Chapter 22: Introspection

“Again, Drew, I just can’t believe how quickly you reacted—and your throwing aim is simply awesome. Did you get your combat training, plus a little Amazonian magic, from Wonder Woman while you were living in your nature-camp home in the woods? Where’s your magic tiara?”

“Very funny, sweetheart. Guess that I’m just self-taught. Sorry, no tiara.”

“And to hear what those offensive linemen said about your tackle of the Taser guy. They were all envious of your technique after seeing how hard you hit him. They said that your hit actually lifted him off the ground. Didn’t that hurt?”

Drew giggled. “Hell no. First, the adrenalin was so high, all I could feel was getting the target down. Second, the riding leathers and padding worked better than football pads ever could, I think. Those shoulder pads would have spread out my impact too much. Third, I used my soccer legs for the power and my shoulder as a battering ram. Damn, hitting him felt so good, ‘cause I had thought his Taser shot had gotten you.”

“No, one dart hit my side in an indirect hit and it got tangled there. The other one missed me. Or maybe it hit the top of my cycle boot ‘cause I think I felt an impact there. You know that tales of your fighting exploits will go viral, don’t you?”

“I guess. I’m glad that this happened during football practice and nobody had their phone with them—so there aren’t any videos to go on line. One of the student trainers had to get his phone from his duffel to call 911. Everyone else’s was in their locker.”

That evening, Jay came by the Ritters’ home with news.

“Yeah, the DA was so angry at this incident that she was sputtering with rage,” Jay told them. “She’s applying for a search warrant for any school records related to you and to get a phone calling record for this Werthur character. She wants to link his involvement with those enforcer agents and maybe even trace the chain back to OSA headquarters. So I’ll need to get her a copy of your religious declarations showing the school stamps. I also found out that the two of you are deadly dangerous,” he grinned. “Especially Drew. Connor, the guy you took down has ruptured eardrums and a concussion, a likely ruptured spleen, and a severely hyperextended knee with most of the ligaments and tendons torn or detached.

“And Drew, you tackled that one fellow. He has a separated sternum, broken second and third ribs, and a facial fracture of the upper jaw. The other two fared a little better; your lacrosse balls still did a fair amount of damage, though. They each suffered concussions and a kind of facial fracture; can’t recall the medical terms, but it doesn’t matter. They’ll all be charged with attempted kidnapping. Nowhere in the Social Awareness law does it allow for the creation of an enforcement branch of the agency; that’s completely the invention of the agency officials.

“That means that its agents have no legal powers and especially no powers to detain anyone. They can function in certain school disciplinary matters in the same way that a school administrator can, but they cannot legally detain any person or involuntarily transport them to any location. Here’s the legal definition of kidnapping: it’s the taking of a person against his will from one place to another through the use of force, violence, threat, or intimidation, such that he doesn’t have freedom of movement to leave.”

“So how can we get this harassment to stop?” Connor asked.

“I’ll ask the DA if a restraining order is possible, given the felonies committed against you,” Jay responded. “Since a federal agency is involved, this is a complicated matter. It does appear that coming after you two like they’ve been doing is personal targeting and not a general enforcement matter.”

It was quiet in school the following day. But the day after, a team of county police, state police, and police technicians invaded the school and began going through the administrative offices and student files. Of course, all the students were burning with curiosity, wondering what this affair was all about, and rumors were flying. But with the Labor Day weekend coming up and the Program starting in just two weeks, when the police teams left, their presence was ascribed to just another school mystery. Only the three Ritter family teens knew the truth, and they weren’t talking.

The weather was cool and rainy for most of the Labor Day weekend, so the Ritters didn’t visit Pine View. The idea of sitting in the clubhouse or on the cabin porch watching the rain wasn’t appealing. Instead, Drew, Connor, and Jennifer went to Sherrill’s home where she had arranged a meeting with Wilma and a few other friends; these were the core members of the group that had been planning the Project. All of them had heard about the enforcers’ attempt to detain Drew and Connor, of course, and everyone in the school had learned how the two teens had resisted them. Drew had some thoughts about how their encounter might help the Project.

After having a light lunch, Drew told the group about the enforcers in more detail, and told them about the encounter earlier in the summer.

“So we don’t know why they targeted us specifically,” she went on. “But here’s the background from stuff we do know about. You know that all the kids in our former high school—actually all the schools in the region—had gotten religious exemptions from being in the Program. Connor and Jen and me included. The exemptions were in the records our old school sent to Glen Burnie. Now this is a guess. I think that the Program official here was told about the exemptions when the office got our records. Probably Connor and I were singled out and not Jen, ‘cause we had gotten picked for the Program—but we didn’t know that we were selected, ‘cause the school just hung up a list of names each week that nobody ever looked at.

“So, when school started, the Program jerk had us called to the office and told us that ‘cause we didn’t do the Program when we were selected back in PA, we were being punished by being put in it here, and for a whole month.”

