Stolen Innocence - Lisa Pulitzer [133]
I handed Meg her half of a crystal friendship pendant on a chain that I had ordered for us only a week before. The necklaces did not interlock in the traditional way to form a heart, but when they were laid one on top of the other, the light created a heart within them. “I want you to wear this,” I said, “and know that you are always in my heart.”
Tears streamed down both our cheeks as Meg promised, “I will always be with you.” We shared one final embrace. Meg took her belongings and headed for Jason’s car, waving once before getting inside. Frozen behind the steering wheel, I watched them drive away until the taillights disappeared.
The days after Meg left were agonizing, and Lamont sent me a text message saying that if I ever needed anything, I could call him. I didn’t want to plague Mom and the girls with my problems, so I took him up on his offer, finding refuge in long phone conversations with him. His soft and affirming friendship kept me afloat. The sweet taste of Oregon had not gone away, and I tried to remember all that I had learned from that trip. It was difficult without Meg, and with all the tumult in the past two years I had became like a body with no soul. But through the storm, although I couldn’t see it then, the clouds were beginning to part, and I found friendship in Lamont. I could feel the chemistry growing between us, but fear prevented me from saying a word to anyone about it. Besides, there was no one left to talk to.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A STORY LIKE MINE
Always strive to be a better parent to your children than your parents were to you.
—DALEEN BATEMAN BARLOW
As my friendship with Lamont strengthened, my family life continued to take unpredictable turns, only this time it was not my marriage that caused upheaval, it was my mom’s. One night in late December, Uncle Fred mysteriously vanished. Under the cover of darkness, an ambulance arrived at the Jessop house to collect the bishop. I would later hear that a few of Fred’s daughters actually saw several men enter the house and load Fred onto a stretcher. Beyond those eyewitness accounts, no one knew anything else; Warren did not say a word about it to anyone in public.
It wasn’t until two days after Fred’s sudden removal that I learned additional details from Mom. She and the other members of the Jessop family were shocked when church elder William T. Jessop gave them the fateful news. William was the son of one of Uncle Fred’s wives, and like mine, his mother had been reassigned to Uncle Fred. Though technically by priesthood standards his last name was Jessop, I always thought of him as William Timpson, just as I thought of myself as Elissa Wall.
“Uncle Fred is gone,” William Timpson told members of the Jessop family that morning. “I have been assigned to be your new caretaker.”
He did not elaborate. In fact he offered little consolation to the group of anxious wives and children who had no choice but to watch in stunned silence as William Timpson and members of his family moved into Fred’s house over the next few days and assumed control. With no concrete information as to the whereabouts of Uncle Fred, rumors began to circulate throughout the household. Some of the wives speculated that Uncle Fred was so worthy that he’d been taken to Zion. It was unclear how many of his wives had gone with him the night he was taken away, which heightened the concern among those who remained. Over the weeks, a consensus set in that the wives who’d been left behind were not worthy enough to move on and would remain in Hildale for now.
I could sense mom was terrified at the prospect of never reaching Zion, and she quietly fretted over her uncertain future. Once again, she was losing a husband due to the prophet’s decision. And as a believer, she didn’t want to have sacrificed so much just to lose it all.
It would be more than two weeks before the prophet publicly addressed us about Fred’s disappearance, and his words did little to assuage Mom’s heightened anxiety. “I have released Uncle