Amish Country Arson (23 page)

“
Nah, he tried to talk me out of buying
the radio, and I would not listen to him. That radio has been on
the rafter for awhile, and I have been too busy to listen to it,”
Noah said.

“
That is gute. You have found your life
is just as well off without a radio, but why did you buy it in the
first place?”

“
Albert Jostle and some of the other
boys in rumspringa said they liked their radio. They thought it was
a gute idea if I had one,” Noah excused.

“
Even though you knew better. By buying
this English convenience, you have tested the boundaries to the
limit. You knew you were breaking the Ordnung. I raised you to know
our faith prohibits all things modern.

I'm glad you came to me on your own. I was
not going to wait much longer to confront you. Are you sorry you
bought the radio?”

“
Jah, my conscious has been bothering
me ever since I put the radio in my pocket. I am sorry for being so
dishonest,” Noah said tearfully.

“
That is gute. I cannot let this
transgression go without some sort of punishment. You are to stay
home from the youth singing for the next two Sundays. I am going to
get rid of the radio, and we will not talk about this again,” John
said.

“
Denki, Daed.” Now that the confession
was over Noah let out a whooshing sigh of relief.

John stood and stuffed the radio back in his
trouser pocket. “How about we call it a night. We have work to do
tomorrow.”

The next evening, John and Hal visited Bishop
and Jane Bontrager so Hal could tell the bishop what she found out
about Gladys Kraybill.

The elderly couple were surprised. They
hadn't met Gladys, but they were well enough acquainted with the
Bruners to wonder how Gladys could be so different from them.

Elton agreed with Hal that it wouldn't hurt
to keep quiet about their suspicions until Gladys was officially
charged. He asked Nurse Hal to keep him posted.

As Jane poured them each a cup of coffee,
Elton asked John if Sunday's sermon had rendered gute results. John
grinned and nodded. He told Elton that Noah came forward on his own
and confessed. He found the radio was missing from the rafter, and
his guilty conscious had him thinking the sermon was meant just for
him. Some of the boys in rumspringa persuaded Noah to buy the
radio. Once he hid it on the rafter, he'd been too busy to listen
to it so he came to the conclusion he really didn't need it
anyway.

Elton told John he was glad the sermon had
been so successful. He just wished the boys in other households
were as easy to convince as Noah was.

One buggy after the other lined up on
the way to a benefit frolic fund raiser. Money was needed to
replace what was used for a list of recent debts such as for the
Stolfus barn raising, the future schoolhouse raising, plus Nurse
Hal and Gladys Bruner's hospital stay. What money was left over
would be stay in the fund for later emergencies.

Levi Yoder furnished his hay field for
the event. Buggies and car parking was in the pasture across the
road.

In early October, Luke placed a sign
along side the road in front of his farm indicating a Benefit
Frolic would be held. More signs, with the date and address of the
benefit, were placed on the edge of the four pavements going into
Wickenburg.

This was quite an undertaking for the
Amish community. Second only to the Stolfus barn raising. Everyone
donated something whether it be an item for the auction, food or
apples for the bobbing game. The committee made out a work list for
each of the events. When the volunteers weren't working, they could
enjoy the frolic.

On Saturday, everything was in place for the
benefit. Plain people arrived early to work. Amish men directed the
traffic into the pasture driveway and to the spot in line to
park.

Some visitors hadn't heard about the benefit,
but as they drove by, they were curious about the tent and booths.
They wondered what such a large gathering of Amish were up to so
they stopped.

A minor traffic jam developed on the road as
people arrived. Visitors climbed out of their cars, and walked
across the road. Hundreds stood in line waiting their turn to go
through the hay field gate hole. The fee was five dollars for the
day for adults and two dollars for children fourteen and over.
Admission included meals and games for all ages.

Ben trotted down the road early that
morning, pulling the Lapp family buggy. John and Hal were eager to
get to the frolic to help. Noah and Daniel looked forward to a day
of fun with their friends. Redbird and Beth were too young to
understand what all the excitement was about, but they would enjoy
playing with children their age.

