by Jerry Moore
I lifted up her shirt. “Let me see how bad it is.” There was blood all over her torso but she had stopped bleeding. Not only that, but I could actually see the gashing wound I had inflicted closing. Within thirty seconds of the time I started watching it, the wound was completely gone. I stood up and backed away. “Who or what are you?”
Amazingly, Allison stood up like nothing had happened. “Lisa, do you believe in Jesus?”
Oh great, now I was going to hear a sermon from the person that I had just stabbed or who had stabbed herself, depending on how you look at it. “I guess I do. I mean I go to church on Easter and Christmas.”
“All three of us lived in the time of Christ. The three of us plus nine others were selected for a special purpose.”
“What sort of purpose?”
“Our job was to make sure that the bible got put together the right way. We had to make sure that the things that needed to be there were included and other things were not included.”
“And why does God need people that never die to get this done?”
“You have to remember that Christianity was illegal for a quite some time after the death of Christ. The bible wasn’t even printed in the form it has today for hundreds of years. The only way to insure our survival was to keep our bodies from decaying and dying old age and making us incredibly hard to kill.”
I was freaking out. They were friggin’ immortals. “Okay, let’s say I accept everything you just said. I want to know about the thing that Jeff did with his hands in Brenda’s room. What exactly happened to improve her condition and how does your little power work?”
Jeff decided to answer for himself. “It’s really simple. I have the ability to heal others. I healed Brenda just enough for her to survive. I could have completely healed her but it would have raised too many questions. You asked me to save her life, I did that.”
“But how did you get that ability?”
“There were plenty of Christians in the first century with miraculous gifts. As that generation died out, so did those abilities. Only the apostles had the ability to pass abilities on to others. We never died, so we still have our gifts.”
“Allison, why didn’t you heal Brenda yourself?”
She held her hands out with her palms up. “These hands don’t heal like Jeff’s do, I have a different gift. And I will be happy to tell you what it is once we get out of these blood soaked clothes.”
Chapter Eight
Allison drove me to her house. Jeff stayed behind to clean up the mess we had made at Dr. Greene’s. Allison lived near UMC, just off of Indiana Avenue. She was renting a two bedroom house in what was commonly referred to as the Arnett-Benson neighborhood. And no, I have no clue who Arnett or Benson were.
We didn’t talk much on what I think was the short drive from Dr. Greene’s house. I sort of dozed off on the way from one to the other. Of course, by that time it was almost three o’clock in the morning. In fact I was so sleepy that it didn’t take much for Allison to convince me to spend what was left of the night in her guest bedroom.
I only slept for a couple of hours and woke up to the smell of fried bacon and coffee. As I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I found a plate on the nightstand next to the bed. It had fried Bacon and scrambled eggs on it. Right next to it was a still steaming cup of coffee.
Allison walked into the bedroom and tossed a pair of khaki cargo shorts and tank top on the bed. “I think these should fit you well enough. We could go to one of the department stores or your house to pick up some clothes for you. I just assumed that you wanted to get to the hospital before most of the stores opened and you might not want to explain to Aunt Jenny what happened to your other clothes.”
I rolled out of bed. “I think I probably already have enough questions to answer from Aunt Jenny. I’m not in any hurry to have that conversation. Thanks for the clothes and the breakfast. I do appreciate it.”
She turned to leave. “Well, I’ll leave you to get dressed and have a bite to eat. Let me know when you’re ready to leave.”
I started getting dressed but I wasn’t done with Allison just yet. “Wait, I was hoping we could have a conversation while it’s just the two of us girls.”
Allison turned around sighed as if she knew what was coming. “Sure, what did you want to talk about?”
I took a sip of my coffee. “I think you know. To be blunt, I want to know what your game is. Besides, last night you promised to tell me what your gift is. You never did. I guess it’s probably not any of my business really. Still I am extremely curious and figured that since you outed Jeff…”
She crinkled her nose. “What my game is? I’m not playing any games here.”
“Let’s see first you act like you hate me at school. You come to the hospital and threaten to kick my butt if I hurt Jeff and then turn into my best friend in the world. You even go so far as to sell Jeff down the river so that I will beg him into saving Brenda. So, what is your game?”
She sat down on the bed. “Look, I always hoped that we could be friends. But once Jeff spotted your little security detail, we needed to know some things.”
I was a little confused. “What do the marshals have to do with whether or not we can be friends?”
“We didn’t know if they or you had anything to do with our objectives. We had to find out how they would react to specific situations. What would they do if someone made a verbal threat against you? We eventually figured out that they would not act against anything we did. We decided that they were defending you against a single, known threat. Now we know that threat is the mob.”
“So that’s why you threatened to beat me up over Jeff?”
Allison gave me a mischievous smile. “No, I actually meant that part. Or at least, I meant it at the time. Jeff has had a rough time and I didn’t want some hot looking college girl to play games with his feelings. Now that I know you a little better, I see that you’re not that way. I think you’re good for Jeff.”
