The Reformation of Marli Meade

by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

  Charles jumped to his feet, palms facing outward like he was going to hurl fireballs from them.

  Still, it was Edna who did the talking. “This land is sacred. You are not welcome here.”

  Sheriff Wilton raised a mocking brow. “Edna, have I gotten so old that I don’t remember exactly what happened that day? That I don’t remember the contract we made when I left this mountain and became sheriff?”

  With rigid shoulders, the foursome glared at each other: Edna and Charles on one side; Robert and Sheriff Wilton on the other.

  “What do you want?” Edna’s long, bony fingers clenched into fists.

  “Answers. I want answers. Y’all have been left to your own devices up here for far too long, it seems.”

  Edna glowered.

  At that moment, Sheriff Wilton looked at Nate and me huddled nearby.

  “Marli. Nate.”

  I stared at him, somewhere in the recess of my mind wondering how he knew our names. I was in shock and knew I was in shock. But that knowledge didn’t help me shake myself out of it. Nate didn’t say anything either. He held my hand and somehow that was enough.

  “They were planning this punishing for Marli.” Robert’s deep voice carried through the air. “I’m sure this one would’ve been much worse than Mary Lowe’s.”

  “Mary Lowe’s? So they went through with that punishing?” Sheriff Wilton’s voice rose with each word that left his mouth.

  “They did,” Robert answered. “And from what I understand, she hasn’t been seen since.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I went to town to see you. You weren’t there and I left a message.”

  “I didn’t realize what it was about.” Sheriff Wilton rubbed the white stubble on his face. “I need to think about this.”

  “It’s a sticky situation.”

  The sheriff looked around the side of the river, but the congregants had already snuck off into the woods and disappeared like the cowards they were.

  “Robert, take Marli and Nate to town. Tell Detective Ambrose what has happened, but keep it short. No details until I figure out how to spin this.”

  “You have no right to take my granddaughter.” Edna’s cheeks reddened, inflamed against gray skin.

  Sheriff Wilton swung the gun over his shoulder. “I’m the sheriff and I have the right to do whatever I want. If you question me or in any way try to stop these kids from going with Robert, then you’ll force my hand. I won’t be found innocent in all of this, but you two and your God-fearing church will fare far worse than me.”

  Edna hissed. The fire crackled in the rain as it died down behind her.

  Nate pulled me to my feet.

  “Wait!” I cried. “We can’t leave without Polly! Polly Lowe. Sheriff, we have to get her!”

  Charles released a horrifying guffaw that sounded more menacing than an advancing band of crazed, starved, irate pit bulls. “She’s gone.”

  “What? Gone where?” I started to shake.

  “Married. She took your place last night.” Charles glared at the sheriff. “With her parents’ permission, of course.”

  “What? No!” I couldn’t breathe.

  “You ran away. We had the dress. Everyone was there, including the man she’d become engaged to just yesterday. It was the most natural thing in the world. Young love. You should know something about that, shouldn’t you, daughter?”

  I would’ve collapsed to the ground if Robert and Nate weren’t holding me up. “Where is she?” I sobbed, rain mixing with my tears. Was the earth weeping on this cool mountain morning too? Of course. Of course it was. We were all weeping now.

  “How could you?” I moaned, going limp.

  Robert and Nate carried me between them until we came to a pickup truck.

  “Put her in the middle,” Robert said. “She needs to keep warm. She’s in shock.”

  I was pushed into the middle of the seat but felt nothing but cold, harsh reality. I’d lost Polly. I tried to save my friend and had lost her. It was all my fault. How could I be so selfish to think I had all the answers? How could I have thought that leaving would be the end of it?

  I tumbled into a black, dark hole, where even my sobs didn’t reach my ears, though somewhere in the distance I could hear my cries for Polly echoing off the mountainside.

