“But if you could watch a movie on that phone,” Jeremiah continued, gazing at Stevie, “I’m thinking Adeline and Alice have gotten ahold of a fancier phone than I agreed to let them have—which means I’ll be speaking with them soon about overstepping their boundaries.”
The more Leah heard, the more concerned she grew. How would Alice and Adeline pay the monthly charges for a cell phone? Or had Jude agreed to pay the fee—without realizing he was now paying for an English phone? “I’ll be on my way,” she said, rising from her chair. “Denki for your help and ideas, Jeremiah.”
As he nodded, Leah could almost see the thoughts turning like the cogs of a clock in his mind. “I’ll be out and about, as well,” he said vaguely. “We’ll need to talk with the twins when we’re all together, so they’ll know we adults are in agreement about enforcing their boundaries. Godspeed as you look for them, Leah.”
Leah exited through the front room, feeling as relieved as Margaret probably did. She regretted that she’d not cultivated a closer relationship with her mother-in-law. It seemed apparent that Margaret disagreed with the way Leah was dealing with Jude’s girls, while she’d remained oblivious to their activities. As Leah mounted Mose and headed for town, she prayed for guidance and pondered what Stevie and Jeremiah had said about the twins’ phone.
Leah knew of several Amish teens who openly used cell phones when they gathered after church services. It was Alice and Adeline’s sneakiness that bothered her. If she—and Margaret—had been unaware of the girls’ phone, what other secrets might the twins be keeping? And if they had overstepped the bishop’s boundaries concerning phones, what other rules might they be breaking while they were on the loose, possibly with English boys?
When she reached the main street of Morning Star’s business district, she felt a moment of panic. Unlike her quiet hometown of Cedar Creek, the streets were lined with one English business after another, except for the Amish carriage shop and the bulk store and bakery operated by Mennonites. In most Amish settlements, folks operated their businesses on their own property, so shops were scattered along country roads rather than being part of an organized business district.
Leah wondered how she was ever going to visit every business in Morning Star this afternoon. I could use a little help, Lord. Where would Alice and Adeline be spending so much time?
“Let’s go this way, Mose,” she said after a moment. “We’ll start on this side of the road and then come back on the other side, until we spot them. It’s the only thing I know to do.”
The gelding whickered, shaking his head as he kept to the shoulder of the busy street. Leah could feel the drivers of the cars gazing at her as though she was an oddity, riding on horseback rather than in a rig, as the other Plain folks did. Riding Mose gave her more flexibility, however—she could pass between the buildings to the parking lots behind them more easily than if she was driving a rig. As she studied the vehicles near the Laundromat, the post office, and the Goodwill store, she saw very few buggies—and why would the twins spend hours of their day at any of these places, anyway? She passed a car dealership and a hospital, which were near the end of the business district, where Main Street became the road that ran through the countryside. Should she turn back toward town?
For all I know, the girls are in a car somewhere, joyriding with boys. And maybe I’ve been foolish to assume they would come home for clothes, Leah thought with a sigh. She knew Jude wouldn’t consider it her fault if his daughters were gallivanting around—probably to spite him—yet she felt responsible for their well-being.
A white, single-story Mennonite church sat just ahead of her. The only building between the church and a long stretch of cornfield and countryside was a pool hall. Leah shook her head, ready to cross the road and head back toward town, except a twitch at the back of her neck persuaded her to walk Mose closer to the pool hall. Neon beer signs covered its windows and several cars and pickups were parked out front. As she walked her horse around to the back of the building, past a couple of overflowing Dumpsters, she suddenly sat up straight.
A lone buggy was parked near a big self-service ice machine.
When Mose whickered and walked faster, the rig’s horse perked up its ears. Leah scowled. Please don’t tell me you girls have left Minnie hitched out here all day without any water.
The Tinker Bell sticker on the buggy made Leah nip her lip. Why on earth would Adeline and Alice come to a place where people spent their time playing pool? She wasn’t all that familiar with the game, but she suspected that anyone who’d be shooting pool and drinking beer this early in the afternoon didn’t have anything more constructive to do—and probably didn’t have a regular job. Dat hadn’t been a judgmental man, but he’d always given Leah the idea that men who frequented pool halls were shiftless and at loose ends.
You have to go inside, Leah told herself as she heard the throb of music coming from the small building. You have to find out if the girls are in there, even if you’re the last person they want to see.
As she wrapped Mose’s reins around the same post where Minnie was hitched, she wondered what she would say and do once Alice and Adeline spotted her. What if they ran off? What if they laughed at her—
Folks have snickered at you behind your back for most of your life, Leah told herself with a sigh. At least you’re not intimidated about entering an establishment that’s mostly for men, after all the time you’ve
