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May 1971—Astral Plane Commune, Farnum, Massachusetts
Summer found Luke Forest at the logging area and brought him to Vincent Held’s sanctuary. Besides the many Buddhist and Hindu statues, Luke noticed that the room was filled with pictures and paintings of Vincent. It was a shrine to himself, which gave Luke a bad feeling. Summer, Luke, and Vincent sat in comfortable cushioned chairs. Vincent offered Luke some tea, which he politely declined.
“I understand that you’d like to become a member of our community,” said Vincent. “Why is that?”
“I feel like I can help out here,” said Luke earnestly. “I think I’ve already helped a lot because I know about logging. Also, I feel like this is a safe place for my family.”
Vincent didn’t seem convinced. “You’re a lot older than most of our members, including me. But as you said, you have a lot to contribute. More than just your experience in logging. You seem to know how to get groups of people to work together to accomplish goals. Most of our people are too young and inexperienced to know how to work together. What do you think about our approach to spiritualism?”
Luke thought for a moment about how honest he should be. “I never really thought much about religion. I only went to church when I was a kid because my mother made me. I’d never done meditation until I came here, and I can’t promise I’ll take to it, but I’m giving it an honest try. I think it might be good for my family. We’ve had a rough year, and I think the meditations are . . . calming.”
“Very well,” said Vincent. “I accept you and your family into our community. I also appoint you leader of our logging crew. Summer, ask Trevor to come and see me. I have something new for him to do.”
Summer seemed upset. “Aren’t you going to meet with Willow to see what she wants?”
Vincent sighed as if they’d had this type of conversation before. “That won’t be necessary. I’ve accepted Luke and Willow is part of Luke’s family. Obviously, Willow will be part of our community.”
She formally registered Luke and his family, and she collected all of Luke’s remaining cash. As he rejoined the logging crew, she went to find Willow to share Vincent’s decision. Summer asked Willow if she wanted to stay and Willow said, “I do want to stay here. I like it here, but . . . never mind.”
“Never mind what?”
“It’s nothing. We’ll see how it goes.”
Summer showed Willow her new dorm: a corner area where they could put up some privacy curtains.
“I’d like a bunk bed over here and a single bed there and a crib right there,” said Willow. “Then I’d like another privacy curtain between the bunk bed and the single bed.”
Summer looked confused by Willow’s proposed sleeping arrangements, but she’d talk to the dormitory leader to make the arrangements.
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As he always did, Luke sat with Willow and Angel for their rice-and-beans supper to grill them about their days. “Who did you talk to today?”
Willow rolled her eyes. “I talked to April, Annie, Summer, the girls serving lunch and dinner, and some little children. Do you want to know their names?”
“What about guys? What guys did you talk to?”
“While I was in the outhouse, a guy came in, pulled down his pants, and said, ‘Excuse me.’ I didn’t talk to him, and he didn’t talk to me.”
Luke tried not to show his anger in public. “I told you not to go in there without your sister, or at least another girl! What about Angel? Who did she talk to?” Angel just looked at her plate.
“I’m not with Angel during the day, but you know Angel doesn’t talk. She hasn’t talked since Jules died.”
“But how will I know if a guy starts up with her? Guys won’t care if she doesn’t talk. Guys might like that she doesn’t talk!” Angel’s face turned red, and she was shaking. She got up and ran out of the dining hall. Other people around them started to stare.
Luke stood up to go after her, but Willow froze him with her glare. “Leave her alone. She’s just going to cry.”
The others were staring at him, so he sat back down. He wolfed down his supper and left. Willow cleaned up the table and hurried to their dorm to protect Angel. When she got there, Luke was sitting on Willow’s bottom bunk, his arm around Angel, his vile mouth whispering in her ear. Angel was shaking and whimpering.
Willow threw Luke’s arm off Angel. “Go! Get out!” she whispered loudly. “You’re making it worse.” Luke was going to ignore her, but something in her voice made her sound dangerous. He slowly got up, leered at Willow, and walked out.
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Over the next few weeks, Luke grew unusually distant from his family, seeing them only when he went to bed. He even avoided Theo. Willow started hanging out with April’s circle of friends, which even included a few guys in the commune’s band. Their band took the name Starshine. They became bigger, more electric—better—and their singers perfected their three-part harmony. Whenever they played, Willow and Angel would dance, wholly immersed in the music.
