She could imagine it, Katie thought. Maybe it was the old room or the feel of the place. Not that she knew much about Einstein, but she could imagine the white-haired man puttering around, thinking about light and slowing down time—thoughts that were way beyond her. Ben would probably understand all that when she told him. And then she remembered how he’d wanted her to tell him everything she saw on the trip. But that wouldn’t happen now. He would be hearing nothing about this visit to the birth of the Amish faith. Katie choked back a sob and turned away from the window. She had to think about something other than home or Ben. Thankfully, the other girls hadn’t noticed her tears.
As they left and walked down the stairs, Sharon said, “I’m hungry. Let’s eat in that cute little restaurant.”
They all agreed, and a few minutes later were seated in the crowded café, having already ordered.
“So what’s next on the list?” Margaret asked.
Just then the waitress appeared with their food, and when she left, Nancy said, “There’s an old church in town we haven’t seen yet. It’s close to here. And there’s the castle out in the countryside that has an old dungeon where our forefathers were kept in prison. Some of them for quite a length of time before they were martyred or released.”
“I want to see the castle,” Margaret said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “That sounds romantic.”
Sharon had been paging through the guidebook with one hand while she ate with the other. She gave a little shriek. “Horrors! This is awful! But we have to see it.”
“Please enlighten us,” Margaret said.
“They have a figure of the executioner right out here in the street where they used to chop off heads,” Sharon said. “It can’t be far away.”
“Then I’m running the other way!” Margaret proclaimed. “No heads rolling in the street for me.”
Nancy launched into a story about the executioner preserved high above the street. “It was in this very street, many years after the persecution started, where one of the Anabaptist martyrs had a vision prior to his execution. When they led him out he boldly told the crowd that the Lord would perform several signs today attesting to his innocence. First, he would place his hat on the street and his head, after being chopped off, would fall into it and laugh.”
Sharon choked and turned. Katie too decided she would have a hard time eating the last of her sandwich after that picture flashed in her mind. She laid her food on the table.
Nancy, though, went on. “Secondly, the town’s water supply would turn blood red. And both of those things happened. This so shook up the townspeople that this was the last execution Bern had of an Anabaptist, although they used other forms of persecution for awhile.”
“Is the story really true?” Margaret asked.
“It’s in the guidebook,” Sharon offered. “The book claims the story is well sourced.”
“There you go,” Nancy said. “I’ve always been told it was true.”
“Here’s another one concerning the cathedral we’re seeing next,” Sharon said.
Margaret groaned. “Not another head chopping, I hope?”
“No, this one’s clean,” Sharon said. “Just a bad scare. It seems one Sunday morning a week after pronouncements against the Anabaptists from the government had been read in the pulpit, a bad storm blew up and knocked a large stone loose from the top of the cathedral. This piece of rock came crashing down right into the mayor’s reserved chair, who, thankfully, was absent that morning. The townspeople feared the wrath of God, and the persecution let up for awhile.”
“That’s sounds like a story from the Munster Cathedral,” Nancy said.
Sharon checked and nodded. “That’s right.”
“Let’s go see it when we’re finished,” Margaret said.
“Sounds good,” Nancy said.
Minutes later the girls were walking in the direction of the cathedral. As they turned a corner, there it was before them—the biggest church they’d seen so far. Hundreds of ornate carvings were everywhere, circling over the doorways and hanging from the eaves and water gutters.
“The Munster Cathedral,” Sharon intoned, reading from the guidebook. “‘Begun in 1421, but the last steeple wasn’t completed until 1893. The building continued for centuries, right through the raging turmoil of the Reformation.’ That’s something to see, if I must say so myself.”
The girls went inside and climbed up more than 200 steps to an observation platform. From there the beautiful tiled roofs of the town of Bern lay below them. Each house was picture-perfect, the flowerpots blooming in the windows. Katie could only wonder how this beautiful country could have produced such suffering for her people. But it wasn’t really so surprising. Hadn’t Ben carried a very wicked heart under his handsome face and charming kisses? And Katie had been deceived.
They soon found their way back down the narrow stone steps, walking out to where the platform behind the cathedral overlooked the river. Here they listened as the bells from the towers above them pounded out the hour.
“Right down there,” Nancy said, once the bells had fallen silent, “is where they loaded many of our forefathers onto ships, sending them out for banishment or, worse, as galley slaves.”
Katie turned away. She’d seen enough misery for the moment. People must be very, very wicked to do things like this to one another. It was a little too much to handle right now. Sure, she had heard the stories before, but this was almost like seeing it happen herself. In a way she hadn’t expected, it made Katie feel depressed. If only she could get away to a place where she could have some peace and not have to think about killing, death, and deception. In truth, she felt she could easily scream or, at least, burst into fresh tears. But she did neither, pasting a smile on instead and following the others back to the car.
They drove out into the countryside, following the instructions of the man in the GPS who now sounded like Jesse.
When they arrived at the castle and toured the dungeon, they were quiet as they looked at the tiny cells, each with a small bench with a hole in the middle and chains dangling on the side.
