Laurie's Wolves Page 10

  »»•««

  It was late afternoon when Laurie entered Melinda’s shop in Sojourn, Dreamcatchers. The place was amazing, lifting her mood, which was quite a feat after the morning she’d had.

  It was bright and inviting, filled with all sorts of Native American apparel, jewelry, and knickknacks.

  Melinda stepped from behind the register as Laurie entered. “Hey.” She smiled hugely for about a second, and then her face fell. “Uh oh. I don’t like the look on your face.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t sense my mood from a mile away.” Laurie leaned into Melinda’s outstretched arms and hugged her. It felt good. Home. Right. Like they knew each other well and hadn’t spent the first twenty-five years of Laurie’s life separated with no knowledge of the other one.

  Melinda released her and held her at arm’s length. “We have a strange connection, but I’m also blocked from you at times. It’s weird, especially considering I doubt you know how to control it.”

  “That’s for sure. I’m still trying to understand even the most basic parts of this craziness.”

  Another woman came in from the back room and smiled. She held out a hand. “You must be Laurie. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Sherri.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Laurie shook her hand and liked her instantly. Just touching Sherri gave her insight into the woman’s character. She was kind and friendly and warm. How the hell could Laurie surmise all that so quickly?

  She shook off the weird feeling of getting into Sherri’s head and followed Melinda toward the front door.

  Melinda turned to Sherri. “We’re going to get coffee. You okay here?”

  “Of course.” She waved them off. “Go. Enjoy. See you later.”

  Ten minutes later, Laurie sat across from Melinda in the cutest coffee shop she’d ever seen. It wasn’t a chain store. It was a family-owned one-of-a-kind. She took a sip of her latte and blew out a long breath. “I feel as though all sorts of weird things are happening to me at once. It’s unnerving.”

  “I’m sure.” Melinda wrapped her hands around her mug and blew on the contents before she took a sip. “Take it one day at a time. I’ll help you as much as I can. Mimi will too.”

  “It’s like Destiny has a hand in this. She meant for me to be in this place at this time with you.”

  “Yes.”

  “And She is also trying to get me to go back where I came from. The juxtaposition of feelings is overwhelming.”

  Melinda furrowed her brow. “How so? What makes you think you aren’t meant to be here?”

  “Well, I can’t get a job for starters. Not in Cambridge or Sojourn. And I love what I do with kids. It will devastate me if I have to stop working.”

  “What do you mean? It’s only been a few days. Something will come up.”

  Laurie shook her head and chuckled sardonically. “No. It won’t. Word has spread that I’m a half-breed who’s shacking up with two men. No one in either town wants a polygamist teaching their kids—not to mention someone of mixed race.”

  Melinda gasped. “Did someone say that to you?”

  Laurie nodded. “Verbatim. I started looking for work in Cambridge, and when I got shunned, I switched to Sojourn. By the time I got to the third preschool this morning, the woman had already been called and warned of my impending arrival.”

  “No way?” Melinda sat up straighter, rigid.

  Laurie nodded. “Way. And the lady had no problem telling me how unhappy the town is with my arrival.”

  “Shit. That’s whacked. How come no one has ever approached me?”

  “Seems like they weren’t so sure about you and your love life. Nor were they sure about Rebecca. Or maybe they turned a blind eye since you own your business and Rebecca’s a nurse they can ill afford to lose in the area. In any case, they don’t want some half-red polygamist working with their impressionable young children.” She giggled at her unintended pun. “And when I say ‘red’, I guess that goes for both sides—my redheaded Caucasian side and my red-blooded Native side.”

  Melinda slumped in her seat. “Lord. We need to do something.”

  “Like what? Change the laws?” Laurie chuckled. “I hardly see how there’s any way out of this problem.” She slouched in the chair and lowered her face. “Corbin’s going to take flack at work soon, and Zach’s entire family could suffer a financial devastation from this hit on their character.”

  “Don’t get carried away now. I’m sure Carlie and Adam can take the heat. And Corbin’s boss is a shifter. So is Trace’s at the precinct in Cambridge. That helps tremendously.”

