by Rich Allen
Jack looked into her azure eyes. “I’d like nothing better.”
Zoe moved towards him and put her arms around his shoulders.
“Brr…Brr,” Jack’s phone was on silent mode but it reverberated on top of the desk. He peered down at it. ‘Private Number.’ A shiver ran through his body. Might this be Quint? He looked at the play out screen – still four minutes left on Hey Jude. He glanced down at the illuminated Nokia dancing on the desk. Instinct told him that he should answer it. He turned down the studio speakers. “Do you mind if I take this?” he said to Zoe.
Zoe glanced at the vibrating phone. “Do you think it might be your mystery man?”
Jack nodded. “Could be,” he said.
Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Put it on speaker phone,” she told him.
Jack took a deep breath, pressed the answer button and then placed the call on loud speaker. “Hello,” he said. No response. He stared at Zoe. “Hello,” he repeated. Still no answer and he thought about hanging up.
Then, a voice came out of the speaker: “Hey chief, I see that you’ve got a lady friend there with you.”
Jack’s blood ran ice cold. Quint’s voice! He turned to the window to see if Quint might be watching the studio from a neighbouring office. Nope. He glanced across at Zoe as if asking for her advice but her demeanour gave nothing away. He craned his neck over the handset. “Who…who are you?” he croaked.
“You know me, chief!” said the voice.
Jack gulped. He felt bile rising up into his throat. “Just tell me who you are!” The timbre in his voice had gone up a few octaves. There was a long pause and he wondered whether the caller had hung up.
“I am that I am, chief,” the voice said.
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Again, Jack looked to Zoe. Her eyes caught Jack’s for a brief second. She looked as confused as him. “This has got to be a windup!” he said to her.
Jack heard a chuckling sound through the loud speaker and then Quint’s voice. “No windup, chief. Let’s just say that I’m someone that’s communicating with you in a way that you can understand.”
Zoe moved behind Jack and wrapped her arms around his stomach. “But I don’t understand,” Jack said. “So tell me again. Who are you?”
The line remained quiet for a moment and all that Jack could hear was the chorus of Hey Jude through the dimmed speakers. Then the voice said: “I’ll tell you again, chief. I am that I am.”
Jack stared down at the phone. “What is it that you want from me?” he said; his voice no deeper than a schoolboy’s.
“Well, chief, I hear that you’re looking for work. Maybe you’re the kind of guy that can work for me. Would you like that, chief?”
Jack stared at the computer monitor. Still two minutes left on the song. “I still don’t understand any of this,” he said.
“Well, not right now you don’t, chief - but give it time. You might want to look up another scripture from the Good Book. Isaiah fifty eight, verse ten. Remember to look it up now, chief.”
If all this had been in one of Jack’s dreams he would have found it weird, but it wasn’t a dream - he really was having a conversation with a character from a movie. He felt Zoe release her grip on him and noticed her type something into her phone.
“You still there, chief?”
Jack took another deep breath. “Yeah, I’m still here. I’ve got to be honest with you though, Quint, or whatever your real name is. To say that I’m pretty confused right now would be one hell of an understatement.”
“I promise that it will all make sense, chief. Listen one piece of advice before I go. Well actually it’s more like three bits rolled into one. Pray, hope and don’t worry. Got that, chief? Pray, hope and don’t worry. And remember Isaiah fifty eight, verse ten. Speak soon, chief.” The line went dead and all that Jack could hear was the refrain of Hey Jude through the studio speakers.
“I think you should see this.” It was Zoe’s voice. She held up her phone and Jack read off the screen. It was an article from Wikipedia:
‘I Am that I Am’ is a common English translation of the response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for his name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah, the article read.
There was more information, but Jack didn’t need it. He used the phone as a shield from Zoe’s gaze as his legs turned to jelly.
“Are you ok?” Zoe asked.
“I think I need a drink,” Jack said.
2.30 pm. Café Prima. Newcastle Quayside.
Jack and Zoe each nursed bottle of Peroni. Jack had found it a real struggle to finish the radio show. Even now, his mind raced like a washing machine on super-fast spin. “Show me the scripture again would you,” he said to Zoe. She passed him her phone and he read aloud: ‘“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”’
“What do you think it all means?” Zoe asked.
