Courting Buggy: Nurse Hal Among The Amish (23 page)

“
Obviously, the boy didn't pay any mind
to what you said,” the sheriff replied.

“
Matthew did lay the rifle back in his
buggy while Noah was watching him,” Daniel said. “We saw him do it.
He must have picked it back up after we left.”

“
I see,” the sheriff said. “You boys
have been a big help. From now on if you're out at night with other
boys training your dogs, you remind them about what happened to
Matthew Stoll. I don't want to hear about any guns. I sure don't
want to have another shooting accident to investigate. Looks like
Matthew is going to pull through. The next time this happens the
boy who shoots himself or someone else may not come out of the
accident alive. When Matthew is up to talking to me, I'm going to
tell him the same thing I just told you.”

“
Jah, Sheriff,” Noah said.

“
You have anything else to add, Daniel,
or is what Noah said all you know about this incident?” The sheriff
asked.

“
Noah told it all,” Daniel said,
studying his bare feet.

“
All right, just try to be very careful
from now on and do the safe thing,” the sheriff
stressed.

“
Jah, I agree,” John said, coming
forward. “We have an old saying. You can not help it if a bird
flies down and sits on your head, but you can help it if a bird is
making a nest on your head.”

The sheriff thought about that a second. He
grinned. “I believe you have something there, John Lapp. Oh, your
father-in-law keeping better track of his courting buggy these
days?”

John grinned. “Jah, he found out what the
problem was. The horse knows how to untie a slip knot and take off
on his own.”

“
Well, isn't that something?” The
sheriff chuckled. “You men have a good afternoon. I got to get back
to the office and write out that report.”

The women cooked for the school fund raiser
all afternoon. They prepared potato salad, a large bowl of canned
peas, and three white cakes.

Nora sat down at the table with a cup of hot
tea. “This reminds me of when I was about Emma's age. What fun the
box socials were when we had fund raisers for our country school.
Weren't they, Tootie?”

“
Yes, especially when we had a beau we
were struck on.” Tootie giggled as she sat down across from
Nora.

“
A beau?” Emma asked, pouring a cup of
tea for Hal and herself.

Hal said, “That was a boyfriend in their
day.”

“
I see. What were those socials like?”
Emma asked, sitting down beside Hal.

“
Oh, you probably wouldn't care about
our stories,” Nora said.

“
Jah, we both would,” Hal urged. “So
tell us.”

“
Those box suppers were events of great
importance in our teenage years. There wasn't many events to take a
girl to for a date,” Tootie said, her eyes sparkling. “The mothers
and daughters prepared lunches in boxes decorated with ribbons and
bows.

We filled the boxes with the most delicious
foods our mother could cook for us. In those days, it was chicken,
duck, goose, venison, beef, pork quail or rabbit. There would be
salads, canned, pickled and preserved foods, vegetables of all
kinds, homemade bread slices with jellies, pieces of pies and cakes
arranged in the boxes to catch the eye and stomach of our beaus.
Isn't that so, Sister?”

Nora said in a far away voice, “It is. The
box socials took place at the schoolhouse usually on a night in
early fall. A fire roared in the cast-iron potbellied stove to warm
the place up.

We didn't have electricity in those days.
Kerosene lamps set on shelves high around the room. One on the
teacher's desk by the stacked boxes, waiting for the auctioneer to
sell them to the highest bidder.”

“
Having a date was so romantic,” Tootie
said dreamily.

Hal winked at Emma, and she responded with a
bashful smile.

Nora said, “A great to do had been going on
with each boy who was sparking. That's what we called it when we
dated a boy. I believe English teens call it going steady these
days.

Each girl's beau was trying to get her to
talk about her box. He hoped to get her to make a slip so he'd find
out how she decorated her box. That would help him recognize
it.”

Tootie butted in. “He wanted to bid the
highest on her box, to the exclusion of all others for the sweet
privilege of sitting and eating with the girl of his choice.”

