An Amish Family Reunion Read online

  Phoebe shuddered, trying to banish the morbid mental image. She gazed out the right-hand windows to view a cityscape of tall modern skyscrapers and many old-fashioned churches. “Buffalo,” the bus driver announced jarringly. “Birthplace of buffalo wings, home of the Buffalo Zoo, the famous Buffalo Bills, and the minor league Bisons.”

  Not quite famous enough for a Plain artist from Holmes County to have heard of. But no matter. Viewed from the freeway, Phoebe thought the city looked exciting and somehow hospitable. As their route followed the river that connected Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the driver shared interesting tidbits about the Peace Bridge to Canada, Grand Island, and finally the Niagara Falls region. “Look there,” he said. “Do you see those tall, odd-shaped buildings sprouting in the distance?” Many rushed to the left side of the bus to get a good look. “They are in Canada, our friendly neighbor to the north.”

  Phoebe practically suffered whiplash trying not to miss a single landmark. Soon the bus exited the freeway and rattled down a side street, narrowed by parked cars on both sides. They pulled under the two-story canopy of their designated hotel.

  “We’re here,” the driver called. The bus stopped so fast, Phoebe banged her nose on the seat in front of her.

  Mrs. Stoltzfus exited the bus but then returned within five minutes with a middle-aged Englischer. She positioned herself up front with her clipboard, a bundle of white envelopes, and her I-mean-business expression. “This is our tour operator, Mr. Barnett. I will call out names in groups of four. When you hear your name, come forward and take your envelope from Mr. Barnett. Make sure your name is written on the envelope. Then exit the bus and go find your suitcase. Written under your name is your room number. Inside you’ll find a key card to get into your room and a tourist bracelet. You can work out later who bunks with whom. Put those bracelets on your wrists snuggly. The bracelet will allow entry into each attraction one time. If you lose it, you’ll be reading magazines in your room for the next two days.” She paused here and narrowed her eyes. “Now listen up. Find your bag, go up to your room, leave your bag there, and then hurry back down to the bus. We have no time to unpack or lollygag. If you come down here late and the bus is gone, head back to your room… and read a magazine.” She scanned the tour group, making eye contact with suspected lollygaggers. “The rest of us will be on the Maid of the Mist!” She beamed then, her smile accentuating her round apple cheeks. The bus broke into thunderous applause and plentiful hoots until Mrs. Stoltzfus lifted her hand like a crossing guard.

  Phoebe glanced out the window. The luggage had already been set on the sidewalk in neat rows for quick retrieval. This tour operator knows his business. Everyone started chatting as the first group of names was called. When she heard “Ava and Rebekah Glick, Phoebe Miller, and Mary Mast,” Rebekah slapped the back of Phoebe’s head as though she’d been sound asleep.

  “That’s us!”

  Phoebe’s stomach somersaulted despite having consumed a ham sandwich, chips, and an apple for lunch, along with two full packs of Nabs. She took her envelope, followed the Glick sisters off the bus, grabbed her suitcase, and then followed them inside the hotel lobby with wide-eyed wonder. Marble floors, chandeliers, fancy area rugs, leather couches grouped for easy conversations—just as daed had predicted—fit for a queen. Mary Mast, a small, thin Geauga County girl, looked equally intimidated, while Rebekah and Ava marched through the lobby as though perfectly at home.

  “This way,” said Rebekah. “Step lively. You heard what Mrs. S. said.” Once they had reached the elevator and stepped inside, she pushed the button for the twelfth floor.

  “How do you know which floor we’re on?” asked Phoebe, inspecting the outside of the envelope. Nowhere did it indicate that information.

  “Oh, Phoeb, really.” Rebekah rolled her eyes. “It’s room twelve-oh-six.”

  Phoebe was amazed. If her cousin Henry did marry this girl, he would never have to think another thought again. His wife would take care of figuring everything out.

