Kate McCallum upped the volume on her car stereo, not only because it was a good song, but because she wasn't entirely sure when she'd get a chance to listen to real music again, so she figured that she should get in what she could in the time she had left.
After this it's probably banjos and harmonicas; or maybe jug bands. No doubt guitars are the work of the devil.
Whatever craziness they actually lived by she could learn to deal with because the payoff would be worth it in the end.
As the odometer ticked off another mile of winding road in the black of night, bringing her closer to the little barn on the prairie, Kate pondered the circumstances that put her on this road in the first place. A few years ago she decided to start a tech blog, figuring if she got enough clicks out of it the companies whose products she reviewed would happily send her cutting edge toys that she could show off to her friends, and maybe they'd even let her keep some of them. The blog was polished, her personality bubbly, and her technical expertise was unassailable in her prose.
She garnered quite the following and got her wish; companies were sending her their finest toys to try earn her praise. One company sent her their latest high-end laptop for review and that's when things took a turn for Kate. It wasn't meeting the benchmarks it should have and, looking under the hood of the machine and digging wherever the trail led for answers, she found the company had sent her a production rather than review model. When she broke the story that the company had planned to dupe its customers, its stock value tanked and triggered a federal investigation.
It was then and there that the thrill of discovery and the power she could have grabbed her and wouldn't let go. She wanted to let the tech side of things go and dive headlong into investigative journalism.
But she dove headlong into a wall.
Sure, other publications wanted to hire her, but only tech-related ones. She'd even gotten a couple of offers for network jobs as a tech correspondent, but Kate knew perfectly well that as much as they both knew she could offer them, they really just wanted to put 'the hot geek girl' in front of the camera and she couldn't have cared less about that. She knew then that the only way that anyone was going to take her seriously was if she broke a serious story.
She thought long and hard about where to go and what to do. It had to be human interest and it had to have that behind-the-scenes reality show vibe that she could convey because, if there was one dependable thing about people, it was that they never got tired of leering at the lives of others. The more secretive those lives were to start with, the better, and there were few lives more secretive than those in The Way and the Truth. Very little was known about them beyond that they existed. The people that lived around them said they were patriarchal and bothered no one. Neither of these facts were salacious or unusual. What put it under an unwelcome spotlight for a time was the fact that teen pop superstar Rose Khyber, after vacationing in the area, upended her life and abandoned her career to join the group.
She'd thanked her fans for their love and support in a web message telling them that she had found something better, signed off, and hadn't said a word to the outside world since. Fans had flocked for a time, and some still did hoping to catch sight of her, but most moved on, though every time a musical retrospective aired or the label reissued an album, paparazzi and their telephoto lenses would try to catch sight of her.
When they succeeded, photos splashed across the tabloids of her with other women in the group. Khyber's eyes almost as pale a blue as the long dresses the women wore and the blue bonnets that adorned their heads with their white lace trim and tied into perfect bows under their chins.
Getting an exclusive with her would be enough. If she could do that that would open doors all by itself. If she could do that
and
get an inside view of this bunch and how they lived she could probably write her own ticket. At the very least, her days of writing about how to overclock a CPU and rating ultrabooks would be over.
"Turn left in one-quarter mile," the feminine voice dutifully intoned.
Equally dutifully, Kate followed the direction and turned from the long gravel road to what was little more than a path carved by tire tracks into the grass.
Could be worse.
she supposed. This group seemed to be like some more modern Mennonite sects in that they were selective in the technology they shunned.
She followed the directions to proceed, wondering what she'd find and exited at the possibilities. As it was it had taken weeks to establish enough trust to get people from the group to speak with her, and longer still to get them to agree to let her visit at all. Even then they imposed all these restrictions that, to her ear just came off as cloak and dagger nonsense. But, she supposed it was something that they let a journalist in at all.
Journalist.
She liked the way saying that felt.
