The Family Read Online Free PDF Page A

from the Irazú Volcano, the highest volcano in Costa Rica. Twig had always longed to visit the volcano, but leaving the compound was forbidden. Thomas made trips into Turrialba for supplies, and Family members were allowed to explore the rainforest in groups or even pairs of two if they received special permission, but those were the only exceptions. Men stood guard twenty-four hours a day at the entrance, where a small road dead-ended into the compound. Adam said the guards were only meant to keep people out, and his teachings kept people in. Twig could not remember anyone leaving the Family, ever.
    Adam’s teachings, his love, his care and his rules did keep the Family in. For the most part, Twig enjoyed her life. Her days were spent learning or creating. Building her physical body or her intellect. Together, the Family had built and maintained a vegetable garden that brimmed with abundance, and they were able to harvest almost all of what they ate. They had a small pineapple plantation. Adam sold the pineapples in the cities to pay for things they needed. Twig believed in the Family’s mission toward peace. She believed the way they lived could serve as a model to change the world.
    The world. Twig knew what lay outside of the compound. Adam regaled them with stories. Rape, murder, vicious poverty, war, and disease. Evil, sadness, pain, and nothing else. Twig thought about the woman from last night, Anna. The state she’d been in when she had arrived. What happened out there to make someone like that? Would Twig have become like that if Adam hadn’t healed her?
    And yet, still, she couldn’t help wondering. How could the Family really change the world if they never left the compound? Adam left a few times a year to spread the word, but he was only one man. Couldn’t they do more? Adam could protect them from infection. Couldn’t they go out in groups? Be living examples of the power of the collective?
    Twig looked up at the sky. Soft streaks of pink and orange hinted at the sun’s impending rise. They’d had a reprieve from the rains the last few days, but the heaviest were still to come. Twig continued to pad her way toward the rainforest, leaving the clearing the Family had created many years ago to build their home. She breathed a little easier as she entered the protection of the rainforest. Palm trees soon towered above her, their pejivalle fruit hanging in thick orange clusters. Large lemon yellow butterflies landed on her hands and shoulders.
    She was quickly enveloped by the lushness of the forest. Geckos darted across her path. The leaves beneath her feet became a soft sea of green, wet and vibrant. She carefully placed the most colorful leaves in her basket as she went, occasionally glancing behind her, more out of habit than actual fear that anyone had followed her. Members of the Family did not give up their sleep. They didn’t get much of it, so they would usually stay in bed until the minute before breakfast call.
    The sun was just beginning to fold into the valley when Twig arrived at a small glen hidden by interlacing branches. There was a wide stream where water bubbled over white rocks. She loved the sounds of the rainforest. The first impression of silence, giving way to the gentle gurgle of water, the scurry of life in the surrounding green. Twig sat down on a big, flat rock and took in a deep breath.
    “Happy birthday to me.”
    Only Adam’s birthday was truly celebrated. People might wish her a happy birthday throughout the day, but that would be all.
    She began to take the leaves from the basket, smoothing them and sorting them by depth of color. She had been trained her whole life to use action as a weapon against unwanted thought. Adam had taught them what he called the Thought Test. Examine every single thing that comes into your head. Does it drive the Family forward? Will it help the Family? Anything else is individualism.
    Individualism, the very evil that infected the world outside