W: The Planner, The Chosen (20 page)

“So, do you have a good church at W?” Karyn was asking Janine.

“They have a church that meets every Sunday at the community center.  Your dad and I tried it a couple of times, but it’s all just a lot of PC blather. Everything at W is designed around getting all of the residents to constantly volunteer to do the work, and this guy’s sermons all center on that theme. I hadn’t heard so many sermons about ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ since the First Baptist Church of Scottsdale did their last building fund campaign. So after about a month we looked at each other and said, ‘This isn’t for us.’”

“So what do you do?” Karyn asked.  Kris was listening too; in all the months that her parents had lived at W she had never asked them whether they liked the community church. She had just assumed that they went there each Sunday.  Now that she thought about it, she realized that she didn’t go to the church in her own community most Sundays, so there was no particular reason that her parents should attend the one at W.

Jim answered Karyn’s question. “Right after we moved in, a guy and his wife moved into the unit next to ours.  His name is Todd; he used to be a pastor before he retired. He’s young—about our ages. We saw him at church a couple of times, and then one day he was talking to me outside, and he said about the sermon, ‘That really stank, didn’t it?’ And I told him, ‘Yeah, actually, it really did.’ Then he said, ‘I was a pastor for 35 years.  My wife and I have been talking, and we want to start a Bible study in our unit for people who want to come. Would you like to be part of it?’ I asked Janine and she said, ‘sure,’ so that’s what we’ve been doing.”

“Actually,” Janine interjected, “Todd’s group meets on Thursday evenings. Some weeks he and his wife host it, and some weeks Dad and I host. We have about a dozen people who are pretty regular attendees, and we study the Bible, and Todd prepares a teaching for us each week.”

Kris bit her tongue. Residents were not supposed to have meetings in their units; it was against the rules. She might bring this up to her parents later—or she might not.  This was the first time she had seen them enthusiastic about anything at W, and it turned out to be something they weren’t supposed to be doing.

Now the conversation turned to Karyn and Jeff and life in Dallas. They both loved living in Dallas—the economy in Texas was much better than the economy in Arizona. Jeff was still working three jobs but only until the housing market improved and he could land a good construction contract. He was honest and hardworking, and he did outstanding work, so no one doubted that he would land on his feet as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Faith was on a soccer team she loved and active in the Girl Scouts.  Seth still spent his time hanging out watching movies and enjoying life, but his days of leisure would soon be ending—his mother announced that he was starting pre-K in the fall.  Kris felt a little sorry for him as she watched him blissfully enjoying his mac and cheese—she was tempted to whisper, “Enjoy every minute, kid. These may well be the very best days of your whole life.”

With air conditioning, free drink refills, and endless food stations, the family was able to enjoy themselves for hours. Kris and her parents were so used to having no lights after 8:30 that by 9:00 they were conditioned to go to sleep, and Karyn noticed the exhaustion on their faces.“It looks like it’s past somebody’s bedtime,” she smiled.

“I’m sorry,” Kris tried to suppress a yawn. “It’s just that everything is solar powered at our community so we are used to not having any lights after 9:00. There is nothing to do but go to sleep, and after a few months, you are just conditioned to do it. Besides, I have to get up so early every morning to get to work on time that I am just about dead at the end of the day.”

“Well, I think you need to get some sleep—all of you,” Karyn replied. “After all, we have a full day tomorrow.”

“Yes, we do,” responded Kris, “You want to meet us at Enchanted Island at 10:00 A.M. so we can spend the day?”

“That sounds good,” Karyn agreed, “That gives me time to get the kids out of bed and give them some breakfast before we leave for the park.”

