Page 110 of Ezekiel
This man literally said his daughter was ripe for breeding. His daughter!
I spared a glance at my brothers, but was shocked to find them nodding in agreement. Levi even had a smile on his face.
“A young, beautiful wife is exactly what my youngest brother needs. It will do him well to breed her. Make a man of him,” Levi chimed in. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I knew that Levi, nor Ollie, felt that way, but, Christ, to hear them speak like this was enough to turn my stomach sour.
“Yes, Gideon will do well with young Naomi. He is a spirited young man, and I think a young bride to tame will keep him quite occupied and mindful,” my father quipped, shooting a lecherous look at the other men at the table. It was disgusting.
“There is nothing like taming a woman to make you feel like a man,” Ollie quipped.
“Here, here!” Levi agreed. “It is a part of God’s design. A man needs to rule his household with an iron fist. In and out of the marital bed.” Laughter broke out over the table at their comments. I managed to smile and nod my head. It was all I could do.
“It’s too bad you didn’t set young Gideon up with my Eden,” Elder Nobel spoke from the end of the table. “She would have been a perfect wife for him.”
My father nearly rolled his eyes at the statement, but seemed to hold himself in check.
“Your Eden would make any man a fine wife, to be sure, Amos. But I think Naomi will do Gideon some good. He needs a project, something to strive towards and work on as a man,” Father explained. “Naomi needs a firm hand, and it will do Gideon well to learn how to be strong. Eden, on the other hand, is a beautiful example of a young submissive child of God. Gideon would tire of her easily.”
“Eden is an exquisite girl, however,” Elder Rivers mused. “And the perfect age for marriage at seventeen. If I were an unmarried man, I would have scooped her up years ago.”
Seriously? She was seventeen! Elder Rivers was easily in his sixties and he was sitting here, with the agreement of all assembled, talking about wedding and bedding her at an even younger age! It was grotesque. It was barbaric. It was downright pedophilic.
“Ah, to be unwed again,” Father mused. “The girls of Zion are quite perfect symbols of good Christian wife material. That’s for sure. And I believe there are a whole slew of girls coming of age soon. Is that right, Reverend Jacob?”
“Yes, indeed! The schoolmarms tell me that there are nine girls turning thirteen within this next year. I have a feeling wedding ceremonies will be a common occurrence over the coming months,” the Reverend confirmed.
Thirteen.
I was going to be ill. Violently ill.
“Praise God!” Levi chimed, everyone agreeing. These lechers were praising their God for the good fortune of children to wed and fuck.
“What makes you say that Naomi will be a challenge for young Gideon?” Elder Christian asked.
“Naomi is a bit of a wild spirit,” her father explained. “We think it has something to do with her life before Zion.”
“Before Zion?” Elder Christian asked. “Oh, that’s right! You and Miriam adopted her several years ago. I remember. Yes, it can be difficult with children who come from the hedonistic outside world,” he readily agreed. There were murmurs of agreement and small comments made after that, but I was more focused on what Naomi’s father had said. Adopted? Could it be that she was from a similar situation to Talia?
I spared a glance at my two brothers, who had the same look of confusion on their face, though we all three masked that look quickly. We didn’t need anyone here picking up on our concern. I had a feeling I would have a kitchen table full of Temples again tonight to discuss this fresh development.
The meeting adjourned after another twenty minutes of disgusting, pedophilic talk about the girls who would come of age over the next year. I wanted to make my excuses and leave, citing that I needed to get my work done, when in reality I felt a violent need to vomit up the contents of my stomach in response to their rhetoric. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t. I stayed put. I needed to be careful. One wrong move and I would garner unwanted attention. That was the last thing any of us needed.
With the meeting concluded, I made my way to the back of the upstairs portion of the church. They had set me up in a small office. In reality, it was so small that I thought they had likely cleaned out a closet and stuck me there. That didn’t bother me. It kept me away from a lot of the goings on that happened up here during the day to day hustle and bustle.
I wasn’t good at keeping up appearances. Sure, I had kept to myself and kept my condition to myself for the most part over the years, but not that well. Everyone thought I was mentally disabled or something and just wrote me off. Levi and Ollie, on the other hand, were rock stars at it. The way they acted during the meeting still baffled me. Oscar winning performances, truly.
I had just sat down at my desk when there was a knock on my office door.
“Come in,” I called out, plastering a smile on my face that I hoped was not as fake as it felt.
“Hey, Zeke,” Ollie whispered as he stepped inside. There was room for exactly me, my desk, and standing space for one person in this closet of a room.
“Hey, Ollie,” I greeted, the smile dropping from my face. I didn’t have to keep up pretenses if it was just my brother.
“Levi asked me to tell you we are all going to meet at his house this evening for dinner to discuss… well… all ofthat.” He gestured over his shoulder towards the conference room.
“Noted. I need to run home and check on Talia. She had a rough night last night, and I’m not sure if she’ll be up for being around a bunch of people tonight. I want to be accommodating to her needs right now,” I answered with a heavy sigh. This day had been a shit show, and it was only just past lunchtime.
“Of course. Let us know, ‘kay?” he asked. I nodded my head, and he left, shutting the door behind him. Blissful silence. Thank God.
