You can wear one of mine.” Beatrice shivered. “Then what should we do?”
“Get help from the authorities,” I said. I’d wait until the others returned, to see if they’d found her, but before it got much later, I needed to contact someone and ask for more help.
As Beatrice and I finished changing, we heard voices and then the neighing of a horse.
“We couldn’t find her!” Leon called out.
“We couldn’t either,” Mervin, sounding farther away, shouted back.
I stepped out of the tent. Pete had dismounted and held Lightning’s reins in his hand. “Are you two doing okay?” he asked Cate. Robbie reached for him.
“Jah,” she answered. “But you’re soaked.”
“It was a warm rain though,” Pete said.
Storm pranced around, and Leon pulled hard on the reins and headed toward the trailer.
“We need to call for help,” I said.
“Do you have service?” Mervin asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll go find the camp ranger.” Stepping back into the tent, I grabbed my flashlight and a dry sweatshirt.
Beatrice followed me out of the tent.
Everyone had gathered around the fire, except for Leon and Pete, who were tending to the horses.
“I’ll go with you,” Mervin said.
“Denki.”
I headed toward the road, with Mervin a few steps behind, but then I veered toward the horse trailer, feeling as if I should let Pete know, out of respect, considering he was the oldest of all of us. Both men were taking the saddles off the horses.
“I’m going to find the ranger,” I called out. “Mervin’s going with me.”
“Good idea,” Leon responded.
“Jah,” Pete said. “You’re doing the right thing.”
At that Mervin and I headed to the road, to backtrack to the entrance to the camp. But after we’d taken only a few steps, someone called out, “Wait.”
It was Hannah, her voice coming from between the trailer and the lake.
“I’m here,” she said. “Safe and sound.”
I questioned “sound” but didn’t say it. “Are you all right?” I hurried toward her. “We were just going for help.”
“I’m fine,” Hannah said. “I fell asleep on the hillside and woke when it started raining.”
I shone my flashlight toward her. She didn’t look fine. Scratches covered her arms. Streaks of mud had dried on her face. She held her Kapp in her hand, her hair falling out of her bun around her face.
Mervin stepped toward her, but she shied away from him.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
“Not now.” She crossed her arms over he
r sopping-wet dress and apron.
It dawned on me that she might be embarrassed, although she probably didn’t have any idea how worried we all had been.
“Let’s go to the tent, then,” I said, shooing Mervin away. Leon and Pete saw my gesture too and stayed back.
The rain had soaked her to the bone, but thankfully she had her riding pants on.
I led the way to the tent, calling out to the others, “Everything’s fine. Hannah’s here.”
Bea stepped forward but then stopped. They all must have sensed it wouldn’t do any good to overwhelm Hannah.
“We’re going to our tent,” I said calmly. “We can all talk in the morning.”
After Hannah entered, I went to the washbasin and wet a cloth for her, then hurried back. I sat on my sleeping bag while Hannah scrubbed her face, arms, and hands, and then changed into her nightgown. She brushed her long dark hair out and then braided it quickly.
“Did you get lost?” I asked.
“Not really,” she answered. “I got distracted—thinking.”
“About?”
She slipped into her sleeping bag. “Why you’d turn both Leon and Mervin against me.”
“Hannah, I swear to you I didn’t. They both, on their own . . .” I couldn’t say it, couldn’t say it out loud that they both . . .
I couldn’t even think it.
She pulled the flap of the sleeping bag over her head.
I whispered, “Why did you pursue Leon when you know I’m interested in him?”
She moaned. “I was hoping to make Mervin jealous. But Leon doesn’t like me, honest.”
“Then why did he ask whether it was Mervin that you wanted?” I whispered.
“Leon has been like a brother to me. That’s all,” she answered, her voice weary. “You and Mervin totally blew things out of proportion.”
I hoped she was right—but I didn’t believe her.
By the campfire, Martin said something I couldn’t make out, and then the others all laughed, including Leon. I couldn’t help but feel jealous of all of them conversing and having a good time.
I decided to put my nightgown on too and go ahead and get in bed, but sleep wouldn’t come. After a while I asked Hannah if she was awake. She didn’t answer. But by the sound of her breathing, I suspected she was. A long time later, it seemed, Beatrice came into the tent.