We sat there for a long moment, looking into each other’s eyes before she broke the silence. “It has been, you know. Paradise, I mean. Just being with you again and seeing Emily get to know you. That’s been my dream for almost twenty-five years. And now it’s come true. So, I guess when we’re all done and you go off to wherever you go this time, I can go back to the diner and sling my eggs and bacon and remember this week. I can just file it away with our time all those years ago and bring it out when I feel maudlin, or when I get drunk, or when I look at Em while she sleeps.”
I didn’t know what to say. I cared for Myra more than any woman I’d been with in a thousand years and more, but I couldn’t tell her it would all be okay, because she was right. When we were done with all this world saving, I was going to go back to being the wandering immortal, and she was going to go back to the diner, grow old, and die. Probably alone. I felt my own eyes get moist, and I got out of bed and started to dress.
“Adam, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to spoil our last morning together. It’s just…”
“Just what?” I couldn’t look at her. I knew if I looked back at her sitting in the bed, sheet wrapped around her with the tops of her breasts peeking out and her hair curling down over her shoulders in the morning sunlight, I’d be lost.
“Just… I love you.” She said it very quietly, and I almost missed it. But it was out there, and the words were out of my mouth before I could think enough to keep my big mouth shut.
“I love you, too.” I tried to grab the words back as soon as they left my tongue, but words were funny that way—you can’t ever unsay something. So, I just stood there staring at the ugly wallpaper for an interminable moment until she spoke again.
“You do?”
I looked at her then, and more tears were running down her face, but she was smiling through them. I felt myself smiling right back at her, and thought for the first time since Lucky showed up in Vegas, that this might all work out okay after all.
“Yeah, I do. You’re a little crazy, but I’ve always admired a good crazy in a woman.” I went to her, threw the sheet on the floor, and showed her exactly how serious I was.
A while later, we joined the others downstairs for breakfast, amidst knowing looks from Cain and Eve. Emily and Sidney ignored us completely, and I drew up to a halt as I recognized the looks they were giving each other.
“Seriously?” I dropped my bag. “The night before he makes the biggest decision of his life, you cloud his head with that?”
“I think it will probably help him see the world a little more clearly, dear. I mean, look at the good it did for your disposition this morning,” Eve replied, smirking into her orange juice.
Myra blushed a little, and I responded with a terse, “Bite me.”
Eve replied, “Not anymore, dear. I believe I’ve officially passed that torch.” At that, Myra went off to grab a muffin, her cheeks flaming.
I leaned over and tweaked Sidney’s ear to get his attention. “You feeling okay, kid?”
“Um, sure, I guess. I mean, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, so I guess I’m fine.” He at least had the good manners to look embarrassed at having breakfast with the father of the girl with whom he’d spent the night. I didn’t bother to ask Eve and Cain what they had done about sleeping arrangements. I’d realized over the past few days that Cain was hopelessly romantic enough to have slept in the back of Eve’s truck to give the lovebirds a little time alone, but he’d probably just taken the second bed in Eve’s room. The one Emily was supposed to be in, while Cain was supposed to be in a king bed by himself. Whatever. As I’d been informed more than once, I didn’t get to come in and start playing Ward Cleaver all of a sudden. I probably made a better Homer Simpson, anyway.
We ate breakfast, paid the tab, and headed out to the cars. We tossed all the bags into the back of Eve’s truck and started to gear up. Junior looked a little freaked out at all the hardware as most of us tucked various firearms in various places, but to his credit, he didn’t blink when Eve tossed him a Glock in a paddle holster. He just checked the chamber and strapped it to his left hip in a cross-draw style. I’d never been a fan of the cross-draw myself, but some people could make it work. He then asked about a backup, and strapped a five-shot .38 to his right ankle. I guessed the kid had learned a thing or two out there in the redneck wonderland after all. Myra was the only one not packing heat, saying she’d made it this far with her mouth and a can of pepper spray, and she didn’t expect to need more than that now.
Cain and Eve hopped in the cab of the truck while the rest of us piled into the Civic. I looked over at Cain. “What about your bike?”
“If we make it through this, maybe I’ll come back for it. If we don’t, I won’t care.” The kid had a pretty good head on his shoulders. I wished I could take credit for that.
Myra sat with me while the kids cuddled in the back seat. I pointed the rearview mirror at them and said, “Don’t get frisky. It’s a long ride, and I don’t need the distraction.”
Myra punched me lightly on my shoulder, and I put the mirror back in its rightful position. We took off out of Nashville, heading east with the sun in our faces and the nation’s capitol in our sights. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought it would feel good to finally be done with all this.
We managed to make D.C. in about twelve hours, not bad at all considering the less than blistering pace we set for our northward trek. It was a pretty quiet ride; I guessed the kiddies were concerned about what was coming up. I had to admit to a little trepidation of my own if I were being completely honest. All through the ride, I found myself looking in the rearview mirror at Emily and Sid as they sat, heads close together, and talked low in that way that people do when they’re trying pretty desperately to have a private conversation in the least private of places.
