Mrs. Zane droned on for half an hour until it was time for the weekly test. She reached down to draw her I-Comp from her back pack, then realized with horror that she had left the computer lying on her bed. She looked up and there stood Mrs. Zane looking down at her.
“Where is your I-Comp miss Lund?”
“I…I must have left it home.”
“What is that book in your back pack then?”
She looked down at her back pack again, and saw with even greater horror that her Bible was laying right on top of her makeup kit.
“Let me see that Miss Lund.”
She reached down with a shaking hand, and held the Bible toward the teacher, “I don’t want to touch it; you hold it, are you a fundamentalist Miss Lund?”
She fought off the temptation to tell lies, and her conscience won over her temptation.
“I…I…I guess.”
“Don’t you know Miss Lund?”
Mrs. Zane was extremely tall, and she stood staring down at Kristen with hawkish eyes, and Kristen froze in her stare.
“Ye… yes Mrs. Zane.”
“Please bring the book, and come with me. The rest of the class will do the test while I am gone. Please walk in front of me Miss Lund.”
Kristen felt her skin crawl as she exited the class room door into the long hallway, “Left Miss Lund.”
“Whe...where are we going?”
“Just to the psychiatrist office my dear, and then you can return to class when he is through with you.”
They proceeded down the hall a little way, “Left again Miss Lund.”
They turned down another hallway until they came to the very end, a small sign over the door announced ‘Psychiatrist Office’.
Mrs. Zane knocked loudly on the door, and they heard a voice say, “Come!”
She was escorted into a rather small room. A small man sat behind his desk; his blue eyes denied the welcome, “I have a student here with a Bible, and she says she is a fundamentalist. I’m sure you can help her.” Mrs. Zane closed the door quietly behind her as she left the room.
Kristen stood awkwardly before the man's desk, the man looked at her for a full sixty seconds before he spoke, “My name is Mr. Beck; may I see that object you have in your hand?”
Kristen handed him her Bible, “Uhhuh. And you say you are a fundamentalist?”
It seemed that it came easier to her now, “Yes sir.”
“Is your family also fundamentalist?”
“You will have to ask them.”
“But I am asking you.”
She stood silently by without answering the question.
“I think I may know of a way to help you. There is a government program at the Greenbrier Resort.”
“A resort?”
“Yes, it’s quite nice I hear, with A-1 hotel accommodations, and hundreds of acres of grounds complete with horse stables…almost like a large farm. They even have dog’s for the children there, I hear…quite nice.
“I would have to ask my parents.”
“Your parents will be notified. You will be on the speed train in about three hours. I’ll make the call now…I will take you to the waiting room for now…come with me.”
Beck herded her though the door, and down another hallway to a small room. The room had two chairs, and a Magazine computer against the wall.
“Have a seat, I won’t be long.” Beck closed the door gently behind him, and then she heard the click of an electric lock. Panic welled up in her, and she tried the door knob, but it wouldn’t budge, and she realized that for the first time she had no contact with the outside world.
She tried her best to occupy her mind with the magazine computer flipping through the screens, and then she decided to do a search on the machine, so she typed in ‘Greenbrier Resort’. Up popped a picture of a hotel dining room, the tables loaded with different kinds of food. The next screen showed pictures of riding stables, teens her age petting horses, and dogs; a beautiful country side with mown hay and wood fences. She checked her spelling in the search box to make sure she got it right.
The Magazine computer soon became boring, so she pulled her feet up into the chair, and fell asleep. She dreamed that she was in the clouds looking back down at the earth at the fields in a patchwork pattern with browns, greens, and blacks.
The door opened, and brought her awake. She expected to see her parents walking in the door, but instead of her parents, it was a woman and a man.
The woman was a little on the heavy-set side with black wavy hair; the balding man looked to be in his thirties. They both wore some kind of government uniform. Neither of them seemed to be threatening, but they didn’t seem to be all that friendly either.
“Come with us please.” Fear again gripped her.
“Where are we going, I want to go home now.”
“Just come with us for now, you are not going to be a problem are you?” The woman spoke softly; yet there was a hardness behind her voice that warned Kristen not to fight.
They walked her down the hall and out the door of the school, one on each side of her, then on out to the quad terminal. A car was waiting, and the woman pushed her into the car, and sat beside her. The man got into the front passenger seat, and closed the door.
