Amish Country Arson Page 17

  As Jane poured them each a cup of coffee, Elton asked John if Sunday's sermon had rendered gute results. John grinned and nodded. He told Elton that Noah came forward on his own and confessed. He found the radio was missing from the rafter, and his guilty conscious had him thinking the sermon was meant just for him. Some of the boys in rumspringa persuaded Noah to buy the radio. Once he hid it on the rafter, he'd been too busy to listen to it so he came to the conclusion he really didn't need it anyway.

  Elton told John he was glad the sermon had been so successful. He just wished the boys in other households were as easy to convince as Noah was.

  Chapter 15

  One buggy after the other lined up on the way to a benefit frolic fund raiser. Money was needed to replace what was used for a list of recent debts such as for the Stolfus barn raising, the future schoolhouse raising, plus Nurse Hal and Gladys Bruner's hospital stay. What money was left over would be stay in the fund for later emergencies.

  Levi Yoder furnished his hay field for the event. Buggies and car parking was in the pasture across the road.

  In early October, Luke placed a sign along side the road in front of his farm indicating a Benefit Frolic would be held. More signs, with the date and address of the benefit, were placed on the edge of the four pavements going into Wickenburg.

  This was quite an undertaking for the Amish community. Second only to the Stolfus barn raising. Everyone donated something whether it be an item for the auction, food or apples for the bobbing game. The committee made out a work list for each of the events. When the volunteers weren't working, they could enjoy the frolic.

  On Saturday, everything was in place for the benefit. Plain people arrived early to work. Amish men directed the traffic into the pasture driveway and to the spot in line to park.

  Some visitors hadn't heard about the benefit, but as they drove by, they were curious about the tent and booths. They wondered what such a large gathering of Amish were up to so they stopped.

  A minor traffic jam developed on the road as people arrived. Visitors climbed out of their cars, and walked across the road. Hundreds stood in line waiting their turn to go through the hay field gate hole. The fee was five dollars for the day for adults and two dollars for children fourteen and over. Admission included meals and games for all ages.

  Ben trotted down the road early that morning, pulling the Lapp family buggy. John and Hal were eager to get to the frolic to help. Noah and Daniel looked forward to a day of fun with their friends. Redbird and Beth were too young to understand what all the excitement was about, but they would enjoy playing with children their age.

  A red sport car, containing a thoughtless driver, raced past the Lapp buggy and others in the parade headed for the Yoder farm. The young blond man laid his hand on the horn, warning the Plain people to stay out of his way. Luckily, the well behaved horses were used to cars and just kept trotting as the dust fogged the air.

  Once inside the gate, English and Amish milled around wondering where they should start. It was suddenly clear why the Amish were so committed to their faith. Where else could you find a community that would put together such a work intensive benefit to help others pay their expenses?

  Several days before the event, Amish gathered to ready the hay field. They put up a large blue and white tent for resting and eating meals in. Benches, normally for the worship services in the home, would be put together in the tent as tables and seats. Places for the many visitors sit and eat lunch and later for the auction crowd. The dish chests were stacked in one corner of the tent.

  Sawhorses with boards across them lined both sides the tent. These were laden with various items. At one end of a plank were delicious Eve Weber's homemade pretzels. On the other end was Roseanna Nicely's doughnuts mound on platters.

  For lunch, the planks on the other side the tent held the buffet. The smell of barbecue chicken filled the air. Ham and cheese sandwiches piled high beside stainless steel pans of baked beans and potato salad. For dessert, several cakes were on the end.

  Eve Weber, the tall, thin one of the Weber sisters, was in charge of the food. She liked to talk and kept up a running conversation with the diners, making strangers feel welcome.

  At lunch time, people, ready to rest, put food on their paper plates, filled a Styrofoam cup with tea or coffee and sit down to eat. While the diners ate, teenagers sang hymns for them. The teenagers divided in to singing groups of six to sing for thirty minutes. They had plenty of practiced singing every Sunday night and enjoyed entertaining the lunch crowd. Noah and Daniel were with the first group.

