Stealing Flowers (29 page)
“Don’t set this girl into their hands,
officer,” Una pleaded, “that would be a bad mistake. Can you not
see that something is missing from them?”
“Who are you?” Officer Woods, the sleepy
one, asked in an unfriendly manner.
“Una, the housekeeper of three decades,” she
said. “I practically raised this teenager and I can tell you that
she isn’t herself. Just leave her with her parents and ask these
folks out there to leave.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Officer Allen
said. “I’ll phone in to get advice, that’s the best I can do on a
domestic dispute like this.”
She looked at the police officers and nodded
without enthusiasm. “What’s wrong with my advice?”
They both laughed, and to be honest, so did
I. She seldom loses her cool, although that night she later would.
“Una, let us do our job,” Officer Woods said, “and you can go do
yours.”
I saw that Sally was going to be released
into the hands of her assaulters and anxiety washed through me. The
officers returned to the cruiser for some moments and then came
back.
“Here’s what we’ll do, Mr. and Mrs. Tappet,
Christian, and Una,” Officer Allen said. “I can see you are all
truly troubled. If you agree to immediately take Sally to the
hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, we’ll accompany you, but you
must adhere by the doctor’s decision, whatever it is. You’ll see
that this is in the girl’s best interest.”
“We already know what is in her best
interest,” Una replied, “to stay in her home with her parents and
the people who love her.” Una looked at them defiantly.
“If I don’t get out from under Satan’s
thumbs tonight,” Sally said and began to cry, “I’ll be lost forever
and see the eternal flames of hell. They don’t love me, they love
Satan!”
“She assaulted us tonight,” Una said,
rubbing her jaw, “what if we were to press charges.”
“We don’t place anyone under house-arrest
for assault,” Officer Allen said glibly. “She’d be definitely taken
out of the house then.”
Stan, Mary, Una and I huddled for one last
try. “Sally, remember at Mike Yardly’s place in Denver,” Una said,
“You thanked us for rescuing you from the compound. You said that
you loved us and that you were raped by the Elders. You asked us to
forgive you and said that you were sorry. Remember the video’s we
played for you about David Moses and the books you have upstairs?
Please, dear, try and remember.”
“Satan had control of me then,” Sally said
with little emotion, almost robotically, “now I’m free of his
influence.”
Una began to cry and I immediately followed
suit, as did Mary. The police took Sally to Essex County Grace
Hospital to be evaluated. Una, Mary, and Stan, followed in their
car. I went and got Andy and followed in mine.
After a substantial wait, the resident
psychiatrist, introduced herself as Doctor Chancy Hershey. She was
a big woman, only slightly less than Una, but stood shorter and
younger. Her hair, cut boyishly short had been dyed blond with wild
purple streaks, but her dark roots showed as well. She looked like
a freak and I instantly hated her. I knew we were in trouble. She
wore a great amount of make-up and I noticed that the way she
looked at Stan and Mary probably meant she recognized who they
were, and more importantly, she looked at Sally with great sympathy
and I knew she’d soon be back with the cult unless I
intervened.
Chancy and the police conversed behind
closed doors for some minutes. Una stayed close to Sally, but I
told Andy that when they released her, we might have a fight on our
hands. He phoned Kurt, and Kurt promised to come with Abbot and
Bandar, two huge tough East Indians from the Bronx. Sally refused
to meet our eyes or to answer Una’s questions. Mary tried to hug
her, but she shrugged her off. Chancy came out with the two
officers and glanced at Sally, and when she looked over at Mary,
Stan, Una, and I, a great annoyance crossed her face.
“What is your name?” she said to Sally in a
dramatic loud voice.
“Patience Hosanna.”
“This is your name in the Family of Truth?”
Sally nodded. “How old are you?”
“I’ll be nineteen on September 23.”
“Do you want to return to your friends in
The Family of Truth or do you want to stay with your biological
parents?”
“My parents are dead,” she answered, “they
are of Satan.” It was as cruel as can be and there’s nothing I can
say to soften it. She was clearly brainsick. “I want to return to
The Family of Truth,” she added.
“Are you crazy?” she asked.
