The Program

TD.

TD nodded at Nancy. "Go on."

Nancy's tears started again. Her voice was little more than a squeak. "I want to stay with you, TD."

"Go."

A meaty fist encompassed Nancy's considerable arm. Skate tugged, and she followed him out into the night. Her choked cries were audible all the way across the clearing. Then Skate's shed door slammed, and there were just the crickets.

TD stroked Leah's arm. "Come."

Lorraine sat down on an old love seat in the corner, pouting. On his way to the bedroom, TD told her, "I'd like my morning routine to go more smoothly than this."

He closed the door behind them and pressed a button on the wall-mounted stereo. A severed wire was all that remained of the radio antenna. As familiar music swelled, TD said, "Opera is one of four meaningful contributions mankind has made to the world."

She was too nervous to ask the other three.

He undressed by the side of the bed, his lean, sinewy muscles shadowed by the candles Nancy and Lorraine had dutifully lit before his arrival. He fell onto the bed, torso propped on silk pillows, an arm thrown back over his head just so. "You're stopped-up, Leah. Repressed. I've seen how you react to men. I want to lend you my body. You can experiment with me. Do anything that you want. TD wants to do this for you and your growth."

Through the speakers, a tenor moaned, "La donna e mobil qual piuma al vento."

She felt impossibly small, a peasant girl before the throne. "I…I don't think I can."

"A normal woman would feel aroused. You're just holding back. Go on, give it a try. Put your mouth on me."

She shuffled forward, tiny steps on numb feet, but then doubled over clutching her stomach. "I can't."

His face creased. "It's this kind of behavior that got your dad killed from cancer."

"Wh…what?"

"You killed him by accident. I think you were always difficult and obstinate. I think dealing with you backed him up, stymied his development on a cellular level."

A dead weight tugged at her inside. "No. Don't say that. No."

"If that makes you angry with me, too bad. Being nice doesn't interest me. I have more important responsibilities – to reveal, to provide insight, to speak the truth. If you want to stay with The Program, listen, admit, and learn. If you want to paddle around in your denial, go do it elsewhere. I can call Randall right now and have him take you back down the hill, just like he took Chris."

A flash of an image – the dog's moist muzzle – struck her.

"You can make your way out there if you'd like. Now, what's it gonna be? Well?"

Leah fought her lurching gut still. She crouched bedside and bent her head. TD leaned back among the opulent pillows and emitted the faintest of groans.