“That’s just the right name for her.” Mervin sidled up beside me and stroked the puppy. I noticed he was wearing clean pants and a tan shirt that was buttoned up neatly. His expression was much brighter than the last time I saw him that night in the barn.
“Are you going somewhere?” I asked him.
He shrugged in a shy, yet exited way. “I get to visit Verna this weekend.” He nodded towards Jerimiah and Seth. “Mother and I are sharing a ride with them on their way back to Lancaster. They’re going to drop us off at the settlement in Ohio where she lives on their way through.”
“Esther Lapp, Lester’s wife, is my cousin. It worked out well to combine our trips,” Jerimiah informed me.
All the Amish were related in some form or fashion, to the point of confusion, but seeing Mervin’s smiling face made me realize how important the sense of community really was to the Plain people. Their connections to each other were what made them strong.
“Say hello to Verna for me,” I said.
“I will.”
“Our bishop said to tell you to consider looking for a sheriff’s job in Lancaster. We need someone like you on our side,” Jerimiah said.
The expression on his face was solemn. He was serious.
“Sorry, Jerimiah. You’ll have to tell Matthew that we’ll be keeping our sheriff here in Blood Rock,” Bishop Esch spoke up in a firm voice.
I never thought I’d hear such a strong endorsement from the Amish leader. I raised my gaze to him.
“I understand you’re traveling to Lancaster to finish up business there.” I nodded and he continued, “I’ll pray you have some boring days when you get back.”
I glanced at Todd and then Daniel, thinking about the University’s impending investigation of an Indian massacre that happened over two hundred years earlier and of the mystery surrounding the death of Joshua Miller’s wife, and how it might affect my friend CJ.
I highly doubted the days to come would be boring.
Hope licked my chin with her rough little tongue and everyone laughed. Daniel put his arm around me and squeezed.
Tranquility was overrated. If I didn’t have a mystery to solve, I’d go crazy. So I’d take one day at a time and see what the future held for me.
It wouldn’t be easy, but maybe the Amish were onto something—and all I needed was a little faith.
Karen Ann Hopkins, Hidden in Plain Sight
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