He didn’t understand the broad’s message, and he opted never to talk about the meeting specifics.
That evening at the old McDougal farm, Betty peeled off her Rockefeller mask and wig, kicked off her shoes. She strolled into the middle of the empty field in her socks and coat. A strong, cool, wind hugged her and her hair blew wild and free.
She cheered and raised her arms to the sky. “The farm is ours again!”
She reviewed all the things she’d said and done to get to this point. Tears streamed down her face. She was very different now. She was an adult.
She surveyed her land. “I had a real home again.”
She laid down on the cold soil. She felt the earth spinning and watched the clouds sail past.
Then she spoke to the heavens.
“My first mission was coming to an end and there was only one thing left to take care of. I’m just not sure of the right way to do it.”
PART 04
KILLING BLOW
It was raining that afternoon in the Citadel. It wasn't a hard rain, it was just a drizzle that wouldn't stop. It started before Betty woke up and lasted long enough to fill puddles. She sloshed through them as she crossed the street to the shelter where she and her family used to live. She came to visit Sister Hazel. The nun had offered Betty good advice in the past. She needed more. The nun seemed like family. Not an immediate family member like a mom or a sister, but more like an aunt she saw once a year at Christmas. They could comfortably pick up a conversation, abandoned twelve months earlier. Betty wondered if everyone who knew the nun felt the same way.
Sister Hazel was behind the shelter loading an aging truck with crates of donated clothing. She divided the goods equally for delivery to all affiliated shelters. She wanted to make sure she did the most good with what little she had. When Betty was younger she remembered hearing Sister Hazel say, “I’m more interested in the less fortunate than the people with the most fortunes.”
She was a one-woman charity distribution network. Betty always admired that about her. She was the fairest person Betty knew.
Betty approached the mousey nun as she struggled with the cracked and splintery crates. Her face looked older than Betty remembered. She was working alone. Betty offered to help. The nun was winded and took the young nurse up on her offer. She handed her a pair of work gloves and they sorted clothes between raindrops.
It was a confusing world, and Betty went to the nun with a moral dilemma. They were supposed to be the experts on the subject, right? Betty was looking for clarity. She had tried to use man's law to punish a monster, but it didn't work. Maybe there was something in God's laws that she could turn to. Without going into too much detail, Betty presented the nun with a series of hypothetical questions that evolved into a conversation.
How could anyone tell right from wrong? No matter how many rules were written, people still broke them or figured out ways to maneuver around them. The villains weren’t the only one who broke them, everyone did. How could anyone be certain they picked the side of right?
Most people claimed to be righteous, but no one could agree with certainty what was wrong and what was absolutely right. It always came down to an individual’s interpretation.
The nun said, "God works through us. He works through you."
Betty was reminded of her first encounter with the car. She prayed to God for help and the car appeared. Could that coincidence have been a miracle? Was it a hint of God's plan for her? The car seemed invulnerable, could this be proof of God's handy work?
Betty became lightheaded for a moment and asked, "Is there a way to decipher God’s wishes? There were so many contradictions in what I've read in the Bible. He even breaks his own commandments. God lies to Abraham to test him. God steals the voice from the people of Babel. God kills all the first-born children in Egypt. God even authorizes acts of rape, pillage, and plunder."
The nun said with a smile. "God does what he needs to, when it’s necessary, when it's for the greater good. It is His will that we follow His commandments, but He doesn’t have to follow them."
Betty asked, "Then they don’t really matter?"
The nun shook her head and said, "They are for us, not Him. God is above us. He is not bound by His laws."
Betty asked, "But if He works through us, and most people don't follow the rules, aren't they still following His will?"
The nun stopped working and let out a big sigh. She was irritated. "It is not your place to question God and I'm not here to argue with you, Betty. I've got work to do."
Betty responded, "I'm not trying to argue. I'm trying to understand. I'm looking for truths."
The nun returned to her loading task.
"I already gave you my answer. You'll have to find your own truth. It sounds like you have some praying to do on the subject. I will finish this by myself."
All Betty heard was a non-answer.
Betty left as the nun mumbled to herself. “He will reveal the truth to you when He's ready, child.”
As Betty walked in the rain she pondered. "I used to wonder if the magic car was a gift to pay me back for the crummy luck I had. My life’s been better since it appeared."
She turned into an alley that led to an abandoned loading dock. The car was parked and waiting for her. She touched the vehicle's shiny skin and said to it, "Did God trust me to use you for the greater good, like the spy?"
She looked around to make sure no one was looking. Then she slipped inside and sped out of the alley and into the city street and wondered. “Maybe God trusted me to do what I thought was right. Maybe he saw things the same way I did?"
Lightning cracked the sky.
Twenty minutes later she arrived at the farm. It stopped raining, but the roads were muddy. The car sloshed and slipped as it pulled up the steep driveway of her home. She pulled around to the barn, and stepped out to open the big sliding door. She examined the car for mud. The tires were caked, but the body still sparkled. There must have been some element in the surface that prevented dirt from sticking to it because it always looked showroom new. She drove into her lair.
Inside the barn she pressed a light switch. She had electricity again. It was one of the few modern comforts she afforded herself. The barn was divided into living and working spaces. She grabbed her Bible and other annotated books from a shelf in the study that was taking shape.
She’d witnessed that civil law didn't work unless everyone was willing to tell the truth.
She thought, “Sister Hazel wasn't much help, but I wanted to look closer at moral laws for some guidelines to operate by, in a city gone mad.”
Betty perused her various sources looking for ideas. As she found them she transcribed the weighty words onto a cracked chalkboard she retrieved from the Redact University trash.
Chalk tapped and chirped out words on the slate as she worked out the problem like she had seen the Professor do. She made lists, and connected the ideas, and looked for a solution to a practical moral equation.
She began with the Ten Commandments as she learned them at Citadel Catholic High.
1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day.
She commented as she progressed, "These three seemed like rules to control primitive people, I wasn't sure how they fit in the modern world."