Faith was sitting close to her grandmother, and now she asked her in a low voice, but still loudly enough so that the other people at the table could hear, “Grandma, can Seth and I spend the night at your apartment tonight?” Sleepovers had been a regular occurrence when Karyn and Jeff had lived in Arizona—at least twice a month Faith and Seth spent the night at Janine’s and woke up in the morning to one of her signature breakfasts with fried eggs and bacon and sausage and biscuits and grits with melted butter.  How would Janine explain to an eleven year old that her government-issued unit had rules that forbade overnight stays by any person under eighteen years of age—for any reason?

Janine put her arm around Faith and squeezed her close, “Sweetie there is nothing in the world I would love more than to have you and Seth sleep over, but I can’t. We live in an apartment that is so tiny that you would not even have a bed, and we don’t have a kitchen anymore so there is no way I could fix breakfast for you. But tomorrow we will all go to the park together, and we will have the best time you ever saw. Okay?” She kissed Faith, and the young girl nodded in agreement, but disappointment was written all over the child’s face. 

Everyone said goodnight and Kris and her parents took the train back to their respective units. 

The next day, the fun started promptly at 10:15, when Karyn and Jeff arrived with the kids, who were appropriately attired in T-shirts and shorts worn over swim suits for the water-based activities. After hours of going through water rides and getting soaking wet just to air dry in the hot sun, both the adults and children were ready for a little quiet. Janine took Seth and Faith to ride the merry-go-round, and Jeff and Jim walked off to find a concession stand to buy ice cream. Kris and Karyn shared a bench and the shade of one leafy tree which for the moment was casting just enough shadow to make the bench tolerable.

“What happened to Mom’s clock when she moved?” Karyn asked.

“They got rid of it,” Kris answered. She had not thought about the clock for months. “Their unit is so small—Mom wasn’t exaggerating about not having a place for the kids to sleep. There’s no possible way that they could have taken it with them.”

“I wish I had known. I would’ve loved to have gotten it for Faith. She loves grandfather clocks the way you used to. It would’ve been so great for her to have had it to pass on to her own kids.”

“Honestly, I didn’t even think of that, Karyn. I wish that I had.” Kris was telling truth. She had always been so fixated on the idea that the clock would belong to her one day that she had never considered the possibility that her parents could ship it to Karyn and Faith. Now, she felt ashamed of her own selfishness.

“So what do you think about this thing in the Gulf Coast?” Karyn changed the subject. “Isn’t that the strangest thing you have ever seen—all those people dying for no reason. Some of our friends at church think this is the first of the end-time plagues. It’s pretty scary.” She paused and waited for a response.

Kris answered thoughtfully, “Did you know that Mississippi is the most religious state in the United States?  It has more Christians of all ethnicities than any other state.  Why would God send an end-time plague there and not on some place where most people are atheists?”

“Like where?”

“Like the Pacific Northwest, maybe. It is the most atheist part of the country. I don’t know; it just doesn’t make any sense….Keith thinks that it’s a government conspiracy—the government released some kind of poison to deliberately kill everybody.”

“Keith thinks everything’s a government conspiracy.” Karyn shook her head and smiled, “How’s he doing anyway?  Have you heard from him lately?”

“Yeah, he called me a couple of times when Mom and Dad decided to go into W. And then he called me in the middle of the night drunk out of his mind a few weeks ago saying that the government was killing everybody and asking me to promise not to tell anybody where he is.”

“Do you even know where he is, even if you wanted to tell somebody?” Karyn inquired.

“No. See that’s exactly what I said to him. The only address I have for Keith is ‘somewhere near the Lincoln National Forest.’ That’s not exactly coordinates to his house, or cabin, or whatever he lives in now, but he is completely freaked out. He’s convinced that the government is conspiring against the whole country and that they are coming for all of us.”

“Well, I hope he’s wrong,” Karyn paused again.  “You don’t actually believe any of that, do you?”

“I’m not sure what I believe, about anything,” Kris answered more honestly than usual. A week ago if she had been having this conversation she would have emphatically answered Karyn’s question with, “Of course not,” but she was still thinking about her lunch with Lena. “Have you ever heard of something called U.N. Agenda 21?”

