“And let me guess,” Joshua finished. “The Porns then took revenge on the First Church, and the First Church had to have retribution, and reprisal followed reprisal until the two sides came to hate each other.”
“There’s more to it than that,” Paul said stiffly.
“If I comprehend this,” Joshua reasoned, “the pornographers became known as the Porns. Am I right?”
Paul nodded. “I don’t know who first started it, but at one point in his journal Reverend Wilcox began referring to Creel and his ilk as Porns.”
“But how did the First Church become known as the Horns?”
“They did it”
“The Porns?”
“Yes. Again, my information in this respect is sketchy, but evidently the Porns began referring to us as self-righteous, vain, and intolerant. Imagine that!”
“Yes, imagine that.” Joshua suppressed a grin.
“Anyway, at one point they began casting aspersions on our physical sharing…”
“On your sex life?”
Paul’s face reddened. “Yes. They said our morality had repressed our human sexuality.”
“They called you horny?” Joshua, at last, saw the light. The slang word was infrequently used by the male Family members, usually when the Warriors were gathered, reveling in their machismo humor. Telling jokes was a popular entertainment. Come to think of it, the last time he’d heard the word was when Hickok was telling a tale about a Warrior who’d encountered a beautiful woman in the woods and didn’t know what to do with her because he’d failed the Family course in Sexual Organs: Their Function in Reproduction, a course taught by a senior Family couple.
Joshua had overheard Hickok telling the story and, despite his initial embarrassment, he’d laughed his head off. Hickok was a gifted storyteller when he was in the mood. Where was Hickok at this very instant? And Blade, and Geronimo, and Bertha? Had the Wacks killed them? He realized Paul was speaking.
“…and we became known as the Horns to them. We never use the word ourselves, you understand?”
“Of course. Thank you for telling me this. It explains a lot. That leaves only the Wacks.”
“Ahhh, yes. The poor lunatics.”
“How do you mean?”
“From what the records reveal,” Paul explained, “when the Government called for everyone to evacuate, everyone did, as quickly as they could. The entire staff at the Minnesota Hospital for the Criminally Insane, set up a few years before the war in Bloomington, in south Minneapolis, deserted their charges and left them to fend for themselves.”
“Dear Father!”
“Indeed.” Paul nodded. “The mentally depraved inmates took over the Hospital, and have flourished, scrounging like savage animals, ever since.”
“But why are they called the Wacks?” Joshua still didn’t comprehend their name.
“The Porns started it.”
“How?”
Paul sighed. “The Porns have a remarkable faculty for devising quaint terms for everything. Part of their street heritage, I believe. They began calling the insane ones the Wacks, a derivative of the word wacky, possibly, or of one of their obnoxious gutter expressions, wacko.”
“At last.” Joshua sat up, grimacing as the back of his head twinged with pain.
“At last what?”
“At last I have a glimmer of understanding as to how things reached the deplorable state they’re in here in the Twin Cities.” Joshua leaned back, resting against the headboard. “Now all that remains is to develop a viable solution.”
“A solution to what?”
“A solution that will have everyone in the Twin Cities living as true sons and daughters of God should.”
Paul’s eyebrows arched. “You can’t be serious?”
“I am.”
Paul laughed. “Perhaps the blow to your head caused internal damage!”
“Why do you say that?”
“You can’t really expect us to try and live in harmony with the Porns? Or even the Nomads, for that matter?”
“I do expect it.” Joshua nodded slowly. “It is your duty to reach out to them in friendship and brotherhood.”
Paul rose to his feet. “Says who?” he demanded, annoyed.
“Says our Master,” Joshua stated solemnly.
“What?”
“Jesus left us with specific instructions regarding situations exactly like what you have here in the Twin Cities.”
“What are you referring to?” Paul asked skeptically.
“Do you have any Bibles?”
“Of course,” Paul stated. “We have quite a collection of sacred literature and other books. The stupid Porns burned most of the books in Minneapolis, and wherever else they found any. Once we became aware of what they were doing, we tried to salvage as many books as we could. We keep them under guard at the former Harding High School. I don’t think the Porns even know we have them, or they would have tried a raid by now.”
“But you have a Bible in this building?”
“Certainly. I’ll go downstairs and get mine.” Paul walked to the door.
“Say, Paul,” Joshua said before Paul could exit. “I’ve been meaning to inquire about where I am in St. Paul?”
“Oh. You’re in one of the buildings we maintain on the campus of Concordia College. There are far too many buildings in St. Paul for us to keep them all in useable condition, so we preserve certain ones, the ones best suited to our purposes. I’ll get the Word.” Paul departed.
Joshua folded his hands on his lap, trying to stay calm, to control his excitement. After reviewing his recent conduct, he considered his performance more of a detriment than an asset to Blade and the others.
He viewed his contributions on the two runs in a negative light. What good had he done them? He’d protested every time the Warriors had defended them. He’d whined and moaned whenever they’d killed someone.
Sure, he had saved Bertha from the Brute, but felt miserable afterwards.
In the fight against the Wacks, he’d only been of minimal assistance. This might be his golden opportunity to achieve a positive goal, to reconcile the Horns and the Porns and end their incessant bloodshed. The Twin Cities were large enough for both groups, and the Nomads, to live side by side without trying to exterminate one another. If he could succeed in attaining a state of peace between the various factions, he’d feel as if he’d been of some small benefit on his journey. Was it possible, though? Was he being realistic or idealistic? After all, the Horns and the Porns had been contending for close to a century, and he recognized how difficult a task it was to alter human behavior once that conduct had become habitual. His one ray of hope was the statement about Zahner and the Nomads. If a couple of hundred had already joined Zahner, former Porns and Horns, it seemed to indicate that maybe, just maybe, the general populations on both sides really wanted peace. Maybe the Porns and the Horns wanted to terminate their conflict and get about the business of making the Twin Cities a better place in which to live.
Paul came into the room, waving a Bible in his right hand. “Here it is!
Now you show me why I should extend friendship to the Porns!”
“Gladly.” Joshua took the Bible. “But if I convince you, will you help me to persuade the other members of the First Church? Will they listen to us?”
Paul sat down on the edge of the bed. “They will listen to me! I am their leader and spiritual guide.”
“All of us have a spiritual guide within us,” Joshua said to Paul. “The Spirit is in each of us, trying to show us God’s way, to reveal the Lord’s path for us.” He turned the pages, searching for the passage he wanted.