Stolen Innocence - Lisa Pulitzer [50]
All that changed with one word from Fred. While it was not against school policy to talk to members of the opposite sex, Uncle Fred insisted that the principal, an FLDS member, suspend me. Suddenly I was cut off from the few friends I had. With a fresh feeling of betrayal and anger, I later confronted my stepsister, and though she denied what she had done, I knew better. With that incident, it became clear that all the things I had appreciated about my new school were fleeting. The priesthood wielded just as much power in the public school as it had at Alta Academy. No matter where I was, Uncle Warren and the FLDS Church permeated every aspect of my life.
When I finally returned to school, I could never speak to Austin again. Everybody was watching us to make sure we had no further contact. In spite of this, I still tried to maintain friendships with the girls and boys in my grade. One of my science teacher’s sons Steven and I had been friends that year, and after I returned from my suspension, he along with my two friends Natalie and Lea were the few kids who did not make comments about my absence.
Brad had been struggling ever since we arrived in Hildale, and without the twins for support, every day seemed to grow harder for him. In an attempt to lift his spirits, Dad had sent him the four-wheeler he’d bought for him when he was in Salt Lake, along with our belongings, and Brad had happily parked it in the rear lot of Fred’s house. But a few days after it arrived, Brad woke up to find that Uncle Fred had confiscated it. Although many people in the Creek, including some in Uncle Fred’s own family, had ATVs, Fred took Brad’s without even speaking to him about it. It seemed he wanted to punish Brad for any trouble that Fred felt he’d caused. Despite Brad’s petition to have it returned, Fred was immovable on the subject.
This was the last straw for Brad, who had been a constant target of Uncle Fred’s scrutiny since his arrival. It all started when Fred singled Brad out for not adhering to the dress code. The long-sleeved knit pullovers that Brad wore over his church undergarments were frowned upon by church elders, who wanted only button-down shirts for the men. Brad’s looser-fitting pants were also outside the limits of acceptable garments and earned him repeated scoffs from Uncle Fred. His clothes weren’t the only problem though; his attitude also began to get him in trouble. He refused to call Uncle Fred “Father,” or accept him as such, and he started to skip family gatherings. When he was at home, he stayed in his room and listened to unapproved music with Caleb. Whenever I could, I would sneak into their room and join them to hear some of the forbidden CDs.
With so few Wall children together, we had all grown close, however, after the confiscation of Brad’s four-wheeler, we knew deep down that our time together was about to end. When Brad learned what Fred had done, he was furious. The ATV had been the only thing he had left from our true father.
Mom did what she could to hold on to the last two sons she had with her. She would beg and plead with them to read passages from the Book of Mormon and other church teachings, telling them it would help them to understand their mission. She promised to help them find the way by praying for them, but Brad was sixteen and his inner voice was taking him in another direction. He refused to conform to Uncle Fred’s design, and from that point forward things only got worse for him.
One day when I was in his room, several police officers who were members of the FLDS broke the door down and began a “professional” search of his belongings. Supposedly, they were looking for firearms that he was “rumored” to have in his possession, but we all knew that they were searching for anything that could get him into trouble. Despite the authority they had over me, I was furious at the intrusion, and I nervously watched as they ransacked the room, eventually confiscating a small TV my brother had secretly purchased from a kid at school,