Free Broken Branch by John Mantooth

and then he was sure and deft again, his eyes locked on Otto’s lead as they performed.
    â€œNo, I wasn’t surprised at all, Trudy.”

28
    â€œI’ve called you here today because the Lord wants you to witness the way we love a sister in Christ,” Otto said, standing beneath the big oak tree. The storm shelter stood propped open off to the right. He nodded toward her. Trudy nodded back, keeping her head up, her eyes active, trying to meet the others’ eyes, but all of them looked away when they saw her gaze. She saw the Talbots and Rachel, and Henry and Redi Clark. She saw Eugenia standing, her face serious and sad.
Probably for my soul,
Trudy thought, remembering what Ben had told her about his wife. Ben was there too, his face turned away from hers.
He’s thinking he caused this, but no one caused this but Otto. And James.
And if Trudy were really honest with herself, she’d realize that she had caused it too. Her desperate seeking had brought her here, and before that, there had been other places along the way where she could have made a decision and stopped everything—this place, this insanity—from happening. She shouldn’t have signed the papers, she shouldn’t have married James, she should have left weeks ago, when she felt the first signs of queasiness creeping under her skin.
    She’d lied to Otto and James, of course, to keep Ben from being punished too. She told them she’d been walking, unable to sleep. She’d stumbled upon the willow and decided to leave.
    â€œI was afraid,” she’d told them, savoring the truth of these words.
    â€œFear is the enemy of the Lord,” Otto had responded. Then they’d dragged her here and called everyone out of their homes. Except the children, who, thankfully, had been told to remain inside.
    She tried to meet Ben’s eye, to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but like the others, he wouldn’t look at her.
    â€œA lot of you were upset about the choice I made not to show Trudy the justice God poured out on Simpson. You worried that if she didn’t see it, then in a few days’ time she herself might be hanging there, tangled up in the justice of the Lord. Yet I knew that Trudy’s faith wasn’t strong enough to understand. By her husband’s own admission, Trudy has always struggled with her faith, with her relationship with God. I was right. Last night, she stumbled upon it herself. My foresight was true. Brother James and me caught her trying to escape with those children this morning.”
    Trudy took a deep breath. Her stomach shifted, and she felt like she might be sick again. Or maybe it was the demon again. Maybe it was finally waking up.
    â€œFurther complicating the sin, she blamed Simpson’s death on me. She will be confined to the storm shelter for five days. At that point, the community will gather again in order to judge if she is remorsed of her actions and fully understands that God is in control of her life and that He has made it abundantly clear that her life is here in Broken Branch with her husband and wonderful children.” Then he did something Trudy had never seen him do before, and it frightened her more than anything else that had happened so far. He asked the congregation to approve his decision. “If you think this is a fair and righteous punishment, lift your voice to heaven and say ‘amen.’”
    A chorus of amens was cast up into the morning sky. Otto grabbed her arm and tried to guide her toward the opening, but she twisted free. She didn’t make it far before somebody else caught her. It was Earl Talbot. He was joined by James and Franklin.
    Franklin was grinning.
    It took four of them in all once Otto rejoined to move her toward the storm shelter. Trudy tried to stop them. She screamed and beat her fists against first James’s back and then anyone she could reach. She jerked and twisted until she couldn’t see