Page 52 of Heart of the Sun

“You’re right.” He gripped my hand tighter. “We just have to make it through this journey and get back home. And then everything will go back to normal. We’ll go back to normal.”

I smiled, but it felt forced. What about that statement rubbed me the wrong way? I didn’t know, and so I wrote it off as the heightened emotions I’d just spoken of. Tuck and I had always been up and down and all over the place and that was only going to get worse now.

Tuck rounded a bend a few hundred feet ahead and for a couple minutes was out of sight. When we reached the turn, I saw him hunkered down behind some bushes on the side of the road, holding a pair of binoculars that the sheriff must have given him. He looked over his shoulder and gestured for us to hurry to where he was. “Get down,” he said quietly when we caught up. “I hear horses up ahead.”

“Horses?” Charlie asked. “Are they dangerous?”

“Not the horses, but the people riding them might be. I think we should wait here and see who they belong to.”

“What if no one’s riding them?” Charlie asked. “What if they’re…abandoned horses?”

“Then we might have our next ride,” Tuck said.

“Can I see?” I asked. He lowered the binoculars and looked at me, his lips thinning so that I thought he was going to say no. But then he handed the binoculars to me and moved to the side so I could look through the foliage like he’d been doing.

I put the lenses to my face and moved the binoculars from one side of the road to the other.The road we’d been traveling had been barren of businesses for the last few miles, save for a few empty, unmanned vegetable stands, only farms visible way out on the horizon. But several businesses were situated up ahead, including a few streets that stretched in other directions. It appeared to be the outskirts of a small town.

And Tuck was right about the horses. I heard them too, and now I could see the front hoofs of one from behind a roadside diner.

I started to hand the binoculars back to Tuck when two men wearing black and white exited the diner, the door opening in our direction so that I could see the front glass had been shattered. I watched as the men let the door swing closed behind them and then stood talking. I stared for another second. “They’re Amish,” I said. “Oh my Gosh. They’re Amish. Maybe they’ll give us a ride.” The Amish were…harmless. The Amish didn’t just have horses. They had buggies!

“Let me see,” Tuck said, taking the binoculars from me. I watched him surveil them, his mouth turning down into a frown.

“What’s wrong? The Amish are nonviolent. We don’t have to be afraid of the Amish.”

“We have to be wary of everyone right now,” Tuck said without lowering the binoculars. “Also, we’re in Missouri.”

“So?”

“I’ve never heard of Amish in Missouri.”

“What are you, the Missouri census bureau?”

He did lower the binoculars then and trained a steady gaze on me. “Are we starting again?”

I smiled. “I’m joking. There could be lots of reasons they’ve traveled here from…” I waved my hand around. I had no idea where Amish people lived.

“Pennsylvania. Ohio,” Tuck said.

“Maybe they wanted to see how far the outage extends. You know…get the lay of the land.”

“Why would they? The Amish have no problem living without electricity. For them it’s business as usual.”

“True, but they do use services in the outside world, right? Like…banking and, I don’t know, like mail and stuff? They have to have noticed what happened.”

“I suppose you’re right…”

“Did you just say I might be right about something.” I brought my hand to my chest and pretended I couldn’t breathe.

“Guys,” Charlie broke in, “there’s only one way to find out. Let’s go talk to them.”

I glanced over at him as though he’d appeared out of nowhere. Why did I keep forgetting Charlie was here?

As Tuck continued to look through his binoculars for another minute, I took the switchblade from my backpack and stuck it in the inside pocket of my jacket. I wouldn’t admit it to him, but Tuck had quickly schooled me on the fact that my self-defense skills weren’t going to save me if Iwasattacked. And though I wasn’t overly worried about the Amish, it was better safe than sorry, wasn’t it?

Finally, Tuck sighed and lowered the binoculars. “Fine. I think it’s safest if I keep watch and you go talk to them. Wave to me if things seem okay. Scratch your head if things seem off in any way.”

I pulled at Charlie’s arm, and we ducked as we backtracked a bit, dipping around the corner before immediately turning and rounding it again. As we drew closer, I made sure not to look in Tuck’s direction, instead, raising my hand and waving at the two men who’d spotted us. “Hi,” I said. “How are you?”

---