  Once they had reached their floor, the doors elegantly swished open and they exited the elevator like a row of little ducklings. A sign on the wall indicated their room was down the hall to the right. When they got to the door, Ava inserted her keycard in a slot until a little light turned green and then pushed down the handle to open the door. Inside the room they found two queen-sized beds, a huge TV, a sofa, an easy chair with a reading lamp, a vanity area separate from the bathroom, and a bank of windows on the far wall. Even Rebekah’s mouth dropped open in shock. Ava threw herself down on one bed, acting as though making angels in fresh snow. Rebekah inspected the tiny bottles of soaps and lotions on the mirrored tray. Mary headed into the large bathroom and locked the door behind her. Doors never had locks in Amish homes. And Phoebe? She ran to the window to gaze down on the river that had captured her imagination.

  After a few minutes, Mary joined her at the expanse of glass. “Wow,” she enthused, with a grin.

  “You’re not kidding. Wow,” agreed Phoebe. The two stared down on the rapids of the Niagara River. No longer placid and benign with boating vacationers, this water roiled and tumbled between sharp-cut banks with fierce intensity. Waves broke against boulders in the riverbed, sending plumes of spray high into the air. One couldn’t fail to realize the river would soon reach the drop-off point.

  Phoebe was mesmerized. If the entire trip entailed watching the view from this spot and nothing else, she wouldn’t be disappointed. “You’ve been to waterfalls, Phoebe. This won’t be any different than the ones you’ve already seen—only taller.” She couldn’t help laughing at the memory.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I just remembered something my daed said.” Phoebe faced her new roommate. “Ready to board the Maid of the Mist for the boat ride of a lifetime?”

  “Sure.” Mary agreed, but she looked petrified. “Mind if I hang onto you sometimes? I don’t know how to swim.” She whispered the words as though keeping a secret from the Glick sisters.

  “Hang on all you want,” said Phoebe, while thinking, Good swimmer or not—if you fall overboard, you’re a goner.

  The four girls rode the elevator down to the lobby with their tour bracelets firmly attached. All had changed into sneakers for easy walking and clutched city maps of Niagara Falls, New York. Phoebe also had her drawing tablet tucked under one arm.

  Rebekah noticed it as they boarded the bus. “You can’t take that along today! It’ll get wet on the boat. Didn’t you read about the spray of mist?”

  Tiny, red-haired Mary intervened. “We’ll be wearing raincoats. Phoebe’s tablet can stay under that.” Mary held out the picture of blue-clad people for verification.

  Rebekah rolled her eyes. “Fine, but don’t say you weren’t warned if it gets soaked.”

  On the bus Phoebe and Mary sat together for the short drive to the park entrance. She almost forgot to look for Eli Riehl—almost, but not quite. She spotted his hatless head of blond hair halfway back, noticing that most of the young men had left their hats in their rooms along with their vests. And a few had even pulled their shirts loose from their trousers. And what about Mrs. Stoltzfus? Instead of correcting their wardrobe lapses to comply with the Amish Ordnung, she was devouring a caramel apple.

  When the bus arrived at the arched walkway into the state park, Mrs. Stoltzfus walked up the aisle to dispense last-minute instructions. “We’ll follow the trail through the gardens and enter the visitor center. Take the steps to the bottom level and go out the back door, and then you’ll go through more gardens to the observation deck. We’ll take the elevator down one hundred seventy-five feet to the river, where we will get on the Maid of the Mist.” She peered around over her spectacles. “I want you to stay together until we’re all on board. Afterward, you’re on your own. You can watch the movie in the visitor center, walk the trails upriver, or board the trolley to either the aquarium or Goat Island to see Horseshoe Falls and Cave of the Winds. You have maps showing where eve
rything is. If you lose your map, there are more available at each attraction. If you lose your bracelet, I think you know what you’ll be doing. And don’t forget the name of the hotel we’re staying at.”

  Phoebe shivered, pressing her bracelet into her skin. This chaperone didn’t act anywhere near this scary in Holmes County.

  Mrs. Stoltzfus smiled now at the sea of faces, mostly eager and a few terrified. “Just meet here under this arch by six o’clock to catch the bus back to our hotel for dinner.” She punctuated the word here with a stomp of her left foot. “That’ll give you more than four hours to sightsee. But don’t worry. We still have all day tomorrow to catch anything you miss today. Okay, let’s go!” Without waiting for possible questions, Mrs. S. went down the bus steps.

