Things were going much better for Screwtape’s empire. [What did I tell you,] he reassured himself. [These things always go in cycles. It’s always brightest before eternal dark. Trust in the Chief and all will be well.]
Jerry was right. There were charities ready to help the twins. They found lodging with a branch of the Salvation Army. The director, Sam Applewhite, was a retired minister; a large, big-boned, powerful man with hair as white as snow. He demanded moral behavior and regular attendance at chapel services. Jerry rebelled. “What has God ever done for us?” he asked.
“We don’t allow blasphemy in this place,” Applewhite rebuked him. “If you can’t follow our rules, you can’t stay here.”
Jerry decided to put up with this “nonsense” for now. “What you need is to find some direction, some meaning in your lives,” Applewhite told the twins. “Something to devote your lives to. Something that arouses your passion, your sense of accomplishment, belonging.”
“Where we belong is a freak show,” Jerry snorted. “You know of any circus in town?”
“God has a plan for everyone,” Applewhite said. “A freak show is not for you and your brother. You have too much intellect, too much self respect.”
----
“I miss Mom and Dad,” Joey said after a few weeks. “Can’t we go back?”
“Go back to people who tried to kill you? Are you crazy?”
“It just doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t fit. Mom loves us; I know it. I feel it.”
“Feel this--” Jerry punched Joey’s arm hard. “We’re the only ones we can trust.”
That evening there was a guest speaker at chapel. A fiery young man with flaming red hair and piercing eyes strode to the podium. He leaned his lanky frame over the pulpit, right arm extended. “We are in a WAR, dear ones!” he shouted without prelude or introduction. “You, the faithful, are soldiers in that war! It’s a war being waged against the most innocent, the helpless -- the unborn. Millions have been slaughtered in the name of ‘choice’! Such an innocent-sounding word to cover ugly, brutal reality. Do you know what goes on inside those chambers of horror? I won’t offend your ears with a description. It is too horrible to talk about, isn’t it? Too horrible to show it -- But not too horrible to do it! To allow it! I seek your help to oppose this evil. Who will join me in the fight?”
When he finished his oration, Snakefoot, alias Bill Stalwart, looked directly at the twins.
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