By the Creek Read online

  It was Saturday and his mother was home, so David waited until after lunch, when she headed to the grocery store. Normally he’d ride along with her simply for something to do away from the house, but today he told her he had things he wanted to do. As soon as she was gone, David grabbed some water and set out walking across the field. The sun was high and bright, warming everything after the rain. “Why am I doing this?” he asked out loud. He had taken to talking to himself more and more. David knew the answer whether he wanted to admit it or not. The kid he’d seen had fascinated him and awakened something in him David wished he could explain. As he entered the woods, he stepped carefully and quietly, and as he approached the swimming hole he almost crept along as he approached the curve in the path. Peering around a large tree, he looked ahead and saw… nothing. The clearing was empty.

  He really should have known this was what he’d find. It wasn’t like the kid he’d seen would come back looking for him. But while he was here, he figured he might as well explore, so he continued along the path to where the stream exited the swimming hole, becoming shallow again. After walking about fifty feet, David saw where a tree had fallen across the stream. It wasn’t particularly large, but he figured he could get across if he were careful.

  David took his first steps on the log. It seemed steady and strong enough. Not that he was really worried—the water was a foot deep, at most—but he wasn’t really interested in getting wet. Slowly he moved across the log and was about to take the final step to reach the other side when the log began to move. David lunged for the bank, but the log shifted again under his feet and he began to fall backward. He wheeled his arms as he desperately tried to regain his balance, but it was too late. He landed in the shallow water, striking his head on a rock. The last thing he remembered was the world spinning and water flowing across his face as the cold seeped through his clothes.

  “Breathe,” someone said, hitting him on the chest. David coughed and rolled onto his side. He thought he was going to be sick, but he coughed instead before gasping for air. His lungs burned, but nothing had ever felt as sweet or as reassuring as that first gasp of air. David shivered with cold, so he figured at least he wasn’t dead. His head still swam and he cracked his eyes open, but his vision swirled and everything moved, so he clamped them closed again and simply concentrated on breathing. “Are you okay? You cut yourself but it’s stopped bleeding.”

  “I will be, thanks to you,” David said without opening his eyes. His head still felt strangely light, but it seemed to be settling, so he risked opening his eyes again and found himself staring into the face of the boy he’d seen a few days earlier. “Where did you come from?” David asked as he slowly sat up. Thankfully, the sun was strong and warm, otherwise he’d be completely frozen by now. David’s teeth began to chatter nonetheless.

  “I was walking along the path and heard the splash of you falling into the water.” He sounded almost breathless, like he was scared. “What are you doing?”

  David pulled his wet shirt over his head. “Taking this off so I can warm up,” David explained, and he let the shirt fall on the grass. That felt so much better, and the sun quickly warmed his skin. David looked at the other boy, who was staring at him. David looked down self-consciously and wondered if he should put his shirt back on. “Is something wrong?” David began to stand up, but his head spun again and he sat back down.

  The kid looked away. “No,” he answered, but David saw him turning beet red, and he seemed ready to bolt.

  This was getting more and more awkward by the minute. “I’m David.” He figured introductions might help alleviate some of his rescuer’s jitters.

  “Benjamin,” the boy said matter-of-factly, looking over his shoulder.

  “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’m not going to hurt you or anything,” David said testily, trying his legs once again. This time he didn’t get dizzy and was able to stand.

  “I know. But we’re not to mix with the English,” Benjamin explained.

  “I’m not English; I’m an American,” David said.

  Benjamin tilted his head slightly in confusion and then began to giggle, almost laughing. “English is what we call everyone who isn’t like us.”

  “Oh.” David thought for a minute. “Is it true you don’t have electricity or cars?”

  “Yes. We believe it’s God’s plan for us to remain close to the land and therefore closer to him.” He sounded like he was reciting something he’d heard other people say. “It’s hard to explain to someone outside.” Benjamin moved a little farther away, but David saw that he kept glancing at him. “But we don’t have phones, cars, or electricity. We ride in horse-drawn buggies. Papa says we used to plow the fields with horses as well, but now one of the English farmers up the road plows the fields for us.”

  David shook his head. “Isn’t that weird?” It sure sounded strange to him.

  “Papa says that it’s only forbidden for us to operate the equipment, so as long as we don’t drive the tractor, it’s allowed,” Benjamin explained, but he didn’t seem totally convinced either. “I don’t know what I think about that, but Papa makes the decisions, and it would be sinful for me to question him.” Benjamin once again looked toward the settlement.

  “Are you expecting someone else to come?” David asked. His pants had stopped dripping and they’d begun to warm in the sun.

  “No.”

  “Then why do you keep looking that way?” David asked, sitting back down in the grass.

  “I’m not supposed to be talking you. If Papa found out, he’d be very angry.” Benjamin did seem nervous.

  “I’m not going to tell him,” David said with a smile. “And I promise not to corrupt you or anything. My mom works during the day, so I spend a lot of time alone.” David began nervously tearing some of the blades of grass. “You’re the first person I’ve met since I moved here.”

