“Well, long story short, she was in with some sort of religious nuts, wasn’t the Moonies, but it was something. . . You know about the Moonies, don’t you. Some Korean nut called himself Moon, hooked in thousands of kids. Had them going door to door selling roses and collecting. . .”
“Yes Sir, I know about Reverend Moon.”
“These weren’t Moonies, it was a local group and my son fell for it hook, line and sinker. I’m serious, in no more than a couple of weeks. Hell, I don’t know if it was that long, I didn’t even know my son. He became some sort of spaced-out freak. He couldn’t even look at me straight. All he did was grin like some idiot. I don’t know if it was some kind of drug, mind control or what, but he won’t my kid. I don’t know who he was. I needed help. I needed it quick. But there wasn’t anybody who knew anything about cults. Few people knew about gangs, and there really isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two, but we didn’t know that then. There wasn’t anybody. Long story short, I spent the rest of my life studying gangs and cults. I wanted to try and see no one ever experienced what I did with my son.” Frank could see a tear run down the Gibb’s cheek. “That’s how I got here.”
“Your son? Did you find him? Were you able to get him out?”
“No, that was my first lesson about gangs and cults.”
“Your first lesson?”
“Yes, they don’t go away and it doesn’t get better by itself. I thought my son would realize what he had gotten in and walk away. He didn’t. It’s been twenty-two years now. He would be close to forty. His birthday is next month.
“Well, so much for that. You need my help?” Gibbs pulled a notepad in front of him. “What’s the lad’s name?”
"It’s not a lad. He’s a grown man. He’s my priest.”
The shocked look Frank expected didn’t happen. Gibbs just continued listening while Frank told his story. When he was through, he looked Gibbs in the eye. “You don’t seem to be shocked by anything I’ve told you. You act like it’s no big thing, but it’s a big thing to me.”
“Oh, I know it is,” said Gibbs, “and I don’t want to give you the impression that I am unfeeling. I feel very deeply, but you have told me nothing I consider unusual.”
“You don’t consider a grown man, a priest, getting into some cult unusual?”
The man looked at Frank as straight faced as possible and said, “No”.
No comments:
Post a Comment