by Nora Martin
The men around the room were nodding. Rob looked more relaxed.
“Rob is a witness to the conspirators in Idaho and their infiltrators, funded by Jew-owned banks, who are pushing their way into every part of our region.” Lonn spoke in a quiet voice, leaning his elbows on his knees. “It’s part of their plan to take over our country.”
He held out his hand as if we were all balanced on his palm. I stared at his fingers, stained from working on car engines—especially the creases, which glared black when he unfolded his hand. He was so intense. His eyes, his face, his whole body radiated what he was saying.
“The Jews and their dark-skinned servants all wear the mark of Satan. They’re the Devil’s soldiers. And each of you has seen them, in our state, in our town.”
I didn’t know if I understood everything Lonn said, but I felt myself being drawn toward him. It was almost as if my chair actually inched forward, scraping through the sand that was sprinkled on the floor to cover the grease.
“The Bible foretells it,” Lonn continued. “Revelation, chapter thirteen, verse seventeen: ‘That no man might buy or sell, save he that has the mark of Satan.’ Unless you are in with the Jews, you will be locked out of the marketplace. Rob knows this.
“Tell me,” said Lonn. “Are any of you driving forty-thousand-dollar cars, with leather seats and phones? Do any of you own big houses on the hill, looking down on the rest of us?”
In that instant everything became crystal clear. He meant guys like Jason Johnson and our pig landlord. This I could understand. Lonn seemed to know about the kind of trouble David and I had at school. For the first time everything made sense. There was a reason for Dad losing his job. There was a reason for everyone hating us.
Lonn’s voice grew louder. “The Jew banks are taking control with their credit cards and computers, making the people slaves with their debt. They’re taking over the government in the same way: international loans, trillion-dollar deficit. These are the signs the Bible tells us to look for.”
I glanced over at David. As usual, there he was picking at his fingernails, not seeming to listen to a word Lonn was saying. I wanted to shake him. It was no wonder Chuck and Travis didn’t like him.
With an abruptness that made me forget David, Lonn was suddenly talking right to me. He sent his words straight into my face. “You are the warrior.” I felt what he said like a dry pill inching its way down my throat. I was.
“Together,” he went on, “we can halt this advance of the enemy. We might have to start small, digging the dirt out from under their position. But sooner or later we will have dug a pit and they will fall.”
I wanted Jason Johnson and the people who bowed down to his kind, like Principal Harrison, to feel the bite. Finally Lonn looked away. But I knew he had more to say to me.
When the meeting finally closed and chairs rattled I headed directly for Lonn. Just as fast Chuck and Travis were standing in front of me, like a door that had to be unlocked.
“Campbell, we’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Travis said in a careful voice.
I kept trying to look beyond them to where Lonn was talking and shaking hands. I saw him put his hand on the new man, Rob. “I want to talk to Lonn.” I tried to use a determined voice.
“Then stay awhile,” Chuck said. “We’re going to meet with him after everybody else leaves.”
“Why not now?” I insisted.
“Everybody has to wait their turn,” Chuck said. He was dead serious. “You’ll be glad if you wait.”
The words came floating to me in a haze, pulling me away from Lonn and making me focus on what Chuck was saying. “Yeah?” I asked.
Travis laughed and shared a look with Chuck. “You think Ben would want to come along tonight?”
I was shifting my weight from foot to foot with an eagerness I couldn’t hide.
“I think he may,” Chuck said.
“Sounds good,” I said.
From behind me I felt David join us. Chuck and Travis turned away.
“What were you talking about with those guys?” David asked.
“I’m going to hang around with Chuck and Travis for a while. Help Lonn out,” I told David.
He shrugged. “How are you going to get home?”
“Chuck will give me a ride,” I said.
“Fine,” David said. But I heard the same old jealous anger in his voice. “It can’t be any more boring than the meeting was.”
“How can you say that?” I was amazed that he didn’t get it. “Lonn is right! That’s why we’re living in a rusting tin can while RETCHes like Jason Johnson get away with beating the crap out of anyone they want.”
“It always sounds too much like religious weirdo stuff,” David said.
Could David be so dense? The truths were sliding through my brain. “Fine,” I said. “I guess that’s why Chuck asked me to stay tonight and not you.”
David left, angry.
As soon as the last of the men had gone Lonn came to where Chuck, Travis and I waited. He gently put his hand on my shoulder and looked at me the way he had earlier.
“Ben Campbell,” he said, smiling. “I’m glad to see you here tonight. I’ve had my eye on you since you started coming. And I like what I see.”
Then he turned to speak to the three of us. “It’s time to start letting people know we’re here.” Lonn handed Chuck a slip of paper. “They wear the mark,” he said. “I don’t expect anything big. Just something for them to think about. I’ll leave the details up to you.”
“What do you want us to do?” I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Chuck will fill you in. But . . .” He paused and smiled at me. “These activities must remain strictly within the chosen circle. No one else is to know. You don’t want people close to you to get hurt by something they’re not ready for. Their time will come. But the strong must lead the way.” When he finished, Lonn slid away through a side door.