The kids all gasped.

“The guy also said that we had no exemption in our records, too; so he must have removed the copies that we know were there. When we refused, he told us that he was calling in the enforcers. Another thing. Early this summer, a car with two enforcers cut us off on our bike and forced Connor to the side of the road and tried to kidnap us then.”

More gasps.

“Obviously we got away. Now my question is, how can we use the story of what happened against the school and the Program?”

After a lot of discussion and suggestions, they decided to put a brief message out on the texting tree with a link to a document with the full description of the incident. The document would be hosted on a document-storage site in the cloud. Connor suggested that, in addition, a copy of the list of all the Program abuses that Drew had collected for the Pennsylvania clergy be added to the site, and that was agreed to as well.

The text message they sent was: Hey Gophers, follow these links to learn what can happen to a Program participant when the Program officials run amuck like they are doing right here at GBHS. And learn what has happened to other kids forced to be in the Program elsewhere. Join the Project and get your friends involved too. Together, we win; divided, we fail!

Later the same day, the county prosecuting attorney received a message about the search.

TO: Mrs Ruth Dowton,
District Attorney, Anne Arundel County

FROM: Maj Harry Whitney,
Assistant Chief, Criminal Investigation Bureau, Maryland State Police

SUBJECT: Results from the execution of search warrants, Glen Burnie High School

This is a summary list of findings from subject search:

Glen Burnie High School - Alleged missing student documents.

1. Investigators were provided with copies of documents titled: ‘Declaration of Religious Exemption’ and date-stamped on 15 June of this year at the Glen Burnie high school office. Student permanent files for Drew Harper and Connor Martin did not contain the Pennsylvania originals of these documents; however, the file for Jennifer Ritter, who transferred from the same Pennsylvania school at the same time, did contain an original Declaration, date-stamped at the same date and time as the allegedly missing ones. The folders were examined by the forensic team and fingerprints were found matching those of Mr Donald Werthur, a federal employee of the Office of Social Awareness (OSA) who is assigned to this school as a so-called Program coordinator. Examination of fifteen additional folders chosen at random found no match to Mr Werthur.

2. Dr Marcia Petersmith, Glen Burnie school principal, stated to investigators that Mr Werthur would have no official reason to access the student permanent record files. She also stated that Mr Werthur claimed, in her presence, that no such exemption documents existed in the two students’ files; however, the office clerk produced a memo dated 17 June, addressed to Mr Werthur, stating that the office had received the records of three student transfers which contained a Program exemption and asked for instructions. A reply memo from Mr Werthur and dated 18 June instructs the clerk that ‘I’ll look into this and let you know.’

3. A search warrant was executed of Mr Werthur’s office and the missing documents were found in his desk, together with handwritten notes about telephone contacts with his supervisor, Mr William Garcy, director of operations at OSA. Mr Werthur’s notes say that he is to remove the Declaration documents from the students’ files and require that Miss Harper and Mr Martin become immediate Program participants for a month’s term and that they are to be required to strip naked immediately. If they refused, he was to contact the Enforcement Branch of the OSA for what his note called a ‘pickup.’ His note read that these instructions were being relayed by Mr Garcy on behalf of Mr Ross Gerberin, director of Program compliance, OSA, who is the supervisor of the Enforcement Branch.

4. Examination of telephone records from the high school show calls to and from the OSA headquarters at the appropriate times to support the physical evidence.

Recommendation

Mr Don Werthur: Tampering with public records, conspiracy, accessory to attempted kidnapping.

Please let us know if you require any further details.

None of the GBHS kids knew much about this search but rumors flew everywhere.

The week following Labor Day was a quiet and introspective time for all of the GBHS kids as they traveled around the school. Drew and Connor saw many familiar faces around the school, in all grades too. So many of their classmates had “practiced” being nudists at the resort that the teens recognized many, and this made them feel good—they didn’t feel like newcomers at the high school. And they knew many of the “in” kids too, since many had been involved in the Project.

Drew’s high spot was that the soccer season was in full swing with games on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. She had been elected as the defensive co-captain, and in a radical move by her coach, for certain plays and formations, when she would gain possession after a steal or interception, she would switch from her usual stopper or full-back role to a central attacking midfielder, very similar to how Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool plays that position. In this position, she would become the team’s playmaker with her speed, field-sense, and her very accurate passes and crosses.

In their Tuesday game, playing in her new role, she carded an unassisted goal, four assists, three steals, and an interception, and her team’s time of possession was 67 percent, a hugely important metric. In the game, Drew had been watching how their opponents set up their attacks as they brought the ball through the midfield. She noticed how the attacking winger usually set up a pass to their striker, and that pass was generally a weak one. So on the next attack, Drew was ready, and began sprinting toward the open pitch between the winger and striker just as the striker began her pass. She intercepted the ball and, still on a full-speed run, lobbed it ahead of her over the head of their center midfielder, picked up the ball at the right side of the box, rouletted around a defender, faked a shot, juked to the right as the goalie was tricked left, and slammed the ball into the net. It was only the valiant defensive efforts of the opposing team that kept the game from being a blow out; their goalie stopped eleven shots on goal. Still, the Gophers won 5-1.

