The Twelve

by D A Walmsley

  “Have you got anything to eat?” he asks.

  “We’ve fish,” says Andrew.

  “Fish, is that all you eat?” asks Jesus.

  Andrew shrugs. “It’s all I know how to cook.”

  “Then fish it is.”

  Andrew fries up some fish and Jesus sits and eats it in front of them.

  “Would you like a beer? Water?”

  “You think he’s still a ghost, that the water will pour out of his side don’t you James?” says Andrew.

  “Well excuse me for never seeing a dead person alive before!” he thinks for a second, well you know, apart from Lazarus!”

  Jesus drinks a glass of water. James seems a little disappointed.

  After Jesus has eaten he disappears.

  “Hey, where did he go?” asks Philip, who’d turned his back for a second.

  “Ghosts can walk through walls.”

  “Oh, shut up James,” says John.

  They are all amazed, happy, but also confused.

  “Was he real?”

  “Did that just happen?”

  “Were we all dreaming?”

  A key is heard in the lock and Thomas enters.

  “Hey guys, so there was only whole grain bread, not white, but I did get us some more chocs, I notic…ed. What’s wrong, you all look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

  “Jesus was here, right in this room, standing right where you are,” says John.

  “He even ate some fish Andrew made,” says Philip.

  “Yeah right. Come on you guys, this isn’t funny.”

  They all try to convince him.

  “So did anyone video it for me?”

  “No, but would you believe it even if we did?”

  “Er, maybe not. Unless I can see him, put my hands on his scars, touch where he was nailed, then I won’t believe it.”

  “It kinda makes sense. Remember when we went up the mountain and met Moses and Elijah. Jesus went really bright and then God spoke.”

  “What are you talking about?” asks Nathaniel.

  “John…shh,” says James as he and Peter both stare at him.

  “Come on spill, what do you three know?” insists Simon.

  “Moses and Elijah are long gone, you’re making no sense,” says Philip.

  “Jesus said we couldn’t tell anyone.” says James.

  “Oops!” John thinks for a moment. “ah… but: not until you see the Son of Man raised, that’s what he said wasn’t it? I think it’s alright now.”

  James and Peter don’t seem too convinced.

  “There may have been low oxygen up the mountain, you were all hallucinating,” says Simon. The others all agree.

  “This is why Jesus didn’t want you to know, you’re all negative.”

  “And you’re Teacher’s pets,” says Thaddy.

  “So what else have you hidden from me. How come I miss everything?”

  “Well, if I’d have seen Moses and Elijah I wouldn’t have denied the boss. Eh Pete,” Simon says getting agitated. “Some Rock you turned out to be.”

  “Don’t start on Peter, you weren’t there in that courtyard. Anyway I didn’t see you defend the boss in Gethsemane, you were hiding behind the big man, that’s what you were doing.”

  Peter doesn’t argue. He gets up and leaves the room without saying a word.

  As the lads are still trying to make sense of all that has just happened, Andrew gets a call.

  “Alright Cleo; we’re at Zeb’s place. Yeah, come on over.”

  Ten minutes later, Andrew is waiting at the door when Cleo swings his car into the drive, parking at an acute angle. He has a friend with him, Samuel.

  “Are the others here, we’ve got amazing news?”

  Andrew points inside. Cleo and Samuel rush into the house and the living room where the lads are all hanging out including a subdued Peter.

  “Lads, guess what?” says Cleo.

  “We’ve just seen Jesus!” says James.

  Cleo is surprised, “oh, that’s our news, so have we!”

  “Oh, great! More people have seen him. Am I the only one who hasn’t?” says Thomas.

  Cleo is bursting to tell the lads what just happened, but James is just as eager and the guests have to sit and wait until James has finished. While James is recounting Jesus’ visit, Andrew and Philip brew up some tea and coffee, it’s going to be a long night. Finally Cleo and Samuel recount what happened to them earlier.

  “We were in the city, so we thought it would be a good idea to give Mary our sympathies. On the way home we needed petrol, so Cleo stopped at a garage a couple of miles from home. As we were leaving we saw a man standing by a bus stop. Feeling generous, we offered him a lift. He listened to our conversation and asked us why we were sad. So we told him about Jesus and all that had happened to him and what he had taught and done,” says Samuel. “We said we were sad because we thought he was the Christ who had come to free Israel from the Union.”

  “He said we were foolish and slow of heart to believe.” I know, can you believe it? “He went on to say it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory. As we drove, he started to explain some of the scriptures regarding the Messiah.”

  “Why didn’t you know it was Jesus?” asks Nathaniel.

  “He looked different. We didn’t realise it was him, but what he said was really amazing, so I rang the missus, and I asked him round for supper. Samuel rang his wife and we all ate together. This man just kept telling us more and more things. Samuel started to write some of it down. It was amazing. It was only when he was eating we all recognised who he was.”

  “Then what?” asks John.

  “He vanished, just disappeared into thin air.”

  “He did that to us too,” says Alphie.

  “One minute he’s there, the next, gone,” says James.

  “I wouldn’t know!” moans Thomas.