I wondered what exactly Lonn meant by “their time will come.”
Squeezed into Chuck’s small car, I watched the moon follow us as if its glazing light were Lonn’s words. The car took a long time to warm up, and with the three of us inside, our breath gathered around. Travis scraped ice off the inside of the window as Chuck drove.
We stopped outside a small dark office just west of Main Street. The sign on the front wall read Cohen, Goldberg and Brown.
Chuck announced, “Here we go.”
They handed me a can of spray paint and I followed them. In two or three minutes they had painted Jew Pigs and Sucking Kikes in large letters on the door and walls of the building.
Then Chuck took a gas can from the trunk of his Ford and splashed the liquid on a car left parked in front of the office.
“Does that car belong to them?” I asked, nodding toward the office.
Chuck shrugged. “It’s here, isn’t it?” He handed me a book of matches. “Would you like the honor?”
I struck the match and felt its warmth on my hand as I protected the tiny flame. I tossed it gently onto the hood of the car and stepped back in wonder.
Chapter Three
Drifts
During the night the wind growled and spit dry snow. I heard it pushing through tree branches and throwing bits of loose junk around outside the trailer. Awake and listening, I thought of that flaming car and the heat against my skin. Making that car burn almost made up for every dirty look, every name hissed at me from under some creep’s breath. I could imagine the faces of the rich Jews when they came to work in the morning. I wanted to see it, and even considered skipping school to go. No one would think I was anyone but a passer-by. But then I remembered the in-school detention and knew that if I didn’t show up, I would really be in trouble. I was going to have to spend the day in a little room along with David, staring at Jason Johnson’s face.
Across from me, David was asleep in his bed. He had the blanket bunched tight around his neck, as if he were hiding from something. He had no i
dea what Chuck and Travis were into. But I was part of it, finally.
I planned to look for Chuck and Travis before detention. Even though they were too old for school they sometimes hung out in an empty lot across the street. I was eager for new plans.
In the morning when I looked at the clock it was seven-fifteen, late. Through the small window the light was already pasty gray. The wind still blew and I could feel it press on the trailer wall behind me. David’s bed was empty. Pushing myself out from under the blankets into the cold room was like pushing against the strong current of a river.
Out in the kitchen I asked Mom, “Where is everyone?”
“Your dad left already. He’s going to drop David off at school before meeting Lonn at the café.”
“Meeting with Lonn again? That was quick,” I said.
“He was so pleased when he came home last night,” Mom said. “I think things are going to be better for him.”
“You should have gotten me up,” I said.
“David mentioned you came in late, so I let you sleep a while longer.”
The same restlessness that I had felt the night before rumbled in me. If I was late for school, I wouldn’t have time to find Chuck and Travis. Then I would be confined to detention until three o’clock.
“Do you want some eggs?” Mom took slices of bread out of the toaster.
“No time,” I said. “I’ll take toast with me.”
Ten minutes later I was ready and pushed hard against the icy trailer door. As it opened it scraped flat the snow that had built up around the trailer in the short time since Dad and David had left. Outside, the wind tossed handfuls of snow in the air around me. Running to the truck, I couldn’t tell if it was still snowing or if the flakes were all windborne.
I was shivering hard, trying to get the truck to start. I could hardly wait to see Chuck and Travis. Just stay cool, I told myself. Don’t go looking like a fool in front of them. Don’t look too eager.
I plowed up the hill through the tide of the snowdrifts. In the rearview mirror I saw the wind push snow into the wheel tracks almost as fast as the truck made them. Even with the defroster on high the old Chevy couldn’t spit out enough air to warm me.
At the top of the hill the sky behind the mountains was layered pink and yellow. The rocky peaks looked like dark paper silhouettes against new light. I slowed down to take a look at Mason Road. It was just a one-lane shortcut through the fields. It rarely got plowed but I thought if I drove fast enough, I could crash through the drifts. Turning the truck in, I pushed hard over the first rise, sending dry snow flying like a geyser. On the other side of the hill I slammed on the brakes. Blocking the entire road in front of me was a small blue car. Trying to stop suddenly made the truck skid sideways, sending the rear end into the weed-stubbled snow.
What damn fool would drive that puny car on Mason today? I thought. It doesn’t even have four-wheel drive. I slapped the steering wheel in frustration. The nose of the car was half plunged into a drift. I wasn’t going to wait around to find out who the idiot was. I looked on either side of the road for a way around. But we were in a small ravine where steep banks rose on either side.
I put the truck in reverse; the tires spun but the truck stayed still. “Damn it all!” I yelled. Just a hundred yards beyond us the road widened again and had been plowed. But it might as well have been miles instead of yards.
Then I noticed the driver of the blue car standing quietly in the field a few feet from the road. The person gazed out toward the hills, wind whipping the fabric of his or her jacket. The sun was stretching its first fingertips over the surface of polished white.
I got out and started wading through piles of snow. Checking around the smaller vehicle, I tried to see how deep it was stuck. Mentally I measured the distance to the cleared road, wondering if the Chevy could push the little car that far.
