“Gary, did you forget the food?” Sheryl asked, looking in the trunk of the car.
“Of course not. I’ve already unpacked it.”
Laura tapped his arm in a flirtatious manner. “Always have things under control, don’t you, Gary.”
Gary looked quite pleased. “What should we do next?” Sheryl asked him.
“I’ve been camping for years,” he said. “Let’s get organized and then I’ll start the fire.”
The girls pumped up their airbeds in turn. Martha was surprised at the amount of clothes and supplies the other two women had brought. They each had a huge supply of make-up, and various shoes and different sorts of clothes. Sheryl had even brought her curling wand.
Martha sat on her airbed and was surprised how comfortable it was, but both Sheryl and Laura complained. “It’s not quite the same as a nice comfy bed at home, is it?” Sheryl said, and Laura agreed with her.
“At least the tent floor is lined,” Sheryl continued. “No chance of bugs getting in and biting us.”
Laura pulled a face. “No mirrors, though. I only have this one.” She pulled a small mirror from her purse. “Martha, Amish aren’t allowed to have mirrors, is that right?”
Martha laughed. “Yes, we just don’t have big mirrors in our community.”
Both Sheryl and Laura looked horror-stricken. “What, what? No mirrors at all?” Sheryl sputtered.
“Yes, we have mirrors. The men need them to shave. We just don’t have big mirrors.”
“Why don’t you have big mirrors?” Laura asked her.
“It would encourage vanity,” Martha said.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never looked at your reflection in a steel pot,” Sheryl said, shaking her finger at her. “I know that’s what I’d do. Or maybe in a pond.”
Martha joined in the laughter.
“It’s going to be hard for you to go home, now that you’re used to big mirrors,” Laura said.
“I’m not going home. I’m staying English,” Martha said, and then clamped her hand over her mouth.
Sheryl raised her eyebrows. “You are?”
Martha shrugged one shoulder. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
“Knock, knock,” Gary called from outside the tent.
“The tent flap is open,” Sheryl said.
“Yes, but I couldn’t knock, and I wanted to be polite. Will I light the fire now? Sam would like some s’mores.”
The women followed him to the to the fire ring. “I’ll just fetch some kindling,” Martha said.
Gary shot her an appraising look. “Oh yes, you’d be quite used to fires, wouldn’t you?”
Before Martha could respond, he had stacked large pieces of wood on the fire.
“No, you need to start with kindling,” Martha said, concerned. “That will never catch light.”
“I’ve been camping for years,” Gary told her. “You don’t have to be like a Boy Scout rubbing two sticks together. This is the fastest way. Sam, stand back.”
Sam was already a long way from the fire, twirling a stick around his fingers. Gary waved a box of fire starter cubes at Martha. “This is the fastest way to get a fire going.” He wedged the entire box of fire starter cubes under the logs and then picked up a bottle.
“What’s that?” Laura asked him.
“Denatured alcohol.” With that, he tipped one quarter of a bottle over the logs.
“Stand back,” he said. When he saw that everyone had stepped back, he flicked a match onto the fire.
Boom! It went up with a bang. Martha was at once concerned for Sam, but he did not appear to mind. She figured that this must be Gary’s usual way of lighting fires when they went camping. “Gary, that’s incredibly dangerous,” she scolded him. “Please promise me you’ll never do that again.”
“I can’t promise that,” Gary said with a laugh. “How long would it take you to light a fire?”
“Not long with some kindling,” Martha said.
“How long would it take you to get the fire to this extent with just kindling?”
Martha crossed her arms over her chest. Gary clearly wasn’t going to listen to her and he had just lit the fire in a dangerous manner. “You could have frightened Sam,” she said.
Gary nodded toward Sam. “He’s fine. I light the fire like this all the time when we go camping.”
“And your mother lets you?
A look of discomfort passed across Gary’s face. “Well, she doesn’t actually like it.”
Martha would have said more, but Laura jumped up and down. “Where are the marshmallows?” she said. “Let’s make some s’mores.”
Gary went off to fetch the graham crackers and the marshmallows while Laura warmed her hands over the fire. Martha wondered why. The sun was still high in the sky but it was not too cold.
“There’s always something comforting about a fire,” Laura said, as if guessing her thoughts.
“You’re going to show us how to play your card game, aren’t you?” Sheryl asked her.
Martha smiled. “Yes, Dutch Blitz. I’ve brought my deck of cards.” She missed playing the game with her familye. She wished her schweschders and Mary were with her now. She didn’t have much in common with the Englischers. But you’re English now, she told herself.
“So what are the rules?” Gary asked her. “Do you play for money?”
Martha laughed.
“Of course, the Amish don’t play for money,” Sheryl scolded him. “They probably think gambling is illegal. Is that right, Martha?”
Martha did not like answering so many questions. “We don’t gamble,” she said in a small voice.
It wasn’t long before Gary was making s’mores for everyone. “We can’t all make our own or Sam will want to make his own,” he whispered to the women.
Martha kept a protective eye on Sam. She was concerned, as Gary didn’t appear to be the most responsible person in the world. She noticed Gary wasn’t watching Sam at all times and that worried her. Still, she thought she was probably being overprotective.
After that they all consumed several s’mores, Gary played the guitar and sang, and then Martha showed them all how to play Dutch Blitz. Sheryl and Laura caught on at once, but Gary kept complaining. “Can you explain the difference between the Blitz Pile, Post Piles, and Wood Pile again?” he asked continually.
