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“All I actually know is that you have like a million siblings. That’s it. And while that's probably annoying enough, it doesn’t really explain why you seem so pissed off at your parents,” Parker pointed out. She gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to tell him to mind his own business.
“My father is a lawyer,” she said in a low voice.
“Wow, I did not expect that,” Parker sounded surprised. She nodded and laughed darkly.
“It's not like how you're thinking. You ever been paid for work with exchanges? Like manual labor, or spare parts, or favors? Doesn’t exactly put food on the table or pay the electric bill, but that never bothered my dad – he's only ever interested in what other people can do for him,” she asked, her voice raising. She refused to look over, but she could feel Parker's eyes on her.
“I'm not sure I understand – favors? What does that even mean?”
“My dad ... I mean, he must have been normal once, right? He got his law degree from Michigan State, they don't let whackos in there, do they?”
“Whackos?”
“My mom always said he was popular, everyone liked him around the campus. That's what drew her to him. Her double-Ds and big blue eyes drew him to her – I'm sure her less than stellar IQ was attractive, as well.”
“Jesus, Paige.”
“You wanted to know,” she snapped, cutting her eyes to him. “It started after my oldest brother and the twins were born – my dad wanted to live off the grid. Three little boys, it was perfect, he thought he was building his own army or some shit. My mom just blindly followed. By the time I came along, they'd been doing it for years, yet they still sucked at it. He'd built our house on his own, with the help of the boys, and it was always falling apart. The electricity was always shorting out. Any time there was a storm, most of the roof got blown off.
“Not that it mattered, because whenever it got humid, it was time to move outside. Live in sleeping bags and cook over fires. He called it 'Our Calling'. Do you know what the mosquitos are like in South Carolina? One time there was a Malaria outbreak, my sister Sydney got so sick, I thought she was going to die. It was the most scared I've ever been.”
“God. Did you take her to a hospital?” Parker asked, and she barked out a laugh.
“I was seven, Parker. My father wasGod, as far as we were all concerned. And this particular god didn't believe in help from 'modern society'. Scratch that – he didn't believe in getting help,period. We had to follow his rules, his ordinances. But whenever he felt like getting drunk or having fun, it was totally fine for him to disappear for a week or two.
“Sometimes, after those disappearances, he'd come back with people. Show them the wonderful world he'd created. Can you imagine? Thinking you were going to some sort of hippie commune, and finding seven dirty kids and a falling down house in the woods? There's a reason I hate most people. I've seen what they can do when they think they're above everyone else. When they think they're some kind of god.”
“Paise ... I'm sorry, but this ... are you saying you were in a cult?” Parker stammered. She shrugged.
“I don't think so,” she was honest. “I mean, maybe if my father could've gotten his shit together, he could've turned us into one. But really, he's just a selfish, lazy, half-crazy man. He loves controlling people, but that takes so much effort. Why not just use the built-in control that comes with being a parent, right?Jesus. He had total control overeverything. What we were allowed to eat, say, do, where we went, even when we couldspeak. If anyone dared to question him or our life, you were put in time out – which meant locked in a closet for hours. Or slapped. Or left to sit in the lake, where you couldn't move. One of my siblings would be put on watch, and they'd tattle if you moved. Spying and telling on people was very much encouraged.”
“I'm surprised he let you go to school.”
“He didn't,” Paige corrected him. “We were all home schooled.”
“But you said you were a diver,” Parker remembered. “That you were offered scholarships.”
“Ah,” she nodded. “Because I'm the devil.”
“Um ... what?”
“My brothers and sister never thought anything was weird, they do whatever he says. Hippie save-the-world bullshit ... except they're not saving anything, not even themselves. They're all adults now, my dad makes them get odd jobs whenever he needs money. But he's kept them ... I don't know, stunted? They don't really question him, and theyALLstill live at home, even the oldest, Ruger – who is thirty-six. Thirty-fuckin-six. Can you imagine? Letting some rotten old man tell you how to live your life, what to do every minute of your day, at thirty-six years of age?” Paige shuddered.
“So what happened to you? Obviously not on the compound anymore,” Parker pointed out.
“I don't know what happened with me. Maybe my mom started caring, I don't know. She would take me with her to the local food pantry, when we were desperate. She never told my father about that, and she'd never taken any of the other kids. Just me. I felt special back then, but now ... I kinda think she wanted me to see. See that there were healthy, clean kids. That the rest of society wasn't a garbage factory, like my dad always said.
“As I got older, I wanted to go out more, but he never let us leave. I would throw tantrums, refuse to eat, run away. Our nearest neighbors were maybe ten miles through some woods – when I turned up on their door step one day, CPS got involved. Having these big, healthy looking, scary adults stomping around scared me, so I never said anything. But they scared my dad even more. He stopped speaking to me that day – I haven't heard him speak ever since. My mom enrolled me in school, I would've been in sixth grade, but I was so far behind, they put me with the fifth graders. The only thing I knew how to do well was -”
“Swim,” Parker finished for her, obviously remembering her stories of the lake. She nodded.
“Yeah. Swimming and diving. My fatherhatedthat I was in school, and actually participating in extra curricular activities?Blasphemy. He wouldn't let my brothers or sister speak to me. My mom only did when he wasn't around. Then, when I was fifteen, they announced she was pregnant. That was it, I was being replaced with a new baby boy. It was not-so-subtly suggested that Iget the fuck out, so I busted my ass in school. Nine months later, I turned sixteen and she gave birth, so I packed my bag and hitched my first ride.”
“I don't know what to say, Paige,” Parker spoke softly. “Of all the things I thought might be going on with your family issues, I never pictured any of this.”
“That's why I don't talk about it – being a freak isn't exactly fun. I know what it feels like for people to stare at your because you're fromthatfamily.”
“Jesus, the phone,” Parker gasped, and she glanced at him. “That's why you didn't know how to work my phone. Or the remote! The paper map.”
