The sun glistened off a couple buggies parked right outside the windows. The empty pan bore some pizza crust left over from what had been a terrific late afternoon lunch. It was a Saturday, and my three Amish friends and I sat in one of the fabric-torn booths in the pizza shop. Right behind my friends’ buggies, out the old windows could be seen the roadway which passes closely by. Lots of traffic usually. Cars whiz by, certainly going faster than they should be. Oh, and the Amish. Howbeit, I wouldn't say they rip and roar. I would have to say that motorized vehicles are outnumbered by their unmotorized counterparts two to one. And sitting here in the pizza shop, I was the only English guy currently in the place. But there I sat, with my three Amish friends, oh, and the Amish girl Serra up front, the customer attendant, though no one else was here. Albeit, I don’t know who was in the back making the pizzas.

       What was this English guy doing resting comfortably at a booth with these three other Amish guys? It all started a couple years ago. I had met them at a ministry event where a bunch of people had gathered to help out in a worthy cause. I’d say, several hundred. Both English and Amish people (and Amish folks of all kinds). There sat before us rows and rows of foldable tables unfolded, with all kinds of stuff sitting atop them. We were there to stuff packages that would be sent off to an island somewhere for people who needed the supplies. You know, the typical hygienic stuff—toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap—that kind of stuff. What island, I don’t recall. Nonetheless, at my table, among everyone else, were these guys. Somehow we hit it off that night, and all of us became friends. The four of us. And we’ve been meeting together from time to time ever since.

       Sitting next to me, the first bearded fellow among us was Ezekiel. Old Order. We called him Zeke. I have noticed over the years that a lot of Amish fellows seem to have the more formal names, you know, those names that aren’t particularly comfortable to say in full, right off the tongue. Anyhow, twenty-two and married, he was a factory worker. He labored away down the road building RVs of all things. Kind of ironic. All his talent was spent building something he would never use, not in his life. Seems kinda of strange when one really sits down and ponders it. Certainly he had additional talents, probably those he wasn’t even aware of, those he didn’t even know he had. But he seemed relatively content with the whole thing, and I guess that’s all that matters.

       Across from Ezekiel at our table sat the other fellow with the beard, Jonas. Yup, another Old Order fellow. A bit more outgoing than Zeke, Jonas was the more colorful one. And, he was the youngest of us all. He was nineteen years old. Landscaping was his thing, during the seasonal appropriate times. Spring to Autumn I guess you would say. Going from house to house, making everyone’s yards look good. In the winter time, he would use his muscles to clear snow. Even on a Bobcat. Yes, his church allowed him to do that—but he didn’t have a car. Another interesting paradox, at least to me anyway.

       Next to him, and directly across from me sat Tobias. Interestingly, he was a bit different of an Amish type. What’d he call it? Beachy Amish—that’s it. What was interesting about him was he actually drove a car. Not confined to the horse and buggy. And, he even had electricity at his house, well, the house he was renting. Twenty-one I believe, and certainly he was the quietist of us all. His words were few and far between as they say. Only commented when he wanted to. This made his sense of humor stellar because he could hit the mark out of the blue and make everyone laugh. Then he’d go back to being quiet.

       Me, well, my name is Thomas. Probably the most English name of us all. Actually, I’m sure there are Amish guys named Thomas—I’ve just never met any. People call me Tom usually. Or a few have been known to call me Double-T. That’s what happens when your name is Thomas Taylor. Twenty-two myself. Part of an evangelical Baptist church. Not Anabaptist like them, but Baptist. Similar in many ways, especially with Tobias. Actually, I’d been to his church one time for a service. He invited me, and out of curiosity I went. Kind of long and drawn out. Very basic. No music, believe it or not. Those people were mastered in their Bible knowledge. Probably the most notable thing that comes to remembrance was how the women looked—all wearing those coverings. That definitely was different.

