“Amen!” Ginny whooped, sparking a round of similarly enthusiastic amens from everyone except Gabi, who remained fixed on Marnie’s defiant profile.
“When one of our fellows is in need, we respond, do we not? The very core of Unitas demands we serve not only him and the Word but each other. Who will raise this sister up? Who has born witness to her sin and will confess it on her behalf? Who will purify their own sin of concealment and return hand in hand with her to the protection of the Lord?” Ruth’s voice boomed as she raked them with her unsparing gaze. “We must do for Marian what she cannot do for herself.”
Natalie raised her hand in the air, smirking. “Sister Ruth? Marian skips out on services. She shows up with the foster group sometimes, but she doesn’t sing or bow her head for the blessing, and she never stays. My family sits a few rows from them, and I’ve seen her sneak out. And—” Here, Natalie bit her lip and dipped her head, the picture of injured modesty. “She looks at girls.” The rest of her clique tittered, and there were reactions ranging from shock to outright confusion from the rest of the group. Ruth arched a perfect eyebrow, an invitation for Natalie to continue. “I mean, she looks at me, anyway. It makes me uncomfortable, the way she stares. Like she’s having impure thoughts. I didn’t say anything before because I didn’t really understand how I could be tainted by her sin, but I really get it now.” Ruth’s neck arched in an approving nod, and she held her hand out to Natalie, who rose and approached the center of the circle. Natalie dipped the barest tip of her finger into the salt and touched it lightly to the nick in her palm with a delicate shudder. Ruth knelt and set down the salt, wet her fingertips in the bowl of water, daubed between Natalie’s brows, and hugged the smug girl before sending her back to her seat. Gabi cringed. Watching Marnie get bullied in the name of “purity” made her whole body ache with memories of the blows she had suffered at Bradley’s hands. If Gabi didn’t do something to help Marnie, she was no better than a bully herself.
“Thank you, Sister Natalie,” Ruth said. “You have shown that you are truly ready to become an adult in the eyes of the temple and a vessel for the Word. Marian, I encourage you to thank your sister for her sacrifice on your behalf.” Marnie continued to glare. “I see,” Ruth murmured and nodded at Ginny and Christina, who rose to pull Marnie to her feet. “For your own good, further purification will be necessary. When the spirit is sullied, it cannot serve.”
“Wait!” All eyes swiveled toward Gabi as she stood, pins and needles pricking the soles of her feet from sitting so long. “I left services too. I snuck out.” Natalie glared at Gabi, furious at being upstaged. The others looked scandalized by the confession from Brother Lowell’s own daughter, but she could tell by the way Ruth stayed fixed on Marnie that it hadn’t accomplished what she’d hoped. Ruth had already locked on her target and was determined to make an example of Marnie.
“Thank you, Gabriela. In confessing your sins, you are redeemed,” Ruth said, waving a dismissive hand. “You may approach the center for your final purification, before we escort Sister Marian to the redemption bath.”
Gabi had no idea what was going to happen to Marnie in the “redemption bath,” but she knew it wasn’t a soothing soak. If Gabi couldn’t stop it from happening, at least she could make sure Marnie didn’t have to go through it alone.
“I’m not done,” Gabi blurted. She moved toward Ruth. “I left services because I went to meet a boy.”
Ruth finally turned her sweet smile and frigid eyes in Gabi’s direction. “Oh? And what boy was this?”
“I won’t say.” And with that, Gabi could feel any slender chance of being recruited as a Witness slip from her grasp. Even if she managed to get strong enough and studied nonstop for the exam, no recruiter would look twice at her now. Witnesses had to be pure. Above reproach. Marnie stared at her, mouth agape. Gabi was astonished herself. Why had she just blown her only chance at getting out of Alder for someone who was barely civil to her? But there was no time to wallow as Ruth instructed Christina and Ginny to escort Gabi and Marnie to the bathroom and dismissed the rest of the campers to breakfast.
After Ruth joined them in the communal bathroom, she nodded to Ginny, who walked over to a door Gabi had previously assumed was a utility closet. Ginny clicked the lock open to reveal it was actually a room as big as the main bathroom, with an old-fashioned claw-foot tub at its center. Beside the tub was a table holding an array of scalpels, cotton swabs, antiseptic wipes, bandages, and ointment. On the floor by the table was a bulging burlap sack of salt, a shiny metal scoop buried in white crystals just visible at the top. Ribbons of steam rose from the tub, which was filled with water. Everything was in perfect readiness. They, or at least one of them, had been expected.
The five girls formed a circle around the tub, Gabi’s hair corkscrewing in the steam. She expected Ruth to go off on another sermon as they stared into the depths of