“No, never. What is it?  Is that another one of Keith’s weird ideas?”

“Maybe,” answered Kris and then, “I don’t know; I’m just not sure.” Karyn was looking at her with a very puzzled expression, but Kris picked up her sister’s hand and squeezed it as she often had when they were teenagers, and they watched the rest of the merry-go-round ride in silence.

Later that evening after another dinner at the family-style buffet, the family sat out on bleachers as they watched the Fourth of July Fireworks display.  Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” blared from the speakers as brightly-colored intricate displays exploded overhead. Seth was exhausted from a day of intense physical activity; before the fireworks started he had laid his small curly blond head in Kris’ lap and fallen fast asleep.  Kris now sat gently stroking his sweaty, matted curls and flushed pink face with her right hand and holding Faith’s hand with her left. For this one moment the world was peaceful and wonderful, and the people she loved most were close beside her. She wished that she could capture this night in time and stay right there forever.

On Sunday the family had one final breakfast together before Karyn and Jeff left to go home. When Kris said goodbye to Karyn she hugged her especially close. “I miss you and the kids so much, Kari. I wish that you were back here.”

Karyn returned her sister’s hug, “We miss you too, but we will be back in a few months.” They kissed each other and then Karyn climbed into the passenger side of the minivan to head back to the motel before packing and going back to Dallas.  Karyn had always hated living in Phoenix—she hated the intense Arizona heat and dryness. And, honestly, Kris knew that the family was better off in Dallas, but she still hated to see them go every time they left. When the van pulled away, she rode the train back to W and spent the rest of the day with her parents until she had to leave to catch the last train back to FE.

The next morning at work Kris got a phone call from Credit Services of America. She was surprised—these calls used to be frequent before she was working, but now that she had her job and her payments were deducted every month, she had not heard from them for some time.

“I am calling,” said the young woman on the other end of the line, “about your credit card ending in 9456.”

“Yes, that is my card,” Kris answered wondering what all this was about. Had someone at the park stolen her information? Was she the victim of identity theft?

“Our records indicate that you used the card this weekend at the Family Style Buffet and at Enchanted Island,” the young woman continued.

“Yes that is also correct,” Kris responded.

“You are currently $150.00 over your credit limit,” explained the caller, “I am calling today to set up a draft for the $150.00 to bring your account balance under the limit.”

“Wait, I can’t be over the limit. I checked the balance carefully on Friday, and I kept track of my spending. I am sure that I am not over my limit.”

“Yes,” continued the caller, “you are. Your purchases brought you within $5.00 of your credit limit. Then on Sunday we applied your new annual fee of $100.00. That put your account over the limit. Then we applied the $50.00 over the limit fee so your account is now $150.00 over the limit. We need to set up a payment for the $150.00 amount that you have exceeded your credit limit.”

“I can’t set up a payment today,” Kris answered.  “I am an employee of the federal government. Each month your payment is deducted directly from my pay and sent to you, but the rest of my pay is in the form of credits so I don’t have any way to pay you the additional funds right now. However, I have set up my deductions to pay more than the minimum due, so when your funds do go through in two weeks that will bring the account almost back under the limit.”

“We cannot have your account over the limit. Federal regulations no longer allow us to keep cards open that are over the limit. Do you have a bank account that we can debit for the $150.00?”

“Look, I don’t have a bank account you can draft,” now Kris was getting really frustrated. She was only over her limit because of fees the credit card company added to her account, and now they were demanding payment immediately. “I just explained to you—your payment is deducted from my check each month. The rest of my pay is not in cash; it is in credits.  I can’t pay you anything else until the 15
th
when you are scheduled to be paid.”

“I see, ma’am. Can you pay us the additional $150.00 on the 15
th
of this month?”

“No, the payments are set up in advance, and they can only be changed at certain times of the year. I am not allowed to make any changes to my automatically scheduled payments until October.”