The August sun shone brightly on Bird in Hand. It was hot. The Stoltzfus farm was frying in the heat and not much movement went on. The dog, Shep, lay in the shade beside the barn. His tongue was hanging out and he didn’t even flinch when a yellow cat walked right in front of him. The cat walked slowly to the shade and lay down. It was too hot to chase mice or visit the neighbors’ cats so she sat down and slept.
Harmon’s mom and sisters sat under a shade tree in the yard. They were shucking sweet corn. Most of the corn would be canned to feed the family through the winter months. Pete sat beside them on a lawn chair reading a Hardy Boys book. After awhile the book drifted shut and his head drooped onto his chest. The girls and Mom looked at him and thought about how lazy he was. Eleven year old Rosie took a corn husk, sneaked over to Pete and tickled him on the nose. He woke up with a start and threw the HardyBoys book at the little girl. He was too lazy to get up and chase her so he went back to sleep.
Harmon and Pharon were in the hay field baling the 4th cutting of alfalfa. Harmon was driving the baler and Pharon was stacking the hay on the wagon. They were on the fifth and last wagon. Their brothers, 14 year old Rueben, and 13 year old Willie were in the barn stacking the hay. All the working boys agreed it was best that Pete stayed in with the women.
Harmon was thinking about many things as he drove through the hay field. He was thinking about Millie. He was wondering if he should just go out with her for a while. Maybe I’ll start liking her before long, he thought. Breaking up is never easy. He despised Millie, but he was too nice to hurt her too much. He thought about his plan. The plan was good, but it was complicated. It would take awhile.
He was also thinking about playing volley ball. The Intercourse Community Days were to be held at
There was also a volleyball tournament. It took place on Friday night and Saturday. Most of the teams were Amish and a few were Mennonite. Karl had asked Harmon too play on his team. Harmon knew he was only asked because Albert Zook backed out on short notice and Karl couldn’t find anyone else. Harmon was a decent player, but since the last gym night where he messed up 17 times so he could stand across from Arvilla, his stock had gone down. But Harmon was sure he could do better.
Tonight I will show everyone how good I am, he thought. I will spike the ball harder than anyone there. I’ll block and hit and I won’t have to worry about standing across from a girl. And best of all Arvilla will be there watching me. I’ll show her I’m better than Karl. I’ll show her I’m better than Sylvester and Matt and James. After she sees me tonight she won’t be able to resist me. He never thought about the fact that he had a girlfriend and most Beachy girls don’t go after boys with girlfriends.
He was finally jolted from his thoughts of love and volleyball when he reached the end of the last row of hay and he was finished! He looked around for a little bit and then he drove the tractor back to the barn where he and Pharon helped their younger brothers stack the hay in the old barn. The barn was built by Harmon Stoltzfus I in 1946. It was a nice old barn, with large beams, a large feline population, and innumerable pigeons and sparrows who made nests all over the place.
When the boys were almost finished stacking hay bales, their father came into the barn and looked around to make sure they were doing everything right. He had spent the day at the sale barn in New Holland. When the boys saw their father they worked even harder to try and impress him. He was impressed because when they were finished stacking he said he and Pete would milk the cows that evening since they had worked so hard to bale the hay.
The boys were shocked to hear this so they thanked their dad and ran toward the house to make fun of Pete. They almost wished they could help milk the cows so they could watch the interaction between Pete and Harmon II. But they didn’t. They found Pete sitting on the lawn chair where he had spent most of the afternoon reading about Frank and Joe’s adventures and told him he had to go milk the cows. When Pete heard this he got very angry and jumped up to accost the boys, but right then his dad showed up and told him to come to the barn with him. Pete protested for awhile but finally obeyed.
