We met some other families in the area who had beliefs similar to our own and went to visit them.

The Bereiters lived just over the Washington border and had seven children...so far. Like us, they didn't believe in any kind of birth control. We all understood that birth control was nothing more than a subtler type of abortion, a way to kill the tiniest children before the mother even knew they were there, but murder nonetheless. The three oldest children were girls our age who looked strikingly alike with blond hair rippling down past their waists. They all played the violin, and the eldest, Rachel, who was almost my age, played it really well. She let me hold the violin and try to scrape out a tune on it. I loved the instrument, wondered why I'd never had a chance at this instead of the piano which my father had foisted upon me from an early age.

The Bereiter daughters all quilted and did the sort of stuff we did. Rachel was into horses and had just acquired a mustang that she was hoping to train. I told her about Daniel, how I was engaged to him. We discussed the age difference, how working with a man was a much better indicator of compatibility than silly dates, and so on. Neither one of us had ever been on a date.

Downstairs, our mothers were talking about homeschooling and religious beliefs, while our dads talked about the government and what was being plotted against people like us. Their mom talked about how her oldest son had been circumcised by Mr. Bereiter, how the result had been such a botched and bloody mess that he'd had to stop midway and finish the job later. How she'd learned from the experience what having faith really meant. This was a family we could relate to.The Smiths were the other family we met. They had five children and seemed a lot less extreme than Bereiters, which is to say that compared to us, they weren't that much different from Seventh Day Adventists, except that the used the Sacred Names. Their children were exhuberant and happy, and Laura, who was about my age, wore pants and shoulder length hair. The oldest boy, Max, was about Sarah's age. He was tall and lean, intense and serious with dark hair. The other son, Luke, who was Raphah's age, had hair that was almost white and such pale skin that you could see his veins. The youngest two, both girls, were Rachel's age and they frocklicked happily together.

When our parents introduced us to Pat and Jerry Smith, my mmother made sure to mention that my name, Rebekah, meant "yoke" in Hebrew, even though this was a oversimplifed translation (the name actually means to bind or yoke with beauty), and then she went on to talk about how appropriate it was. I was a yoke and a burden to them, very troublesome and rebellious. I escaped the house with Laura as soon as I could, told her about Daniel and how I would soon be married. She in turn told me about the other believers in the area, how there were creepy old men who were asking her parents if they could marry her. We shuddered together, thankful that her parents hadn't married her off to one of them. One guy's wife had died from drinking too much grape juice. We thought this was hilarious. I tried to picture her stepping into the dead wife's role with this old, old man, and then we giggled some more.

When we saw the Smiths again, Laura told me that her mother felt bad for me, because my parents thought I was a burden. She said her mother was very happy for me that I was getting married and getting away from my family. I agreed. I didn't tell her about Dad, how he tried to touch us, how he had Sarah sitting on his lap all the time, or how talked about selling us to the highest bidder. I only chattered about how wonderful Daniel was, because I knew that soon these other things wouldn't matter. I only had to hold out until September. Then I'd be 18 and my life would be a new beginning.