  As soon as the Lapp brothers finished singing, they headed for the wiener roast. Just before noon, the bond fire was lit. Children interested in the hot dog and marshmallow roast could partake of that instead of the food tent. Sticks to spear the hot dogs were piled by a cooler full of hot dogs. A cardboard box was filled with sacks of large marshmallows. Coolers of grape Kool Aide and cups to hold the drinks were stacked on a folding table.

  In the close cut clover, enough bases for two softball diamonds were marked with a small square of lime. The two winning teams would play in the play off game. Two nets were put up for a volleyball tournament. The teams might be a mixture of Amish and English or a team of each. One area was horseshoe games for the men. The log sawing contest gathered a crowd to watch three different cross saws inch through large logs. For the elder males in the crowd, checker boards had been set up on folding tables.

  All day long, younger children bobbed for apples. Red delicious apples floated in six tubs. It was quite a challenge for the participants to sink their teeth into an apple that dived under water at the slightest touch.

  Taffy pulls were another part of the fun. Roseanna Nisely place a cast iron kettle over a small fire. She had the molasses taffy syrup boiled to its hard ball stage and spread on cookie sheets on a folding table just as the first children reached her. She handed each pair of pullers a piece of the cooled taffy the size of a softball and told them to see who could get their taffy ready first. When the taffy color changed to a golden brown, it was too hard to pull.

  The children laid the taffy on a sheet for Roseanna to cut in pieces. The children ate what they wanted and moved on. Baking sheets of taffy pieces were left for grownups and other children who had been in another event.

  Small square pens in one area were a petting zoo, holding small animals like lambs, goats, calves, kittens, rabbits and puppies for the younger children. Emma offered to watch Redbird and Beth while Hal worked in the food tent. The first place she took the girls was to the petting zoo. The girls weren't as impressed by the baby animals as the English children were. They saw these animals every day at home, In a few moments, they were ready to move on.

  Next Emma took the girls to the pony rides in a small roped in arena. She put both girls on a small black and white paint pony's back and led the pony in a circle. The girls thought that was fun. The ponies were closer to the ground than the Lapp horses. Everyone was so busy at home no one took the time to help Redbird and Beth ride bareback. Emma made a mental note to tell Daed by the girls' birthday, a pony would be the ideal gift.

  On the second time around, a man said, “Looks like the girls are having fun.”

  Emma glanced at the young blond man with his arms cross on top of the fence posts for the rope corral. “Jah,” she answered and kept moving. She wondered where she had seen this man before.

  On the next circle around the corral, he was still there. She glanced over, and he smiled at her. It was then Emma remembered. The man drove a fancy red sports car to the benefit. He sped past all the buggies like he owned the road.

  “The girls your children?” He asked as his bright blue eyes inspected her.

  Emma's instincts told her this was not a man to get friendly with. “Nah.”

  She walked on. When she had the girls on the opposite of the corral from the man, she helped the girls down with the promise to go have taffy candy.

  A wash
tub was full of molasses. Beside the tub was a small table holding plates of biscuits. Anyone with a taste for molasses dipped pieces of biscuits and got sticky until they had eaten their fill. Boxes of wet ones on the table were to wipe the sticky molasses from hands and lips, before they moved on to the next event.

  If frolic goers hadn't eaten enough at lunch there was a help yourself dessert booth with a counter full of various pie and cake pieces on paper plates and stacks of paper cups to fill from cold tea, lemonade and coffee coolers.

  Bashful, heavy set Esther Weber was in charge of setting up the booth. Her sister, Eve Weber, left the clean up in the lunch tent to other women. She made it to the dessert booth in time to help Esther replace saucers in the empty spots on the counter. A diesel engine putt-putted turning an ice cream machine, making homemade ice cream to top off the desserts.

  Noah appeared in the food tent juggling two piece of apple pie topped with ice cream and two cups of tea. He searched the crowd, looking for Jenny Yoder. She had just finished her dish washing shift. He winked at her which made her blush as she came to meet him.

