The REIGN: Out of Tribulation

by Jeffrey McClain Jones

  They both started laughing again. But their fun fell flat on Main Street, when a man and woman stepped off of the curb, holding up eight-by-ten photos of three children. The photos were still in the frames, as if they had taken them down from the wall in their home.

  “Please, please stop.” They shouted. “We’re looking for our children.” The man had a gun slung over his shoulder and the whole scene made Rodney uneasy.

  Emma said, “Maybe we should stop.”

  Rodney slowed down, trying to size up the couple. He stopped, but got hold of his pistol, keeping it out of sight, as the frantic parents approached the van.

  Emma rolled down her window half-way and slid down in her seat slightly, just in case Rodney needed a clear shot at the agitated strangers. The man held up two pictures as he reached Emma’s window.

  “Have you seen these children? They disappeared several weeks ago and we’ve been looking all over for them. Have you seen any children?” The man plead piteously.

  That last question stirred a familiar curiosity for both Rodney and Emma. Where were the children, after all?

  Rodney answered the man. “No sir, we haven’t seen any children. We’re not from this town, but we haven’t seen any children anywhere, for the last two or three months.”

  The man looked at the van, he tried to see into the back, behind Emma. He seemed truly desperate. Then his wife’s face joined his in the window.

  “We’re just trying to find our children. Do you have children?”

  Emma nodded, moved by the melancholy couple. “I have a fourteen-year-old. But we’ve noticed that we aren’t seeing any kids younger than him, these days.”

  “Where could they be? Who’s taken them?” the woman asked, her questions serving both as a protest and a plea.

  Rodney and Emma had not been around people who had small children. Part of this grew out of the concentration of active resisters around Somerville. Most of the people with children had moved away, or at least moved their children elsewhere, as Rodney and Anna had, to get them out of the conflict zone. Barneston looked more like a war zone than Somerville; it was easy to imagine that the children would have been evacuated from there. But, by now, they should have come back.

  “We can’t find children anywhere and anyone we meet who had small children, lost them around the same time we lost our kids,” the man said.

  Rodney shook his head. “We’ve seen some strange things lately,” he said, trying to sound sympathetic.

  The man looked hard at Rodney. “You seen those videos from Jerusalem?” he asked, a harsh edge to his voice.

  Rodney nodded mutely.

  “There’s children there,” the man said decisively.

  “Yep, but that’s a long way from here,” Rodney said.

  The man seemed satisfied with the hopelessness of that statement. He pursed his lips and nodded slightly.

  “We gotta be goin’,” Rodney said. “Sorry we couldn’t help.”

  He released the brake and pressed the accelerator, still a bit wary about the frazzled couple. Their look of parental desperation made Emma and Rodney feel that the strangers might do anything. But they just stood numbly in the road, staring after the van, as Rodney drove away.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The house east of Somerville stood up like a waking lion, stretching and filling its full height, surveying its solitary territory. Supplies provided by the Koreans fed the three-person building crew, supplemented by occasional help with plumbing or electrical work. Jose did the electrical work; the smiling Mexican, who appeared from nowhere, did quick and flawless work and then vanished.

  The day that Rodney went into town to see about shingles was the day the gold arrived.

  Up to this point, all transactions involved trading goods or services, the monetary system of the Dictator having disappeared with him and his lackeys. No authority existed to formally revive the U. S. dollar, so the barter economy prevailed everywhere, including Somerville. That is, until four tall and imposing men arrived in a large truck and setup operations in the parking lot next to the building supply store.

  By word of mouth, the residents of Somerville found that the new government would give each of them five hundred gold coins, each coin a little larger than the old U.S. nickel. This would form the foundation of a new gold-based monetary system that the King in Jerusalem had established, according to Hyo and the spokesperson for the men with the gold truck.

  Rodney had seen military men at the height of fitness throughout his adult life. But he had never seen anyone more impressive than the head of the gold distribution team. He introduced himself simply as “Dean.” He had less personality than the coins he was giving away, but he was equally as fine and shiny. Well over six feet tall, a flawless physique and sculpted face, he exemplified ideal masculinity. In ancient times, pagan tribes may have hailed him as a god. More recently, Hollywood would have paid him millions to play an action hero on the big screen. In Rodney’s time, and Rodney’s town, he appeared as the no-nonsense, and no-worries, leader of the gold team.

  According to Dean, “Merchants will be supplied with additional copper and silver coins with which to make change for the gold coins.” The gold coins were called “crowns,” bearing the image of a lion on one side and of a crown on the other.

  The simplicity of this system stunned most of Somerville’s residents, nearly as much as its generosity. Now they had money, no more bartering. They struggled, however, with the question of the value of this sparkling gold money. Before the Dictator’s global banking system took control of world commerce, a gold coin like this would have been worth hundreds of dollars. Was that still the case? That seemed unlikely, given that the new government was simply handing hundreds of these coins to each resident.

  Rodney had to go back to the house to pick up Emma and Daniel, so they could collect their allotted share, including a full share for Daniel. Like everyone else, Daniel was excited at such a windfall, but he wasn’t sure what to do with it, especially given the question of the gold piece’s value. Part of the confusion arose from the government’s largesse. That they received the coins for free, subtly devalued the money in the eyes of the recipients, whether the new government intended this effect was also unclear.