Jack took a swig of beer. “Well,” he said, “Quint told me to pray, hope and not worry. Then, according to Isaiah, chapter fifty eight, verse ten, I’m supposed to help the hungry and those in trouble. That’s a bit rich, I mean, right now, I am the hungry.”
“Do you really believe that it was Quint’s voice on the line?” Zoe asked. “Sure, I mean it sounded like the shark man out of Jaws, but how could it be? Quint is just a fictional character from a book and a movie. The voice on the line claimed to be…well you know who he claimed to be, Jack.”
Jack let out a huge sigh. “Do I believe that I just had a conversation with a character from a movie? Yeah, I believe so,” he said. He looked across at Zoe for a reaction but she sat there, poker faced. “And if I believe that I spoke with a movie character,” he continued, “then I’ve got to buy into the rest of it haven’t I? I suppose it all comes down to faith. A pragmatist such as yourself might say that all of this Quint business has been an elaborate hoax or a series of coincidences. But, deep down, I know that Quint was the real thing.”
Zoe raised her eyebrows. “So what you’re really saying is that you think …” she looked heavenwards and paused for a moment before continuing, “is that you think God has been communicating with you through a movie character?”
Jack took a swig of beer and then spoke: “When you put it like that, it sounds crazy I know, but you heard what Quint said to me on the phone. He told me His real name and that He’d been communicating with me in a way that I could understand. At the time it didn’t make any sense, but now I see what He meant. I love movies, so what better way to go about it than to communicate with me through my favourite movie character. I don’t expect you to believe me, though.”
Zoe smiled at him. “The thing that really worries me, is that part of me thinks you may be right, Jack.”
Chapter Thirty Four:
One year later:
Jack sat himself down on the canvas with the phone to his ear as Zoe brought him a hot drink and rested herself on his knee. He listened to Toto’s ‘Africa’ playing down the line and then a familiar voice talking over the end of the song:
“Hi this is Steve Horne at Breakfast on Spirit FM. Now it’s time to speak to my special guest. He’s a former presenter here on Spirit FM and now a best-selling children’s author. His book ‘The Stone of Destiny’ became an instant success and its sequel ‘The Prophecy’ comes out next month. Jack Holden is in a tent somewhere in northern Kenya where he’s working with the charity Tearfund. How are you Jack?”
“I’m good thanks, Steve.”
“Tell us what you’re doing out there in Kenya?”
“Well, I don’t know if you realize this Steve, but Kenya has been suffering from one of its worst droughts on record. This has had a devastating impact on the already arid north, with water and grazing at perilously low levels. Livestock have died in huge numbers, increasing the levels of poverty and desperation.”
“So what can be done to hel
p?” Steve asked.
“Well,” Jack said, “we can help by providing water. Some of the women in the villages here walk an eight hour round trip, just to fetch water for their families’ needs. Thankfully, we’re managing to get thousands of litres of much needed water into some of these villages, but more work still needs to be done. Because of crop failure, there are also many hungry mouths to feed and we’re bringing in food supplies every day, but sadly, there’s more demand than what we can currently provide for, which is why donations are so vital. If we all work together, we can stop this crisis becoming a catastrophe.”
Ten minutes later, Steve began to wrap up the interview by giving out the Tearfund website address which included a facility for online donations.
“Good luck out there in Kenya,” Steve said, “and also with the new book. Got any advice for budding authors?”
Jack paused for a few moments then smiled at Zoe. “Yeah,” he said into the handset. “Pray, hope and don’t worry.”
“Ok…right.” Jack thought that Steve sounded a little taken aback. “Well, I hope to see you and Zoe soon.”
“Thanks Steve. I really appreciate the airtime. We’ll be over to pay you a visit soon, I’m sure. Oh there’s just one thing before I go. Can you do me a favour?”
“Sure. If I can.”
“Will you play a request for my friend, Quint? It’s a Roy Orbison song called ‘She’s a Mystery to Me.’
“You got it.”
“No Steve, ‘She’s a Mystery to Me.’”
They both laughed.
***The End***
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