  “Want to share my apple pie and ice tea?” Noah asked.

  Jenny wiped her damp forehead with her apron. “That sounds gute. Doing dishes is hot work. There is not one bit of air in that corner of the tent.”

  “That big maple tree in your yard is a cool shady spot. Come on,” Noah said.

  After they sat down, Noah pulled the forks out of his shirt pocket and gave Jenny one. “We better eat fast. The ice cream is melting.”

  Jenny took a bite from her saucer and said, “This is gute. It hits the spot.”

  “I'm glad,” Noah said. “Jenny, I have something to tell you.” He grimaced, not wanting to say more.

  “All recht, what is it?”

  “I will not be able to take you to the next two singings,” he said.

  Jenny looked at Noah over her cup as she took a sip of tea. She propped the cup against her leg on the unleveled ground. “That is not a problem. I can get there on my own, but why?”

  “It is my punishment to stay home for buying a radio and hiding it from Daed. He found it, and now I am in trouble.”

  “I see. This surprises me. I might expect something like this from Daniel, but you are usually the one that makes wise decisions. What made you buy a radio?”

  Noah sighed. “Albert Jostle and some of the other boys were at the salebarn. Albert said he had a radio and he liked it. So I bought one. I hid it in the hay loft. Daed found it, and I am in trouble. In all the time I had that radio, I did not find a moment to go to the loft to listen to it.”

  Jenny frowned. “Ach, and what does that tell you about having an English convenience?”

  “I did not need it in the first place,” Noah answered, staring in his empty cup to avoid looking at her.

  Jenny leaned over and put her hand on Noah's arm. “That is recht. Be glad your father did not make your punishment worse than missing two singings. The time will go fast, and you come get me on the third Sunday.”

  In one booth, along the back, items for sale ranged from a pile of quilts, carved wooden knickknacks, canned jams and farm fresh eggs. Noah and Daniel donated part of their butternut and acorn squash and pie pumpkin harvest.

  English customers bought baked goods, dressed chickens, souvenirs and jams. Amish food had a reputation far and wide from Wickenburg, Iowa. English people were always hungry for baked goods and jams.

  Even the buggies the Amish arrived in received a great deal of attention from out-of-state visitors. They couldn't resist lining up for the buggy rides or peeking into some of the parked buggies to see what the insides looked like.

  After lunch, the grownups went to the auction in the food tent. Items for sale were jellies and jams, quilts, hand made wooden furniture, tools, birdhouses and other lawn ornaments. All the Amish donated at least one item. Some of the wooden pieces were made by Adam Keim.

  During the day, Luke Yoder talked to many of the visitors and thanked them for coming. He was asked more than once how the benefit came to be on his farm. He'd stroke his beard as he related that Bishop Bontrager and John Lapp asked him to host, because his pasture was an ideal location and large enough for the benefit frolic. His hay field across the road was handy for plenty of parking. “That's how I ended up getting involved. I owned the land convenient for the benefit frolic.”

  Luke Yoder, as a Amish ambassador of good will, was a more valuable help with more than just donating his the land for the day. He enjoyed wandering through the crowd, visiting with people, and making sure things went smoothly. He wanted everyone to enjoy themselves as much as he did.

  When people talked to Bishop Elton Bontrager, he said John Lapp and he picked a farm with the right location for the benefit, and God picked them a gute day. Everyone he mentioned the gute day to agreed with him. People from many different backgrounds and places mingled together. They had fun and supported a good cause, but most of them probably didn't even know what that cause was.

  At the fund raiser frolic were several generations in the same families, from grandparents to grandchildren, who had all come together to work to replenish the Amish emergency fund. As is the case with these kinds of frolics, whether Amish or not, there's a great deal of work, but also a lot of joy felt by all the Amish because of a job well done.

