After dinner we moved all of Judith's new things up to her room and set the sewing machine up on her desk.
"This is all for me, David? Why would you do so much for me? All I have done is to bring you trouble."
"You have also brought beauty and life into my house, that goes a long way toward any debt you might owe me. Do you need any help with the instructions or anything?"
"No, I think I can take care of it. What would you like me to make first?"
"I think you need some bright, light clothing to wear around here, and maybe something less severe for when I finally take you out into the world. How about some shorts and sleeveless tops?"
"That should be simple enough. You bought such bright colors, I am going to love using them."
"Good. Do you know what your father is paying for the building the thrift store is in?"
"Yes, it is owned by an elder of the church and father gets to use it for free, but the church has to pay for utilities and any repairs. The building is in such bad shape that father has to work on it constantly. He often talks about moving to another location, but the store does not bring in enough money to do more than pay the utilities."
"I'll do some research and see what I can find. I think the building across the street is empty again, maybe I can buy it."
I did some searching on the net, and about an hour later went to see how Judith was doing. I walked into her room just as she was pulling up a pair of red shorts over white granny style panties.
"Excuse me, I should knock before entering your room." Judith jumped and turned around. She was trying to quickly button her shorts. "I see you are coming along nicely, is the machine okay?"
She blushed a bit, "Yes, it's great. I can do almost anything I want to with this. Do you like the shorts?"
She was still wearing the long sleeved blouse with the tails tucked in and it made a strange contrast to the mid-thigh bright red shorts.
"They look pretty good, but you might try making a pair a little shorter, and tighter so they don't look so much like a skirt."
"Okay, I can do that. I'm going to make a short sleeved shirt first."
"Try sleeveless and no tails, let it end just above the shorts. I like that look."
"Oooh, that sounds naughty. I've seen girls wearing that, but I never tried. Do you think I would look very good like that?"
"I am sure you will be lovely. I have another question for you. Do you think your dad would be willing to move to the ugly old Casa Furniture building up on Webb Avenue? I can buy that place and have it refurbished. It has two floors and a big area behind it. Do you think he might let you go from the marriage to that old fart for that and a truck?"
Judith stood there with a blank expression on her face. "You would do that for me? You would do so much just to marry me?"
Uh oh. "No, no. Not to marry you. You would not have to marry anyone. I just want to get you away from that. If I do that do you think you can go back to living at your home?"
"I can never go back there. I am sullied by being alone with a man for so long. For that and for defying my father I would be subject to prayer."
"What do you mean subject to prayer?"
"The eldest women of the church would pray over me until I repented and swore to obey my father in all things. I would not be useful for marriage and would be no more than a worker and no more than a slave. My only hope now is to marry or to run farther away."
"Come on, praying over you can't be that bad."
"My friend Amanda was raped by her brothers. When she told her father about it he repudiated her and said she was lying. The matrons prayed over her for five days and nights before she finally told them all it was her fault, she had seduced her brothers. She still was not allowed to eat until after she had confessed in front of the full congregation. When she turned up pregnant, her father beat her until she aborted, then she was sent away to live with her uncle's family. I have not heard from her since."
"That is not going to happen to you. I'll think of something. Right now I need to get into doing some work. Did you find the receipt from the grocery store?"
"Yes I did, David. It is on the kitchen counter."
"Thank you, I'll see you later. Come on down when you get your blouse made, Joe should be about ready to come in then."
One half of my living room was arranged as my office and library. The front door separated the two halves, but it was very rarely used as an entrance. I was working away on the advertising piece when Judith came down.
"Does this meet with your approval, David?"
I looked around, and she looked just great. The light yellow sleeveless shirt stopped just short of her belly button, and the wide red shorts had been shortened and tightened up into proper shorts. Unfortunately, she now looked her true age. It was brought forcibly home to me that she was much too young to be saddled with someone my age.
"You look marvelous Judith. You wear those around for a while and your legs and arms will get some color into them. You are a very beautiful young lady." Just then Joe made his presence known at the french doors.
After Joe had eaten he plopped himself onto Judith's lap. I finished what I wanted to get done tonight and moved over to my recliner.
"Do you want to watch some more TV tonight Judith?"
"No, David, I would like to talk a bit. Why did you say what you did about God and the Church last night?"