  “Your mother works?” Benjamin asked, his eyes wide with surprise. “And she leaves you alone? What about your uncles and cousins? Aren’t they nearby?”

  David shook his head. “It’s just my mother and me. I take it you have a big family,” David prompted, and to his surprise, Benjamin looked once more toward home before sitting in the grass with him.

  Benjamin nodded. “I have eight brothers and sisters, lots of cousins, and other relatives. Most of them live in the community, although some left a few years ago to form a new community in Indiana.”

  “Do you visit them?” David asked, and Benjamin shook his head.

  “I’ve never been more than ten miles away from home, and I’ll probably never see the cousins who moved away again unless I decide to move to their community, and it would take many days to get there.” Benjamin smiled and looked at David in an indulgent way, like he didn’t know anything, and David realized he sort of didn’t. He had never given a thought to hopping in the car with his mother and being in town in ten minutes to get whatever it was he wanted. For Benjamin and his family, going to and from town must take all day.

  Benjamin stopped moving, listening closely. “I need to go,” he said and stood up. He looked back and didn’t seem to quite know what to say.

  “Thank you for helping me,” David said as he stood up too. “Maybe I’ll see you at the creek again sometime. Hopefully next time I won’t fall in.” Benjamin nodded and crossed the stream with ease before disappearing along the trail. David watched him go with a slight smile before bending down to pick up his shirt. He carried it as he walked along the trail and out of the woods, crossing the field as clouds began to roll in. By the time he reached the house, he was cold again and the wind had begun to pick up. David let himself inside and stripped off his wet clothes, throwing them in the washer before walking naked to his room, where he put on dry clothes. Back in the kitchen, he found the note his mother had left him that morning and followed her instructions to start making dinner. He had the casserole in the oven like she’d asked when he heard the first claps of thunder in the dista
nce.

  He heard his mother pull in the drive a short time later and met her at the door as the sky opened up. She raced inside, carrying her things, her hands full of grocery bags. After setting everything on the counter, she hung her coat up in the laundry room and began putting everything away. “Did anything happen while I was gone?”

  “Not really. I went for a walk and met an Amish kid back by the stream. We talked a little. His name’s Benjamin and he seemed nice.” David began putting away the things that had to go in the pantry.

  “What’s in the washer?” his mother asked.

  “I went for a walk and fell in the creek,” David said, and his mother stepped away from the counter.

  “Did you hit your head?” She was already fussing before he could answer. “Do you feel sick or dizzy?” She checked his forehead, pushing back his hair so she could check his cut.

  “I’m fine, Mom, honest,” David said, stepping away. She looked at him skeptically. “I’ll tell you if anything happens.” David sat on one of the stools while his mother finished with the groceries.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?”

  “Mom,” David whined, rolling his eyes as she finished what she was doing. “I promise to tell you if I feel like hurling or anything.”

  “I know it’s been hard for you, moving here without knowing anyone, but once school starts, you’ll make lots of friends.”

  David wanted to ask her what he was supposed to do until then, but it wouldn’t do any good, anyway. They’d moved away from his old school and all his friends. He knew his mother was doing the best she could, but there were times when life just wasn’t fair. David got up, walked to his room, and closed the door. He thought of listening to music on the iPod his mother had gotten him as sort of an “I’m sorry” gift, but he wasn’t in the mood. Instead, he stared out the window, looking through the rain toward the dim lights of the small cluster of buildings just across the street and wondering what Benjamin was doing right now.

  Chapter 3

  THE next week was miserable. The weather sucked, and David spent most of his days in the house, completing the list of chores his mother left for him each morning and watching two and a half channels of television. His mother had promised to get satellite television, but it hadn’t been installed yet. During the day, he ended up watching reruns of The Brady Bunch, and the more he watched, the more he started to feel like Alice. By Friday, the house had been cleaned from top to bottom, all the moving boxes had been unpacked or put into storage, according to his mother’s instructions, and he’d broken down the boxes and hauled them all to the curb for pickup.

  Sometime during the night on Friday, the clouds parted, and the sun was shining bright and warm on Saturday morning. His mother was sleeping in, so David got dressed and decided to take a walk to the creek. Of course, there was no guarantee that Benjamin would be there, but the walk would give him something to do.

  As he left the house and began walking across the field, he saw Benjamin walking a horse along the far edge of the field. At least David thought it was him, and he took off running. As he got closer, Benjamin stopped walking and waited for him. Huffing more than he’d like to admit, he caught up and then stopped, trying to catch his breath. “I thought that was you,” David gasped and breathed deeply. “Is this your horse?” David reached out to stroke the animal, but Benjamin moved him away.

  “He’s one of our work animals, yes,” Benjamin answered rather stiffly. “We don’t believe in keeping animals as pets. They work or are raised for food.”

  “Then why are you taking him for a walk?” David didn’t try to pet the horse again, but at least Benjamin smiled a little.

