by L. D. Wenzel
old, he faltered about, and after Manny's passing some years before, he remained alone.
He leafed through a photo album that his wife had kept. He liked reliving the scenes of Luna and Manny, especially as they romped together in the meadow beyond the orchard. Great was their joy. Great was his sorrow when all ended tragically.
From a manila envelope in the back of the album, a newspaper clipping slipped onto the floor. Reaching down, he saw the article. Harald did not have to read it; he knew what it said.
Bible Church dismisses woman after 'witchcraft trial'
March 15, 1988, Ellison Bay: Faith Bible Church excommunicated member Manny Nelson on two accounts: (1) for the 'sin of witchcraft' as defined by Leviticus 19, 31. (2) for the spiritual abuse of a child. Elder Ray Lake made this short statement to the press: "This judgment pains the hearts of all at Faith Bible Church. However, faithfulness to Scriptures must be our first concern. After refusing to repent, Mrs. Harald Nelson has been dismissed and is no longer a member of our church." The council took no questions.
Harald remembered well that fateful Sunday before services. He was shoveling snow near the church entry, when he heard his wife scream, "Don't you dare touch my child!"
He ran toward the Sunday school rooms from where her voice came.
"Please, don't spank her. It was I who taught her everything she knows!" Again, he had heard his wife's voice coming from a Sunday school room.
He opened the door to the schoolroom and saw Manny standing in the midst of several frightened children. Sunday school superintendent Victor Van Veen was there with Luna bent over a chair. His face was fiery red; his hand gripped a ping-pong paddle.
"Harald!" Manny cried. "Don't let him hit Luna. It's all my fault. I taught her about the angels and fairies."
Harald looked on in bewilderment.
"Listen, all of you," said Van Veen to those gathered around. "This girl speaks of God's angels working together with fairies and elves. When I explained that God's messengers do not cooperate with demons, she"—his faced flushed—"laughed at me!"
"It's not Luna's fault," cried Manny. "I taught her everything."
"Mrs. Nelson, I'm not done talking. She then confessed, yes even bragged, that she herself had seen these fairies and elves and has had fellowship with what can only be demons. Discipline is necessary for the saving of her soul."
Manny pulled on her husband's arm. "I was in the kitchen brewing coffee and heard Luna scream. I got here as fast as I could, and found Mr. Van Veen"—she started to cry—"with this paddle, ready to strike my daughter."
"Not so, she's lying!" he shouted back. "This woman is hysterical."
Finally, Pastor Norquist arrived and took the paddle away. "Everybody settle down," he said and then hissed under his breath, "Victor, we've talked about this before."
But Manny's defense of Luna turned everyone against her. The church council called an inquiry to determine Manny's role in the matter. The media dubbed the affair a 'witch trial'.
Not once did Manny implicate Luna or even defend herself. She let them lay all the blame on her. Luna was everything.
This was only the first travesty. In the wake of the church scandal, Family Services stepped in and rescinded the Nelson's foster-care rights. They placed Luna with others until the court could finalize the Morks request to adopt her.
The Morks moved to Green Bay, and Manny never saw Luna again. Finding no comfort in her faith or anything else, her health deteriorated. In those last days, she wrote a farewell to family and friends.
My strength is vanquished, my appetite gone. I am sick, and my heart is broken. I failed to protect my child against vipers. They would blame me, and so be it. My shame is Luna's shield and my trust is in the Lord . . . but now she is gone. His purpose is beyond me, and I have no will to live. I want Jesus to take me home. Only then will I understand.
Harald reread his copy and placed it back in album. These were among her last words, before she lost her clarity. Harald never stopped mourning his loss.
More bad news came later: after Manny's death, life for Luna also worsened. Local gossip spoke of her demise after being committed to a Green Bay mental facility. Harald picked up another clipping from the Press Gazette that came out a few years later.
Statewide hunt for missing Green Bay girl
Sturgeon Bay WI: Police are searching for Luna Mork (16) who disappeared after a Sunday outing in Door County with her parents, Marlene and Jason Mork. The girl was last seen at Digger's Diner in Fish Creek . . .
Harald scanned the other news clippings for the thousandth time. They spoke of kidnappings and even murder. For a while the Morks were suspects, and the police had even questioned him. Crazy rumors spread of her joining a secret coven of witches. After a year, and with no leads, the police and everyone else gave up searching; Luna became a forgotten statistic.
Harald sighed. Thank God Manny did not live to see this day. He imagined a happy Luna entering womanhood under Manny's care. A tear ran down his cheek.