Harmon and the other boys went into the house to relax and get ready for the evening’s excitement. Harmon spent 17 minutes trying to get his hair just right, but no matter what he did he couldn’t get it. He combed and combed and gelled and hair sprayed, but it still didn’t look right so he just slammed the comb onto the sink and started shaving. He shaved and shaved with utmost detail and was almost finished when he cut himself under his lip. So he had to stop the bleeding. What a pain it was to get ready. Then he got out his favorite t-shirt (the one that said Welcome to Bird in Hand) and put on his black, Adidas gym pants and his white Nike shoes and he was ready to play volleyball.
Harmon arrived in Intercourse around 7:00. He looked around at the crowds of Amish people eating hamburgers and talking to each other. He had no idea where they all came from. He felt lost in the crowd as he looked for the Amish Mennonite boys he was going to play volleyball with. He finally saw Sylvester so he went over and they started warming up for the game. They hit the ball around for awhile and then the game started.
The game began very nicely for Harmon. He got a few quick spikes and then he got a good block and a few good serves. The Amish Mennonite boys were ahead. That’s when Harmon heard a loud voice yelling, “Go Harmon Go.” He looked over and saw Millie sitting there. With her were Arvilla, Mandy, Mary and a few other girls. When Harmon saw Arvilla his heart started beating wildly. He knew he had to play good for her.
The next time the ball came at Harmon he hit it, but the ball went way out of bounds. No, he thought, I’ll do better next time. But the next time he messed up too, and the next time and the next time. He was so shaken up and nervous he couldn’t do anything right. Karl stepped up and saved the team. He had a few good spikes that sealed the victory for the Amish Mennonite boys. Harmon looked very mad as the boys all slapped Karl’s hand after each spike, but grudgingly slapped it too.
When the game was over, the boys went over to the girls. They sat down on the grass and all the girls told the boys they had played good. Millie looked at Harmon and said, “Good game.” Arvilla gave Karl some special attention. The night was still young and the boys had no more games until the next day, so everyone tried to think of something to do.
“Let’s go cow tipping,” said Karl. At this everyone laughed.
“Let’s go to Applebee’s,” suggested James. Millie wanted to go to Applebee’s but Harmon thought that was a dumb idea and he didn’t have enough money to buy food for Millie and him so he went home and left the other kids sitting there in the middle of
Arvilla Beiler was not an extremely smart girl. She wasn’t dumb either. She couldn’t care less who was President or if the Iraq War was right or wrong. But she knew who the President was and she knew the country was at war and she knew she was nonresistant. She didn’t really care what nonresistant was, but she knew it had something to do with shooting people. She wasn’t worried about Paris Hilton or Angelina Jolie. Her mind was kept busy with her little world in
She woke up on Saturday morning and put on her clothes: a nice, blue cape dress, white shoes and socks and her neat little covering with strings attached. Little did she know that on this day her life as it was would cease to exist.
As she drove to her job in Intercourse, her mind wandered from this to that. She thought about last night at Applebee’s. Karl sat right across from her at the table filled with 10 youth. As they ordered up boneless Buffalo wings and virgin mudslides, she was watching his every move. She was also aware that he was aware that she was watching him so she tried not to look at him too much. As usual, the conversation had centered around Karl. He said a lot of funny things and she thought some of them were lame, but she laughed anyway. Everyone laughed. Karl was funny. But then the night had ended as every other night always did. Karl went home alone and Arvilla went home, not knowing how he felt.
Arvilla was a waitress at the Kling House Restaurant along 772. She was the only Beachy waitress at the restaurant and all the tourists always gave her huge tips because she was plain. Plus, she was pretty and really nice and friendly. On that particular morning she was waiting on a family from
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Arvilla saw something that made her heart skip a beat. She turned her head and looked over toward the door. There stood Richard Mast. “Omigoodness,” she whispered under her breath. Quickly putting her head down, she almost ran back into the kitchen.
“Please, o please, don’t sit him in my section,” she said to herself. “Please.”
Seeing Richard Mast reopened an unhappy chapter of Arvilla’s life. She was a senior at
A few things complicated their situation. Richard was not Beachy and Arvilla’s parents didn’t approve of this. Arvilla’s friends also didn’t like Richard. But oh how Arvilla loved him. In her 17 year old mind, he had been the one. But then things turned sour. The two young lovers began holding hands and that was fine with Arvilla. She liked holding Richard’s hand. It felt good. And then it progressed to petting.
