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a stink face.

“Yeah, they think it’s the cult leader who told everyone she was a god.” I swiveled to look out the window and said kind of under my breath. “I wonder what will happen to the adherents.”

“What did they believe in?” Destiny asked.

“Seems like from the rest of the article, that the followers were brainwashed, and their money was handed over. But who knows? Someone who’s never lived communally with others and worked for the greater good always thinks it requires brainwashing.” I chewed on my top lip, thinking. “There are some people who are just tired of thinking and want to hand over the responsibility to someone else. I was told that was the best way to go about life, you know? That if someone told me what to do and what not to do, then things are easier. I was led to believe that if I had too much information, I’d just be lost and anxious, not knowing the right way to go, what to think, and do.” I caught Destiny’s gaze, trying to read her. “I’m finding that as I live life, and get out in the world, hearing ideas, trying on different thoughts, it’s kind of freeing actually. I’m making my way in the world. Making decisions that are best for me. And I’m still young. I have time to learn.”

“Do you think you’ll have to give that up when you get married? You know, give yourself over to your husband, honor his wishes through your obedience.”

“Oh, I’m already married.” I wrinkled my nose.

She dropped her feet to the floor, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and leaned forward. “Where is he?” she whispered, then sent a frantic glance toward the door.

“Don’t worry. He’s not coming here. My husband Zebedee’s not abusive, and he’s got five other wives to manage. He was doing what he was told to do by his leaders. And I left so I don’t have to do that anymore. Zebedee has no idea where I am.” Now I just had to remember that name. I had meant to say Zebadiah, but it had come out wrong. Call him Zeb, I told myself.

“How old were you?”

“When I got married? A teenager. It had been planned by the elders before I even met Zeb. I mean, it was a small place. We all knew each other, but the men stayed away from the women. The women were supposed to serve in silence. I only got to know Zeb, you know—talk to him, for three weeks before we had the ceremony. Yeah, I don’t recommend that. Especially because he’s pretty old.” I wrinkled my nose to show my distaste. I was thinking about what the rules were at The Grove when I made up this tale.

“But if you’re married, that’s kind of it, isn’t it? You’re stuck until one of you dies.”

“That’s what they told me. But it turns out, that’s not what the laws say. A man is only allowed to marry one woman at a time. Our marriage wasn’t legal. So…yeah, I guess I’m not married.” I laughed. “Well, there’s a realization for you. And up until I said that, I thought I needed to save for a divorce. Are you married? Do you have someone in your life?”

“Me? No. Well almost. Same thing. A man was chosen for me. He was my uncle.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“The place where I grew up had its own rules. Barnabas was his name—still is.” Her face had blanched. “His name is Barnabas. He’s fifty-four and looks every minute of that age with his paunch belly, varicose veins, and comb-over.” She gave a full-body shiver. Her face scrunched with distaste. “His teeth were yellowy-brown from tobacco chew and crooked.” She gestured at her mouth. “All crowded forward into a glob. And his breath always smelled of beer. Always. First thing in the morning, he came into the office reeking of beer.”

“Was this at a business?”

“Business… yes. You know, when you talk about things, it sounds like we might have left the same kind of environment. I was homeschooled like you were. And I was in a compound like you were. The male elders told me what I could and couldn’t do. Where I could and couldn’t go. What to believe. What to think. Whom to marry.” She picked at her nails and chewed on a cuticle. “My biggest problem right now is that what I was taught doesn’t seem to be reality.” She pointed at a science book on the floor that still had its friends of the library twenty-five cents sticker on the cover. “I’m reading that, and it’s crazy what I’m learning. Back in California, I was told that the saints saddled T-Rex’s and rode them around like I might ride a horse.”

I nodded.

“And what schooling we got was mostly what was useful to the community: reading, writing, computer data entry, math. I’m very good at math, and that’s why I got to work in the office. My friends, they had to work in the fields growing our food or in the arts house.”

“What did they do in the arts house?” I turned on my side resting my head on my bent elbow.

“Crafts that they’d sell online. Mostly hammocks.”

“The office sounds better. Unless Barnabas was there.”

“He was there a lot. But still, it was better than being out in the fields under the hot sun from dawn to dusk.”

“And that’s why you fled? To get away from having to marry?”

She stilled. Finally, she rotated her lips in a circle as if unsticking them from her teeth. “Why did you leave?” she asked.

“There was a fire that burned down the compound’s storage warehouse. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to just disappear. Something just snapped for me that night.” I pulled that story from my family’s tale of how my

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