“Believe me, if anyone is going to get their little heart broken, it’ll be me. Jeff is better than I deserve.”
“You’re a lot better person than you give yourself credit for. Anyway, enjoy your breakfast. Just let me know when you’re ready to go.”
“When exactly did you find the time to make breakfast anyway? You couldn’t have gotten more than an hour or two of sleep.”
“Actually, our bodies recover from almost everything super quick. That includes fatigue. We need sleep but only an hour or two a night. So, in reality, I got my full night’s sleep.”
I wondered how much more trouble I could get myself into on a daily basis if I only needed an hour of sleep a night.
By the time Allison and I got to the hospital, Jeff was in the waiting room. Tina was visiting Brenda. She was now awake and alert. Brenda was the talk of the hospital. Of course, the doctors were trying to take full credit for her recovery without coming right out and saying they were responsible for it. That was actually a good thing. It kept us from having to answer any questions about any role we might have had in her recovery.
Jeff sat beside me, holding my hand. “Did you sleep okay last night? I hope Allison was on her best behavior.”
I snuggled up next to him. “She was. Thank you for what you did last night.”
“It was a group effort.”
I looked around and saw that Allison had wandered away from the waiting room and I was alone with Jeff. “Speaking of the old group effort, what was Allison doing while you working a miracle on Brenda?”
“She didn’t tell you? She was keeping everyone occupied with Dr. Greene.”
“How exactly could she do that? I saw Dr. Greene at the nurses’ station. I don’t remember seeing Allison until after the fact.”
“Allison has a gift she calls inspiration.”
“What exactly is inspiration? She makes us all feel good about ourselves or something?”
“No, let me give you some background. The bible was written by men who w
ere given divine inspiration through the Holy Spirit. They were told what to write.”
“So does she have some sort of mind control thing she can do?”
“No, but she can suggest things to you mentally without you even realizing it in most cases.”
“What do you mean suggest things?”
“Okay, I’ll give you an example. Allison likes for other people to think she was a cheerleader in high school. Have you ever thought that Allison was a cheerleader?”
“Yeah, but she told me she started that rumor and stuff. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Tell me who told you Allison used to be a cheerleader.”
I tried to think back to the first day of school. I realized that I couldn’t remember anyone in particular telling me Allison had been a cheerleader. “I can’t, it’s like I just thought I had heard that somewhere. I just all of a sudden thought she was a cheerleader.”
“Allison puts that idea in almost everyone’s head and ninety percent of the time, it is accepted as fact. Let me ask you something else. Last night, did you feel like Dr. Greene was a really interesting man? Maybe more interesting than you would usually think he was?”
“Yeah, I felt it while we were in the room with Brenda. He was at the nurses’ station. I felt like I wanted to hear what he was saying. That was Allison? Why was she messing with my head?”
“It wasn’t just you. It was anyone within a hundred feet of that room. When she really concentrates she can mess with every mind in a given radius. Now, notice that you didn’t go hear what Dr. Greene was talking about. Everyone has free will. She can put the idea in your head. She can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“So how do you know she isn’t messing with your head? How often do you or Dr. Greene do something and wonder whether it was your idea or Allison’s?”
“After a while, you can recognize thoughts that she puts in your head. For us, it is more of a communications system. For instance, if there was this pretty girl in my history class that I was trying to check out.”
“What about this pretty girl? Is it anyone I know?”
“I think you may have seen her a few times in the mirror.”
“So what does Allison have to do with you checking me out?”
“I can tell when Allison puts a thought in my head, so she would tell me when you were checking me out and when it was safe to look your way. But it’s not foolproof since I think there might have been once that you caught me looking at you.”
I wished we could have continued our conversation but Tina came walking into the waiting room and gave us a report. Brenda was awake and alert. She could talk but she tired rather easily. The doctors had told Brenda that she would eventually get her strength back but that it might take a few days. Tina also told us that Brenda was asking for me.
I walked into Brenda’s room. She gave me a weak smile. At least she was moving. That made her appear a thousand times better than she had looked twenty four hours ago. Hopefully, she would be able to tell the police who did this to her. I was almost positive it was her husband. I wanted whoever it was held responsible.
Brenda weakly waved me over to her bed. “Hey girl.”
I put my hand on her arm. “You really gave us a scare, Brenda.”
“The nurses said you never gave up on me. They said that even when the doctors didn’t think I would wake up, you and Tina believed in me.”
“We knew you would make it.”
“Listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry about the other day. You were right. I’m never going back to my husband. I should have listened.”
“Hey, maybe you shouldn’t be talking so much. I’m sure you’ll want to save your energy for when the police want to talk to you.”
“I guess you’re right. I just wanted you to know that I was sorry.”
I only stayed for a few minutes with her. Just talking to me had made her fatigued and she drifted off to sleep. There was no doubt now who had almost beaten her to death. I could only hope that her husband was going to be locked up for a very long time. I hoped that I would be able to be at that trial. It would almost be more gratifying to see him led away in handcuffs than the mobsters I was hopefully going to help convict.
