swallowed nervously, and he appeared uncertain of what to do next.
'You've seen Boris's eyes,' Garth continued quietly, raising his head and looking directly at the man. 'We accepted our afflictions as a test of our faith. Now it seems that we have become a test of
The man wiped off a glistening sheet of perspiration that had suddenly appeared on his face with the back of a gloved hand. 'What's your affliction?' he asked Garth.
It had occurred to me that Garth had gone a bit too far in claiming afflictions for both of us, and now it was crunch time. His broad, flat nose was ugly enough, but it couldn't very well be described as an affliction. Unless he intended to ask the man to wait around until he had a nervous tic that would enable him to tear the car apart, I didn't understand what he planned to do.
What he did was to rise to his feet, take off his parka and throw it to the ground. Then he took off his shirt, stood half-naked in the frozen afternoon.
The uniformed man uttered a startled cry and stepped back two paces. I lowered my head and swallowed a low, tortured moan that had begun somewhere at the bottom of my soul. I wanted to weep and shout my rage at the sky-not out of revulsion, but for the brother I loved so dearly. It had not occurred to me until then that Garth had not undressed or bathed in front of me for close to a month and a half, and now I understood why.
A sleek, glistening mat of blue-black fur girdled his torso, starting at a point just below his nipples and disappearing down into his slacks.
'The vision was of Father,' Garth said evenly as he slipped back into his shirt, picked up the parka and draped it across his broad shoulders. 'Father said that we would find peace here. He said to trust in the faith and wisdom of the man in uniform who would meet us. Please allow us to join you.'
'Wait here,' the man said in a voice that cracked. 'Please.'
'Oh, Garth,' I moaned through clenched teeth as the man walked ahead to the Willys, opened the trunk and began to rummage around inside. 'Oh, Jesus Christ.'
'Shut up,' Garth said flatly. 'You're not in such great shape yourself, and this isn't exactly the time for an extended conversation on our mutual woes. Besides, I don't want to talk about it.'
Garth and I stood side by side in awkward, embarrassed silence while the man continued to rummage. I've experienced a few bad moments in my life, but this time-being forced to battle raging emotions and play a passive role when all I wanted to do was reach out and take my brother's hand-was perhaps the worst.
Finally the man emerged from the trunk and came back to us. He was carrying two heavy, pale-green robes and two pairs of sandals. Neither of the robes looked as if it would fit me, but the man had obviously made an effort to find my size.
'I'm Mike Leviticus,' the man said, extending his hand to Garth.
'An unusual name,' Garth replied as he took the hand.
'We all assume biblical names-first or last-when we're accepted as Father's Children,' Leviticus said, then turned to me. The gloved hand he rested on my shoulder somehow felt strange, but I wasn't sure why. 'Forgive me, Brother Boris, for causing you pain. It's not easy to find this place, yet some do. Most of those who come here uninvited mean to cause trouble. That's why I'm here. I hope you understand.'
'I do understand, Brother Mike, and there's nothing to forgive. Uh, do some of the people who decide to leave the family tell others about it?'
Leviticus shook his head. 'Nobody ever leaves. What Father's Children find here is what we've been searching for all our lives.'
'Mmm.'
'I realize that you've been given no instructions, so I'll give them to you now. At this point you leave behind everything from your old lives. All of your personal possessions will be sold, and the proceeds will go to the commune. Your clothes, which you'll leave here in your car, will be burned in a ritual ceremony. You'll don these robes and sandals while I wait, and then walk the rest of the way to the commune-a symbolic journey signifying that you join Father's Children with nothing, and are ready to be reborn. Even though it's cold, I think you'll find 'he walk invigorating and spiritually cleansing.'
'Are you going to walk with us?' Garth asked.
'No. I've already taken the walk; this is for the two of you. I'll stay behind and check out your car. From the looks of it, we may be better off stripping it down and selling the parts.'
Garth seemed tense, and I knew why; he thought the gun was in the car. He didn't know how big a problem we had. Fortunately, Garth was large enough to cover a lot of sins.
Sidling closer to and slightly behind him, I reached behind my back and took the Colt out of my belt. I pressed it against his spine so that he'd know what it was. Leviticus glanced away for a moment; Garth coughed loudly, and I flipped the gun into some brush at the side of the road.
Because of the cold, Mike Leviticus suggested that we change in the car. However, Garth-as if in defiance of his discomfort-proceeded to strip in the middle of the road. I did the same. We donned the heavy robes and sandals, looked at Leviticus.
'The commune is two miles down the road,' the man said, beaming. 'I'll drive back to the stand and call ahead. Reverend Ezra and the others will be waiting for you. Welcome, and the peace of Father be with you.'
18
'That was the most incredible performance I've ever seen,' I said, hitching up the hem of my overly roomy robe as we rounded a sharp bend in the dirt road. 'I was ready to shoot the big dumb bast- '
'Mongo, help me,' Garth slurred as he suddenly began to stagger.
I felt short of breath, panicky. Garth was about to suffer another seizure, and each time he was in the grip of the terrible electrical and chemical storm taking place inside his body, I feared he was going to die or break his own bones with the uncontrollable, incredibly powerful contractions of his muscles.
Garth swayed, and his entire body began to twitch spasmodically. I put my shoulder against his hip and shoved as hard as I could, pushing him off the road into the orchard; in our time on the road, we had learned that a seizure would pass more quickly if he had some object against which to exert the force.
'Garth, there's a branch over your head!' I shouted, hoping he could hear me through whatever thick mists shrouded his mind whenever he had an attack. 'Grab it!'
He didn't respond. As always, he was resisting the attack; his head was thrown back, his teeth were clenched, and low, guttural sounds escaped from deep in his chest and throat. The storm was upon him-every muscle in his body had gone rigid and was twitching. I slapped his right elbow, trying to get it up. The arm jerked and flopped, almost hitting me in the head-then shot up. The other arm whirred like a broken pinwheel until it was stopped by the palm hitting the overhead branch. The fingers of both hands curled over the branch-and stayed there.
There was nothing more I could do except stay out of Garth's way, and I went back out on the road to see if the noises Garth had been making had attracted any attention. The road was empty. Suddenly I heard an explosive crack, then the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. I ran back into the orchard.
Garth was just coming out of the brief period of unconsciousness that always followed his most severe seizures. He was sprawled on the ground, face covered with sweat despite the cool, moist breeze blowing through the trees. Both palms were scraped and bleeding, but there was no sign that the limb, perhaps six inches in diameter, had fallen on him.
'Hey, Godzilla,' I said, kneeling beside him and wiping his face and palms with the edge of my robe. 'You all right?'
Garth blinked rapidly, then slowly nodded. He rolled away the huge, broken limb, then eased himself up into a sitting position and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. 'Sit down a minute, Mongo,' he said with a sigh.
'Garth, I'm freezing my ass off and you're going to catch pneumonia. Also, our new friends are waiting for us down the road. I know you're weak now, and I don't want to rush you, but I don't think this is a good time for a chat. We've got to get moving.'
'I want you to sit down, Mongo,' Garth said evenly. 'This is important.'
