Sons of Thunder

by Bowen Greenwood

Moses smiled at her and said, “At this point, it appears God is using a new generation for these gifts, which means I had better get used to being called a nice old man.”

  Anna blushed and started to say, “I didn't mean…” but Moses waved her off.

  “So that's where we are,” he said. “A group of people with God-given gifts given to us to serve the common good. The question before us is: where do we go from here?”

  No one responded right away. Once again, Moses met each of their eyes, holding contact for a moment. Waiting for an answer. When he lingered on Spark, the younger man began to shift uncomfortably in his seat. Finally, Spark spoke.

  “Look, I don't buy the gift from God explanation.”

  Moses asked, “Why not?”

  Spark replied, “It seems like God would want… I dunno. Good people. Saints. Special people.”

  Moses smiled at him. “The first apostles were fishermen. King David was a shepherd.”

  “Yeah, but that's different.”

  “Why?”

  Spark shifted in his seat. “Look, you don't understand.”

  Moses waited for him to say more.

  Spark, feeling the pressure, looked anywhere but at Moses. His eyes settled on Connor and seemed to be asking for help, so Connor spoke.

  “I met Spark not long after I turned you two down when you offered to let me out. Which I shouldn't have done, by the way.”

  He gave Anna a shy look out the corner of his eye, but she didn't notice.

  “Flake was going to perform a test on me. She was going to shoot me to prove that my skin would stop a bullet.”

  Both Moses and Anna winced.

  Connor continued, “Right before they did it, we encountered another group of people with special abilities. They call themselves the Legion.”

  Moses said, “I had a sense there was something like that out there. I wasn't sure what or who though.”

  Connor said “They have a leader named Sebastian Crest. He's gathering all the people with special powers that he can find. He's got this idea that people with these abilities can remake the world into something better.”

  “Anyway, they raided the government facility. They wanted to get all of us there and add us to their cause. They were… not exactly non-violent. There was a lot of gunfire. People got hurt. Some were killed.”

  Connor stopped when he heard a noise from Spark, but when he looked over, his traveling companion was staring out the window, away from everyone. The wind came up – in the middle of a closed conference room in a skyscraper, the wind came up. Moses and Anna looked around with bewildered looks on their faces.

  “That happens with Spark sometimes,” Connor explained. “When he's agitated. His whole thing with weather…”

  Connor trailed off from that, then went back to his story.

  “So anyways, once they interrupted my test, the legion freed me and a couple of other people with these powers. Like Spark here was one of them. And there was one girl who could heal people by touching.”

  Anna seemed like she was about to interrupt Connor, but she pressed her lips together and turned away, so he went on speaking.

  “Getting us out of the base got a bit ugly. There was a fight. Like, a real-world-combat fight. People with guns shooting at us. Explosions. The Legion has a guy named Pitch who can move things with his mind, and he did most of the fighting. He was dropping tanks on soldiers, on buildings…”

  Connor paused and then said. “A lot of people died.”

  Anna gasped with surprise. She put her hand over her mouth as she exclaimed, “That's terrible!”

  Connor looked over at Spark, to see if he was ready to join the story yet, but he was still looking away from everyone. He had his hand up to his face. Connor wondered if he was crying.

  Finally, Connor carried on the story himself. “Anyway, the more time I spent with the Legion, the less I liked what Sebastian Crest was saying about himself and about their cause. So Spark and I–”

  Spark finally interrupted. “Let’s just say I came along because I didn’t like it there either and leave it at that for now.”

  Connor nodded and finished, “We had to fight a guard to escape and then we came here.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  They took a break. Mr. Moses gave Connor and Spark a tour of his place. As they walked through the opulently decorated hallways and rooms, he told them a little of his history.

  “My family built Sol Tower, many years ago. Sol is Latin for sun, of course, and my father named it the way he did because he wanted to reach for the sun. He had more than the normal dose of ambition.”

  Moses continued, “When I got to know the Lord, I had an initial reaction similar to that of many other new believers. I wanted to completely throw away everything of my old life, so I tried to unload Sol Tower completely. Well, the family didn’t like that idea much. It set off quite a squabble. A lot of unpleasant legal infighting went on between my siblings and me after my father died. The end result was that instead of taking over the entire family business, as my father had planned for me, they left me as owner of the penthouse floor and the rest of the brothers and sisters own everything else.”

  “Now the rest of the building is still Sol Tower, but I call my floor the Tower of the Son. With an O instead of a U. It’s a pretty well-used little pun among the followers of Jesus, but I was just getting to know the Lord when I named it. I hope to find a way to use this place for God, instead of just for making money.”

  As he finished his story, they paused in their tour. They were standing in an elegant library with books lining every wall. Sun streamed in through the glass ceiling and made the motes of dust in the air look almost like fireflies. A wooden table with chairs sat in the middle of the room, giving people a place to read.

  Connor said, “That must have really stunk, having to fight your family like that.”

  Mr. Moses shrugged and said, “It wasn’t my favorite time of my life, but it’s far in the past. I turned it into a good chance to understand the idea of forgiveness better. Not many things hurt more than when the people closest to us betray us. If you can learn to forgive, then you’ll be able to forgive everything smaller than that.”