       Speaking of the women, that’s where our conversation had landed. Arms and hands flinging about, Zeke was giving Jonas some advice on married life. The thing of it was, Jonas had become engaged a few months prior, and this being the autumn, the wedding was right on the horizon. Sometime in November I think it was scheduled for. Nonetheless, Zeke was laying down the law. If Jonas desired to be successful at anything in his married life, he needed to make sure he spent the time doing what his wife wanted. Not just spending time with her, but all the things she wanted done around the house. Zeke felt that was an area he had lacked in, and he needed to make sure no one repeated the same mistake. “It’s fun to do what you want to do” he said. “To go fishing and hunting on the weekends. But you can’t do that whenever you feel like it. You have to take care of Elsa,” he insisted (Elsa was Jonas’ fiancée).

       I wasn’t married. I’d been dating my girl, Jessica, about six months, and so my advice wouldn’t be as spot on as Zeke’s. Boy, was he getting into it. No ’T’ was being left uncrossed. Notwithstanding, Jonas seemed to be taking genially to it, though, I personally thought it was kind of intense. But the Amish, they’re so well brought up anyway, that I wasn’t entirely convinced that much instruction was going to be needed in the first place. A moral people they are. Very ethical. They usually treat people right. When you’re raised in that kind of environment, no matter what your religion, I believe you’re in good shape. Perhaps less personal learning and instruction that has to be done. Anyway, that’s my opinion.

       In thinking about the life, it is genuinely interesting how disciplined the Amish are. People had asked me up to this point, those who knew I had these Amish friends, if I would ever consider becoming Amish. “No,” I’d say, and then I would explain why. It’s a fun and perhaps glamorous life to look at from afar, but to actually do it, to actually live it, that’d be a whole another thing. Why restrict yourself of things that the Bible doesn’t, in point of fact, prohibit. The use of cars, for instance, at least for two of them—it didn’t make any sense to me why I would ever give up my car. Or, the most famous one of all, electricity. Why give up electricity? That central air conditioning during the Summer to suffer in the heat? No thanks.

       As Zeke and Jonas were talking about, my eyes turned to Tobias simply sitting there. The pizza had been eaten—that was long done probably an hour ago. We’d all just been sitting and chatting, well, the three of us anyway. Tobias, due to his shy nature, didn’t always contribute as much as the rest of us. In reality, that was probably good for him. You know, the less you say the less likely you are to get into trouble. But with all this discussion surrounding Jonas getting married, and what that was going to be like, I couldn’t resist. I wanted to learn how things were going in that department with Tobias. He hadn’t spoken of any girls in a while. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I ever recall him speaking about any girl. So I asked the question.

       I started a separate conversation. “Tobias, and how are things going for you? Are you dating anyone?”

       Tobias paused from looking at his smartphone, and raising his head slowly, he fixed his gaze on me. After a moment, he said, “There is a girl at church that I like, but I haven’t talked to her.”

       “What do you mean you haven’t talked to her?” I inquired. “You mean you haven’t asked her out?”

       He paused again. Then he said, “Yes, that’s true, I haven’t asked her out, but truly I have never spoken to the girl.”

       At first I laughed. “Your church is, what, 150 people? How could it be that you’ve never talked with her? All you guys seem close knit. That doesn’t seem possible.”

       “Honestly, I just never have. I’ve seen her at other people’s houses, even her house when the families get together. I’ve sat near her during Bible school at church. But, somehow, I’ve just never talked with her.”

       The whole thing seemed baffling. I suppose I could see that it might be difficult to talk to a girl at a church such as his. After all, the men and women sit on different sides during a service. Pretty strict, I guess you would say. But the close-knitness didn’t seem to make it possible. How strict were they anyway?

       By this point in the conversation, Zeke and Jonas had shifted their focus. They now wanted to know who this lassie was that Tobias was talking about. I figured that they figured they probably knew her. After all, the Amish seemed to know everybody that was Amish, even if in a different sect. They would at least know of them.

       Zeke asked directly. “Who is this you’re talking about?”

       “Guys, I really don’t want to talk about this. It doesn’t matter.”

       Jonas urged him on, “No, who is it Tobias?”

       Tobias took a big sigh. He cast his eyes down toward his feet for a second. Then he replied, “It’s Claudia, Claudia Swartzentruber.”

