The Wings of Morning by Murray Pura Page B

detention until the matter of their enlistment was settled.
    Lyyndaya opened the screen door and ran down the front steps to the buggy where her father waited, holding the reins. Her mother kissed her on the cheek. Ruth stepped from the barn as they swept down the drive and waved, calling out, “
Geht mit Gott
.” Lyyndaya settled the wicker picnic basket, covered by a green checkered tablecloth, into her lap of black apron, navy-blue dress, and long black coat.
    As they approached the railway station she saw the locomotive taking on water and coal and building up a head of steam. The other families were already there standing in a cluster on the depot platform. From the Zook family, Emma would be there, not the bishop as everyone had expected. He had expressed his contentment that Pastor Miller would be traveling with the group. His presence was, then, unnecessary. The fathers of David Hostetler and Jacob Beiler would be going as well. The mother of Jonathan Harshberger would join them.
    Lyyndaya had no business going on this trip, not having family at the army base where the Amish men were detained. But Jude’s father had said he felt poorly and asked her to go in his stead, telegraphing this change in plans to the military—they were permitting only one family member to visit each of the young men. Mr. Whetstone stood on the platform with the others and turned and smiled as the buggy approached, Old Oak tossing his head and whinnying at the other horses.
Mr. Whetstone does not look ill
, Lyyndaya thought as she smiled back,
but then who believed he was truly badly off to begin with?
    When Lyyndaya approached Jude’s father, he pressed a wooden object into her hands and said, “Give my son this.” It was a model of an aeroplane.
    Lyyndaya turned the model over in her hand. “It’s not like the plane Jude flies.”
    “No, this is the 1903
Flyer
, the plane the Wright brothers managed to get aloft near Kitty Hawk. I will say it is a copy of the first real plane. Do you know about that?”
    Lyyndaya shook her head. “Was it you who made this for him?”
    “
Ja
. When he was eight. After he had seen an aeroplane for the first time. He just calls it ‘Kitty Hawk’ or ‘Kitty.’”
    She tucked it carefully under the checkered cloth of her picnic basket. “He will love it.” She touched his arm. “Thank you—Mr. Whetstone—for allowing me this opportunity to see Jude.”
    He nodded. “Tell him I am praying for him. He will be all right.” Then he shrugged. “He doesn’t need to see an old broken down plow horse like me. Not when he has the two Amish beauties of Paradise to preoccupy him.”
    “Emma and I shall do our best to cheer him up.”
    “For him to see you, Lyyndaya, you alone, would be enough.”
    Just then the conductor announced, “All aboard!” and there were last-minute goodbyes and hugs all around as the travelers made their way onto the train.
    Lyyndaya and Emma found seats facing one another and settled in for the two-hour trip.
    “Will he have lost weight, do you think?” asked Emma. “It’s been over a month and I never hear good things about army food.”
    “I hope he’s just the same. He has nothing extra to lose.”
    “Yes, I know, he is perfect, thank God.” Emma lifted her own wicker basket that was covered by a solid yellow cloth and almost twice as large as Lyyndaya’s. “Between the pair of us we can fatten him up, if necessary.”
    “What do you have in there? A roast ox?”
    Emma laughed. “Remember, I’m packing for two—Hosea and Jude.”
    Lyyndaya let out a puff of air in a quiet sigh. “Let’s just hope the army will permit us to give him all of it. I’ve heard stories about them confiscating food meant for prisoners.”
    Emma’s eyes became a dark jade color and her lips formed a line as straight as a ruler. Her good humor had instantly vanished as if in a gust of cold November wind. “He will have all of it. He is an American citizen. They cannot deny