Interlude: Fourfold

                                    

                                          
Faith Ranch, Arkansas
3rd of April, 1966
A girl is born. Her father had desired a son, though that desire shames him now. He hoped for a strong child who could help him around the ranch, for he is growing weaker as the years pass and the aches pile on.
His daughter will never learn of that fact.
3rd of April, 1970
Christine is celebrating her fourth birthday today. This is the first time she celebrates it alone.  It will not be the last. Her parents are out in the fields, having reckoned she's old enough to handle herself.
It is on this day that Christine asks God to never be alone again. In the decades to come, that will be the only prayer she will regret.
15th of September, 1973
Christine has only been going to school for a few days, and she is not sure she likes it. Everyone speaks so loudly, all the time. The teachers, the other kids, and they can't be shut out. At home, she is used to going to her room and stuffing her fingers in her ears when her parents start arguing. Elijah has never hit Helen, nor has her mother ever done anything more than nag him until he started yelling.
It is not difficult to anger Elijah Faith. He is not violent, not with his family, not physically, though his words often hurt more than his fists would, Christine thinks.
Elijah is not a drunkard. When he drinks, it does not dull his senses. That suits him, for, whenever he is not working, he is searching around the house. Looking for "trinkets", which he calls things that either take up space or just annoy him. Sometimes, it seems everything Christine and her mother own are trinkets.
Other times, he looks for money, taken from his wallet or pocket by his wife. She sometimes does that, when she thinks her or her daughter deserves something her husband is unwilling to pay for. Elijah does not hoard money-the family has never wanted for anything-but he balks at the thought of anyone in his house buying anything 'too expensive', even if it's out of their own money. The house gets very loud, on such occasions.
1977
"Now, I've nothin' against them queers. You must get that through your skull, Chris," Elijah says, continuing to milk the cow. Christine must stand nearby on such occasions, in case her father needs to give or be given something. He curses so vilely, if she's not...
"They could do whatever they wanted, if this was a safe world. But it ain't. Every story your mom tells you? Bet your hide she leaves the worst details out. We're at war, Chris. We must all have as many children as we can, or else they're gonna drown us in numbers."
Chris-he calls her that, as if she were a boy, she muses- isn't sure who 'they' are at the moment. The Reds, the aliens, the supernaturals? Whoever, they must be formidable, given her pa's insistence on the subject.
"Now I get that not every lad likes girls or that every chick likes men, but really, it ain't the time to for frills like that. I mean, I don't like fish, but I eat if it's served, y'know? We must do what we must do."
"Is that why you keep trying to give me a sibling?" Chris asks, in some burst of boldness. Elijah is on his feet in a flash, stool knocked over, cow startled. He begins cursing.
"Fucking dammit, girl," he finishes, after several minutes. "You got your moron of a mom's mouth, you know that? I should've never showed you that fuckin' room."
Chris knows her parents tried to have children before her. Her birth only encouraged them.
She is the first of them to live. The rest are in a room that can only be accessed from the attic, in jars. She's seen the things floating in clear liquid, of various shapes and sizes. Some of them are-would have been-boys. None of them really look human, in her opinion.