Harald put the clippings back in the manila envelope and placed the photo album back on the shelf. As he made his sleepy way to bed, headlights flashed through the kitchen window.
Who wants to buy eggs at this hour?
But this was not a customer. As Harald opened the door, the porch light shined on the face of Marlene Mork.
He slammed shut the door; Harald had not seen this conniving woman since that dreadful day when Family Services took Luna away.
"Mr. Nelson," cried the woman, banging on the closed door. "I must talk to you. I have come to confess. Please don't deny me."
Her cry was desperate. He reopened the door and saw eyes full of tears. He invited the woman in and served tea.
They sat in long silence until the woman finally whimpered, "I'm here to say how wrong I was, and to beg your forgiveness. I pray you find comfort in knowing my regret. Reject me if you will, but this I have to say."
Harald winced. "You conspired against us. You destroyed our lives, not to mention Luna's. What more can anyone say?"
"I do bear much blame. I fanned the flames, but did not start the fire."
"Meaning?"
"The outbreak at the Bible Church and resulting inquiry were not of my doing. Jason and I were Lutherans. You know that."
"But your scheme didn't start there."
"True. Without children, Jason and I had applied to adopt and were waiting our turn. Then Luna appeared in my classroom. She intrigued me with her special gifts and extra-ordinary perceptions . . ."
While she spoke, Harald recalled overhearing Daisy Revella calling Luna a 'Star-Child'. Manny always believed there had been a conspiracy against them. Was Marlene also a part of it?
Marlene continued, "Then Janice began questioning me about Luna's fairy tales in an invasive way. She told me how you became her foster parents."
"Didn't you like us?"
Marlene sighed. "You seemed nice, but you were this old, backward couple living like bumpkins with a missionary fantasy. Your old-fashioned Christian ideas were no setting for a prodigy with psychic talent. I thought Luna's happy state had nothing to do with you and surely I could do better. I thought a soon-to-be gifted teenager would fare better in a modern spiritual setting with me fostering her gifts."
Harald could not resist. "You believe Luna is a . . . Star-Child?"
"H-how did you know about that?" She began to squirm. "Yes, Janice mentioned it first and then so did Peggy. At first I just repeated what they wanted to hear to win favor. Then this young college girl—"
"Daisy Revella!"
"Yes—you knew her too? Anyway, she drove up from Green Bay to visit me. Daisy explained the whole Star-Child cosmology and how it pertained to Luna. It may sound crazy, but, well, the evidence seemed so compelling. Luna appeared out of nowhere, she had superior creative skills, and then she had a psychic vision into an unseen world. I admit it was my underlying hope to adopt her myself, so I let Daisy lead me from a
scientific mindset into her New Age world."
"You slandered Manny?"
"My first strategy was to refocus Janice back to my desire to adopt while promoting my family as the ideal candidate. Yes, I made snide remarks about her, but Daisy's Star-Child scenario helped me convince Peggy and Janice that Luna had no future at Daybreak with two old fundamentalists. They, in turn, persuaded Dr. Middleton. Then, when the church scandal broke, I sat back and watched." She sobbed. "Luna was meant to be with Manny, and I took her away."
Touched by her remorse, Harald changed the subject. "You said that you and Jason were Lutherans. You are no longer?"
"We're no longer together. Soon after Luna disappeared, we divorced. Jason blamed me for everything. Luna never accepted us. When she heard Manny had died, she sank into ever-deeper depressions. She became delusional and saw demons and other hellish things. She'd wake up at night screaming. We were unable to cope and placed her in Bellevue. Under my care, her gift degraded into a thing of nightmares. I'm so sorry."
Harald's heart ached. "How did she, uh, vanish? From your perspective, I mean."
"Sometimes we would pick her up and take her out to dinner or someplace nice. One Sunday in October, we drove to Door County to see the brilliant autumn colors. We stopped to eat at this little diner. She seemed happy when she excused herself to go to the bathroom. Luna passed from my sight behind a booth, and I never saw her again. She simply disappeared. Maybe she ran away. She might still be alive. I pray that she is."
"Personally, I think she is dead," he said. "My comfort is that Manny and Luna are together in Heaven with Jesus. I hope to join them soon."
"That is a beautiful thought. Harald, I must ask, but you need not answer . . ."
"What is it?"
"Those fairy tales were more than beautiful. What did she really see out at Daybreak? And Manny . . ." Marlene swallowed deeply. "Everyone knows she lied to protect Luna. What did she actually believe?"