  “Anyway, we got straight back into the car and came here, we wanted to tell you face to face,” says Cleo.

  “Do you remember what scriptures he mentioned?” asks Nathaniel.

  Samuel takes out a note-pad and hands it to him.

  “You’ll find the scriptures on the bookcase in the hallway,” says John, not making any attempt to fetch them himself.

  Nathaniel goes and digs the book out. He blows dust off it. “When was the last time you opened this?”

  Nathaniel flicks through the pages until he finds one of the verses that Samuel had written down. It was from the prophet Isaiah. He reads a few lines that stand out.

  “But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities: The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. He was arrested, sentenced and led off to die and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of the people. He was assigned a grave with evil men, but was buried with the rich, though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.”

  “You’re making that up, it’s exactly what happened! Come here, let’s have a look,” says James.

  He reads it for himself.

  “Wow, he’s right.”

  Chapter 45

  “I’m telling you, they’re watching us.”

  “Come away from the window Thomas.”

  “I have a bad feeling Matthew.”

  “You always have a bad feeling.”

  Thomas comes away from the window and slumps on the sofa.

  The phone rings for the hundredth time today.

  “Don’t answer it, it will be the press again,” shouts Philip from another room.

  “Hello,” says Thomas, picking up the phone. “No news, sorry. Yeah we’ll let you know if we see him.”

  “I thought I said don’t answer it.”

  “It was Mary, Jesus’ mum, you call screening her now are you?”

  Matthew smiles. Thomas isn’t the most positive lad at the best of times and now over a week since he missed Jesus he’s gotten far worse. He’s eve
n more negative and morose than usual and it’s affecting everybody. Matthew finds him funny. In everything the group does, there is always his little voice, warning what might happen. He looks across at him, his arms folded and a big frown across his forehead. Thomas wants desperately to see the boss, well, we all do.

  Simon comes into the room and carefully peers out of the window. Thomas looks up.

  “Simon, don’t you start,” says Matthew.

  “They’re watching us aren’t they?” asks Thomas.

  “Someone’s there,” replies Simon.

  “If we were in trouble wouldn’t they have done something by now?” Matthew is getting a little fed up.

  “Maybe they’re waiting for backup?” suggests Thomas.

  Friends and followers of Jesus have been coming and going all week. Ever since he appeared it’s been busier than the Temple at festival time. There is never anywhere to sit. They have nothing to do apart from eat and drink and now when they have a bit of peace the night comes and these two start to get nervous. Matthew takes out his gun and decides to face this threat head on.

  “Right, come on. Simon, tool up.”

  “What?” says Simon.

  “Let’s go see what this is all about.”

  “I’ll stay here,” says Thomas.

  “You will not, you’re coming with us.”

  With a nervous Thomas following behind, Matthew and Simon go outside in the dark to investigate the suspicious car.

  “Close the door, don’t let any light out,” Simon whispers to Thomas.

  Matthew and Simon carefully edge around the house and down the drive past the minibus. Bending down they both run to the garden wall, and squat down behind the gateposts. Matthew points his gun and looks, first one way then the other. He signals to Simon to do the same. Matthew knows this is all a bit of an exaggeration but it will prove to Thomas that they are taking it seriously and there is nothing to be frightened of. It may also go some way to help convince himself.

  Only trouble is, he isn’t happy with what he sees. Simon has spotted the same thing. Bending as low as they can, so as not to be seen, they head back to Thomas, pushing him into the house and quietly closing the door.

  “Problem,” says Simon.

  “Oh, no,” says Thomas.

  “James, John, is there a back way out of this place?”

  “What are you talking about?” asks John.

  “There is a car with two men in, parked just down the road,” says Matthew.

  “What should we do?”

  Matthew has an idea.

  “Me and Simon are going to get a better look, close up.”

  “From behind,” Simon works out what Matthew is thinking.

  “I’ll give the house phone two rings, then I want some of you to go outside and make a noise, laugh, shout, anything.”

  “Oh a distraction, like it,” says John. “Will do.”

  “We will be safe, right?”

  “Maybe,” Matthew winks.

  He and Simon head out the back and over a fence. It’s not the easiest route, having to negotiate their way through other peoples’ gardens, trying not to be seen. Once on the street, they casually walk towards the rear of the parked car.

  “What’s the betting they are Temple guards,” says Simon.

  That is what Matthew himself was thinking. If it’s his old mate Benjamin he’s not sure what he will do. Is there any reason they won’t shoot first? After all, the Temple authorities are trying to blame the lads for stealing Jesus’ body.

  “Who would have thought we’d be walking down a street to do a job on someone?”

  “I always wondered, have you swapped sides or have I?” asks Matthew.

  “You, definitely.”

  “Then why does this feel like I’m back in the old routine?”

  They stop thirty yards away from the back of the car and hide in a driveway. Matthew dials the house.

  “Oh, come on. It’s engaged!”

  “What!”

  “The home phone’s engaged.”

  Simon grabs the phone off him and rings John’s mobile.

  “Yo, like now would be a good time to…”

  “They’re idiots,” he says giving Matthew back his phone.

