Tears of the Silenced. Misty Griffin

services the Amish held every other week.

      We all hurried off to our beds. The parents slept downstairs while the children slept upstairs. Brian slept in eighteen-year-old Edward’s room while Edward bunked with his younger brothers

      “I don’t know what time you stand up at home,” Matty said in her Amish-accented English, “but we stand up at 4:30 a.m. here.”

      I looked at the alarm clock that was ticking on the dresser. It read 9:30 p.m.

      “That’s about what time we get up too,” I nodded, “but we usually go to bed much later.”

      “Oh, really?” Matty cocked her brow. “Well, when it gets high summer, we do too, but not now; it is not necessary.”