A Simple Faith: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel Read Online Free PDF

heard.” Dylan knew that community outreach would not be easy here, but then anything worthwhile was generally not easy. “But I’ve also come across a few cases where outsiders have provided therapy for Amish clients. I think their ministers prefer to call it counseling, which would be fine with me. Right now, I just want the Amish community to know that I’m here if the need arises.”
    “Fair enough.”
    The group of buildings that comprised the King dairy farm gave way to hills and valleys of golden fields punctuated by dark cows.
    No, you’re not in Philly anymore
, Dylan told himself. Which was a good thing … exactly what he’d needed.
    “Get away from here … far and fast,” Patrick had advised. “Every day you spend in your apartment, in your neighborhood, on these streets … your surroundings are making you miserable. Why are you torturing yourself here?”
    A good question.
    So he’d taken his therapist’s advice and left the city, and here he was in Lancaster County, land of sprawling farms and horse-drawn buggies. Sometimes he fantasized that he had not just changed locations but gone back to a simpler time where you couldn’t be in a rush because your horse didn’t move so fast. A time when your day ended at sundown because there were no electrical inventions to keep the mind churning against sleep.
    Of course, he had a car and electricity; still, the notion of simplicity helped to clear some of the cobwebs from his mind, and it seemed like good karma to be living among the peace-loving Amish people. He had the best of both worlds, with an apartment overlooking an Amish farm and a job at LanCo General, where he’d been able to work outside the shadow of grief.
    The farmhouse door flew open when the Jeep pulled up, and a woman in her twenties waved them in. “Dr. Trueherz, thank you for coming. I’ve been so worried. Her fever’s so high, and you know me. No experience with kids.”
    “Remy, don’t undersell yourself. You’ve got all the tools these kids need. Where’s our little patient?”
    Henry made quick introductions as Remy directed them into the kitchen, where a little wisp of a girl, two, maybe three years old, was curled up on a daybed. Her little face, barely visible for the cloth doll wedged under her chin, seemed aglow, with two patches of red dotting her cheeks.
    “Well, hello there, Katie. What’s going on with you today?”
    The little girl’s mouth puckered as she looked up at the doctor.
    “Too sick to talk? Well, we’ll see what we can do about that.”
    Henry washed up at the kitchen sink, and then opened his black satchel. He scanned her forehead with a thermometer and whistled softly. “A hundred and two. Have you given her Tylenol?”
    “Children’s Tylenol, but the last dose was last night.”
    Henry placed his hands around the child’s neck, checking herglands. “I’ll do a quick test, but I’m fairly certain she’s got strep throat.”
    “I should have known.” Remy sat beside the girl and rubbed her back. “I used to get strep all the time when I was a kid.”
    Dylan noticed that her speech pattern didn’t have the same rapid-fire cadence as other Amish people he’d met. And something about her demeanor—or maybe it was her flaming red hair—struck him as distinctly un-Amish. Englisher, as the locals called it.
    The door off the kitchen opened, and a tall man in a wide-brimmed black hat looked in from a side porch.
    “How is she, Doc?”
    “I don’t like this fever, but from the looks of this throat I’d say it’s strep.”
    “Could it be the GA, like Susie has?”
    “I wouldn’t worry about that. We’ve been testing her since she was born, and it’s been negative.”
    “Okay, good. Then I’ll get back to work.” The man turned to Dylan and nodded.
    “Adam, this is Dylan Monroe. He’s a psychologist shadowing Dr. Trueherz,” Remy said, looking up from the sick little girl.
    Adam nodded again. “I’ll get back to it,