The Search Read Online Free PDF Page A

surface. Finally, Billy stopped for a moment to gaze at a golden eagle flying overhead and seemed surprised to discover she was there.
    “So, Bess, where are you from?” he asked.
    “Berlin, Ohio.”
    Billy went back to examining roses, so Bess hastened to add, “Some folks think it’s Ber-Lin, like the place in Germany. But it’s really pronounced Burrr-lin. Folks changed the way they pronounced it during World War I, so it would seem less German.” She could tell Billy wasn’t really listening. Silence fell again. She tried to come up with a topic that would create conversation. Something that would make him notice her and realize she was bright, intelligent, deep. Nothing came to mind.
    He stopped at a bush and examined a few blossoms, then started picking them. “You sure don’t look anything like your grandmother.”
    That was a good thing, in her mind. Mammi must be nearly six feet tall and half as wide.
    He eyed her bright blue dress. “Is it different in Ohio? Being Amish?”
    “What do you mean?” She shrugged one shoulder. “Amish is Amish.”
    He snorted. “That’s like saying roses are roses.” He put a hand on his lower back and stretched, looking out at the wide variety of blooms. “What color is your buggy?”
    “Black.” So maybe there were differences. Lancaster buggies had gray tops.
    “Some folks think Ohio churches are more worldly than ours.” He shook the basket so the petals spread out. “Can you ride bicycles?”
    “Yes.”
    “Telephones?”
    “Only in the barn.”
    “You drive a car?”
    “Gosh, no.” Billy looked so disappointed that she added, “Once I drove a neighbor’s tractor, though. And I take a bus to the public school.”
    He whipped his head up. “You go to public school?”
    “High school.” Bess had just sailed through ninth grade and was in shooting distance of high school in Berlin. All that stood in the way was that dreaded algebra class. That was the other half of the reason she changed her mind about spending the summer at Mammi’s. On the day she took her final exam for algebra, she decided Stoney Ridge didn’t sound so bad, after all. And if she hurried about it, she could leave Berlin before report cards would be mailed home, which suited her just fine. That way, she wasn’t being deceitful. She didn’t know for sure that she had failed the class. She had a pretty good idea that she did, but until that report card arrived, there was a slight hope she had squeaked by. And had she failed, well, if she were in Pennsylvania, then she couldn’t possibly attend summer school in Ohio.
    She searched for something—anything—to pique Billy’s interest. “My dad got arrested for letting me skip school,” she blurted out. Then she clapped her hand against her mouth. Why in the world did she say that ?
    Billy spun around to look straight at her.
    Oh my! but he was fine looking. Those dark brown eyes nearly undid her. She felt her cheeks grow warm. “Last September, Dad said I didn’t have to go to school anymore. Kids in the county right next to ours had stopped going the spring before and no one bothered them, so a few families in our district decided to quit too. But it didn’t work. The truant officer came knocking on the door and took Dad to the county jail.”
    “What happened then?”
    “He was fined and let go. And now I have to go until I’m sixteen. Ohio law.” Her dad wasn’t going to mess with the law anymore, he’d said more than once when she tried to convince him to let her stay home. “I can’t imagine stopping school at the eighth grade.” She couldn’t imagine it, but she sure would enjoy it. She had often thought she had about all the education she could absorb. Especially math.
    A look came over Billy’s face, as if he thought she might be a very dense child. “What makes you think an education has to stop?”
    That was a new thought for Bess. She gave his backside a sharp look. A book stuck out of his back pocket.