Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Seven: Homecoming #10

The hotel was a rundown affair with all the doors facing to the outside. Her room was on the second floor, with a single bed that had seen better days, a small couch in one corner, and a window that looked over the parking lot. The dark, cold lot and the mountains in the distance matched her mood.

She had failed.

She collapsed on the bed and began to sob. She cried for her mother who was dying. She cried for her own failure. And she cried because it had all brought home to her that she would never be accepted in her own home again. She had no idea how long she lay crying before sleep took over her.

She woke to the sound of knocking. Without thinking, she rose from the bed and swung the door open, not looking through the peephole to see who it was.

Hands grabbed her and pulled her out of the room. She was slammed against the outside wall of the hotel. Fear shot through her and brought her to full awakening.

In the dim light, she could see her father's face inches from her own. "You listen here, you little punk. I'm only gonna tell you this once. Tomorrow you're getting on a bus. You are going back to whatever stinking hellhole you came from, and you will never, let me repeat this, never come back. You will never try to contact your mother or your sister again. Do you understand me?"

Sophia stared at him, wondering just how far he'd push this. She didn't want to find out, she decided. She nodded.

He let her go and stepped back. He had two other guys with him. Sophia recognized Elder Joseph but not the other man. Glancing down at the parking lot, she saw the hotel manager look up and then walk back toward his office. She knew suddenly why he had looked familiar and how dad had found her. He was part of their Order too.

"You are living in sin, faggot," Elder Joseph said. Sophia wanted to protest, but she didn't dare. Besides, by their logic, she was both living in sin and, as much as it pained her to think it, a faggot. "That is your choice. The day will come when God will judge you. We can't do nothing about that. But we can do something about you coming back here and threatening all these other people. Dividing our church. We won't have it. Understand?"

A cold anger burned through Sophia, but once again she nodded.

"We will be back tomorrow morning," Dad said. "If you're not checked out and gone by then, it's on your head."

The three men retreated down the balcony and then down the stairs. Sophia watched them heading for dad's truck. It was then that she finally found her voice. "He will judge you too."

Elder Joseph turned, as if he knew it was him she'd addressed, and looked up at her. "Is that so?"

"You're an old fraud and a liar," Sophia yelled at him. "You don't know what God wants. None of you do. You just pretend so you can get other people to do what you want. And God will punish that too." She turned and went inside, slamming the door behind her. She immediately bolted it and threw the chain for good measure. She turned the bedside light on and sat on the couch, shaking with fear and anger.

Sophia wasn't sure how long she sat there before the next knock came. She thought about just not answering, but then it came again.

She rose, more cautious this time, and peered through the eyehole. She could see a single form, but it was too dark to see who it was.

"Zach?" Her brother's voice came with the next knock. "It's me. Are you in there?"

His voice sounded timid, uncertain, but after being roughed up by Dad, Sophie wasn't feeling very trusting. She undid the bolt, left the chain in place, and opened the door a crack to talk to him. "What do you want?"

"I just want to talk is all," Brevick said. "Can I come in? It's cold out here."

After another moment's hesitation, Sophia open the door and let him in. She closed the door behind him and threw the bolt again. He gave her a questioning look. "Dad's already been by."

Brevick shuddered. "Sorry."

"You wanted to talk?"

"About Mom." He paused and then asked, "Is she really dying?"

Sophia nodded.

Tears filled his eyes. "Can you save her? Is that true? Up on the station, can they save her? I don't want her to die."

Sophia felt a moment of compassion for her little brother. She remembered, from when she was young, how easy it was to be Dad's favorite. And how much it hurt when you discovered he wasn't worthy of your affection. "I don't want her to die either. But you heard Dad."

"I don't care what he says!" Brevick raged. He clenched his fists and glanced around the room, as if looking for something to hit or throw. "Dammit. It's always what he says. It's never what anyone else wants. Never what anyone else needs. It's always him."

"Yeah," Sophia agreed. "But it's not just him; it's all of them. They're all like that."

Brevick studied her for a minute. "You saw that. You saw through their shit. That's why you left, isn't it?"

Sophia shrugged. "Sort of," she said. "I mean, there's other stuff. But yeah, there came a point when I realized that my issues, my happiness would never mean anything to them. That they didn't really care about me, just about keeping me in line."

"Lot of us young people are thinking that way," he said slowly. "That's the real reason they're pissed about you being back. Micah? He's about to go tell them all to go take a leap and go out on his own. I love Dad; I do. But the rest of them? If Micah goes out on his own, gets a job with someone else, or better yet, starts his own company, I'd rather work for him."

"And Shaelynn?" Sophie asked.

"Micah would marry her in a heartbeat. You know that. They're both just waiting for one of the elders to consent. But that's not going to happen. The only reason they haven't married her off somewhere else is the fear that she and Micah will just run off behind their backs. They probably would too."

Sophia laughed. "And I thought I was the rebel. You're right, though. They would. The fact that she came and got me, told me about Mom, proves that."

"You are the rebel. That's why they need you to stay dead or lost somewhere. You're the cautionary tale to keep the rest of us in line. But now you're back. Yeah, maybe you look a little . . ." He broke off and didn't say it, but she could guess easily. "But anyway, you're alive and well. Seem to be doing well for yourself. Kids might start thinking it's not so bad outside the church."

"It's not," Sophia told him. "There are bad people, sure. But they're bad people in the church too. And there are lots of good people out there in the world. But anyway, I didn't come back here to start a rebellion."

"Yeah. So, about Mom. What are we gonna do about that?"

Sophia sat on her bed. "Heck, if I know."

"You can't just give up now," Brevick protested. "We can't just let Mom die. Not if there something we can do."

Sophia gave a dry laugh. "Dad just made it very clear that letting Mom die is exactly what I have to do. Him and Elder Joseph and some other guy. They say they're coming back in the morning, and if I haven't checked out and taken a bus back to Colorado . . ., well, they didn't say exactly what they would do, but you know . . ."

Brevick looked at her for a while. Then he squared his shoulders. "Come on," he said.

"Where?"

"Home. If you have to leave anyway, at least come see Mom one more time. And maybe, maybe we can convince her. Please?"

One more time, Sophia thought. But he was right; she owed Mom and Brevick that. And Shaelynn. She grabbed her overnight bag and followed him out the door.