Thursday’s game faced a team with a strong midfield and good ball control, so Drew played her usual stopper, but she still scored a goal and two assists, one of which drew gasps and applause from the spectators. Her speed out of the backfield after a steal led opposing teams to try to double- or even triple-cover her, only to give her teammates scoring opportunities. In this game, Drew was playing in a 4-1-3-2 formation between the back line and midfielders. In the second half with the score tied, one of her team’s wingbacks stole the ball on the other team’s attack and passed the ball upfield to Drew, who raced upfield with it while three defenders began approaching her to try to mark her. This left her striker and a winger wide open and Drew saw them both racing toward the opponent’s box from the opposite side of the pitch. Still moving forward at half-speed, she launched a pretty rainbow flick over the heads of her defenders, leaving them flat-footed—they had never seen that move before. Drew picked up the ball behind the defenders and sent a high cross toward her striker, who met it on the fly at the right corner of the box and headed it into the goal. This broke the tie and they went on to win this game 4-3.

Drew found herself facing some deeply conflicted feelings that Friday evening as she was working on a homework project. She loved her friends—really loved them. Jennifer’s enthusiasm could light up the darkest room, and both Sherrill and Wilma had this uncanny way of knowing exactly what Drew needed to hear when Drew began to express her doubts and concerns about how the Project would work out. And Monday was coming.

She was so gratified that she and Connor was so close because those girls’ lives and morals seemed to be so ... different. And it wasn’t simply their nudism either; they just liked sex. Not promiscuous sex; to them, just having sex was fun among their nudist friends. To Drew, this was a difficult concept.

I don’t feel like a prude, she mused, but I don’t see how relationships without love can be fulfilling.

She reached over the schoolbooks on the table and picked up the well-worn Bible lying there. Its spine was cracked and the corners of many pages were dog-eared, its wear coming from years of its readers’ flipping back and forth between favorite passages. It was her mother’s Bible and the only possession she had from her. Knowing that she was reading the same passages that her mom had done gave her peace and strength, especially during her extended camp-out times before she began high school.

Does freedom extend to being free to walk an alternative path than my friends’ path? She wondered. Is it being unfaithful to them if I don’t support them in their crazy Project, an idea that I had pushed?

She recalled a verse Pastor had mentioned in one of his early sermons, one he had delivered soon after they had met him, and it was on friendship. Turning to 1 Thessalonians 5:11, she read, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

But doesn’t that one from Colossians on cooperation apply too? She wondered and flipped to chapter 3:12-14, where she read, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

But thinking about the Project, which in a way is like fighting fire with fire, seems to me to emphasize the wrongness of nudity just for the sake of nudity. It’s just gratuitous. It’s not nudism, like at the resort. Naked people everywhere and a respectful, peaceful atmosphere.

As Drew’s thoughts continued, and she tried to visualize herself being among the naked kids in the Project, she felt that almost-forgotten pressure begin to tighten in her chest. Anxiety.

But I vowed to be free. Am I being too rigid? Or am I failing to stand firm in what I believe?

“Jesus quoted Leviticus 19:18 where it states, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ she murmured quietly. That part I understand. The loving part’s easy. But what about all the rest of the support? What about supporting my friends while they do the really difficult crap? What about my supporting their version of morality and watch them walk paths I don’t fully understand—paths that I’m afraid might hurt them?

“Say something, darling?” Connor asked, looking up from across the table. “Oh, you’re reading the Bible, so you’re into introspection mode.”

“Just thinking about Monday, sweetie. Can I be a true friend if I can’t do what our friends are doing?”

“Darling, to be a good person and friend doesn’t mean you have to copy them. Didn’t Pastor say more then once something from Luke, um, ‘A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart’? And your heart is truly good.”

“Nice verse, yeah, thanks, sweetie. I know that one, it’s from Luke ... ah, here, 6:45. You know the right stuff to keep me oriented. I’m not gonna get naked Monday, I decided. I had my own Program challenge and resistance. Twice. Like they say, I got no irons in this here fire.”

“Hey, all of our friends are agreed about that, right?” Connor replied. “They’re just delighted that you’re involved in the Project and go to the resort too. Hey, has anyone ever mentioned your wearing a cover-up there?”

“Um, no, never...”

“So there. As you said, the Glen Burnie Program is their fire. We’ve already got the battle scars to show from when we were in our own same fire ... fires. And me too; I’ll be on the cheering section and not in the game.”

“Connor, honey, you’re not just doing that to make me happy...?”