TC89

“Ah yes, but now the four of you know what special thing each of you can do and you know how to perform as a team, not just as a swing band. The train incident really was spectacular, Ariel, even if you slept through the latter part of it. Think of Heart Mountain as one of your rehearsals.”

Ariel nodded. Then sha looked through the trees to the bottom land at the foot of the mountain. The rich soil there had been laid down by repeated mud flows from a nearby volcano and she remembered the Japanese-American fellow at Heart Mountain who helped her and Jael escape by giving them some of his clothing and a warning.

Sha said, “Back in Wyoming there’s a Mr. Kaneko who had to sell his strawberry farm for pennies on the dollar when they sent him and his family to the camp. I want to buy a new one for him. Right there. Do you see?”

“I do see, Ariel. And what a fortunate thing it is to be as rich as God.” She produced a thick envelope from her purse. “Yes. George Kaneko will have his farm after the war, when the relocation camp is no more. That is a very kind thought, Ariel. But this money is for your mother to return home to her parents in Maryland. I am offering it without any conditions.”

Ariel accepted the envelope as gratefully as she received Kaneko’s clothing.

“Be of good cheer, big sister! Between here and point Zed I spoke of with the interstellar seed there will be prank upon prank. That’s what I call things like your train incident in Wyoming: a prank! Certainly at the very least you will never grow bored.”

During Temple Jashen said he was setting aside the discipline of the Church that restricted marriage to first or second cousins. With a loud outcry of righteous indignation Apostle Earl Warner stood up and left the sanctuary and he took half the White Wing with him.

Alfred Shoenherr, the so-called Apostle of the Reformed Headwater Fellowship, went door-to-door to the homes of white wingers passing out mimeographed tracts vowing eternal damnation to backsliders who stayed in the Mother Church. There was an array of especially vivid and cruel torments reserved for those who had left but subsequently returned to the temple.

Earl Warner declared himself the Prophet of the Reformed Headwater Fellowship. Forbidding interracial marriage was his first article of faith, but there were many more. In fact, listing the “original” articles of faith that he said was handed down from Jesus himself made up the bulk of Warner’s first Sunday sermon following the disastrous split in the Church.

Warner said the curse of God lay upon all those who played cards. Parishioners who engaged in dancing were in danger of God’s holy judgment. Those who permitted themselves to even listen to race music, let alone dance to it, would face the hottest fires of hell. He told his flock to let not one single drop of Demon Rum pass their lips.

To prove they were indwelt of the Holy Spirit he ordered the faithful to roll in the sawdust on the floor of the barn out on River Road that was their new “temple”. That was just as well, as there were not enough benches provided for everyone to sit.

The actual Temple of the Headwater Fellowship was prominently visible glistening in the morning light at the source of the Squaw River, and it seemed to mock the Reformed Fellowship just by continuing to exist. Many got up to leave during the service. Most alarming of all to Warner, the plate came back largely empty of cash. Quietly, some of the biggest donors approached Warner and pressured him to seek some sort of reconciliation with Seer Jashen, because the barn situation was intolerable to them.