  Later, returning to his quest for shingles, Rodney took some of his coins with him into the building supply store. Hyo scowled at him when he offered gold for shingles.

  “Rebuilding the community is a project supplied and funded by the new government,” he said. “You need only use your money in dealing with others who are not part of the government.”

  That statement provided some clarity regarding the cost of rebuilding, but raised a whole new list of questions about the scope and definition of this new government. If the building supply store was part of the new government, as well as Jose the electrician, the who else?

  One answer to that last question burst into Rodney and Emma’s life two days later. As the gently warming days of late January turned toward February, which promised to be warmer still, gardening became a compelling concern. As Hyo had said to Rodney a few weeks prior, the pervasive new government provided help with planting and cultivation.

  The agricultural representative, however, didn’t strike Rodney or Emma as typical governmental material. The day she appeared, Emma was standing in the side yard, trying to decide the boundaries of her new garden. She was estimating what it would take to feed the three of them, with some extra to share with friends in town. She was also remembering her grandmother’s vegetable garden, from childhood, as a template and measuring rod for her new plot.

  As if the very process of thinking these thoughts produced a call into the clear blue sky, something resembling a bolt of light smashed into the ground twenty feet in front of Emma. Unlike lightening, this flash from the sky left no burn mark on the ground and, instead of thunder, laughter rolled out of the little cloud it produced.

  When that cloud cleared, there stood a large, ruddy-fa
ced woman with a winning white-toothed smile. She kept laughing, clearly enjoying herself completely. She stopped laughing only to offer reassurance to Emma, who had not yet begun to breathe again after the initial impact.

  “Sorry, dear, if I frightened you. I just love flying in like that and smacking into the ground without a worry of what I might break or strain. It’s gloriously fun.” And she continued laughing.

  To Emma, the woman exuded physical health. She thought of life, abundance and joy, as she looked at this startling stranger, laughing there in her future garden.

  “Well, I guess I should introduce myself,” the woman finally said, brushing a bit of dirt and grass off her long, flowing dress. “I’m the gardener. You can call me Lilly.” She stepped up, took Emma’s weakly offered hand and shook vigorously. Even with that vigor, Emma sensed that Lilly eased up on her, reserving the better portion of her strength for her work.

  “So you want to build a garden, do you?”

  Emma stared, wondering how she knew.

  “Well?”

  “Yes,” Emma said, “but how did you know?”

  “Oh, knowing is one of my gifts,” Lilly said. “I knew what you were thinking and your thoughts were my cue for a big entrance.” Again Lilly laughed. She left the impression, in fact, that, if she was not laughing, she was restraining laughter.

  Emma couldn’t help catching some of that levity, but her defenses remained in place, in response to some internal alarms about the questionable sanity of her guest.

  “So you’re wondering how I can help,” Lilly said, interrupting the laughter and Emma’s worries. “I can get you started. You don’t have a team of oxen and a plow, so I’ll send one your way. They may do their work in the night, while you sleep, like a bunch of mysterious elves, but we’ll get the ground broken for you.”

  Lilly scanned the yard, studying the ground and considering what she had to work with. “There was a garden here in years past, I can see.”

  Emma thought she could detect that herself and was wondering if that was a good or a bad thing, something to attract a new garden or reason to avoid this space.

  Lilly responded to her thoughts. “It’s a good place and there’s no reason not to put it on top of the bones of the old garden. Dem bones are good for the soil.” Lilly got another chuckle out of herself.

  “And let me say, starting with your grandmother’s garden as a pattern, is a good idea. They knew what the ground wanted, in those days, and they knew how to get her to give them what they needed, without violating the old girl, if you get my meaning.”

  Emma did understand, though taken aback a bit by the graphic imagery. She was, on the other hand, glad to accept Lilly into the line that included her grandmother, like an organic sisterhood.

  “Your grandmother’s a great gal, by the way. Love her to death.”

  A brief skip from one track to another and Emma’s mind landed on a question that had knocked her wheels out from under her. “You knew my grandmother?”

  “Knew? Girl, I know her now. She’s as lively as me these days, though much more handsome.”

  Emma stared at the fair-skinned, voluptuous woman before her. Though Lilly certainly weighed a good deal more than Emma, she also looked quite hale and hearty, a big woman who needed nothing of diets or corsets. However, the present tense mention of her grandmother, and as a handsome woman, locked Emma’s tongue in place while her brain struggled to find a gear.

  Lilly laughed at the stunned look on Emma’s face and said, “I’ll just let you puzzle on that one on your own time. But now, let’s get a list of what we want to grow here.”

  Emma shook her head and then wondered why she was doing that. Intimidated by Lilly, she thought it best to drop the issue of her grandmother’s current status and began to focus her thoughts on the question posed by Lilly.

  “Corn, peas, tomatoes, carrots, onions, potatoes and asparagus,” Emma said.

  Lilly nodded. “You got it. Sounds like a good place to start. You’ll think of a few others and I can help you with those too, but let’s start with that list.”

