The Right and the Real

by Joëlle Anthony

  He flinched. “Where’s Mira?” he croaked. “What have you done with her?”

  “Take your wig off, Jamie,” Krista said.

  “It’s me.” I pulled at the long black hair, the pins ripping at my scalp, tears flooding my eyes. “It’s me and Krista. We’re here to help you.”

  “James?” he asked. “Is it really you?”

  “Yeah, it’s really me. You do want to get out of here, don’t you?”

  “Please,” he said.

  “Okay, Richard,” Krista said. “Time to get up.”

  She held out her hands to Dad and helped him into a sitting position. He swayed, and I grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him.

  “Water…,” Dad said.

  “We’ll get some on the way out,” I said. “Where are your clothes?”

  “I…I don’t know.”

  “Here’re some slippers,” Krista said.

  We shoved Dad’s feet into them. His white disciple robe would have to do for now. At least it was a mild day for early March and not raining. We tried to stand him up, and he teetered under our grip, but eventually we got him on his feet.

  “Wait,” Krista said. “Before we go, I better try to see what’s happening outside.”

  Dad leaned so heavily on me, I thought I might collapse.

  “There’s a big group of people on the lawn,” she reported. “And the gate’s wide open, which is good. No cops yet.”

  “What about guns?”

  “I didn’t see any.”

  “No guns,” Dad said.

  That’s what Josh had told us, but it was a relief to know for sure.

  “Okay. Let’s go,” I said.

  We took my dad through the back, stopping in the kitchen for a glass of water. I wanted Krista to go ahead and be the lookout, but I wasn’t strong enough to hold him up by myself. Once we were outside, we stopped again to let Dad catch his breath. Men’s voices carried from the front lawn almost as clearly as if they stood with us behind the trailer. The Teacher asked LaVon if he had taken God into his heart, and he played along with it beautifully.

  “I ain’t sayin’ I never thought of it,” LaVon said, laying on his street talk pretty heavy. “There was this dude in the joint who used to talk about the Head Fred, and he made some good points. Know what I mean?”

  “God’s love is the only point there is,” the Teacher agreed.

  “I’m hearin’ you, man,” LaVon said. “But just so you know, I ain’t admittin’ nothin’. I was just cleanin’ that house.”

  “I believe you,” the Teacher said. “Or I believe that’s what you intended to do in your heart. Do you know why?”

  “Must be ’cause I’m wearin’ these pink rubber gloves,” LaVon said, laughing.

  The Teacher chuckled. “No, because we’re all good inside. You just need some guidance.”

  “Sounds good,” LaVon said. “What you got in mind?”

  Dad’s grip slackened on my arm, and he slowly slid to the ground, too tired to stand anymore. “Krista?” I said. “We need the car.”

  “You stay here,” she told me. “Use the phone to make the video of your dad and send it to Trent.”

  “Okay.”

  Krista had only taken about three steps when she stumbled over the brick border around the flower bed and fell onto the grass, writhing in pain, but luckily not making a sound.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered.

  “I twisted my ankle,” she said.

  She tried to stand, but couldn’t put any weight on it at all and sat down hard on the ground, clenching her teeth.

  “Stay here with my dad. I’ll get the car.” I handed her the phone. “Do the video while I’m gone. Trent’s waiting for it.”

  Crouching low, I made a break for the blue shed and waited behind it to see if anyone had spotted me. After half a minute, I sprinted to the next one. Everyone’s out in the street, I kept telling myself. Assembly’s probably over, but no one will go home because they all want to know what’s going on. You’re safe.

  I finally reached Josh’s yard and stopped to catch my breath before making a dash for the station wagon. As I was about to start the engine, Josh flung himself at the passenger side and yanked the door open, jumping in and slamming the door.

  “Oh, my God,” I said. “I think my heart stopped for a second. What’re you doing here?”

  “There’s a whole crowd of people from Assembly in front of your dad’s trailer. When no one was looking, I walked around to the back and found your dad and Krista. She told me where you were.”