  Matthew’s not going to argue with that one.

  “What if these guys are only here to spy on us, see if we have the body,” Simon wonders.

  “That’s possible. Maybe we go about this slightly differently.”

  “Go on.”

  “Remember the first test? What John and Thomas did by accident.”

  Matthew nods, “I’m with you.”

  A door bangs and there are shouts and singing.

  “We’re all going on a countrywide tour, countrywide tour.”

  Banging on the minibus and shouts of “Galilee” ring out.

  “Go, Go, Go.”

  Simon and Matthew run up behind the car and get in the back seat. The two men in the front don’t realise until its too late.

  “Glad we caught you, Bethany please,” says Simon.

  “Been busy?” asks Matthew.

  Matthew can’t see any weapons, but the men were definitely watching the house, of that he is certain.

  “Get out,” shouts the driver.

  “What are you doing, this isn’t a taxi,” says the other.

  “Then why are you parked here?” asks Simon.

  “Look, you gonna get out or are we gonna have to kick you out.”

  Matthew and Simon look at each other and nod. They both point their guns at the backs of the men’s heads.

  “Keep your hands on the steering wheel and you,” he says pointing at the man in the passenger seat, “hands on the dashboard, where I can see them. No sudden moves OK!” says Matthew.

  “Now why are you watching MY house?” asks Simon.

  “We have been ordered to watch you.”

  “See where you’ve hidden the body.”

  “What! That’s stupid,” says Simon, pushing his gun hard into the man’s skull.

  “No, it’s the truth, we aren’t even armed, honest.”

  “We haven’t got the body, haven’t you heard, he’s alive. We’ve seen him.”

  “We’re all going on a countrywide tour,” James and John are still singing and are heading down to the car waving.

  “Do you honestly think those two could steal a body?”

  Matthew can see that the men are petrified, it’s a look he’s seen many times before. James and John are only frightening them even more.

  “Come on, let’s go,” says Matthew, getting out of the car. “That means you two. You must be hungry, sitting here for so long watching us. Andrew and Peter must have dinner ready by now, there’s always plenty to go round.”

  With James and John still singing, Matthew and Simon lead the men to the house. Inside, Philip and Nathaniel show them around the house and gardens, everywhere they care to look. Afterwards they share the fish supper Andrew and Peter have made.

  When the two guards leave, the lads sit in the living room.

  “If the boss doesn’t come back soon, I think we should go home,” says Nathaniel.

  It is what everyone of them has been thinking.

  “No, I want to see the boss, we wait here.”

  “We’ve been waiting for over a week, I want to go home,” says Nathaniel.

  Everyday they all get up thinking, today Jesus could come. When it doesn’t happen they become more and more disillusioned and fearful of the authorities. Matthew knows that the fishermen will all go back to their lives pre-Jesus and the rest will eventually find other things to occupy them. As for himself, who would employ him? An ex-collector and now an ex-follower of a dead Christ.

  He isn’t the only one who feels like that.

  “We need to accept that he may not show up again,” says Philip.

  “I need to get home, see Ruth and the kids.”

  James puts on the TV to check the news and see if anyone is
reporting a new sighting of the boss before he commits to his decision to leave the city.

  “Oh, do you mind, I can’t see the screen,” says James.

  “James!”

  “What? Do I stand in front when you’re watching it?”

  “James!”

  James looks to see who’s blocking his way.

  “Oh, hi boss, do you mind shifting out of the way a touch.”

  Everybody waits for him to realise who’s blocking his view.

  “Oh, Ohhh it’s you! Boss you’re here again.”

  “Thomas,” says Jesus, “come here, look at my scars, put your hand in my side and don’t be so unbelieving.”

  Thomas with the biggest grin on his face, carefully reaches out and touches Jesus’ scars on his hands and in his side.

  “You’re alive, really alive.”

  His face then goes all serious, as he begins to realise what this must mean.

  “But you died, like really died. Now you’re alive. How? No one can do that unless you are… God, you’re God,” he says.

  Jesus looks at him “Oh Thomas, you believe because you have seen me with your own eyes, but one day people will believe in me without the benefit of seeing me.”

  Chapter 46

  “Hey, you’ve managed a whole night on a boat without being sick!”

  A small fishing boat makes its way slowly into the harbour after a nights fishing. At the helm is Peter. Also on board are Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John, Andrew and Philip. There are more people on board than fish, it hasn’t been a good trip. After Jesus’ last appearance, the lads all came back to Galilee. Jesus had hinted that he would see them here, but he was vague about the where and when.

  All four fishermen decided to go out in a boat together, get their sea-legs back and take a more leisurely trip. James had promised Philip and Nathaniel that he would give them a trip around the lake if they did his turn at washing up, so they are tagging along. Thomas, not known for his sea-legs, but not wanting to be left out of anything again, decided that he’d go everywhere the rest of them went – even if that meant going in a boat.

  What none of them were expecting was a long hard night going up and down the lake chasing invisible fish.

  “How can you call yourself fishermen, if you don’t catch anything?” says Nathaniel.