nourished by the attentions of his (or occasionally her) followers. In this case, although each branch had its leader, they were scattered. Members of the different groups were constantly in and out—Steven to England, the Japanese leaders to Arizona, families and kids moving from one house to another—not characteristic behavior from threatened communities.
Another interesting oddity was the Arizona branch. Within months of its founding it had begun a school, a large portion of its students being kids who had been thrown out of other schools, were on parole, or had been remanded from one of the state's youth facilities. 'Troubled youth', formerly called delinquents, were an odd choice for a religious community, but well established within Change: all three men of the original leaders had brushed up against the law in some way, Steven as part of a high school drunken spree with several friends (so much for sealed juvenile records, Anne noted disapprovingly) and Jonas Fairweather in England for a series of nuisance crimes that boiled down to ignoring rules rather than deliberately flouting them. Thomas Mallory had the most serious history, having spent six months in jail at the age of nineteen for threatening a neighbor with a gun and blowing holes in the man's television set. This was during university finals week, and although it marked the end of Mallory's university career, Anne could feel a twinge of sympathy for the man's desperate action. Mallory had also been fingered as instrumental in an investigation into illegal arms possession and sales in the Los Angeles branch of Change three years before, where he had gone to assume an apparently temporary leadership for a couple of months, but charges against him were dropped for lack of evidence. Beyond the three of them, the Change leader in Boston had a record as well, for drunk driving and drunk-and-disorderly, and one of the Japanese leaders had a history of 'political crimes', whatever that might be. Passing out leaflets at an antigovernment demonstration, no doubt.
It was the presence of the 'troubled youth' in Arizona that had first sparked Glen's interest, even though there were no official complaints, no firm evidence from the periodic medical checkups or the social workers' visits aside from one report that some of the older boys had seemed 'unnaturally subdued'.
Looking through the material the second time, Anne decided that it was probably Steven Chance's background in chemistry that had originally pressed an alarm button somewhere in the FBI's corporate mind. A small religious group led by a man who could construct a bomb was a group the government wanted to keep under observation.
The material she'd been given was detailed but hardly complete—another indication that Glen wasn't absolutely convinced that there was a problem, or if he himself was, he hadn't managed to bring his superiors around to his point of view. There was an elaborate chart comparing purchases of the various groups, but no conclusions had been drawn concerning the relatively high consumption of rice and fish by the Japanese compared to the Germans, the high demand for concrete mix and heavy lifting equipment in Arizona, currently under construction; or the large orders for chemical fertilizer, garden equipment, and chain saws by the English branch, which was busy restoring a large garden.
She put the purchase records to one side and returned to Glen's personal analysis, which was based largely on a visit he had made to Steven Change's compound in the Arizona desert. What it boiled down to was that a) the children were too well behaved, b) Steven's speech was heavily laced with references to the Book of Revelations and the cleansing nature of fire, and c) Thomas Mallory's history of guns.
Anne thought it all sounded very thin, although she had to admit that Glen's judgment in these matters had in the past been extraordinarily good.
And in the Arizona community alone, there were one hundred and three children.
At eight-thirty she reached behind her and took the kitchen phone down from the wall. The departmental secretary answered.
'Morning, Tazzie,' Anne said. 'I'm going to need half an hour with Antony today. Any chance?'
'He's really busy. Is it important?'
'Yes,' Anne said flatly. There was a pause while Tazzie thought about this, and then Anne could hear the rustling of papers and a strange humming noise, Tazzie's habit while she was thinking. In a minute the secretary came back on the line.
'I can cancel a couple of things. Two-thirty do you?'
'I have a two o'clock lecture,' Anne said apologetically.
'Of course you do, stupid me. Four-thirty, then. I'll cancel Himself.'
'Don't do that,' Anne said in alarm. 'Himself' was the royal reference to the pompous academic vice- chancellor. 'I could wait until tomorrow.'
'Himself has cancelled on us twice, it would be a pleasure to return the honor. Are you okay? You don't sound yourself.'
'I'm a bit tired.'
'All those babies keeping you awake? don't get too run down. There's a nasty bug going around, and you wouldn't want it just before finals.'
Anne's laughter was more hysterical than the remark called for: With all the things on her mind, a viral infection might prove a welcome distraction. Perhaps a nice bout of pneumonia would stick her in the hospital and give her an excuse to step aside.
When she had hung up, she hesitated over the phone. She ought to make this next contact in person, but perhaps for the preliminary stages, she could be a coward. She picked up the phone and dialed another number.
'Hello, Alice, could I speak with Eliot, please? Sure, I can wait.' An interminable five minutes later, Alice Featherstone's flat-voiced monologue on the problems of raising chickens faded suddenly in mid-sentence, to be replaced by the taciturn young voice of her son Eliot, grunting a query into Anne's harassed eardrum. 'Eliot,' she said in relief. 'Look, I just found out that I'm going to have to go away for a while. Are you available?' She knew that he would be, and that he would be overjoyed, in his completely undemonstrative way, at the chance to be away from his mother and the rest of the world. It was, nonetheless, only polite to make a question out of it.
'When?' he asked.
'As soon as I get the final grades in, a little under three weeks. I may be away 'till summer, I'm afraid. Maybe longer.'
'The puppies?'
'Yes, we'll have to think about them. Could you come by one day and we'll talk?'
Eliot grunted en assent.
'Over the weekend?'
He grunted again. She thanked him and heard the telephone go dead in her ear. She put her own phone on its rest and then leaned forward, her elbows on the table and her hands buried in her hair.
Her hair smelled warm, faintly of coconut from the shampoo she used. It felt soft and thick to her fingers, a luxuriant, well-styled and well-cared-for head of hair. She bent her head further forward until the wavy mass tumbled down onto the table, forming a cave around her face. This is the longest it's been in seventeen years, she thought; almost five years worth of hair, smooth, thick, and alive. She pulled a handful around and pressed it against her face, inhaling the smell. She thought, it's no wonder hair has been such an issue and a symbol over the centuries. The tactile glory of the stuff.
I will miss it, she thought.
Chapter Three
Final Exam
Religious Studies 204, The Prophet and Prophetic Speech
Prof Anne Waverly
Choose three of the following questions. As you should know by now, having been in this class all term, there are often no right or wrong answers, simply arguments to be explored. You will be expected to support any opinions or statements with chapter and verse or specific references. Extra points will be given for the use of extra-canonical writings.
1. What was the role of the prophet in ancient Israel? Give an example of a twentieth century prophet, and explore the similarities and differences.
2. Trace the development of the prophetic idea of 'speaking with God.'
3. What are the essential differences in world view between First Isaiah and Third Isaiah? Can we determine