  “Did anyone see you?”

  “I don’t think so,” he said. “I want to go with you.”

  “What about Derrick? Is he coming too?”

  “I don’t know.” Josh’s face was the color of watered-down milk, and his eyes had blue shadows under them. “I thought I could only help Derrick from inside, but maybe if I leave, he’ll realize he can get out too.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “What’s your plan?” he asked.

  “Not a clue.” I eased the car out of the driveway.

  “I think you should call their bluff,” he said. “They’ll never bring the police in unless they absolutely have to. There’s way too much going on here that they don’t want anyone to know about.”

  Like how they lock people up and brainwash them.

  “Good to know,” I said.

  Ahead of us, the gate was still open, but about fifty people stood in the road blocking our way. Anger welled up in me, and I wanted to plow right through them, but that would have been really stupid of me because I might actually have hurt someone. Still, I drove as fast as I dared, slamming on the brakes at the last second.

  “Jeez, Jamie!” Josh said. “Are you trying to kill us?”

  I jumped out of the car without answering. The members of the R&R had scattered because of my crazy driving, but they regrouped and moved toward us.

  “LaVon!” I shouted. “Get in the car! We’ll be right back.”

  Josh and I sprinted across the lawn, and behind us, we could hear people running. Liz and Megan were with Krista, and the three of them had helped my dad to his feet, but he stumbled as they tried to move forward.

  “They’ve been starving him,” Krista explained. “He’s too weak to walk.”

  Josh picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. He ran toward the car as if going for a touchdown, dodging a couple of disciples who tried to block him.

  Krista half ran, half limped along, leaning on Liz and Megan, with me hurrying behind them. “Did you send the video of Dad to Trent?” I asked her.

  “Yep. He texted back saying he’s already uploaded it to his website.”

  Everyone’s focus was on the Teacher and LaVon, so no one noticed when Megan and Liz climbed into the backseat with Krista. There was no way she could drive with her injured ankle. Josh had already put my dad in the front and was trying to buckle him in when someone shouted the alarm.

  “Hey! They’ve got Richard!” yelled one of the servants.

  Josh shut Dad’s door, and I scanned the crowd, looking for LaVon. A group of men had circled him on the lawn. I’d parked so they didn’t have room to swing the gate shut, and I saw some members sprint out into the church parking lot, probably to get their cars to block our escape. I turned to ask Josh what we should do just as his dad took a swing at him and knocked him against the car.

  “You’re a traitor and a sinner,” Mr. Peterson shouted, “just like your mother!”

  Josh put his hands up to protect his face, and his dad slugged him again. The entire group, including the Teacher, stood by without raising a hand to help him. I knew the church’s policy was to let a father discipline his son without interference, but I didn’t submit to that doctrine.

  “Stop it!” I screamed. “Just stop it!” I threw myself between them, and Mr. Peterson’s fist rammed solidly into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground. I screamed in pain, and that was all Josh could take. He
lunged at his dad, but then Derrick and some of the servants pulled them apart.

  LaVon took advantage of the mayhem, and from my spot on the ground, I saw him bang two of the men’s heads together and shove the Teacher out of his way. A moment later, he was across the yard, helping me scramble to my feet.

  The servants led Mr. Peterson over to the Teacher, who touched his arm and leaned in to speak to him, the wind rustling his long hair and robes. Derrick let go of his brother. Josh leaned against the car, his nose streaming red, and a cut below his left eye oozing blood.

  “Josh?” Derrick asked. “You okay, man?”

  I shoved him away with my good arm. “This is all your fault,” I said. “He only stayed this long because of you. Help him into the car, dammit!”

  Josh groaned and tipped his head back, trying to stanch the flow of blood from his nose.

  “No,” Derrick said. “God will protect him here.”

  “How can you believe that shit?” I grabbed the front of Derrick’s shirt. “I know all about you. Josh told me the truth. You can have a real life. All you have to do is put him in the car and get in too.”

