by H. D. Gordon
Kyle looked at me with obvious guilt written on his face. “I hope you know how sorry I am to involve you in this, but I had no one else to come to. Apparently, the authorities can’t just go in and take Kayla out, since she’s technically not being held against her will, and if you can get close to her, you may be able to talk some sense into her. She’s always loved you.”
I thought of the drawing in my pocket, of all the little shapes under those stark white sheets, and gave Kyle a weak smile. “Actually, y-you made my job easier,” I said, speaking slowly to get the words out. “I wuh-would’ve gone in eh-anyway. Least now I nuh-know what I’m walking into.”
Michael took my hand then. “At least we know what we’re walking into,” he said. “And it sounds like that’s half the battle.”
Mr. Landry spoke for the first time in what seemed like a while. “No, it ain’t,” he said. “His strength is in his numbers. You have to remember, it’s not just the reverend you need to watch out for, but every one of his followers as well. You gotta understand, the rose colored glasses over their eyes have tinted their whole world in red. We’ll need to move cautiously. They won’t be seeing things the way we will.”
Kyle was nodding. “That’s the thing,” he said. “They won’t be seeing things at all.”
Chapter 13
Christine
One could see how she was excited. It was like that feeling she used to get as a child—back before her parents had kicked her out and forsaken her—on the day of her birthday parties. It was a sort of happy that was hanging over her, even as she rose early to drop Maddie off at the Ranch’s child center so she could begin her assigned tasks of the day. Tonight, Christine would meet the man who had made all of this possible.
She had to admit, she still had her reservations, but as she became comfortable in her routine here at the Ranch, she found herself being incredibly grateful to have gotten away from the loser that was Madison’s father. She had forgotten how wonderful life could be when she wasn’t living in constant fear. Sure, the chores she had to do to “pull her own weight” were tedious, and she found herself yawning a lot during the day from staying up late and waking up early, but really, she was grateful for the discipline, for the sense of family and purpose. She hadn’t been able to recognize that every time that prick laid his hands on her, he’d been knocking out some of her self-worth. Every day that passed while here at the Ranch seemed to give that back to her bit by bit.
She would be sure to thank the reverend for that when she met him.
The day passed by slowly, as days do when the coming night holds promises of excitement, but it did eventually pass. Christine had learned that chores were light on Sundays, to make way for the service that would be held at the big white house across the lake, so she picked up Madison at the child center around five o’ clock so they could go to the cafeteria and have an early dinner before the sermon began. Missus Dorie had told her she didn’t have to attend if she didn’t want to, but how could she not? How could she not be curious about this “Father” everyone was always talking about?
Christine was rather preoccupied with her thoughts, so she didn’t really take notice of her daughter’s silence until about halfway through their meal—which, of course, was free. Everything at the Ranch was free. Or so Christine believed, anyway.
“Hey, my love,” Christine said. “You’ve been kind of quiet. Everything okay?”
The little girl lifted her shoulders in a shrug. Her voice was nearly a whisper when she spoke, and her eyes darted around as if someone might be listening. “How long are we gonna stay here, mommy?” Maddie asked. “I miss daddy.”
Like that, Christine’s happiness evaporated. No wonder the child was behaving strangely; she was missing her father. Guilt fell over Christine. She’d been so wrapped up in her own feelings she hadn’t put enough consideration into Maddie’s. She had no doubt she was doing the right thing by getting her little girl out of the situation they’d been in, but that didn’t mean the right thing would be easy. Especially for poor Maddie.
Still, she didn’t know how to answer that question. How was she supposed to tell her daughter—who had every right to miss her daddy—that they were not going back? Not to him. Not ever. Did the words even exist that could make a child understand the reasons behind such a decision? Christine didn’t think so.
“Oh, honey,” she said, placing her hand over Maddie’s small one. “I know this is—”
“Good evening, family.”
The voice came over the load speakers, which appeared to be in every corner of the Ranch, or at least all the parts Christine had seen. A young girl—Fae, she thought her name was—had told her the speakers were for emergencies, like tornados and other important announcements. But this was the first time she’d heard someone use the sound system since she’d arrived two nights ago. It was not a voice she recognized, but it had a certain quality to it that made her sit up and listen. It cut her off mid-sentence. Actually, it seemed to cut off all the conversation going on in the cafeteria, a silence falling over the hundred or so people all around her, all eyes going up to the speakers simultaneously.
Christine offhandedly recognized the synchronized motion as creepy, but the thought was shoved out quickly as she listened to what the voice coming out of the speakers had to say.
“I do hope y’all have had a fine day, and are as excited to hear the words of the Lord this lovely evening as I am to deliver them.”
