lucyoncolorado

In which I attempt to save RR and her family from a cult but end up nearly falling into a pit of excrement...


What I remember most clearly is that RR and her family were living in what appeared to me to be a religious cult compound of some sort. The layout of the compound’s main house was similar to the downstairs floor of my grandmother’s place.

Several families gathered there in the evenings and at mealtimes. The remainder of the day, they were occupied with cult jobs while cult caregivers looked over their children, collectively. No one was allowed to leave the compound without permission, and the segregation of family members made it difficult for anyone to scheme otherwise.

I entered with an open mind. RR is from another culture and religious background, and I’ve always been respectful of our differences. When our mutual friends told me that she and her family had been taken under by a cult, I was skeptical and chalked it up to their xenophobia. But after she declined my invitation to visit, I decided to go check out her new living arrangements. To my shock, I found that my friends were right. RR seemed unwilling to talk to me about it, but I could tell from the look in her eyes that she wished she could escape, but she could not leave her children or her parents.

I arranged a shopping trip to get groceries and figured out a way to get RR’s children to accompany me. I figured that if I could get them away to safety, that RR would have more luck getting herself and parents away. I was feeling like a hero and backing out of the driveway with the kids in the car when suddenly a pixie-cut blonde insisted on joining me. As there was not room for four people, one of RR’s boys had to be left behind. We didn’t make it out of the driveway anyway as I suddenly had the urge to use the restroom.

I ran back into the house, so like my grandmother’s, and went straight away to the restroom where, to my surprise, RR was fixing the toilet. She explained that I had to squat above the toilet for it to function properly. The toilet was in the middle of the room, and it was surrounded by soggy carpet mats. One thin plywood beam led from the door to the toilet, and RR explained that I must walk the beam to the seat and not step on the mats. She exited the room and I did as she suggested. The toilet then turned into a blackened brass stupa sticking up from the ground. I was confused about how to use it. I looked around the bathroom and the whole room seemed dark and worn down. I was confused about where I was, and I had the feeling that there was a secret hidden beneath the soggy carpets. I balanced on the beam and removed the carpets from around the toilet and discovered that the entire floor had been removed. Aside from the stupa and the one plywood beam on which I was perched, the whole room was just a deep, dark pit filled with excrement.

Like the cartoon character who runs off a cliff but doesn’t fall until he realizes there is nothing beneath his feet, I had been able to stay balanced upon the beam without any problem until I realized there was nothing below the carpets. Once I realized my predicament, I slipped. I was able to keep my senses and not plummet into the mess below, and with one hand I caught the edge of the thin wooden plank. As I hung there, I told myself to stay calm. Aside from how disgusting it would be to land in the waste, it was also likely that the fall would result in more than a few broken bones. And then there were the cult members to worry about. What would they think of the fact that I’d pulled up their carpets and revealed their pit? Would they save me or leave me there? These things all went through my mind, but I kept telling myself to stay calm and focus.

Then, swiftly, I hoisted myself back up onto the beam, got both my arms and one leg over the edge, and then pulled myself upright. I briefly considered replacing the carpets so that no one would know what happened, but then decided instead just to get out of the whole compound as quickly as possible.