  Laurie took a drink of her coffee and tried to imagine how this was possibly going to work out. She couldn’t stand the idea of people harassing her or her mates for the rest of their lives.

  At no point in her twenty-five years had she ever been subjected to racism or any other ism. And it felt awful.

  She changed the subject. “So what do you think about the spirit appearances? I’m late to this party.”

  “There haven’t been any I’ve been aware of since the casino site shut down. And before that there was the year gap after the earthquake. So, it seems the spirits make their presence known each time there’s another mating among us. And by us, I mean our two families.”

  “That’s so weird. Do you think it’s possible the forces that be are opposed to our matings?”

  Melinda shook her head. “Not a chance. In fact, when I first spotted one of these black smoky shadows, it was clear to me it was aggravated by how long I was taking to complete the mating. The spirits are impatient. I think Fate is bringing us together at precise moments in time for a reason.”

  “Fine. If that’s the case, do you believe Cooper and Sawyer are destined to mate with the other two Masters? Logan and Sharon?”

  “Perhaps. Seems pretty likely. Don’t you think?”

  “Well, Sharon’s convinced. And she wants nothing to do with it.”

  “Really?” Melinda giggled. “She’s not alone. Cooper and Sawyer fled Miles’s house like their pants were on fire. I don’t think it matters what they want. When Fate is ready for them to merge, She’ll have her way, with or without their consent.”

  “It’s crazy. I know I keep saying that, but it’s true. No wonder people are freaked out about our strange arrangements. Not only are we mating in threes, but someone is bound to realize soon that we’re basically two families merging. That’s the craziest crazy of them all.

  “Hell, it probably looks like we’re plotting to take over the world.”

  Melinda laughed and leaned in conspiratorially. “Maybe we should.”

  »»•««

  “We cannot permit this to happen,” someone shouted.

  Mary sat near the back of the room and listened as several members of the church continued their rant.

  “And we won’t.”

  “Can we bring this up with the town council?”

  “Cecil? What leverage do we have?”

  A man in his late sixties stood slowly and headed for the pulpit. The church had called this impromptu meeting by mass email that morning.

  Mary felt like she was at a lynching. Something didn’t sit right with her. She had spent her entire life living by the very doctrines of this church and one exactly like it. This was the denomination she was raised in. Something felt off. She didn’t know how to explain it, but her skin crawled. Her world was off-kilter.

  In theory, she had always learned it was wrong for a woman to lie with two men. It was against human nature. However, in reality, who was she to judge? Her world had so altered in the last months that she wasn’t sure about any of the teachings of her church lately. And how was the relationship between three people going to hurt anyone else in the community?

  On the other hand, if this was the third such family to form of three people—two men and one woman—where would it stop? She didn’t want an entire community of polygamists sprouting up between Sojourn and Cambridge any more than anyon
e else in this room. The concept made her uncomfortable.

  It was an abomination to the teachings of the Bible. Right? She shuddered as she questioned her beliefs. It seemed like everything she’d ever been taught was shattering around her like broken glass. But threesomes? Wasn’t that going too far?

  What gave Mary the most pause was the issue of race. She knew for a fact in her heart that no one should be arguing that somehow this new woman in town, Laurie Hamilton, should be shunned for being mixed. That was ridiculous. Jesus would not have agreed with that idea.

  It seemed to her that what the church really took issue with was Laurie’s mixed blood, and they were using her chosen way of life as a smokescreen to cover their racism.

  Cecil cleared his throat and leaned into the microphone. “Calm down, folks.”

  “We won’t calm down until those people are run out of town,” someone shouted. “They’re a mockery to our way of life. We can’t tolerate it.”

  Pastor Edmund stood from his chair next to the pulpit and raised his hands. “Sit. Everyone, please. Let’s hear what Cecil has to say.”

  A hush fell over the audience. Well, a partial hush. There were about a hundred people in the room, and most of them were still grumbling to their neighbor.

