Chapter 18
The changes were immediate. If we had been in jail before, now we were in a high security prison. I had once seen a documentary with a cousin about those places, and my mother had been furious when she had found out. She said I was too small to know about such things yet. If only she had known that I would end up in a bigger nightmare than the one portrayed on TV.
Grinder had made good on his promise to make Paradise Village into a more secure police state. More low level elders walk the streets, making sure we're doing what we're supposed to and that we're where we're supposed to be. Eyes are constantly watching us. And I'm not just talking about the extra guards we now have.
They've picked a wife from every household, the meanest one, and made her the head-wife. It used to be that the first wife had more power than the rest, but it's all changed now. The head-wife has to report every day to the Master and tell him what the other wives are doing wrong. He then has a meeting every week with the Elders about his household.
The Masters are not the only ones having to come face to face with the Elders every week. Destiny-brides, servant-girls, and helper-boys now have to frequently meet with them to tell what they did for the week, how they're improving their souls, and what they'll be willing to do for the Great Master. At the moment, I'm in City Hall at a long table outside of the reckoning room, waiting my turn to be judged by the Elders. Waiting with me are the other girls and boys who were called here too. Jana fidgets next to me. I can practically hear her thundering heart.
A lower Elder comes out with one of the girls. Tears are streaming down her face and her features are twisted in anguish. "Go to your chores," he demands of the sobbing girl. Then he turns to Jana. "Your turn."
Jana eyes me with perfect horror before standing up, her lower lip quivering. When she and the Elder step through the doorway, I turn to the sobbing girl who is almost at the exit. "What happened in there?" I ask her.
Everyone at my table shifts their eyes to her in anticipation of an answer. The air is crisp and quiet but at the same time heavy and opaque.
"It was awful," she chokes out, "just awful!" Jerking the door open, she stumbles out. Every destiny-wife, servant-girl, and helper-boy turns to me with eyes begging for comfort.
"We'll be okay," I tell them soothingly. "We just have to keep our wits about us."
I clamp my mouth shut after that. The Elders had made it clear that we shouldn't be talking. I wait. It's a long, unnerving wait where the others focus their terrified eyes on me as if trying to gleam strength but in reality I don't have that much to spare.
The door finally opens and out comes the lower Elder and Jana. I have to resist the temptation of going to her. She's wailing painfully, her face completely swollen and red from her tears.
"You're next," he tells me and unless I'm mistaken, he has a glimmer in his eye. Jana throws me a glance, a watch out glance. What could've happened in there?
What is about to happen to me?
When I step into the reckoning room, I notice right away the changes from the last time I had been in it as a kid. It used to be like a courtroom where a raised platform in the front held a huge, long imposing desk for the high Elders to judge us from. Now there is a raised platform in form of a circle around the room with a long mahogany desk on it from where the seven high Elders peer down on their victim.
"Stand in the middle--on the X," an Elder demands gleefully. I was so preoccupied with the new floor plan that I hadn't noticed that in the middle of the room and on the black marble floor is a huge white X.
I walk through an opening in the communal desk and go over to the X. I feel like an animal in a slaughterhouse. The high Elders turn their searing sights on me. The lower Elders sit in chairs in a corner of the room.
"Monica Barstowe," thunders Grinder, "The Great Master is watching and whatever you say today he is judging."
"Yes, High Holy Grinder."
"That's Highest Holy Grinder," he snaps furiously.
I had forgotten the title change.
"Yes, Highest Holy Grinder," I say.
"If you lie to us in any way, you'll be condemned to the evil creature. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Highest Holy Grinder."
This game we're playing would be amusing if it wasn't so tragic.
"Have you been saying all your prayers?" he questions gruffly.
"Yes, Highest Holy Grinder."
I'm praying that you suffer the same fate we slaves have.
"Have you been doing your chores with gratitude in your heart towards your generous Master?"
"Yes, Highest Holy Grinder."
I'm grateful I still have a few weeks of freedom left.
