Chapter 6

The rest of the week, David kept watching Mona for signs of how she was feeling, but it seemed to have no correlation with the way she acted. Her persona seemed to shift so much, that he wasn’t sure if it was because of how she felt. He found it weird when she acted happy and vocal, which she did in his Seminary class, but he couldn’t quite decide if it was because she just felt like she had something to contribute, or if it was because she was trying to distract herself from her negative emotions.
If this were the case, David was confused and impressed. He knew a lot of people who tried acting more happy when they weren’t in a good mood so that they didn’t ruin other people’s moods, but he didn’t know anyone who tried to be more happy when they were feeling anxious.
He found, though, that he was getting better at bringing out Mona’s serious side without it becoming nasty. Especially when he used imperfect metaphors, Mona hated them. They could get into friendly debates and philosophical conversations.
Halfway through the week, Mona started talking about a quartet that her friends and her had formed for a project in Orchestra. She informed him on Wednesday afternoon that the three others in her group would be coming over to research music and asked if they could use his computer to do so. David agreed and Annalise said that she’d always wanted a reason to make a bigger batch of cookies, instead of only small one. They wanted to do this one Friday.
That night he had the strangest dream, in which he was a dwarf and was riding a dragon.
When he woke up, he had a weird, distant feeling, that made him feel exhausted. It was hard for him to focus on the act of dressing and eating breakfast.
Mona came downstairs a little later than David, rubbing her eyes. She looked like she was fighting to stay awake as she made herself a bowl of cereal and started to eat it. David smiled, glad that he wasn’t the only one in bad shape.
They drove to school and both sat in the car, sleepily, a few minutes after they had parked. They finally had to force themselves out of the car when Brother White parked next to them and help his hands up questioningly at the two sitting in the car. Though, he thought it was incredibly hilarious that they both dragged their feet as they walked slowly into the building, scowling and grumbling. Brother White came into David’s office a little later to see the two of them sitting sulkily. He folded his arms.
“Did you two stay up too late last night, arguing over what your favorite candy bar was or something?”
“I had a weird dream.” Both Mona and David said at the same time. They both looked at each other, suspiciously.
“Oh,” Brother White said excitedly. “dreams are good for sharing with friends. Ladies first.” He said looking at Mona, who shook her head and smiled.
David tried to listen to Mona’s dream, that apparently she had been having repeatedly during the week, starting with her nap on Monday in his office; but talking about dreams, and even thinking about dreams, made him feel even more tired. When it was his turn, he tried to explain his dwarf dream, but was only able to explain enough for Mona and Brother White to dissolve into laughter. He put his head on his desk and wrapped his arms around it.
“Don’t make fun of my dream, It kept me awake half the night because I kept waking up and trying to figure out what was going on.” This only made them laugh harder. Then after they stopped, and talk about dreams was finished, David and Mona went beck to being tired and Brother white amused himself by poking David in the side of the head to “keep him alert.”
David had mostly woke up by the time his second hour had arrived, but class was still a drag. Halfway through second hour, he was bored and started doodling on the margins of his lesson plan. He wasn’t paying much attention, but when he finally took a good look at it, he discovered that it looked pretty marvelous. He ran out of room in the margins, so he grabbed the nearest writing tool, which was a dry erase marker, and he started to recreate his idea on the white board. The kids were supposed to be reading a section of the scriptures and answering some questions on a worksheet.
“Hey,” One of them said, rather loudly in what had been near silence. “What’s that?” Sometimes David found these children rather annoying. Of course this cause everyone else to start talking, adding their comments and opinions.
“It’s a… thing. Now focus.” He said and some of them went back to work, but a few kept talking.
“Is this thing for a picture you’re going to paint?” One girl said, someone sitting next to her gasped.
“Are you going to show it to us when you’re done?” She asked excitedly. David cringed inwardly.
“I might not even paint it, it’s just an idea.” They both complained loudly and vocally.
“Aw, don’t give up your hopes and dreams just because you’ve hit a rough patch in your life!” One said.
“Yeah, you’re just having a bad day. Maybe it’s because you’re hungry. Guys are usually cranky when they’re hungry. Did you eat breakfast this morning?”
“Breakfast is very important, because if you don’t eat it, you’ll get cranky during the day.”
“Tell your wife that you need a good breakfast in the morning so you don’t have to give up your hopes.”
“And dreams. Dreams are important too!” They both nodded and looked at David.
“Oookay…” How about we… get back to work, now?” He said, coughing and turning away. Later he grabbed his camera and took a picture of his drawing, just in case he wanted it.
The next morning, when he and Mona arrived for school, he saw her three quartet friends; Maureen, Harry and Ginge. He realized that they were all in his class. As soon as they walked in the door, all three jumped up from the floor where they had been sitting in front of the door to his classroom and began talking.
