“Brother Luke!”
Snapping my eyes open, I whipped my head around to look behind me. There was my father at the end of the hallway, an angry look upon his face.
“Brother Isaiah,” Brother Luke responded curtly and stood up. Once again, he was towering over me. He kept looking down at me, almost as if pulling himself from a trance. An angered red flush spread along his cheeks and he tipped his head to the sky.
Brother Luke began to move his lips as he worded a prayer to the Lord. I caught the end of his prayer and held my breath when I heard my name.
“I am thankful that you pulled me from the lure of this child. I was tempted by her lovely face. By the innate seduction shining from within her big blue eyes…”
Brother Luke finally bowed his head and rubbed his eyes. With a deep sigh, he glanced briefly at my father. Then he looked my way. “Your beauty is exceptional, child. It makes me suspicious. You are tempting, my little Rapunzel… almost too tempting.”
“Brother Luke, leave my daughter alone.” My father’s voice was hard, unyielding. It was his angry voice, the one he would use on my brothers and sisters… even to my many mothers upon occasion. I felt intense fear for my father that he was speaking in such a way to one of our leaders.
“Rest easy, Brother Isaiah. Rapunzel and I were simply strengthening our acquaintance. Come, let us leave and talk business. Prophet David has more suggestions for our book and also for our children’s literature. He has today received a new revelation, one that will bring our people much closer to the Lord’s holy love.”
My attention flicked back and forth between my father and Brother Luke. My father had not yet answered Brother Luke, and they were glowering at each other in silence. Eventually, Brother Luke walked forward, brushing past my father.
Nervously, my father came to me and bent down. He pressed his warm hands on my cheeks and his eyes seemed to soften with sadness. “Daughter,” he whispered. “You must go in the back room with young Micah. Do not come out until I tell you, understand?”
“I understand, Father,” I replied, still feeling the sensation of fear in my stomach.
Father sighed. “You are too beautiful, daughter. My heart worries that the devil is within you. That you are a cu—Argh! I cannot bring myself to speak the word. I do not want to admit that you may be one of them.”
I sucked in a shocked breath.
One of whom?
Abruptly, Father stood up. “Your trial will be in remaining pure. I am praying God will not forsake you. Let us all pray that you do not become a fallen sister.”
I gulped in trepidation. A fallen. I knew that word: a woman who has dealings with the devil.
“Go to Micah. Now.”
Ducking my head in dutiful obedience, I scurried down the wooden hallway, each step in sync with my pounding heart. I burst into the bedroom at the end. Micah, my friend, was sitting in the middle of the room, filling in one of his coloring books.
He turned head his toward me and smiled. “Greetings, Sister.”
I made my way to Micah and sat beside him, immediately looking down at what he was coloring in.
I gasped in shock.
Micah looked at me and frowned.
“What are you coloring, Micah?” I said, checking the bedroom door was closed. The pictures were sinful. Rude. Forbidden.
Micah laid a hand on my shoulder. “Be calm, sister. I am attending Celestial School now. The prophet’s disciples have been educating me on The Order’s new scripture. Of our new duties as the Lord’s chosen people. Of how to embrace God’s love.”
Leaning down, I studied the black-and-white outline of the scene in Micah’s book. It was a young boy touching a girl… in her forbidden place. They were both smiling. The young girl’s mouth was dropped open and her eyes were tightly closed.