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One hour later…“Have you ever heard of the Sons of the Sun cult?” Burt asked us an hour later. We’d been delayed from discussing his background by Liv who’d refused to have a nap because she wanted to meet the new man. That, too, had been a difficult decision to make because we knew who he was, but we didn’t know who he was, so watching her trying to get his attention so she could sit on his lap had been hard. Thankfully, he must have been able to tell how uncomfortable I was about it, because he glanced at Ellis and looked relieved when he’d seen that he was already in the process of distracting her by reaching for her giraffe.
Both Tabby and I shook our heads no, but Dave was the one who filled us in, kind of. “The cult in Wako where they worshipped the men – in fact, male everything – and considered women to be there to serve them. That one?”
“Yeah,” Burt confirmed, his mouth slightly pinched. “My father was the founder, so I was born into it until I escaped from the compound when I was sixteen. The theory of the cult was that men were the superior gender, like you said, Dave,” he pointed at my sister’s husband, who wasn’t looking surprised so far. “Women were there to serve, bear children to carry on the cult, do all the manual labor, and to follow what the men decided, regardless. The newer generations knew that the lifestyle was wrong, mostly because of the growth of technology, meaning that televisions were more widely accessible so we got to see how families and relationships were in the real world, and began to question our own. “The women were sent to the stores every week to get the supplies that we weren’t able to grow or make ourselves, and they’d leave us next to the televisions displays, almost like they wanted us to open our eyes to it and not be like our fathers.” Smart women! “When I was sixteen, myself and two others escaped by climbing over the wall, and then lived on the streets until we were sure we were far enough away to not be found by them. We reported the compound to the authorities, but one of us overheard them calling CPS to come take us while they dealt with the cult, and we ran again because we were scared.” This was like something out of a movie, and I’d be questioning it if Dave wasn’t nodding his head like he knew the case well. “I worked cash in hand jobs – which wasn’t unusual back in those days – until I was eighteen, and then I bought a car and decided to see the rest of the country while working similar types of jobs to fund it.” Shifting in his seat, he ran his hands down his face, and then picked up his glass and took a mouthful of water. It was obvious that this part was harder for him to tell, so I blurted out a random question. “When’s your birthday?”
All eyes turned to look at me, and I swear you could have heard a mouse farting five miles away. Then, frowning as he put his glass back down on the table, Burt looked confused by the question as he asked, “What?”
“You heard me, when’s your birthday? I was born on May sixteenth, Tabby was born April twenty-second, and Olivia was born on August sixth. We have our birth flowers tattooed on us, along with a rose for Tabby’s mom.” I held my arm out and pointed at them.
“Mine’s on my thigh,” Tabby added, pointing at the area that was covered by her jeans. Stretching his legs out, Ellis answered the question I’d asked. “December first.”
“February nineteenth,” Dave added, holding his hand in the air.
Yes, part of the reason I’d started the subject was to find out another small detail about Burt, but the biggest reason I’d done it was to help him tell his story when I’d seen him struggling. See, I’d looked at Dave numerous times throughout Burt’s introduction to his childhood and he hadn’t looked surprised at all, so I’d deduced that he’d already known the information before this. A quick glance at Ellis had confirmed the same thing, and I remembered a phone ringing, and the men talking in the kitchen while they made coffee before Burt had arrived. We hadn’t had the chance to talk them about it, because Burt had arrived not long after they’d given us our drinks, so I wasn’t pissed about it. But here’s the biggest thing about all of this – if they knew, it meant Dave had checked into Burt, and if he’d done that, and was still ok having him this close to us, then he most likely wasn’t a bad man. I mean, you wouldn’t let a rapist or killer near your family, would you? Well, unless you were a psychopath yourself, but still.