"Are you sure you want to hear this, Judith? It is not what you have been brought up to believe, and may seem harsh to you."
"What I have been brought up in has not helped me much the last day or so, David. You have helped me, and I would hear what you have to say."
"Okay, then I should tell you first that I consider all religions to be primitive superstition. They serve as pabulum to those unwilling to examine their own mortality. Every life ends in death, it is a fact and should not be avoided. Some people just cannot fathom that and look to find a way out. The concept of a life after death appeals to many of them, even though there is not a shred of proof to support it."
"But we have God's word, the bible. He left us the good book to steer us toward a righteous way of life."
"I'm sorry to burst your bubble Hon, but your bible is a composite made up from the holy books of a dozen religions that date from before and after the birth of Christianity. There is nothing original in it. For the most part, it is nonsense. Look at some of it critically and see how it contradicts itself over and over again. My hypothesis is that Christianity was designed by the scholars of Rome as a way to control their slaves, the meek shall inherit, take punishment now and be rewarded in heaven, but at some point they began to believe their own lies. Their myth became reality. Many of their slaves were already Jews, so they tacked their made up religion onto the end of the Jewish book. The Jews already had a history of believing in three ridiculous things before breakfast, so this part was a sure thing for them.
"You can easily see that all religions come from the need to answer three questions. Why am I here, where did I come from, and what happens to me when I die? No one knows the answers, but each religion that has been spawned has its own take on the ideas.
"At some point in history the first priest was created. I can see him sitting over a fire talking to other members of his tribe. They were saying how good the bison tasted, but that it was too bad that two of their friends had to die to kill the bison.
The burgeoning priest says, "well it is all to Baal's plan, he needs brave hunters to stand beside him in the over region."
Now he is making this shit up as a joke, but the others look at him in awe, they don't have enough imagination to understand humor.
"How do you know this?" One of the others asks.
"Oh, my granther told me about Baal and his plan. Didn't your granther tell you about it?"
"I never knew my granther, and my da was killed in the big mammoth hunt right after I was born. What else did your granther say to you?"
The new priest proceeds to lie his ass off. He told tales of wars between gods and the riches that await those who served Baal best. After a bit the others decide that maybe the priest shouldn't go on the next hunt, he needed to stay with the camp and make sure no one upset Baal. Since he didn't have any women to take care of him, he should have those of the hunters who left to serve Baal. Thus was born the first religion, along with the priesthood. Why take chances with hunting when people will give you food and women just for some silly stories? After a while the priests became the center of power for many tribes and clans and controlled their destiny."
"Now one thing you need to think about, Judith. This is my opinion, my theory. I may be wrong, I probably am wrong, and your father, or some bible thumping pundit like Jerry Falwell or Jim Baker could be right. Unlike them I don't claim to have the one true way. I don't know that there is one. What I do know is that what they and all the other religions and sects are telling me, doesn't make sense. When look at the world through their eyes, someone gets hurt, or left out. My way, the only person you can hurt is yourself. And that is the only person you should be able to hurt.
"Now that is enough philosophy for tonight. I have to go back into town tomorrow, is there anything I need to pick up for you?"
"I need woman's supplies, David. My cycle starts tomorrow." Judith was blushing brightly as she said this.
"What do you use?"
"Just panty liners. I don't have much flow." She was bright red by now, and I could feel some heat in my own face.
"Okay, I'll have to go out of town for that. No way am I buying those anywhere someone might know me. I'll go to Durham, so it is going to take a couple of hours more. Are you going to be okay here alone for so long?"
"I will be alright. I will work on more clothing and make you a dinner."
"That would be nice. Goodnight Judith."
Judith stood up and came over and kissed me on the cheek. "I could do a lot worse than to marry a nice man like you, David."
"You probably could, but that is the problem. I am a man, and you are a young girl. You should not be worrying about marriage for years yet. Go on to bed and I'll see you tomorrow."
I watched as her shapely behind mounted the stairs. I sat down and wrote out my statement for the police before retiring to my lonely bed.
Judith was up and making breakfast for me when I got up in the morning. She was bright and bubbly and talking a mile a minute. I cautioned her about hiding if anyone came to the house for any reason. I also made a copy of the store receipt on my scanner and kept the original before I left.