She had never been in a car before, and she looked in amazement at the computer on the dash. The man began programming the computer, and the car began moving, picking up speed quickly; it sped down the highway, picking up speed until the scenery was a blur. Fifteen minutes later the car began to slow, then came to a halt beside a speed train which faced east, the evening sun casting long shadows on the low round topped train cars. The locks clicked on the doors to the car, and the doors opened.
The woman turned to her and said, “Get out.”
Panic like she had never known welled up in Kristen’s heart, “No, I don’t want to get out; I want to go home now please!”
“Look honey, you have to come with us; we are taking you to a super nice place, now, please get out of the car!” The woman said peevishly, “I don’t want to force you, but I will if I have to."
“Let her get her bearings a little.” The man said gently, “Look sweet heart, this train is taking you to one of the most prestigious resorts in the country. When we get there, if you don’t like the place, you can come back here. We don’t want to hurt you. Ok? We have our orders, and we have to follow them. We don’t have a choice about the matter. Ok?”
“I can come home if I don’t like it there?”
“Sure you can; this is a free country after all isn’t it?”
“I…I suppose.”
“Ok, let’s hop on the train, and then get something to eat; I'm starved.” He smiled at her.
They walked her between them, and as she looked around she saw they were on the open plains, and she wouldn’t have known which way to run, even if she could have run.
They sat her in a cubicle with a table, and plush seats, then she felt the train begin to move. The train picked up more and more speed until it was moving at over three hundred miles an hour. She stared through the large windows as the train carried her further, and further from all that she had ever known. Her tired mind became more and more jumbled as city after city flashed by the windows, and then she slept again from the exhaustion.
She awoke again as she sensed the train losing momentum. She looked at the country side, and saw that it was vastly different from the plains of Colorado; every thing looked closer, and more crowded. As the train got much slower, she looked in amazement at the girders of the steel bridge as the train crossed a River.
The train stopped at a long station with quads for smaller trains on each side. People were getting off and moving to the quads, “We’ll get off here and take a fast train to Greenbrier from here. It won’t be long until we will be eating at the hotel.” The woman said.
The fast train moved out and again left the city behind, and in half an hour, they were debarking at the gate of the hotel. Kristen lo
oked around with wonder at the beautiful grounds, and then at the hotel with its tall columns, and gilded entrance.
The couple escorted her through the tall doors, through the large dining room. It was dinner time, and the tables were indeed loaded with different kinds of fruit. I am so hungry. Her stomach gave a twinge at the sight of the food, but they led her on to another door, that led down a steep hallway, then another door, only this one was a large steel door. The man pushed a button, and the door opened slowly. It was about six inches thick, and on the other side was yet another long hall way with dim lights on the ceiling.
Kristen began to be alarmed again as they proceeded into the depths of this place. Finally, they stopped at another smaller steel door, pushed her into the small cubicle which had a toilet, and a sink protruding out of the wall. The light was barely enough to see by.
The man slammed the door shut, and she was alone.
The place smelled wet and dank, then panic began to well up in her until she heard herself screaming then she passed out on the floor. She awoke sometime later, her face next to the cold concrete of the floor. Her body revolted at the acrid smell of the floor; she sat up and pulled herself onto the bed with its thin mattress. There were a pillow, and blankets folded on the head of the bed, and she pulled one of the two blankets to her, and covered herself. She looked down at her pants, and she almost screamed again when she discovered she had wet herself.
Part 5
Trevor exited the train, and walked through the gate toward the hotel, his 9AM appointment just minutes away. He walked briskly to the hotel desk, and announced his name to the pretty girl behind the counter. He made a mental note to visit the hotel desk again.
“Oh yes Mr. Anderson, we have been expecting you, just go down that hallway there until you come to room six.
“Thank you…uh…Linda.” The girl seemed pleased that he called her by her name, even though she realized he read it off her name tag. He walked until he came to room six, and
Knocked gently on the door.
“Come.” He heard a voice inside call. He opened the door a crack, “Trevor Anderson.”
“Yes, come in Trevor, and close the door, I’m John Philips, head of the psychology department here at Greenbrier. Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I had a bite of breakfast on the train, thank you.”
“Ok then. “ He said, clapping his hands together. Are you ready to take an assignment do you think?”
“Yes sir, I am.”
“Good, if you do well here, it will be noticed in D.C.”
“What I want you to do is an evaluation on a new guest.”
“A new guest sir?”
“Yes, she arrived about three months ago; she has been assigned to room 310. After you do the evaluation, the evaluation will be sent to D.C. She is a 15-year-old who thinks she is a fundamentalist. She was found in class with a Bible.”
