The Seventh Messenger

by Carol Costa

  “Sure was. First time I"ve seen him there for quite some

  time. He sat with Cora and Silas. I guess they had some business to discuss. Coy was there too.”

  “Yes. He told me he was going to stop by and say good-bye

  to Evelyn this morning. The team is going on the road again.” “That Evelyn sure is a pretty thing. Seems like your boy is

  real sweet on her too.”

  Mary didn"t answer. She was watching Benjamin take Evelyn"s hand in his, hold onto to it for a few seconds and then release it. He strode away from the girl then, leaving her standing

  there holding her hand to her heart and staring after him. Lena had gathered a bunch of novelty items. They were

  birds attached to a stick with a long string. Mary had seen them

  at a bazaar in Chicago and had purchased several cases for the

  park.

  The kids loved them as they could twirl the sticks in the air

  making the birds fly.

  “Mary?” Lena said with concern in her voice. “Did you

  hear what I said?”

  Mary turned to face her old friend. “No. I"m sorry, Lena.

  What did you say?”

  “I said put me down for two dozen of these birdies for my

  stand.”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “What"s wrong, honey? You look upset.”

  Mary forced a smile. “I"m fine, Lena. I was just thinking

  about Coy and how much I am going to miss him. This road trip

  is going to last for several weeks. The team has games scheduled all over the Midwest.”

  “I"ll bet my little helper is going to be mighty lonely too,”

  Lena said as she turned and walked out the door.

  “I hope so,” Mary whispered to herself. “I hope so.” Mary finished her chore and took her paperwork back to the

  Diamond House with her. Now she knew why Benjamin had

  not appeared for breakfast that morning and she planned on

  having a talk with him as soon as possible. However, when she

  got back to the house, one of the staff members who lived there told her that Benjamin and Jacob had taken the Inner Circle

  girls for a boat ride.

  That afternoon, Mary made a special point of going to the

  park and checking to see if Evelyn were at the souvenir stand

  working with Lena. She was, but the park was very crowded

  again and Lena and Evelyn were too busy waiting on customers

  to be interrupted.

  Mary left the park and went straight to John"s studio. As

  usual he welcomed her with open arms.

  “What has Benjamin done now?” John asked.

  “I don"t know, but I saw him talking to Evelyn outside the

  dining hall this morning.”

  “Evelyn? The girl that Coy is interested in?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, if she and Coy are having a relationship, old Ben

  may have just been trying to get to know her better.” Mary looked at him sharply. “Coy just left on a long road

  trip with the baseball team.”

  John was always quick to catch on to things. “Are you

  afraid that Benjamin has more than a fatherly interest in this

  girl?”

  “Benjamin has more than a fatherly interest in all young

  girls.”

  “I know that, but Mary, surely he wouldn"t risk his own

  son"s happiness. He couldn"t be that uncaring.”

  “I"d like to think that he"s not, but I really don"t know him

  anymore.”

  Mary sat down suddenly on the one comfortable chair in

  John"s studio. The artist walked over and balanced his ample

  frame on the arm of the chair, drawing Mary into his embrace. “I think you need to talk to Benjamin about this,” he said in

  a comforting tone. “You may be jumping to the wrong conclusion.”

  “I wanted to talk him this morning, but by the time I got

  back to the house, he and Jacob were already off on the boat

  with the Inner Circle.”

  “And this Evelyn?”

  “I went to the park and checked. She was working in the

  stand with Lena.”

  “So, no harm has been done. You can talk to Benjamin tonight when he gets back from the lake and everything

  will be fine.”

  “Yes,” Mary agreed. “I will speak to Benjamin tonight. It

  will have to be tonight as I am leaving for Ann Arbor in the

  morning.”

  John smiled at her. “I was afraid you were going to tell me

  that you had canceled the trip.”

  “No, John. I know how important this is to you.” “Having my work displayed in the Etherton Gallery would

  be a great honor.”

  Mary nodded. A few weeks earlier the owner of the Etherton Art Gallery in Ann Arbor, Michigan had visited the House

  of David Park and seen Assanti"s artwork displayed. Etherton

  had been so taken by it, he had contacted the House of David

  and asked if arrangements might be made to have some of

  John"s work displayed in his gallery. The Etherton Gallery was

  well known, not only in the Midwest, but all over the world.

  Benjamin and his business advisors had decided that Mary

  should travel to Ann Arbor to meet with Mr. Etherton to work

  out the details. Everyone saw it as a grand opportunity to promote the House of David Park and bring in additional revenue

  from John"s artwork.

  While John, as a member of the colony, would not benefit

  financially from the sale of his art through the gallery, his work

  would receive world-wide recognition.

  “Actually,” Mary said rising from the chair. “I must go and

  prepare for the journey now, so that I will have time this evening to speak to Benjamin.”

  John walked Mary to the door and kissed her fondly before

  unlocking it and watching her hurry across the lawn to the suite

  at Diamond House.

  *** By the time the sailing party returned to the Diamond House, Mary was packed and ready to leave for Ann Arbor early in the morning. She intended to speak to Benjamin immediately after the evening meal.