  “His name’s Goliath, like from the Bible. My father hates that we named him that, but he’s big, strong, and sometimes really stubborn. My papa is loaning him to my uncle for the day, and I have to deliver him. The path goes along the field and through those trees to the back of my uncle’s farm.”

  “I saw you walking him back a few days ago. I waved, but you didn’t wave back.”

  Benjamin began walking. “I’m not supposed to have contact with people outside the community. The adults can if they choose, but since I’m not baptized yet and haven’t officially joined the community as an adult, I have to do what my papa tells me, and he’s very against the English.” Benjamin kept walking, and David followed along.

  “He’s a very handsome horse,” David said. “Do you ride him?”

  “Sometimes, but mostly he’s hitched to a wagon or a buggy. My uncle had his fields plowed, so Goliath will probably be pulling one of my uncle’s wagons. He has a field of asparagus, and the harvesting is underway.”

  David continued walking, being careful where he stepped in case there was a hole or something. “Sounds like he’ll be working hard.” David knew he probably sounded a bit lame.

  “We all work hard. Papa says that’s part of how we get into heaven—by working hard and living a pure, simple life,” Benjamin told him.

  “But what do you think?” David asked, and Benjamin stopped walking, with Goliath stopping as well. The huge horse shifted his head and then tossed it up and down. “What?” David asked, looking around.

  “I’m supposed to do what Papa says,” Benjamin said.

  “No one ever asked you what you think?” David asked, and Benjamin shook his head. “You know, you’re allowed to have an opinion on things. Maybe you can’t tell your papa what it is, but you’re allowed to think.”

  Benjamin started walking again, clicking his tongue when Goliath resisted. David figured the horse wasn’t any more enthusiastic about spending the day pulling a wagon than he’d be. But the horse began walking again anyway. “Sometimes I wonder what it’s like outside the community. I see people in cars and wonder what it would be like to ride in one.” Benjamin looked around and then grinned. “Once, I went into town with Papa. He had to meet with one of your officials, so I watched television in the window of one of the stores. Papa would be mad if he found out, but I was curious.”

  David couldn’t help chuckling. “You’re such a rebel.” He bumped Benjamin on the shoulder playfully, and Benjamin seemed startled for a second before bumping him back, his wide-brimmed black hat nearly falling off his head.

  “You’re picking on me?” Benjamin giggled.

  “Maybe a little. I never thought of watching television as a ticket to hell, but with some of the shows on, it just might be,” David said, watching to see Benjamin’s reaction. “I’ve wondered what it would be like to ride in a buggy.”

  “Slow,” Benjamin said. “Every Saturday Papa takes Mama into town so she can buy the things she needs, and it takes almost the entire day. Sometimes I get to go too, but mostly I stay at our farm because I have to get Papa’s chores done too.”

  “What kind of chores?” Benjamin appeared confused for a second. “Let me guess, no one ever asks you about your chores because everyone knows what to do.”

  “Exactly,” Benjamin agreed before continuing. “I have to make sure the horses are fed and watered, clean the stalls, and spread the manure on the fields. The girls take care of the chickens, and of course I work in the fields to pull weeds and plant. Right now is sort of a slower time because everything has been planted, but there’s always work to do to make sure we have enough food to last us through the winter.”

  David had never thought of that. Those kinds of things were stuff he read in history books. “Don’t you buy food?”

  “Some, but Papa and the minister say the purer the things we put into our bodies, the purer our spirits, so we try to grow as much of our own food as possible. We have fields of corn and wheat, and then there’s Mama’s vegetable garden. At harvest time, Mama and the girls work sunup to sundown to get everything put up in jars.” Benjamin seemed proud, and David supposed he should be. He’d never given much thought to where his food came from other than when his mother didn’t buy the stuff he liked at the grocery store. “Do you have a garden at your
house?”

  David shook his head; he’d never thought about it before. “Mom gets our food from the grocery store.”

  “Papa says women weren’t meant to work outside the home,” Benjamin said, and David rolled his eyes.

  “My mother would say your papa is a male chauvinist pig,” David said, and Benjamin looked at him rather blankly. “It means that he thinks women aren’t as good as men. Your papa and my mother would probably not get along.” David looked back over the expansive field to their house, which was now quite small in the distance. David hadn’t realized just how large the field was until he saw their house from over here.

  They reached the line of trees at the far side of the field, and David saw a narrow path through the wooded area. “You have to stop here. My uncle will be watching for me and he can’t see me with you.”

  “Your family would be mad because you talked to me?” David asked, and Benjamin nodded. “I guess you already said that, but we were just talking. We didn’t hurt anyone.”

  Benjamin stopped Goliath at the edge of the woods. “To Papa, it wouldn’t matter. I went against his wishes just by walking with you, and my uncle would tell him.”

  “Doesn’t your uncle like you?” David asked.

  Benjamin’s eyes widened. “Of course he does, but he would be bound by honor to tell my father.” Benjamin tilted his head. “You asked me what I thought, and I think talking to you is nice and there’s nothing wrong with it, but my papa wouldn’t agree.” Benjamin turned toward the underbrush. “I have to go.”