The Gift of Rio (The Gift of the Elements)

by C. S. Elston

  Luke and Sota followed Rio out of the house. Sota locked the door and closed it behind them. They were certain there was extensive structural damage, and some they could see, but they were surprised it wasn’t worse. They wouldn’t know any details right away and they could only hope no one had been severely hurt or even killed. Everything was dark. The power was out and a dust cloud was already blocking a lot of the light from the night sky. Rio continued to lead the men down the street, out onto the beach and up to the shoreline. She stopped and looked at the beautiful ocean in front of her. Emotion overcame her and she closed her eyes.

  Before Rio turned around to open her eyes and face her father, the tears were already falling. She hugged Sota tightly and told him how glad she was that she had finally met him and spent time with him. It was the first instance in her life where she got to tell her biological father that she loved him. And, she also told him that she looked forward to seeing him again one day.

  Sota thanked Rio for finding him as the tears began to fall from his eyes as well. He gave her a warm hug and kissed her cheek before telling her that he loved her, too. He said that, in fact, he only wished he had known she and Yeshua sooner so that he could have felt the love he had in his heart for a longer period of time but that he was grateful to know that it was a love that would never fade.

  When Sota and Rio finally let go of one another, she turned her attention to Luke. Her tears were uncontrollable and his were starting to stream down his cheeks as well.

  “I . . . ” Rio started before Luke interrupted her.

  “I love you,” Luke blurted out. “Not just as my sister in faith. Not just as friends. I have absolutely, without any doubt, fallen completely head over heels in love with you, Rio.”

  Luke reached out and gripped Rio by the arms, slowly pulling her toward him. He moved his left hand up and placed it on her right cheek, wiping tears away with his thumb. He then leaned in, closed his eyes and kissed her more deeply and passionately then either of them had ever kissed anyone before. Rio knew instantly that if she could choose a single moment in which to spend eternity, that this was, hands down, the one that she would have picked. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever.

  “I couldn’t let you go without telling you,” he said as he slowly pulled away.

  “I’m glad,” she said before opening her eyes. “I love you too, Luke. Like I never imagined possible. This isn’t a forever goodbye though. I will see you again.”

  “I know,” Luke replied as both welled up with tears again. “It still hurts.”

  Rio nodded in agreement as tears continued to fall. She clinched her jaw, unable to speak, in a losing battle against the tears. Rio closed her eyes tightly and then opened them again, releasing a new stream of waterworks. Adding insult to injury, the release of so many tears cleared her vision and she suddenly spotted Agents Fukuda and Watanabe in the distance.

  Rio slowly started backing up. Her feet were in the water and she hadn’t even bothered to remove her shoes.

  “Where are you going?” Luke asked and then spun around to see what she was suddenly focused on. He spotted the agents, too. He could barely make them out in the cloudy darkness but he immediately knew who they were.

  “Is that the NPA?” Luke asked as he turned back to Rio, who was nodding affirmatively.

  All he could do was close his eyes and let the tears fall. He knew that he had to accept God’s plan but that didn’t make it easy. The phrase from the book of James, chapter one, verse 6, “he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind,” came immediately to his mind and quickly pierced his heart. This was the most difficult moment of his life so far and the anticipation of the moments that were going to immediately follow made the whole thing nearly unbearable. He didn’t know the details of what was about to happen but, he knew that his time with Rio had finally run out. Had he not known that God is sovereign and had he not appreciated the gift that his precious interlude with Rio had been to him, he may not have been able to handle either that moment or what he suspected might be coming next.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Closing

  Luke stood, motionless, facing Rio, as the agents approached from behind him. Rio had stepped far enough backward that the water was up to her shoulders. Sota was standing off to the side with his eyes darting fearfully back and forth between the agents and his daughter.

  “You need to come with us,” Agent Fukuda spoke in Japanese and with authority as he and Agent Watanabe stopped just short of the waterline.

  “I can’t do that,” Rio said calmly, continuing the conversation in Japanese. “I won’t.”

  “It’s not up to you,” Agent Watanabe chimed in.

  “It’s not up to you either,” Rio informed the agents.

  “Excuse me?” Agent Fukuda asked, incorrectly taking Rio’s statement as an act of defiance.

  “I’m staying right here,” Rio insisted. “This is bigger than any of us. There is a massive tsunami coming and God Himself has tasked me with stopping it.”

  “What tsunami?” Agent Watanabe asked. “We had a very large earthquake. And, yes, a tsunami could possibly be created as a result. That’s why most people are already headed for higher ground. But, you couldn’t possibly know what will happen. And, how would you be able to stop it if you did, anyway? This god of yours can’t do it but you can? Come on. Let’s go.”

  The water began to quickly recede from the shoreline.

  “This tsunami,” Rio calmly said as everyone looked at the water.

  The disappearance of the water swiftly exposed Rio’s body and the ocean floor became visible. She felt her body sink lower as the sand withdrew from beneath her shoes and was carried away.

  “God is going to stop it. He’s just going to do it through me. Since you don’t believe me and you can now see that a tsunami is in fact coming, it would be logical for you to go now.”

