Chapter Two - Neighbours
They were now parked at the bottom of the long drive way that had the big-ass obnoxious white letters placed in the field next to it.
"Why 'YES' for" Ads looked over at Laurie, she shrugged,
"No idea" Laurie said, "Maybe... Maybe it's the initials or... something" she had no clue, but the more she looked at it, the more she didn't want to be there. She'd had her fill of obnoxious assholes. She couldn't be dealing with anymore.
"We could scope it out first" Ads said a little excitedly, Laurie smiled, "There's a path over by there" he nodded his head towards a small trail, "Might give us a better vantage". Laurie looked from the path, back to the drive. She guessed it didn't really matter which way they went as long as they both brought them to whatever it was at the end of it. The car spluttered as she turned the engine off, parked just down the road a little. It almost made her worry that it wouldn't turn back on when they got back in it. Especially with the whole escape vehicle thing Ads was now talking about.
Laurie was just hoping for the nice, normal 'Hi, I'm your new neighbour, do you have any sugar' scenario, and not the 'Hello Neighbour' scenario she'd watched him play in a game once.
The path, which had them pass by some sort of greenhouses, eventually led them to the steps in to what seemed to be the grounds of this huge, but gorgeous redwood ranch house.
They'd both be gawking at it, their mouths wide open and they eyes bulging out of their heads - had they not been welcomed by six-armed guards who now had their rifles pointed at their faces. They could even see the red dots of some snipers aimed at eachothers foreheads from in the distance somewhere.
Nudging Ads to follow her lead, Laurie put her hands up slowly,
"What do you want" a bald one asked, looking down his scope at Laurie. Ads looked over at her, a sob stuck in his throat that he tried to swallow it back,
"We were just looking" she said quickly, "We... We um, moved in to the... the house, the house down the way... the purple one... and... uhh... yeah, we, we saw the house on the way in, thought we'd come say... hi",
"The owner ain't here" he said, his voice was smooth and charismatic, even with the gun he held inches from her head, "Best be going".
"Yeah, yeah, we'll, we'll come back another time" Laurie said. The man nodded, the small smile telling her that was probably best, but still, they kept their guns up, escorting them back down the path to where their car was, and to where two more people were looking it over.
"Nice car" one of them said, the guy leaned back on the bonnet, eyeing Laurie up before the bald guy shot him a glance and he looked down, a small smile on his lips,
"Thanks" Laurie pulled her key from her pocket, "It works",
"You don't sound like you're from around here, or any way close" he said as he looked back up,
"No, half a world away" Laurie said quietly as she glanced back at the six men that had now dwindled to just two, the bald one - and then another with some crazy looking hair; although, she could still see the red laser of a sniper rifle passing through her vision every now and then,
"We came here to join Eden's gate" Ads said, he'd found a bit of dutch courage as they'd walked, now fascinated by the guns the men held instead. There was never any hope in understanding a thirteen year old boy. Laurie was sure that girls couldn't be any worse.
"Well, you're in luck, you're living in the land of Eden's gates Baptist" he proclaimed, raising his arms as if he was gonna hail Mary,
"You're the Willis family" the bald one asked. Laurie felt her stomach do a little turn as she nodded,
"Yeah",
"Ah" he said, "You best be on your way then. The Laurels back that way. Turn at the first turning, follow the road, turn again and then over the bridge", he pointed back down the way they'd come,
"Thanks" Laurie said, she opened the door for Ads to get in, but he was still looking at the guy - or his gun,
"What kind of gun is that" Ads asked,
"It's a rifle son",
"Can I-",
"Nope. You heard him, best be on our way" Laurie said, she smiled sheepishly at the guy before pulling Ads by the shoulders and pushing him in to the truck.
"We'll see you soon" the man said,
"Yeah" Laurie said, making sure Ads was in before walking around to the other side,
"Be careful out there. Some folk here ain't as forgiven as us" he warned. Laurie smiled curtly, a small nod to the man before she started the engine and it tumbled off, spluttering a little down the road before it picked up and they were on their way.
Once they'd made the turning, Ads finally spoke up,
"That was so cool" he scrunched his hands up and shook his whole body,
"Being held at gun point is cool" Laurie said; she took a deep breath as she sat back,
"You were cool. You handled all that like a boss" he jumped in his seat, leaning back,
"See, sweet talking the locals" Laurie said, making Ads chuckle.
"What's a Baptist" he asked after a moment. Considering he'd been on the brink of sobbing, he looked to be infused by the experience now. Again, she'd never be able to understand the mind of a thirteen-year-old boy.
"Did you go to school" Laurie asked, raising a brow,
"Yeah, but, I don't like R.E and stuff" Ads pouted. Laurie wasn't surprised; you didn't need any sort of religious education when you had her dad in the house,
"A Baptist performs baptisms, it's kind of the same as a christening, except, your older and they dunk your head in the water instead" Laurie told him, gesturing the action with her hand,
"I was christened, right?" Ads asked,
"You were" Laurie said, "Should have seen the demon that came out of you" she added, which Ads completely ignored,
"So, do I need to be baptised then" he gestured to himself,
"I have no idea kid. I don't think any of us do" - it wasn't like her father to walk in to something he didn't truly understand, or he did, he'd just choose not to tell them about the armed house guards that would point their guns at your head for simply looking at a house.