“There’s a pep assembly today, so all the classes are shorter than usual, isn’t that lame?” Maureen said.
“Yeah. I’m of a mind to just skip it.” Harry said, Ginge vocally agreed.
“Hey, Brother Sandson, you should let us hang out here instead of going to the assembly.”
David unlocked the door to his classroom and was inserting the key into the keyhole of his office door. Mona and her friends found various places to sit around the classroom, while he erased his board of the things from his yesterday’s lesson, and his sketch of an idea. It had been ruined by three hours of kids, running up to add their own additions and erasing streaks with their fingers.
“Eh…” He hesitated, “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” He said and they complained very loudly.
“”Oh, come on!” Harry pleaded, “We won’t be missing anything important, and we’ll be good little children!”
“We’ll clean your whiteboard and make all of your desks nice and straight.” Ginge promised.
“And we’ll fix all of your hymn books and… pick up stuff from the floors!” Maureen said.
“Aw, I don’t know…” David said, stroking an imaginary beard and appearing to be thinking.
“Please!” The three pleaded. Mona just sat smiling with her arms folded, looking downward and smiling.
“Alright,” David said, they cheered. “but don’t go around telling people, because I don’t want this to turn into ‘party in the seminary building, bring your friends‘.” They all shook their heads obediently and Ginge said,
“We don’t have any friends.” They laughed. The bell rang shortly after and they left. Brother White wandered in a few minutes after that as David was writing some stuff on his board for his lesson.
“I’m letting Mona and some of her friends come hang in here during the pep assembly because they don’t want to go. Is that bad?” David asked, looking around at him.
“I don’t know. Are you going to make them do something for you for letting them?” Brother White asked sitting on one of the desks at the front of the room.
“What should I make them do?” David asked, making his writing on the board more aligned. “They said that they’d clean the board and pick up the floor?”
“Nah. Make them do something insanely hard, like a million push-ups.” He said, “Each.” they laughed evilly.

“I doubt anything have the abs of steel that would be required to even compare to a million push-ups.” David said. “Maybe I’ll make them prepare a lesson for me.”
“Oh, you mean the one on the Law of Consecration? I still need to do that one as well.” brother White said.
“Ha ha. Yes. I haven’t either.” David laughed. “Maybe we’ll just tell them to do it to see how they do.”
“Yes. Maybe it will boost their appreciation for all the work that teachers put into their lessons.” They laughed again.
Maureen joined them for lunch again and David was thrown off because everything was earlier and shorter, so all of his class periods felt rushed. For sixth hour, they got distracted by talking about Harry Potter, the books versus the movies. When they were excused for the assembly, Mona and Maureen, skillfully, dragged and took a lot of time to put their stuff away. A few minutes later, Harry and Ginge pretended to sneak into the room, their hands holding pretend guns and they were humming the Mission Impossible theme song. They were all chatting merrily, when David sprung his little proposition on them, smiling mischievously. He coughed to get their attention.
“Well, this is fun.” They all looked at him suspiciously. “Unfortunately for you, I have something that I need to do, and I don’t want to, so you get to do it.” They looked each other and then shrugged.
“Okay,” Mona said, “what do you need?” David was disappointed that they weren’t very reluctant.
“I need you to prepare a lesson for me that I haven’t prepared yet. It‘s on the Law of Consecration” There was a voice from the doorway.
“Me too!” Brother White said, poking his head in. They all looked around at him and then shrugged. Maureen said,
“Okay, but can we borrow your scriptures? They have more references in them.” David grabbed his off the stand in the front of the room and help them out to her. She took them and Mona went to the cupboards to grab hers. She also grabbed her seminary notebook. The other three grabbed their scriptures and notebooks as well. Ginge went to the door.
“Let’s do this out in the foyer, so we’ll have more room, and it’s awesome.” They headed out the door and laid their stuff down on the floor around where they chose to sit.
Maureen opened David’s scriptures to the Doctrine and Covenants.
“This should be interesting…” Brother White said. He looked around him. “I want to watch.” He ran to his room to grab his own scriptures and then joined the four on the floor in their loose circle in the middle of the foyer. David also went out and sat next to Mona so that he could look over her shoulder at her scriptures. They scribbled notes in their notebooks and read important sounding scriptures out loud. They had a pretty basic idea of the concept, but David wasn’t confident that they would be able to turn it into a lesson.
“So,” Mona said chewing on the end of her pencil. “basically, the Law of Consecrations says that, you consecrate, or give up all your possessions, to the lord and then the Bishop makes sure that everyone has exactly what they need to sustain themselves.” She turned a page in her scriptures.
“So, sort of like communism? Maureen asked. “but more amazing because it was the Lord’s idea?” Someone laughed. Brother Bird was walking out of his door to do something and had stopped near the group of people on the floor.
“Don’t tell me that you’re comparing the Law of Consecration to Communism.” he laughed again, heartily.
