Sheltering in Place: Moving Along

Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, there is no such thing as karma.

Neon Ephesians 6:8 (Unified Standard Edition)

- - -

Hitomi's phone was ringing and it was her host mother: Elizabeth Smith.

She slid the accept button to the side and brought the phone to her ear, "Hello? Mrs. Smith?"

"HITOMI! Oh my goodness! JOE! JOE!!! I've got her! I've got her on the phone!"

Hitomi flushed pink in her face as the loud yells burst through the phone's tiny speaker and multiple heads turned towards her throughout the annex area. She stood up quickly, leaning into her phone and said, "Yes! Yes Mrs. Smith I'm OK! It's OK!"

"Oh Hitomi we're so glad you're safe, we've been worried sick. Joe was beside himself that he hadn't offered to give you a ride home after school and then, oh my, with everything that's happened, the kids just kept asking all night and we couldn't even get them to bed, we were just praying, all night, praying you were safe!"

Apparently the possibility that their entire religion and way of belief was pointless had not impacted the way the Smith family acted in any way.

"No I was - I was just on my way home and was in Georgetown. I saw it all on TV, but then everyone around me went crazy! Well, almost everyone, some nice people helped me, but, but there were guns and shooting and car accidents!" Hitomi exclaimed in a hush-yell, having sped her way over to a corner so she wouldn't disturb everyone else who was still eating their breakfast.

Mrs. Smith had gasped loudly, and Hitomi could tell she was incredibly worried about her. "Are you hurt? Where are you now? It was just awful, not knowing where you were. What were we going to tell your parents? Y-you, you just don't know how RELIEVED we are to know you're OK! But, oh I'm getting distracted, where are you? Are you at a friends? Are you safe?"

"I found the Japanese embassy and I'm safe here. They're taking good care of me and I just ate breakfast. But is everyone alright there? Are the kids alright?"

"The kids are fine sweetie, thank you for asking, they miss you! Joe and I both stayed home - I guess we don't have a choice now - but we've been trying to get a hold of you, so we're so glad you answered! The cell service has been up and down all morning!"

Hitomi nodded with her phone next to her ear: "Yes, I had the same problem." She changed the topic, trying to catch up to how the Smith family was feeling, "But are you all OK? The... angel, it said very harsh things. And it, uh, I mean, he, he killed the President. I was watching as it happened, I couldn't believe it!"

Mrs. Smith paused, treading carefully as she spoke, "Hitomi, I know it all seems very confusing right now, especially since you don't really know or believe the way we do, but I just want to bear my testimony to you: I really believe the Lord loves us and is just testing us - we're, well, we're his precious children and really, it's up to Him. Do you remember what we taught you about the Temple?"

Hitomi considered this, trying to understand Mrs. Smith's complicated English as best she could, and ventured: "I think so. You mean, about eternal families?"

"Right, exactly Hitomi. My husband and I are married for time and all eternity, and that was before the Lord announced this terrible Judgment. And our children are 'sealed' to us as well - do you understand what I mean?"

"So... you believe that even though this happened, you already can go to heaven? And your family is safe?"

"Exactly, Hitomi, and there's something very important I need to tell you."

Hitomi prayed, ironically of course, that it wasn't another invitation to go to church!

"Yes, Mrs. Smith?"

"My husband is on the phone with the bishop, and we're receiving instructions about what to do from the leadership of our Church, from our Prophet, do you remember who the Prophet is?"

"Yes, I remember."

"Good, good. So, listen Hitomi, I know this is sudden, but we're leaving. You're more than welcome to come with us sweetie, but if you want to go home we understand that too. The Prophet has called all of us, all members of our Church across the world, to come to Utah."

Hitomi's mouth fell open.

"U-Utah? All of you? All Mormons?"

"Yes, every single man, woman, and child of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we're all moving to Utah to serve the Lord's great purpose. We're going to try to leave as soon as we can do it safely. OH! Oh Hitomi! You wouldn't know, I think, but the National Guard has been deployed in the city and all around the Beltway area. There are soldiers keeping the peace now, so, it's much safer than it was last night. Be VERY careful! Martial law is in effect so they'll arrest you if you're out after dark, oh Hitomi, please be careful, won't you come with us?"

Wow.

How could she even respond to the verbal waterfall that Elizabeth Smith had just let spill out?

They were moving to Utah? Like, now?

Because an old man who thought he was a "prophet" said so? They were crazy.

She loved 'em like a second family, but they were crazy.

And soldiers on the streets? She'd been with soldiers ALL NIGHT last night, and they hadn't been able to calm the chaotic outbreaks of violence sweeping the city. There were literally armed mobs of people running around acting like it was the end of the world.

Well, technically, it was the end of the world, she supposed, if the angel had been real.

But obviously Americans were truly divided on whether it was a real angel and what it meant for their beliefs. Given that a lot of people she had met had tried to argue religion with her (since she was a theoretically a "heathen" Shinto-Buddhist) and claimed she was going to Hell for not believing the right way, she found it incredibly unlikely that ANY of them were going to stand down and agree to disagree.

The angel had lit a tinderbox full of kerosene-soaked firewood.

"Hitomi? Hello? Hitomi?"

