AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What is circle time?” I whisper to the woman to my right. She doesn’t answer, so I turn to Vanessa on my left. I still haven’t decided if I can trust her, but the unexpected is rarely a good thing, and I want to know what I’m walking into. Usually, she’s not much help. She talks without saying anything. Still, I listen. I know that she has a young son, but that she’s not in a hurry to get home. Not like the others, she says. In here she tells me she has time to think—and at least she gets to go to the bathroom on her own.
“You have to watch your back,” she replies under her breath.
That much I know. I’ve always known.
“Don’t worry,” she offers as she folds her hands in prayer. I wait expectantly for her to go on until she elbows me so I do the same. “The first time is the hardest.”
I have no idea what she means. I wasn’t the one weeping last night. Now, I’m exhausted, which I want to tell her makes watching my back a little more difficult.
I asked the woman who escorted me to the bathroom this morning when I get to make a phone call.
She only laughed and said, this isn’t jail.
“All right, ladies, take your seats,” the matronly woman instructs the group. Finally, the clapping ends. The fog ends. I feel like I can think again. I count six of us.
“Yesterday there were women in those chairs,” the girl next to me whispers.
I don’t ask what happened to them. The old woman claps her hands, only once, and louder this time. Everyone waits. All eyes are on hers. Hands folded. Ankles crossed. I glance around and follow suit.
“Let’s begin with introductions, shall we?”
There is hesitation in the room. This, a touch of loneliness, expectation, and also something I can’t name.
“As some of you are new, I’ll go first,” the woman says. She wears a floral, full-skirted dress. The kind school teachers used to wear back in the old days. “You may call me Mrs. Elizabeth.” Addressing her this way, the direction, this is the first thing anyone has said that makes any sense.
“Now,” she points at Vanessa. “It’s your turn.”
My roommate stands. Her face is expressionless. It’s her hands I watch. She picks at the cuticle on her thumb with her pointer finger as she speaks. It’s the only blemish in an otherwise perfect manicure. “My name is Vanessa.”
“And what brings you here to the rejuvenation center, Vanessa?”
She digs deeper. She picks harder. The skin peels back. Blood rises to the surface “I wasn’t attentive enough at home.”
“Elaborate please,” the woman demands. “So that we may all have a better understanding.” Her voice rises with each word she speaks. It bounces off the walls and sticks itself between my ears. It’s a nasty sound, the kind you’d be fine with never hearing again.
Vanessa’s eyes are glued to the floor. But her voice is calm and low. “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
“Well said.” Mrs. Elizabeth smiles proudly. “Verse please.”
Vanessa’s eyes shift. “Timothy 5:8.”
Finally, Mrs. Elizabeth motions for her to take her seat. “Don’t forget—” she says to Vanessa but every bit as much to the rest of us. “God is in the detail.”
The women nod in unison as though this is the most profound statement they’ve ever heard.
Next, Mrs. Elizabeth looks at me. “Your turn, dear.”
I stand. The truth is, I don’t know why I am here. But I do know one thing. “I am a liar,” I say. And before she can ask me to expand upon that sentiment, I offer the only Bible verse I know, one my mother taught me. “All men are liars.”
Chapter Twelve
Tom
Everyone is replaceable— everyone. Even your grandparents who've celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. If they hadn’t married each other, they would have married someone else. If you can’t comprehend this simple, yet profound truth, you certainly don't understand people enough to manipulate them. Your world will begin to make more sense once you grasp this lesson.
Speaking of lessons, Melanie’s absence has given me a lot of time to think. It’s quiet without her around. Tidier too.
It would have been bad enough h