“Well,” Mona said, thoughtfully. “Communism would have been a good idea had not it been for the corrupt government trying to take advantage of the system and being jerks to people.”
“I guess,” said another voice. Brother Stevenson had joined the discussion from his doorway. “but Communism was mostly so that the government wouldn’t have to worry about people getting into fights just because another person had more than them, and so that the government would be in total control. The Law of Consecration is there to help people to be able to help each other and be equal in both spiritual and temporal things. Also so that people could show their devotions to God.”
“Like I said,” Maureen said. “The Law of Consecration is better than Communism.” They all laughed. The other two seminary teachers, Brother Nelson and Brother Harris, poked their heads out of their rooms.
“What’s going on?” Brother Nelson asked. Brother Bird and brother Stevenson joined the group on the floor, Brother Harris followed, while Brother Nelson leaned against a wall.
“We are discussing the similarities between the Law of Consecration and Communism.” Ginge said.
“What?” Brother Nelson laughed, which cause the rest of them to do so as well.
They were all smiling, but their smiles were short-lived. At that moment, fifteen or so men, dressed in red, with red ski masks over their faces, stormed into the building, holding machine guns. The group on the floor was surrounded in seconds, and Brother Nelson was shoved into their midst. A man who looked identical to the others stepped forward.
“Stand!” He barked, jerking his gun up. David’s mind felt numb as he rose slowly. He and the other Brothers instinctively made a circle with Mona and her friends in the middle. David glanced back at them. Maureen looked terrified, Harry and Ginge looked uncomfortable, but, of course, Mona’s face was almost blank.
“No sudden movements. You will be given blindfolds. Put them on.” The same man ordered. Another man passed out red strips of clothe. “Now!” The man said, roughly, when they hesitated. David saw Mona and her friends moving as they put their blindfolds on, so he did the same. He couldn’t see anything but red. He felt himself being shoved out the door and along the sidewalk that was on the North side of the building. He was pushed into the back of a vehicle along with the others.
He sat up and felt someone sitting next to him. He heard the man saying something to his men and a door closed, making it dark inside the vehicle. They all heard the vehicle start and felt the jerk as it pulled out onto the road.
“Someone has a red fetish.”’ He heard Mona say next to him. Someone scoffed, loudly.
“Are you guys okay?” He heard Brother Bird ask from the other end of whatever place they were in.
“Oh, yeah. Just peachy.” Maureen said. “What a drag. This is going to be such a pain.”
“Are they Anti-Mormons or something?” He heard Harry say, Brother White replied.
“Who knows. Why do you say that?”
“Well, I was just wondering, who the heck targets Mormon seminary teachers?”
“Ha ha. That’s a good point.” Mona laughed.
“This is hardly a funny situation.” David said, he wondered if sarcasm and humor were her ways of dealing with fear. That would make a lot of sense.
“When you think about it, no,” she answered. “but it’s a lot less horrifying if you can try to make it seem humorous.”
“We could die.” David’s words were met by silence. Brother Harris was the next to speak.
“Death shall be sweet to the righteous.” He said absently. “The righteous hath hope in his death. Are we righteous enough to die?”
“I kind of want to laugh, if I had an answer to that question.” said Brother Nelson.
“This would be the moment where we all start talking about all the things we wished we could have done more or better and all the opportunities that we’ve missed.” Ginge said. “How morbid…”
“Or we could entertain the notion that we aren’t going to die.” Mona offered.
“I want to pray, but I wouldn’t know what to say in a situation like this one.” Brother Stevenson said. “do we pray for guidance and inspiration? Safety and protection? Do we give thanks?”
There was, once again, a silence. Someone sneezed and then Brother Bird said,
“I have no idea… Geez, this is… bad.” No one argued with that. The ride got a little rough, like they were driving on a dirt road. David could hear people sighing and there were a few coughs in the quiet.”
“What would we be expected to do in a situation like this?” Harry asked. “You are always supposed to react to a certain situation in a certain way. Is there anything in the scriptures about what to do while you’re being kidnapped? Or is it one of those things that you look up and it says, ‘Avoid at all cost’?”
“I have my pocket-sized addition of the Doctrine and Covenants, but I’m not sure how useful it will be while we are blindfolded.” said brother White.
“They didn’t tie up our hands.” Mona said. “Do they even care if we take our blindfolds off?”
“Well, there’s probably a sniper watching through a window or screen of some sort, waiting until we try just so that they can kill us.” Ginge said.
“Or they might be watching up with cameras and will release poisonous gas into this place when we try so that we’ll all die.” said Maureen.
“No,” David said. “I think that it would be best for us to be obedient little children for the time being. I’d actually like to not die for as long as is humanly possible.”
“Aw,” Mona said. He could almost see her smiling humorously in his mind’s eye. “David, you made a funny.” A few people chuckled, and then there was another silence. This time it was to be broken by Brother Nelson.
