Unexpected Reunion

by Carolyn Greene

  Hannah stared at her. It was too dark to make out the expression on Rebecca’s face, but what she could make out from her tone confirmed Hannah’s alarm. Sensible Rebecca was as frightened as she was. “Susanna took the pony and cart,” Hannah said.

  Rebecca gripped her mother’s arm. “Where would she go in the middle of the night?”

  Hannah didn’t have to think twice. “David’s.”

  David King, the only other person with Downs syndrome Susanna had ever met, was the apple of her eye. For months, Susanna had insisted that she loved King David, as she called him, and that she was going to marry him.

  The Kings didn’t live far away, only a quarter of a mile from the end of the lane and to the right, on the opposite side of the county road. But Susanna wasn’t allowed to leave the farm alone, and she’d never driven a horse and buggy. Hannah hadn’t thought that Susanna could even hitch the pony to the cart. And to be out at night, going down a road that carried trucks and cars? Hannah shuddered, and prayed that God would watch over her.

  “We’ll find her,” Rebecca said. “She’s fine. I’m sure of it. We haven’t heard any ambulances. You know how the dogs bark when a siren goes off. Wherever she is, Susanna is fine.”

  “She won’t be when I catch up with her,” Hannah pronounced. Of all of her girls, Susanna was the last one that she had ever suspected would sneak out at night to see a boy. Johanna, maybe Miriam, or even Leah, but not Susanna. Susanna was an obedient daughter who always followed the rules. It had never been her youngest daughter that had given Hannah her few gray hairs...until now.

  “Do you want me to hitch up Blackie?” Rebecca asked. “I’m not dressed, but—”

  Hannah set her jaw. “I’m going to walk to the King’s house.”

  “In your bathrobe?”

  “We have to find her.” Hannah tightened the tie on her robe. “Every minute counts, and I trust the Lord will forgive me for my state of undress. Give me your flashlight.”

  “I should go with you.”

  “No, you stay here,” Hannah told her, taking the flashlight. “Just in case she comes back and I miss her.”

  “I’ll light the lamps in the kitchen.” Rebecca went one way. Hannah another.

  The dirt farm lane was a long one, and usually Hannah was grateful that her late husband had picked a place where the house was set far back off the road. Tonight, however, she wished it were a shorter driveway. Oh, Jonas, she thought. Why aren’t you here with me? In the five years since a sudden heart attack had taken him from her, she often wished he was still here by her side, but never more so than tonight. She wasn’t a weepy woman, but if she had been, she’d be inclined to sit down in the dirt and have a good cry.

  She walked quickly, not bothering to call Susanna’s name. If she was coming up this lane, with or without the pony and cart, Hannah would have heard her. Instead, all she heard was the far-off wail of a freight train and the high chirping and deep bass croaks of early spring frogs.

  The lights of a car whizzed past Hannah’s mailbox. Not far now. The Kings’ farm was dark. As with all the Old Order Amish in their community, David’s parents didn’t have electricity. Hannah had been hoping for the gleam of a kerosene lamp through an uncurtained window, but not a single glimmer showed.

  Hannah’s anxiety increased with every step. “Susanna,” she murmured. “Where are you?” If she wasn’t at the Kings’ house and she wasn’t on the road between here and there, Hannah would have to wake her sons-in-law and maybe send Irwin to the chair shop to use the business phone. Calling the English authorities wasn’t a decision to be taken lightly. If an eight-year-old Amish child had been missing at night, it would be considered acceptable. Though Susanna might technically be twenty-one, her maturity level was closer to that of a second-grader.

  At the end of the lane, a grove of cedar trees blocked her line of vision on the right. There was no moon tonight, and even with the flashlight, it was difficult to see. Hannah had just turned onto the shoulder of the road when she saw a bobbling light a few hundred feet away. “Susanna?” she called. No answer. Hannah called again. “Susanna!” Please, God, she prayed silently. Let it be her. Let her be safe.

  Whoever it was, they were coming slowly, and Hannah couldn’t hear hoof beats or the grate of buggy wheels on the pavement. She hurried toward the light. “Susanna?”

  “Mam?”

  Relief jolted through Hannah with a physical impact. She broke into a run. “Susanna, are you all right?”

  “She’s fine!” came a reply in a deep male voice.

  “I’m fine.”

  That was Susanna’s voice, but who was with her? Hannah stopped short and aimed the flashlight toward the approaching group: Susanna, short and round, bouncing along in her flat-footed, side-to-side stride and a larger, lumbering figure behind her.

  A pickup truck approached, slowed and passed. In the glow of the headlight, Hannah saw a third person, a tall Englisher in a baseball cap leading Hannah’s black-and-white pony. No, she decided, not just any Englisher. She recognized that voice. “Albert Hartman? Is that you?” She started toward them again, not running this time, but walking fast.

  In another moment, she had her arms around a sobbing Susanna. Her daughter was trying to tell her something, but she quickly dissolved into hysterics. Because Susanna’s speech was never clear to begin with, Hannah had trouble understanding what her daughter was trying to tell her.

  “Crash,” David supplied. He was a young man of few words. “Bam,” he said. “Ina ditch.”

