Page 22 of Axton
“You said you had your parents blessing, didn’t you?” I sat back calmly, waiting for each answer with a great deal of curiosity that I wouldn’t let him see.
“I have failed my father every day of my life, Mr. Axton. That’s a fear of every son that strives to make his father proud. I am only faithful to two beings in this existence and that’s where I have failed him. I have a great love for God, and I am deeplyfaithful to him, but he is not the God my father has prayed to his entire life. I am not a believer or faithful to my father’s church, his religion, his practices, or his prophecies. I am only faithful to my God and my sister. I would like to say that I once looked at the man that fathered me and had respect for his beliefs, but I cannot remember a day that I believed one thing he ever said to me. I am a lover of books and have studied the Bible and various other writings to search for answers as to what was wrong with me. Yet, I found nothing to explain the feelings I had my entire life. That was until I came of age and stumbled into a Catholic Church where I met Father Gallagher. He took me on a spiritual journey, and I found some answers. He is the one that told me to seek refuge here with these people. The other person I am faithful to is my sister. We are the same age, but I never saw her the way boys in our community saw girls like her. I love her dearly because she is my best friend, and the other boys would laugh at me. We both had a hunger for knowledge, and her hunger was not something that was respected in our community in a woman. Where I have always seen Belle as my equal, other boys saw the girls as submissive and dutiful.”
“Like they were just vessels to grow a flock?” I asked.
“Exactly. While we were raised to fear the sinners of the outside world, I wanted to embrace them and soak in knowledge from their written words. Bellemy is like me in that, she loves the written word, but she fears the influence of the sinners. When I say sinners, I am speaking of every human that does not follow the teachings of my father. I’m sure that you, like so many others, see her beauty and are struck by her, but my father was especially taken by her beauty the moment she was born. That’s when he had a so called prophecy about her. She was different than any other girls in our community. She had a purpose, and my father catered to her. She wanted to learn, so he allowed herto learn. She is the first female in our ancestry to graduate high school through a homeschooling program supported by some private school in Utah. Then he allowed her to gain a college education through a community College. He even allowed her to take classes in a real classroom setting. He said the education would serve her well when her intended came for her. Father says the man is an angel just like her, but he would be a soldier fighting God’s wars and doing God’s work here on earth. That is why she was never married. There are two reasons why I didn’t just take off at the first opportunity. I knew I couldn’t take Belle, and I feared I would be shunned and never able to safely escape with her. I’d never see her again. My fears made me comply, but I’m a disappointment to my father and our community. I was forced into a spiritual marriage with a child, but I refused to touch her. I wouldn’t consummate the marriage and produce a child. I know I was on the verge of punishment, but I did what I could to buy time. Father Gallagher arranged a meeting with Ms. Allred, but she did not feel comfortable taking me on because of Belle. She knew escaping with her would be far too dangerous. I pestered her for two years until she finally gave me the card for Creed’s Lake and said to give your organization a try.”
“You were going to just show up on our doorstep?” I asked.
“I was going to call when we got to the state line, and I had an idea where to go because of your website for the motorcycle business. I had to get her out of there as soon as possible. Our father is down to his last days and the moment he takes his last breath Belle is going to be forced into marriage to Jeremy.”
“What happens to the girl you married?”
He lifted a brow. “She is not my wife. Not legally and not in any way that counts. As the son of a bishop, I was given the most faithful of girls, but I had no desire to be responsible for a child,let alone treat her as a wife. She is dedicated to the cult, and she lives a life of shame because I refuse to share my bed with her. I worked and contributed to the community. By doing this, I earned a roof over our heads and the food on our table, but that’s all I ever gave her. The only thing I have ever owned is my truck, which was bought for us as a wedding gift. I was only buying time until I made a decision that would have made me an outcast and I would never see my mother and father again. The thought of a child disgusted me. In my opinion I did her a favor, but she will disagree. Once married she can never marry again until I am dead. I feel that keeps one girl out of the hands of a man that will defile her at a young age. There is no such thing as divorce and as long as she is faithful to their beliefs, she will never marry. Women can only have one living husband at a time. Meaning she will never have to go to any other man that won’t see her as more than a vessel for his happiness, and not consider hers.”
“What will happen to her?” I asked.
