May Time Never Take You (May You Never Series)

Clark

The man flicked the reins, and the horse stamped his hooves into the ground, giving a slow lurch to the carriage but then evening out as he continued forward. I held to my seat. The carriage bounced a bit. I couldn't tell where we were going, with watery eyes and  barely any ability to see very far beyond the horse, I was having to completely trust this stranger that we weren't just going to go over a cliff.

For several long minutes, I said nothing. Still some part of me believed this to be a dream, to have woken up like this on the side of a hill and completely lost. 

Only my fingertips touched the wood of the seat below me. My nose filled the scent of horse and fresh rain and crisp air. I stared at the flame inside the lamp, and then stole glances at the man next to me. I waited for any sense of this dream to prove itself a dream. It never happened and continued to feel completely real.

I kept quiet, mostly because he did. What would I say?

I also had another concern. I didn't know much about Amish culture, or similar ones, and in the dark, my own race might have not been noticed. Since I was half Hispanic, half Japanese, my features and complexion sometimes confused people, hard to pin but I certainly looked different. Would he send me off? Were Amish known to be racist? I've rarely had encounters about it beyond middle school.  However, now I was fairly at his mercy for my own safety and getting back to where I belonged. I hoped he wouldn't turn me out now.

The horse eventually climbed to the top of the hill. At the top, the moon was suddenly out, and I could get a view of some farm fields. I couldn't tell what they were, but just rows of fairly straight lined plants. Some spots had looked plowed through. 

Beyond the fields as a fairly large barn, next to a couple of additional out buildings. Beyond those, a bit of yard and a two-story farm house and what looked like a fence around the entirety of them. There didn't appear to be a light on in the whole of the property, and it was just the outline I could see. 

Was it abandoned? Some very old property that this Amish person kept up with no electricity? 

The man stopped the buggy not far from the back porch of the dark home. Once the horses stopped, he jumped off and hurried to the front porch. A match was struck, and within moments a second lamp, smaller, was brought out.

He held out a hand to me. "Come on down," he said.

I took his hand climbed down with his help. I kept his coat over my shoulders as he released me to show me to shine the lantern to a path that lead to the house.

"I'll go put the horse up," he said. "You should get inside, maybe start a fire."

It shouldn't have shocked me that he suggested starting a fire. I stumbled over how to do in my mind so when he handed me the lamp. He walked me just to the start of the steps and then left me on the porch alone while he went back to the buggy. He took hold of the reins and walked the buggy and horse to the barn, opening gates along the way.

Turn to the door of the house. I considered it for a moment, wondering if it was possibly locked. However I realized it must be unlocked if he's intended for me to start a fire in the first place.

So far out that he never feared people coming, didn't bother locking.

The door opened with the barest of squeaking. I was immediately entered into a short hall, and to the right was what looked like a kitchen, so I headed into there.

Just under a window was a long counter along one side, with a sink with a large basin. Near the sink was an old-fashioned pump faucet. At least he head indoor plumbing of a sort. I pondered if there were toilets in this old house. Did the Amish stick to outhouses? Or worse...chamber pots?