“
Were the boys supposed to do that,
Aendi Tootie?” Emma asked.

“
No, they were supposed to bid on a box
and eat with whom ever the box belonged to,” Tootie
said.

“
That was cheating then,” Emma
stated.

“
The girls didn't want to sit with
someone they hadn't been dating,” Tootie enlighten her. “Now with
the older women, married and old maids, it didn't matter who picked
their boxes. They were usually happy with ever which man they got,
young or old. The money was going for a good cause, and it was just
an evening to socialize for them.”

Nora said, “I remember some amusing and some
embarrassing situations. Some girls had younger brothers and
sisters that passed out the wrong description about their older
sister's box to her boyfriend. That would caused him to bid
sky-high on a box that didn't belong to his best girl. Remember the
time, Tootie, when Ima Jean Sandersfield's beau, Steven Heckter,
got the wrong information.”

“
Remember it? We laughed about that for
days.” Tootie giggled at the thought. “I'll never forget the look
on that boy's face. Steven got stuck with plain jane Hector Cozy.
She was delighted since she rarely had a date, and he was real cute
in those days.”

“
I remember that happening to you once,
too,” Nora said with a mischievous smile.

Tootie frowned. “You can forget that story
right now.”

“
Nah, she can't,” Hal said. “Mom, what
happened?”

“
Tootie thought she was going to be
eating supper with the best looking boy in the room, Art Klinefeld.
I was there with Jim. For a joke, Jim told Art which box he saw
Tootie carry in. Turned out to be the old maid school teacher's
box.

When Tootie's box come up for auction, Oscar
Donner bid until he got it. The old man had lots of money and liked
to help out the school fund. He didn't care whose box he bid on.
Tootie wasn't a bit happy to have to eat supper with that old man.
Ruined her whole evening.”

“
Well, who wouldn't be upset at my age.
He was about eighty years old. That old potbellied grandpa man
wasn't nearly as much fun as Art, and here I was stuck with him
until he finished eating,” Tootie groused. “I thought he was never
going to get to the bottom of the box so I could get away from him.
He acted like he was eating slow just to aggravate me. All I could
think about was hunting up my beau, before some other girl stole
him.”

“
You worried for nothing. The spinster
school teacher wasn't any competition for you,” Nora
said.

Tootie sniffed. “She sure wasn't. That was
the only good thing about that evening. The other girls had a hay
day out of me being stuck with that old man. I didn't speak to Jim
for months, because he pulled that prank on me and ruined my
evening.”

Nora said, “Sometimes, we young folks had a
hilarious time watching as a couple, very much in love, would be
separated, because of the boy bidding on the wrong box. Another boy
spent the high point of his evening with that boy's girlfriend. Oh
my, the looks that crossed from one young person to another were
hot as the fire in the stove.”

Tootie giggled. “Boys were so busy watching
to see how close their girl sit to the other boy they couldn't even
enjoy their supper. Some girls completely ignored the boy they were
with while they worried their boyfriend bid on another pretty
girl's box lunch on purpose.”

“
Business was lucrative for the smaller
boys and girls with sisters and brothers older than them,” Nora
said. “They were able to pick up a little cash by telling their
older sister's boyfriend exactly how her box was decorated. He was
glad to pay to be able to bid and buy her lunch.

Same with the ones who misinformed the boys
about the boxes. The tricksters took their money and hid out for a
few days until everyone cooled off. That included your father,
Hallie.”

“
Remember how husbands attempted to buy
their wives' lunches?” Tootie grinned as she went on, “Remember
when some bullheaded husband bid higher and higher, finally to be
awarded a box that wasn't his wife's but one belonging to a woman
who wasn't even a friend of his wife.

