Sister Bonita

~

A large stream flowed in front of the buildings. I walked across the footbridge to the door of the cathedral, and before I knocked, it swung open. I was greeted by two boys who were probably eight or nine years old. Like the other kids I’d seen, their heads were shaved and they were wearing the white CODL uniform, but instead of black belts they had light brown belts around their waists.

“Your flip-flops,” one of the boys said.

“What about them?”

“Take them off please.”

I slipped the flip-flops off and the other boy picked them up and carried them away at arms length like I had stepped in something nasty. I thought about telling him that they were brand new and that I’d only taken a couple of hundred steps in them, but I doubt that he would have listened to me.

The boy pointed. “Your feet.”

“They don’t come off,” I said, trying to be funny, but the boy didn’t crack a smile.

“I need to wash them,” he said.

“You’re kidding?”

He shook his head and pointed at a tiled wading pool built into the floor. I walked over to it.

“Please step in.”

I shrugged my shoulders. It didn’t look like it was filled with acid, so I did as he asked. The ankle deep water was warm and felt pretty good. The boy then proceeded to wash my feet with a soft brush. This felt pretty good too, although it was a little embarrassing.

 

When he finished he dried my feet off with a towel and smiled up at me and said, “Thank you.”

I looked down at him and thought, This is very creepy.

He handed me another pair of flip-flops wrapped in plastic and I took them out and slipped them on.

“Don’t you guys re-use these things?”

Instead of answering he said, “You may go in now.” The boy who took my flip-flops held open a large door. I stepped through it.

Inside was a huge auditorium. Instead of chairs there were several hundred white cushions on the floor. At the far end of the room was a stage. And sitting on the stage in a white chair was a bald CODL member dressed in a white robe with a white belt tied around it.

“Please come forward, Briggs.”

Two things surprised me. First, it was a woman’s voice. And second, she knew my name. It was like the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her gang meet the wizard in the Emerald Palace. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto, I thought and walked to the front.

“Please sit down,” the woman in white said.

I sat on one of the cushions in the front row and looked up at her. For some reason she looked familiar.

“You must be Sister Bonita,” I said.

“Yes.”

“Well,” I began. And I was about to explain to her that there’d been a big mistake, when a little kid with a shaved head ran across the stage and jumped into her lap. The kid giggled and pointed at me.

“He has hair!”

I tried very hard not to show my surprise. The little kid was Belinda Vose. And I realized why the woman looked so familiar. Sister Bonita was Sara Vose’s twin sister, Bonnie. She looked a lot different without hair.

“Amanda, you’re not supposed to be in here,” Bonita said crossly.

Belinda’s smile vanished as if her aunt had slapped her. “Sorry, Mommy,” she apologized and gave Bonita a slight head bow.

Amanda? I thought. Mommy?

“Go back to your room and meditate,” Bonita said, sternly. “i’ll be in soon to see how you’ve done.”

“Yes, Mommy,” Belinda said and bowed again. She was about ready to burst into tears, but she held them back. Tears probably weren’t allowed. I wondered what four-year-olds thought about when they meditated.

Bonita watched Belinda walk away, then turned back to me. “Sorry for that interruption, Briggs. You were saying?”

I was too shocked to say anything now. Belinda thought Bonita was her mother and didn’t even know that she had been kidnapped. Seeing Belinda also meant that Theodore wasn’t insane. If anyone was having a fantasy it was me, not Theodore. His long shot had led directly to the solution.

“Are you all right, Briggs?” Bonita asked.

“Sure, I’m fine.” I said, but I wasn’t. Seeing Belinda changed everything.

“You look strange,” she said suspiciously.

“Just tired,” I said quickly. “And hungry.”

“Of course,” she said, relaxing a little bit. “Why are you here?”

“I want to join the Children Of Divine Light,” I answered, surprising myself.

“I see,” she said calmly. “Before we discuss that, I have a few questions for you.”

“All right.”

“We’re an open community,” she began. “As such, what belongs to one of us belongs to all. So, we took the liberty of going through your pack.”

So that’s how she knew who I was. My name and address were on the name tag. Luckily I had left all the information about Belinda in my bedroom back home... Then I remembered the photograph of Belinda. I’d left it in my shirt pocket and they had my shirt. Philip Marlowe would not have made this mistake. My stomach felt queasy and I thought for a moment that I might throw up.

“You walked in from Mammoth Hot Springs?” She asked.

“Right.”

“I see,” she said. “We noticed that your airline ticket says that you are returning on Monday night. If you wanted to join the Children of Divine Light, then why were you planning to leave on Monday?”

“I didn’t know if you’d let me join,” I lied.