  Together, the two women paced off the area, Emma gathering sticks with which to mark out sections, and Lilly dishing out practical advice and inspiring promises about the future garden. Focusing on the work at hand and forgetting the questions about where this magnificent woman came from, Emma found an easy fit with her new farming mentor. Lilly dropped crumbs of agricultural wisdom here and there, for Emma to consider and gather as she pleased. In less than an hour, all the plans were set.

  “So I’ll send those boys with the plow in a day or so and they’ll do a wonderful job of turning up this rich earth; and you’ll see a magnificent harvest in just a handful of weeks. Gardens are God’s idea, you know. He just loves ‘em.” She spoke as if referring to a familiar relative that Emma also knew. If Lilly was one of God’s family members, in fact, Emma felt more inclined toward getting to know him.

  Vaguely present in Emma’s peripheral vision during her time with Lilly, birds of all sorts landed in the yard, rabbits approached at a half hop and a few free-range chickens emerged from the surrounding fields. With the imposing presence of Lilly in the front of her, and the array of issues regarding the new garden, Emma kept brushing the appearance of small animals out of her mental focus. But, when they had finished, Emma paused to look around and assess what they had accomplished.

  Now aware of the assortment of preening, flitting and hopping creatures among the sticks she had planted in the weed and grass-covered earth, she gaped at the surprising population milling and stirring around her. Lilly watched Emma’s reaction and intervened before panic took hold.

  “Friends,” she said to the little creatures. And they all seemed to turn and bend their ears to her voice.

  Just then, Daniel came trotting around the corner of the house, following Socks, who was heading straight for the menagerie of small animals. When Emma caught sight of the coyote, she caught Daniel’s eye, with a look of horror on her face. But Daniel responded with a questioning look of his own. He wondered first, who this remarkable woman was with his mother, then he wondered at the great gathering of birds and small animals surrounding her, and he wondered why his mother looked at Socks with such panic on her face.

  Emma anticipated a slaughter when the coyote broke in among the unsuspecting prey, but Daniel had spent much more time with Socks and knew that his pal had no hunting instinct in him. Lilly knew that as well and she caught Socks’ attention, slapping her thigh to call him to her. Even more animated than when Daniel returned from a trip, Socks perked up and charged to Lilly’s side. The birds, rabbits and other assort creatures, parted to let the bigger animal through, but they did not take flight, clearly fearless about the fangs of the coyote.

  Daniel approached Emma, both drawn to the comfort of his mother in the context of such a strange scene, and drawn to protect her where she seemed on the verge of flight, herself. Delicately, Daniel stepped in among the small animals and birds, and parked himself next to Emma.

  Lilly continued to address her audience. “This place is to be a garden for the humans. You must restrain your appetites from destroying the shoots that will sprout here. The fields and trees around you will amply supply you with food. You do not need to take from the humans.”

  As if in reply, a wave of activity rolled from one end of the gathered creatures to the other. Sparrows and wrens flitting two or three feet into the air, robins and starlings flapping their wings, rabbits nodding and raising a front paw in concert with the birds around them, a red fox waving its tail and the chickens hopping and flapping enthusiastically, if not aerodynamically, they all seemed to be responding to Lilly.

  More than any of the strangers Emma and Daniel had encountered in the previous months, they feared Lilly, cowed by her power and presence. Emma had grown to respect her gardening mentor, but feared her just as Daniel did, based solely on the bizarre Mother Nature scene he witnessed.

  Lilly scratc
hed Socks just the way he liked, as she said something low and intimate to the birds and the other four-legged creatures nearest to her. Each of her small admirers turned and escaped into the air and fields around the farm, returning to their wild anonymity.

  “Animals are good judges of character,” Lilly said, still scratching Socks. “Socks likes it here with you. You’ve made him very happy.” She was looking at Daniel when she said this.

  The boy blushed at the compliment from the nature goddess before him. Strange as it may seem, this transcendent woman was the first to arouse Daniel’s desire for love, though he knew well enough not to direct his desire at her, the unattainable beauty. She exuded sexuality so purely, that the virginal boy could not resist the awakening of his own developing hormones. Even if she was not a goddess in actuality, she somehow bestowed on Daniel a measure of supernatural freedom from fear or guilt, regarding his own natural development.

  Emma sensed the spark that passed between her son and Lilly, and she felt that same cold discontent that Rodney had seen in Jenny’s face, that day when the attractive stranger healed her head injury. For this reason, Emma should have been grateful that she didn’t actually see Anna, that night that she visited Rodney. Mortal womanhood cannot compete with immortal, though, in practical terms, there could be no competition between them. Even if Emma understood this fact, her feeling of intimidation didn’t originate from facts, but from the elemental force of nature that stood before her now, smiling and saying goodbye to a four-footed friend.

  Snapping herself out of her emotional cloud, back to the clarity of that sunny day, Emma thanked Lilly, who bowed slightly, smiled and then launched into the air, like a rocket with no need for flaming fuel to propel her.

  “What?” Daniel shouted, staring open-mouthed at the clear blue sky. “Did you see what she just did?”