  Phoebe and Mary exchanged a laugh and quickly fell in stride with the others. As they wound their way to the boat dock, the crowd made it difficult for the group to stay together. Fortunately, their Plain clothing made it easy to find one another. Phoebe didn’t know where to gaze first—the Niagara River, the flower gardens and interpretive displays, or the tourists from all over the world. Because everyone dressed in their own native costumes and talked in foreign tongues, no one looked twice at an Amish group chattering in Pennsylvania Deutsch. As Phoebe followed the person in front of her, sheeplike, her head swung from left to right like a pendulum.

  Nothing, however, compared to the excitement of the boat trip. After boarding, Phoebe and Mary ran for spots toward the front. Covered from head-to-toe in plastic, they clung to the rail as the boat pulled away from the dock and motored through the waves. A voice over a loudspeaker announced they were approaching the American Falls. Phoebe smiled so much her face began to hurt. On both sides of the American Falls, myriad seagulls roosted on the rocks or on narrow ledges of the precipice.

  “I’m here to make sure you girls don’t go for a swim,” shouted a voice over the roar of water. Eli wriggled in between them insistently and wrapped an arm around both sets of shoulders.

  “Who are you?” asked Mary, trying unsuccessfully to shield her face from the spray.

  “Eli Riehl, a friend of Phoebe’s.”

  He seemed unconcerned that his head was already soaking wet. Although he wore a raincoat, his hood flapped down his back. The droplets of water on his suntanned cheeks made him look only more handsome, while Phoebe feared she’d assumed the appearance of a drowned rat. A friend of Phoebe’s? That was a bit of an overstatement, but somehow having him close made her feel secure.

  “My name is Mary, and I can’t swim.”

  “With me here that won’t be a problem.” He smiled at her before turning his attention to Phoebe. “What do you think of the cruise so far?”

  They were almost at the farthest reach of their voyage—the base of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Phoebe turned her face up to his, catching the spray and hearing the roar of three thousand tons of water falling every second. The stalwart Maid of the Mist pitched in the roll of waves, throwing Phoebe against Eli’s chest. “I love it, Eli! I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life!” she shouted over the din as excitement swelled her heart to near bursting. The crowd behind them jostled up to get a better view.

  “My sentiments exactly,” he agreed but waited two seconds before focusing on the mountain of cascading water. For several minutes the ship’s captain fought the strong current to remain where they were in the watery vortex. “Look there,” demanded Eli close to her ear.

  Her gaze followed his index finger to a rainbow, tall as a skyscraper, appearing in the mist as though heaven itself had opened a portal. “Oh, my. This keeps getting better and better.” Phoebe didn’t care that cold water ran down her chin and dripped inside the coat. It didn’t matter that her shoes and socks were wet, or that her scalp itched from her soggy kapp. She had never enjoyed herself this much before.

  Unfortunately, the boat eventually gunned the engines to begin the voyage back to the dock. Once conversation became possible again, Eli entertained Phoebe and Mary with trivia he’d memorized from a tourist magazine on the ride from Ohio.

  Mary stared at him with wide-eyed wonder.

  Phoebe found herself doing the same exact thing.

  “Did you know that four of the five Great Lakes drain into the Niagara River?” he asked. “And that these lakes make up a fifth of the fresh water in the world?” Both girls shook their heads solemnly. “That’s a lot of drinking water. Folks visiting here from desert countries must stand in awe.”

  “That’s what I was doing at Horseshoe Falls,” said Phoebe. “And I come from Ohio—a state with plenty of fresh water.”

  Mary peppered Eli with questions, which he seemed delighted to answer, while Phoebe stared at the power of nature with reverence. Only an awesome God could create something like this. But all too soon the thirty-minute boat trip was over. She would gladly have gone again if the line hadn’t become twice as long.

  “Whew, that was like wearing a big trash bag,” Eli said, pulling his poncho over his head. He helped both girls remove their protective coverings and stuffed them all in the recycle bin. “Where to now, ladies?” he asked, looking at Phoebe.