Christine looked around at the other people in the cafeteria. They did look excited. Smiles had broken out on almost everyone’s faces, and hallelujahs were shouted out with passion. Christine barely noticed that Maddie’s fingers had tightened around her own, that the girl’s back had gone ramrod straight…just like everyone else in the room. Like soldiers standing at attention. She barely noticed because her thoughts were elsewhere. They were with the faceless voice that was purring over the sound system, straightening her posture as well, without her knowing it. Could this be the reverend, the Father everyone was talking about?
As he spoke once more, she knew it had to be. It was like she could feel it in her gut.
“Hope to see you there, children…especially those of you who are new to the family. Peace be with you.”
There was an audible click, and the voice was gone. Things in the large cafeteria flipped back to their normal, casual setting as though a switch had been flicked. Small groups resumed their conversations, and people began eating their food again. When Christine looked back down at her daughter, she was surprised to see her wide-eyed. Then she remembered she hadn’t addressed Maddie’s question before that caramel voice cut her off.
She pulled the girl to her in a hug and ran her hand through her honey brown hair. “Honey, mommy’s…not really sure of…anything right now. I’m trying to figure things out. Please, just know that both mommy and daddy love you very much…and everything will turn out okay in the end. I promise.”
Around them, others were getting up from their tables, disposing of their trash and taking their used dishes to the big wash basin, where even Christine spent an hour each day washing dishes. Maddie stood up from their table and tugged at her mother’s arm. “Come on,” she said. “We better go.”
Christine rose from her seat and hugged her daughter one last time. “Trust me, okay, Maddie?”
“Okay, mommy.”
They followed the crowd out of the main building that housed the cafeteria and onto the sprawling green lawn that made up the Ranch’s center. The Ranch was more like a small town than a farm. There was a medical center where one of six nurses were always present to give care, a cafeteria where one could go for three meals each day. It had a library in the main house, a basketball court, and plenty of bunks for everyone. Sure, it wasn’t ideal to be sleeping in a room with four other women and two other children she didn’t know, but it sure beat the shit out of having the shit beat out of you.
This thought made her smile as she crossed t
he land, her eyes fixed on the big white house across the lake. Of all the structures on the property that Christine had seen, this was by far the most grand and beautiful. It looked like one of those old plantation houses, with large pillars holding up an enormous porch. Carefully placed lights lit up the face of it in a yellow glow that radiated in the soft, early evening light. All around them, people were pouring out of the various little buildings and heading toward the big white house. Crickets chirped in the warm summer air, and children giggled as they raced each other to the destination. The way to the house was a well-worn path, along which dozens of lanterns had been strung. Everyone followed it, and Christine and Maddie found themselves swept along down it the way a piece of wood will be swept down a river.
Despite all her worries, there were butterflies in Christine’s stomach as she and Maddie drew closer and closer to the temple. There was a current of energy in the air that was almost palpable, that could not be denied. She was still skeptical, sort of expecting disappointment of some kind, as her life’s experiences had taught her, but she was ready to see what all the fuss was about.
She was ready to meet the man they called Father.
Chapter 14
Joe
“Hey, you okay? You sure you’re ready for this?” Michael asked.
We were nearing Sandersville, where Heaven’s Temple had its home base. Michael was behind the wheel of my El Camino, the decidedly less conspicuous car between it and his Lexus. Mr. Landry had left ten minutes before us, and had probably already arrived at the church, which was something I’d protested, and been overruled. So, no, I wasn’t really okay. And I darn sure wasn’t ready for this.
I nodded.
Michael gave me a dubious look. “Well, don’t worry,” he said. “This is just reconnaissance. I mean, you don’t think your drawing is going to happen tonight…do you? You said it wouldn’t be for at least a few more days, right? Next week, probably?”
“Not t-t-tonight,” I agreed, cringing at my inability to get the two words out. Usually my impediment didn’t bother me, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little self-conscious around Michael.
His warm hand covered mine. “Right, so we’ll just get a feel for the whole situation, and be home in time for a late dinner. I promise I won’t leave your side.” He smiled over at me. “Besides, this is one of the services he’s invited the public to, so I’m pretty sure this reverend will be on his best behavior tonight.”
“Wuh-what makes you think th-that?”
His smile was gone now. “I stayed up most of the night and woke up early to read about these cult leaders,” he said, a rare look of distaste on his handsome face. “If I’m right, your drawing is going to happen to those already inside. Tonight is about recruiting new people.” He paused, the way he always did when he was about to say something slightly poetic. “Tonight is when the wolf pulls the wool over our eyes.” One side of his mouth pulled up as he looked at me. “Or tries to, anyway.”
I knew this was meant to comfort me, but as we pulled up to the address from the yellow flyer, our vehicle one of many in a line of cars passing through a tall wooden gate with a white painted sign over the top that read The Family Ranch, where two rather large young men were directing parking, a sinking feeling struck me in the gut. I was stuck on one part of what Michael had said.