A red sport car, containing a thoughtless
driver, raced past the Lapp buggy and others in the parade headed
for the Yoder farm. The young blond man laid his hand on the horn,
warning the Plain people to stay out of his way. Luckily, the well
behaved horses were used to cars and just kept trotting as the dust
fogged the air.

Once inside the gate, English and Amish
milled around wondering where they should start. It was suddenly
clear why the Amish were so committed to their faith. Where else
could you find a community that would put together such a work
intensive benefit to help others pay their expenses?

Several days before the event, Amish
gathered to ready the hay field. They put up a large blue and white
tent for resting and eating meals in. Benches, normally for the
worship services in the home, would be put together in the tent as
tables and seats. Places for the many visitors sit and eat lunch
and later for the auction crowd. The dish chests were stacked in
one corner of the tent.

Sawhorses with boards across them lined both
sides the tent. These were laden with various items. At one end of
a plank were delicious Eve Weber's homemade pretzels. On the other
end was Roseanna Nicely's doughnuts mound on platters.

For lunch, the planks on the other side the
tent held the buffet. The smell of barbecue chicken filled the air.
Ham and cheese sandwiches piled high beside stainless steel pans of
baked beans and potato salad. For dessert, several cakes were on
the end.

Eve Weber, the tall, thin one of the Weber
sisters, was in charge of the food. She liked to talk and kept up a
running conversation with the diners, making strangers feel
welcome.

At lunch time, people, ready to rest, put
food on their paper plates, filled a Styrofoam cup with tea or
coffee and sit down to eat. While the diners ate, teenagers sang
hymns for them. The teenagers divided in to singing groups of six
to sing for thirty minutes. They had plenty of practiced singing
every Sunday night and enjoyed entertaining the lunch crowd. Noah
and Daniel were with the first group.

As soon as the Lapp brothers finished
singing, they headed for the wiener roast. Just before noon, the
bond fire was lit. Children interested in the hot dog and
marshmallow roast could partake of that instead of the food tent.
Sticks to spear the hot dogs were piled by a cooler full of hot
dogs. A cardboard box was filled with sacks of large marshmallows.
Coolers of grape Kool Aide and cups to hold the drinks were stacked
on a folding table.

In the close cut clover, enough bases for two
softball diamonds were marked with a small square of lime. The two
winning teams would play in the play off game. Two nets were put up
for a volleyball tournament. The teams might be a mixture of Amish
and English or a team of each. One area was horseshoe games for the
men. The log sawing contest gathered a crowd to watch three
different cross saws inch through large logs. For the elder males
in the crowd, checker boards had been set up on folding tables.

All day long, younger children bobbed for
apples. Red delicious apples floated in six tubs. It was quite a
challenge for the participants to sink their teeth into an apple
that dived under water at the slightest touch.

Taffy pulls were another part of the fun.
Roseanna Nisely place a cast iron kettle over a small fire. She had
the molasses taffy syrup boiled to its hard ball stage and spread
on cookie sheets on a folding table just as the first children
reached her. She handed each pair of pullers a piece of the cooled
taffy the size of a softball and told them to see who could get
their taffy ready first. When the taffy color changed to a golden
brown, it was too hard to pull.

The children laid the taffy on a sheet for
Roseanna to cut in pieces. The children ate what they wanted and
moved on. Baking sheets of taffy pieces were left for grownups and
other children who had been in another event.

Small square pens in one area were a petting
zoo, holding small animals like lambs, goats, calves, kittens,
rabbits and puppies for the younger children. Emma offered to watch
Redbird and Beth while Hal worked in the food tent. The first place
she took the girls was to the petting zoo. The girls weren't as
impressed by the baby animals as the English children were. They
saw these animals every day at home, In a few moments, they were
ready to move on.

