Jeff nodded. “Derek, Mr. Fredrick seems rather set in his ways. We shouldn’t try to convince him otherwise. He has his truth.”
I refrained from wincing at the comment. “Though I appreciate your warning about this Mind-cleaner...whatever… I cannot let someone like that run unchecked.”
“You will stay out of it if you value your identity,” Jeff threatened as he fiddled with a pen.
“Is that a threat?” I had often considered what it would be like to not hide behind my mask. None of the evangelists of the past had to hide behind a piece of plastic while witnessing.
Jeff raised an eyebrow. “It’s however you take it. Be careful about what you chose to do, Mr. Fredrick. If we wanted to, we could send your identity to every major news company. Everyone would know who you are.”
I thought for a moment. “And if someone gets killed by this Mindsweeper if I keep my nose out of things?”
“That wouldn’t be on you,” Jeff replied.
I waited before I spoke. “‘Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” I opened the door. “I can’t do nothing.”
I stepped out. With his blackmail failing, Jeff shouted, “There will be nowhere you could go where people wouldn’t know your name, Arphaxad!”
I responded under my breath with, “Then I could stop living in the shadows.”
I shut the door, leaving the two flabbergasted men in the van. As I began to walk away, the van door opened and someone ran after me. Without turning I said, “Go ahead and plaster my secret; I don’t care.”
Derek grabbed me by the shoulder. “Ok, you called Jeff’s bluff. So please be careful,” he said as he slipped me a file filled with paperwork.
I took the paperwork and nodded. “Thanks.”
Derek smiled with a wink. “Awesome! Just so we're cool, there’s nothing wrong with you not wanting to be an IODINE agent. It is actually commendable that you're unwilling to abandon your beliefs.”
“I would prefer to honor God rather than men. Men can’t do anything to me.”
Derek frowned and added, “Yeah… that’s a good point. Well, I’ll see you around Blue Blur!” He turned to walk back to the van, where Jeff was already in the driver’s seat and giving me an uneasy look.
I walked home, thinking about Jeff’s threat. Would I be able to let my secret out for the sake of the gospel? I did my best to keep my identity a secret because I didn’t want my family to get caught in the cross-fire. None of the Apostles or Prophets had worried about this. I started thinking about how I could go about revealing my secret.
If I did come clean about my alter-ego, I would have to give up pretty much all hope of marriage. No sensible father would want their daughter being a part of the dangerous life I lived. After it passed through my head, I wondered where that idea had come from.. After everything that had happened with Rebekah, I never wanted to have such a vulnerability like that again.
Chapter 5
Former Things
F rom the cemetery, I went to my parents’ home and prayed with my family. We prayed for a while; my siblings were pretty shaken by the news about mom. After some prayer though, the older children, Ruth, Paul, the Twins, and Leah, were calming down. The youngest three, Mary, Hope, and Grace, were still a bit young to understand what was happening.
I wanted to talk to dad about what had happened at the cemetery, but I didn’t want him to have to worry about me as well as mom. I stayed for dinner before heading back to the apartment.
I got back to my apartment around 8:30 pm, and as I came through the door, Simon called from the computer in the living room, “Hey Arf! Are you hungry?”
“No, I ate at my parents’,” I said as I wandered into the kitchen.
He replied, “Ok, your burger is in the fridge.”
“Thanks, Simon.”
He spun around in his chair and asked, “Is there anything about our Blue friend I can put on the site?”
I shook my head. “No, but I do have something cool I can tell you.”
I knew I could tell Simon about what happened at the cemetery, and he would also want to know about it. “Well, don’t tell anyone, but have you ever heard of IODINE?”
He moved to the edge of his seat and taking the role of an investigator said, “Why no Watson, other than it’s an element. Please continue.”
I smiled, his personality was nowhere near Sherlock’s, so I jested back, “Well Prof. Moriarty, IODINE…” My phone’s text tone blinged and I pulled it from my pocket. The text was from an unknown number and I read aloud, “Stop talking.”
I looked at Simon and with widened eyes, began writing what I was going to say on paper. However, I got another text that said, “Stop writing.”
Simon sat back in his chair. “That’s creepy, dude!”
I looked around and said aloud, “Do you people forget who I am? You think I’m scared of you?”
Simon also looked around. He almost looked paranoid, but then he said, “Dude, we are being watched by a covert Government agency. How cool is that!”
I raised an eyebrow and replied, “Not really when I declined their offer…” My phone blinged again. I ignored the text and kept speaking. “Anyway, our friend threatened to expose my secret.” Simon gave me a nod to continue. “But I realized that my identity shouldn’t really be a secret.”
Simon grinned from ear to ear. “You mean I can be the first person to tell people your secret!”
I gestured for him to calm down. “Not now but soon. We’ll have to be careful about it.”
“What brought this change?” he asked.
“I was thinking about the Prophets and Apostles, and none of them had a secret like this. What if people start to think about me as more than just a man? I need to be seen as just a man.”
Simon got up from his chair. “Cool… then people will know that my friend is a legit superhero.”