“I’m trying in my own way, to serve the Lord
full-time, 100%.”
Chancy turned and looked at the two police
officers. “Why did you bring her here? We’re so busy. I’m not
committing this young healthy adult. There’s nothing wrong with
her.”
“Are you crazy?” Una growled, using Chancy’s
same expression, but in an opposite tone of voice.
Stan stepped over to Chancy. “What do you
know about brainwashing?”
“Enough not to believe in it. There’s
nothing clinically wrong with your daughter, Mr. Tappet. It’s you
and your family who seem upset. I think perhaps you are the ones
who need counseling.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Keep us both. Don’t
turn my daughter loose to those monsters. They’ve raped her and God
knows what else they’ve done to her.”
“Raped by the Jesus People?” she said and
raised her eyebrows in a skeptical manner. She turned to Sally. “Is
this true?”
“My father’s lying,” she answered, avoiding
his eyes. “He’s of Satan and when the Black Satan kidnapped me,
they tortured me to make that story up.”
“I heard it from her lips just three days
ago,” Una said. “No one touched her. Sally, what are you doing? We
were there when you told us that five Elders raped you, and you
named them!”
Chancy looked at Stan and ignored Una. “Mr.
Tappet,” she said, “I know who you are. I’m the admitting doctor
and your daughter isn’t being committed just because you have
money. This is a constitutional issue and it isn’t being decided in
the psychiatric ward of a public hospital.”
The officers talked to Stan out of our
earshot for a minute. When they both made to go, I was hoping
they’d made a deal, but the doctor said again, “I’m not admitting
her. I’ll take her to her friends myself.”
“You know what you are?” Una said, raising
her voice and stepping threateningly near Chancy, “you’re a person
removed from the genuine, when you see another counterfeit
out-of-the-tree zombie, you see a soul-mate.” The volume of Una’s
voice increased, now more of a growl with a acute edge of anger.
“You’ve been analyzed out of your soul and anyone who is a real
person is an affront to you. You don’t see anything wrong with that
girl, then look in the mirror?”
“Una!” Mary said sharply, drying her
eyes.
“If your evil-trade never existed,” Una
continued even louder, as angry now as the day when she’d
pulverized Mr. Vondt, “the world would be a better place;
psychiatry is a lie just as much as The Family of Truth!”
“Una,” Mary said, even sharper, “that’s
enough!”
Chancy smiled, and without saying a word
took Sally away. That bitch was a real mean twenty-mule team and
even waddled like one. I signaled to Andy with my eyes and we raced
out of the hospital. We found Kurt waiting for us and he took us
directly to the parking lot where the bus people waited for
Sally.
I was truly excited. It had been ages since
I’d had a legitimate reason to street brawl and I was itching to
pay the bus-people back for the humility they served us back in
July. I nodded to Abbot and Bandar, and we busted in on them even
as The Family of Truth was cheering Sally’s arrival. I sucker
punched Silent Peace, the one with the purple birthmark, striking
and flattening him; it was an excellent shot. I jumped on him and
gave him three quick hammer blows to the head. He was out and
bleeding from his nose. I went after the fat bearded guy next, Holy
Truth–one of Sally’s rapists. He was the only one amongst the
bus-people that I’d seen with any extra weight.
We’d caused much confusion and Kurt had
single-handedly dragged Sally kicking and screaming to his large
old El Dorado. Holy Truth was a coward and timidly covered his face
to dodge my blows and didn’t fight back, but I managed several good
ones before he ran to the bus. The presence of Abbot and Bandar,
the way they indiscriminately punched both sexes with unrestrained
blows, was absolutely essential to our complete success. The bus
people soon scrambled bleeding and terrified into their bus and
left without Sally. They’d come all the way to Jersey to retrieve
her, probably out of fear that she’d talk and because her presence
in The Family of Truth was worth a fortune. They expected wealthy
Northeastern liberals, an obedient alienated housekeeper and the
cowed son of famous industrialists, not parents who were home and
willing to fight for their daughter, a housekeeper holding their
catch back, and the son, a streetwise orphan ready to physically
fend them off.
