Page 49 of Prodigal Son

“Recently. I’ve been on this road. I know it.”

“You mean this week? We’re like two hours from Jim Thorpe.”

Geographically, it didn’t make sense, but something in her gut felt right. Or she was going crazy. Great, now she was losing trust in herself. “Pull over.”

He barely had the car stopped before Destiny jumped out. Small houses dotted the property, and colorful quilts flew in the breeze like sails sewn of rainbows.

Vito got out of the car and hustled after her. “D, wait up.”

She stood on the edge of a gravel path meeting the paved road they had been driving on.

“I’ve been here.” She turned in a circle. “Here. I stood in this exact spot.” The memory was slippery like a fish under murky water, but she was sure of it. She followed the path walking at a clipped pace.

“Where are you going? This is somebody’s private property.” Her brother huffed after her.

She couldn’t slow down. The deeper onto the property she traveled, the more familiar it felt. “It’s like déjà vu. I can’t place it, but I recognize it.” Not the buildings or the land, but something else. An essence or a feeling. Inexplicable fear and nostalgia rolled into one.

“Destiny, will you hold up a second?” Vito speed walked beside her, huffing under the extra weight he’d put on recently.

Her eyes searched the land. “I need to talk to someone.”

“Who? Look at the clothes lines. Only the Amish do laundry like that in the dead of winter. They don’t speak English. They speak some Dutch Pig Latin German.” The path sloped up a large hill, and he grabbed her arm. “Will you listen to me? We can’t bother these people.”

He was right. She knew it was wrong to trespass. The Amish were extremely private people, but she needed some answers. She wasn’t even sure what questions she might ask, but something told her she needed to find someone.

“I have to do this, Vito. Go back to the car if you want, but I’m not leaving before I speak to someone.”

Distant voices traveled over the land from the valley below, and she continued up the hill. When she reached the summit, she froze.

“Whoa.” Vito caught his breath at her side. “Destiny, we don’t belong here. Look at them.”

Amish children dressed in black, blue, and mauve scattered around a quaint schoolhouse with a copper bell by the door. The girls were cloaked in black and the boys wore wide brimmed hats.

Vito sighed. “I really don’t feel right about this.”

She hesitated. There was something sacred about this place, something completely contrary to her and her strip club bouncer brother. “I…” She didn’t know how to explain the pull she felt. It was like something was literally calling to her. “I feel like this is right, Vito. In my bones and my blood. That’s the only way I can explain it.”

He looked unsure. “Fine, but I’m not letting you go down there alone.”

“They’re Amish.”

“So? Remember that big coke ring they busted a few years back. Amish clothes could cover a world of sin if you really think about it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You need to start watching something other than crime shows. It’s making you weird.”

She crested the hill and headed toward the homes. The moment they shifted downhill she felt exposed. The children returned to the schoolhouse and all signs of life disappeared, but she sensed people watching them—like the first time Dorothy arrived in Oz when all the munchkins hid in the gardens and closed the shutters.

“That house looks impressive. Maybe we should start there.”

They were all large and beautifully crafted in a colonial style. The one Vito pointed to didn’t strike her as familiar, but it was bigger than the rest, attached to a meeting house of sorts that looked official. Maybe someone important lived there—someone with answers.

The sun was getting close to the horizon, and it would be dark in an hour. There were no phone lines or exterior lighting on the houses. Everything was simplified down to the bare essentials.

The wood of a large wrap around porch creaked underfoot as they approached the door. She glanced at Vito, now feeling foolish for having dragged him there with no real plan. She knocked on the door and they waited.

When no one answered, she knocked again, strongly considering if this was a mistake. Finally, the door opened and a striking woman in a bonnet appeared.

“Hi, I’m Destiny Santos and I was wondering if you could—”

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