Bethy's Heart's Hideout (Amish Circle Series Book 4) Read Free Page A

that it was going to take place at some point in the next twelve hours or so.
    He was furious about the move. He couldn’t figure out why his parents felt the need to turn their backs on the world even further and become Amish again. Life as a Modern Mennonite was hard enough, he felt. Mark always felt like he was living in a different world than his Englisch friends. They never made fun of his clothing, his language or the various restrictions he was dealing with but he knew that they made him different than the other kinder at his school and he hated that.
    Ach, I don’t understand why they need to live this way and then send me to an Englischer school.   All of my friends are off enjoying themselves before they leave for college, and what do I get? My parents deciding that they aren’t religious enough! Deciding that they need to change everything and turn their backs on the world. Well, maybe not the entire world. Just all of the fun stuff, the stuff that makes life worth living .
    Mark jumped up and began to pace around his room. He was so angry he felt like he could spit nails. He had been in a bad mood ever since his parents had announced that they wanted to convert from being Mennonite to being Amish. From what Mark could see, being Amish was just like being a Mennonite but with any fun or enjoyment in life sucked out of the experience.
    I wanted to drive but ach, nee, I don’t get to do that. Soon I’m going to be driving a buggy and my friends will all be driving cars. I wanted to stay in school and go to college but ach, nee, I don’t get to do that. Colleges are too worldly, and Amish people don’t go that far in school. What am I supposed to do? Sit at home on the farm all day and... his mind raced as he tried to figure out a suitably agricultural activity. Sit at home and thresh wheat? How dare my parents do this to me? Why would my father want to go back to the land? Or do whatever it is he says he’s going to do?
    He looked around his room. There wasn’t much in it. It was easy to see the marks on the walls where his posters had been taken down and there were a few dusty squares that still marked the spots where his television and telephone had sat until very recently. They had vanished along with his Englischer clothing and what was left of his hope that this was all just a bad dream.
    Mark was completely jealous of his school friends. They were all Englischers and didn’t have to worry about people making fun of their parents, their clothing or their language. They didn’t have to feel self-conscious when their teachers wanted to meet their parents. Mark did. He had always been very aware of how different his parents looked and acted and now, now they wanted to take their lifestyle to an even more extreme level.
    He turned down his music and walked over to the window, looking out at the neighborhood where they had been living. It was about half an hour away from where the Amish lived and they had always grown up seeing what their distant religious brethren were up to. Mark had also heard the other kinder chuckling about how backward members of the Amish community were and he couldn’t stand the thought that soon, they would be thinking the same thing about him. More than anything, Mark just wanted to have his life back and feel like he was back in control.
    He wanted to make sure he knew when his mother and father were getting back. They had already taken all of his modern electronics and gadgets and would have taken his radio as well but it was small and he had managed to tuck it away in a secret spot before his parents had come to clear out his room. They had assumed he was being honest with them and hadn’t searched very carefully. Mark did feel a little bit bad about lying to them but it was more important to him at that time to keep some part of his old life with him.
    The clothes he was wearing were uncomfortable. He was fairly sure that it wasn’t just because they were new and had not