“She will likely be assigned to a married man, and work as a housekeeper and midwife to his wives. She will never earn money, only food, a roof over her head, and blessings from the church. Essentially, she will be a servant until I die. I’m not sorry for it, I was forced into something that I couldn’t emotionally or physically carry out. She is assumed to be undesired by her husband and that brings a lot of shame to her. All of this is very difficult because I may not believe in my father, but I love him and my mother as much as I do Belle. It wasn’t easy taking her away from our father and her mother, but he finally understood how dangerous Jeremy is and shocked me by asking me to take her away. If we waited any longer there would be real consequences worse than being shunned. Jeremy is taking over as the next bishop without truly earning it as my father did. He has already started making laws and taking away the very fewfreedoms we had under my father’s leadership. He learned our oldest brother agreed to Jeremy’s request to marry Belle as soon as he died. He told Belle we were going to Utah to seek help, just to give her some comfort, and he did hope that was where I would take her, but I did tell him I wouldn’t take her anywhere that Jeremy could have influence.”
“Why does this Jeremy character want her so badly?” I asked.
“He claims to have felt a love for her since he was fourteen and she was seven, and it was God that spoke to him when he looked into her eyes. In reality, he wants my father’s estate, and he is obsessed with her beauty. Everything is in my father’s name, every dime he ever saved along with what our ancestors left him will be given to God and his soldier, and the soldier would become the new prophet. He lives an extremely modest life, and invests just about everything his followers give him. He is not a violent man, but Jeremy is and claims to be the next prophet. He is not a faithful man, and the only reason he doesn’t care about waiting so long for her is because he fornicates with women who have loose morals. I have followed him and seen him making deals with men in motorcycle gangs and he goes to bed with their women.”
I leaned back in my chair and studied him. Following that Jeremiah clown must have been risky, so maybe the little man was braver than I gave him credit. He wasn’t as scared for his safety as he was scared to leave Belle behind. “How sure are you that she is the daughter of the parents who raised her? I must say, I don’t see much of a resemblance in the two of you.”
He chuckled. “You’re not the first to ask. Belle resembles our great grandmother. She was tall and had her hair color. She’s the grandmother of our father. In order to prove to the community that Belle was the daughter of the bishop and sister Abigail, thethree of them took two sets of DNA tests and they also matched her as my half-sister. I also took the test, it was ridiculous. It was through some ancestry database, in which our community holds their ancestors very close to their hearts. We are not the Amish, we may live simple lives, but we do believe in science and technology.”
I made a mental note to call Patrick to do his research since he was our amateur genetic genealogist, and I wouldn’t have to make it creed’s business if I wasn’t using our lab. “What are your hopes for your life moving forward?” I asked.
“I am uncertain for the moment but will seek those answers through prayer.” He answered.
“And for Belle?”
He shrugged. “Maybe she could learn independence and teach? I really don’t know, but I want her to find joy in life. I fear she will never find happiness if she continues to believe fathers prophecies.”
Belle
Again, there was something warm in my hand. It wasn’t the hand of the kind man, but I knew he was near by the warm presence I felt. My eyes fluttered open to meet a pair of wet brown eyes.
“I am so sorry.” Koty cried as he kissed my hand.
I tried to speak, but my throat still hurt, and I coughed. “I have ice water for her.”
The kind man moved into my view, and I knew I was safe. “Let me try to sit you up, Belle.” Koty was still sniffling when he pushed an arm under my back and lifted me to sit up. The kind man sat on the side of the bed and the straw from the cup he was holding met my lips. I tooka sip of the water, and it helped, but my head was still hurting, but not as bad as before.
“Where?” I coughed and couldn’t get words out, my throat was too irritated.
“Belle, we are in a house that is safe.” Koty spoke up. “This man is named Mike, and he came all the way from Indiana to help you.”
His name was Michael, the same as God’s mightiest soldier who cast Satan from heaven. Michael the archangel.
“To help both of you.” The man corrected Koty.
I tried to speak but Koty wouldn’t have it. “Don’t try to speak, Belle. Give your throat a rest and I’ll do my best to tell you everything. Your mama and our papa know we aren’t in Utah, and they’ve given us their blessing to do whatever is necessary to escape Jeremy. They feel as if a marriage to Jeremy will end the church. He will do illegal things to bring the law to the community and our family will be arrested. John Henry gave his blessing for Jeremy to marry you.”
I tried to lay back. “What hap…?” I coughed. I meant to ask what happened to him.
“You want to know what happened?” He asked and I shrugged. I remembered enough about what happened to me.
