#43d
The question and answer time continued, as Rennie was thinking about the future.
"Toby could you tell I had been drugged, how did you come to that conclusion?"
"Mostly by association, they work on the people closest to them, so they're not seen walking down the halls. I still haven't figured out how they move someone my size, or the size of Bruce. A lot of it I haven't put together, but I'm thinking, that's the unusual grinding noise you hear." he teased.
While he was in the sunshine, Toby took his shirt off and let the sunlight disinfect his wound. He figured she'd already seen it, so it was what it was. Rennie was looking off in the distance, but in reality she was looking at Toby. "You have a very nice physique," she complimented.
"That's Dad's influence, he keeps us all in top shape. Seriously, if I hadn't had the muscle resistance, the shot gun blast would have killed me. How about you? What do those scars on your belly mean?"
"They mean no more children. I was so depressed over that, that's the reason I was crying so hard in the office that day. I always had this vision that I'd have a house full of children, like this one. Your Mom and Dad are really special to open their hearts and home to such a variety of people. I sure am thankful they allowed me to come."
Toby and Rennie were very comfortable with each other, talking and listening as Toby told about all the missing brothers away at school, Robert and Chilly and Vic in the Marines.
Rennie was quiet for a moment and Toby looked up to see an awful wanting on her face.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked, "you look like a heartbroken little girl."
"That's a good way to put it, I am mourning that which can never happen. I applied for guardianship of Duncan, and now my parents are contesting it. I don't know why they want Duncan, they raised five children and all I wanted was one little boy. Well maybe two, I'd take TJ in a heartbeat to go along with Duncan." Rennie said slowly.
"Rennie, I'm going to ask you some questions that I honestly don't deserve the answers to, but they might help us figure things out." Toby tried to set up the situation.
"First of all, how long have your folks had that town house?"
"Well I'm thirty, so as long as I can remember."
"How often do they use it, and I'm looking for a pattern of use. More when you kids were little, or more now?"
"Umm, this is going to sound strange; but I think now. There have been times that I had no idea they were in the states. They don't call me, I married Eldon and they didn't approve of him, especially since we moved around a lot. The eight months we were in Yellowstone, I didn't hear a word from them, so I actually don't know."
"OK, lets make a stretch here. You were there three months and were compromised, how likely in percentage points would it be, that they hadn't been drawn in to the witchcraft some time within the thirty years, given the approximate closeness to the source"
"When you present it that way, not bloody likely. I'm thinking on this Toby, I never considered that might be a truth. If it is, it does explain some flashbacks I've had over the years. Some of the unusual people that have visited and that strange time we all had to dress up like brides and parade around...oh my God, Toby was that what I think it might have been?"
"Possibly, did any of the girls disappear?"
"Yes, two sisters with long black hair. They were six, maybe seven and had as much makeup on as any woman. Their hair was carefully done, fingernail polish, stylish dresses. I remember getting in a lot of trouble during that time. I had been out playing and got the dress dirty and tore a part of it. My hair had come undone, etc., etc.."
"It probably saved your life. Did anything like that happen again?"
"How about if I say, I think so. It's one of those nebulous, wispy cloud impressions that has no substance that I can point to. I'm sure there were several of us that were examined, if you understand what I'm saying."
"Umm huh, I get the drift. Now Rennie I'm going to ask you a very difficult question. Have their been any children in your family disappear?"
Rennie opened her mouth to automatically refute that idea and then she stopped.
"Think on it, but don't force it," Toby's voice was almost hypnotic, "there must be something, I see you reaching way back and feeling disturbed about something."
"I think there was. A baby not very old, looked a lot like Duncan...oh no. Dear God Toby, not Duncan." Rennie was choking on the bile rising in her throat, looking around in terror. Hugging Duncan to her fiercely.
"Rennie, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but Duncan was being drugged for some reason. As was TJ." Toby added a couple more facts. "Eric had already been tattooed, so Meg had offered him up. But TJ, I think that's the reason he is so interested in breasts. He seems to know if you pat, it stimulates things, and that's ...different in the degree he wants to take it too."
"Good absolute heavens, I'm so astonished I can hardly breathe. I mean.....Toby, how much danger are TJ and Duncan in?"
"Probably moderate danger. I'm guessing it depends on the degree or level, or I don't know exactly the word I'm looking for, that they have been promised to."
Rennie looked stunned, her responses assuring Toby she wasn't hiding any ulterior motives. "Is this really this prevalent?" she asked, hunched over and guarding Duncan with her body. That was more telling to Toby than a thousand words. Rennie was not involved.
"What I've researched so far, yes."
"How can we tell?" Rennie was flipping through questions in her mind at the speed of light. "How do you know when you meet some one, if they do this kind of thing or not?"
"Some of the articles I've read say if you cross yourself in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, that makes you immune, but I personally don't want to try it that close."
"Your very good Toby, that was a skillful way you drew the answers out of me." Rennie congratulated the strong man lounging in the sunshine. Toby looked like he hadn't even broke a sweat. He grinned his thanks.
"I'm floored, thinking my family might be involved. OK, how about this...was Gordon's death an accident, of the type you mentioned. Did it go haywire? were the girls involved? What about those two brothers, are they some kind of devil hit squad?" Rennie was ticking off the ideas as they came to her.
"Haven't got that far," Toby said in a lazy way. "You might want to button your shirt, the kids are coming home from school."
"You let me do all this hollering and yelling with my shirt undone, shame on you." Rennie scolded.
Toby looked like he was ashamed of himself alright.
Tricia and Luce were riding the bus from Wisconsin to Raleigh, on their way to Mississippi and a new job in a Pediatrics Cancer center. If Bruce would have opened the mail, he would have known they were coming. Clora knew, she had carefully kept Tricia in the loop about everything but this last fiasco. There hadn't been time to get a letter to her.
Clora was sad that Bruce was so weak in character and that it would be out in the open for Tricia to see. But perhaps better now, than later.
It turned out to be old home week down on the old retreat grounds. Every one was there except the kids away at school and in the military.