One evening at dusk, the band was doing an enthusiastic rendition of “Monday, Monday.” The girls were dancing when Angel, her eyes closed as if she was in a trance, started singing in harmony at the top of her lungs. Everyone else stopped dancing, then watched as she kept swaying and spinning and singing to the music. She was singing so loudly that even the band could hear her, and they carefully reduced their volume to give her the spotlight. When the song ended, Angel opened her eyes, suddenly realizing that everyone was staring at her. Her swaying stopped, and Willow put her arm around her to calm her down. The band leader, Gary, left the stage, went over to Angel, and asked if she’d like to join them on stage. Willow expected Angel to panic and run away. But she took Gary’s hand and followed him up, joining in a version of “Teach Your Children.”
After the concert, Willow picked up Theo and walked toward the stage, eyeing Luke, who stood off to the side. Gary gave Angel a big hug, and Luke swelled with rage. Before Willow could block him, Luke tromped up onto the stage, grabbed Angel by the arm, and tore her away. Willow followed them down a trail to the logging area, but she lost sight of them. She stopped when the trail branched into a whole network of trails. Then she heard Angel screaming. She ran down the hill, choosing a path as the sound echoed off the surrounding hills. She couldn’t tell where they were. She frantically went one way, then the other, and finally saw a flash of movement toward the brook. Luke had ripped Angel’s clothes off and bloodied her face. He was naked from the waist down and had pinned down her shoulders with his hands. Angel was gasping for breath. Willow put down the baby, grabbed a branch, and swung it at Luke’s head. A solid hit.
Luke lay still on the dirt. Willow picked up the baby, grabbed Angel, and ran along the brook. There was a dirty sweatshirt sitting on a log, so she put in on Angel and brought her back to the dorm. Willow had started cleaning Angel’s face when a girl she didn’t know came into their space. “Hi, Willow,” she whispered. “I’m Terry. Could you come here a minute?” They went to the other side of the curtain. “I’m afraid that we need to get you out of here, right now. We’ll take you to a safe place. You and your sister need to get your stuff and come with me. This is Carter. He’ll help carry your stuff.”
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After about an hour of driving along dark, winding back roads in Carter’s dirty green station wagon, they pulled into the yard of a poorly maintained farmhouse. A girl met them outside and spoke privately and heatedly with Carter. A hatch of flies danced in the headlight beams. Some resolution was found, and the girl came over to Willow. “Hi, my name’s Suzanne. We’ve decided that you should stay here for tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to take you to a safer place up in Vermont.”
The next morning, Suzanne and a girl called Chickie drove them for another hour to a well-maintained farm. Out front sat a ramshackle farmstand with a multicolored sign that read “Aquarian Agrarians.” A girl, Sherry, greeted them and welcomed them to the Peace Out Commune. She gave Chickie and Suzanne hugs and helped bring Willow and Angel’s belongings into a recently built cabin filled with bunk beds. They went back outside to a picnic table where another girl brought them some lemonade. “Hi, my name’s Tina.”
Willow introduced her family. Theo started fussing, so Willow looked around, shrugged, pulled out a boob, and started to breastfeed him. Tina and Suzanne looked at each other and laughed. Willow looked horrified, but Tina quickly said, “Oh no! You’re fine—we’ve just never seen anybody do that before. I think it’s amazing!”
A dog ran over to Angel and dropped a stick at her feet. Angel looked at Willow, whose smile assured her. She took the stick and threw it, and the dog chased after it.
“That’s Mindy,” said Suzanne. “She’d love for you to play with her.” When Angel went off to play with the dog, Suzanne looked serious. “Willow, please tell us what’s going on.”
Willow told them what had happened the day before, and felt safe enough to tell them how their father had killed their mother, causing them to flee and end up at Astral Plane.
Suzanne and Tina looked horrified. “Is your father going to come after you?” Tina asked.
“I don’t know if he would come after us or try to run from the cops. I worry that the cops will come after us since we probably belong to him, in their eyes.”
Suzanne put a hand on her shoulder. “We will get you new identities. When that’s all settled, where would you like to go?”