       Both Zeke and Jonas paused for a moment in thought. They were quickly scanning the recesses of their brains to try to see if they knew who she was. After a near ten seconds of this, they both turned, looked at each other, and shook their heads. Oddly enough, they didn’t know her. I thought to myself that this must be the first time this has ever happened, two Amish guys at least not ‘knowing of’ another Amish person.

       “Her family moved to the area about three years ago from Iowa I think. I honestly don’t remember. You would have seen her Tom when you came to church a couple months ago. She was the greeter. Both her and her brother are the current greeters.”

       I paused for a second. This couldn’t be. Someone Amish I knew that Zeke and Jonas didn’t know. I did remember her now that he mentioned it. I remembered because she had said hello to me first when I caught her eye, which I thought was kind of bold. She appeared to be nice. But that was all I could recall about her. “Yeah, I remember” I finally replied. “She said hello to me when I walked past her.”

       Zeke desired more information. “What does she look like?”

       “She’s short. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Pretty athletic. Good at baseball.”

       Both Zeke and Jonas looked at each other and laughed. Then Jonas asked, “I thought you didn’t like sports?”

       “I don’t” Tobias replied curtly. “I’m just saying she’s good on the field. She can hit the ball far, and run the bases quick.”

       “I guess the saying is true,” Zeke added, “opposites do attract.”

       Then I posed the question, “What are you going to do about this dilemma?”

       “Nothing,” Tobias replied.

       Zeke quickly fired back, “Nothing! How can you do nothing? If you like her, you need to talk to her, to ask her out.”

       Tobias shook his head. “I’m not going to do that.”

       “Why?” everyone unanimously inquired.

       “Because, I’ve prayed about it for a year now, and there hasn’t been opportunity. Not even with the prayers. So, I determined it’s not God’s will.”

       Getting frustrated, Jonas posed, “Why did you bring her up then, if you don’t think you’re supposed to date her?

       “I don’t know,” Tobias then disclosed. “Tom asked, and I felt I needed to give him some sort of answer. I don’t even know why she’s still on my mind.”

       That was true. Sometimes a girl would just stick on the mind for whatever the reason, ravaging the recesses of the brain. I remember that happened to me when I was a freshman in college. There was this girl I liked in the Greek history class. We started sitting next to each other. We became friends, and found out we were both Baptist. That’s as far as it went, though. She had a boyfriend. So, there was no chance for me. I was aware of how it felt to like a girl when there was no way, or when things simply weren’t working out. Tobias had a point.

       Zeke’s inner-wheels were unquestionably turning. It seemed he agreed with Tobias after all. If it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be. It’s as an old teacher back in middle school once told me. He told me once, after I had broken up with my girlfriend at the time, to never worry about losing a woman because if you miss the bus, another one always comes. I understood what he meant, though my family didn’t live in the city. Guess he lived in the city, but I knew it wasn’t school buses he was referring to since another school bus didn’t always come. Alas, besides the point.

       Suddenly, at that moment, the most unusual thing happened. The old, wooden doors whipped open at the front of the place, just as we were sitting there minding our own business, and two Amish girls emerged and made their way up to the counter. I noticed something was unusual because of the way Tobias started acting. He sort of sank down into the seat, and then began looking toward his feet. Once the two girls arrived at the counter, they began chatting with Serra, the Amish girl that was working the front of the place, who had also brought out our pizza. She was definitely Old Order. I knew that since she had the solid white head covering and both Zeke and Jonas appeared to know her decently. Of the girls who walked in, one clearly had the solid white covering. But the other one, well, she had the see-through, shorter type of covering. In fact, this was the kind the girls at Tobias’ church wore.

       “I hope we didn’t offend you,” Zeke expressed, somehow thinking Tobias’ recent reaction was because of all that had been said.

       “Guys…” Tobias stuttered. Then he started motioning with his hand, sort of discreetly toward the front, as if not to be seen. “Guys… that’s her.”