“where do you think we’re being taken? Will we be held somewhere, or…” His voice trailed off.
“Who knows,” Brother White said. “maybe we should take this opportunity to test our missionary skills…” it was an attempt at humor.
“Ha ha. That’s a good idea.” Maureen said. “We’ll just convert them all and promise to forgive them and help them to repent if they’ll let us go.”
“How would you bring that about?” Brother Stevenson asked.
“’So… Do you know anything about Mormons? They’re really awesome, you should look into them.’” That was Mona. Everyone laughed, but they went silent after a few moments. They were all thrown to the side as the vehicle turned a sharp corner.
“Is it just me,” Brother Harris said. “or is the conversation a little light hearted? I want to know if anyone else in here is as terrified as I am.” Mona answered him almost immediately.
“Petrified,” She said, comfortingly. “but it helps to try to make it less serious, doesn’t it?”
“That it does.” Said Brother Bird. “It’s not as scary when you think about it. As long as we maintain our standards and our faith, they can kill us or whatever and it won’t really matter. It’ll be okay, because it’s just death. The great thing about being a Mormon, we don’t have to worry about death. It’s just death.” He repeated, sounding only a little bit nervous. Harry laughed.
“That sounds weird. ‘It’s just death’. I feel a little insane just by thinking that. Almost rebellious.” A few people chuckled, then Ginge spoke up, thoughtfully.
“So, Mona, is that how you dealt with your family dying?” David fully expected Mona to lose the comfortable, uncaring act, but when she spoke, she was completely at ease.
“Yeah,” She said. “I was, and am, sad, but I’m a Mormon child, born and raised. I know what happens after we die, so I’m comforted.” She acted almost as if it weren’t a personal question.
“Yes, but you still saw them. Doesn’t that sort of gnaw at your mind? You saw what was done to them. Don’t you think about that? Wonder what happened and why?” Brother White asked her. David felt Mona shift next to him, finally getting uncomfortable.
“Yeah, that’s the icky part.” She said. “And I’m not disturbed by many things.” At that moment they were all jerked as the vehicle came to a stop and the engine was shut off.
“You have now arrived at your destination. Please stay seated until it is your turn to depart.” Maureen said in her best impersonation of a flight attendant. Mona was the only one who laughed, though, because everyone else was listening to the sound of metal sliding and clanking together as the back door to the vehicle was slid open. One by one they were pulled out of the vehicle with rough hands and led up some steps.
The footsteps of the group echoed in David’s ears as they were lead through some place with hard floors.
Very suddenly, the blindfold was ripped off his eyes and he had to catch his glasses before they fell off his face. They were standing in a large open room with two tables in the middle. There was concrete on all four sides, with only a few small windows along the top of the wall on the side of the room opposite of the door, which were very high up. It was a cell.
The door was metal and heavy looking. It clanged shut as the men exited the room, leaving the ten of them standing there in silence. Mona was, once again, the first one to talk.
“I’m claustrophobic…” She said, taking a seat at one of the tables. Maureen, Ginge, and Harry followed her. The tables were round and there were six chairs around each of the tables. All the other brothers sat down at the unoccupied table.
“Me too…” Brother White said, resting his chin in his hands and his elbows on the table.
“What a drag.” Maureen said. “If only we had a deck of cards.” There was a brief moment of silence and then the four at the other table started laughing. David leaned back to look at the their table and saw that Harry had pulled three decks of cards from his pockets. Ginge reached into his pockets and withdrew two more. Everyone laughed again.
“Hey!” Mona said. “We have enough to play Headache!” She said. She grabbed her chair and the decks of cards and sat down in between David and Brother White. She beckoned over to Maureen, Harry, and Ginge and they crammed themselves around the tables as well. Mona took all the cards out of their packaging and split them in half, handing a half to Maureen who helped her shuffle them.
“We need something to write with.” Brother Bird produced a pocket notebook and a pen. “Write down everyone’s initials, so that we can keep track of score. Does everyone know how to play Headache?”
* * *
Of course only she and Maureen knew how to play Headache, for there was a chorus of no’s.
“Okay then, has everyone here played Phase Ten?” Surprisingly, everyone had. “Okay, there are a few differences; first, there are only seven hands in Headache as opposed to the ten in Phase ten. Second, instead of counting up how many points you lay down, you count how many points are in your hand when the hand, or phase, is over and points are bad. Also, if you don’t achieve the goal set for that hand, you are not required to stay on that hand until you get it, you just count all the cards in your hand and those points count against you.”
Mona took the notebook from Brother Bird and wrote the seven different hands at the top of the paper, above the everyone’s initials.