Myra sat wordlessly for the first couple of hours, fiddling with the radio as we meandered across Tennessee. After a while, she looked over at me and said softly, “I’m okay with it.”
“Okay with what?” I asked, perplexed. I didn’t know if she was talking about the trip, us getting back together, or the selection on the radio. I really wished she had satellite radio, but it wasn’t a standard accessory in twelve-year-old Hondas.
“This ending. I’ve enjoyed getting to see you again, so I can close the book when we’re done in D.C. I’ll miss you, but this will be a lot better than the last time.”
Oh. It was time for that talk. I’d had that talk a lot through the years. Hell, some days it feels like I’d had every talk a lot through the years, but that one maintained a certain level of unpleasantness every single time.
“Look, Myra—”
“You don’t have to say anything. I’m okay with the fact that you’re going to leave again. I understand. Eve and I had a long talk the other night, and I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that I’ve had the time I’m going to have with you, and I can live with that.”
“Okay, first things first, Eve and I haven’t been together since before Alexander was mediocre, much less great. So, her perspective of me might be less than spot-on. Second, I don’t know if I’m leaving or not. I don’t want to, but I just don’t know. I don’t know what my Choice is going to be, and I don’t know what it’s going to cost. I might have to leave. That’s part of the price of being who we are: sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do. So it’s not that I’ve been avoiding talking to you about this, or avoiding thinking about it, I just don’t know what’s ahead, so I haven’t wanted to waste the time we’ve got left on that. Make sense?”
“You don’t want to leave?”
“No! I love you, woman. Did you miss that memo? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure you were around for the press release. I’m absolutely head over tits in love with you, and the last thing I want to do is lose you again. It’s been more than a thousand years since I felt like this for anyone, and when I lost her, it was all I could do to keep breathing, but I did. I locked away somethi
ng inside myself to keep from getting hurt like that again because I thought I couldn’t handle it, and I thought it wasn’t worth it. But I was wrong; it’s worth it. And I’ll take the thousand years of waking up alone crying every morning if that’s what it costs to give me a couple of decades going to bed next to you.”
“I think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.” Her eyes glittered with moisture, and a shy smile spread across her face as she blushed a little.
“I read it in a greeting card.”
“Yeah, in the ‘love card for immortals’ section at the drug store, right?”
“Yep. You’d be surprised how many of us there are. We’re a major demographic these days.”
“Shut up.”
I did, and we rode in silence for a little while longer. Eventually, Emily piped up from the back seat with some smartass comment about the radio, and things lightened up for the rest of the ride. We made the trek with only a couple of stops for food and gas, and before we knew it, the nation’s capitol loomed ahead of us.
Chapter 37
I’ve only got one thing to say about the new security-conscious state of the state: it makes it a bitch to find parking close to monuments in D.C.
After a little debate at our last pit stop, Eve and I got together and decided to just park in Arlington, take the Metro to the Smithsonian Station, and walk the Mall down to the Washington Monument. The weather was nice enough, and it was a pretty pleasant walk, even though we did all feel a little like gunslingers walking into town for a high-noon showdown.
We got to the base of the monument a little early, but Michael apparently had a little pull because a door was unlocked at the base. We filed in and rode the elevator to the top, where the nation’s capital stretched out in an impressive view.
Of course, from five hundred feet up, most views are impressive.
Michael was waiting for us by the elevator, and he crossed to Sid once we disembarked. He was dressed formally, in white robes with his wings on full display. At least he hadn’t shifted into full glowing angel mode.
“Are you ready for your Choice, Sidney?” the angel asked in a formal tone.
“I… I guess so.” The kid was obviously scared out of his wits. I felt bad for him because I knew where he was coming from. I was pretty frickin’ scared myself.
“All right, kiddo. Here’s the deal.” Lucky stepped forward out of the shadows, similarly formal in a sleek black tuxedo, with his hair slicked back and round sunglasses on. He wasn’t sporting any wings, probably a good thing given what popular culture had to say about what his wings probably looked like.
“I’m going to tell you what your Choice is, with the most likely consequences. Michael is here to make sure I don’t specifically lie about anything. I might not tell you everything, but nothing that I do tell you will be untrue. Michael doesn’t get to tell you his side of things; he just watches and observes. That’s the deal we made a long time ago. I get to mislead, misdirect, spin, and whitewash to my deceptive little heart’s content, but I will never lie. Tall, blond, and poofy over there just has to stand and watch. So, I explain things to you, then you make your decision. When you make your Choice, you live with the consequences I’ve outlined. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Eve. She’s walked the walk and knows that the talk I talk is true.”
I looked over at Eve; her face was a mask. I couldn’t read anything about what she was feeling—usually a very bad sign. Everything I could feel told me that Lucky wasn’t screwing around, and that scared me a little. I’d been around Lucky a few times when he wasn’t screwing around, and bad things tended to happen, the kind of things that got their own chapters in the history books. I liked the world a lot better when he wasn’t being serious or, Father help us all, sincere. It looked like he was being both.