She nodded. Here it comes, I thought. We also found the photograph of Belinda and now we’re going to kill you. I held my breath.

“I’m sorry you had to spend the night in the cabin,” she continued. “We’re very careful about trespassers. We have many enemies.”

I let my breath out. “Well, I’m not one of them.”

She didn’t say anything.

“What about my clothes?” I asked casually.

“I beg your pardon?”

“When I was taking my shower someone took my clothes.”

She smiled. “You’ll get them back. I imagine they’ve been taken to the laundry. We don’t allow those kind of clothes in the compound. Don’t worry about it.”

Easy thing to say, I thought. It was only a matter of time before they discovered the photo and turned it over to her. I had to get away from there before they found it.

“So you want to become a member of our community?”

“Well, I’m not sure,” I stammered. “You see—”

“I’m afraid you can’t join us,” she interrupted. “In the first place you’re a minor. We don’t allow minors here without their parents.”

Unless you’ve kidnapped them, I thought.

“And the children we have here are much younger. We’ve found that it’s too late for children over the age of five years.”

“Too late for what?”

“Too late to learn the way,” she answered.

“What’s the way?”

She smiled pleasantly. “I’m afraid you’ll never know.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” I said, trying to look very disappointed. “It looks like I came all the way out here for nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “We’ll have someone drive you in to Mammoth Hot Springs later tonight. Or if you prefer we’ll take you to Bozeman. Perhaps you can catch an earlier flight.”

“Tonight?” I wanted to leave immediately.

“Yes,” she said. “We won’t have anyone available until later this evening.”

“I don’t really need a ride. If you’ll just give me my things back I can hike out of here right now. I don’t want to be a bother.” And I didn’t want to be there when they found the photo either.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” she said. “We want to make sure that you get back safely. If something were to happen to you and they found out that you were here, we might get in trouble. You understand of course.”

I nodded, knowing more about her troubles than she could imagine.

“So what time will I be able to leave?”

“I’m not sure. We only have a few cars up here. It won’t be until late. After our evening service. In the meantime we’ll give you something to eat and a room you can rest in. You must be tired after last night.”

“I am.”

“If you want to see the rest of the commune later i’ll assign you an escort. He’ll be able to get you some food as well.”

“Thanks,” I said without much enthusiasm. I had to figure a way to get out of there. “Maybe I should call my parents and let them know what’s going on.”

“That’s an excellent idea.” She reached behind her chair and came up with a cordless phone and handed it to me. I was hoping for a little more privacy, but I could see she wasn’t going to give it to me. I dialed anyway.

When Theodore answered I said, “Hi, Mom!”

“What?” Theodore asked.

“I’m at the commune.”

“Briggs?”

“That’s right.”

“Are they on the line?”

“Heck no.”

“But they’re listening to you?”

“Right.”

“Is Belinda there?”

“Sure is.”

“That’s fantastic!” He shouted. “What a lucky break. Did you take her photograph?”

“Nope, and I won’t be able to either.”

“Why not?” He asked, obviously disappointed.

“Give me a break,” I said cheerfully.

“Oh, right,” he said. “I guess you can’t go into a lot of detail right now.”

“Not at the moment.”

“Do they know why you’re there?” He asked.

“No, but they will pretty soon.”

“That’s bad. If they find out they’ll move Belinda and we’ll probably never find her again.”

Yeah, I thought. And what about me, Theodore? Thanks for asking.

“i’ll contact the authorities,” Theodore continued. “But even if I convince them that Belinda’s there they probably won’t be able to get into the compound before she’s been moved. It could take them days to get a search warrant.”

“Oh, well,” I said smiling.

“I guess you’ll just have to get her out yourself.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said, trying to keep the fake smile plastered on my face.

“It’s our only choice.”

Ours? I thought. You’re not here, Theodore!

I glanced at Bonita, or Bonnie, or whatever her name was. “Okay,” I said into the phone. “i’ll be home Sunday night. They’re going to drive me to Mammoth Hot Springs this evening. Okay, Mom. Love you too. I’ll see you then. Bye.”

I hung the phone up. “No problem,” I said to Bonita, relieved that she hadn’t grabbed it from me and discovered that my mom was an adolescent boy in a wheelchair.

“Well good,” she said. “i’ll introduce you to your escort. He’ll take you to your room. After you rest he can show you around.” She put her hand on my shoulder and add, “I’m sorry this didn’t work out, Briggs. Perhaps one day you can bring your own children here and they can learn the way.”

Or maybe i’ll bring them to visit you in prison, I thought. And they can learn what happens to an aunt who kidnaps her little niece.