Ghosts of Guthrie by Lara Bernhardt

Author:Lara Bernhardt
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Admission Press
Published: 2020-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Ezekiel’s followers and the First Amendment nut jobs went crazy as soon as Kimberly stepped onto the porch. Fear rose with each step toward the lawn. She felt like she was back in middle school, terrified of the older kids, ostracized and ridiculed, small and helpless. Unlike those days when she truly was isolated, however, today Sterling and Ruth stood beside her, shoulder to shoulder.

Papers, soda cans, empty snack wrappers, and other detritus littered the manicured and edged yard, emerald grass blades crushed under garbage. Her stomach churned.

“‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I,’” Ruth said. She shook open a trash bag, bent and picked up a wrapper. “Shame on you!” she scolded the crowd, which quieted to watch the drama unfold. “Didn’t your mothers teach you any manners? Trash from trashy people.”

The group booed her admonishment.

Kimberly spotted a fluorescent-orange chip bag and picked it up. “You actually eat this junk?” she yelled. “Do you know what it does to your bodies?”

The crowd went silent, then burst into laughter, jeering her. “Yeah? What do you eat, witch? Bat wings and toad stools?”

Sterling patted her back. “Valiant effort. But I think it missed the intended mark. Maybe you should leave the insults to someone else.”

“Their daughter is sick! They’re suffering enough. How can you be so heartless? Leave them alone.”

Ezekiel yelled. “We cannot stand silent in the face of evil!”

“What evil?” she answered. “These people haven’t done a thing to hurt anyone!”

“You’ve brought sickness to the house, witch. We’re here to end it!”

“I didn’t make their daughter sick! I came to help her.”

Someone hacked and spat—and actually hit her. She’d been spat on. Revulsion and rage filled her. She clenched her fists and stormed toward the street. “How dare you? Which one of you disgusting—”

Sterling looped an arm around her waist and scooped her up. “No way. That’s exactly what they want. An enraged target lashing out at them, closer and easier to reach.”

She couldn’t see straight. Anger hazed her vision as she shook. “So we just let them do whatever they want?”

“No.” He stood her near the porch and pulled his phone from a pocket. “I’ll have TJ come record. If they do it again, we’ve got them.”

Encouraged, numerous protestors snorted and hacked. Yellow glob after yellow, slimy glob flew through the air and fell on the lawn. They couldn’t reach her at this distance, but she gagged at each wet thwack that hit the ground.

She had brought this on the Johnsons.

Ruth began to sing a psalm about being lifted up and protected from foes as she continued to pick up trash.

TJ emerged from the house, camera held high. “Hey, douchebags! Who wants to be recorded harassing these nice people?”

Though the crowd buzzed like a hornet’s nest poked with a stick, the spitting stopped, allowing them to clean in peace. No one dared fling additional garbage.

Rosie and Elise came looking for Kimberly and joined them cleaning up the debris. Soon, neighbors pressed past the protestors and helped too, scowling at the unwelcome intrusion.

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