The Chosen One - Carol Lynch Williams Page 0,36

blue.

I want to scream. I want to scream and run to Prophet Childs. I want to tell him, “Leave me with my family. Leave me with my mother and my sisters. Leave me home.”

But what would he say?

God’s will be done.

That’s it.

I know it.

HOW CAN I go to Uncle Hyrum?

Kiss his greasy lips?

Taste the chicken?

Let his hands touch my body?

There is so little time left for me.

How can I do this?

I’ve got to get away.

AFTER BREAKFAST, I pull out the sewing machine. We clear the table and set up there. “Let’s cut out the pattern in the living room,” Mother says. She folds the fabric in half, lays it on the floor.

I think of the beautiful green carpet in Uncle Hyrum’s house. Here, the carpet is old and so worn at the front door and near the bedroom doors that you can almost see to the pad below.

“Do we have to do this today?” I ask.

“Just the cutting,” Mother says. Then she puts her arms around me. And without a word, all three of my sisters fall into the hug, too.

“It’s going to be okay,” Mother says. Her voice is like a prayer. The baby in her belly gives me a kick.

“I don’t want Kyra to leave,” Margaret says.

“Me either,” says Carolina and she bursts into loud tears.

“Me either,” says Laura.

There’s a knock at the door. Mother wipes at her face with the back of her hand and goes to answer it.

It’s Sheriff Felix.

“What?” I say. My first thought is Patrick. But he can’t be out there now. He won’t be back for days.

My second thought is Josh. I don’t move.

“Kyra Leigh. The Prophet wants to see you.”

“Now?” I say.

He nods.

“Whatever for?” Mother says. “And why so early in the morning?”

Sheriff Felix ignores her.

“Let me change,” I say.

“No,” he says. “Come now. As you are.”

I hurry to the door. Mother does, too.

“I’ll take her, Sister,” the sheriff says.

“I’m coming, too,” Mother says. “I need to know what’s happening with my daughter.” Mother’s face has grown pale.

“The Prophet has asked for Sister Kyra. Alone.”

“Get your father,” Mother says to Laura, who doesn’t even ask why, just runs out the back door.

Mother hugs me again, as I walk away from home and into the morning. It’s cool outside. The sky is a thin blue. We only have two blocks, if that, to go. But my knees shake so, I don’t think I can make it.

“Why does he want me?” I ask Sheriff Felix.

Was it because I wouldn’t kiss Uncle Hyrum? Did he tattle on me? Can the Prophet decide who I kiss before I marry?

The thought turns me cold, inside and out. By the time we get to the Temple, I’m shaking all over.

I’VE NEVER BEEN in the upper rooms of the Temple before, except once on a dare. And the God Squad chased me out. Now, I wait in the front room.

Through the huge plate-glass windows I can see everything. Our whole Compound. The Prophet’s and Apostles’ homes scattered farther out. The home where I will live when I marry Uncle Hyrum. The lush green of their lawns. And past that to the trailers where all of The Chosen Ones live. I can imagine seeing my home if I close my eyes.

A door swings open.

“Sister Kyra.”

It’s Uncle Hyrum.

It feels like my lungs leap into my throat. I can’t even breathe. Can barely nod at him. My feet have stopped working. My heart, though, is beating double time. Maybe like a hummingbird’s.

For a brief second I remember reading the hummingbird book while sitting on the floor of the Ironton County Mobile Library on Wheels. I can feel my legs tucked under me as I turn the pages and see the ruby-throated hummingbird for the first time.

“Prophet Childs will see you.”

Uncle Hyrum’s tone is that of ice.

Somehow I follow him. Down a hall we go. Portraits hang on the walls. Portraits of Jesus and Prophet Childs’s father and the Prophet before him and the one before him. There’s a painting of Prophet Childs himself, standing on the right hand of Jesus. They’re smiling at each other.

The carpet is thick under my feet. The hall is air-conditioned so low that I rub my arms to smooth down the goose bumps. Mother would feel comfortable in a place like this. She wouldn’t be so hot.

“In here,” Uncle Hyrum says.

The room is huge. A whole wall of windows look out on the Temple. There are three computers. Two walls of books. A huge television. Dark green