Although, perhaps if they hadn't almost snuck up behind it and gone up that obnoxious drive-way, they might not have been so hostile.
Before they knew it though, they were home, passing by the same hay-field and back over the bridge. Ads jumped out of the car, declaring to Jackie, who was coming out, roused by the engine spluttering in to a slow death that they'd almost got shot.
Safe to say, she'd closed the door over swiftly and told him to shush, taking a couple moments to realise what he was saying,
"You what" she looked to Laurie, "You almost got what",
"We went to that house. Got some armed guards there that sort of, aimed guns at our head" Ads said, almost skipping around her,
"That's not funny" Jackie warned, but Ads only shrugged at her,
"Serious. There were even sniper rifles with laser dots and stuff" he pointed at his head,
"What" Jackie said, dumb-founded, she looked to Laurie, "That place with the YES sign"
"Yeah" Laurie said, "They weren't too bad afterwards, but, yeah, a bit of a... hostile welcoming",
"I need to tell Tom" Ads said, only for Jackie to shush him again, pulling him away from the door,
"No, no, no, he's in there with the Father",
"Dad's back" Laurie said, trying to hide the sarcastic joy in her voice, but her mother scowled at her anyway,
"Yes, Dad and The Father", Laurie raised a brow,
"The Father",
"Yes. The leader of Eden's gate" Jackie glanced back.
"They knew who we were. Them armed guards. They knew our last name" Laurie said, feeling the hair on her arms stand on edge, either from the cold or the wretch in her stomach.
"The Father says he knew we were coming" Jackie said, her voice going hoarse as she looked to Ads who was completely uninvolved with the worry of the situation,
"Dad said he'd never met them though, never spoken to him before" Laurie took a few steps closer and her mom shrugged as she looked back to the door,
"I know, I know".
After a moment, it opened and Laurie took a step back as a man, dressed in a blue suit with yellow tinted glasses sitting on the edge of his nose, sporting a beard and a man-bun she couldn't help, but think actually suited him, walked out. All he needed was a hat and he'd look like one of those cowboys you'd see on the TV.
No matter how strange he looked though, his presence eased the worry in Laurie's stomach as her dad followed him out. Plumper, and sporting kaki trousers and an off-white t-shirt that seemed to blend in with his hair more and more, the man held her dads hand, their fore-heads touching in some sort of good-bye before he pulled away and looked to them instead.
"Good evening" he said, "My name is Joseph Seed. I am the leader at Eden's Gate, and we cannot wait to welcome you in to the family we have created here". He went from one to the other, holding Jackies hand and nodding at her, making her face blush a bright red as he moved on to Ads, shaking his hand with a big smile on his face before going over to Laurie.
He stopped a moment longer with her though, almost as if he could see through to the innards of her soul through the oval glasses he wore. He took her hand and she let go of the breath she didn't even realised she'd been holding,
"Welcome to Eden's Gate my child" he said quietly. He turned back to look at the others, "We have a sermon tomorrow" he looked to Laurie, "Near the crop field, not far from here, I'll send someone to pick you up". It wasn't him asking, it was him telling them. But it only seemed that Laurie realised that as he smiled, letting her hand go as her dad said,
"That's great, we'll see you then Father" Frank said, bowing his head,
"Praise be to you" Joseph said, he nodded his goodbye as a truck pulled up near the house, as if it had been waiting for him.
"Isn't he magnificent" Frank cooed, watching the truck drive-away. Tom turned his head to him, his father might be able to hide his doubts from some weird bearded guy he just met, but his family knew when he forced the words out. No matter how consistent or real they sounded.
"I think he's a bit scary" Laurie said, Tom turned away, letting go of a chuckle and Frank huffed,
"He's a very generous man" Jackie assured her, the small scowl still in her voice, "Look at what he brought us"
Inside, the house was fully furnished. It wasn't much, but it had a new couch, a small boxed TV that seemed to have some sort of signal, the room that had been boarded off had a queen sized bed, big enough to fit her parents, and, up the newly fitted ladder in to the attic, there were two raised mattresses in each corner of the room - and the room with the unhinged door was now hinged, with a single bed sat under the window.
It wasn't much, but it was enough, and the thought of staying there, the thought of him, it didn't feel all that bad anymore. Although, there was still the problem of the whole 'almost shot' business,
"What was the ranch like" Tom asked as he looked from Ads to Laurie,
"They held guns to our heads" Ads told him, which made Frank look to them and then Laurie,
"What",
"Yeah, armed guards. They weren't too bad, but still - I hope that don't happen every time you want to check out the neighbour's house" Laurie told him. Ads shrugged as he sat down on the couch, flicking the television on.
"The Father did say there was some resistance here. That some are more opposed at releasing their sins and marching to Edens gate" Frank shrugged, as if he was hinting something, "And, from what I gather, that ranch belongs to Josephs brother, John. We literally live right next door to the Seeds",
"Is that a good thing" Laurie asked,
"Should be" Frank said,
"There's some famous last words if I ever heard them" Tom pointed out.
Thanks for reading guys!