“It’s so perfect,” I heard the person say from deep inside a large parka. I knew it was a girl’s voice, and she sounded young. “See how the wind has smoothed everything over, covering all the tracks and scars like a protective blanket. It’s a perfect snow.” The bulging blue coat arm swept over the field as she spoke.
It was unbelievable that this crazy person who had driven her tiny toy car head-on into a snowbank could stand there talking about the view.
“You know, this really isn’t a road,” I said.
The girl pushed her hood back and I saw she was about my own age. As she stepped closer to me I was surprised by how tall she was, almost up to my nose. She was as tall as my father.
But before I could even utter one semi-charming line she challenged me. “You’re driving on this road.” She had red-brown hair pulled away from her face and in a braid.
“You’re right!” I said with a smile meant to draw her in. “But my truck is twice as big and twice as heavy as your car.” To myself I added, And if you hadn’t been in my way, I would have made it.
She turned away. “I just love the way the snow hides the messes people make. It’s like getting a second chance.”
The sun rose over the rock edge of the eastern mountains and she raised her hand against the glare. I stared in amazement. Didn’t she care that she was blocking my way? “I suggest we think about getting you out or your car will be covered by that snow blanket, and you won’t find it again until June.”
“I drive this way because from this spot you can’t see anything but light and snow and rocks,” she went on as if she hadn’t heard me. “No house, no town, nothing out of place.”
“Except for your stranded car,” I added.
“The road was okay yesterday,” she said.
“The wind’s been blowing all night,” I told her. “And the road is lower here, so the snow gathers here and gets packed down.”
“I think I figured that out,” the girl said. “But thanks for telling me.”
“With chains on my truck I might be able to push you out.”
She looked me over then. “Great,” she said.
As she grinned I couldn’t help thinking that she wasn’t pretty, but there was something about her face I liked. Even with the smart mouth.
She walked beside me, talking as I went to get the shovel out of the truck. “Do you go to school in town? We just moved here from Michigan a couple of months ago. My parents built a house out on Lancy Road, down by the river. It’s my mom’s dream house. She always wanted to live in the country. It is beautiful compared to Flint. My mom’s a nurse and my dad’s starting a new company. He also works as an economic consultant until he gets the new business going.”
She talked all the way to the truck and back. I didn’t have to say a thing, so I just tried to look strong.
“Do you always keep a shovel in your truck?” she asked me. This time she waited for me to answer.
I leaned on the handle, breathing hard. “Are you sure you’re not from Mars instead of Flint? This is Montana. Everyone should carry a shovel, especially people who drive their cars fifty yards from any real road.”
The girl laughed. “You have to admit this is the prettiest place in the whole area. You can see every mountain for miles.” She spread her arms out wide and spun around.
I suddenly realized I was smiling back at her for real. This was near my favorite place too, the hill where it felt like I could take off flying.
After I finished clearing the snow from around the front of her car and putting chains on the rear wheels of the truck, I told her to get into her car. “Go slow but steady. I’ll push from behind. Just don’t slam on the brakes!”
It didn’t take long for her car to come free. She stopped when we reached the plowed road and came over to me.
“Thanks a lot for helping me,” she said. “By the way, my name’s Eden Taylor.”
“It was a pleasure rescuing you, Eden Taylor,” I said.
“Do you have a name?” she teased. “Or should I just call you My Hero if I see you again?”
“Being stuck in wea
ther like this is no joke,” I said more seriously. “You can get into trouble out here in winter. People have frozen to death in their cars.” I stopped when I saw she was about to break up laughing. Somehow when she teased, it didn’t feel like an insult.
“I am truly grateful,” Eden said. “And I promise I will only drive on real roads from now on. But I would like to know if you have a name.”
“Ben Campbell.”
“Ben. Short for Benjamin?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I bowed with exaggerated politeness.
“Well, Ben, maybe I’ll see you at school?” She said it as a question. She took off her coat and threw it on the backseat.
She did have a nice build.
“I’m usually there. Unless someone is blocking the road.”
“Then I’ll see you sometime.” She quickly jumped into her car and started in the direction of town.
For a moment I let myself enjoy the view. I’d earned it by digging her damned car out. I wondered if she really wanted to see me again. She had freckles spreading across her cheeks. But it was her green eyes that held me.
Wet and shivering, I followed in my truck.
By the time I arrived there was no sign of Chuck and Travis. Only ten minutes until classes began and I was to report to detention.
There were a lot of kids here I still didn’t recognize. I hadn’t remembered seeing Eden before, but after that morning I saw her everywhere. The first time was while I stood at my locker. My hands were still cold from all that shoveling. She came down the hall with two other girls.
“Hey, it’s my hero,” she said loudly.
“It’s the damsel in distress.” I showed her my red fingers. “Thanks to you taking the scenic route, I think I have frostbite.”
She laughed and told her friends how I had saved her from freezing to death just that morning.
Later, when David and I were released from the detention room to eat, I saw her in the cafeteria. She waved to me from a table.
“Who’s that?” David asked.