The path for her finally ended when she saw a small light illuminate the porch of a small, white, one-bedroom house seemingly alone in the nothing. She pulled her car behind it and got her suitcase out of the trunk. It was a nice little place by all appearances, freshly painted with small bay windows either side of the door. Even so, with life in the city being what it was, she wasn't used having so much space between her and other people.
She'd sort of expected someone there to greet her, but there was no one, which made her feel slightly more alone, but she pushed it aside as she looked under the mat and around for a fake rock or something that might hint as to the location of a key, but there was nothing to suggest one. Not that it mattered, she realized, because the door didn't lock anyway.
Turning the knob, she went inside. Finding a light switch to her left she hit it to reveal what was nothing less than a lovely little home. Hardwood floors, earth tones, and modest furnishings made the whole place look like a lovely bed and breakfast. No microwave, but almost every other modern convenience was accounted for. None of it was top of the line, mind you, but the stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer were all there to be used. She was happy for the latter at least as she wasn't going to be cooking much. No television, of course
Looking through it, it was absolutely immaculate. Everything gleamed and she would have bet money she could eat off that bathroom floor. The living room opened to the bedroom area with a small end table, lamp and a bed with a sumptuously thick comforter. Beyond that was a small wooden corner desk where she could set up her laptop. She'd loaded it with games of all types since she knew there wasn't going to be a net connection.
Setting it up and waiting it for it to boot, she poked her head into the closet to find clothes, in this case seven full-length dresses, all powder blue with white piping around the neckline and the same at the sleeves. It all flared at the waist to a full gathered skirt. Next to them were seven white rosette lace slips. On the floor under the garments were two pair of flats in that same powder blue.
On a shelf above the wardrobe was that well-known, but otherwise innocuous blue bonnet. It was long-brimmed and with the same lace piping as the dress. One of the cotton straps dangled from the shelf her own exhalations moving it back and forth in an almost come hither motion.
At least they save time clothes shopping.
Leaving them where they were, Kate decided it was only about eight o'clock so she'd shower and play games for a while after she chronicled her arrival. There wasn't much to say, but she figured she may as well start at the very beginning.
After winding down for the night she slipped under the covers and it all felt wrong. All she could hear was the sounds of crickets and, here, unlike home, when it was dark, it was actually dark. It all conspired to make her feel a little like a child. She was able to talk herself through the irrationality of most it, but she simply couldn't abide no lock on her door. She got out from the safety of her covers and spent several minutes figuring out how to best jam chairs under the front and back doors, which made her feel a little better.
Still, sleep took a while to arrive.
***
Kate jumped awake, startled by the rapping on her door seemingly an instant after her eyes decided they were willing to stay closed. It took her a moment to place herself at roughly dawn at her destination rather than home in her own bed.
A strong, but slightly muffled feminine voice could be heard."Would you open the door, please?" It was by no means rude, but it was very clear she was displeased at having to wait.
Adrenalin clearing the cobwebs from her mind nicely, she scrambled from bed and rushed to put a robe on over the nothing but panties she usually slept in. "Just a minute." She threw it on, tying it quickly before she pulled the chair from the door and opened it.
On the other side stood a middle aged, but not unattractive woman. She was slightly on the chubby side but Kate took that as her body's slight compensation for the ample chest. Her hair was sandy blonde, eyes a deep green and carried herself just standing there like she owned the world. And, indeed, she walked in without an invitation, looking perturbed. "I didn't think you'd be ready, though I was actually hoping to be disappointed that way."
Kate looked around, briefly at a loss. "Ready for what?"
She looked around the home, slightly pleased that it wasn't a disaster already. The girl had some civility at least. "We work here, young lady. There are chores to be done. Get your clothes on and come with me. There are cows to be milked, breakfasts to be made, and generally work to be done."
She took it in. "I'm sorry, I...didn't think I was going to be doing that sort of thing. I was quite clear in my letters that..."
