Courting Buggy: Nurse Hal Among The Amish (24 page)

“
Really? Let me tell you, Sara isn't
the only one scared of the dark. So am I with wild animals like
that loose around here,” complained Tootie.

As if he didn't care, Peter's stooped
shouldered form shuffled away from the building until he was out of
range of the gas lights yellow glow flowing from the door and
windows.

“
Wait for me.” Tootie darted a look
into the darkness and hustled after him.

By that time, Peter was at the fence line. He
bumped into the barbed wire. His jacket hooked on a barb. Peter
backed up and heard the rip made in his snagged jacket. He didn't
have time to pay that any mind. Not with Sara missing. He stared at
the timber.

“
Peter, why don't we go back and get
some of the men to help us look for Sara. We would find her faster
with help.” Tootie thought,
That sounds
like good reasoning to get Peter back into the school. Let his
family talk him out of looking for his wife.

“
Sara is my only worry right now. She
wasn't in the school yard so she must be out in those trees.” Peter
nodded across the fence. He was sure of it. He could feel it. No
place else she could be. He pushed the top barbed wire down and
stuck one leg over. He balanced for a second on that foot then
raised the other leg up and brought it over the wire. When he
planted his foot, he stepped on a limb which off balanced him.
Peter staggered backward, but he regained his footing.

“
You shouldn't hunt for her by
yourself,” Tootie said. “It's too dark out here to see what you're
doing.”

“
You want to go with me. I'd like you
to go with me, Dolly,” Peter coaxed.

Tootie debated. She would be crazy to
go out in that dark wilderness with this man and no telling how
many spiders and for sure coyotes. She should run back and get the
men. They could make Peter go back to the school house. Only he'd
be mad at her, and there was no way he'd stay put long enough for
her to return with help. No way he'd believe Sara was dead if she
tried to tell him.
Oh dear, more play
acting. I will just have to go with him and see if I can't get him
to turn around soon.
“You have to help me
over the fence. I'm not as agile as I once was.”

Peter lifted the top wire
and lowered the bottom wire so the space for Tootie to squeeze
through was larger. Once, she was through Peter took her
hand.
The leaves crunched under their feet. The
deafening snap of a dry stick hidden under the leaves echoed
through the timber. The sounds their footsteps made were loud in
the quiet darkness as they wondered around the trees.

Peter stopped. He listened intently. “Hear
all that noise. Is there someone behind us?”

“
I think it was our walking you heard,”
Tootie said, wishing he was right.

Peter look behind them. “Who is there?” He
sighed with a great measure of relief when he recognized his
brother coming to them. “Charlie, what are you doing out here?”

“
I came to help you find Sara,” Charlie
replied.

“
Come along. I can use your
company.”

“
Who is Charlie?” Tootie asked, looking
at the empty space beside Peter.

“
Forgive my manners. Charlie, my
brother, this is my special friend, Dolly. I'm sure you remember
when Dolly and I dated,” Peter introduced. “Charlie, we may have a
ways to walk. Sara is in this timber somewhere, and she is lost.”
Peter took off fast, making it hard for Tootie to keep up. He acted
as though he was listening to a voice beside him. Peter replied to
the empty space, “I know Sara is not going to be happy to see Dolly
with me. It can not be helped. We are worried about her.” Peter
grabbed his upper arm with the other hand and rubbed it. “My arm
where I hurt it pains me. I can tell there is going to be a change
in the weather.”

“
Maybe a rain coming. No moon or stars
this dark evening. All the more reason to find Sara,” Charlie
said.

“
I know it is not gute for Sara to be
in the timber during a storm,” Peter declared.

“
How did you hurt your arm?” Charlie
asked.

“
Charlie, your memory is growing old
like we are if you have to ask. You should know since you were
there. Remember that unbroken horse Daed thought he bought so
cheap. Me and you said we were going to break that horse. Daed
didn't want us to. He said it wasn't safe. We would get
hurt.

We waited until he wasn't home to give it a
try. That old horse bucked me off on my arm and broke it. Daed was
really mad when he saw I was hurt. Remember he said to me
foolishness like that after I disobeyed him should be driven away
with the rod. I was not sure which hurt worse when he got done with
me, my bottom or my broken arm. I must have been about fifteen at
the time, wasn't I?”

Peter didn't get a response from his
brother. “Charlie?” He stopped to search around him. Charlie was
gone. Peter shrugged. “He sure did not stay long, Dolly.” He
trudged on. “Is not the first time Charlie has come to see me and
left as suddenly as he came. Sara does that a lot lately,
too.”
So many others in my family come to
visit and leave just as sudden. I should be used to it by now. They
always come back.
“Sara, Sara, I'm coming,” Peter
called as he struggled forward with faltering steps. “Where are
you?”

“
We'll find her,” Tootie assured
him.

“
When we do, Charlie was right. She is
not going to be happy to see you with me after all these years,”
Peter warned. He halted quickly. “Dolly, I need you to promise me
something.”

Whatever Peter wanted surely couldn't be any
worse than to take her on another buggy ride. She'd gladly agree to
go for that ride with him if she could get him out of this
timber.

“
I'll try,” she assented.

“
You will probably live longer than me
given you are some younger. I want you to tell our son the truth
about who his mother is,” Peter said.

Tootie felt as if Peter had punched her in
the gut. “What truth?”

“
I want you to do for me what I did not
have the nerve to do myself. When I am gone I want you to tell
Jonah you are his real mother so he knows Sara wasn't,” Peter
said.

Holy Buckets!
Tootie put her hand over her mouth.
She was so surprised she wasn't sure if she spoke
the words out loud or thought them. How could he ask her to do such
a thing?

In the school, Anna Rogies filled a Styrofoam
plate with the food she was sure her father-in-law liked to eat.
She took it to the back of the room. Peter wasn't there. Only an
empty space on the bench where she had last seen him.