“For toilet purposes,” Nancy said, trying to be helpful.
“Okay. With that, I’m out of here,” Sharon said, turning to go up to the next level. The other girls followed close behind. But there they found yet more cells. As they read the guidebook and looked into the cells where great atrocities had happened to people who believed as they did, the girls all became quiet. Finally on the upper floor there was a single window overlooking the valley below. Beautiful farms lay spread before them. The view was picture-perfect, with cows roaming the fields and the soft tingle of their bells reaching even this height.
Suddenly Katie could stand it no more. She broke into loud sobs. Nancy wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
“Why do people do such evil things?” Katie asked through her tears.
“Human beings do awful things to each other,” Nancy agreed. “But the Lord is greater than our wickedness.”
Katie knew that was true, but she didn’t feel it right now. Da Hah felt a thousand miles away, as if He had left this world to its own devices and turned His face away from her.
“The Lord will comfort your heart,” Nancy said. “In His own time. We must wait for Him.”
Katie choked back her sobs as Margaret and Sharon joined them. With their arms around each other, they prayed for Katie. But when they were done, her heart was just as cold as when they’d started.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The following day the girls drove to the little town of Eggiwil that Nancy wished to visit. It lay in the high plateaus south and east of Bern, where they’d been yesterday. Margaret and Sharon were caught up in the scenery outside. Nancy was mostly paying attention to her driving on the sharp turns of this mountainous country. Katie was coping with the loss she felt over Ben’s arrest. Sharon had been checking the news from home on her laptop, accessing both the newspaper and contacting her parents through emai
l. Apparently there was a new development that seemed to end all speculation about this being a horrible mistake. Ben had confessed.
If she could only forget about Ben, Katie thought. But how did she forget a person who had grown so close to her heart? It was like tearing a piece of her own flesh away. There was one bright spot in this whole mess, if such a thing were possible. Thankfully, this had all been revealed before she married Ben. How much worse would things have been if it hadn’t? She might even be with child when Ben was in jail serving a long prison term. Katie refused to think on Ben. He was out of her life. They would never see each other again, of that much she was sure. And to think at one time his doubts about his faith had her worried. That objection paled in light of his illegal drug activities.
Nancy slowed to cross a gorgeous little covered bridge, and exclamations of wonder came from Margaret and Sharon. Shortly thereafter, they arrived in the town and Nancy parked near the town center.
“Bathroom?” Katie spoke up.
“Excellent idea,” Nancy said. She proceeded to a small shop and asked. Minutes later, when they exited the restrooms, Nancy said, “There’s a church up here somewhere I want to see.”
“Is this town another of those Taufer nests?” Sharon asked.
Nancy nodded. “They had a congregation up here of around forty members before they were all banished, somewhere around the late seventeenth century.”
“Eww…” Margaret said, as they came in sight of a picturesque little church. “Not another of those built with blood money?”
“Well, confiscated property helped for this one,” Nancy said. “I doubt if there was enough money to build the whole church.”
“I don’t even want to see the place.” Sharon marched away, and the others followed. Back at the car, Nancy drove higher into the mountains, pausing beside the road occasionally to take in the beautiful view of the valley below.
“I can see how a person would want to live up here,” Margaret said. “That’s an awesome view.”
“I guess we can see why some of our forefathers came back even after they’d been banished and were facing fresh persecution. They became too homesick to stay in their new country.”
As they drove on, Sharon asked, “Doesn’t it get cold up here? I mean it’s decent now, but the guidebook claims the winters are pretty harsh.”
“Look at that house,” Nancy motioned as they went past. “The barn is built right into the mainframe.”
“Gross!” Margaret exclaimed. “Now that’s going too far. Animals in the living room?”
“There’s another one,” Sharon added, “and some more. We haven’t seen these before, have we?”
“Not that I noticed,” Margaret said. “But I guess it would be kind of cozy. Sheep bleating in your sleep. You’d just open your eyes to count them.”
They all laughed, and Katie felt a little calmer. The countryside did have a certain wildness to it. Maybe she could move here and get away from the mess Ben had made of their lives. She’d never see anyone from the community again, which wasn’t a bad idea. Surely they’d let her into this country since her forefathers had been from here…somewhere.
Katie pushed the thoughts away. Her brain couldn’t think straight right now, and even wild ideas made way too much sense. Nancy was now driving along the high plateau and heading toward their next site. She had made an appointment weeks ago at a hiding place in a barn the Taufers used to use. And from there they planned to drive on to the base of the Alps. The plans were to ride a cable car up a mountain tomorrow.
Nancy had said there was an awesome place up there called Schilthorn.
She slowed to bounce the car down a narrow lane and then stopped in front of an old homestead. “The Anabaptist hiding place,” Nancy announced.
Everyone climbed out. A young lady, apparently expecting them, appeared on the front porch and greeted them with “Good morning” in English, but with an accent the girls had gotten used to hearing. “I see you have come. And right on time. My name is Regina. Would you like to see the barn now? And then I have lunch prepared for you.”
