Ceinwen wished she could confess to Rachel that she wanted to write a magazine article or possibly a book about all that happened when the university group vanished in Idaho’s wilderness. But she knew that would cause Rachel to put up a barrier she couldn’t overcome. So, she had lied, and continued to do so.
And now this liar was on her way to meet Rachel’s big Mormon family. Ceinwen felt guilty—although not guilty enough to stop her investigation.
Ceinwen found them red-eye tickets at a decent price, and Rachel had handled the flights well except for a brief trance at Heathrow Airport. Just before boarding the Newark to Salt Lake City final leg of the flight, Rachel called her parents to let them know she was coming home, and that her college roommate was with her.
Her father, Stan, was waiting for them when they arrived in Salt Lake City. He was a large man with a bulbous nose, heavy jowls, and small blue eyes.
He caught Rachel up in a bear hug and then greeted Ceinwen warmly. Soon, they got into his monstrous Dodge Ram and headed into Idaho. The land quickly became flat and empty, and the dry ground looked like gravel broken up by an occasional sage or other spindly brush.
Not until they reached Idaho Falls did the countryside turn green. They were in a farming community. Before long, Stan turned onto a driveway that led to a large wood-framed farmhouse. He honked the horn, and people poured from the house to greet them.
Rachel introduced Ceinwen to her mother, five brothers, four sisters, their spouses, and children. Ceinwen had read that Latter-day Saints, as Mormons call themselves, believe large families are a blessing. If so, the Gooding family was truly blessed.
Everyone was interested in hearing about life in Oxford and had questions about everything from steak-and-kidney pie to driving on the “wrong” side of the road. The younger Gooding grandchildren liked listening to Ceinwen’s accent, and found it hilarious that she was from Wales, which they thought had something to do with fish.
Rachel kept apologizing for all the questions, but Ceinwen loved them. Also, she could tell that Rachel was glad she was there to draw away attention from her sudden reappearance. It wasn’t until Ceinwen saw Stan corner his daughter away from the others that she heard his worry that she might have flunked out. Rachel assured him the school year was over, her studies were fine, and she had come home because she missed him and her mother.
He seemed touched to hear it. Rachel gave the family no hint of her nightmares or that anything was troubling her, and Ceinwen had to wonder if any of them knew the extent of what had happened to her two years earlier.
After dinner, Ceinwen joined the women in the kitchen to help clean up.
Rachel’s mother had only one interest: did Rachel have a boyfriend, and if so, was he LDS, or at least someone open to conversion? Her biggest fear was that Rachel would marry an Englishman and live far from home. Rachel did her best to put her mother’s mind at rest about that.
Before long, her mother and sisters started plotting how they could find both Rachel and Ceinwen nice men in the area to marry so they could forget about going back to Oxford. From the way they talked, they believed—as Brigham Young had proclaimed some hundred-seventy years earlier—that he had led his people to the Promised Land, and if so, why would any sane person want to live anywhere else?