Your drawing is going to happen to those already inside.
That sinking feeling may have been just my nerves. I certainly cast it off as such at the time. Looking back, I would wonder if it were not a little part of my gift, because the next time I passed under that white painted sign, I would be alone.
I would be inside.
Chapter 15
Christine
Despite the way the crowd was buzzing around her, Christine was a little disappointed as she walked into the temple for the first time. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t what she got, which was a house that had been reconstructed to open into one really large room with high ceilings and white walls. A deep red runner led down the center of the room, which was filled to capacity with dark wooden pews. Copies of the bible lined the backs of them. Directly ahead, there was a small stage with a pulpit, behind which there was a large golden cross on which hung the Savior. The west side of the room was made almost completely of beautiful stained glass windows, and there was a small balcony overlooking the stage. Basically, it looked like a church.
Her eyes scanned the stage. Missus Dorie was up there, setting up a pitcher of water and a glass on the podium. The older woman caught Christine’s eye and waved happily. Christine grinned and returned it, her other hand holding Maddie’s, who was silent by her side.
There were two closed doors behind the pulpit. Christine bet that was where he would come from. The house was too big to be just this one room, so those two doors probably led to his living quarters. She found herself wondering what the rest of the place looked like, and if she would ever get a chance to see it.
The room filled quickly and fully. In fact, by the time the choir—made up of mostly young black women—started up, there had to be at least four hundred people packed into the space, maybe more. Luckily, Christine found a spot on one of the pews near the middle, and she and Maddie took seats. After all pews were filled, people of all ages and colors took up positions in the aisles and against the walls. Christine had gone to church most all of her life, but this was by far the largest, most diverse crowd she had ever seen at a service. And, as the older black woman sitting in a wheel chair in the aisle next to her grabbed her hand and said, “Welcome, child”, Christine thought it was the friendliest as well. Everyone in the room seemed to be in high spirits, and it radiated out of them and seeped into Christine. It was like she could taste the…happy in the air.
As the choir quieted their soulful rendition of Jesus Loves Me This I Know, a woman Christine didn’t know crossed the pulpit. An excited buzz ran through the crowd, and someone shouted out, “Peace be with you, Mother!” Several similar calls followed it, and the woman stopped to hug Missus Dorie before coming to the podium and speaking softly into the microphone.
She looked to be late forties-early fifties, and was a petite, sort of round woman with a stylishly short hairdo and tasteful makeup adorning her still-pretty face. Her voice fit her appearance. It was a gentle voice…a motherly voice. “Peace be with you as well, my family,” the woman said. “We are so pleased you have found your way to us this evening, whether it be in good times or in bad.”
All around her people held their hands in the air while others shouted hallelujah.
Christine leaned over to the old woman in the wheelchair next to her. “Who’s that?” she whispered.
The woman placed her wrinkled hand over Christine’s and grinned, a glint in her glossy eyes. “That’s Father’s wife, Missus Sharon,” she said, her accent telling of her southern Missouri roots. “But mosta us jus’ call her Mother.”
Christine smiled her thanks, but thought it odd to hear someone so old call a woman who was at least thirty years her junior “mother”. The thought escaped her as the choir kicked up again and the woman on stage introduced the man they had all come to see.
One would’ve thought she was introducing Jesus himself with the way the room erupted. It was so intense that she got a light feeling in her chest just being in the middle of such energy. Every person, young and old, black and white, came to their feet, and Christine Mattock and her daughter followed suit, clapping their hands along with the rest of the Family as the reverend took the stage.
Chapter 16
Joe
Michael kept a good hold of my hand as we followed the crowd of people exiting their cars and walking up to the big white house that I assumed served as the temple. I was grateful for this. For whatever reason, I hadn’t expected there to be such a large crowd here. Seeing all of them herd toward the white house like sheep made my stomach twist in the worst of ways.
Of course, M
ichael picked up on my feelings. As we climbed the wide steps of the house’s enormous porch, he leaned over and whispered, “Reconnaissance, remember?”
I squeezed his hand and nodded in answer as we were ushered along by the crowd the way a fish is moved along by a net. Kyle had assured us that Kayla wouldn’t be here, but I looked around for her anyway, and couldn’t find her. According to Kyle, the church no longer let his sister come to the public sermons since the last time he’d turned up and tried to convince her to leave with him. To make a long story short, his efforts didn’t go too well, and he’d ended up looking like a crazy person.
We climbed the porch steps shoulder to shoulder with those around us, and as I entered the church for the first time, I saw that the situation was no different inside. The large room was packed to capacity with all kinds of people, which was odd for this southern part of the state. It wasn’t civil war times or anything, but even in this day and age, many Missourians weren’t exactly known for their progressiveness.