  The office staff that lived at Diamond House and the girls who belonged to the Inner Circle were fed in a dining room off the kitchen. Benjamin, Mary, Coy when he was at home, Jacob and other high-ranking advisors like Silas and Cora Mooney dined in the private formal dining room.

  There were many rooms and many people housed in the immense sparkling building. At one time, Mary had roamed the halls inspecting the rooms and getting to know the people who occupied them. Since Benjamin had formed his Inner Circle and moved the girls into a number of the rooms, Mary avoided the hallways using the private stairway that led directly to her quarters. The girls in the Inner Circle knew better than to cross Mary"s path and did not go near the business offices, the front parlor or the private dining room where there was a chance they would see her.

  That evening Mary dressed for dinner and arrived downstairs early to wait for Benjamin. Often Jacob was too tired after a day on the boat to dine with them and took his meal in his room. Mary hoped that would be the case tonight as she knew that Cora and Silas would probably not be there either. If she and Benjamin dined alone, she could bring up the subject of Evelyn and speak to Benjamin privately. Otherwise, she would request a meeting with him in her suite immediately after dinner.

  *** Bethlehem and Jerusalem were fairly empty on Sunday evenings as most of the people who resided in these houses were across the road working in the park.

  Nathan Sullivan had been hanging around the area for several days, hoping to catch a glimpse of his wife and daughters. He had spent a good deal of his
time exploring the House of David Park looking for his family without result. Now he was focusing his attention on the boarding houses.

  Nathan was staying in a rented room in Benton Harbor next door to a saloon where he had made some new friends. That afternoon, his friends had encouraged him to march into one of the houses and demand to see his children. The drinks he had consumed while discussing this option with his friends had made him a little unsteady on his feet, but determined not to go another night without seeing his daughters.

  Nathan walked up the stone path that was lined with flowerbeds bursting with color. He chose to enter Bethlehem although he had no idea that it was indeed the house where his family resided.

  The door to the house was unlocked and Nathan entered a small foyer. In front of him there was a steep set of stairs leading to the rooms upstairs, to his left a small nicely furnished sitting room and to the right a hallway that seemed to lead to a number of rooms with closed doors.

  Nathan went into the hallway and started banging his fists on the closed doors. He hit the doors so hard, that some of them burst open to reveal the sleeping quarters of the residents. The rooms were all furnished the same with a sleeping cot, a dresser, and a single chair.

  Within a few minutes the noise that Nathan was making brought Silas and another young colonist, Samuel, running into the hallway.

  “Sir, I must ask you leave this house,” Silas said in what he hoped was a calm voice given the size and demeanor of the unwanted visitor.

  Nathan turned and looked at the smaller men with disgust. “Get the hell out of my way. I"m going to find my wife and kids, if I have to tear this place apart.”

  “This is a house of God,” Silas replied. “All who enter must do so in peace. If your wife is here, she is here by her own choice.”

  Nathan was wearing a long jacket with large pockets. He staggered a bit as he reached into the pocket and withdrew a gun that he pointed at Silas and Samuel. “And if your choice is to stay alive, you"ll get the hell out of my way.”

  Nathan smiled as both men backed away from him. Samuel was the first of the two who had the courage to speak. “What is the name of your wife?” he asked in a shaky voice.

  “Sullivan,” Nathan growled. “Martha Sullivan.

  Silas nodded, recognizing the name. “Please, sir. There is no need for violence. Samuel, go find the woman, Martha. She would be working in the kitchen at this hour. Bring Martha and her children to the sitting room at once.”

  Nathan continued to hold the gun on Silas as Samuel ran off to do what he was told. “That"s more like it,” Nathan said. If he had not consumed so many drinks with his friends at the saloon, he might have realized that Samuel may have been going to find Martha, but he was also going to summon help.

  “All the women are busy at this time of day,” Silas told him, trying to ignore the gun that was pointed at him. “It will take some time to locate Martha. You may wait in the front parlor.”

  “Sure. After you, pappy.” Nathan moved the gun to indicate that Silas should precede him into the parlor.

  Silas moved slowly into the foyer and led Nathan into the parlor. They stood staring uncomfortably at one another while they waited.

  The front parlor was simply furnished with a sofa and a few tables and chairs. The walls held framed photographs of the miniature train, the motorized cars, and the beer gardens. Nathan glanced at them briefly keeping his focus on Silas who was nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot.

  Finally, Martha came running into the room. Her face was flushed and she was out of breath. “Nathan,” she gasped. “Have you lost your mind? Put that gun away.”

  “Get your things packed,” Nathan shouted. “I"m taking you and the girls home.”

  “This is our home,” Martha said defiantly.

  Nathan turned his attention back to Silas and Samuel. “Get the hell out of here, you two. I want to talk to my wife alone.”

  The two men looked at Martha. “Do as he says,” she told them. Then, she turned back to Nathan. “I sent someone to get the girls, but I won"t let them see you if you don"t put that horrible gun away.”

  Nathan nodded and put the gun into his pocket again. Silas and Samuel left the room.

  “We"ll be in the foyer,” Silas promised as he closed the door to the parlor.