  “Let’s walk out onto the observation deck,” answered Mary, taking Phoebe’s hand. “It’ll be the closest we’ll get to Canada during the vacation.”

  Phoebe complied, secretly rejoicing when Eli followed them into the elevator up to the street level. But once they ventured onto the extended platform, one hundred seventy-five feet above the river, she regretted her decision. They stood with nothing but air and water beneath their feet. Peering over the rail at Canada on the opposite cliff made her dizzy. She didn’t even need to look down.

  “Easy, Phoebe. Don’t go fainting on me, not after the price we paid for this trip.”

  “I’ve had enough of this attraction,” she mumbled weakly. “Apparently, I don’t like heights. Who knew that living in Holmes County?”

  “Hang onto me and close your eyes.” Eli took her arm and practically carried her off the observation deck.

  “You two go ahead. I’ll catch up later,” called Mary. “I want a turn with those telescoping viewers.” She scampered away, unaffected by the strong breeze or the crowd jostling from all sides.

  “That worked out well,” he murmured, leading Phoebe back onto solid ground.

  Instead of asking what he’d meant by that, she concentrated on not throwing up and ruining her afternoon. She trailed Eli, breathing deeply through her mouth. He led her to a shady grove of tall trees, where people sat resting on blankets or enjoying picnic lunches. Without asking first, he bought them each a giant soft pretzel from a passing cart. She devoured hers to settle her stomach.

  “Are you up for a trolley ride over to Goat Island?” he asked as they sat on a park bench finishing their pretzels. “I’d love to see the view from Terrapin Point.” Eli unfolded his park map to point out their destination.

  Phoebe leaned over his arm to study the island. Indeed, Terrapin Point would be the best place to view Horseshoe Falls. “I’m ready. Let’s go.” Fortified from the snack, she jumped to her feet, refusing to be sick her first time away from home.

  “I know a great spot to board the trolley that is less crowded than in front of the visitor center.”

  She didn’t ask how he knew this, but his information proved to be correct. He took her hand and they ran up the walkway, through the botanical gardens, and along the trail toward the pedestrian bridge. He didn’t seem affected by her, but Eli’s touch had a profound impact on Phoebe. She’d never held hands with a man before—and she liked it.

  On the scenic trolley they learned from the driver they could get off and on as much as they liked during a twenty-four-hour period. After squeezing into a single seat, Phoebe clutched his arm as the trolley rattled across the bridge over the upper rapids. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this much water. I wonder what the early pioneers thought when they discovered this place.”

  �
�I hope they didn’t find out about the falls the hard way—in a canoe or a rowboat. Out for a nice afternoon paddle to see where it takes them and whoosh.” Eli lifted one eyebrow wryly.

  Phoebe shook her head to dispel the image. Once they exited the trolley, Phoebe and Eli ran down the hundred steps like young children to join a throng of international tourists lined up for photographs at Terrapin Point. Neither of them spoke. Both simply stared, breathing in the magic of a force beyond all but God’s comprehension.

  When other eager sightseers finally elbowed them from their premier positions, Eli and Phoebe chose the sidewalk leading upriver. They took turns reading aloud from the booklet describing other attractions. Phoebe placed a star by those they absolutely couldn’t miss. The farther they wandered away from the falls, the thinner the crowds became. “Where are we heading?” she asked, curious but not concerned.

  “Three Sisters Islands.” He folded back his map to show her. “How ’bout that idea? I would love to leave three of my five sisters there.”

  “It’s not too far away?”

  “Nah, half a mile ahead. Plus, there’s a trolley stop nearby to take us back.” He peered at her from under his sheaf of hair.

  She giggled. “Did you memorize everything on that map in the brochure?”

  “Actually, I did. I was so excited about this trip.”

  Something tightened around Phoebe’s heart. Here was a man unafraid to reveal himself. “Me too. I could hardly sleep at night. I was so nervous my dad would change his mind and forbid me from going.”

  “I’m glad he didn’t. You’re much more fun to hang with than the average tourist.” He winked shamelessly as they started down the narrow path to the first of three bridges to Three Sisters Islands. On the third and largest of the tiny islands, they discovered a sun-baked boulder—a perfect spot to view the upper rapids.