I laughed and picked up my phone. The last text wasn’t a command, but a warning. It read, “Mindsweeper attack: B.D.I warehouse Colorado. You should know where it is.”
I actually did know, as Abigail had been talking about it recently. I asked Simon, “Hey, you can track my phone right?”
He nodded. “Yes, but why…”
I grabbed my supersuit bag and ran normally down and out of the apartment. In an alley, I used my speed and switched into my suit, hiding my bag with my regular clothes under a dumpster.
I zoomed through the city and rocketed out into the country along the highway. As soon as I was out of any residential areas, I stepped up my pace and broke the sound barrier.
As I approached my destination, I slowed to a stop and assessed the situation. The medium sized warehouse was lit up with searchlights and alarms. I looked down onto the loading dock and a door flew open as a man ran out. He was dressed in unusual gear. His entire face was covered by a mask; the mouth guard was triangular in shape and glowed purple. The wires, which also had that same eerie glowing color, came out of his mask, tucked behind his head, and ran down to his hands where they connected to glowing pads on his palms. On his left forearm, he had a gauntlet that seemed to be the control pad for the rest of his gear. The rest of his outfit matched the same color scheme but appeared to serve no purpose.
The man ran up to another door on the other side of the dock just as three security guards came out of the door and began firing their sidearms at him. I was tempted to launch out of hiding and end this, but I needed to get a better idea about this Mindsweeper. Mindsweeper turned a dial on his gauntlet and aimed his hand at the guards. A bright purple blast fired and exploded in the midst of them. It caused no damage, but the guards dropped their weapons and started wandering around like they didn’t know where they were. In the confusion, Mindsweeper bypassed the card pad on the door he was at and entered the building. I sped up to the door and caught it before it could close. My target was already halfway down the h
allway when I entered with caution.
I called to him, “Hey Mind-cleaner why don’t you tell me what you're up to?”
He turned around and snickered. “I was hoping you’d show up. It’s an honor Mr. Blur, or would it be Blue?”
I rushed up to him and pulled his gauntlet off his arm. “You can call me whatever you want, from behind bars.” I grabbed his wrists and tried to pull him along.
I could practically feel him smirking under his mask. “You made a big mistake Blur.”
I scoffed, “What was tha..” For a brief moment, I knew what I had done wrong. What I didn’t know at the time was the gauntlet had a fail-safe. I still don’t know what happened after that.
∆∆∆
I woke up in darkness. I didn’t know where I was. Thinking about it, I didn’t know who I was. I sat up and tried to think. At first, I could only comprehend the darkness, the nothingness. My mind felt like a void, unable to sustain any complex thought. I was almost on the verge of mental chaos, but then I heard it.
Out of the emptiness of my mind came a steadfast voice with a single sentence. It was so clear, as if another being had spoken it aloud. “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,” 1
I didn’t even know who this God was, yet He had made Himself known. Somehow my mind was strengthened more than I was previously capable of imagining. Like a flood, I remembered the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I remembered the gospel and receiving salvation when I was younger, but I didn’t remember the context of receiving it. I couldn’t even fully understand the idea of being “younger”. I remembered my baptism an[1]d everything about my conversion, but once again, the context was gone. Yet, I knew I was His.
Even in the frustration of not remembering my life, remembering God was an incredible comfort. It gave me the strength to get up and inspect the area I was in. The strength given me by the Spirit also gave my mind to understand things that my mind couldn’t before His work. I found a portion of the wall which was separate and distinct from the rest - a door, locked. In the darkness, I felt two individual objects: a table and a chair. It took a moment to recall and recognize each one.
I felt along the wall and found a switch. I flipped it up and the room exploded in vibrant light. The room was very clean, and the light from the ceiling reflected off the metallic table.
On the table was a plate with fruit on it. The different colors and shapes looked appetizing, but I couldn’t remember what any of them were called. I ignored the grumbles coming from my stomach and continued to look for a way out. I went back to the door and tried to force it open. At first, the door wouldn’t budge, and I almost gave up, but I decided to throw everything I had into it.
With a crash I pushed thru the door, pulling it off its hinges. I took in my new surroundings. I had entered a hallway that continued to my left. Well lit, I could see straight to an open doorway. Cautiously, I stepped towards the doorway.
I entered a slightly dimmer room. There was another door directly to my left, and on the far side of the medium-sized room, there was yet another doorway and a wooden table with a strange item on it. Curious, I approached the table and inspected the item. It had a blackboard propped up that glowed on one side, and in front of it was a board with several buttons with letters and numbers on them. The name of this object clicked in my head, “Computer.” I wasn’t sure how I remembered that. It seemed as if I could recognize objects, but I couldn’t remember history, specifically mine.
A middle-aged man almost ran out of the dark doorway, startling me. He had a shocked expression on his face when he looked at me. Tall and heavier built, his large eyebrows almost disappeared into his dark drooping hair as his eyes widened. I wasn’t sure what I thought about him, but something in the back of my mind told me not to trust him. Instinctively, my body tensed.
He managed an unnerving smile. “Hey… you're up! And out. Do you remember anything?”
