Chapter 19
Candlewood Suites
Watertown NY
Outside Ft. Drum Military Reservation
October 2011
"So little sister did grow up on you." Morgan said with a chuckle.
Spencer didn't smile, "Unfortunately."
"What happened?"
"Nothing for a while. Thankfully even though there was a constant threat from JD and the others we managed to avoid actually dealing with them. They just like to verbally harass us when they could. A few nights later I met Housekeeper..."
Parson Farm
Grindstone Island
St. Laurence River
January 2011
There was a chain link fence between the two courtyards. Most of the time a wooden gate was pulled in front of it, effectively separating the two. But a couple of nights later before dinner Foreman called Spencer over. The gate had been opened slightly, leaving only the chain link fence in place. And on the other side stood a woman in a white pinafore, imposing for the authority she carried. "What are we looking for?" She asked without preamble.
Foreman just smiled at her. "Housekeeper, this is Teacher, our new schoolmaster." He said. "Teacher, this is Housekeeper, my equal on the other side, so to speak."
"Housekeeper," Spencer said with a polite nod. "I assume you manage the staff up at the main house?"
"Along with all the other women here," she said once she returned that nod. "I'll have you know I don't like this. You're asking us to take on a great deal of risk. It's fifty lashes if we're found with stolen property."
"But they would free us." Foreman said. "We wouldn't be their slaves anymore."
"To what end?" She replied. "There's nothing for us out there. We don't have families or jobs waiting. This is our home. Yours too, unless you think the PLK would take you back."
Foreman looked around and stepped closer. "They'd close the Night Barns!" He whispered.
Housekeeper pulled back as if she'd been stung. She looked around to make sure no one heard, swallowed twice, and smoothed her apron. "What are we looking for?" She asked, much more gently this time. "I'll look myself."
Spencer took a deep breath and started describing a cell phone.
Candlewood Suites
Watertown NY
Outside Ft. Drum Military Reservation
October 2011
"They never found one?" Morgan asked.
"They did, three of them. And she managed to get them in and out of the house safely." Spencer replied. "No service."
"Of course. So what happened next?"
"There wasn't anything remarkable until Sunday."
Parson Farm
Grindstone Island
St. Laurence River
January 2011
By the time Sunday rolled around Spencer had to admit that while yes, he was homesick, and yes, this place was hell in theory, his own situation was reasonably tolerable. So long as nothing changed he wasn't going to have a problem sitting tight and pacifying the Unsubs until the team got to him, he found a way to contact them, or he found an escape.
His biggest problem had turned out to be an unexpected one. He'd woken up the day after his first day to find a swollen knee that didn't want to hold him. Cold weather plus lots of unusual movement equaled arthritis, simple as that. Thankfully Foreman had thought of that and had presented him with a cane made from a branch of some local tree, twisted and polished nicely. And another of the woodworkers had attached a little shelf to his bed to hold his glasses. "Why?" Spencer asked. "I mean I'm grateful, but they hardly know me."
"You are teaching our children." Foreman explained. "You can't teach an animal to read or write or do math. Every day you make them more human. That is valuable to us. This is a thank you."
He had been so touched by that.
Within a couple of days he had some knee warmers to help, quilted things stuffed with pockets of sawdust he could warm on the stove and tie on. Those came from Tally, bless her. She also produced an indigo waistcoat to add another layer under his jacket. "Housekeeper suggested the color." She admitted. "She said that teachers are valuable, like the midwives who dye their aprons red. We matter so we should stand out a bit. And you look very dashing."
By Sunday morning everyone had turned out in their best. They had all scrubbed down, hair was washed, beards combed and trimmed. Spencer had tried to stop scratching at his, it was not coming in in any sort of an attractive way, but all sharp objects were carefully regulated so shaving was not going to happen. At the appointed time JD and his assistants came to the gate with orders for them all to line up, and then they walked the thankfully short distance to another church that resembled an airplane factory.
People were seated strictly according to rank. If dress was any indication the Masters were in front, Spencer spotted the kind of high end clothing Rossi and Emily wore. After that were the Elders, all of whom seemed to have massive families which all dressed alike. And in the back, behind a short partition, were the slaves, from the ones with any sort of rank in front to the youngest in the back. Men were on the right, women on the left. Spencer found himself seated in the first slave row, between Smitty and Carpenter, one off from Foreman. He dared to look over as everyone was settling and spotted Tally between two women he did not know, one in a white apron and the first of three in red, and one down from Housekeeper. Right.
Spencer spent the next several hours analyzing the sermons the Elders gave. There were elements of the Prosperity Gospel mingled with a bastardized form of Calvinism, ample classism and worship of the Lost Cause of the South, somehow without veering into racism. And of course a healthy dose of extreme conservative politics. In between there were readings and dour hymns. Eventually they were allowed to return.
"It's entertaining." Foreman said out of nowhere once they got back, "All bullshit of course, but entertaining."
"But people seemed excited to go." Spencer replied.
"Only to get it over with. Do you know anything about cooking? Wait, what am I saying? Cop, you lived off take-out." Spencer closed his mouth and nodded, he didn't even have a full kitchen back in DC. "Know how to scrape a carrot?"
"Sure."
This was how Spencer found himself in the kitchen, sitting on a stool at a counter in front of the windows, working on a giant pile of root vegetables. "Sunday is a day of rest." Foreman explained. "The Masters and the Elders do their own cooking, and we cook here, so the women can have a day off."
"They deserve it." Spencer agreed, and settled in to the work.
His position, though, allowed him a ringside seat at the drama unfolding before him. The kitchen was on the women's side of the complex, the windows looked out over their courtyard. From here Spencer could see Tally sitting with some of the other women around a fire pit, quilts draped over their laps as they worked on them. She smiled and waved, but had told him not to come to the gate, whatever that meant. They would speak again in the morning.
He soon saw what she meant, and why. The wooden gate between the two courtyards was rolled back, leaving only the chain link in place. As soon as it was open women crowded at the gate, each holding an infant or small child. As Spencer watched fingers and hands started poking through to touch each little head, clutch small fingers, and caress the hand of a loved one. It took a moment for Spencer to realize what was going on. "Those are their children?" He asked.
"Yes." Foreman replied. "Excuse me; I'm going to go see my grandbaby." Foreman left him there and went to take his turn at the fence.
A few of the men had stayed behind to help prepare food. "I don't understand." He said to one of them
"Me neither." He replied.
Candlewood Suites
Watertown NY
Outside Ft. Drum Military Reservation
October 2011
"At one point I got a new student." Spencer said. "He had turned seven a few days before. He had to leave his mother and siblings and come live with someone he'd only ever seen through the fence. And he would never be held by his mother again. I remember he was so scared, and so happy when he saw Tally and the girls because they were familiar faces. He screamed every afternoon for weeks when we had to wave good bye and go back in the courtyard. I had to pick him up and carry him so he wouldn't annoy JD too badly."
"Did the fathers ever see their daughters?"
"Only through the fence. They didn't get to hold their sons until they were Jack's age, didn't get to hold their daughters at all." Spencer shook his head. "I left home at thirteen and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. And I did it knowing that I would be going home in a month. What we're talking about here is the grief Jack had to go through when Haley died. Repeated over and over again. Or imagine JJ having to give Henry up, or Will at this point in Henry's life never having held him. Or your father never knowing your sisters."
Morgan shook his head. "I cannot imagine that. No wonder they were so happy to hear that families were getting together again. But if they're keeping everyone apart like that, how did they make those kids to begin with?" Morgan watched his friend's face crumple. "Spencer, what happened?"
"I married her." Spencer replied.