Argosy Junction Read Online Free PDF Page B

I’m even allowed to have money now. What a concept.”
    Bitterness tinged every word. Matt steered the conversation into what he hoped was safer ground. “But Carrie married—”
    “Josiah’s brother, Peter. She continued to attend the meetings. We encouraged her to make her own decision, but we didn’t get the appeal. Not until she came home, packed her bags, and drove off with Peter Gideon to become his wife. We weren’t invited to the wedding. It was for ‘Christians only.’”
    “Why stop going to church altogether?” Matt wasn’t sure why he asked. “Why not just go to another church. I don’t understand why you had to turn your back on everything because one group—”
    Lane’s defeated look vanished. In its place was a hard mask of resolute conviction. “I refuse to be a part of any religion that bears the name of Christian. It’s evil. It’s just a list of rules and requirements that denies any hint of individuality or preference. I can’t deny the existence of a God, but I deny that a loving Jesus ever lived and walked this earth. If Jesus did live, He lived to torment us with more platitudes and rules. I want nothing to do with Him or God. They made me. Fine. They don’t like who I am? Fine. Burn me in their everlasting fire. At least I had some peace on earth.”
    Matt nodded, trying to show sympathy. “I can understand that. So now you’re just outcasts in the town?”
    “Only half of the town is connected with the Brethren . The rest are as cordial as ever, but no one will risk losing business with such an influential group just to show support, and we’ve pretty much told everyone not to.”
    “Why do you stay?” The question was out before Matt could stop himself. This was really none of his business.
    “This is our land. My great, great, grandfather settled here when there was no one else around for hundreds of miles. He’d been to Aberdeenshire in Scotland and fell in love with the sheep. So he ordered a few dams and sires to be sent every year for ten years from several different farms over there. Everyone back in Ohio where he was from thought he was crazy to go to Montana. That was where savage Indians roamed the plains and scalped white men for sport! Jim Bridger still scouted the territory back then.”
    She gave Matt a long searching look. Would he understand? Somehow, she didn’t think so. “How can I leave a heritage like that?”
    Lane was right. Matt didn’t understand. He grew up in a Rockland west-side tenement district. There were dozens of tall apartment buildings crammed together created from old office buildings, warehouses, and a few old hotels. The small yards around each building were pitiful and generally unsafe, but the kids played there, and the parents weighed the safety of the neighborhood against the need for air and exercise. In the end, most let their children play in the streets, on rickety swing sets, and along crowded sidewalks.
    “I don’t know. I can’t say I understand, but it does sound wonderful. Where I live, people consider it a good thing if their children move away.”
    Eying him curiously, Lane gestured for him to continue. “Tell me about it. Where are you from? What do you do? Tell me about your family.”
    “I’m from Rockland—”
    “Oh… the Rockland Arts Center. My dad’s been there a few times. He says it is the most beautiful place he’s ever seen. Says it beats out the New York Metropolitan. Any day.”
    Her eagerness gave Matt the encouragement to continue. He’d assumed she was merely being polite, but her eyes sparkled with interest as she waited to hear about his life. “Well Rockland isn’t anything like Argosy Junction—or Spokane for that matter. We don’t have wide-open places like this. I’d never seen anything like it. I’ve never been more than a hundred miles from the city in any direction until I came here.”
    “Really? Wow. I guess I haven’t really either, though.”
    “The city is pretty