“Brother Thomas, we are all getting very fond of you, you know. We are enjoying having you with us. Please don’t have doubts. Just don’t think about it. Be open. And when the time comes, Brother Persival will have a mission for you, and you will want to perform it properly and please us all.”
‘Is that a first name or a last name? Persival.”
“I really don’t know. One of the rules of the Church is that everyone has just one name. And you can pick any part of your first name or last name, or you can make up a name, and then it is yours forever.”
“Don’t you get a lot of duplications?”
“Of course. What difference does that make? We don’t pay taxes and we’re not on social security and there is no payroll.”
“Then it could be tough locating my little girl Kathy.”
The Green Ripper
‘En all the regular camps there must be hundreds of Kathys. People are supposed to forget their last names. So even if they paged her in all the regular camps, she might not answer.”
“The boss lady has two names.”
‘YPlease don’t call her that! She is the only person who is allowed to have two names. The only one in the whole Church.”
I had untangled myself, and the feeling was coming back into my legs. She was back on the bed. By the way she moved I could see she no longer had an anlde problem.
“Well, take care of yourself, Sister Nena.”
She smiled at me. “Sure. Sister Stella is very fond of you, did you know that?”
‘A thought we were all very fond of each other. Isn’t that the house rule?”
She pursed her lips as she stared at me. “Sometimes when you sound sarcastic you are like another person.”
“In what way?”
‘Y don’t really know.”
I changed the subject. “Better stay off that ankle as much as you can.”
“It’s okay now. But thanks for carrying me.”
I stepped down out of the trailer and closed the tin door. The misty rain had stopped. I did not see anyone around. I took a bath in the creek and changed to my other set of clothes and washed out the coveralls.
As I scrubbed away, I thought about my very few options. I could stay here and keep my head down and try to get a line on where their headquarters might be located, then try to sneak away somehow and report to that memorized phone number. I could plan and carry out some kind of group ambush, kill every one of them, and then hunt through an their stuff for clues about the rest of the organization. But even if I could see myself executing an these crazies, little girls and all, my ability to do it was questionable. They were trim and tough and wary. Splendid reflexes. I could hang around until my mission, and then defect once I was at sea on the boat I was going to have to buy. By that time things would be popping all over the country, am patently. Sniping, fires, explosions, massacres, and God knows what all.
And once again I saw Gretel’s face, the way the fever had wasted her, saw her chest pumping as the machine breathed for her, saw the laugh-lines around her dying eyes.
And I thought then of a provisional plan. Nicky was dead. Maybe they would find out I wasn’t what I had pretended to be. If so, the odds might be improved between now and then. Nine to one read better than ten to one… a little better. Keep the eyes open. Improvise.
I stood up quickly, turning as I rose, and saw a
The Green Ripper dicker of movement beyond a big tree a hundred feet away. Suspicion confirmed. Keep an eye on Brother Thomas, but without giving yourself away. And we’ll see what he does.
Well, he just hung around and washed himself and some clothes. He spent an hour with Sister Nena He doesn’t seem to want to take off.
That night I got up from the table and went over to where Persival sat with Alvor. I said, ‘Y don’t see any good reason why you have to hang onto my money.”