  SOMETIME LATER, ROBERT parked outside the brick police station that doubled as a county jail. I had stopped crying when all energy left my body and I was too drained to carry on. Now I sat slumped against Nate, unable to move.

  “I got shot,” I said. I waited on the wound to start hurting, like the pain was going to be a delayed reaction, consuming me after the initial endorphins evaporated.

  “What?” Nate asked in a panic.

  Robert whipped around in the seat. “What did she say?”

  “I got shot.” The words fell flat like stones in shallow water.

  “Where did you get shot?” Alarm flashed across Nate’s face.

  I shrugged. That was up to them to find out. I just felt numb.

  Nate lifted my arms then legs. He ran his hands through my hair, over my scalp. “Where did you get shot?” he yelled into my face, his words and movements in one hundred percent panic mode.

  “I…I don’t know. But I did.” I hurt somewhere. It must be a wound.

  Robert and Nate took turns scouring every decent inch of my body.

  “There’s no blood,” Robert said.

  “Marli, what makes you think you got shot?” Nate’s brows were pursed like he was trying to decipher a complex mathematical problem.

  I stared at him for several moments, my brain not fully functioning. “I don’t know,” I finally managed.

  “Marli, you weren’t shot. No one was. I think you’re in shock.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  The pain must be from losing Polly. I wish it were a gunshot.

  Nate lifted me like a baby, carrying me into the building.

  “What happened?” An auburn-haired woman dressed in full police uniform sprouted up from behind a long counter.

  “Trouble on the mountain,” Robert said. “She’s in shock.”

  “Is she hurt?” the woman asked.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  Nate laid me on a couch, the fabric scratchy against my cheek. “Can you get her some water?”

  “There’s a cooler in the lunchroom. I’ll be right back.”

  “What’s going to happen now?” Nate asked Robert as he sat beside me, the cushions dipping under his weight.

  “I don’t know,” said Robert. “We’ll have to see what the sheriff says. We’ve been watching the mountain for years, but even with that we haven’t been able to predict when these punishings are going to happen.”

  “Wait,” Nate said. “What?”

  “I’ve been…I’ve been working with the police department for years. That’s why I stay in that cabin.”

  Nate stroked my hair. “I don’t understand. Marli tried to tell me something about a punishing yesterday because they had one for her friend’s sister. Is this a normal church practice?”

  Robert snorted. “Things like this have been happening since the church was established in the 1800s. You could say it’s the cornerstone of their belief system, a way to frighten congregants into submission.”

  “Why wasn’t it stopped? It can’t be legal.” Nate’s voice was full of steel.

  “Years ago there was an agreement with the police that they would stop. I stayed on the mountain to make sure they abided by this pact. I never saw a punishing, but that didn’t mean there weren’t a lot of strange things happening.”

  “Like?”

  “Well, like kids disappearing, more subdued and frightened congregants.”

  “You think they’ve been doing these punishings all this time?”

  “I don’t know. Mary’s was definitely the first one in years that was so public, so to speak.

  “But you think they were still going on?
Why wouldn’t the sheriff haul their sorry asses off to jail if he thought that was the case?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Complicated? That’s your answer? Look at her. Look what they’ve done. She’s barely even conscious!”

  “Before this is over, there is going to be a lot you won’t believe.”

  “Oh boy, I can’t wait.” The concrete in his tone belied the light words. “What did all that mean about Polly? They made her get married last night?”

  Robert sighed. “Marli was supposed to be the one married. I don’t know if she had a chance to tell you or not. The preparations were made for her to marry Josiah, but she ran and spent the night in my cabin, hiding. She didn’t know it, but when they couldn’t find her, they married Polly to some man. I have no idea who.”

  “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  “I wish I were. I so wish I were.”

  “They were going to make Marli marry Josiah last night. Could they have done that?”

  Robert snorted. “They have very strong persuasive skills. She would’ve married him. I promise you that. There would have been no other option.”