  In all the craziness, I had totally forgotten about Mira, and I guess she’d been hanging back with the other women by the fence, but before we could stop her, she darted forward and opened the front passenger door. “Richard, darling,” she said. “Come inside. You can trust me, I’m your wife.”

  I pushed her out of the way, and she stumbled, falling to the ground. I felt kind of bad, but Mira was in too deep to be trusted.

  “Dad, she’s not your wife. Do you understand? The Teacher can’t legally marry you. It was only a secular service. A fake wedding.”

  The Teacher stepped forward and helped Mira to her feet. A couple of the women led her away, telling her to let Christ handle it. I blocked the Teacher’s way to Dad by putting my body between them.

  “Richard,” he said, leaning over me, “do not let these sinners take you away from the people who love you.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Dad,” I said.

  “Move her,” the Teacher ordered two of the servants, and they lifted me out of the way to get to Dad. In an instant, Josh and LaVon had come to my defense, and I found myself in the middle of a free-for-all. I heard that sickening thud like raw meat being slapped onto a cutting board. My dad curled himself up into a ball and moaned softly, while Megan, Liz, and Krista leaned over the seat, trying to calm him down. The Teacher had retreated to avoid getting caught in the melee, and I took the opportunity to lock and slam Dad’s door so they couldn’t get to him again.

  The fight was ten men to two, but it still took several minutes before they had LaVon and Josh pinned to the ground. The Teacher stepped forward, smiling. “Leave Richard here with us, and we’ll let you go without pressing charges.”

  “I’ve got the whole thing on video!” Krista shouted from the backseat. She waved her phone in the air. “I’m sending it to the cops right now!”

  The Teacher’s smile disappeared. “Get the phone!” he ordered his men.

  I dove into the backseat, shielding Krista from the men and ignoring my throbbing shoulder. She stuffed the phone down her shirt, and I lay on my back, kicking at the disciples reaching into the car. Megan and Liz scrambled over the seat into the far back to get out of the way and started hitting the men with brooms.

  I don’t know how LaVon got loose, but suddenly he was there, pulling bodies off of me, hurtling them across the lawn. Then he was in the car, and the engine gunned. From where I lay, I could see the top of Josh’s blond head in the driver’s seat.

  LaVon pulled me up into a sitting position, and I did a double take. Krista had crawled into the far back with Megan and Liz, and Josh sat slumped on the seat next to me. It was Derrick driving the car.

  In front of us, the congregation made a wall of bodies. Behind them, in the main parking lot, they’d strategically placed about half a dozen cars to keep us from escaping. “Derrick! Don’t!” I screamed as the car lurched forward. People dove out of the way, but he swung the station wagon up onto the lawn and around in a U-turn. It scraped bottom from all our weight and made a horrible grating sound as we tore down the road.

  “We’re going out the back way,” he said. “There’s an emergency exit in case the compound’s ever raided.”

  “How did you and Josh get away?” I asked LaVon.

  He nodded at Derrick. “Some of the church members helped too,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Wow. Really?”

  “Not everyone at the church is bad,” Derrick snapped, and I sort of believed him.

  He raced the car down the road, gravel spewing behind us. When he got to the Teacher’s mansion, he drove right up onto the grass and down a narrow track between some trees. A high gate ran across the end of the path, and he jumped out. We watched him take a key from around his neck, unlock the padlock, and swing it open. He hopped in behind the wheel and eased us over the curb and out onto the street. All around us normal-looking houses lined the streets. Suburbia had never looked so good.

  chapter 33

  A MINUTE LATER, DERRICK TURNED ONTO THE MAIN road, heading back toward our part of town.

  “Uh, James?” LaVon said.

  “Yeah?”

  “That was all Charlie’s Angels and shit, but don’t you think when we get back to your dad’s place the cops are gonna be waiting for us? Breakin’ and enterin’ and all that?”

  “No, we can’t go back to the house,” Dad said faintly from the front seat.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “I…I…well, I signed it over to them…to the church.”