After they played Dutch Blitz and then Scrabble, Sheryl and Gary decided to make dinner. Laura sat next to Martha and chatted. “Tell me all about your Amish friends,” she said.
Martha was puzzled. “Well, I have a lot of friends,” she said. “My sisters and Mary are my friends.”
“And your sisters married Moses’s brothers, didn’t they?” Laura asked.
An uneasy feeling settled over Martha. “Yes, Hannah married Noah Hostetler, and Esther married Jacob Hostetler.”
“How many brothers are there?”
“Only two unmarried ones,” Martha said. “Moses and Elijah.”
Laura narrowed her eyes. “Is Moses a good friend of yours?”
A heavy sinking feeling settled in Martha’s stomach. “Yes, he’s a good friend. I grew up with him,” she said.
Laura nodded slowly. “That’s nice.” She bit her lip and stared at the fire before speaking once more. “What’s he like?”
“Moses? He’s nice, of course.”
“He went with you to New York, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
Laura turned to stare at her. “What was that like?”
Martha decided to mistake her meaning deliberately. “New York was much busier than anything I’ve ever experienced. I’ve never seen so many people in one place. It was good of course, because I got the contract for my chocolate business.”
“Did you and Moses spend a lot of time together?”
Martha wished Sheryl would come back so Laura would stop asking her questions. “We went there on the train together.”
“And you had dinner together?”
Martha nodded.
“Are you and Moses dating?”
Martha’s hand flew to her throat. “No, of course not. Nothing like that.”
Laura eyed her speculatively. “So you’re just friends?”
“Yes, that’s right.” The whole conversation left Martha entirely uncomfortable, but to her relief Sheryl and Gary did return at that moment.
“We’ve been talking about dinner,” Gary said. “We’re having canned soup and bagels, and the Dutch cabbage rolls Martha made. Oh, and baked beans. Or we could skip the main course and go directly to the three layer chocolate cake.”
Martha didn’t want to eat cake for dinner, so said, “Canned soup, bagels and Dutch cabbage rolls sound good to me. What about the rest of you?”
They all agreed. Besides, Martha did not think Sam should eat cake for dinner. Martha fetched them plastic plates and forks and put them on the picnic table. Sam walked over and showed her a rock. “That’s a lovely rock,” she exclaimed.
“Let me see,” Laura said. “That must be one of the nicest rocks I’ve ever seen. Well done, Sam.”
Martha was pleased to see that Laura was good with him. Sam sat on the dirt next to the picnic table, but Laura patted the chair. “Why don’t you sit with me and you can show me your rock again?”
Sam stood up and sat opposite Laura. Gary had told Martha previously that most children on the autism spectrum like their own space, so she figured that’s why Sam had wanted to sit alone. She placed a plastic dish and spoon in front of Sam. “Would you like some lemonade, Sam?” she asked him. He nodded, so Martha went over to fetch the bottle.
Soon, they were all enjoying one of the strangest meals Martha had ever consumed, baked beans, soup, Dutch cabbage rolls, bagels, and three layer chocolate cake.
Gary told some jokes over dinner that were not at all funny, but everyone laughed no doubt to be polite. Gary laughed hardest of all.
“It’s bedtime now, Sam,” Gary said. Sam clutched the sticks and rocks and went into his tent with Gary. After five minutes, Gary returned. “Where are the other sticks we collected today?” Martha asked Gary.
“They’re next to Sam’s bed,” Gary said. “Thanks for being so good with him, all of you.”
“He’s a great kid,” Laura said. “My little cousin’s on the autism spectrum.”
Martha nodded to herself. That’s why Laura was so understanding with Sam. She hoped she would not be left alone with Laura again, because Laura would no doubt take the opportunity to interrogate her about Moses. Martha certainly didn’t want that.
Martha and Sheryl washed the plates while Gary and Laura dried them. “Now what will we do?” Laura said. “Will we play Scrabble again?”
“Anything but that Amish card game,” Gary said with a chuckle. “Wait until I get the beer,” Gary said. “Or wine?”
Sheryl and Laura both said they would have Chardonnay, but Martha declined. “I’ll stick with lemonade,” she said.
They sat near the fire and played Scrabble again. Martha considered this was quite comforting after all. It was just like being back home. Sam awoke and came out at intervals to check where Gary was.
After Martha went to bed, she drifted off several times while Sheryl and Laura were talking. The last thing she remembered before she fell asleep was Laura asking Sheryl how she could afford designer clothes and Sheryl was telling her they were knock-offs, whatever that meant. Martha made a mental note to ask Sheryl what knock-offs were.
Martha awoke suddenly in the night. She heard footsteps going past the tent. Maybe it was just Gary walking down to the bathroom facilities.
Still, the footsteps sounded very quiet. Martha had fallen asleep in her clothes, so she crawled to the tent flap to look out. There, in the small shafts of moonlight peeking through the clouds, was a small figure scurrying off into the trees. Sam!
Martha pulled on her boots. She shook Sheryl. “Get Gary! Sam’s run off by himself.”
Sheryl grunted and sat up while Martha ran out of the tent. She headed in the direction Sam was going, but couldn’t find him. It was dark and the clouds were now hiding the moon once more.
Where was Sam? He had vanished into the night.