Chapter 1
“Dear Rebecca”, as I wrote the letter in long hand to my daughter who was 8. “I’m writing this to you so that you might someday find this and understand what has happened with your world. First, I love you more than anything as I do equally your brother, Jeremiah. But someday, Daddy might not make it home and your world may change. I’m not sure how to tell you that everything will be ok, but know that anything that I do, I do it for you and Jeremiah”. I folded the letter and looked for a place to put it. I could put it in my personal Bible, but I know people might look there if there was a judgment called. Finally, I remembered the best place. I put the letter inside her familiar “A Little Girl’s Bible Stories” book. She had outgrown it and Jeremiah would never use it since he had gotten his copy at pre-school.
Morning came too early for me this morning. I woke up to the radio with a preacher on discussing the third Psalm and cut it off so I could let my wife sleep a little more. I rose, showered, shaved and put my better work clothes on. I wore my blue suit, white shirt (of course), dark tie and black shoes. I had gotten my haircut yesterday after work so I looked fresh and ready to go. I woke my wife and told her I had to go and to say good morning to the kids. I needed to be very much on time today.
I hurried to the neighborhood bus stop for our morning prayer meeting before the bus arrived. I didn’t want to be too early and wait for everyone else but I also didn’t want to be late and have the elder note my tardiness. Our prayer meeting is hosted by my neighbor, Tom but is attended by every man in the area before we have to go to work. We also have an elder who note that we had the meeting, the length and who attended etc.
Tom runs a good prayer meeting, I guess. He isn’t too long and he is able to get to the point before the bus arrives to take us to the community center. His topic was cleanliness which I assume is a cut to Bill Johnson’s tendency to be a little messy. I often wonder if the neighborhood elder gives Tom his topic or he picks it, but I’d rather not ask for fear that he might want to know why I’m curious. Curiosity isn’t forbidden, but it is discouraged by the elders.
Our bus arrived promptly as usual and we men filed on in our usual line and sat in our usual seats. Doing this day in and out does give us a sense of routine. I sat with my next door neighbor, Mark and we sat in silence. Our elder left us at the bus stop, but frivolous conversations are frowned upon and might be reported. We really don’t have much to talk about. Our homes are identical in most ways. Our small lawns are usually about the same. If you say something good about another man’s lawn, you might be coveting and that will get a phone call or worse a visit from the neighborhood elder. The kids do play sports but not in a competitive way either. So frankly, other than the health of your parents, there isn’t much else to chat about. So we ride the 10 minutes or so in quiet meditation.
Like all the communities in the Christian States, ours is based on a local grouping of neighborhoods who feed into the community center, which is connected to other community centers via a light rail system. Communities have about 2000 people living in them. Within the communities are area centers where a larger church is usually located and the area centers are connected to regional centers which of course lead to the national center. Before the Reform, there were cities and towns, townships and states and other forms of government, but the elders redefined it all to make it work better.
I happen to work at the community management office so my commute is typical, since most of us work in the community center area in businesses, management or with the elder council office. Our bus drops us off in the square and I walk the block to the management office. The bus riders drift off to various locations. A few work at the area center and so they walk to the rail stop and commute on. All our hours are regulated by the need to be back in our communities by 6pm so they work fewer hours than we do. But all work is needed and we know they have a little farther to go. And we only work a half a day on Saturday morning compared to how it was before the Reform and people were working 60 to 80 hours a week! Ours is a more civilized life.
My work at the community management office is reviewing and approving the work requests by builders and contractors. My supervisor and I were in the Reform War together and so we have strong relationship. Will was the man who told me my brother had been killed by Government agents. We no longer have computers, unless approved by the elders and there is no reason to have one. We receive a paper request from a builder outlining the work they would like to perform. We insure the work is allowed. It could be too much ornamentation or make a home too large or create the impression that the home or business is too lavish. We also approve the workers and any contractors to make sure they are god-fearing people and are members of the community and not outsiders. If work is unique not to be provided by our community or even our area, outside workers may be brought in, but we have to insure they are approved by our regional office. We had that happen a few years ago when the school needed some very special lighting panels and no electrical contractor was able to install. The regional office had to approve a contractor to come to our community to install. They were housed in the men’s dormitory, but it was quite a fuss in town.
Will and I work close. But since most of my day is looking up names in the report books to make sure men are allowed to work and have been approved by the elders as well as cross checking the names to make sure everyone has enough work to do, we don’t have to talk every day. I wanted to talk to Will about the upcoming promotions. One of the community supervisors had passed on about a week ago and a replacement was needed. Will was a war veteran and a pious and righteous person. He should be able to get the promotion. Not that he wanted it, of course not. That would not be correct to let the promotion get in the way of the community. The elders would decide this, but if he were promoted, I might get his job. Again, I don’t need it or covet it, but I had done this job for 10 years and at times my interest would flag. I have not mentioned it to Will or my neighborhood elder or to anyone else, even my wife. But a new job would be different. So today I dressed as well as I could so Will would know I even looked like the supervisor of the management approval office.
“Steven, can you come in for a moment?”