My first inclination was to phone Rick
Edwards, and indeed, I tried, but his wife, Janice, said he was on
one of the major news networks that night and would be late; I
found out which one, and rang off. After thanking Kurt, Abbot and
Bandar, for their help, Andy and I took Sally to Una’s cottage. I
sat in the back with her and held her hand as Andy drove.
When we arrived, I phoned Una. “You have my
Sally?” she asked before I got a word out. I told her the story and
this is what she said, I’ll never forget it, “The best thing that
ever happened to the Tappets is you stealing those flowers from our
garden for your mother.” She paused. “Is she okay?” I let her speak
to Sally for a few minutes. She was only half responsive, and when
I took the phone from her, Una said, “I’m on my way, I’ll see you
in a couple of hours.”
I knew Mary and Stan would come too. I
turned on the television to the news show Janice had referred to,
and within a minute, the three of us were watching Rick Edwards on
Nightly Review debating the cults, especially The Family of Truth,
with Senator Al Stevens, Ashbury Farm’s head-elder’s father. When
it was over, Sally had regained some poise and I made us all hot
chocolate. To my relief, Sally took it from me and smiled. I knew
that no matter how slow the recovery, she would make it, and as
soon as Mary, Stan, and Una arrived, Andy and I went to bed; and I
think they weren’t long after.
In the next few weeks, Sally and I visited
Rick Edwards and his family, had supper with them, and went to a
deprogramming. Stan had sent a sizable check with me to help with
his fight against cults. It was wonderful to see Rick Edwards
again, and for the second time, I realized, that like Stan, he was
a real life hero, however, while it was good for me, it was
incredible for Sally. She was thinking of suing The Family of Truth
for the assault, and Rick Edwards, while cautioning her that it
would be hard and perhaps dangerous, encouraged her to seek
counseling and legal advise; and especially to forgive herself for
getting on that bus. His wife and children were wonderful, and the
night was magic. He took us to a deprogramming with him, a
seventeen year old who had be recruited by the Brotherhood, and
although it seemed easier than what Sally had gone through, I could
tell that it effected her positively.
The following weeks Sally returned to
university at NYCU and I returned to Princeton. That year, we both
received excellent grades and graduated in Bachelor Arts. Sally and
I both wanted to start our careers with Tappets, and after
conferring with Una, scheduled a formal meeting with Mary and Stan.
They turned us down flatly over the wishes of Una, and both of us
were told we had to specialize in accounting and business courses
for two more years, maybe three, and depending on our marks, would
be put on a fast-track to Tappets’ management. Together, we decided
to do Harvard business school and our marks over the next two years
were impressive enough for Mary and Stan to concede. I had started
to work out and in these two years and lost much weight, over
twenty-five pounds, and my build in general, was one that I was
more satisfied with. By the time I graduated business school, I had
managed a few romantic relationships. I can’t say that they were
great, or that there was much love, but I developed confidence as a
lover. I told Sally nothing of these interludes, and she told me
nothing of hers, if she had any; I suspected that she didn’t.
In July of 1984, we both started with
Tappets full-time. I was placed, to my complete surprise, at Poss
Fast-Discs under the tutelage Hiroyuki Nakamura, the number two man
in Tappets. Sally started with Mary, in management and I was very
jealous of this, but before we actually began, we learned of Rick
Edwards’ murder. A knock came to my bedroom door the day before I
was to start at Poss. Una entered. She’d her expression of bad
news. I thought for a second Clara had passed away. I’d been in to
see her a couple of times this last week, she was across the hall,
and she looked quite frail and didn’t recognize me. Una turned on
the television in my bedroom to NBC news.
“Rick Edwards was killed this morning,” she
said. I rose in shock; I’d been sitting at my desk working at my
computer. “A group of five gunmen armed with AK-47s killed him at
home,” she continued, “and seriously injured his twelve year old
son.”
I immediately thought of The Family of
Truth. Rick Edwards had told Sally and I during the night we’d
flown to LA that they now had a hostility branch. “Have they caught
them?” I asked.
Una shrugged and rubbed my head. “It’s the
damnest thing,” she said. “Such a fine man. It’s true what they
say, that in life, courage is often paid for with your life.”