Jeff and Allison were sitting in the waiting room when I returned. Apparently, Tina had left and was going to try and make it to some of her classes today. I really didn’t feel like going to school or to work. Although I knew that I needed to go back home and check in with Jenny. I was pretty sure that was going to involve some sort of lecture about being out all night.
I walked over to Jeff, leaned down and kissed him. “I would really like to stay but I probably need to go home and check in.”
Allison stood up. “Why don’t I give you a ride home?”
That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. “Well, I was hoping Jeff could give me a ride.”
Allison frowned. “I’m not sure you want the boy that you’re dating to be the one that brings you home after you’ve been out all night.”
I dismissed her concern. “Jenny would be fine with it. I’m sure she knows exactly where I’ve been.”
Allison persisted. “Actually, I was thinking about the neighbors. I wouldn’t want my new best friend getting a reputation as ‘that kind of girl’.”
I surrendered. “Okay, you can take me home.”
Jeff squeezed my hand. “I’ll come by in a little while, that is if Allison thinks it would be okay for the boyfriend to show up in broad daylight.”
Allison gave him a dirty look. “I don’t even know what she sees in you.”
As I rode home with Allison, I felt like my life was totally out of control. Somehow I didn’t think the others girls going to Tech had their lives revolving around mobsters, marshals, and immortals. It didn’t help that I hadn’t gotten very much sleep the night before. I had been running on adrenaline and it was starting to wear off.
I looked over at Allison. “So do you think Dr. Greene will kill me if I miss another day of class, tomorrow?”
She shook her head. “I’m sure he won’t mind. Although you probably should try to maintain your normal schedule, for the sake of appearances.”
I nodded. “I guess you’re right. Speaking of Dr. Greene, what are you going to do about that paper that you and Brenda are writing? Can you get a new partner or something, since she is still in the hospital?”
“We’re not writing a paper together.”
“In the hospital, you told that cop that you were writing partners.”
“I had to explain my presence somehow. I couldn’t tell him the truth. Excuse me, Mr. Policeman, but I’m really just here to mess with your head and make sure that you see things our way.”
“So you lied.”
“I often stretch the truth. Lie is such an ugly word.”
“Then what was all that stuff about the evil white man and the noble Indians?”
“Here’s the deal. Everyone has some level of mental defenses. People don’t always accept my little suggestions. I have found that the more distracted or the more things I can make them think about at once, the better. If that cop was busy thinking about what kind of air head I am, the more likely it was that he would think letting us see our friend was his idea.”
“Wow, I have met some manipulative girls in my life, but you take the cake.”
Allison sat up a little straighter. “That is one of the nicest things anyone has said to me in a long time.”
I sort of wondered if the airhead thing was an act or not. I hadn’t really meant that as a compliment.
Chapter Nine
I walked through the front door and tried to head straight for my room. Maybe ‘Aunt Jenny’ wouldn’t make a big deal about my being gone all night. Maybe she would be totally cool about the whole thing. Yeah, and maybe there really was a Santa Claus. I almost made it to my bedroom before I heard her voice. To make matters worse the voice was coming from my bedroom.
Jenny w
as sitting on my bed. “Well, there you are. I thought that you might try to sneak into your bedroom.”
I folded my arms in defiance. “I was not sneaking into my bedroom. I was really taking the quickest route from the front door to my bedroom.”
She cut her eyes at me. “When I was your age, my parents called that sneaking.”
I smirked. “That’s because when you were my age, you had to sneak past the dinosaurs.” Okay, that was mean.
Jenny looked like she really wanted to let me have it. “Whatever, the point is that you said you wanted to go visit your friend in the hospital. What you wound up doing was running all over town, doing God knows what. You spend the night at that girl Allison’s house. I mean, I thought you two didn’t even like each other very much.”
“Well I guess someone’s spies have been busy.”
“This is getting us nowhere. Why don’t you sit down so we can talk?”
I sat down at my desk. “Look, Brenda’s condition improved. The doctors wouldn’t let us visit anymore last night. So I went over to Dr. Greene’s house and hung out for a while with Jeff and Allison. Then I went over to Allison’s, but I was so tired that I just crashed there.”
“So Brenda is better? I thought the doctors said there was almost no hope.”
I jumped at the chance to change the subject. “It was like a miracle or something. I went to the hospital and talked to her this morning. I actually talked to her. Isn’t that great?”
Jenny looked troubled. “I need for you to stay away from her from now on. No more visits to the hospital.”
I was stunned. “What are you talking about? She is my friend!”
Jenny nodded her head. “I know she is, but now she is going to be a news story. We can’t take the chance of you being seen on TV. I’m truly sorry. As long as the media is paying attention, you have to stay away from her.”
She was right, but I was no longer in the mood to be reasonable. “You enjoy this don’t you? You couldn’t wait for a chance to get me away from anybody who might want to be friends with me.”
