The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison Page A

relationships with other women.
    â€œWe are Carrie Helm’s parents, Judy and Aaron Weston,” the older man said, standing up in the now rather crowded room. Kurt’s office was filled with two bookshelves of church books, and Kurt had read most of them. There were two paintings of Christ, one from the story in the Book of Mormon, of him blessing the Lamanite children during the visit to America after his death, and the other of Christ in Gethsemane with Michael the archangel behind him, giving him strength. There was also a drawing ofthe First Presidency, which I always thought was an odd image. To me, it looked like the three men—the president and his two elected apostle-counselors—had one neck with three heads coming out of it.
    â€œDown from Sandy,” added Aaron Weston.
    That was about twenty minutes from Draper. I’d had no idea Carrie Helm’s parents lived so close. I had never heard her talk about them. But then again, why would I?
    â€œOh. I see,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure that I did. I glanced up at Kurt, who was behind his desk.
    â€œThey are here because they have not heard from their daughter since she left her family here, and they are concerned about her,” said Kurt.
    â€œWe are more than concerned about her. We are overcome with worry,” her father said. He spoke eloquently, and with deep emotion.
    â€œPlease, sit down,” said Kurt, nodding to the couch. He got out a folding chair for me, and we all sat. I felt as if the room became less crowded, which made no sense. It was something about Aaron Weston sitting down. He felt less—overwhelming in size and personality.
    â€œI don’t know what Jared has told you about Carrie, but there is no way she would leave Kelly like that,” said Aaron Weston. He gripped his wife’s shoulder, his knuckles white, and she nodded, a look of desperation on her face. I noticed, though, that her hands were folded neatly in front of her.
    â€œI’m sure that she will get in contact with you soon. Maybe she’ll decide she’s made a mistake and want to come—” Kurt began.
    Aaron Weston cut him off abruptly with, “The only mistake my daughter made was in marrying Jared Helm. He is a tyrant and a bully and quite possibly insane. Have you heard him talk about his political views? Or his religious beliefs? He is rigid and self-righteous and he actually thinks that the lost tribes of Israel are frozen under the ice at the North Pole.”
    If we kicked people out of the Mormon church for believing crazy things like that, we would lose half the people on the rolls. I’d heard the lost tribes under the North Pole thing at least a half dozen times before, though it was usually a couple of generations removed from Jared Helm’s age group.
    Aaron continued, “I have talked to my daughter on numerous occasions about leaving her husband. I wouldn’t care if she did that. But she always made the plans with Kelly included. How could she leave her daughter with such a man?”
    There was a long silence. I couldn’t help but think of the way that Carrie had hugged Kelly when she left her in Primary. Aaron Weston was right. Carrie leaving her daughter behind struck me as wrong. How could any mother do that? My throat tightened.
    â€œI’ve never heard anything against Jared Helm, not from your daughter or anyone else,” said Kurt. “Not about him being dangerous, in any case.” Just a bit right-wing; we’d both heard him in church meetings call homosexuality and universal health care “signs of the end times.”
    â€œDid you ever talk to Carrie about him in private?” Aaron Weston said. “She is afraid of him. She would never say anything close to the truth when he was around.” He pounded a fist into his hand when he said the word “never.” I was somewhat taken aback by his size and the strength of his body