Everyone at the paper was still talking about the missing girl and the ones who told the police about me wanted to know what they said. I told them the same story I had given the police, which had the advantage of being true, just not all the truth. From there I stopped in and gave the envelope with the receipt and my statement to the woman on the desk.
I stopped at a Family Dollar on Hillsborough Road, just off of the Coble Mill exit. While I was there I bought a cheap prepaid phone. I could see many uses for an untraceable phone. I had no idea what kind of panty liner I should get, so I bought a pack of each size. The guy at the counter looked at me strange, but when I said something about a visiting niece, he nodded his head. "Been there, done that." He said.
While I was still in Durham, I set up the phone using a phoney name and the address of the store I was parked in front of.
When I finally got home Judith did indeed have dinner ready for me, but I had some indigestion and was not able to each much. The poor girl thought she had done a bad job cooking, but I told that I must have caught some kind of bug from the people at work. As we sat down at the TV after dinner, I gave her the cheap phone, and showed her how to work it. She had used her father's from time to time, but had not been allowed to play with it.
"Why did you get me this, David? It's not like I have anyone I can call to talk to."
"I have been thinking about this, Judith. I want you to call your mother. She needs to know that you are okay. Maybe you can get her to call off the hunt for you."
"I don't want to talk to her, David. She was going to let my father sell me to that nasty old man."
"Did you ask her about it, and would he have changed his mind if she objected, Judith?"
"Well ... no, he would have ignored her. Father would have done as he wished no matter what she said."
"So I think that you should talk to her. She might be on your side in this. It can't hurt to find out. There is no way they can trace this phone. Let's work out what you are going to tell her."
We decided upon a tale and got into the truck. I didn't know whether or not the cop shows on TV were right and the police could trace cell towers, but I chose to be cautious and drove to Liberty for Judith to make the call. I gave her a John Deere hat to wear, that and her new set of green shirt and flowered shorts should help disguise her. I also had her sit in the back seat of my king cab truck where she would be almost hidden by the tinted windows.
"Hello, mama? This is Judith." She held the phone and listened for a bit. "I'm sorry mama, but daddy was going to make me marry Mr. Smith next month. I heard them talking in the sacristy and I had to get away." She again listened for a couple of minutes. "I hid in a big SUV, and when they found me the family took me in. I told them why I had run and they have sheltered me. They want me to file for separation from you and daddy when I am sixteen. They think the judge will let me stay with them instead of living with you." Another pause, "I don't want to mama, but I can't trust daddy, he will do what he wants and will not listen to me. I'm sorry to hurt you mama, but I am safe and I will call you again. Goodbye mama."
Judith broke down and cried all the way home. I helped her out in the garage, but my indigestion was beginning to get painful. Maybe I was constipated. We sat back down in the living room and Judith told me what her mother had to say.
"Mama says that daddy knew that I had run away. He has disowned me in front of the Church and called me a spiteful and sinful child. Mama says that if I do go home I will be sent to the same farm my brothers are working at after I am prayed over. What am I going to do, David? I knew it would be this way, but now I know that I have no home. It hurts, David."
Judith came over and got into my lap, crying on my shoulder. Unfortunately I had to dump her out as the pain in my abdomen suddenly got much worse and I realized that I was going to be sick. I barely made it to the downstairs bathroom before I heaved, and I heaved, and I heaved. The pain was excruciating by now and was getting worse by the minute. I tried to get up and couldn't, the pain was much too much and I felt like I might pass out. Judith felt my brow and said that I had a very high fever.
"Get me my phone Judith, I can't get up. I am going to call an ambulance, whatever this is I need help." She ran out into the kitchen where I had left my phone. When she got back I told her, "Now get my keys and then open the garage door while I call. Then you need to go and hide before they get here."
I called Snow Camp Fire and Rescue, and listened as the scanner replayed my call. I told them that I was in the first floor bathroom and to go in through the garage and kitchen. I also told them that I was a very large person and could not walk. It only took about fifteen minutes before there was the sound of sirens and soon my house was full of people, and with a little work I was on a gurney and on my way to Alamance Regional Medical Center. They seemed to think that my appendix had burst, and that was confirmed when I got to the hospital. I was quickly knocked out and lost a few hours.