Still rather unsettled by this guy’s appearance, I attempted to speak, but at first, my tongue was dumb. I took a breath and in broken language, replied, “Yes... I-I’m out… why was t-the door loc-cked?”
“Oh! You asked for it to be. You were afraid of what you would do after the accident.”
I gave a slight nod. I didn’t believe a word he said. This guy was a terrible liar. I asked, “What Accident?”
He paused. “We were on a job, and some tech malfunctioned, so you received some...memory loss.”
I huffed, that was an understatement. “OK, what’s my name? Also, what’s our relation?”
He tried not to sound unsure. “We are… business partners of...three, no four...years. Your name is Jeff.”
I had heard that name before, and I knew it wasn’t mine. I tried to make a dash for the door, but the guy was able to react. His combat skills put his communication skills to shame. He grabbed me by the shoulder and hip and flipped me onto my back. Before I knew what happened, he had my wrists restrained in metal cuffs behind my back.
“We could’ve done this the easy way punk, but you had to make things difficult.” With this, he raised his fist and knocked me out.
Chapter 6
Mental Torture
When I awoke, I was strapped to a cold metal table. The man who had knocked me out was sitting at a computer typing away. There were wires connected to my temples and wrists. The ones on my wrists consisted of two separate tubes, one looked like it had been used to draw blood and the other to inject something, probably a calming drug.
I tried to pull against the restraints, causing the mystery man to turn. “Ah, you're awake! Sorry about what happened earlier, but you were being irrational.”
I continued to pull against the restraints. “Yeah, trying to escape a strange man after escaping a cell I woke up in with no idea where I was - completely irrational.”
“I told you, we’re friends, Jeff.”
I shook my head. “That’s not my name!”
He leaned forward in his chair. “Then what is your name? Can you tell me?”
I mumbled and replied, “No, no I can’t.” Not knowing one's own name was incredibly frustrating.
The man frowned. “Well, my name is Hank. So, tell me, do you remember anything about your life before the accident?”
I knew he was talking about what he mentioned earlier, but at the mention of “the Accident” something stirred in me. Deep emotions came up, pain, hate, and a sense of great loss, but once again I had no context for these emotions; they were just there. I felt a tear roll down the side of my head onto the table, leaving me wondering where it came from. I hated these sporadic emotions. I was angry, angry at the man who caused this. Hank had said some tech malfunctioned, but I didn’t believe him. Thinking about it, I didn’t believe anything he said.
I was lost in my thinking, and Hank got inpatient. Repeating himself he said, “What do you remember about yourself!”
He startled me with his aggressive behavior. The words seemed to flow out slowly by themselves. “I remember, ‘In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.”’[2]
He didn’t respond, and even his facial expression revealed nothing. “I also remember, “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as the One and only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.”[3]
Still no response. “‘God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life!” [4] That is what I remember Hank, how do I remember that? Who are we?” I didn’t know where these words were coming from.
Hank shook his head. “That is what I was afraid of.” He stood up from his chair and I heard him open a drawer out of my sight. He pulled up a gauntlet, which he pulled over his right arm. He touched the screen on the gauntlet and the device lit up with purple light. The palm on Hank’s hand
also glowed purple.
He moved his hand closer to my head. Not knowing what he was going to do, I tried to pull away. He shushed quietly., “Don’t worry, this may hurt a bit, but you won’t remember any of it.” With that, he placed his hand on my head and it felt like my mind was on fire.
I felt something happening to the few memories I still had. It felt like they were being shoved somewhere, like this man, whose name I had forgotten, was rearranging my mind. I cried out in pain as I watched the purple light flash, but just as they did those memories faded as well. Even still, that voice said, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.” [5]
∆∆∆
My wrists and ankles were strapped firmly down by metal restraints, and it felt like there was a drum pounding in my head. To my left, a man with dark hair took an odd metallic glove off his hand. The glove had been glowing purple, but the glow diminished as he took it off. His brown eyes, which were almost as dark as his hair, held no expression of emotion in them.
The man placed the glove in a desk drawer and pulled up a chair. “So, how do you feel Joseph?” His voice was calm.
I looked to my right, there was no one there, so I assumed he was talking to me. “I feel ok, I think. I can’t remember anything. Who is Joseph? Is that me?”
Joseph, I recognize that name. How do I know it? I thought hard on the subject. Is that my name? No, it doesn’t sound right.
Then, like the memories kicked down a mental door, the knowledge of who this Joseph was flooded in. I remembered the story of how he had dreams that revealed the future to him and, in jealousy, his brothers sold him into slavery. I remembered that through all the awful things that happened to him, God worked everything for Joseph’s good.
The man to my left chuckled and said, “Yes, that’s your name, Joseph.”
This man was a bad actor. If I didn’t know Joseph wasn’t my name, his behavior would’ve let me know. Maybe he was the reason I couldn’t remember, as he had taken something off his hand when I first started remembering. If I didn’t follow along with his deception, he probably could easily re-wipe my mind. Then I would be right back where I started.
A Mission Remembered Page 3