  I sought oblivion, this conversation too weighted to handle. I tumbled into a deep, black, dreamless sleep and wasn’t sure I wanted to wake up.

  WATER.” MY THROAT burned like I’d just walked through the smoke of a forest fire.

  “Here.” Nate eased a paper cup into my hands.

  He lifted the edge to my lips and I gulped like a thirst-starved animal. “More.” I cleared my throat, consciousness easing its way into my brain at a snail’s pace. Part of me wanted to dive back into the dark oblivion, but there seemed no hope of that now.

  “How are you feeling?” Nate’s brows pursed in concern, and those brown eyes showed such compassion, my heart lurched to life.

  “Nate.”

  He offered a small smile. “Marli.”

  “I’m glad you’re here.”

  He placed his palms on my face. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  I exhaled, looking around the room. “So it all really happened? I didn’t just wake up from a nightmare?”

  He watched me as if trying to decide the state of my fragility, if the slightest wind would topple me over, sending me spiraling into a cavernous, endless pit. Finally, with a quick shake of his head, he told me everything that happened was real.

  “Have they found…?” My voice trailed off, unable to bring voice to her name.

  He shook his head again and I slumped against the back of the chair as the female officer scurried into the room behind Robert.

  “Have you heard from him yet?” she asked, irritation showing all over her face.

  “I told you. He’s on the mountain.” Robert stopped so fast the woman ran into him and he scowled. “He’ll be back when he gets back.”

  “That’s not a good enough answer!” She took a step back and thrust her hands on her hips, her long ponytail swishing. “I can’t believe you left him up there with no backup!”

  “Listen, these were his orders. You got a problem with it, then march your little butt up there and check on him. Or you can do what he wanted and stay here with us!”

  The officer stared at Robert like she was trying to decide if a punch to the nose—or a swift kick to the groin—would help lure information from his pursed lips. Her nametag read Detective Ambrose in thick block letters.

  “If I had been allowed to do my job,” she said, “which was be on that mountain instead of you, none of this would’ve happened! You’re not even an officer!”

  “Take whatever little problems you have to the sheriff and leave me out of it. All I know is that he told me to bring Marli and Nate down here to you.”

  Her nostrils flared. Then, with a huff, she turned toward the couch. “Good. You’re awake. Maybe you can give me some information.”

  To say I disliked her was an understatement.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Come on.” Robert rolled his eyes. “I already told you who she is.”

  “What is your name, young lady?”

  “Marli Meade.”

  “Marli Meade.” She wrote the name on a small notepad. “And yours?”

  “Nate Porter.”

  Detective Ambrose narrowed her eyes. “Nate Porter?”

  “The one and only.”

  “There is a warrant out for your arrest. It seems you’ve stolen something…and not for the first time.”

  “What is he accused of stealing?” Robert demanded.

  “His father’s truck and…” She glanced at a piece of paper in the back of her notebook. “Money…from his brother.” She fixed her gaze on Nate, brows raised.

  “Well, we can let the sheriff take care of that when he returns.” Robert squared his shoulders.

  “No, we can’t. There was a complaint filed this morning.”

  “Let it go, Ambrose.”

  She offered a glaring smirk as she pulled a pair of handcuffs off her belt.

  “You don’t mean to arrest him?” Robert said.

  “Of course I’m going to arrest him.”

  I jumped in front of Nate. “You are not!”

  “I’m not?” Ambrose snickered. “Then I’ll just arrest you, too, for obstructing justice.”

  “Get over yourself.” Robert stepped in front of me. “Wait till the sheriff gets here.”

  “You’re telling me how to do my job?”

  Robert whipped around. “Nate, did you steal these things?”

  Nate sidestepped us. “I took my dad’s truck, but I had permission to use it whenever I wanted. I can call my lawyer if that helps. He’s trying to get me emancipated.” He didn’t mention the money.

  “You have a lawyer?” Ambrose asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Emancipated?”

  “Yep.”

