It was all becoming too much for me. It felt like Pastor Len was turning his back on his real inner circle in favour of people like that Monty. Did I mention Monty to you, Elspeth? Can’t quite recall if I did. Well, he was one of the first Lookie-Loos who elected to stay–came to Sannah County soon after Pastor Len got back from that conference at Houston. Within days of showing up he was padding along at Pastor Len’s side, loyal as a stray dog that’d just been fed. I didn’t take to him right from the start, and I’m not just saying that because of what he did to that poor Bobby. There was something about him, something shifty, and I wasn’t the only one of that opinion. ‘That fella looks like he could do with a good scrubbing,’ Stephenie was always saying. He had these tattoos all up his arms–some of which didn’t look very Christian to me–and his hair needed a pair of shears taken to it. Looked like one of them Satanists they sometimes feature in the Inquirer.

And since Monty arrived, Jim seemed to have dropped out of Pastor Len’s favour. Sure, Pastor Len dragged him out to church on Sundays sometimes, and I know he hadn’t given up the idea of doing those tours of Pam’s house, but most of the time Jim just sat at home and drank himself stupid.

Pastor Len asked Stephenie’s cousin Billy to quote on some construction work he wanted done at the ranch, so it was Billy who told us that those people looked to be moving there permanently. If you didn’t know better, he said, you’d a thought it was one of those hippy communes.

I had so many sleepless nights during those weeks, Elspeth. I can’t tell you how I suffered. What Pastor Len was saying about the signs… it made so much sense and yet… I just couldn’t get over Pamela, dowdy old Pam, being a prophet.

I all but wore out Lorne’s ear talking about it.

‘Reba,’ he said to me. ‘You know that you’re a good Christian woman and Jesus will save you whatever happens. If you don’t want to follow Pastor Len’s church no more, then maybe Jesus is telling you not to.’

Stephenie also felt the same as I did, but it wasn’t that easy to break away. Not in a community like ours. I guess you could say I was biding my time.

Stephenie and I were worried that Kendra wouldn’t be able to cope with all those new Lookie-Loos arriving, and we decided that even though we didn’t agree with all that Pastor Len was doing lately, it was only right that we should go over there and see how she was coping. We planned on doing it at the weekend, but that Friday, the story about Pastor Len’s fancy woman broke. Stephenie came straight over soon as she heard about it, brought me a copy of the Inquirer. It was all over the front page: End Times Preacher’s Sordid Love Tryst. The photographs showed a big woman wearing purple pants and a tight top, but the pictures were so grainy you couldn’t tell if she was tanned, black or one of those Hispanics. I didn’t believe that story for one second. Even after he let the devil in, I firmly believe the real Pastor Len, the good man who had been the head of our church for fifteen years, was still in there somewhere. I refuse to believe that all of us could have been fooled for so many years. Besides, as I said to Stephenie, where would Pastor Len find the time to mess around with fallen women? He barely had time to sleep, what with all he was doing.

Well, just as me and Stephenie were finishing up talking, who should come up the driveway but Pastor Len himself. My heart plummeted when I saw he had that Monty with him.

‘Reba,’ Pastor Len said, the second he came through the screen door. ‘Is Kendra here?’

I told him I hadn’t seen her.

Monty sat himself right down at the table, helped himself to a glass of iced tea without even asking. Stephenie’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t pay any mind to her.

‘All Kendra’s clothes are gone,’ Pastor Len said. ‘The dog too. She say anything to you, Reba? ’Bout where she might be going? I tried her brother in Austin and he says he hasn’t seen her.’

I told him I didn’t have an inkling where she might’ve gone, and Stephenie said the same. Didn’t mention that I didn’t blame her for getting out of there, what with all those strangers taking over her home.

‘It’s probably for the best,’ he said. ‘Me and Kendra… we had certain disagreements about the role of Jesus in our lives.’

‘Amen,’ Monty said, although I couldn’t see any reason for it.

Stephenie was trying to hide the Inquirer with her arms, but Pastor Len saw what she was doing.

‘Don’t you listen to those lies about me,’ he said. ‘I ain’t never done nothing immoral. Jesus is all I need in my life.’

I believed him, Elspeth. That man had real conviction, and I could see that he wasn’t lying.

I made a fresh pitcher of iced tea and then I decided to air what was on my mind. ‘How are you planning on feeding all the new folks who have shown up, Pastor Len?’ I’m not ashamed to say I looked right at Monty when I said it.

