Desolation

Darla felt as if she were in a dream-like state, for in what seemed another instant, she was seated, alone with the Teacher. She was light-headed, like the time some of her friends in high school had persuaded her to try pot and she got so dizzy she fell and smashed open her head, earning her five stitches and the ire of her parents. She willed herself to stay alert to the Teacher in this smoky, candlelit room. Please don’t pass out, she told herself, struggling to focus on this man. With a jolt she realized, just then, she was in his bedroom. Her chair was facing his bed and he was in an arm chair at the bed’s foot, facing her. He was wearing garish silk pajamas, his legs casually crossed, a vision of a young Hugh Hefner—like on that dumb cable show, The Girls Next Door—without the pipe and naked nubile women about. He looked at her, relaxed, waiting, as if he had posed a question and was expecting her answer.

“Sorry, wha-what did you ask?”

He stood and poured wine into her glass. She almost dropped it, unaware until then that she even held one. Was the wine drugged?

“You were telling me about your family, Bill, Lisa, and Sally, and how you were separated,” he said, standing beside her.

She looked up and replied, “I was?” The hand holding the glass began releasing its grip.

He grabbed her hand, startling her back to this foggy reality, and held her glass and hand steady.

“Why am I here?” she said as she pushed up from her chair, letting go of his hand and her glass, almost falling over. Her legs were like gelatin, undulating, almost too weak to support her weight. She braced herself on the arm of her chair.

“Sit! We were just getting to know each other.” He set his glass down and grabbed her arm, supporting her again. “Is your mother as beautiful as you?”

She could smell sour wine on his warm breath. She had to get out before something awful happened.

He now held both her arms and stared into her eyes.

During her freshman year, her anorexic roommate had taught her how to regurgitate her food in an instant—some sort of mind-over-matter thing that she mastered. It had come in handy once when a blind date attempted to rape her…

His face moved in closer to hers.

She thought of the most disgusting thing she could ever imagine. Right now, that was biting into and eating a rat.

He started kissing her lips.

She vomited the spiked wine, the beef stroganoff MRE dinner from an hour ago, even the green licorice treats Danny and she had enjoyed hours before dinner.

He pushed back, almost knocking her over, spitting and wiping his eyes and face. “Franklin!” he yelled. “Franklin, get in here!”

The door burst open and in rushed another GA uniformed man, a rifle slung over his shoulder, ready to use.

“Take this volunteer back to her tent. In the morning, she will join the rest of our recruits. Make sure she remembers her commitment to us.”

Franklin grabbed Darla’s arm and practically carried her out of the room. On the way to the stairs, they passed a pretty, red-headed young woman wearing a negligée, whose face and posture said something different than her clothing. Darla stopped, Franklin’s grip loosening, turned and slurred to the back of the woman’s springy-curls, “Don’ drink th’wine, it drugged.”

Franklin tugged on her arm roughly and she left the same way she came in. Although her head was still a little foggy, she was no longer unsure of her next actions. She was grabbing Danny and they were leaving immediately.

~~~

Of course, that didn’t happen. They had already taken Danny and told her that it was for his own good, and hers. They had a nurse watching him to make sure he didn’t have any further asthma attacks. The threat was overt enough, and so she became one of God’s Army, armband and all. It wasn’t until almost twenty days later that they allowed her to see him. They had long since started their southward procession along the Illinois River, with their plan to head west to some yet-to-be-specified place. The Teacher, as everyone called him, this charismatic preacher on whom she had tossed so many cookies almost a month ago, told them all in a speech that God would protect them on their journey and others would give them what they wanted until they reached their final destination, a place that God would reveal to him in the fullness of time. Whatever that meant.

Until then, she could see Danny was being cared for, they were being fed, the Teacher never made any more unwanted passes, and they were certainly much better off than many of the people and communities they came upon.