  As they moved away from the closed door, Samuel whispered to Silas that the police had been summoned and he had sent one of the boys from the kitchen to Diamond House to get Benjamin and Jacob.

  Inside the parlor, Martha spoke quietly to her husband.

  “You have done some awful things before, Nathan, but this is so…” she paused. “I can"t even put words to it.”

  “What about what you done to me, Martha?” Nathan cried. “Taking my girls and running off. I"ve been looking for you for weeks. Now I found you, you"re coming home.”

  Martha was not intimidated by her husband with or without the gun. Maybe because she knew in her heart that he would never really hurt her or their children. He was big and loud, but not dangerous, so she raised her head and looked directly into his eyes. “If you want us to leave here, you"ll have to take your gun back out. We"re not going of our own accord. You want your girls to see what kind of a man their daddy is, forcing us to live a godless life? We"re happy here, Nathan. You can make us leave, but I"m warning you, first chance I get, I"ll leave you again and come back here.”

  “Why are you doing this, Martha? You know I love you and I love my daughters.”

  “The House of David is the true faith. It"s where the Lord wants us to be. King Benjamin will bring us to the Millennium.”

  “I think you"ve gone plumb crazy, Martha. You can stay, but I"m taking the girls.”

  “They are your children,” Martha said calmly. “I won"t stand in your way. But you"d better think about how you"re going to take care of them without me.”

  Nathan stared at her in disbelief. “This place means that much to you? You"d give up your children to stay here?”

  Before Martha could answer there was a knock on door. It opened and the two little Sullivan girls came into the room. When they saw their daddy, they ran to him screaming with delight.

  Nathan bent down and scooped them into his arms. He was overcome with emotion as he hugged and kissed his girls.

  “All right, Martha,” he said over the blond heads of his two daughters. “You win for now, but I"m going to take a job in town and I"ll be here every chance I get to see Lenore and Alice. When you come to your senses, we"ll talk again.”

  Martha nodded and left the room closing the door behind her. Benjamin and Jacob were standing in the foyer with Silas and two uniformed policemen.

  “Let him have a few minutes with the girls she said softly. Then, I"ll go in and get them and you can arrest him.”

  *** The message about Nathan being at Bethlehem with a gun had caused Benjamin and Jacob to leave Diamond House in the middle of dinner. Nathan"s arrest required that Silas and Samuel go to the jail to tell their story. Benjamin and Jacob went along too, and Mary fell asleep long before they returned to Diamond House.

  In the morning, Benjamin was still asleep in his quarters when Jacob drove Mary to the train station. Before leaving the house Mary wrote Benjamin a note, telling him that she had seen him with Evelyn the day before and wanted to talk to him about the girl when she returned from her trip. She crept into his suite and left the note on his desk in the sitting room.

  On the drive to the train station, Jacob told Mary about their experience at the jail the night before.

  “Benjamin talked to Mr. Sullivan for a long time, assuring him that his wife and daughters were happy in the colony. The police kept his weapon and once the drink left his system, he was more sad than angry.”

  “Will they keep him in jail?” Mary asked.

  “He will appear before a judge this morning, but Benjamin decided that we should not testify against the man, so he will probably be released.”

  “
That was generous of Benjamin,” Mary said

  “He is an angel,” Jacob said. “He understands the pain the man has gone through in losing his wife and daughters and does not want him to suffer further.”

  Mary glanced at Jacob and wondered if his own sympathy for Nathan Sullivan was due to the fact that Jacob"s wife had left him too. The only difference was that Martha Sullivan had run to the House of David colony while Daisy Whitehall had run away from it.

  Mary had received several letters from Daisy after she went to Fostoria to live with her aunt and uncle. Each one had been more cheerful. The last one she got told Mary that Daisy had met another man she planned to marry. That letter was followed shortly by the divorce papers that were delivered to Diamond House for Jacob. That was the last time Jacob had mentioned Daisy"s name.

  “Daisy has chosen the evils of the world and is therefore lost to us. She is dead to me now and I will not speak of her again.”

  While Mary knew that Jacob"s empathy for Nathan Sullivan was genuine, empathy was not the reason Benjamin did not want any of their people to appear in court. The newspapers often ridiculed the House of David colony and their loyalty to the man they called, the bearded King.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  M

  r. Daniel Etherton, himself, met Mary Purnell at the train station. They had lunch at a lovely restaurant near his gallery and then went there to discuss their business. Mary was very impressed with the gallery and the magnificent artwork on display there. Over the years, Mary had become very knowledgeable about art, mostly because of her friendship with John Assanti who could talk about the subject for hours on end.

  “You have the work of some very well known artists,” Mary told Etherton after studied a painting by Pablo Picasso who was just becoming an important name in the art world.

  “I travel the world seeking the best for my clientele,” he replied.

  “Mr. Assanti will be honored to have his work displayed here.”

  “I thought perhaps he would accompany you today,” Etherton said. “I only met him briefly when I visited your park and am anxious to get to know him better.”

  “This is our busy time at the park and John has many wonderful pieces he is working on. It was impossible for him to get away right now.”