Huckleberry Summer by Jennifer Beckstrand Read Free Book Online Page A

unusually long eyelashes. Aden sat down, and the boy immediately turned to him and stuck out his hand. “Tyler Yoder.” He had a firm handshake and a confident, serious air about him.
    Aden smiled. “Aden Helmuth.”
    Tyler looked at the peanut butter sandwich on Aden’s plate. “I hear you only eat vegetables.”
    Aden chuckled. “Nae, I don’t eat meat. But I eat most everything else.”
    “Peanut butter?”
    “Jah.”
    Tyler studied Aden’s face and nodded. “You have a heart for the animals.”
    Aden almost dropped his jaw. Tyler was the first Amish person Aden had encountered who didn’t act like he thought being a vegetarian was strange. Tyler seemed to understand or at least refrained from passing judgment on Aden’s choices.
    “There are a lot of reasons to be a vegetarian,” Aden said. “But yes, I’d rather not see any living thing die for my eating pleasure.”
    “You take after your dawdi,” Tyler said. “Felty has been known to catch spiders in his house and set them free in the woods.”
    “Jah. I am very like my dawdi, bless his heart.”
    “Are you an environmentalist?” Tyler asked.
    Again, Aden couldn’t hide his surprise. “I didn’t think any Plain people knew what that meant.”
    Tyler’s eyes seemed to smile although his lips stayed put. “I dabble in stuff like that.”
    “Really?”
    “My dat and I have an organic dairy. Organic milk sells for almost twice what you can get for regular milk.”
    Aden’s heart swelled at the thought of someone he might be able to relate to. “I’m hoping to have my own organic farm someday if I can find a gute piece of property.”
    Tyler lifted his eyebrows. “No joking? My dat will want to meet you. We’ve read some books, but I don’t wonder if you know some things we haven’t thought of.”
    “Probably not, but I’d love to hear all about your dairy.”
    Tyler put a hand on Aden’s shoulder. “We can help each other. I know I could learn a lot from an environmentalist.”
    Aden grinned. “I’m more of a conservationist than an environmentalist. Environmentalists seem to want to pick fights. I don’t want to quarrel with anybody.”
    “Are you coming to the gathering next week? It’s at my house. We can talk more then.”
    “I wasn’t going to. I’m not one of those boys that everybody likes to have around.”
    “Now I know you’re joking.” Tyler, still excessively somber, pointed to a group of girls huddled in the corner, whispering and giggling as only teenagers could. “The girls have talked about no one else since you’ve been here. They think you’re handsome.”
    “Have they heard about my wicked past?”
    “You mean about getting chained to a tree?” Tyler asked.
    Aden raised an eyebrow.
    “Lily told me. That’s how I knew you were an environmentalist, or, I mean, conservationist. You were trying to save the tree, weren’t you?”
    Aden nodded.
    Tyler raised an eyebrow. “It doesn’t seem to bother those girls over there.”
    “It’s their faters who have issues with me.”
    Lily, with her blue dress and flaxen hair, passed their table with an armload of paper plates. The special girl followed close behind, as if Lily carried the sun in her pocket. Lily glanced in Aden’s direction but otherwise took no notice of him. “And Lily Eicher. She is bothered by my police record.”
    “Jah, that kind of thing would spook Lily. But don’t despair. Once she decides to be friends with you, there is no one more loyal or more kind.”
    “It doesn’t matter. Her fater has ordered her to stay away from me.”
    Tyler coughed as he swallowed a bite of pickle too fast. “David Eicher is a gute fater. He lost his brother several years ago, and the experience made him doubly protective of his daughters. But he has a gute heart, and Lily would do anything to please him. I like that about her. She’s not one to kick against the pricks.”
    Jah, Lily held strictly to the letter of the law, and Aden could