“I understand.” Junior was pale and maybe shaking a little in his boots, but he stood straight and faced his fate like a good Christian martyr.
I never understood those guys myself, but if it’s your thing, go for it, I say.
“What have you always wanted to do, Sidney?” Lucypher asked.
“To spread the word of God. To bring as many people to the Light as possible,” Sid replied with a shaky voice.
“Then, behold what I can give you.” Lucky swept his hand in front of a window, and the wall vanished. We looked out at an older Sid standing in front of thousands of people, holding his Bible and praising heaven for all he was worth. Images flew by of Sid on TV, the internet, preaching to football stadiums and in huge churches. Everywhere we turned were more images of Sid doing good works. He built churches in poor villages, brought medicine to third-world countries, and fed homeless people in soup kitchens. Images flew past: magazine covers, newspapers, book covers.
“It’s pretty simple, really. You are at a crossroads. You may continue to grow your ministry as you have been, preaching in bars and on street corners, spreading the Word to one or two people here and there. Or you can have all of this.
“You have the potential to become the greatest minister in modern history. If you so Choose, your words will be heard worldwide, and you will bring more people to Christ with a single television broadcast than you could going to every tent revival in Tennessee for twenty years. If you accept this role, you will be a beacon for evangelists everywhere, a true believer without a besmirched background. You will live your life in comfort and luxury beyond your wildest imaginings, with enough money to keep your mother in the finest things she’s ever imagined.
“No one will ever laugh at you again, or call you a Jesus freak, or throw you out onto puke-stained sidewalks. Your name will be synonymous with the new Word of God. You will be likened unto Moses, leading the people of America and the world out of the darkness and into the light of God’s love. All you have to do is keep doing things exactly as you’ve planned and go off to seminary in the fall.” Lucky looked like an evangelist himself, and I was baffled. It actually sounded like the Devil was trying to talk the kid into being a better preacher.
“What’s the catch?” Sid asked, and I almost punched the air in jubilation. The kid was smart enough to know that the apple was never free. “I know you are a deceptive Devil, so what aren’t you telling me?”
“Of course, you don’t have to be rich and famous to be righteous. There’s always another path available. You could remain in Tennessee as a small-time preacher, eking out a difficult living with your little girlfriend by your side, swathed in the clothes of your righteousness and glorious poverty. But where would be the fun in that? Wouldn’t you rather reach more people, in bigger venues, with the most resources behind you? It’s everything you’ve ever wanted, just stay the course. Go to college and become the next Christian superstar. You wouldn’t even be taking anything from me. I’m not giving you anything in this deal. You just keep on doing exactly what you’ve planned, and it will all come to you.
“If you don’t want it, then there’s no point in going away to school in the fall. Just stay stuck in your little singlewide trailer outside of Hickville, Tennessee, and get mocked by the entire town. Sure, you might influence one or two people, but your reach would be so limited, it’s almost pointless. And really, would you want to subject your little girlfriend to a life in a house with wheels? That’s not really fair to her, is it?”
I thought that was low, even for Lucky, but I guessed it fit with that whole evil incarnate thing.
“And besides, why would you want to throw away your entire life’s plan just to stay in Tennessee and get married?”
Married? I never heard anything about marriage. I must have flinched because Myra whispered in my ear, “Leave it alone. This isn’t your fight.” I held my ground, but I looked at the little preacher with a different set of eyes now that we were talking about marriage. Was he good enough for my little girl? Never mind the fact that ten days ago I didn’t know I had a little girl; she was still my flesh and blood, and I wanted only the best for her.
T
he kid had literally wavered on his feet at the mention of his trailer-park upbringing, but straightened a little when Emily crossed over to him.
She grabbed his arm, turned him to her, and, in a low, intense voice, said, “I don’t care. I don’t care if we don’t have a pot to piss in, as my grandmother said. As long as we’re together, we’ll be fine. I don’t care if we have to sleep on the floor in the living room of your mother’s trailer until we’re fifty; I will love you just as much as if we had ten mansions. You do what you think is right, and don’t let this son of a bitch sway you one bit. I’m here, I’m behind you, and I support you no matter what you Choose.” Listening to her, I was a little ashamed of myself, and as I looked across the room at Eve, she gave me a steady gaze.
I was working up a good defense when Sid spoke again. “Jesus didn’t have any resources. He spoke to people face to face, and his words have endured just fine. I don’t need any of the trappings; I just need to speak the Word and be true to myself. In the words of my Savior, get thee behind me, Satan. I don’t need your big fancy ministry; I’ll be just fine doing it my way.” I was proud of the kid. Lucky had dangled everything he’d ever wanted right in front of his face, and the kid told him exactly where he could stick it.
The Chosen Page 19