  Connor liked talking to Mr. Moses. He wasn’t like most old people. He didn’t condescend. He liked the way Mr. Moses shared about himself just as if they were two friends, rather than treating Connor like a child.

  “I know what you mean,” Connor said. “I’m dealing with something like that, too.”

  Mr. Moses simply raised an eyebrow, waiting for the rest of the story.

  “A lot of the guys at the Legion were pretty cool,” Connor began. “Sebastian was a jerk, but lots of other people seemed like they’d be alright to hang out with. Like Pitch. I told you about him – how he fought the soldiers at Area 51 to help us escape. He was a great guy at first. He showed my friend Linc and I where our rooms were, introduced us to other people in the Legion, and really helped us get adjusted to the whole thing. He was kind of like one of the popular kids there, but he accepted us right away. I liked him.”

  “But he was on guard at the front door of the Legion’s headquarters when I left. That didn’t end well. We fought. It was a pretty serious fight, too.”

  Spark made a noise like a growl, reminding Connor that he was there.

  “Yeah, Spark had to save me from him. He used his weather powers to stop everything Pitch tried to throw at me with his telekinesis. But that’s what I mean about a serious fight. He was trying to kill me, and we were defending our lives.”

  Connor paused for a moment before finishing, “I was looking forward to having him as a really good friend. Now, he swore to kill me if he ever sees me again.”

  Mr. Moses placed a hand gently on Connor’s shoulder. “God heals broken relationships, Connor. Pitch needs help. He sounds like a decent young fellow from what you have told me, but he’s fallen in with a very bad crowd. Maybe that’s God’s reason for bringing you and Spa
rk and Pitch together.”

  Spark perked up at the mention of his name.

  Mr. Moses concluded, “Maybe you two started to be friends with Pitch for the very purpose of setting him free from there. Maybe you will see him again and instead of him killing you, you can show him something better.”

  Connor replied, “Can I ask you something, Mr. Moses?”

  “Of course.”

  “You’re always talking about God, but I’m not really much of a religious person. I stopped going to church somewhere around middle school. You know all these stories from the Bible that illustrate supernatural gifts, but I barely know anything about the Bible except that Jesus was born in a manger. I mean, I’m a Christian. The church my family used to go to was a Christian one. But you… well, you care about it a lot more than I do.”

  “So let’s say you’re right. Let’s say God is giving people miraculous gifts again like he did in Jesus’ time. Why me?”

  Mr. Moses walked over to one of the bookshelves and pulled a Bible from it. He opened it to near the back.

  “In our day, people from all walks of life read the Bible,” he began. “From homeless people to professors, from construction workers to pastors, everyone can enjoy the word of God. But it wasn’t always like that. In Jesus’ time, Pharisees and scribes and teachers read their version of scripture, and the ordinary people had to take their word for what it said.”

  He paused, looked down, and began to read. “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, ‘Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!’”

  Mr. Moses said, “They were fishermen, not religious leaders. They were just ordinary people. Peter, who’s mentioned here? That’s Peter who would one day be the leader of the early church, who would walk on water and heal people by his shadow falling on them.”

  He set the book down. “So, Mr. Merritt, you may not be that interested in God, but He is interested in you. He is interested in every one of us – every single person. From the pastor deeply immersed in the gospel, down to a college kid who likes girls and parties more than going to church, God loves both of them and everyone in between. He wants everyone to take part in what he’s doing. And he may use you to fish for people, too – people like your friend Pitch.”

  Connor didn’t answer right away. Mr. Moses talked about God in a way that wasn’t very familiar. When he was growing up, “being a Christian” meant going to a building with stained glass on Sundays, owning a Bible, and praying before supper. To hear Mr. Moses tell it, though, it meant helping Pitch, and Linc, and all the other great guys at Legion HQ who didn’t really know how much trouble they were in.

  While Connor was trying to sort all that out, Spark spoke up.

  He asked, “Do you think a person who messed up his chance with God can ever get it back?”

  Mr. Moses eased himself down into one of the chairs at the reading table, and he waved Spark toward the one next to him.

  “Tell me more about that,” he said.

  Spark eased into the chair, shrugged, and said, “Well, you know. Sometimes people do things they shouldn’t have. Really bad stuff. I kinda like this idea of God caring about every person, like you say, but I’ve got to make amends for some serious problems before I can be one of those people.”

  Moses smiled at him. His reply was quick and short.

  “No you don’t.”

  Spark’s head jerked slightly when he heard that, and the look on his face was definitely offended. Connor felt the breeze come up in the room, as it usually did when Spark’s emotions ran strong.

  “I don’t appreciate being laughed at, Mr. Moses,” the young man said.

  Moses replied, “I promise you I’m not laughing at you. I never would. Spark, all I mean is that God forgives. It’s what he does. It’s who He is. You don’t have to make up for anything to be a person he cares about. You are. Right now.”

  “Yeah, but–”

  “Spark,” Moses said, “God loves you. No matter what you’ve done.”