"No one loved or knew that girl better than Manny."
Harald went on to tell Luna and Manny's story.
"In the end, was any of it real?" he pondered. "I grew up in a strict Christian home and studied the Bible at a strict Baptist college. Seeing fairies or ghosts was considered occult activity and of the Devil. On the mission field, I saw spirit manifestations too scary to tell. How does a Christian explain his foster daughter's visions of fairies and elves?" He smiled for the first time. "All I know is that Manny loved Jesus more than anything. Her care for Luna transcended motherhood. Theirs was a celestial bond beyond my understanding. The rest I leave in God's hands."
The old man struggled to stand up. He walked over to Marlene and whispered in her ear. "I trust you have God's forgiveness, and with your confession I forgive you as well. Now forgive yourself."
He then went to the bookcase and took down a brightly colored children's book entitled, Daybreak Unveiled, Modern Fairy Tales as told by Luna.
"This work began in happier days. When Manny died, all seemed lost, yet I strove to compile and complete Luna's legacy. An old friend has published it, and you are the first to see it. Go ahead and read me a passage."
Marlene took hold, opened to the last page where beautifully illustrated fairies hovered over a little girl in a blue dress and read:
All the elves and fairies cried when they heard that Lilly had grown up and would not return to Entréea. Weenah cried as well. But Lilly would hear none of it. 'One day I will return, and we all can live together, happily for ever after.'
Marlene looked up wide-eyed at Harald, who chuckled. "You really believe that, don't you?"
2010
Along the highway to Ellison Bay stood the same, now weather-beaten sign: Daybreak Missionary Institute. A brand new car turned up the narrow driveway, its luster paint finish brushing against the snarling overgrowth. It entered the barnyard and slowly approached the deserted farmhouse where Manny and Harald Nelson had once lived. Everything was in shambles. Windows were broken, and the paint had peeled away. The roof on the barn had collapsed. Harald's neatly trimmed lawn was now tall weeds and thistles, and, except for the tiger lilies that had gone wild, Manny's flower garden had completely disappeared.
The car stopped and out stepped a young man, and then an attractively dressed woman. Thirdly, the man lifted out from the back seat a little girl with Goldilocks hair. They walked about and stretched their legs and arms. It had been a long drive. The woman was Luna now twenty-five-years-old. The man was her husband Charles who held their three-year-old daughter, Lilly.
"This is Daybreak where I grew up," she sighed. "I was very happy here. Then the State took me away and Mother Manny died of a broken heart. I haven't been here since." A tear rolled down her cheek as she recalled her happy days here.
Charles saw her distress, "We can leave if it's too painful."
"I did get to visit Father Harald at the nursing home in Sturgeon Bay just before he passed away. It was there that I first found out and about the fairy-tale book that he published, along with the papers transferring all the royalties to me."
"That's how we bought our new car, my dear. Those stories are a part of who you are."
"It was all so real..." Luna resisted more memories of her life at Daybreak, or what happened to her afterward and how she ended up standing right where she was. "Let's pick some flowers to lay on my foster-parents graves up in the cemetery." She paused to ponder. "But first Lilly and I must do something. Follow me."
They made way across the barnyard through some tall grass, and along the old stone fence. The path was almost completely overgrown. Luna stopped at the portal, the cast-iron gate through which she, as a child, had entered Entréea, the land of the fairies.
"This will only take a minute." Luna tramped down the brush and pushed hard against the rusty gate. It shrieked and slowly opened. She passed through into the meadow and knelt in a patch of daisies.
"Charles, put Lilly down and see what happens."
He let the girl slide to the ground.
"Come to Mamma, Lilly," she said with outstretched arms.
Lilly at first stood still. Then she ran and embraced her mother.
Luna rose and lifted her daughter high in the air. She slowly turned about. "Lilly, what do you see?"
The child gazed across the field and then looked down. "I see Mommy."
"Charles, Lilly's normal. Isn't that wonderful?"
"Of course, she's normal. What else could she be?"
This novelette is an adaptation of a chapter in the unpublished novel, The Angelic Awareness Awakening by L. D. Wenzel. In it the main character is Charles Wesley Wolff who is briefly mentioned at the end of the above story. Charles is also profiled in another adaptation of AAA entitled The Yoke of Bondage. Wenzel specializes in religious fiction with a noir backdrop.
Read his première published novel, CAUGHT IN THE WINDS.