Page 5 of Leviticus
CHAPTER2
LEVITICUS
“Darling, are you listening?” my mother prodded in hushed tones as we sat there in the main church office. Jacob’s office.
“Yes, Mother,” I responded dutifully, with a smile.
“Sometimes a man needs a moment to decide which course of action he wishes to choose, Abigail,” my father admonished her. I would like to say that it took every ounce of control I had not to throttle the man, but that would be a lie. Titus Temple, my father, was not a man one crossed. He hadn’t been when I was a child, and that fact was doubly true now, as an adult.
“I accept.” My statement was firm as I turned my head back to the leader of this community, the head of the church, Reverend Jacob. The man was a lesson in juxtaposition. The perfect picture of what a community leader should be: kind and open, a safe place for people to come and find a home. But that was all on the surface. There was a coldness to him that settled into my bones. There was something wrong with the man. I didn’t know what and I’d rather not find out.
“Excellent! Your wedding to Ruth shall take place in two days’ time, then! This is cause for such celebration! God will bless your commitment and your dedication to Him,” Jacob praised, clapping his hands together. My mother’s eyes welled with happy tears beside me, and my father looked at me with pride. It would sound like the moment most people dream of, right? For me, it was more like a nightmare.
An arranged marriage to a woman I had only seen in passing. It was the last thing I wanted, but my brothers and I were in agreement. We all wanted out of this cult of a community, and we wanted to offer the same opportunity to who we could. The easiest way to do that without rocking the boat was to go through with the arranged marriages that were expected of us.
“A wedding! Oh how exciting!” My mother dabbed at the tears in her eyes. “And then babies! Oh, Titus, think of it. Grandchildren!”
My stomach roiled at the thought.
“Leviticus will do his Godly duty. He will be fruitful and multiply as God has commanded. Won’t you, son?” My father pinned me with a look that was every bit as calculating as Reverend Jacob’s.
“As God has commanded,” I answered without thought, the response well ingrained into me.
“As a Temple, you will begin your work here in the church, I assume?” Jacob posed the statement as more of a question, though we both knew it was anything but. The weight of my father’s gaze and Jacob’s pressure held me down like chains.
“I must say I am beyond grateful and blessed to be given such an opportunity. I look forward to continuing my family’s legacy here within Zion.” The smile plastered across my face like an old, fitted mask, worn in all the right places, but as wrong as any one thing could be.
“Perfect. Now, for the wedding arrangements,” Jacob clapped his hands excitedly. “You will need to decide who will stand beside you. Typically a brother or father stands beside the groom, however God has blessed the Temple family with five men, therefore you will need to make a choice on who stands beside you.”
“Malachi will be standing beside me, of course,” I immediately answered, earning me a stern look from my father. The question went unanswered, other than my father’s ire, so I continued on. “How many will be standing beside my intended?”
All three of them, my father, mother, and Jacob, stared at me blankly.
“Son,” Reverend Jacob began, making me grit my teeth in annoyance. He wasn’t my father. “You are about to become the head of your household. Everything is your decision. Although, as is customary to our ways, she will not have anyone stand with her. Just as the Lord commands, she will separate from her family and cleave to you, starting a new family.”
“Of course. Whatever is best for the church.” The words tasted acrid on my tongue.
“A well-raised son, that’s what you have here, Titus.” Reverend Jacob’s words had my father preening under the praise. “As you know, there will be the traditional ceremony on Friday, followed by a community feast to honor your nuptials.”
“That sounds fairly standard,” I agreed, my hands clenching the arms of the chair anxiously. I was ready to put this meeting behind me.
“And the inspection and consummation, of course,” my father interjected. I watched, almost as if in slow motion, as my mother’s smiling face fell— only for a second. Her blue eyes flitted to mine and I watched it happen; I watched that mask she wore slip back over her features as though I had not just seen pure fear cross her face.
“Surely the consummation is not something we need to discuss at this point.” My comment was light in tone, but if I was reading the room correctly, we were not talking about the same thing.
“It’s more than that, Leviticus,” my father explained, standing from his chair and coming to lean against Reverend Jacob’s desk in front of me. “As stated, when a man takes a wife, she is no longer a part of her family, and is now only family to her husband, belonging to him completely.”
“Yes, father,” I dutifully responded. We had already discussed this.
“But there is more to it. When a man takes a wife, he must ensure that she is truly a wife worthy of a man of God. You see, all women fall short. It is the curse bestowed on the weaker sex by Eve through her ultimate sin. Her deception and manipulation was so great, so powerful that it is ingrained on the sex of our entire species.”
I was going to be sick.
“I am sure that the woman you both chose for me will be of pure and pious nature, befitting a man of Zion, such as myself.”
“You would think that, wouldn’t you?” Reverend Jacob added, coming from behind the desk to stand next to my father. I felt like I was being lectured in elementary school by the principal. “The truth is, even here in Zion, the devil can be at work. That is why we instituted the inspection and consummation ceremonies.”
It was like watching a car crash. You knew what was going to happen and that it was going to be terrible. Yet, there was nothing you could do to look away.
