Obstetrix(9)
And in Courtney’s case, she actually was just really mad and taking a break from everyone, and she turned up a week later and it was probably good we’d just left her alone. She’d gone camping somewhere near Devils Lake and had turned her phone off and left it in the glove box, which to be honest would have been a perfectly lovely and healthy “get off the grid for a bit” experience if she’d told literally anyone that she was going camping, instead of just vanishing.
I hadn’t had a fight with my father, but there were times I missed calls and didn’t call back right away. He’d be worried that I missed the call on Sunday, but at most, I thought the cops in Minneapolis might go ring my doorbell and leave when I didn’t answer.
Dad and I had talked about my cousin back when it happened. He thought she was probably just taking a break from her mother, because she’d taken her purse and her car, although he understood why my aunt was so worried.
“She might have started out taking a break,” I said. “And then wrecked her car somewhere.”
“Could happen,” he said. “It’s why you should definitely let me know if you ever take it into your head to go backpacking in Yosemite or something.” He gave me an affectionate side-hug and added, “I would die of worry in your aunt’s place, so don’t you dare.”
“I’d let you know,” I said. “But you never tried to control what I did, after I turned eighteen.” Unlike my aunt, who we all agreed was overprotective and controlling with her kids, especially Courtney, who was the oldest. “Even when I was a teenager, you kind of let me live my life. My nerdy, nerdy life.”
“You did sneak out to that big party, your senior year,” Dad said.
I looked up sharply, shocked. “You knew about that?”
“Our front door creaked. I didn’t see any reason to worry your mother, so I let her sleep. I thought you were probably too smart to drive drunk.”
“I wound up driving five drunk people home. It took forever. I thought for sure you’d be awake by the time I got in. I didn’t realize you were awake when I went out.”
“I know.” He grinned affectionately. “I figured if I told you, you’d oil the door hinges.”
It wasn’t that I wished my father were as overprotective as my aunt. It wouldn’t have helped, anyway. It was just that the more I thought about it, the more I had to accept the fact that no one was going to be looking for me for days. Maybe weeks.
I had to believe I was going to get out of here, somehow. I told myself that the people at the gas station had called the police, that they’d traced the license plate, that when I woke up this would all be over. I tried not to think about the fact that when Sarah introduced me, she’d called me “our new doctor,” not “our new doctor.” I wasn’t the first obstetrician they’d kidnapped, and I did not think they’d needed a replacement obstetrician because they’d let the old one go.
CHAPTER 2
I DID FINALLY SLEEP, this time without dreams. Someone woke me up at dawn by banging on my door. There was a brutal wind whistling through the compound. I got dressed, put on my coat, and trudged to the gathering hall for breakfast, which was steam trays of pancakes and the sort of scrambled eggs that start as liquid in a carton. I don’t much care for scrambled eggs, but I forced some down; it was protein. There was a big carafe of coffee, and I took some of that, too, and drank it black. It was absolutely terrible coffee.
As I was finishing the dregs and wondering if I’d need to drink a second mug of it just to get enough caffeine, the mother near me whispered to her child, “Hush now, Pastor John is getting ready to speak.” I looked up to see that the bearded man who’d led grace last night was rising, and everyone around me was bowing their heads. I gave up on the idea of going to get more coffee. Maybe listening would give me some clue as to what these people believed.
“Sovereign Lord,” he began. “Our most righteous father in Heaven, look down on us, Your community, and bless us and our work this morning.”
There was a chorus of people murmuring amen.
“We know how blessed we are—to be given sanctuary, to be given holy work, to be given the opportunity to do Your will. To have our children and our wives here, circled round by protection, hedged by prayer. Your guidance to us keeps us far from temptation, and we know—we know!—it’s not just temptation out there. Satan doesn’t just say ‘come and see,’ Satan says, ‘come or else.’ We don’t know how long this Tribulation will last, Lord, but we are grateful every day, every moment, for Your guardianship of us. For Your guidance. My friends, I had a vision last night.”
A ripple of excitement went through the crowd, and one of the women called out, “Praise Heaven!”
“Our Lord God sent to me a vision,” he continued, his voice becoming less conversational and more dramatic. “I saw before me two little children. Two little boys, like enough to be brothers, played side by side in a field. And then a demon came toward the two of them. A terrifying demon, with poison fangs, and long claws, and sharp teeth, and I knew he was there to murder those little children. And I said, oh Lord, please—please won’t You save them? I know it’s within Your power, I know You can do it, just save these poor little children who haven’t done anything wrong! And as I watched, an angel came down from Heaven and lifted just one of those little boys in his arms, and the demon cringed away from that angel, because he knew he couldn’t have that one. But then he turned to the other child, and he devoured that little boy. Bit his head off like you’d bite into an apple. Tore his guts open with his claws. Glory be to God, we are the little boy who’s being saved. The rest of the world will be fed to the demons—well, probably not the whole rest of the world, there are other Christians, other chosen ones, other people who are clinging to the true Gospel and keeping themselves separate, keeping themselves clean. But most of the rest of the world will be like that second boy, devoured. Us, we’re the ones safe in that angel’s arms.”