  There was a moment of quiet. It dragged on. It kept going, until Connor felt like he could hear the sunlight falling. Finally Spark spoke.

  “I killed a man.”

  At once, Mr. Moses got out of his chair, knelt beside Spark’s, and wrapped his arm around him.

  “I’m so sorry, son,” he said.

  “We were getting out of Area 51,” Spark replied. “It was a real fight to get out. I mean, genuine real-world combat, where people shoot at you. And I have this thing I can do. You called it the gift of taming storms, but it doesn’t feel like a gift to me. I volunteered to help with the fight. I called down lightning on one of the government soldiers.”

  Moses squeezed his arm tighter. Connor felt bad. He remembered that Spark did that only because he, Connor, was afraid to. He wanted to do something to help Spark. He wanted to show him that he cared. But it felt weird, and he was embarrassed to hug him like Mr. Moses did. And he felt like anything he could say would either be overly dramatic or too small.

  “Ever since then,” Spark said, “I can’t stop thinking about whether he was married. Did he have kids? Did someone have to go tell them their dad died? Was it like in all the movies, where they said he died in a training accident because the government’s covering up the fact that people like me exist?”

  He paused, and then said, “I’d give anything to have that moment back. I know it’s impossible, but I wish there was some way to bring him back to life.”

  Mr. Moses said, “Spark, here’s what I can promise you. God loves you. Right now, no matter what you did, he loves you. He’s not ashamed of you; He’s not waiting for you to make up for it or set it right. He loves you.”

  “And he is all-powerful, Spark. He can do things you and I can’t even understand why we don’t understand. And He loves that soldier and any family he may have had every bit as he loves me, and Connor, and you.”

  “I can’t tell you how, or what it looks like. I don’t know. But God is able to take care of that family somehow. You don’t have to let it obsess you. He will take care of them, I promise you that.”

  Spark didn’t say anything. He just looked down at the table blankly. Finally, Mr. Moses spoke again.

  “Will you boys pray with me?”

  At once, Connor said yes. He had wanted so bad to find something he could say to Pitch that would be right and would fit. This was something he could do that didn’t feel awkward. He bowed his head and was about to put his hands in his lap when, to his surprise, Mr. Moses took one of them in his rough, older grip. Connor could see he was holding Spark’s hand, too.

  “God,” the older man said, “we need your help. Spark had a terrible experience getting free of captivity, and it hurts him. Please help Spark, Lord. Please heal him from this. I’ve seen miracles, Father. I’ve seen the prophecies you give me fulfilled. I’ve seen Anna transported again and again. I know you can do miracles, God, and I’m not afraid to ask for one for Spark, too. I don’t know what it will look like God, but I know you can do it. Please help Spark. Please help him and Connor both understand how much you love them.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  After Spark took some time in the restroom to be alone and get himself back together, they all walked back toward the conference room. Mr. Moses knocked on a door they passed in the hallway, and Anna poked her head out.

  “I’ve got so much space here I can’t begin to use it all,” the elder man explained. “Ms. Wales felt like she needed some time away from her family to study her Gift. She doesn’t always get along well with them, and she feels like that interferes with what she can do, so she’s got a room here. You two boys can do the same if you want.”

  Once they returned to the conference room, Mr. Moses went behind a countertop in the corner of the room and found chilled cans of soda pop for all the yo
ung people. Anna took hers to stand right in front of the window, staring out at the city as night fell.

  Connor went over and stood beside her. He smiled at Anna. He took some time to appreciate the moment – to savor it. He loved standing beside her in front of the giant floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the lights of a city rebelling against nightfall.

  “Tell me more about the Legion,” she said.

  “They had a lot of people,” Connor replied. “There were girls who knew how to tell the future and just knew things about you without you telling them. There was a guy who could cook and a girl who had the ability to multiply things, so together they made food for the whole legion in their mess hall.”

  Anna stared out the window wistfully. “It sounds like fun. I almost wish I could meet them. It’s been kind of lonely, just me and Mr. Moses. He’s been teaching me about this new outpouring of gifts, and I like it. But it’d be cool to hang out with some people who were closer to my age, you know?”

  Connor said, “Well, there’s me now. And Spark, I mean. Both of us.”

  “Yeah,” Anna replied. “Tell me more about why you two came.”

  Connor shrugged and looked away from her. He found it harder to tell the whole story than he expected. He saw Ethan Moses and Spark walking up behind them, and that made it even harder to talk.

  Finally, he said, “They raided Area 51 just as Flake was about to have me shot for her test. It was really violent. Lots of government soldiers got injured or killed. I’m not making any kind of blanket statement about that. I mean, people die in war. But the problem is, is it really a war? Sebastian thinks it is. He thinks it’s a war between the government and people with special abilities, and he wants to win that war.”

  “I’m not so sure it’s a war. I’ve never been obsessed with waving the flag or anything, but I’m an American. I don’t want to be at war with my own country. I mean… how am I supposed to just accept that?”

  “A week ago I was an ordinary college freshman, worried about classes, buying my first motorcycle, trying to decide if I felt ready to test for my next degree black belt.”