Oh, she had gotten lost in trying to parse out what Mrs. Smith had said.

"Oh-um, I'm still here Mrs. Smith, thank you, um, for the kind offer, but uh- I think it would be best if I went home. My parents already called, you see-"

"OH GOOD! You talked to your parents? Give them both our love, OK? Right, OK, Hitomi - are you, do you have clothes?"

Hitomi looked down at her ugly T-shirt and super baggy sweatpants.

"Uhhh, I have some," she said, unconvincingly.

"We'll bring you some as soon as we start traveling, OK? Alright? Actually, Hitomi, you know what? Could you do us a huge favor when everything calms down?"

"Um, of course, Mrs. Smith," Hitomi said, not thinking to check what said favor would actually be.

"Could you watch the house for us, while we try to sell it? We won't be there, and-"

Hitomi wasn't sure. She might be staying in the embassy for a while until she could catch a flight home. She said so. "Um, I'm not sure, because the embassy is saying to stay here until it's safe and-"

"OH! Oh of course dear, no, of course. We'll just, hmm, well you have your key, so if you DO need to visit the house, it'll be here for you. You know the alarm code. We'll leave it armed, OK? Also, let's see, if you can text me a list of what clothes or things you need from your room, we'll try to drop them off when we leave the city, OK?"

That would be nice, actually.

"Thank you so much," she responded, simply.

"Alright, stay safe! I have to go, OK?"

Wow. She said OK a lot, Hitomi thought.

"OK, goodbye Mrs. Smith, thank you for everything."

They hung up the phones on either side of the call at the same time, and Hitomi stared down at her screen, trying to process the verbal whirlwind that Mrs. Smith had unleashed on her.

"Whoa, that sounded crazy," Sakura said, having appeared from behind Hitomi, who nearly jumped out of her skin since she was sort of huddling in the corner and hadn't seen or felt her new friend's approach.

She turned around, tucking away the phone into her sweatpants, and laughed nervously.

"Y-yeah, they're a bit much, sometimes. But Utah? Wow. It DOES sound crazy, doesn't it? She said the Prophet told ALL the Mormons to move back to Utah."

"Wait, what? What Prophet? Like, a mind-reader?"

Sakura had no idea how the intricacies of Mormonism worked, which, to be fair, neither had Hitomi until she'd moved in with her host family. She had gotten quite used to explaining to her classmates - who were also Christian but apparently a vastly different kind - how the Smiths lived and acted.

"Hmm, no, the word they use in Japanese isn't quite like the English one. It's more like their Pope, but they believe all the other Christians don't have any 'authority' to do priest stuff, so only their 'Prophet' is the real leader of Christianity."

"That sounds confusing and kinda dumb," Sakura said.

"Yeahhhhh... but they're really nice people, honest, and very hard working," Hitomi defended.

"Right, well, speaking of hard working, that's why I came over. They want you and I to do some of the kitchen duties for now until they can do some sort of skill assessment this afternoon and figure out what we're all good at."

"Oh, right, no problem - I'm happy to help!"

"Great! Because we're on dish duty. Shall we?"

- - -

Dish duty was a bit of a misnomer, Hitomi felt. Most of the food in the annex had been eaten on paper plates, and thus the things that needed to be washed were actually the food preparation areas and cookware.

But fair enough, Hitomi was no stranger to doing chores around the Smith household (or her own household back in Takasaki, for that matter).

"Urrghhhh, these cleaning chemicals are the worst!" Sakura complained, her eyes a bit puffy.

A middle-aged man next to them, wearing thick glasses and a grey suit, said, "I know how you feel, I handle the IT for this place but they needed the extra hands."

"Oh, you're in charge of IT for the embassy?" Hitomi asked, excited to meet another geek, even if he were older and not in her zone of romantic interest. Platonic friendships are important too!

"Yeah, but a lot of my work has been offloaded today because of the internet being so unreliable. Our communications director is handling the direct stuff with the Ministry, so... dishes. At least I'm helping."

Sakura had been fishing around in her handbag for a second, and pulled out a small bottle of eye-drops. She peeled back her eyelids and quickly placed a few inside, blinking rapidly, and then put them away.

"Ah, Hitomi, could you...?"

Hitomi stepped forward and quickly flicked the tiny leakage of extra eye-drops away from Sakura's eyes with her thumb, making sure not to smear Sakura's makeup and eyeliner.

"Thanks! Hard to do that without a mirror," she commented, then turned towards the gentleman who had spoken. "I'm Sakura Tanaka, a pleasure to meet you, ah, Mr...?"

"Ueno, Ken Ueno, nice to meet you both."

"Oh, I'm Hitomi Hisakawa, I'm an exchange student."

He looked interested, but kept carefully cleaning out the inside of a large rice cooker pot: "An exchange student eh, any particular topic of study?"

"Computer science, sir, I want to be a programmer!"

"Ah, good for you! I'm not a programmer myself, I prefer networking and hardware. And what about you Miss Tanaka?"

"Oh, I do network design for a defense contractor, wow, what a coincidence!" she laughed, not having yet returned to washing the cookware.

"Well, let's get these dishes done, and see what we can do about using both your talents a little more wisely, shall we?"

"Deal!" both girls said.