  “You gave the church our house?” I asked.

  “It was Mira’s idea,” he said. “She told me we didn’t need it anymore.”

  “I’ll bet,” LaVon said.

  I couldn’t believe it. I’d have to live in the Regis Deluxe Motel for the rest of my life. Or at least all summer. And now that my dad didn’t have a job anymore, I’d definitely have to ask for extra hours at the Coffee Klatch too. I tried to remind myself that at least Dad was free, but it still kind of pissed me off.

  “So what about the cops?” LaVon asked again. “Those church people ain’t gonna just let me go. Man, my parole officer’s gonna kick my ass. And my daughter…she’s gonna flip.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Krista said. “Right, Jamie?”

  I smiled.

  “Not only did I get the whole fight scene on video,” Krista said, “which I won’t show anyone unless I have to because LaVon’s in some of it, but while we waited for Jamie to bring the car, Richard told me everything they did to him—starving him, beatings, sleep deprivation—” She saw the look of horror on my face and stopped listing them. “Anyway, I sent that video, along with the pictures of him tied down, to Trent. He’s already posted them on his website and e-mailed them to every media outlet in the city.”

  “Plus CNN,” Megan said from the back.

  “And the Huffington Post,” Krista added.

  “They’re going to be way too busy at the Right & the Real to worry about us,” Liz said.

  “It still don’t mean they won’t call the cops,” LaVon said.

  “They won’t,” Josh mumbled through the bowling shirt LaVon had given him to hold against his bloody nose. “Believe me. They don’t trust the police at all. And their only answer to the media will be no comment. If there’s one thing the Right & the Real is good at, it’s keeping secrets.”

  We dropped Josh and Derrick off at their aunt’s apartment, where their mom was staying. At the motel, LaVon and I helped my dad out of the car.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come to my house?” Krista asked.

  “I don’t want your mom to see him like this,” I said. “We’ll stay here tonight. If he has any money left, maybe get him some clothes and move to a better motel tomorrow.”

  “Come on, James,” LaVon said. “Let’s get him inside.”


  I leaned into the window. “Thanks for getting the car, Liz.”

  “Anytime.”

  “Bye,” Megan said.

  I gave Krista a quick hug. “Thanks.”

  “Anything for you, chickie. Call me if you need me.”

  Dad leaned so heavily on LaVon as we took him through the lobby that Stub looked up from his computer and said, “He better not be dead.”

  “Just drunk,” LaVon said.

  “Drunk?” I asked once we were in the stairwell.

  “Easier than explainin’.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Half an hour later, LaVon closed the door to my room behind him. He’d brought me a bowl of potato-leek soup, and it sat on the dresser, cooling. My dad lay sleeping on the cot, my Princess Pink comforter tucked up under his bearded chin. I’d wanted to take him to the emergency room, but he’d refused.

  “No health insurance,” he’d said.

  Another thing the Right & the Real had taken from us.

  Someone tapped on the door, and I hurried to open it so Dad wouldn’t wake up. Trent stood there, holding a shopping bag.

  “Hey,” he said. “I brought some stuff for your dad.”

  I stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind me, leaning against it. “What’d you get?” I asked.

  “Electrolytes and baby food.”

  “Sounds delicious,” I said.

  “I looked it up on the web,” he said. “It’s the best thing for someone who’s gone without food for a while. He’s probably dehydrated.”

  “Thanks.”

  It was all I could do not to throw my arms around him, but after kissing Josh in the scene shop on Thursday, I’d been kind of nervous with Trent. Josh and I were definitely over, no matter what happened, but right then, I felt so fragile I was almost afraid I might confess how weak I’d been. And that would be so awful, to hurt Trent when it didn’t mean anything.

  I didn’t know what to say, but I also didn’t want him to leave yet, so I said, “You were great.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, laughing. “I was right there in the middle of it all, saving the day, wasn’t I?” He balled up his hands into fists and, scowling, punched the air like he was fighting the men at the church.