Stolen Innocence - Lisa Pulitzer [97]
“You go back and be obedient. And you give yourself mind, body, and soul to that man because he’s your priesthood head. The prophet and I have confidence that he will do what he is told to do. We don’t question what the priesthood does. We remember that the priesthood is again on earth. And the prophet is again on earth. And whatever he directs to be done is to be done without question. If you are not careful,” he cautioned, “you will lose your faith and fall away. You will lose the opportunity that you have to establish a salvation and a place in the kingdom of heaven. Allen will lead you to the Celestial Kingdom, and if you are not worthy, you will not have a place there. You need to spend more time at home with your husband.”
“But Uncle Warren,” I said, “I hate having husband-wife relations with him.”
“You are being very selfish. You need to set aside your feelings and do what you are told to do,” he said without sympathy.
His response flattened me. “I don’t know what to do because you’ve got to do something,” I said. “It is impossible for me to love this man.”
“You know, you have no right to feel that way,” Warren told me, his tone growing hostile. I was speechless as he continued to lecture my mother and me until he concluded the meeting.
In the weeks that followed, I did little to change my behavior toward Mom, but following Uncle Warren’s directive, she became less and less accessible. I’d long been avoiding moving into the trailer with Allen, but Mom and Rachel were instructed to move all of my stuff for me, and all at once I was out of Fred’s house. My mother was trying to follow Uncle Warren’s instructions and stay out of my marriage, but that also meant staying away from me. Kassandra, too, was being directed to stay at home and pray. Uncle Rulon was not well and Warren wanted his dozens of wives close by and focusing solely on the prophet.
Relegated to the house, Kassandra did her best to keep her spirits up. In a later conversation with Kassandra, she told me of a very disturbing incident that had happened in the prophet’s home. One day she was in the dining room with several other wives and Rulon’s sons Isaac and Nephi, waiting to pray over the noon meal. Uncle Rulon came in and sat down for lunch. He was very quiet and said nothing for a few moments. Then he leaned forward as if he was about to say something important, and pounding his fist on the table once, twice, three times, he announced, “I want my job back!”
Everyone at the table sat looking at one another, not knowing how to respond. Rulon’s mind was not always there, and no one could really tell if his thoughts were running away from him or if this was something else altogether. Kassandra sat watching as some of the prophet’s wives tried to calm him down. They assured him that he still had his job, but he was adamant.
“No, I don’t,” he shouted. “I want to take care of my people!”
As the sound of his fists on the wooden table hung in the air, people assumed Uncle Rulon was experiencing a moment of dementia. On the contrary, this was a display of lucidity. While it was never really clear what level of involvement he’d actually had in governing the people since his first stroke back in 1998, there was no question that the church had grown increasingly strict with Warren speaking for the prophet. Now, in this one dramatic moment, it seemed Rulon realized what had been taken away from him. But it was too late for him to get it back.
Uncle Warren was immediately summoned. He arrived to find his father edgy and inconsolable.
“I want my job back!” the prophet told his son.
“But Father, I’m just helping you,” Warren insisted, assuring Rulon that he was still in charge and that he had never lost his position. On this day it seemed that he did not believe his son—and neither did Kassandra.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DEATH COMES TO SHORT CREEK
“He Shall Be Renewed”
—TITLE OF SONG BY WARREN JEFFS
When the Winter Olympics passed without the end of the world