letting us mingle with the others?'
'You call this mingling? Observe that these guys' instructions don't include being too chummy with us. We make the good Reverend decidedly uncomfortable, so he figured he'd let the others keep an eye on us for a while.'
'Well, we'll hang out at the party until one of us gets a chance to slip away and go back for a serious discussion with the Reverend.'
Garth nodded. His mouth was set in a grim line. 'We'd best be quick about it-and careful.'
'What did you smell on the Reverend?'
'Doubt.'
20
With his gloves off, Mike Leviticus could peel an apple with the side of his hand. He was too far away, and the light in the commons building meeting hall too dim, for me to see precisely how he did it, but it was a neat trick.
Standing off in a corner, feeling warm enough but rather silly in my robe and slippers, I watched as the girl from the fruit and dairy stand came into my field of vision. With her was a tall, very thin young man who, like most of the others, looked to be in his early twenties. The girl said something to him, then pointed to me. He shook his head. She grabbed his hand, pulled him across the room to me. Even with her mouse ears and pasted-on whiskers, she looked just as gorgeous as when I'd seen her earlier. I hoped I was in for some hugging and kissing.
'Everyone's afraid of you,' the girl said to me in a bright, clear voice.
Pretending to react to unexpectedly hearing a voice in my face, I started slightly, then cocked my head and fixed my gaze on a spot just between the two of them. 'Obviously, you're not. Father love you.'
'And Father love you,' she replied with a broad smile that revealed the predictable white, even teeth. She took my right hand in both of hers, squeezed it gently. She had a nice touch. 'Can I get you something, Brother Boris? A cold drink? An apple?'
'No, thank you.'
'I think it's terrible the way everyone's been avoiding you. I'm Sister Esther. Brother Luke is with me. Luke just joined our family two days ago.'
The man reached out to shake my hand. When I didn't react, he flushed with embarrassment and patted me tentatively on the shoulder. 'Hi,' he said tightly.
'Hi.'
'Where's Brother Billy?' the girl asked.
Off-I hoped-pounding on the Reverend, looking for an answer, our car, and our clothes. 'I think he's in one of the other rooms, trying to circulate.'
'He shouldn't have left you alone.'
'I don't mind.'
'You two have created quite a stir around here, the way you just popped up. We know something happened on the road when Mike was bringing you back here, but Brother Mike won't say what it was-and we've been instructed not to ask. There's talk that a miracle occurred.'
'I thought miracles were what this place was all about,' I said, studying Brother Luke. He looked decidedly uncomfortable, as if he wanted to bolt and run.
'Oh, that's right,' the girl replied cheerfully. 'For sure.'
'Well, why not think of Billy and me as just two of your average, run-of-the-null mira- ' I cut myself off in mid-sentence; without Garth around to edit me with a poke in the ribs or a pull on my robe, I was going to have to watch my mouth. Garth was absolutely right; I didn't understand these people at all. 'Then why should Father's Children be afraid of us?'
Sister Esther shrugged her magnificent shoulders. 'I guess knowing that miracles happen and having one occur in your own backyard are two different things. Also, Reverend Ezra and Brother Mike are obviously nervous- and that makes everybody nervous. I'm not afraid because I sense you and Brother Billy have good hearts. Maybe it doesn't make any difference that you're a dwarf.'
'Why should a dwarf make you nervous?' I'd lost track of Mike Leviticus, and that made me nervous.
'You don't know?'
I shook my head.
'Dwarfism is an infirmity,' Brother Luke said, speaking for the first time. 'There won't be any illness or people with infirmities in Great Time, the same as there won't be any niggers, kikes, spicks, chinks, japs, or Catholics-no people like that. No communists, either.'
Without moving my head, I swept my gaze around the room; I hadn't taken notice before, but now that Brother Luke had raised my consciousness, it struck me that everyone in the commune was white and WASPish- looking. 'No kidding?' I said.
The girl nodded agreeably. 'In the beginning, Father-Who is God made flesh-created many different kinds of people. All were given a chance to accept Jesus as their Savior. Not everyone did. Father has been very patient, but now his wrath will descend on all nonbelievers. Armageddon is upon us. After Armageddon will come Great Time, in which Father and Jesus will reign supreme. Only one hundred and forty-four thousand of us will be left to enjoy it.'
'All white and Christian?'
'No Catholics,' Brother Luke mumbled. 'They worship the Pope.'
'Uh, what about nonwhite Christians?'
'Only whites can truly be Christians,' the tall, thin young man explained to me. 'Other races just don't have the moral strength.'
'It says this in the Bible?'
'Father revealed it to us,' the girl said. She hugged herself, shivered with ecstasy. 'The whole world will be brand-new, and it will belong just to us. Won't it be
'It'll certainly do wonders for rush-hour traffic.' The couple exchanged somewhat startled glances, and I quickly added: 'Maybe Father has sent me here to tell you that he's having second thoughts.'
'No,' Sister Esther declared emphatically. 'It has all been promised.'
'Have you actually heard Father tell you these things?'
'Not in person. Other Children of Father-leaders like Reverend Ezra-bring us the teachings. Only a very few people have actually seen Father since He revealed that He was God.'
'That must be very frustrating for you,' I said in a neutral tone, glancing around the room. The girl no longer seemed quite so attractive to me, and I didn't need Garth's nose to smell her companion's paranoia. I was getting tired of these loonies, and was anxious to get on with the hunt for the Chief Loony; but there was still no sign of Garth-or of Mike Leviticus.
'Oh, it is,' the girl said with a solemn nod. 'What were you before you came here, Brother Boris?'
'A dwarf, Sister Esther. What were you?'
'An X-ray technician,' she answered hesitantly, after a pause. I could see that I was beginning to make her nervous, too, but I didn't really care. 'One of Father's Children found me, looked into my heart, and saw my need. I was invited to come here, and it changed my life. Now I know there are others who believe as I do, and we were right all the time.'
'That must be a great comfort. So, now all of you are just kind of hanging around here and waiting to have a Great Time?'
That was pushing it. Sister Esther frowned, glanced uncertainly at her companion, then looked back at me. 'You seem to have a strange attitude for someone who claims to have been sent here by Father, Brother Boris,' she said softly.
'Sorry. It's just my manner of speaking. Dwarfism does that to some people.'
'Well, we certainly haven't simply been 'hanging around,'' the girl said, a touch of pique in her tone. 'Since our founding less than two years ago, we've had seven marriages. Those marriages have produced five babies, who are