       Heads turning, our eyes all fixated the twenty or feet toward the counter. And so, there she was. Beautiful. Around his age, probably twenty-two I would guess. Her blonde hair could be seen through the covering balled up, and she had some strands dangling down the side of her face. Affably spoken, she was, and energetic, carrying her words warmly and admiringly. The conversation was regarding how her brother was about to embark on an upcoming missions trip. Oversees? Sounded like it. Ireland perhaps by what I could catch over the music of the place. Modern Christian music. Rock and roll to hip hop. That music was particularly annoying sometimes.

       “Who’s the other girl?” Jonas quietly inquired. She had dark hair, pulled straight back (no strands). It appeared almost black. And, she bore matching, dark and wiry glasses with circular frames. A presentation almost out-of-style, old fashioned it could be said.

       “I don’t know much about her,” Tobias replied, “other than she’s a witch.”

       Everyone began quietly laughing. “No, she really is,” Tobias insisted. “She has these cards—I don’t remember what they’re called. Not everyone knows about them. And you have to be careful. She may seem nice, but she really isn’t… she has a mean streak.”

       The guys seemed puzzled. Truth be told, I was puzzled. I didn’t know what to make of all of this. I had heard of witchcraft among the Amish before, but I didn’t think it was a real thing. Guess it was. Tobias was usually a straight-shooter, or was he messing with us?

       “Dude, you have to go talk to her,” Jonas encouraged.

       “No, not right now. Not with Lucy there.”

       So, there they stood. Serra, Claudia, and Lucy talking about. We all simply sat there keeping to ourselves, sort of watching them. Honestly, I didn’t suppose Tobias should talk to Claudia, if he didn’t want to. Assuredly, it was all in what he wanted to do. If he felt he wanted to, he should. But he shouldn’t force himself to do something he didn’t want to do, something of which he wasn’t in the zone for.

       After a few minutes, Lucy departed, making her way out the front into the parking lot. We could see her out there standing in front of a black car, looking at her smartphone. Guess it made sense a witch would have a black car. But wait, she wasn’t Beachy. She wouldn’t have a car. Unless she was still in Rumspringa? I don’t know, but I believed him. I myself had never met a witch before. I honestly didn’t believe they still existed. After a few more moments, a car screeched to a halt in front of the place and some guy, who was clean-cut in a tight muscle shirt, picked her up. Guess it wasn’t her black car after all. Funny where the mind goes.

       Jonas hollered up to Serra to bring him a fresh Coke. He interrupted the lively conversation that was being had up there. With Serra turning to get the soft drink, Claudia peered over our direction. Then, all the sudden, she began walking toward us. She got closer and closer. I could feel the nervousness coming over Tobias from across the table. He looked down at his feet again.

       “Tobias,” the soft, smooth voice spoke, “Tobias.”

       Tobias glanced up from his feet as if he was about to face some kind of punishment.

       “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you outside of church.” She thought to herself for a moment, putting her hand to her chin. “No, I don’t think so.”

       “These are my friends,” Tobias then imparted. “Zeke, Jonas, and Tom.”

       “Nice to meet you all.”

       “It doesn’t have to be that way,” Tobias then added. “I mean, that we only see each other at church.”

       Serra then showed up at the table with a fresh Coke for Jonas. She asked everyone else if they needed anything. We all concurred that we were good. She walked away, but Claudia remained.

       With a smile, and an inquisitive look, she asked, “And what are you saying, Tobias?”

       He stuttered a little bit, and started to founder.

       “Are you asking me on a date?” Her boldness had reached its height.

       Tobias recomposed himself, looked right up at her, and answered, “I am.”

       I don’t think Claudia was expecting him to shape up and say that because she seemed to be caught off guard. It was as if the nervousness that Tobias had had just a moment ago had now transferred itself to Claudia. But she stood there quietly for a moment, and then after that moment, unzipped the small, silver purse she was carrying in the front her, took out a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote down her number. She handed it to Tobias.

       “Call me,” she said. And with that, she made her way to the doors and left. We all watched her as she got into the black car, pulled out, and drove down the roadway, pass the front of the place and out of sight.

- Daniel Litton

To comment on this post, tap here to go to the comments page.