  “Well, I still have to arrest you.”

  “You have got to be kidding me!” I shrieked.

  “It’s okay.” Nate laid a hand on my arm. “Let her do her job and my lawyer will work all this out.”

  “Come on, Ambrose. Do we really have to do this? The sheriff will be here soon. There’s no need to cuff him and read him his rights. He’s just a kid.”

  She glanced at him over her shoulder as she opened the cuffs. “A kid who steals.”

  “How dare you?” I screeched, overcome with rage.

  “Keep your voice down,” Ambrose demanded.

  “No! You have no idea what you’re doing! He borrowed his dad’s truck to help me escape the mountain! You can’t arrest him! He was trying to save me from what they were about to do to me! If it weren’t for him and Robert…!” Then, like a tidal wave, the memories from the morning flooded over me. I doubled over, clutching my chest, for surely now I was having a heart attack.

  Nate bent to his knees, placing a steady hand on my back. “Breathe. Marli, breathe!”

  But I couldn’t. I was back on the mountain, Charles’s unblinking eyes staring at me, reflecting the flames of Edna’s fire. There was a whip…a black box…Edna’s stick coming at me, point glowing as red as blood, threatening to burn evidence of my so-called sins into my arm. The images were so vivid I could smell the burning of my own flesh.

  “Marli!” Nate’s voice boomed like a cannon inside my head. I tried to raise my eyes, focus them on his face, but I couldn’t. I was back in that river with hands clutching at me, ready to annihilate the sin in my body. I collapsed to my knees.

  Nate grabbed my wrists. “Marli! Look at me.”

  Finally, my eyes raised, barely registering he was there.

  “Look in my eyes. Can you see me?”

  I nodded, though it was several seconds delayed.

  “You’re here with me. In the police station and you’re safe. You’re safe. Do you hear me?”

  I nodded again though the effort was a struggle.

  “I’m here with you and I’m not leaving you.” He wiped away my tears with his
thumbs. And when the tears came back, he wiped them again. But my breath wouldn’t slow—I was starting to hyperventilate.

  Too much had happened.

  I couldn’t process.

  I couldn’t cope.

  “Marli! Count with me. One. Two. Three…” He counted, slowly, methodically. I couldn’t recover, though, and crumbled to the ground.

  TWO HOURS LATER, Nate was handcuffed to a bench in a back room of the station. The medics had just left after examining me, and I was sitting by his side wrapped in a wool blanket. Robert paced like a crazed tiger.

  “What’s taking him so long?” Ambrose leaned into Robert’s face again.

  “Back off, Ambrose.”

  “Why didn’t he want someone dispatched to go up there?”

  “He gave me explicit instructions not to do that. He said, and I quote, ‘Do not send anyone up on that mountain unless you hear from me first.’ I have not heard from him. You have not heard from him.”

  “You don’t know what kind of people he’s dealing with! He could be dead up there or wounded and waiting on someone to have the good sense to come and rescue him!”

  “Ambrose, you’re a pain in my ass. Isn’t there someone else I can deal with?”

  Ambrose crossed her arms over her chest. “Everyone else is on assignment.”

  Robert snorted. “And they leave you here for desk work? Wonder why?”

  “Robert,” I asked, “what do you think is going on up there?”

  He fixed his gaze on me, and I was comforted beyond reason when he blinked every so many seconds. “There’s history there, between your father and grandmother and the sheriff. They won’t hurt him. They know that we all know he’s up there. They won’t risk it.”

  “They were going to risk it with you.” A shudder ran through me, the memory of his ear-splitting screams still fresh in my mind. At some point he had changed his shirt and I was glad to no longer see the bloody evidence.

  “I’m different. I was in no position of threat to them. Law enforcement is.”

  Just then Sheriff Wilton walked in, pale and hunched, his wide-brimmed hat pushed toward the back of his head.

  “What happened?” Robert rushed forward.