  The agents began backing away as the amount of exposed ocean floor rapidly increased, meter by meter, behind Rio.

  “Actually,” Rio said as she looked at her father and Luke, “you should all go.”

  Sota stepped forward and put an arm around Luke as the agents turned and started to run away from the coastline.

  “I’ll see you again,” Rio assured them before turning around to face the task ahead.

  As Rio started walking toward the receding water, Sota and Luke slowly backed away but they couldn’t bring themselves to take their eyes off Rio. She continued her march into certain danger until she could see the wave in front of her begin to develop and come roaring back toward her.

  There was no panic. No hesitation. The wave was massive but Rio’s resolve was strong. She didn’t have time to focus on it but she quickly estimated that it was two hundred feet high. Still undaunted, she quickly lifted her arms and stretched them out in the shape of a “V” as she began to tenaciously concentrate on the water in front of her. The force behind the wave was incredible, and the strength required from Rio was immense. But, her connection to the water was profound and she immediately felt in her soul that what she had to resist and take control of extended way beyond just what she could see in front of her.

  The tsunami waves being generated by the gigantic earthquake extended all along the eastern coastline of Japan. They reached further South than Rio’s newly encountered family members in Shingu and considerably further North than she had been, even as far as Kinkasan Island. But, the worst damage would have been near where she was standing at that moment as the waves would have ravaged the land beyond Sagami Bay and absolutely decimated the surrounding areas of Chiba and Tokyo after the water funneled in through Tokyo Bay. With a population of more than 12.6 million people, the death toll in Tokyo would likely have climbed to well over 100,000.

  Behind her, Sota and Luke looked on. They were equally amazed, proud and already grieving what they could tell was likely about to happen. Behind them, many people who knew it was already too late to ge
t to higher ground had begun to watch the terrifying wave rushing through the darkness. With the lights out and all of the dust in the air, the wave may have gone unnoticed if it had been smaller. But, it was so massive in size that it was too obvious to miss.

  People were on rooftops with binoculars. Others were inside with telescopes. Most were just watching with their own eyes. None who could see her, understood why this young woman was facing the ferocious seas. The few who tried to guess assumed suicide but they couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Rio stood in the path of certain destruction as long as she was able to stay on her feet. Every ounce of energy she had was being used to fight the power of the monstrosity before her that, without her interference, would devastate around seven hundred miles of coastline as well as the buildings and people that inhabited it. The water rose above Rio and stopped, making her look like she was standing in front of a twenty-story building made of water.

  The darkness kept people from being able to see the living creatures swimming in the giant mass of sea. From the shoreline, it looked like the water froze. But, it was still moving, still fighting to move beyond where Rio had drawn the proverbial line in the literal sand.

  Finally, it brought Rio to her knees as she gave it everything she had inside of her.

  People all along the eastern coastline of Japan, awakened late at night by the shaking of the earth beneath them, witnessed the amazing site of water that seemed to be frozen in time. But, only a select group beneath Mount Daisen, at the southeastern tip of Tateyama Bay, were given the chance to watch the young woman who was causing a tsunami to stand still.

  Those watching Rio, including her father and the man who had, minutes earlier, confessed his love for her, also had the unfortunate chore of watching the water come crashing down on top of her and take her lifeless body out to sea as the ocean suddenly became eerily calm and Japan was left at peace.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  After The Show

  Both Sota and Luke continued to be filled with pride and grief over the days that followed Rio’s passing. The grief was expected but the pride came from observing the outpouring of gratitude from the citizens of Japan. Flowers were laid up and down the coast in honor of the young woman who had quickly become a global, albeit anonymous, hero by giving her life to miraculously save countless others.

  Of course, Luke and Sota had to go through the Tokkō’s interrogation process with agents Fukuda and Watanabe but, per Rio’s instructions, they gave them very little additional information. Besides, it was clear that Rio was gone and any “damage” she was going to cause had already been done. The rumor mill was cranking and Rio was already becoming legendary. Even the Tokkō could not argue that Rio had saved tens of thousands of lives, if not hundreds of thousands and, ultimately, they had no choice but to let Luke and Sota go.

  Also per Rio’s instructions, Sota set out to reunite with his family and, once that had been accomplished, intended to return to the many shrines and temples where he had lived over the previous two decades to tell their occupants about his encounter with Yeshua and the fact that his daughter was the young woman God had sent to save the people of Japan. His life had changed forever and he was bursting with enthusiasm to give others the same opportunity that he had been given.

  Rio had instructed Luke to gather her things and return them to her family. But, she insisted, he should go and see his own family first. This was both because they had been expecting him before Rio changed his plans, and because she assumed the NPA would be watching and she didn’t want him leading them to her family. So, she insisted that he wait until he was in California to purchase his plane ticket to Hilo.