“That would be great,” Nancy said. “We were just admiring your beautiful countryside on the way here.”
“Jah, it is great to live here. My family has been in the area now for many years.” Regina paused to open the barn door. “Are any of you familiar with the story here?”
“Only what we’ve read in the guidebook,” Nancy said.
“Guidebooks are useful, but it is better to see for oneself. That is why you have come, no? So let me tell you the story from the sixteenth century. Back then it is believed there were many such barns as this in the area. All of the others, though, have been lost during remodeling projects and such things. This one is still as it used to be.”
Regina led the way to where a floorboard was raised on a swiveling hinge. She showed them the small hiding place below. “As you may know already, the city of Bern would send Taufer hunters out into the countryside to capture both men and women.”
Margaret groaned as Regina continued. “When the Taufer hunters arrived in the area, word would spread quickly, and the people who were being pursued would run into one of these barns. As you can see this piece of floorboard rotates in the middle. When you step on one end, it goes down, and you climb in the hole. When you are inside you push it back up again, latch it from underneath, and no one can find you. Many people used this place, and once the hunters were gone they could flee to a better hiding place.”
“At least they didn’t chop off people’s heads here,” Margaret said. “That was awful yesterday. We saw the place in Bern where it used to happen.”
“Jah.” Regina wasn’t smiling now. “That was all a long time ago, but even then it is a shameful part of our history. Today the government is doing much to expose the past, and to make sure it does not happen again. That is why so many of these sites are being preserved and kept up by the government.”
Margaret breathed a sigh of relief as Regina continued the tour. When she was finished, she said, “So are you girls ready for lunch now? I have a little something prepared.”
“Starving!” Margaret said.
Regina laughed. “This is my family’s farm,” Regina told them as she led the way inside the house. “We’ve been here for many years, and we love the place. But what do you think of the country by now? Other than some of the history, of course?”
“Oh, we love the country itself,” Nancy said. “It’s just hard for us to understand why such suffering had to happen here. Why people could be so cruel to others.”
“Ach…jah, one does wonder.” Regina motioned toward a long table. “Please be seated, and I’ll have lunch out quickly. I’m sure you have a long way to travel today yet.”
“Do you get lots of people through here?” Nancy asked Regina as she was setting out the food.
“Jah, lots of them. Maybe one thousand a year or so. It varies, of course.”
“Keeps you busy then,” Sharon said. “How does it feel living on the very place where such historical things happened? I mean, people hiding for their lives.”
“One gets used to it, I suppose,” Regina said. “And no one was ever murdered on the property, so there are no ghosts. But, of course, I am teasing.”
As she refilled the girls’ glasses, Regina asked, “You are heading somewhere else now, of course?”
“Yes. To the Alps,” Nancy said. “We have a bed-and-breakfast scheduled for our stay in Interlaken. Then hopefully we can ride a cable car all the way up to the Schilthorn tomorrow.”
“Jah, this is where the James Bond movie was made,” Regina said. “You have seen that? It is world famous, I think. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service the movie was called.”
Margaret sniffed. “I don’t watch James Bond.”
Regina laughed. “I guess it is more for the men. But my husband has all the movies. He loves them.”
“I’ve seen some James Bond movies,” Sharon offered. “Not t
hat I really liked them, but my brother had a few around once.”
“See, it’s for the men,” Regina said.
“It’s worth the trip though, from what I’ve read,” Nancy said. “You can see all the mountains from one side to the other.”
“Jah.” Regina nodded. “On a clear day you can see much. But those are hard to find in the spring like this.”
Sharon glanced at the window. “Well, it’s clear outside today.”
“Then you should go today,” Regina told them. “But that is not possible, of course.”
When silence fell over the group, Regina continued. “But do not let me spoil your lovely vacation. Surely there will be a few more days of sunshine before the clouds move in. And even if there are not, the Swiss Alps are something that must be seen. Even with clouds floating by, they are beautiful. Like nothing in the world.”
“You are a good salesperson,” Margaret said.
“It is a lovely country.” Regina beamed. “The best on the earth. One would not wish to live anywhere else.”
“See, that’s what I said,” Margaret said. “I’d love to live here.”
“You will also ride the train to the top of the Jungfrau? That is our most famous mountain peak,” Regina asked.
“It’s quite expensive, and we might not have time with the weather,” Nancy said. “But I do want to see the little village of Gimmelwald, which is on the cable car route.”
“Jah, that is something to see,” Regina agreed. “But do not forget the train if you have the time. It is well worth the money which is spent. You are only here maybe once in a lifetime. Correct?”
“I hope to come back again,” Nancy said. “But you may be right. I’ll see how much time we have. But the cable car and Gimmelwald come first, after we’ve settled our bill, of course. The lunch was very good, and so was the tour of the barn. Thank you.”
“I am glad you enjoyed it.” Regina collected their money, and when the girls were ready to leave, she walked them to the door.
An hour of driving brought them to their first full view of the Alps. Katie gasped along with the others, her eyes glued to the car window.
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