Next Emma took the girls to the pony rides in
a small roped in arena. She put both girls on a small black and
white paint pony's back and led the pony in a circle.
The girls thought that was fun. The ponies were closer to the
ground than the Lapp horses. Everyone was so busy at home no one
took the time to help Redbird and Beth ride bareback. Emma made a
mental note to tell Daed by the girls' birthday, a pony would be
the ideal gift.

On the second time around, a man said,
“Looks like the girls are having fun.”

Emma glanced at the young blond man with his
arms cross on top of the fence posts for the rope corral. “Jah,”
she answered and kept moving. She wondered where she had seen this
man before.

On the next circle around the corral, he was
still there. She glanced over, and he smiled at her. It was then
Emma remembered. The man drove a fancy red sports car to the
benefit. He sped past all the buggies like he owned the road.

“
The girls your children?”
He asked as his bright blue eyes inspected her.

Emma's instincts told her this was not a man
to get friendly with. “Nah.”

She walked on. When she had the girls on the
opposite of the corral from the man, she helped the girls down with
the promise to go have taffy candy.

A wash tub was full of molasses. Beside the
tub was a small table holding plates of biscuits. Anyone with a
taste for molasses dipped pieces of biscuits and got sticky until
they had eaten their fill. Boxes of wet ones on the table were to
wipe the sticky molasses from hands and lips, before they moved on
to the next event.

If frolic goers hadn't eaten enough at lunch
there was a help yourself dessert booth with a counter full of
various pie and cake pieces on paper plates and stacks of paper
cups to fill from cold tea, lemonade and coffee coolers.

Bashful, heavy set Esther Weber was in charge
of setting up the booth. Her sister, Eve Weber, left the clean up
in the lunch tent to other women. She made it to the dessert booth
in time to help Esther replace saucers in the empty spots on the
counter. A diesel engine putt-putted turning an ice cream machine,
making homemade ice cream to top off the desserts.

Noah appeared in the food tent juggling two
piece of apple pie topped with ice cream and two cups of tea. He
searched the crowd, looking for Jenny Yoder. She had just finished
her dish washing shift. He winked at her which made her blush as
she came to meet him.

“
Want to share my apple pie
and ice tea?” Noah asked.

Jenny wiped her damp forehead with her
apron. “That sounds gute. Doing dishes is hot work. There is not
one bit of air in that corner of the tent.”

“
That big maple tree in
your yard is a cool shady spot. Come on,” Noah said.

After they sat down, Noah pulled the forks
out of his shirt pocket and gave Jenny one. “We better eat fast.
The ice cream is melting.”

Jenny took a bite from her saucer and said,
“This is gute. It hits the spot.”

“I'm glad,” Noah said. “Jenny, I have
something to tell you.” He grimaced, not wanting to say more.

“All recht, what is it?”

“I will not be able to take you to the next
two singings,” he said.

Jenny looked at Noah over her cup as she took
a sip of tea. She propped the cup against her leg on the unleveled
ground. “That is not a problem. I can get there on my own, but
why?”

“It is my punishment to stay home for buying
a radio and hiding it from Daed. He found it, and now I am in
trouble.”

“I see. This surprises me. I might expect
something like this from Daniel, but you are usually the one that
makes wise decisions. What made you buy a radio?”

Noah sighed. “Albert Jostle and some of the
other boys were at the salebarn. Albert said he had a radio and he
liked it. So I bought one. I hid it in the hay loft. Daed found it,
and I am in trouble. In all the time I had that radio, I did not
find a moment to go to the loft to listen to it.”

Jenny frowned. “Ach, and what does that tell
you about having an English convenience?”

“I did not need it in the first place,” Noah
answered, staring in his empty cup to avoid looking at her.

Jenny leaned over and put her hand on Noah's
arm. “That is recht. Be glad your father did not make your
punishment worse than missing two singings. The time will go fast,
and you come get me on the third Sunday.”

In one booth, along the back, items for sale
ranged from a pile of quilts, carved wooden knickknacks, canned
jams and farm fresh eggs. Noah and Daniel donated part of their
butternut and acorn squash and pie pumpkin harvest.