Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka Page B

and just talked to us. I nod and follow him across the side yard.
    Sitting across the desk from him, I notice the dark smudges under his eyes. Sometimes I wonder how he manages to lord over so many people. Do any of the men of The Movement ever wish they had fewer wives and children? I shake my head and push the thought away. That would be against the principles that the Prophet has laid out. Our men know they need at least three wives before they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. More than three is preferred.
    â€œWhere were you this morning, Celeste?” Daddy asks me, his voice weary.
    I close my eyes to relieve the burning sensation. There has been so much crying today. First Taviana. Then Colleen. Should I do the right thing and tell him the truth? I open my eyes and swallow hard. “I was feeling so sad about Taviana leaving that I...” I haven’t told the lie yet. I can still do the right thing. I don’t. “I went for a walk to clear my head.”
    â€œTo clear your head?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œCeleste, do I need to remind you that with your mother in bed you are needed at home more than ever?”
    Perhaps I am possessed by the devil. I simply don’t know why I say some of the things that I do. The wordsjust blurt out of my mouth. “If that’s the case, Father, then I don’t think this would be a good time for me to be married.”
    I have closed my burning eyes again, but I can feel him staring at me. A full minute passes before he replies. “If it weren’t for your age, Celeste,” he says finally, “I’d take the strap off the wall and whip that contrariness right out of you.”
    I don’t comment, but I open my eyes and stare at my feet.
    â€œI just hope that whoever you are assigned to does a better job with you than I have.”
    â€œI just hope that I don’t die in childbirth at seventeen years old.”
    Father sighs. “It is not for us to question the ways of the Lord,” he says.
    â€œAre we finished here?” I ask him. “I need to get back to preparing dinner.”
    â€œNot quite. First of all, I want you to know that I didn’t intend to simply push Taviana out the door of the truck and leave her in Springdale, on her own. I planned to speak to people I knew, to see if I could help find her some work.” He shakes his head. “But she wouldn’t let me. I suggested we go to the church. They would find shelter for her, but again, she refused my offer of help.”
    Taviana and her pride. Why couldn’t she have swallowed it just this once?
    â€œWe don’t have much money, as you know, Celeste, but I was able to get her to take one hundred dollars, to tideher over until she finds work. It was a gift, but she insists that she’ll repay it.”
    â€œI’m sure she will.”
    â€œShe won’t go hungry for a few days anyway.”
    I nod. If he’s expecting me to applaud him for his generosity, he’s mistaken.
    â€œPromise me there will be no more disappearing,” he says.
    â€œPromise me I won’t be assigned to a husband,” I respond.
    He glares at me as he gets to his feet. “It’s been a long day, Celeste. Your disrespect is not appreciated.”
    He’s right about that. It has been an incredibly long day, and there are an endless number of chores yet to be done. I follow him across the yard to the house.

Chapter Ten
Taviana
    I t’s as though the time I spent in Unity never even happened. I’m standing on a sidewalk, alone, with one hundred dollars in my pocket. I have nowhere to go, nothing to do. Did I just dream the past eighteen months into existence?
    One part of me, the part that felt at home in Unity, tells me to get on with it, find a place to live and some kind of work. The other part of me, the part that’s longing for a little excitement, wants me to ditch my suitcase in a locker at the bus station and