“Third, if someone discards a card at the end of their turn and it’s not your turn next, and you want, or more appropriately, need that card, then you may knock for it. All you need to do is knock on the table and if the person who’s turn it is doesn’t want it, you get to take that card. Then, you also get two cards from the draw pile. You get two knocks per hand. It’ll make more sense once we start playing.”
“What if it’s your turn? Do you still knock for it? What if more than one person knocks for it? What if the person who’s turn it is wants the card? Do you still use up a knock even if you don’t get the card?” David asked and Mona had to hold up her hand to stop the flow of questions so that she could answer them. She wasn’t surprised that David was understanding her. He had to be explained things slowly and in depth. Maureen jumped in before Mona could answer.
“If it’s your turn, then the card is yours to take; you don’t need to knock for it. On your turn you may either pick a card up from the throw-away-pile or draw one from the draw-pile and at the end of your turn you have to throw a card away.” She said. “If more than one person knocks for a card, it’s whomever knocked first. If it’s a person’s turn and they haven’t drawn yet, and someone knocks for a card that the previous person threw away, it’s the decision of the person who’s turn it is whether or not to give it to that person. If they decide not to, then they themselves have to take the card, but if they don’t want it, then the person who knocked can have it and the two cards on top of the draw-pile. If you knock for a card and the person who’s turn it is wants it, then that knock doesn’t count. Like Mona said, it‘ll make more sense when we start playing.”
Mona took the rest of the cards from Maureen and dealt eleven cards to everyone around the table.
“For this hand you need to get two threes-of-a-kind. Everyone knows what that means, right?” They all nodded, picked up their hands and started arranging them.
“Okay, Brother White,” she said, looking to her left. “your turn first.”
Mona was the first to lay down her two threes-of-a-kind, followed by Maureen. She marveled at how relaxed and comfortable she felt. She had avoided thinking about her situation as much as possible and apparently that was working for everyone else too, because they all laughed and joked as if they were in a more normal situation. Her own ease made her a little uneasy, because she knew that it wouldn’t last.
They finished playing their game and moved onto a few more. This occupied them for several hours, but they found that they couldn’t continue playing for forever.
Mona was starting to feel a bit edgy. She was incredibly claustrophobic, but it wasn’t as if the walls were crashing in on her. What she felt was a panic. It was like she needed to get outside, but knew she couldn’t. That was what was suffocating her. She wasn’t feeling very panicked yet, but she could feel her anxiety building.
After their fourth game, several people expressed that they no longer wanted to play. So, Maureen and Harry helped Mona separate the decks. Maureen and Harry then moved back to the other table to play speed and Ginge started a game of solitaire. Mona lined the other decks of cards up on the table in front of her, making sure that they were all even. She was trying to distract herself from her building fear, and the fact that she was locked in a cell. Her hand began to shake as she nudged the decks needlessly, so she put her hand on her lap to keep anyone from seeing it.
For a while, she stared at the surface of the table, but she glanced over at Brother White once to see him looking pale and shaky himself. He was staring, not at the table, but up at the windows, longingly. Mona quickly looked away and stared up at the windows herself.
It was getting dimmer outside and Mona wondered if the windows were at normal height, or at ground level, meaning that they were in a basement. She dispelled these thoughts immediately from her mind. She hated basements.
Mona could feel the atmosphere in the room getting a little nervous. Mona knew that everyone in the room was losing their comfort, because they were all staring up at the windows or their eyes were flitting from one person to another and to various places around the room. They all could feel the unease in the room growing, which added to the sense of impending doom, and made the feeling grow. A few people coughed weakly, but mostly there was silence. Mona was beginning to feel like she was losing her control, when they all heard the sound of the door to their cell being unlocked.
Brother White and Mona stood up at the same time, the others followed more slowly, as the door opened and the men in red, once again, filed in. The first two men carried a large black pot in between them, the contents of which smelled suspiciously like beef stew. There were a few other men with guns, who guarded the door, and another with a stack of bowls and a handful of spoons.
Mona, David, and Brother White moved out of the way as they set the pot, bowls, and spoons on the table and stepped back. No one moved for a few seconds, unsure of this development. Finally Maureen, Harry, and Ginge set their cards down and moved over to the table. It was Brother Stevenson who spoke.
Ah, food… excellent…” He said, hesitantly. “Which reminds me… I need to go grocery shopping…” There was another silence wherein everyone looked at the floor or at walls, anywhere but at someone else. Maureen looked up at one of the guards standing near her and asked him,
“Have you ever been grocery shopping?” Everyone exchanged glances with the people nearest them. David immediately looked at Mona, as if to tell her that Maureen was her friend, so she was responsible for any randomness that came out of her mouth. Mona shrugged a little and then looked back at Maureen and the guard. A few of his comrades had confused looks on their faces. The guard himself stared at Maureen hesitantly and then answered,
“I rely on my superiors to provide me with my equal share of provisions.” His answer was gruff and formal, as if he had formulated his answer for the express purpose of answering that question. Mona was a little confused by this answer, and then a light-bulb went on in her head.
