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Mrs. Tully's face darkened. "That’s how many around here felt about Dale. He put his blood, sweat, and tears into Cinderhill. I lived here before he arrived and things were dire at times. We were barely holding on. He helped improve the homes, built the gardens up, and had amazing growing techniques. The solar panels were his doing. The list of ways he improved our home was long.”
“And so people felt obligated to listen to his crazy talk?”
“For years, it wasn’t all that crazy. It was rooted in faith. Very similar to what many of us had grown up with. He felt like a healthy addition to Cinderhill. We’d never really had a leader, and Dale showed us the benefit of having that kind of structure.”
“Bailey said there are very few of you still here from that time. Was there a mass exodus at some point?”
“When Dale began being rigid and inflexible, some people moved on. It was more a trickle. Rumblings around the garden about how he was losing his marbles. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Cinderhill was my home. I thought maybe Dale would see everyone leaving and take that as a signal to settle down.”
“He doesn’t sound like a man who’s easily deterred.”
“It emboldened him and made him more frantic. Things escalated. I didn’t know what was happening to Bailey. She was very faithful to her father and though he was hurting her terribly, she never spoke up about it.”
“Hurting her how?” King felt his hand ball into a fist and relaxed it quickly, remembering there was no one here to fight about Bailey’s old pain.
“That’s her story to tell if she wants to. I know it’s hard to believe, but Dale truly started out as a good man, but once he got a taste of power, it went straight to his head."
"But Bailey had it bad?” King understood it wouldn’t be easy for Bailey to share these details with him, but he wanted to know. The paperwork Carmen sent had alluded to plenty of abuse but didn’t explain more.
The idea of Bailey, so kind and welcoming, being harmed made him furious. But her father was sitting in prison. Was that justice? It didn’t feel like enough.
Mrs. Tully took a deep breath. "I’ll just say it got bad. Real bad. He started holding insane ceremonies, trying to make the crops grow. Trying to make it rain. He talked about sacrificing animals, about how it was necessary to appease the gods. Every time something unlucky happened around here, he'd blame it on the residents of Cinderhill, saying that we didn't have enough faith in him, that we weren't being obedient enough. That’s why the lettuce was wilting or the chickens weren’t laying enough eggs. It was madness."
King shook his head in disbelief. "Why didn't anyone stop him?"
Mrs. Tully looked at him with a sad expression. "We tried. But he was our friend, you see. It was clearly some kind of mental breakdown. We thought, at first, being gentle with him was the right thing to do. Appeasing his delusions as to not make it worse. But then some people started listening intently. Believing. That’s when I knew the tides were turning. A mad man is nothing until he has followers and then he is unstoppable.
"Bailey seems so strong. Why did she tolerate all of that? Was she really a believer?”
Mrs. Tully's face turned even more somber. “It’s not about strength or being a true believer. Bailey spent her whole life in this bubble here on Cinderhill. Everything she knew about the world came from what the people around her told her. It was easy for her to be swept up in it all. I should have been paying more attention. Dale wanted to perform marriages between people who didn't want to get married to each other, just to assert his dominance. He planned to have Bailey marry someone twice her age. It was sick."
King was starting to feel sick himself, hearing about the horrors Bailey had endured. He couldn't imagine going through something like that and coming out the other side with such a happy and peaceful disposition. It reinforced the idea that Bailey was stronger than she appeared.
"But things are different now, right?" he asked. "Cinderhill is not like that anymore?"
Mrs. Tully smiled sadly. "No, it's not. But the scars are still here, and they run deep.”
“Can I ask you why—”
“Why I stayed?”
“Yes.”
“The same reason I came here to begin with. I feel connected to this place. I’d left my entire life behind and there was nothing to go back to. Before long Cinderhill became a part of me. And even though times were dark, I knew there would be light again. I knew Bailey would be the one to bring it back. If I’d have left or tried to strike down everything Dale was doing, I wouldn’t be here now to help her.”
“You were playing the long game.” King smiled, lighting with recognition. “I’ve been there before. It’s hard as hell.”
“Bailey is doing her best to move on, to create a new life for herself. But it's not easy. And sometimes, the past comes back to haunt her."
King sipped his orange juice and tried to read between the lines. “I feel like there is more you aren’t saying. There is still some danger here isn’t there? Some threat? I can feel it.”
“If you stick around, you’ll see for yourself.”
“So you want me to stay?” He took a bite of the perfectly cooked eggs and savored their freshness. He’d only ever had store bought before. These tasted completely different.
“I thought everyone around here preferred I lose the bet so the roof repair supplies would be on me.”
“I think there’s more you can do to help Bailey than patch a roof or two. It’s not my place to say any more. But the roots Dale planted here run deep and they are strangling at times. Bailey’s mother is a fragile piece of the ecosystem here and she’s dying. If she does, a small level of protection we’ve come to expect will evaporate. That’s what keeps me up some nights.”