Worse of all was when it was an old gossip or
trouble maker, like Stella Strutt, that the wife couldn't stand.
The hour the husband spent with that woman provided great amusement
and glee to the rest that knew about the ill feelings between the
two women. The poor husband knew he was going to be in the dog
house when he got home even if he couldn't help what happened.”

“
It was a great time to visit, swap
news, gossip and gather information since most of us didn't
socialize much except to go to church and school,” Nora said.
“Especially for our folks.”

“
Our visiting at the fund raiser
gathering is the same, but this fund raiser will be different from
yours. We all bring food and eat together in fellowship. Free will
donations will be placed in a box on the end of the food table,”
Emma explained.

Chapter 16

That evening, almost all of the Plain people
in the community filed into the school. The women placed their
casseroles, salads, meats, bread and other dishes along side
desserts on the cloth covered planks at the front of the room.
Styrofoam plates, glasses and cups were stacked beside plastic
silverware. The large thermos jugs of tea, juice and coffee were
lined up after the box at the end of the table for the free will
donations.

Bishop Bontrager said a prayer of thanks for
the delicious food and the cooks that prepared it. He praised God
for sending such a good turn out to help fund the school house
needs for their children.

The line formed in the manner as Sunday
meeting dinners. The men first, the teenage boys, the women with
and without small children and the girls.

Peter Rogies sat in the back of the room with
the old men, watching and listening to the hubbub around him. His
confused face showed he couldn't make heads or tails out of all the
talking. So many different voices mingled together that the words
blended into sentences that didn't make sense.

A man who seemed to know him approached and
shook his hand. “That food sure looks gute. Better get in line with
me, Peter.”

Peter studied the man's face. “Do you know
me?”

The man took it as a joke. He laughed. “Now
how many years has it been that we have lived on neighboring farms,
Peter Rogies?”

“
Many years,” Peter managed. He hoped
he said the right thing. He must have, because the man left him to
get in line. All the other men on his bench left him by
himself.

Peter studied the women, looking for a
familiar face. Some were serving men from behind the table, and
others were bustling around, tending to their young children and
talking to other women. He searched for Sara among them. He didn't
see her. Perhaps, she stepped outside to go to the outhouse or for
a breath of fresh air. He should go find her and tell her it was
time to eat.

Peter was uncertain which way to go. He
looked up and down the aisle and noticed the open door. The cool
night air drifted his way. He peered out the door into the
darkness. Sara was out there somewhere. He'd find her and tell her
-- tell her … . His mind went blank. He wasn't sure what he meant
to say to his wife, but he had to find her. He slipped away without
notice and wandered around the school yard.

“
Sara, Sara,” he called toward the
shade trees and the outhouse. He heard horses stomping and
snorting, disturbed by his voice. A whinny answered him once.
Perhaps that was a horse named Sara.

Tootie came outside. As bad as she hated to
be in the dark, she had to go to the bathroom. She heard Peter call
his wife's name. She followed his voice and found him in the grove
of trees behind the horse barn. “What are you doing out here?”

He asked, “Dolly, that you?”

“
Yes, you should be inside eating your
supper,” Tootie scolded gently.

“
Why are you out here?” Peter
asked.

“
I have to go to the outhouse,” Tootie
said bluntly.

“
Will you do me a favor and look inside
to see if Sara is in there? She is out here wondering around,”
Peter said.

“
All right, I'll look.” Tootie opened
the door and felt her way inside the black space, shut the door and
managed to find the bench hole. When she came back out, Peter was
pacing in front of the door. “Sara, isn't in there.”

“
Sara,” Peter called. When he stood
still and listened, he didn't hear a reply. All that reached his
ears were the tree frogs harmonious song, chatter from the school
and the gentle breeze moaning through the tree limbs. He grew
anxious. “Sara is lost. Dolly, I have to find her quickly. Sara
must be so scared. She doesn't like the dark.”

In the distance, screaming yips stopped
Tootie. She grabbed Peter's arm. “What was that?”

Peter listened. “Coyotes on the run.”