“Hold it.” She said loudly, holding up her hands. Everyone’s attention was turned to her. “Are you guys Communists?” Maureen slowly grinned. Harry and Ginge stood with their mouths open. David and Brother White shook their heads while Brother Bird rolled his eyes. Mona took all this in in one glance around her before her eyes were back on the guards in front of her.
“I do not understand this response. It’s not one of negativity, as is the general response, but it is mocking. I feel like I’m on the outside of an inside joke. Also, I believe it to be a sign of respect to be able to rely on my superiors for sustenance.”
“Oh!” Mona said. “So, you are Communists!” Everyone in the room who was not a guard did a terrible job trying to contain their laughter. There was a lot of coughing and other such sounds from the group of prisoners and a lot of scowling from the men in red. The original guard narrowed his eyes and then waited for them to regain control before he spoke.
“We will return after you are finished.” He jerked his head at the other men and they retreated, orderly, out the door.
“Bit touchy, aren’t they?” David said and everyone laughed again. Mona slapped her knee twice.
“That’s a double knee slapper.” She said, which caused Maureen to laugh even harder.
“I don’t believe this!” Maureen said in between huge gulps of air. “We were totally talking about Communists. What a coincidence! Do you think it’s bad karma? We made fun of them and now we are being punished. Maybe we should stop making fun of them… And, again, what the heck do they want with us?”
“No idea. Maybe it’s a terrorist group and at this moment Seminary teachers all over the country are being kidnapped and held hostage.” said Brother Nelson. “To… terrorize… people?” Brother Harris looked at him dubiously.
“Hm… that may be it.” He said. “Although, when I turn on the news and hear that ten thousand seminary teachers have mysteriously disappeared, my first response wouldn’t be ’Oh, no, I’m next. I’m so terrorized’. My response is…” Brother White interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.
“…where’s the party and why wasn’t I invited?” He said. They all laughed. Brother Bird had separated the bowls from their stack and was dishing out what was indeed beef stew. They all sat back down at the tables and started to eat.
There wasn’t any talking for a while, as people blew on the hot stew and chewed the chunks of beef. Mona listened to the sounds of eating before the silence was broken again.
“Will they send out ransom demand or something, do you think?” Asked Harry. A few people shrugged and went back to their food.
“Yeah. That would make sense.” Mona said, thinking. “If they wasn’t people to consider this as a scary situation and not just a cult of Mormon guys migrating to a secret club meeting over the weekend without telling anyone about it, then they’ll need to make some sort of indication that this is a scary situation.”
“I hope they don’t ask for ransom.” David said. “I’d feel rotten if someone was forced to pay money just for me. I don’t want to cause inconvenience to anyone.” A few people nodded again, and then went back to their food.
Some dim lights had come on in the room after it got dark. Mona, Maureen, Harry, and Ginge went back to their table and sat, staring at each other. They were trying to keep straight faces, which wasn’t as hard as it should have been. They did this for almost twenty minutes before they just stopped and stared off into space. Harry ang Ginge fell asleep quite quickly, but Mona and Maureen were both completely alert. All but David and Brother white had taken off their suit jackets and were using them as pillows or blankets.
Brother Stevenson was lying on the floor with his jacket wadded up beneath him. Brother Bird had his head on the table, with his jacket over it. Brother Harris and Brother Nelson were resting their head similarly, but with their jackets folded up beneath them. It was surprisingly warm in the room. Warm enough that they could comfortably sleep without blankets.
Mona sat at the table, desperately trying to think of something other than her predicament. She had a strong urge to go over to the door and make sure that it was locked. She vaguely remembered reading somewhere about a man who was told that they were testing the intelligence of man by locking them in a completely empty room and making them try to escape from the room using their brains. The man was then out into the room and his brilliant way of getting out was by using the light fixture to chip away at the wall. His plan failed, and his hands ended up bloodied and sore because of his three hours of scraping. Afterward, he was told that the door to the room had never actually been locked, and that he could have exited the room the way he had come in, if he had just tried the door.
Mona tried convincing herself that the door wasn’t actually locked, which didn’t help at all, because she had never been any good at tricking her own mind. How can you trick your mind WITH your mind?
“I think…” Maureen whispered suddenly, catching the attention of all who were awake. “that even if we weren’t claustrophobic before, we’ll all be soon enough. Either that or insane.” David was the only one who even let out a noise, but he stopped immediately, when he saw the looks on Mona’s and Brother White’s faces. Mona looked at Brother White and saw that he had an almost insane look on his face. She stood up quickly before the picture of what her own expression was, could come to her mind. She could only imagine how crazed she looked.