Will called out from his door. There is only him and me here anymore. We had another man in the office for the first few years while we were classifying and figuring out how the community would function and then he went to part time here and part time at the office next door and I understand he is working at a store in the community center. I got up and put on my suit. It is considered proper to always wear a suit coat unless you are at your desk. I walked over to his little office. His manuals and books were neat, but showed he knew what was in them. The paper on his desk was tidy, but frankly a little too much paper for my liking. He saw me looking at them and cleared his throat.
“We need to go through these papers again, something has um come up”. I gave him a look. I didn’t think I had not done a thorough job nor had I missed anything.
“It isn’t your or our problem. Sit down, I need to explain something.”
I sat down, puzzled looking. In the early days, we had had a few people who had tried to sneak through the system and get work as laborers in the reconstruction of the community centers even though they were not approved to work by the elders. We also had some people who pretended to be from the region try and tell us who to hire and fire. But those days were at the first days of the Reform.
“The Elders seem to think some of the workers of Paul Schmidt’s construction company may be not living the word of God. It seems one of the Elders saw a man at the area center who looked a lot like one of Paul’s workers who was seen holding the hand of a woman. And as if that wasn’t proper, he does not believe she was his wife. So we have to go back through Schmidt’s paperwork and determine if he is following the Elders’ wishes.”
My heart went out to Paul. I knew him from the War as did Will. He was a god fearing man and was a good citizen. But when the Elders feel something is wrong, we have to review and if necessary disapprove his contracts. We will find out about the man’s behavior soon enough when the revised work approval sheets come in later today.
I asked, “Is Paul and his crew working today?”
“No, they are on temporary assignment at the Elder house. Everyone will be reviewed and interviewed there and approved or disapproved. If there is a problem, the Elders will nip it quickly. We don’t want one man ruining that crew or the community.”
I nodded in agreement. I silently thought about Paul and what we did during the war. Will and I were in an infantry regiment and Paul came to us from another church group. We didn’t know him, but he had been in battles with the Government forces through Ohio and Pennsylvania. We fell in together outside Pittsburgh and fought the Govs in Western Penn. The Government forces were falling apart and our leaders were encouraging us to fight harder to finish them off. They were weakening and starting to desert coming over to our side. As we captured them, we sent them to our rear areas to be reviewed and determined their status. Most of them were obviously not acceptable since they were foreigners in color and name. We just did our job and sent them back. I had heard stories about what happened to them, but we were changing the United States back to our fundamental beliefs and if a few non-believers were lost…well, they would be with God sooner then. Will, Paul and I were outside Pittsburgh when the War ended. We hoped we would be sent back home soon, but we spent eight years in the Army helping keep the peace while the Council of Elders was formed and they organized our new system. We mostly patrolled and watched that people who felt the new laws were wrong were ‘corrected’. Some we just talked to, some we had to arrest and send to education camps and a few, well some people won’t even stop when you fire a warning shot, let alone wound them. We did find a lot of those were non-believers, either Jewish, Moslems, Hindus, some Catholics, pagans or Mormons. Non-believers just didn’t understand what the Reform was about.
Over time, the trouble sorted itself out and as the rules came down from the Council of Elders, people just knew to say OK and adjust as necessary.
About twelve years after I joined the Army of the Reform, I was to be mustered out. My brother had been killed so I received his citations and awards for him. In the eyes of the Elders, I was my brother’s keeper. Will, Paul and I were all sent back to our home area to a community. The Elders of the community embraced us and allowed us to select a bride. I had known my wife before and selected her and was given her. Because of the Reform and because the war was very destructive, massive construction of homes and apartments were started. We had the opportunity to clean the slate in many ways. The large cities of the past were found to be wicked and full of non-believers. Many non-believers were allowed to live in the cities, until the Elders could work out the laws of our land. Many left quickly for Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. We knew we didn’t need these people and that they were the cause of the collapse of the old government. The Elders knew what was right for us.
We worked tireless in those first years. We were lucky in our community was built from scratch over the ruins of a small city. We didn’t have to try and fit the new life into the molds of the wickedness like a few communities did. Some communities tried to name themselves or build sports teams to compete against other communities. This was quickly stopped by the Elders. Some communities didn’t understand the place of women and wanted to allow women to work outside the home. They can work outside the home, but only as teachers of girls, or doctors and nurses of women. Why did they think they needed to work? Our salaries are managed by the Elders so we can earn enough to pay for everything we should want, housing, food, clothing etc. To want more than we earned was to sin.
“Steven, also because of our friendship with Bill, we will be investigated. Now don’t get angry, this is routine to make sure no funny business was taking place. I’m sure it will take a few days and all this will blow over. We have nothing to hide so they will come in review our procedures, ask us a few questions and move on. Understand?”
I nodded. We had been through a few investigations in the past. They were nothing. Both Will and I were solid citizens. We both lived our lives as the Elders want. We both were on committees at the church and participated in Church activities. We tried to live pious and respective lives. This really wasn’t a big deal. But we were never questioned because of a friend. A moment of reflection allowed me to remember that we had nothing to hide and would be fine.
“Got it. I’ll just get started on the review papers. Let me know when the work approval paperwork arrives so I can start that process.” I left his office with some of the papers. There was too many to do in one sitting and not all of it could be done today. We would work steady and hard and would get done what we could as quickly as we could. We were still Soldiers of the Reform and would fight and die for the cause. Even if it was to review papers.
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