Page 19 of Gideon

“Probably not long after you left last time. Rent went up, and wages dropped. People are barely surviving.”

“I can’t believe no one saw it. Did you know at the time?”

“I had my concerns, but they were mostly because I felt he was steering people farther away from God. Fairfax was very good at pulling the wool over people’s eyes.”

“And no one stood up to him?”

“Sure they did.”

“But no one would listen?”

“Not after Fairfax was done with them. He’d spread rumors around town or even have them arrested if he had no other course of action. Some left. Some shut their mouths and became obedient.”

“How could he arrest people? He’d have to have some evidence.”

“Not when the sheriff is a friend of his. And it never went to court. Putting them in jail for the allowable seventy-two hours before letting them out was plenty. By then, the damage was done. We tried contacting our local congressman, but don’t ask me what happened there because I still don’t understand. Every avenue we’ve tried has been closed to us, and it makes mewonder if God shut the door on this town to teach us all a lesson or something.”

“You think God’s punishing Asher? I wouldn’t expect you to push that whole hellfire and brimstone angle. Your dad didn’t.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. This used to be a God-fearing town. Excuse my old-fashioned language, but it’s true.”

He laughed. “God-fearing town, huh? Have you ever met my father?”

“Not every single person, but there was a time when the church was growing. And even people who didn’t attend still professed to believe in God even if they didn’t want to go out of their way to do anything about it. But things changed. We had some trouble at church. People were grumbling and unhappy with my dad’s leading.”

“What was he doing they didn’t like? Do you know?”

She shrugged. “It would be easier to give you a list of what they didn’t complain about. Some said he shared too many verses in his message, others said not enough. People complained about how many were staying after the service or for how long. A few people left the church at that time, but then the drought started and didn’t relent, and people started turning up again. My dad thought it was an answer to prayer, but then everything got way worse than they ever had.” Her head sagged. “My mom really struggled through that time.”

“I always remember her being a strong woman.”

“She was. Once. But not strong enough to engage inthe battle she had to fight. It wounded her. And when she lost my dad—” Her throat closed in emotion.

“I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She shook her head and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “It’s okay. I’ve processed it a lot and have come a long way, believe it or not.”

“How’d your dad handle it? He’d always been so compassionate.”

She huffed a dark laugh. “He tried so hard to keep everyone. He prayed constantly for reconciliation. There were moments he thought he had it, but it was like trying to stop sand from running between his fingers. By the end, he was questioning every move he made, constantly walking on eggshells.” She shook her head. “I remember this one time the church needed to be painted, and a friend of his had donated paint, so one weekend, my dad painted it himself. He knew people were struggling in life and wanted to do something nice. He wanted to lift everyone’s spirits.”

“Uh-oh.”

“At first people thought it was great. But then others started commenting about how the color was all wrong, and he shouldn’t have done that without gaining approval first. They didn’t say that to his face, of course, just to everyone else. But Dad, he kept trying, smiling, encouraging, trying to figure out what he could do differently to fix it. And mom…she knew what they were saying about the man she loved and how hard it all was on him.” Nikki stared off at nothing.

“I don’t know what else to say besides I’m sorry. Your dad may not have been perfect, but I know hecared about people deeply. So, you think that’s what started it all?”

“Who knows. What I do know for sure is that God couldn’t have been happy. If my dad was teaching heresy, sure. If he was abusive, of course people needed to stand against that, but not what they did. That’s around the time Phineas turned up.”

“Phineas. I think I met him at the markets. The medium?”

“That’s him. He started turning up at church.”

“He’s a medium.”

“I know. Dad knew right away that something was off, but he was so charismatic, and a lot of people took to him right away. He started his own home group and started teaching about Old Testament rituals and returning to our roots, and that moved into more mystical teaching. People lapped it up because it made them feel good and put them in control of their own destinies.”

“Is that when the totem poles turned up?”

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