“
Did you see where Peter Rogies went?”
She asked Elmer Swartzendruber. The man was eating his supper from
the plate in his lap.

“
He went outside about the time I got
in line to fill my plate. He did not say where he was going,” Elmer
replied.

“
How long ago was that?” Anna asked,
trying not to sound concerned. Their family had tried to hide the
peculiar way Peter acted for as long as they could, but word had a
way of spreading. She was pretty sure everyone knew by now that
Peter was sick.

Elmer thought a moment. “Long enough that he
should have been back by now if he was just going to the
outhouse.”

Anna set Peter's plate on the bench and
rushed to Cooner Jonah. She bent down by his ear. “Your father has
left the school some time ago and hasn't come back.”

“
I will go find him. He probably went
to the outhouse and can not figure out how to get back in here,”
Cooner Jonah said. “Do not worry. Not yet.”

In a few minutes, Cooner Jonah was back. He
shook his head no at Anna and searched over the crowd until he saw
John Lapp. “John, my father is missing. I can't find him outside. I
looked in the outhouse and called around the school, but he did not
answer.”

“
We can get the men together and all
search. That will be faster,” John said. He walked to the front of
the room. “Can I have your attention, everyone?”

The room quieted down as the Plain people
looked curiously at John in front of the food table.

“
Peter Rogies is missing. Cooner Jonah
thinks he has wondered off and got turned around. We need the help
of all the men to look for him,” John announced.

“
Jah, we can do that,” Eldon Bontrager
said.

“
Go together in groups so you do not
get lost in the dark. We need to check the timber and the road in
both directions,” Cooner Jonah said. “I have not an idea which way
my father would go.”

Hal stood up. “Most of you know that Peter
has not been well for a while. Please approach him carefully if you
find him. He may not remember you. If he doesn't understand that
you are trying to help him, he might become angry or fearful. Talk
to him softly and speak slowly when you find him so he will come
back with you willingly.”

Nora looked around her. “Hallie, when is the
last time you saw Tootie. She isn't here, either.”

“
Oh no! John while you're looking for
Peter watch for Aunt Tootie, too,” Hal said.

“
You are not serious?” John asked
disbelievingly.

Hal nodded.

Jim snorted. “Figures! All of a sudden, where
one of them two is the other is sure to be.”

The hunt lasted through the night. The women
and children waited at the school, singing hymns with the hope that
Peter and Tootie might hear their voices and come back on their
own.

The hymns and prayers gave the Plain women
and children in the school house strength to endure the long night.
While they were within hearing, the men listened to the lilting
voices praising God. It gave them energy to go on when they grew
weary.

Some of the men had lanterns in their
buggies, and others had flashlights. For awhile, Hal stood in the
doorway to watch. All around the school, the wobbling glow of
bright lights, like giant lightning bugs, dimmed and faded from
sight. Men's voices called for Peter. Some of the voices were
close. Distant voices faintly echoed with calls of their own.

At day break, the men trudged back empty
handed to the school. The women uncovered the food and let them eat
from what was left on the table. Regrettably the farmers had to
give up the search long enough to go home and do chores.

John threw his paper plate in the trash.
“Hal, I hate to stop looking, but I have to milk. I'll be back as
soon as I can.”

“
I'm going to look for Peter and Aunt
Tootie while you're gone,” Hal said.

“
I do not think that is wise after the
way Peter treated you at the birthday party,” John
objected.

“
Peter won't always act the same from
day to day. By now I don't think he can remember what happened on
his birthday. I'm not afraid,” Hal said.

“
All recht, take Noah and Daniel with
you. I do not want you out in that timber alone. Jim and me will
get back here as soon as we can,” John said. “The timber is a big
area to cover. We have taken way too much time looking for Peter
and Aendi Tootie already. If we do not find them by noon, we will
ask the Wickenburg fire department to send out a search party to
help us before another night comes on us.”

Hal searched for Noah among a group of boys
in the yard. “Your daed is going home to do chores.”

“
Does he want me to go with him?” Noah
asked.

“
Nah, Grandpa is going to help him. I
want you and Daniel to come with me to search for Peter and Aunt
Tootie. Are you too tired to keep searching after a long
night?”

“
Nah,” Noah said.

“
Daniel, are you too tired?” Hal
asked.

“
Nah,” he said.

Anna Rogies heard her. “All the women and
older children can scatter out and hunt. We have dozed off and on
through the night so we are more rested than the men. I can not
stand this waiting and doing nothing.”

“
All recht, let's do it,” Hal
said.

“
I'll go tell the women. Someone will
have to stay with the smaller children,” Anna said, heading back to
the school.

David Rogies suggested, “My daed has a
tracker coon hound. We should go get him.”

“
That's a gute idea,” Hal said. “Noah,
take your grandfather's buggy and go with David to get the
dog.”

When they drove in at the Rogies farm, David
said, “I need to find a piece of Dawdi's clothing to let the dog
sniff so he knows what scent to track.” The boy ran to the dawdi
house and came back with a pair of dirty socks. “These have plenty
of scent in them.”

“
I will say they do,” Noah said, waving
his hand in front of his nose.

David grinned. “Dawdi forgets to change his
clothes until Daed makes him.”

Cooner Jonah came out of the barn. “What are
you boys up to?”

Noah explained the plan while David put a
rope loop around the red hound's neck and lifted him up into the
buggy. When they arrived at the school, the women had already
scattered out. Hal, Emma and Daniel were the only ones waiting with
Nora and Stella Strutt inside the school with the small children.
Most of them were still asleep.

The boys jumped from the buggy, and the dog
leaped down. David tried to hold the hound back as he lunged
forward and tugged at the rope.