Deceived: Lured from the Truth (Secrets) Read Online Free PDF Page B

After he left, my mum remarried a bloke who’s a rock-solid GEF. He’s a deacon.”
    “Did you live with them? I mean, your mom and stepdad?”
    “I did for a while. Then I started to question some of their beliefs and the church.” He shakes his head. “That didn’t go over too well with my stepdad. He said I was a bad influence on my sisters.”
    “Sisters?”
    “Yeah, I have three younger sisters. How about you? Any siblings?”
    I shake my head no. “I always felt cheated by that. I used to wish I was part of a big family. How old are your sisters?”
    His brow creases. “Let’s see, I reckon Vera is sixteen, Corrine is fourteen, and Beth is eleven.”
    “Do you miss them?”
    He shrugs. “Yeah, I guess so … sometimes. Except that they’re all brainwashed and into the church, just like my mum and stepdad. Nice little GEF girls. My stepdad was absolutely certain I was going to corrupt them. That’s why I went to live with my dad in Sydney. My dad’s no saint, but there was a lot less yelling there. More peace and quiet.”
    I nod. “I can understand that.”
    “When my mum heard I was coming to the States, she got all worked up. Probably because I’m her only son. She was certain she was losing me for good, and she literally made herself sick with worry.” He gives me a lopsided grin. “That’s why I told her I was going on a mission … you know, to ease her mind.”
    “What kind of mission does she think you’re on?”
    “Oh, just the usual — traveling around with another bloke, telling people about the GEF church. It’s what the church expects blokes to do after they finish secondary school. Two years on the mission field. It’s supposed to solidify their faith.” He’s playing with his butter knife like it’s a drumstick, and judging by his expression I suspect he feels guilty for deceiving his mother.
    “Will you ever tell her the truth?”
    “Oh, sure … someday. But if she knew what I was really doing …” He sadly shakes his head. “Well, she’d be pretty upset.”
    “Just because you’re working at a dairy instead of converting people to God’s Eternal Family?”
    He chuckles. “That too, but she’d be truly miffed to find out I’m working at my uncle’s dairy. My mum cannot stand Uncle Jim.”
    “That’s the uncle who owns the dairy?”
    He nods. “Jim is my dad’s brother. He left the GEF church ages ago. My mum calls Jim the ‘filthy black sheep.’ And she claims he’s the reason my dad left the church. If she knew I was here with Uncle Jim” — he stops drumming with the silverware — “it would not be good.”
    “But didn’t you say that your uncle started a church? He must be a good man to start his own church. You’d think your mother would appreciate that.”
    “But it’s not a GEF church,” he explains. “She’d rather I didn’t belong to any church. She’d rather I went out drinking every night.”
    “I don’t get it. I mean, on one hand it reminds me of some of the stubbornness I saw when my church split. People who were like ‘it’s my way or the highway.’” I shake my head. “But seriously, why are people like that?”
    “Good question.”
    “So, you’re done with school …” I study him. “How old are you?”
    “I’ll be twenty in August.”
    I try not to look surprised, but twenty sounds old.
    “How about you?”
    Suddenly I’m worried. If I tell him I’m only seventeen, he might drop me like a bad habit. And then I’ll never get to really know him. In the same instant, I remember something my grandmother always writes in my birthday cards, telling me that I’ve entered a new year — when I turned seventeen last fall she wrote, “You’re in your eighteenth year.”
    “I’m eighteen,” I proclaim as if it’s true. “My eighteenth year … which according to my grandmother means I’m supposed to start acting like an adult.” I laugh nervously. “Sometimes that’s not so easy.”
    “You can say that