  So, three days later, Luke found himself on his way to the airport in Osaka where he had first met the woman he had loved and then lost. He took out the third CD she had brought with her and put it into the player in the old church van. It was a homemade mix CD full of songs like “Near You Always” by Jewel, “Hold My Hand” by Hootie and the Blowfish, “Head Over Feet” by Alanis Morrisette, and “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. Luke chuckled to himself as he decided that, while she hadn’t even met him yet when she made the mix, Rio must have designed the CD specifically to make him cry.

  Meanwhile, Daichi was back in his favorite fishing spot on Ise Bay when he saw something beneath the surface out of the corner of his eye. He looked over the side of the boat as the large creature breached the surface and grabbed on to the side of his boat.

  “Arigatō Rio,” Daichi said with complete joy on his face as he reached for her hand and pulled her into his boat.

  Rio climbed in, dried herself off the same way she had after she rescued Daichi and after she and Sota had been baptized by Luke. She then explained that it was critical that he keep this encounter to himself and that she needed him to get her to the airport in Osaka as fast as he could. Daichi kept his word on both counts.

  Two hours later, Rio approached the table at Kona Kafe where Luke was, once again, eating Pipikaula.

  “I’m going to need you to remain calm,” she said quietly.

  Luke slowly looked up and tears formed in his eyes. His hands started to shake and he set his fork down. Luke’s mouth began to quiver and a tear rolled down his cheek. He swallowed hard, which included a partially chewed bite of his lunch, as he tried to muster the ability to speak without sobbing.

  “What?” was all he could get out and, even that caused his voice to crack.

  “Can I join you?”

  Luke used his napkin to wipe his eyes and tried to keep from drawing attention.

  “Please.”

  “Thank you,” Rio said with a warm smile.

  “Where . . . ”

  “Where have I been?” Rio finished Luke’s sentence because he clearly couldn’t finish it himself. In fact, all he could do in response was to nod affirmatively.

  “I think you, of all people, know the answer to that. Still, it’s difficult to describe.”

  “Try,” Luke said through happy tears.

  “The ocean, quite literally, swallowed me up. I’m sure you saw that.”

  “I did,” Luke confirmed.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re here now.”

  “I am. The water crushed me instantly and my body was dead until just a couple of hours ago but my soul was alive the entire time. My soul . . . My soul has never been more alive. When I died, it felt like I was immediately snatched out of the ocean and taken someplace else.”

  Luke’s smile continued to grow but his tears didn’t slow down.

  “There’s so much to tell you. And, now we’ll have the time to do it.”

  Luke nodded appreciatively. He had thought his time with Rio was brief but, it had only been the beginning. Thank you, he silently prayed before speaking out loud.

  “Let’s get started.”

  “Like my father,” Rio said as tears of joy formed in her eyes, “I got to meet Yeshua face-to-face. If only I could put it into words. It’s nearly unfathomable. He’s regal, and yet, he’s relatable. He’s adamant, and yet, loving and kind. He’s just . . . There is no one else like Him.”

  “I’m going to have a million questions about that,” Luke said with wide eyes.

  “Oh, there’s so much to tell you. I learned so much while I was gone. Where I was, there is no time. At least, not in the sense of being restricted by it. Life here has such a limited view. We’re like people who live in valleys. We can’t see any valley but our own. But, there, you live on a mountain and see all the valleys. That’s the perspective of time there. You can see it all at once. It’s amazing.”

  Luke gave Rio a knowing smile. He had imagined what heaven would be like and he looked forward to experiencing it for himself one day. How remarkable that Rio had been there and returned. The elderly woman had been right in calling her a gift but, it was also true that, she had been blessed with many gifts herself and that was one of them.

  “I met three others like me. The sam
e way I control water, Mattias controls fire, Amanda controls the winds, and Tyler controls the earth. The world will see their miracles in the days ahead. In fact . . . ”

  “Let me guess, the fire, I think you said his name was . . . Mattias . . . ”

  “Right.”

  “His miracle is second.”

  “It is. How did you . . . ”

  Luke pointed at the TV on the wall behind Rio. She turned around and saw that it was showing a breaking news story about a massive fire that had started in the Central Chilean Andes Mountain Range and should have consumed the capital city of Santiago but the fire seemed to abruptly go out. She turned back around in her chair and calmly faced Luke again.

  “I got to meet them. It felt good, to know that it wasn’t just me.”

  “I’ll bet it did,” Luke agreed. “I want to hear everything.”

  “You will,” Rio said with a huge smile as she reached across the table and took his hand.

  Luke squeezed her hand and silently thanked God a second time for returning her to him. He felt more grateful than he had since the day he first came to know the Lord.

  “What comes next?” he finally asked.

  “For now, we wait. We let the next miracles take place.”

  “Do you get to live a normal life now?”

  “Define normal,” Rio said with a chuckle. “Nothing will ever be normal again but, yes. For now. Not forever though. A war is coming. It’s a spiritual war that was declared over the very first humans millennia ago. It’s a war for the souls of people everywhere and throughout all of time. Humans were not able to see it before but, that’s all going to change. The final battle will be fought, very soon, right here, across the globe, and no one will be able to escape it.”

  “And I’ll have a million questions about that too,” Luke admitted as he tried not to feel too overwhelmed by what she was telling him.