"What does serving him mean to you?"
This is where it gets sticky. Slaves have to give a perfect answer. We can't afford to make mistakes. If we don't answer these creeps the way they want, they'll punish us. At the very least, they'll browbeat us. Now with the new way the floor is arranged, their imposing faces are even worse than before.
"It means being one with the Great Master," I state, making my voice as confident as possible. These idiots will even get you for how your voice sounds.
"Is that all it means to you?" another Elder asks with a fiery tone.
"It means the opportunity to give back a little of the great much I was given," I announce with such emotion that I even surprise myself.
"Do you love your Master?"
I can't stand him.
"I love him and the Great Master he serves so well. I love them with complete devotion and dedication."
"You do?" questions an Elder.
"How can I not love them when they light my paths each day and show me grandeur at every moment?" Who knew I was a sugary poet?
"Why should we believe you?!" questions an Elder.
"Make us believe you," demands Grinder.
"If I could only tear out my heart and show you," I say with great passion. "You'd see my love laid bare for you to inspect."
You'd see the TOTAL GARBAGE I'm shoving down your throats.
"You'd see a love so big that it would cover this whole room."
I'm laying it on thick, but it's the only way. They seem impressed with my slick words and fake passion as I peek at their rapt faces.
"Before we let you go, I would like to ask you about the patient you took care of," snaps Grinder.
Uh-oh. I though I had gotten off Scot-free. They're asking me about Beatrix. That's why Jana had given me that strange look after she had stepped out of here.
"What about her, Highest Holy Grinder?" I ask, my voice steady.
"You nursed her back to health when you should've let the Great Master handle it!!!" he shouts furiously.
That question started the incensed, fire drenched recriminations from the other Elders.
"Do you feel you can do the Great Master's job better?!"
"Who do you think you are?!"
"Why would you do that to the Great Master?!"
Yells are coming at me from all sides. I tell myself to shut out the screeching noise and not to cower down. That's what they want--to see me slump to the floor in desperate tears so they can say I'm guilty since I'm falling to the ground in shame. I keep my face up, eyeing the Elders. Not challenging them, but keeping my dignity intact.
"What's wrong with you?" hisses Grinder.
"May I speak, Elders?"
"You'd better not be wasting our time," roars Grinder.
I gather my thoughts. If I don't get my words perfect, the Elders will punish me for not having slumped to the floor and asked for forgiveness. They'll probably punish me no matter what comes out of my mouth. I have to find a way of lessening their pointed ire.
"I was told by a Master to look after the sick one." I can't mention either Beatrix or Smythee by name. They're waiting for me to make any tiny mistake to go completely off on me. "I do what I'm told."
"If y
ou had been in tune with the Great Master like a good True Faith follower," chortles Grinder, "you would've known not to listen to that Master. He was under the influence of the evil creature."
"You should've known it," snaps another Elder.
Here is where I have to keep my wits about me. "You're right."
"What?" asks a surprised Grinder. He had expected me to disagree with them.
"I suspected that something was very wrong in that household. I was speaking to Highest Holy Bledsoe about it shortly before he passed on."
Try getting answers out of a dead man.
"He never told me you were speaking to him," snaps Grinder.
"He told me not to tell anybody about the Master's ramblings. The Master kept insisting that he only wanted one wife and that he wanted children with her. Highest Holy Bledsoe told me about the dangers of twisted thinking, and he would do something to correct the situation."
"I still don't understand why he didn't tell us about your conversations with him!" snaps Grinder, fire in his voice.
"I don't know but all he said was that as the highest leader in Paradise Village, he had to make difficult decisions without the distraction of other opinions."
"Other opinions?!" Grinder questions furiously.
"That's what he said," I say innocently.
As Grinder jumps up in a fury, the door swings wide open. The Mister barrels inside with a furious expression on his face. "I told you not to question her unless I'm here," he hisses and then sets his eyes on me. "Are you okay, Little Bird?"