Then came the revival meetings of 2004. Arvilla was convicted of impurity in the relationship, so she ended it. She felt so good about it at the time, but oh how she regretted it later on. As fate would have it, they never got back together, and Arvilla really was over Richard. It had been two years, but she did not want to talk to him.
Lucky for Arvilla, Richard didn’t sit in her section. She delivered all her food very fast and spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Her customers got very angry because she hardly ever came to check on them, but Arvilla managed to avoid Richard and by 11:00 he was gone and she’d almost forgotten about him again.
After work Arvilla went to the
“Arvilla, you surprised me,” he panted.
“Here, let me buy you another hot dog,” she said, reaching into her purse.
“Ah, uh, no, you don’t have to,” he said quickly.
But Arvilla insisted and as they walked away from the hotdog stand, Harmon couldn’t believe his luck. He and Arvilla were walking alone. No one else was around (except a thousand Amish but they didn’t know them).
“So did you win any games?” asked Arvilla.
“Uh, yeah, we actually won all our games except one,” said Harmon, trying to take a bite from his doggie, “We’re in the semifinals.”
“Wow that is neat!”
“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty cool.”
“Where’s your girlfriend?”
“Oh, I’m not sure.” I think she had to stay home and take care of her brothers and sisters,” said Harmon. For the first time in his life he was carrying a decent conversation with Arvilla Beiler. No one else was involved. He wanted to shout and tell the world he loved her. But he didn’t.
They walked along talking through the park. Harmon was amazed how easy it was to carry a conversation with Arvilla. Arvilla thought about how Harmon was actually talking.
“So did you have any car trouble lately?” Harmon asked.
“No! no I didn’t, actually.” That was so strange how my car wouldn’t start.” My dad looked at it and he couldn’t find anything wrong with it.”
“Well, I know how to fix a machine,” said Harmon proudly. “Put any machine in front of me and I will fix it in less than 20 minutes.” Don’t forget to call me if something goes wrong again.”
“I will, but Millie probably wouldn’t like it if I called you.”
“Oh she wouldn’t care.”
Their conversation was interrupted when Karl came running across the ball field. He looked very grimly at Harmon and told Arvilla about all the good spikes he had that day. Harmon grimaced and walked along. Now that Karl was here, Arvilla didn’t even look at him. And Harmon had just as many good spikes as Karl did.
The semifinal game went well for the Amish Mennonite boys. The whupped the Amish team. Harmon didn’t think about Arvilla and had a good game. He couldn’t believe how calmly he hit the ball. Down again and again. In the final game they met up with a better team and lost by 2 points. Everyone was sad they lost, but were happy to have made it that far.
By that time Millie had arrived at the park. She told Harmon he was an awesome volleyball player and even though it came from Millie, it felt good. Harmon and Millie and the rest of the youth spent the rest of the evening looking at Amish and laughing at them. They all thought they were better than the Amish. They had fun listening to a band sing and then they went home to their beds and slept soundly.
They all slept soundly except Arvilla Beiler. She was too excited to sleep. As the clock struck 12 she pulled out her diary and wrote:
Today was a good day. It started kinda weird as Richard came into work. I didn’t wanna see him and I’m not sure if he saw me. Seeing him brought back so many memries, some good, some bad. I know I quit writing about him in here, but it’s ok now cuz I’m so past that………then when I left the park and went out to my car there was a boy standing there. It was dark so I couldn’t really see who it was. I was kinda scared at first but then I recognized him. He was standing there all nervous like and when he saw me he looked even more nervus.
Arvilla smiled as she lay down her pen and yawned and stretched. Then she continued writing………
click here to read chapter 7
Read Our Hero Harmon next week to see who the boy was and what he wanted.
Plus something good finally happens to Harmon