  Some sat in silence like Mary, but not many. She glanced around to see a few heads bowed and lips pursed. Would the silent few keep quiet even if the majority suggested something abominable?

  Hell, would she?

  Cecil held the mic in one hand. “Folks, I was a lawyer in this town for thirty years, and though I’ve been retired for ten, I can tell you times haven’t changed that much. Unless someone comes forward and tries to actually marry more than one person, we don’t really have a leg to stand on.

  “Three people living in one dwelling means nothing to the courts. There’s no law that says a couple can’t rent a room to someone, for example.”

  People started grumbling again, their voices rising so it was difficult to hear what any one person said.

  Cecil held up a hand and waited patiently. “People. Listen. No matter how you break this down, the truth is none of these people have even married one member of the household. No one has attempted to marry two.”

  “What?” Mary recognized that voice as Ada’s. She sat on the front pew and stood as she spoke. “They’re all living in sin?”

  Cecil’s shoulders slumped. “That wasn’t my point at all, Ada. My point is that you can’t accuse anyone of breaking a law and marrying more than one person if they aren’t married at all.”

  “How do we know this?” someone yelled.

  “I looked it up. It’s a matter of public record. None of the Masters’s households lists any of the occupants as married. Not even Adam and Carlie.” He muttered that last part.

  “Are you kidding?” This was shouted by a woman holding a baby and bouncing the tyke on her leg as she also stood.

  Cecil shook his head. “None of the family members are married. And there’s no law that says they must be, either.”

  “So the entire Masters family is living in sin? Right here among us? Living in our neighborhood and making a mockery of the entire Bible?” Ada said all this in a tone that said she meant it solely as a repetition. Not a question.

  Mary rolled her eyes. She didn’t even know why she was in disagreement with this mob, but she was. Oh, who was she kidding? She knew exactly why she was moving away from this denomination’s doctrine.

  Someone else shouted. “What about the fact that these heathens are mixing with those nasty Indians? Why isn’t anyone addressing that issue?” The man’s face turned a dark shade of red while he ranted. Spittle flew into the air. And his hands shook. He ran one through his already disheveled hair.

  Pastor Edmund stood again and nudged Cecil to the side so he could lean into the mic. “We aren’t here to discuss race. This kind of thinking will get us nowhere. We need to stick to the points we can support reasonably.”

  The room got louder.

  Pastor Edmund raised a hand again. “Folks, I know most of you have lived here your entire lives in peace.”

  “Among our own kind,” someone shouted. Mary shifted her gaze to see the speaker was Brock Henson, a guy a few years younger than her who worked as a ski instructor at the resort. He’d always seemed like a bit of a hothead to her.

  Pastor Edmund nodded. “I hear you. I do. But times have changed. No judge in this country is going to listen to a complaint about mixing the races. We wouldn’t be taken seriously in any court of law or in front of any government official. If we have any hope of putting an end to the practices of these people, all of you need to leave race out of it. If anyone anywhere gets wind of the fact that this issue is about race, we’ll fall on our faces.”

  And there it was. The real reason for the mayhem.

  The red-faced man spewed his filth again. “Those Indians should stay on their own land and keep to themselves. Nothing but handouts. Centuries of our government coddling them. They’ve been given everything from land to food to education to healthcare. And still they want more. And now they want our women and our children.

  “Well, I’m not going to stand for this. And I hope none of the rest of you are, either.” He pointed around the room, letting his finger and gaze land on many different individuals. “For years we’ve lived here among ourselves. There’s no need for us to bow down and let those nasty Indians infiltrate our lives.”

  Mary shuddered. How had she gotten so far off track that she ended up sitting in a room full of such hate? And when did she begin to see it that way?

  Oh, she knew when. The exact date, in fact. She was kidding herself if she didn’t face reality.

  She no longer agreed with this man or anyone else in the room.

  Rumors. Every single piece of this was rumors. The only thing these people leaned on was racism and hate. Maybe the Masters were living in sin. Maybe they weren’t. But what was clear as a bell was that this mob had no leg to stand on.

