“I guess so.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Tommy said.
“I knew something was wrong with you,” Mr. Tanner said. “From the day you got here. Right from your baptism. I told my wife, that one’s been touched by Satan himself.”
Tommy didn’t say anything.
Mr. Tanner had left the local church after getting into a dispute with the pastor. In fact, he’d gotten into disputes with every pastor and preacher in the county, often by standing up in the middle of a Sunday sermon and shouting fiery criticism about the church, its leadership, and its interpretation of the Bible. Mr. Tanner had his own peculiar religious ideas, which nobody else seemed to care about, at least not when he was screaming them in the middle of their church.
Since he couldn’t find a church to his liking, he’d cleaned out the ancient gray barn near the back of the property. Beyond it were the corpses of even older buildings that had collapsed long ago, blown over by the prairie winds and left to rot, their wood gone dry and brittle like bones in the sun. The gray barn itself was too decrepit for any working use, but Mr. Tanner had nailed a cross on top of it and held service for his wife and foster children there each Sunday. Sometimes other days, too, as the mood struck him.
Mr. Tanner pulled open the creaky barn door and waited for Tommy to step inside.
The inside of the barn church was already lit by a few candles. The rough, handmade benches faced towards the front of the church, where a big cross of nailed-together willow limbs hung on the wall.
Under the cross was the wooden platform Mr. Tanner had built from two-by-fours. Beside that was another platform, which held the baptismal pool, which was really just a dirty old bathtub.
Like each of Mr. Tanner’s foster children, Tommy had to be baptized within a day or two after he arrived. This involved the whole family coming out to the church, and some prayers by Mr. Tanner. Then you had to take off all your clothes and get in that cold water while Mr. Tanner dunked you again and again, saying he was casting out your devils and putting God inside you.
Tonight, Luke, Jeb and Isaiah were already here, dirty from working in the pasture. Luke held a length of rope and smiled at Tommy, while the two other boys glared. Tommy wondered if he had to be baptized over again. But Mrs. Tanner wasn’t here, and she never missed anything at church.
“Luke, the rope,” Mr. Tanner said.
Luke nodded. He threaded the rope through an iron eyehole mounted in the wall above the willow cross. Then he grimaced as he bound Tommy’s hands together.
“What’s going on?” Tommy whispered, but nobody answered him.
Luke pulled the rope taut, raising Tommy’s hands in front of him.
“Jeb,” Mr. Tanner said.
Jeb stepped up to Tommy and unbuckled his belt. He pushed Tommy’s pants down, leaving Tommy shaking in his underwear in front of everybody, embarrassed and terrified.
“Kneel,” Mr. Tanner said. “Kneel before God. And beg for His mercy.”
Tommy knelt on the dirt floor of the church. It was hard because his bound hands were stretched in front of him. Luke pulled on the rope, raising Tommy’s hands even higher above his head, and then he tied the rope to one of the wooden posts holding up the barn roof.
Behind him, he heard Mr. Tanner unbuckle his belt.
“Say you’re sorry,” Mr. Tanner said.
“I’m sorry,” Tommy whispered. The leather belt cracked across his backside, and Tommy yelped in pain. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Mr. Tanner kept whipping him. Tommy cried and repeated how sorry he was.
“Now stay there and pray,” Mr. Tanner said. “Pray for the Devil to get out of you. Or I’ll have to exorcise him myself.”
Mr. Tanner and the boys left.
Tommy knelt in the dirt and cried, his arms stretched taut above his head. They were already starting to ache.
They left Tommy alone in the church all night, shivering with cold and pain.
Chapter Three
Pap-pap’s body came back the next day. Tommy, who had been untied so he could attempt to do his morning chores with his weak and aching arms, watched Mr. Tanner, Luke, and Jeb unload the cheap pine casket from the back of Mr. Tanner’s truck. They carried it into the gray barn-church. Mr. Tanner was going to conduct the funeral the next day, and then they would bury Pap-pap in the yard next to the church.
Tommy went to bed before supper. He hadn’t gotten much work done, either, but nobody harassed him about it. They all acted like Tommy didn’t exist.
After going to bed so early, Tommy woke just after midnight, when he heard a floorboard squeak in the hall. Then another one. Someone was trying to sneak down the hall. Tommy could tell because he’d done it so many times, trying to go to the bathroom without waking anyone. Tommy loved the deep hours of the night, when he was the only one awake.