THEN WHAT HAPPENED?

One of the new hires was working in drive thru.

She was commenting how she just moved into town from LaCrete. My head whipped around so fast I almost gave myself whiplash!

“You’re Mennonite?” I asked.

She shook her head “my parents are I’m not.”

“Really, me too!” I began to grin “your parents didn’t send you to Prespatou?”

“No they sent me to my grandparents!” She huffed.

Another one of my teammates- Haley exclaimed “no! Not your grandparents!”

“Are you Mennonite?” The new girl asked.

Haley scoffed “no, my parents are!”

“What did you do to get sent to your grandparents?” I asked.

The girl rolled her eyes. “My mom caught me watching Vampire Diaries!”

“No!” I was scandalized. “Not Vampire diaries!”

I couldn’t help it I was laughing. “How are you still living!”

“That’s not the worst part! She saw the Maleficent poster in my room! The horns!”

Haley and I were enjoying ourselves reminiscing about how our backgrounds were similar to the new girl’s.

“So they sent you to the grandparents”

“They look through my phones and laptop. My grandpa had a meltdown when he saw what was on my phone!” She went on.

“My mom had a stroke when I said Damn” I said.

“My mom wouldn’t let me wear tank tops or leggings. Only frilly dresses” Haley shook her head.

“My parents wanted me to marry a guy from LaCrete!” I shuddered.

“Oh wow. Sorry about that. I have a second laptop that I carry around” the new girl sighed.

It was nice talking to another Mennonite girl. Many of my friends have either married or went back home to the colony.

I think every Mennonite child was threatened with “if you don’t behave you will go to your grandparents!”

No tv. No music. Early rising. Just working on the farm.

I didn’t mind. I loved baking and reading. Playing in the fields.

Mennonites are different levels of conservative. Some don’t mind the modernization creeping into their colony some are so against it they ostracized those who don’t follow their way.

I often observe how different LaCrete and Prespatou are. If one was to make the comparison…LaCrete consider themselves high society and Prespatou the dregs.

LaCrete is a pretty successful town compared to Prespatou. Men don’t want to marry women from Prespatou and women from Prespatou consider marrying into a LaCrete family? They hit the big time!- just my observation from friends of friends.