  She pursed her lips and held her tongue. The entire thing had disintegrated to a mission of hatred and racism. And that was more than she could tolerate. On some level, she’d always known her denomination was racist and intolerant, but knowing it and hearing it stated out loud were two different things.

  “I say we show them they’re not welcome,” the red-faced man shouted, pumping his fist into the air. “Make them leave town. If we band together, we can put an end to this insanity.”

  Several other people yelled their agreement, jumping to their feet and calling for what amounted to a lynching.

  Mary cringed. Would these God-fearing people actually try to hurt anyone? She seriously hoped not. For her own sake as well as those who were at the bad end of today’s ranting mob.

  One woman raised her hand and then stood, visibly shaking. Her small voice rang out, hushing everyone. “What are you planning to do? These are human beings. We can’t ruin people’s lives just because we disagree with them. What happened to ‘love they neighbor’?”

  Mary watched as the woman’s husband tugged on her arm, trying to get her to shut up and sit down.

  Ada straightened her spine in the front of the room and cleared her throat. “Have you noticed how many strange things are happening right here under our noses in this town?”

  “What are you talking about?” Brock asked.

  “Earthquakes, fires, unexplained snowstorms, weird rain fall. These events are all warnings we need to heed. Messages from God that we need to clean up our acts or suffer the consequences. Do you suppose everyone who lived on the planet when Noah walked the Earth was a sinner? Maybe if the people of that time had spoken up and put an end to the sinners instead of quietly accepting their fate, things would have turned out differently. We have to stop this sinning. If we don’t, God is liable to wipe us off the face of the Earth.

  “And let’s not forget Sodom and Gomorrah. God brought fire among the people of those towns and killed every person in the are
a. Why? Because they were sinners. Do you people want us to succumb to the same fate?” Her voice shook as she finished.

  Several people yelled “Amen!” and pumped their fists in the air.

  Mary’s mouth fell open, but she said nothing. Sodom and Gomorrah? Was it really necessary to bring up a story from the Old Testament to prove that God was trying to send them a message?

  A few people, with tears in their eyes, fled the room. Were they in disagreement?

  Another man jumped up. “This is all speculation. We have no idea what the Masters kids are actually doing. There’s no place in the Bible that insinuates races should not intermix, so that’s purely ignorant talk. And as for the possibility of polygamy, it’s all conjecture. The Bible actually did in fact have polygamy.

  “Now, if you want to argue against homosexuality, that’s another thing, but just because one person thinks they saw this Laurie woman at the resort with two men means nothing. Maybe they’re all friends? Has anyone ever seen any of the Masters kids in a compromising position with another man?”

  A hush fell. No one said a word.

  Finally Florence stood. “The Bible does argue against interracial marriage, in Deuteronomy.” She pointed a finger at the man who’d spoken.

  He rolled his eyes. “Come on. You know good and well the issue there was believers and non-believers, not race. Don’t even start on that rant.”

  Ada spoke up next. “I disagree, and as for polygamy? Are you kidding? The Bible clearly states in 1 Corinthians that a man shall have his own wife and a woman her own husband.”

  Pastor Edmund responded to his wife. “Sit down, Ada. You know better than anyone there are dozens of mentions in the Bible of men marrying two or more women.” He turned toward the congregation. “What the Bible does not mention is a woman marrying two or more men. We can’t presume anything with regard to that scenario and God’s intentions.”

  Mary swallowed hard. This was going too far. Too close to home. She wanted to fall through a crack in the floor and die.

  Pastor Edmund spoke again. “We need to calm down.”

  Someone shouted over the pastor, “What we need to do is eradicate this vermin from our town. If we do not, we’ll all die an ugly death. Ada is right. The Lord is giving us a chance. He’s sending repeated warnings. It is up to us to stop this madness before we succumb to a fate none of us can imagine. Death. God has shown us He is a powerful being with many options—fire, earthquake, snow, rain… We will not be able to escape his wrath. We must act now and act fast. It’s only a matter of time before we are overrun with locusts.”