  Chapter 16

  The last visit Hal made to the hospital, Gladys looked close to death. She had been moved from ICU to a room on one of the wards while the doctor waited to see some improvement in her condition.

  While Hal was with Wanda, Sheriff Dawson came in. He removed his hat. “Mrs. Bruner, could I speak with you a moment about your sister?”

  “Why?” Wanda asked, her senses dulled from lack of sleep and worry.

  “I know this isn't a good time, but I haven't got a choice.” He took a closer look at Gladys and made the same assessment Hal did when she came in the room. “Did you know your sister set those three fires in the Amish community?”

  “Nah, that can not be so,” Wanda cried.

  The agony in her voice made Gladys squirm and flinch.

  The sheriff said quietly, “I know it must be hard to believe, but Dr. Christensen gave me a blood sample from the wound on your sister's leg. I got a sample from Jonah Stolfus's barbed wire fence where the arsonist caught a leg on the barbs. I had the lab compare the samples. They match.

  Each of fires were set with juice bottles filled with kerosene. I just came from your sister's house. Your husband let me in to look around. I found the juice bottles on the kitchen counter your sister saved. They match the fragments from the fire sights. There isn't any doubt in my mind that your sister is guilty,” Sheriff Dawson said. “From the length of time Dr. Christensen estimated she's had the wound his findings coincides with the barn burning. All the evidence points toward your sister as the arsonist.”

  “Ach, nah,” cried Wanda.

  Hal took her hand and squeezed it as the sheriff asked, “Any idea why she wanted to do something that terrible? You just moved here. Your sister didn't have a chance to get to know anyone well enough to want to cause them harm or do damage to their property.”

  Wanda looked dazed. “I cannot answer that. You are recht. She did not know anyone except for what I told her about people when I came back from Sunday worship services.”

  “Can you remember anything you told Gladys about the Stolfus family, Rudy Briskey or the schoolhouse?” Hal asked.

  “After one Sunday service, I told Gladys Freda Stolfus was one woman I met. I said she was nice. Later after I talked to Stella Strutt she told me the story about Jonah Stolfus shooting the young girl. I mentioned to Gladys what Stella told me Gladys said the man should not have been set free after committing murder.

  Another time, I talked about how generous the neighbors were to help Jonah Stolfus rebuild his barn. Enoch and I were looking forward to the barn raisin' frolic. Oh, my!” Wanda stared at her sleeping sister.

 
; “What is it, Wanda?” Hal asked.

  “I told Gladys that Rudy Briskey offered Jonah Stolfus a whole load of hay to put in the loft. That generous offer spurred others to donate hay, too. I remember Gladys got the most hateful look on her face.”

  “What do you suppose she had against the school?” Sheriff Dawson asked.

  Wanda thought a moment. “I told her Nurse Hal was the school teacher's step-mother.”

  Hal was surprised. “Why would that bother Gladys?”

  “Stella Strutt told me you had a cell phone and car like the Beachy Amish in Kansas. Stella said you were English, and you converted to Amish when you married John Lapp.

  I shared that with Gladys. She said you would always cause trouble and get the Plain people to change to Beachy Amish so you could use your phone and car. You were not of our kind since you were English through and through. Marrying John Lapp could not make you Amish. She told me to wait and see.

  I tried to explain your duties as a nurse were needed. Your family was well respected in the community. I am so sorry, Hal. I didn't realize my conversations with my sister would cause so much trouble. I was just trying to get her familiar with people in the community so when she was well enough to join us at the worship services she'd already know something about the congregation.”

  “Ma'am, one more thing you should know, I talked to the sheriff where you came from in Kansas. He told me in recent years there had been several fires set around the county. He didn't have a clue who did it, but the fires stopped right before you left Kansas. I can't say for sure, but I expect your sister was setting those fires. She unhappy with people where you lived?”

  “Jah, she was, because they were changing to Beachy Amish so they could live with modern conveniences like the English do. That is why we moved here. So we could be in an Old Order Amish community,” Wanda said. “What are you going to do to my sister?”