Page 5 of Free to Love You
“Daddy, Lovina is Amish. Her house in Philadelphia ain’t had no lights and stuff. She used lanterns and she ride horses with buggies on dem,” Ayriss detailed. “Right, Lovina?”
Leave it to a child to tell all your damn business without a prompt. Lovina smiled down at Ayriss. “That’s right, Ayriss.” Her eyes connected to mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Erygon. Your mother has told me so much about you.”
I didn’t know anything about her, but I damn sure wanted to know. A black, Amish girl, that was something I never envisioned meeting. How did she find her way to Charleston, South Carolina?
A Short Time Earlier. . .
The Phone Call
“I want to leave, but I don’t know what to do,”I quietly said into the receiver. I was nervous about her response. This was the first time that I ever called her.
There was shuffling on the other end of the line.“Lovina, hun, are you alright? What do you mean you want to leave.”
“Yes, I’m alright.”I cleared my throat.“I don’t want to be here anymore. I feel like there is so much more for me out there in the world. If I stay here, I will never be able to experience it like a caged bird. I know that Idon’t have much education, but I’m really smart. I just need help.”
She was quiet for a moment after my little rant.“Okay, I understand that. When do you want to leave?”she asked.
I never thought about when I wanted to.“Um, I guess as soon as possible. If I leave it has to be in the middle of the early morning when my family is asleep. I couldn’t bear to see their reaction to me leaving. You know I’m shunned right now.”
“Girl, I really hate that. Okay, you want to leave in the middle of the early morning. Well, it will be that soon. Can you pack up everything that you need and meet me somewhere?” she asked.
Just then I realized where I was.“Beyuna, I live almost two hours away from you. There’s no way that I could get to you. If you were closer, I could walk to this town that’s right outside of Bird-In-Hand. They use cars there so it wouldn’t be weird to see a car. It’s only like a six-mile walk.”
“Girl, you’re going to walk six miles? Yeah, you really want to get away. Okay, I don’t care about the two-hour drive. I’m going to get on the road to get to you around two in the morning. I remember you saying that your family gets up at four,”she pointed out.“You remember how I told you to turn on your GPS and share your location?”
Once I told her that I remembered, she told me to turn it on and share it with her. When we got off the phone I started to pack. I packed up my clothes, which wasn’t a whole lot since I pretty much wore the same thing all the time. Over time I managed to save close to four thousand dollars. It took forever to save it. After I had packed everything including myimportant papers, I sat down to write my parents a letter. I owed them that at least.
‘Mother and Father,
I know my leaving will shock you, but I had to do what is best for me. You know like I do that I don’t belong here. I don’t think that I ever did. There are seasons in life, and my season here has passed. I love and appreciate you for all that you’ve done for me. I don’t want you to be worried about me because although I am leaving, my faith is intact. You may not believe that, but I believe God has covered me with this decision.
Although I will be out there, I will still stay close to God and never lose my faith in him. I promise. I know you’re probably disappointed and hurt even, but please don’t be. This decision is for my peace. Please take care of yourself. I love you. Lovina.’
I placed the letter on the kitchen table on my way out of the house that I was raised in. I was on to a new chapter in my life. I had no idea what it held, but what I did know was that I was the author and God was the editor.
Back To The Present . . .
That night Beyuna met me, and we drove to her house. I stayed with her for a week before we drove to Charleston, South Carolina. It was so beautiful here, especially where the bakery was. Their accent was different and was taking me some time to get used to.
Beyuna’s aunt, Beauvia, owned a bakery in the downtown area. After Beyuna asked if she could give me a job, her aunt toldher to bring me in, and I could make some things for her. If she liked them, then I could work there.
The bakery that I worked in was nice, but Ms. Beauvia’s was amazing. All the appliances in the kitchen were state of the art. Tasks that would have taken me an hour to do in our bakery back home took less than thirty minutes.
I made her what I made the best, an assortment of cinnamon rolls. I made her my regular rolls, apple, pecan, strawberry, Biscoff, and cheesecake stuffed. She absolutely loved them and added them to her menu.
The best part about it was that she paid me fifteen dollars an hour. I only made ten at my family’s bakery and almost 50 percent went back into my household. I was used to hard work, so I told her that I didn’t mind working open to close. She told me that the most hours I could work was forty-five hours a week unless she gave me approval to work more.
Another amazing thing that Ms. Beauvia blessed me with was a place to stay. Over the garage of her house, there was a two-bedroom, one bath apartment. It was a gorgeous apartment, and I couldn’t believe that I lived there. Originally, she told me that I didn’t have to pay rent, but I didn’t like that. I wanted to pay for my keep, so she charged me an all-inclusive rent of four hundred dollars a month.
I rode to work every morning with her on the days that I worked. If my shift was over before she had to leave, one of my co-workers brought me home. I told her that I could learn how to take one of those rideshare things, but she and Beyuna told me absolutely not. They feared that I would be taken advantage of.
“Daddy, Lovina is Amish. Her house in Philadelphia ain’t had no lights and stuff. She used lanterns and she ride horses with buggies on dem,” Ayriss said with excitement. “Right, Lovina?”
I set his cinnamon roll down in front of him. “That’s right, Ayriss.” I hesitantly gave my attention to Erygon. “It’s nice to meet you, Erygon. Your mother has told me so much about you.”
I met Ayriss the second day that I worked in the bakery. She was such a pretty little black girl. I loved it when she came around because she loved my cinnamon rolls and she had a million questions to ask me about being Amish.
“What’s up, Lovina? It’s nice to meet you as well. Thank you for the cinnamon roll. This shit is good as hell,” he complimented.