‘The Lord will provide. Those good folks will be well taken care of.’

Well, they didn’t look like good folks to me. Specially the ones like Monty. I said something about people taking advantage of his good nature, and Pastor Len got real irritated with me. ‘Reba,’ he said. ‘What did Jesus say about judging people? As a good Christian, you should know better than that.’

Then he and that Monty took off.

I was upset by the altercation, I really was, and for the first time in years when Sunday came around I didn’t go to church. Stephenie told me later it was full of the new Lookie-Loos, and quite a few of the inner circle had stayed away.

Well, it had to be two days later, something like that. I was keeping myself busy, wanted to get the canning done that week (by then we had a good two years’ worth of canned fruit, Elspeth, but there was still plenty to do). Lorne and I were talking about ordering in some wood, storing it out back in case the power gave out, when I heard a pick-up shuddering to a stop outside the porch. I looked out and saw Jim slumped behind the wheel. I hadn’t seen him since the week before when I’d gone over to take him a pie. He’d refused to answer the door and it pains me to say it, but I left it on the front step.

He just about fell out of the car, and when me and Lorne ran up to steady him he said, ‘Got a call from Joanie, Reba.’ He stank real bad, of booze and sweat. It looked like he hadn’t shaved for weeks.

I wondered if his daughter had called to tell him that Pam’s ashes were finally going to be coming home, and that’s why he was so upset.

I sat him in the kitchen and he said, ‘Can you call Pastor Len for me? Get him to come right over?’

‘Why didn’t you just drive on up to his ranch?’ I asked. Fact is, he shouldn’t have been driving anywhere. You could smell the alcohol on him from a mile away. It was enough to make my eyes water. If Sheriff Beaumont had seen him in that state he would’ve locked him up for sure. I fixed him a Coke straight away to take the edge off. After me and Pastor Len had had that altercation, I wasn’t keen on calling him, but I did it all the same. Didn’t expect him to answer, but he did. Said he’d be right over.

Jim didn’t say much while we waited for Pastor Len, though me and Lorne tried to draw him out. And the little he did say didn’t make much sense to us. Fifteen minutes later, Pastor Len showed up, his dog Monty in tow as usual.

Jim said straight off, ‘Joanie went to see that boy, Len. That boy in Japan.’

Pastor Len just froze. Before they went their separate ways, Pastor Len was always saying how Dr Lund had been trying for the longest time to get to speak to one of those children. Jim’s eyes fluttered. ‘Joanie said that Jap boy… said she talked to the boy, but not to him exactly.’

None of us knew what in Jesus’ name he was talking about. ‘I don’t get you, Jim,’ Pastor Len said.

‘She said he was talking through this android. This robot that looked just like him.’

‘A robot?’ I said. ‘He was talking through a robot? Like the ones on YouTube? What in heaven?’

‘What does it mean, Pastor Len?’ Monty asked.

Pastor Len didn’t say anything for at least a minute. ‘I guess maybe I should give Teddy a call.’ That’s what Pastor Len called Dr Lund. Teddy, like they were good friends, although we all knew he and Dr Lund were having issues. Later Lorne said he reckoned Pastor Len was hoping a story like that would make up for the lies about his fancy woman; repair some of the damage done.

Then came the kicker. Jim said he’d already been to the newspapers about the story. Told them the lot, ’bout how Joanie had been round to see that Jap kid and talked to that robot that looked just like him.

Pastor Len turned as red as a canned beet. ‘Jim,’ he said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this first before you went to the papers?’

Jim got that stubborn look on his face. ‘Pam was my wife. They offered me money for the story. I wasn’t going to turn that down. I gotta live.’

A ton of money was coming to Jim from Pam’s insurance, so that wasn’t any excuse. Lorne said he could see plain as day that Pastor Len was ornery because he wanted to use that information for himself.

Jim banged his fist on the table. ‘And people gotta know those kids is evil. How could that boy survive and not Pam, Pastor Len? It’s not fair. It’s not right. Pam was a good woman. A good woman.’ Jim started crying, saying how those children were murderers. How they’d killed all those people on the planes, and he couldn’t understand why no one could see that.

Pastor Len said he’d drive him home, with Monty following in Jim’s pick-up. It took both of them to carry him out to Pastor Len’s new SUV. Jim was crying fit to burst, shaking and howling. That man shouldn’t have been left alone after that. It was obvious that his mind was broken. But like I said he was stubborn, and I know in my heart that he would have turned me down flat if I’d offered to take him in.