She walked to one of the room and looked up at one dim, flickering light that was hanging from the ceiling. She looked at it for a few seconds, then turned and walked back to the table, putting her palms on the smooth, cold surface and leaning on it. She noticed that her breathing had become ragged, so she took a moment to try and slow it down. She then turned and walked back to the wall. She put her forehead against it, ignoring that her eyes felt like they were going to overflow. She was trying to find her happy place, and pictured a thousand different places that she’d rather be, but none of them did anything to calm her.
She stayed there, leaning against the wall, until she heard someone approaching her. She looked up and around to see that Brother White had joined her. He assumed a similar position to hers with his forehead on the wall and his eyes closed. She looked at his for a moment and then put her head back on the wall, eyes shut tight.
For a fleeting moment she thought about something that she’d learned in her seventh grade health class. It was about the fight-or-flight response. Her flight response was the more dominant feeling, but she thought that this was incredibly unfair for a lot of her irrational fears. For such fears such as claustrophobia or even her anxiety disorders, there wasn’t anything for her to fight and in most situations there wasn’t a way you could flee either. Mona was sure that, in such extreme and prolonged situations, such as her present one, the only outcome for her would be insanity. She knew that her breaking point couldn’t be far off, and this made her feel more vulnerable.
Her breathing had become heavy, so she took a while to try to slow it down. She could hear herself sobbing and feel the tears running down her face, but she had withdrawn into the center of her panic, and was barely keeping herself conscious. She didn’t hear David come up behind her, she was so consumed, put his hand on her shoulder. At the touch, Mona’s body seemed to turn on it’s own and almost fall against his shoulder.
* * *
David watched the two, Mona and Brother White, as they leaned against the wall. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but he was definitely beginning to feel restricted. He looked at the people around him and realized that pretending to be relaxed wasn’t going to work any longer. Even in their sleep, everyone around him looked vulnerable and weak. He looked at Maureen, who was still sitting at the other table, fighting back tears.
He stood up and walked toward the two by the wall, patting Maureen on the shoulder as he passed. Mona was almost whimpering, her breaths were the beginnings of vocal tears. Brother White wasn’t doing much better. His breathing sounded labored, as if he were in intense pain. David’s heart hurt as he approached them and put a hand on each of their shoulders. Mona turned and fell against his should, blinded by the tears that she was desperately trying to hold back.
Brother White shuddered and his breathing slowed as he barely managed to collect himself. David kept his hand on Brother White’s should and his other arm around Mona as he led them back over to the table that Maureen sat at. They all sat down and again, there was silence. They sat this way until even David felt drowsy. He took off his jacket and draped it around Mona and Maureen as best as he could, then leaned back in his chair. It wasn’t very comfortable and it was under horrible conditions that they slept, but they were all so tired that they didn’t care.
* * *
When Mona woke up, she felt better, but absolutely drained; emotionally and physically. No one tried to hide their emotions, or even attempt anything near humor. They all just sat silently around their tables. They all knew it was morning because of the sun filtering through the windows. David and Brother White moved back to the other table with the rest of their fellow teachers.
Neither Ginge nor Harry got out their cards to play. Mona was half expecting the guards to come in with breakfast, but nothing happened for several hours. Mona was just marveling at how they were able to sit and do nothing for that long, when Maureen spoke. Several people jumped a little at the noise.
“I still cannot believe that they’re Communists.” Mona didn’t think that it was an attempt at humor or even a line to break the ice for conversation. It was just a few words to prevent them from going insane in the silence. Brother Harris spoke next.
“I want to go home.” It wasn’t a whine or a sob, but he did sound rather like a child. Mona found it discomforting when the supposedly strong adults that she was supposed to look up to started to break down, but she wasn’t about to criticize them for it. They were human and she knew al about what fear could do to a person. There was another silence as everyone in the room thought about home.
“That’s it.” Brother Stevenson said. “Not that we haven’t all been praying like crazy, or we should have been, I think we should take a minute to pray.” They all folded their arms and Brother Stevenson stood. He said a quiet, short prayer and then sat down again. They all stared off in different directions until Brother White stood up suddenly.
They all watched him as approached the big, metal door and then pounded his fist on it four times. Everyone sat, shocked, and waited to see if anything would actually happen. He knocked again and, surprisingly, they all heard metal sliding as a rectangular piece of the door, about at Brother White’s eye level, was slid away. A pair of brown eyes stared at him from the other side. They just sat, looking into Brother White’s eyes. Brother White wasn’t at all deterred.
“I demand to be told for what purpose we are being held here!” He said. His voice was low and angry.
“Excuse me?” The eyes behind the door said, “What did you say?” He sounded offended, and like he was trying to be intimidating, but Brother White just leaned forward so that his eyes were mere inches away from the man’s, that were narrowed.
“Take me to your leader!” He said, rather loudly. They stared each other in the eyes for a moment, before the rectangle of metal was slid back into place.
