Read Online Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card - Free Book Online Page B

well, I’m sure,” said Jenny. “He also gave me your address, and then I remembered that I had driven right by your moving van last Friday or whenever it was that you moved in and it never occurred to me that a Mormon family would move in only around the block from me. I mean, to have a Mormon neighbor. That just doesn’t happen in Steuben.”
    Even if Jenny hadn’t been meticulous about shelving the books alphabetically by author and in the right groupings, DeAnne would have enjoyed having her there, just to have relief from her own brooding. Somehow, with a completely different upbringing, Jenny had managed to acquire a similar attitude toward the Church. The difference was that Jenny was willing to say right out things that DeAnne would never have dared to admit to anyone but Step.
    â€œI had to get here first,” said Jenny, “or your introduction to the Steuben First Ward would have been Dolores LeSueur, our ward prophetess.”
    â€œYour what? ”
    â€œShe’s in the vision business. She has revelations for everybody. She’s been dying of cancer for fifteen years only she keeps getting healed, but with death breathing down her neck she has become so much closer to God than ever before—and I’m sure that she was so close to God before that they probably shared a toothbrush. She can’t say hello without telling you that the Spirit told her to greet you. You’ll just love her.”
    â€œI will? I don’t think so, if she’s the way you describe her.”
    â€œOh, you will , because if you don’t that’ll prove you’re a tool of Satan and an evil influence on the ward. Don’t worry, as long as she gets her way about everything she’s harmless.”
    â€œAre you serious?”
    â€œAbsolutely. If she’s in charge of a ward activity, everything will go her way. If she decides how you ought to run your ward organization, then your organization will run that way.”
    â€œYou mean she claims inspiration?”
    â€œOh, she claims inspiration every time she has to use the John. No, if you don’t agree with her, she just gets all her disciples to nag the bishop until he makes you do it her way just so they’ll leave him alone. And if the bishop doesn’t give in to her, she goes to the stake president, and if he doesn’t give her what she wants, she calls Salt Lake until somebody there says something she can use to bludgeon you into submission. But don’t let me bias you against her.”
    DeAnne said what she always said, because she knew it was right to reject malice. “I’d rather form my own opinions.”
    Jenny cocked her head and studied DeAnne for a moment, as if to see Just how judgmental DeAnne might be. “Oh, I know this sounds like gossip. It is gossip. But I promise you, that’s all I’ll ever say about Dolores until you mention her again yourself. I just happen to know from experience that about six weeks from now, you’ll be really glad to know that somebody else in the ward sees through her act. Nuff said. I’m probably too blunt, I know, but I grew up on a ranch in Santaquin where manure was a word we only used at church on Sunday, so I just speak my mind. For instance, I’ve noticed that you keep watching my kids and shooing them away from things and that means that your kids must be well-behaved and trained not to break stuff. Our strategy was to make sure we didn’t own anything that we cared if it got broke. But I’ll tell you what, we’ve about done with the books so let me finish this box and I’ll get my monsters out of here so they can go back to tearing up my house.”
    â€œI really wasn’t thinking . . .”
    â€œWe’re careful of our children about the things that count,” said Jenny. “A friend of one of the secretaries where my husband works had a cousin here in town who lost her little boy.