  Hannah gazed over Susanna’s head. “Are you hurt, David?” she asked. “What about Taffy? Is the pony—”

  “Not a scratch, so far as I can tell. It could have been a lot worse.”

  Hannah accepted Albert’s opinion without hesitation. Not only was he a longtime family friend, but he was a local veterinarian. She turned her attention back to her daughter. “Why did you go out at night?” Hannah demanded. “And what made you take Taffy?”

  “Pizza,” David said. “We wanted pizza.” He shook his head. “Mam gonna be mad at me. Ya.” He nodded his head. “Really mad.”

  “I was so worried. Come on,” Hannah urged. “Let’s get off this road before we’re all killed.” She held tight to Susanna, unwilling to let her go now that she’d found her. Adrenaline still pumped through Hannah’s veins, and she felt vaguely sick to her stomach.

  “Good idea,” Albert said.

  Together, they walked back to Hannah’s lane. Once away from the blacktop, she loosened her grip on Susanna’s arm and merely held her hand. “Albert,” Hannah said, “how did you find them? Where did you find them?”

  “Half a mile on the other side of the Kings’ place,” he said. “I was coming back from a call. A cow having twins was in a bit of trouble. Two pretty little heifers, both right as rain once we got their legs untangled and got them delivered. Anyway, I was just on my way home when I saw Jonas’s courting buggy in the ditch and these two standing there beside it.”

  “A car came,” Susanna wailed. “It scared Taffy. She jumped in the ditch.”

  “The buggy rolled over on its side,” Albert explained. “A wheel is broken, but the carriage seems okay. I was more concerned for Susanna and David.”

  “Not David’s fault,” Susanna stoutly defended. “He drove good. The car beeped and scared Taffy.”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “David drove?”

  Susanna nodded.

  They continued to walk up the long drive. “But, Daughter, you snuck out of the house.”

  Susanna shook her head. “Ne. I didn’t.”

  “You did,” Hannah said. “Did David come to the farm and hitch Taffy to the buggy?”

  “Ya,” Susanna said, but David was shaking his head. “Hush,” Susanna ordered, shaking her finger at him. “You said!”
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  Confused, Hannah glanced at Albert, who shrugged. “I couldn’t get a straight story out of them, either. They were both crying when I got there. The pony was tangled in the traces.”

  “It was God’s mercy that you found them,” Hannah said. The pony belonged to her daughter Miriam, but she stabled it at the home barn so that Rebecca and Hannah had the use of it. They were all very fond of Taffy, and the thought that the animal could have been badly injured or killed by Susanna’s carelessness made Hannah angry. “I’m disappointed in you, Susanna,” she said sharply. “Very, very disappointed.”

  Susanna hung her head. Tears ran down her cheeks and she wiped at them with dirty hands, but Hannah wasn’t feeling sympathetic.

  “What you did was wrong and dangerous,” Hannah chided. “You, David or Taffy could have been killed.”

  “We...we wanted pizza,” Susanna mumbled. “You never...never let us go get...get pizza.”

  “I like pizza,” David declared.

  The sound of an approaching horse and buggy caught Hannah’s attention. “That’s got to be Rebecca,” she explained to Albert. “Where’s your truck?”

  “I left it on the side of the road by the buggy.”

  Hannah nodded. “I can send Charley and Eli to get the buggy in the morning.”

  “No worry,” Albert said. “I called Tony’s Towing.”

  “But that will cost dearly,” Hannah said. Did she even have the money for a tow truck?

  “Don’t worry about it.” Albert gave her a reassuring grin. “Tony owes me for stitching up his Labrador’s hind leg last week when he got it caught in the screen door. There won’t be a charge. He’ll have the buggy back in your barn within the hour.”

  Rebecca reined in Blackie, and Susanna pulled away from Hannah to run and tell her sister about her adventure. David stood patiently where he was, waiting for Susanna or someone to tell him what to do.

  Hannah glanced back at Albert. “You walked right past David’s house. Why didn’t you leave him there?”

  Albert tugged off his ball cap and looked sheepish. “He wouldn’t go. Susanna wanted him with her, and I thought maybe you’d be uneasy about me bringing her home alone. You know, how it would look to the community...”

  “How it would look? When you saved both of them from who knows what? Albert, you may not be Amish, but we trust you. You’ll never know how grateful I am that it was you who came along when I needed you most.”

  “I suppose it was meant to be,” Albert offered slowly. “His plan. I’m just glad I could help.”

  Rebecca climbed down out of the buggy, and Hannah quickly filled her in on what had happened. “We’ll tie Taffy to the back and take her to the barn, and put Susanna to bed,” she continued. “Albert and I are going to walk David home—”

  “No need for you to put yourself out.” Albert started to lead the pony around to the back of the buggy. “I can take David home.”

  “Ne, Albert,” Hannah replied. She gave Susanna a gentle push in Rebecca’s direction. “I need to come. David’s mother has to know what he was up to. I don’t think she’ll be any more pleased with this night’s mischief than I am.”

  Copyright © 2014 by Emma Miller

  ISBN-13: 9781460333792

  UNEXPECTED REUNION

  Copyright © 2014 by Carolyn J. Greene

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