Brother White stood stubbornly in front of the door, while the people sitting at the tables shared somewhat impressed glances. A few minutes later, Brother White was not disappointed, for they all heard the door being unlocked and it opened.
A man dressed identically like everyone else that they had seen, was standing in the doorway. He was followed by five men with guns and stern facial expressions as he entered the room slowly.
“Please, have a seat.” He said formally, indicating the table. Brother White sat down, eyeing the man suspiciously as he took a chair from the table at which Mona sat and carried it to the table that the Seminary teachers were all sitting at. They made room for him, and he sat down slowly. Brother Harris and Brother Nelson quietly pulled on their suit jackets.
Two of the men with guns stood behind the man who had sat down. There was one standing by the open door and two more farther along the same wall. Mona noticed that Maureen had a peculiar look on her face. Like she had just thought of something particularly brilliant.
When the men at the other table started talking, it was in quiet voices, with only a few louder outbursts that made almost no sense to the four sitting at the table. Mona tapped her fingers on the table and Harry looked angry, but Ginge was watching Maureen, who’s smile was growing into a grin as she developed her thought.
“Maureen. What…” Ginge started to ask, but she help up a finger to him.
“You’ll see.” She said simply and then she leaned forward across the table.
“Brother Stevenson.” She whispered loudly. She had to repeat it so that he would hear, but when he did he casually leaned his chair back and turned his head to the side; one eye still on the conversation at his table. “Can you ask Brother White if we can borrow his pocket D&C?” Brother Stevenson leaned back forward and tapped Brother White on the arm. He whispered in his ear and Brother White reached into his pocket and withdrew the small book. Brother Stevenson took it from him and tossed it over to Maureen.
As soon as the book was in her hands, she was turning pages furiously, muttering to herself as though she were trying to remember where something was. When she found it, she laughed evilly under her breath and then looked around at the two guards by the walls.
“What are you going to do now?” Harry asked. She rose halfway from her chair.
“Just watch.” She said. “Oh, and just go along with whatever happens. Smile, nod, give thumbs ups and stuff if you need to.” She stood casually and slipped over to the nearest guard.
The guard raised his gun a little when she came toward him, but she held her hands up and out, indicating that she was not hostile. The man lowered his gun and Maureen stood nest to him. She started whispering into his ear and showing him something from the little book, pointing at verses with her finger every once in a while. After she finished, the guard looked shocked and confused. He looked over at Mona and the two boys, who, heeding Maureen’s instruction, smiled and nodded reassuringly.
Suddenly, the guards face took on a more superior looking expression. He nodded once and Maureen returned to her seat, grinning satisfactorily. The guard quietly walked over to the man who was holding conversation with the brothers and whispered something in his ear. The man instantly stood up and said loudly,
“I am sorry, gentlemen, I’m afraid this discussion is over.” Mona was surprised to see that David protested the loudest. The man said no more, but exited the room. The door clicked shut behind him and the sounds of a locking mechanism echoed throughout the room.
“How can he just leave? The discussion was far from over. He was about to say something, but whatever that guard said to him distracted him.” David said angrily, but Brother Nelson stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. He was looking at Maureen.
“I’m more interested what that guard had to say, and, by extension, what was said that made him say it.” He raised his eyebrows questioningly. Maureen shrugged, looking too innocent.
“I couldn’t possibly know what you are talking about.” She said, and everyone else turned to look at her. Brother Nelson looked from Mona to Harry and Ginge, but they all shrugged honestly. All the brothers looked at them suspiciously, but before they could question further, the door was unlocked and opened again.
This time the man who opened it was wearing a suit and a red tie. He spoke deeply.
“I apologize for any inconvenience. If you had only said something earlier, then much of this unpleasantness might have been avoided.” He stepped forward and the men with guns filed in, their guns to their sides instead of up and ready. David spluttered at him, completely and utterly confused.
“Oh… uh… yes… it… yes…” One of the men tossed the bundle of blindfolds (which they had collected when they brought the prisoners their meal) back onto the table.
“I would like nothing more than to set you free, but unfortunately, for your protection as well as ours, we must keep our whereabouts a secret.” It took the ten prisoners a few minutes to understand what he meant.
“You’re letting us go?” Maureen said, not able to hide the delight in her voice. The man nodded and Mona was the first to grab her blindfold and tie it around her eyes. Instead of being shoved, this time they were lead politely back to whatever place the vehicle was kept.
The ride was silent, which was becoming very common for the group. When they were dropped off, they were literally just left on a sidewalk and told to wait at least twenty seconds before taking their blindfolds off. When they did, it was on a street only a few blocks from where David and Annalise lived, so that’s where they walked.
Mona was surprised when David rang the bell instead of just walking in. Annalise opened the door a few seconds later and stared out at them. David only waited a second before nearly tackling her with his hug and spinning her around the living room.