“I wasn’t aware that I would be working with fundamentalists here sir.”
“Well… yes… you will; you go back down the hallway, past the desk, and see the guard…he will take you to room 310. Glad to have you aboard. “He said, reaching out his hand.
“Will that be the only patient I will be seeing today?”
“Yes, we will see how you do with this one before you are assigned another.”
Trevor walked out of the office and down the hall, again noticing the pretty girl as he passed the hotel desk. She smiled at him as he walked by. There were several guests in the lounge. The chairs were soft loungers, and the guests looked more than comfortable.
He found the guard cubicle and approached it. There were two guards behind the desk. “I need to go to room 310, Mr. Philips said one of you would show me to the room.”
One of the guards picked up a ring of keys, “Come with me sir.” As they walked he noticed the guard was about his age.
“Have you been here long?”
“No, not long, only a week.”
“Have you been over much of the place?”
“I’m just supposed to walk you to where you need to go sir.” The man seemed very guarded with his answer.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, I’m just new here today myself, and haven’t yet gotten my bearings.”
“That’s ok sir.” He spoke softly this time. He unlocked a large steel door, then pushed a button and the door swung open on it’s huge hinges. They walked another twenty feet, and then he unlocked a smaller door.
“It’s a ways down sir.” He led off down the slanted hallway, and it seemed they had walked more than five hundred yards before it leveled out. They passed door after door until they came to a door with the number over the top.
The guard unlocked the door, and stood aside, “I will stand out here until you are through sir. Let me warn you the guests are not allowed outside the room.”
“Thank you…uh, Gerald.” Reading his name tag.
Part 6
Kristen thought she had lost all her appetite, until a guard brought a small bowl of some kind of vegetable soup. He raised a lid on a drawer that protruded through the wall, put the bowl in, and it appeared inside her cell. She was tempted to ignore it, but thought better of it; She took the bowl, and wolfed the soup down eating the small piece of bread in two bites. She looked in the drawer, but there was nothing to drink.
“Put the bowl back on the drawer when you are done with it.” Came the voice of the guard.
“Can I keep it? I don’t have anything here with me.”
After a long pause, the guard said, “I will try to bring you an extra one, but this one has to be accounted for.” The mans voice sounded kind.
She put the bowl back on the tray, “Good night Miss.” She could hear the clack of the bowl being put onto a cart, and she heard a squeak of a wheel as it rolled away, then silence again. She felt a bit better, and she looked around at the little cell, at the thin mattress, at the rusty sink, and the ceramic stool. The dim light was barely enough to make out the objects in the cell.
She lay down on the bed, feeling slightly better after eating the little food she had been given. She was surprised that she began remembering scripture she had read in the past. It was like reading a news ticker as the words marched past, and the words brought her comfort. As the days passed, the food became less, and she grew thin, and the only real food she had was the scriptures.
She knew her body was becoming filthy even though she cleaned herself the best she could. Eventually, she grew desperate for food, and then one day she saw a snail crawling slowly across the wall of her cell. She walked over and picked up the snail, looked at it then put it in her mouth, and swallowed it. Her stomach rebelled at the intrusion of the snail, and she vomited up what food she had on her stomach.
She lay down on her bed, and began to shiver in spite of the filthy blankets she drew around her, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to last much longer under these conditions.
The next morning about ten, the door to her cell opened again, and this time, there was a man there. He was the first person she had seen in weeks.
“You can leave the door open.” He said to the man in a uniform.
“I’m sorry sir, but I have to lock the door while you are here, that’s the regulations.”
“Alright then, we wouldn’t want to break regulations would we?”
He walked on through the door, and the click of the lock was loud to his ears.
“Hello, my name is Dr. Trevor Anderson, and who might you be?”
“I…I’m Kristen Lund…did you bring food?”
Trevor looked slowly around the small cell. “No, I’m sorry…are you hungry?”
“Yes, I’m very hungry.”
“Don’t they bring you food?”
“Only a small bowl of thin soup.”
“Why do you think you are here?”
“Because I’m a fundamentalist Christian.”
The man asked her question after question, and then he got up to g
o. “Humm, let's see now if I have this right, you have not been brought food nor clothing?”
“No sir, very little food, and no clothing, or soap.”
“I’ll see you again soon Kristen.”
“Yes sir. The Lord be with you.”
“It looks as though he needs to be with you for a change.”