“When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it.”
—Amelia Earhart quoted in Betsie’s journal
Monday evening, May 3, 1971
Betsie Troyer reined in her horse as she reached the outskirts of Plain City. A tear trickled down
her cheek as she tried to pretend she was on a normal errand, but grim reminders were
everywhere.
As Judith trotted around the corner of Ohio 42, Betsie was barely aware of her parents on
the seat beside her. They were silent as the buggy passed the filling station on State Route 161,
where the English paid twenty-nine cents a gallon to fuel their fancy cars. Cookie-cutter English
houses on postage-stamp lots rubbed elbows with imposing English churches topped with showy
bells and steeples. A row of red-brick storefronts marched proudly along West Main Street. The
glare of shop lights was absent, but Betsie could almost hear the evil crackle of electricity as it
surged through the ugly wires overhead.
A red traffic light commanded a stop. Betsie glanced at the Seth Thomas clock
ensconced in the white cupola in the center of town: ten past six on a Monday morning. She
gritted her teeth and faced front so that her bonnet served as blinders to block out the English
world as much as possible. Common sense reminded her it was much too early for the lazy
English to shop for their store-bought goods—the English, who already had everything they had
ever desired, anyway. Ach, they weren’t going to get her parents, too.
“Dat, please don’t you and Mem leave the Amish,” she burst out. “How can you ignore
what you promised on your knees before the church, long before I was born?”
“Betsie, Betsie.” Her father’s grizzled beard dragged against his suspenders as he shook
his head. “Now that we know the truth and hold it dear in our hearts, Mem and I will follow
Jesus wherever He leads. He knows how sorry we are that we didn’t follow Him sooner.” Dat
sighed. “I pray you and Sadie will follow Him, too. Come with us to Belle Center, Dechder.”
“Never.” The buggy rolled onto Railroad Street. The train depot loomed ahead, and in
front of it steamed the black beast that would carry her parents away forever.
