The REIGN: Out of Tribulation
Page 22
“I looked for Eileen and Timmy when I got out. Eventually, I found one of Eileen’s cousins, in a small town in Georgia, and he said he heard Eileen was killed. That wasn’t more than I suspected, but it was all I could find out. I went to all the places she would have gone and found no trace of her, no one had seen her or Timmy.”
Steve stopped, sitting silently for a half a minute. “Giving up looking for them was the hardest thing I ever did. Torture was easier.” He took a long slow breath, then said, “But, I guess, I didn’t completely give up, I came back here ‘cause I heard the town was still livable, and I thought, if she survived, she would look here for me. Everywhere else that we knew, was destroyed.”
Rodney smiled at the irony that Steve would come back to “Bummerville” after all. Steve had been the first one out of town, off to college and graduate school, and never looking back. At first, he stayed in touch with Rodney, by email and the Internet, but he didn’t approve of Rodney’s military service, so their relationship faded.
Now, here they sat, looking across the room at each other, with that unbreakable bond between them renewed after decades apart.
“I assume you’ve seen Jay,” Rodney said.
Steve nodded. “He still doesn’t like me,” he said with a smile.
“Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell me you were back.”
Steve shrugged. “I only saw him the first time a few days ago. He didn’t recognize me until I said thanks for the change he gave me from his register. I guess he recognized my voice.”
“There’s hardly anyone else,” Rodney said. “Most everyone else in town has moved in since you left, or even since your parent’s moved to Florida. Now we’re getting folks moving here ‘cause their part of the country is devastated and we still have a town.”
Emma smiled and wrapped her arms around one of Rodney’s. She said to Steve, “You really should consider moving out to the farm with us, we have two empty rooms Rodney has built upstairs.”
“Yeah,” Rodney said. “I could even give you your own bathroom, just finish a couple of walls differently than I planned.”
Steve looked at both of them and said, “It’s very kind of you to offer. I’ll think seriously about it.” He stood up. “Cell phones aren’t working yet, are they? How do I reach you?”
Rodney had heard that cell phones would be connected to the central network within days. Jay had mentioned it, explaining his increased effort to find abandoned phones with the right kind of access card.
“No cell phones, yet, and we don’t have a land line at our place yet. But I’ll come back into town again tomorrow,” Rodney said. “You’ll be in during the afternoon?”
“Yes, I expect so,” Steve said. His guests both felt that Steve was a bit anxious for them to leave.
Rodney and Emma stood up and began to move toward the door.
“It’s great to see you again, Steve,” Rodney said, his hesitation gone.
Steve apologized. “Sorry to rush you out, but I’m meeting with someone. I will think about your offer.” He patted Rodney on the back. “It’s good to see you too.”
Emma shook his hand. “So good to meet you,” she said with a smile.
“My pleasure.” He faced Rodney. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
As Emma and Rodney walked to the van, Emma said, “You never mentioned him to me.”
Rodney gently put his arm around her waist, as they crossed an alley and approached the van. “We had a sort of falling out, over me signing up for the Army, after high school. He didn’t approve.”
Rodney opened the door for Emma and noted the groceries behind the driver’s seat. “I hadn’t thought about him for years, sort of counted him as lost.”
On the drive home, Rodney filled Emma in on his childhood years with Steve, their misadventures as boys, running around together all over town, pressing their luck whenever possible, even if technically abiding by the law and most of the rules. Tricking bullies, teasing girls, camping in the back yard and fishing in the river, all came toppling back into Rodney’s consciousness, as he introduced Emma to his friendship with Steve. He remembered fondly the time Steve’s parents allowed him to accompany Rodney to his grandfather’s ranch one summer, their mothers both glad to find something for the restless boys to do. Emma blushed at some of their crude adolescent humor, born out of two townies playing cowboy on a real working ranch.
As they turned up their driveway, Rodney said, “I was surprised you invited him to live out here, right off the bat.” He grinned at her, knowing she had surprised herself with that.
“Yeah, that was pretty impulsive. I just couldn’t believe how skinny he is. I was thinking he looked like an internment camp survivor. I guess I was right.”
Rodney lost his smile, thinking of his old friend starving in prison. Then he remembered what Steve said about the Christian prisoners disappearing.
“So, Steve just added more evidence for us about the Christians and what’s happening in Jerusalem,” Rodney said, as he got out of the van, pulling a grocery bag out behind him.
Emma climbed out with a bag and said, “Yeah, I noticed that.”
“Steve was an altar boy in the Catholic church, but it was all a joke to him. He never took it seriously.”
“He said he didn’t know what had happened ‘at the time,’” Emma said, quoting loosely.
“Yeah, I noted that too,” Rodney said. “I wonder what he thinks of it now.” Rodney held the door open for Emma and shoed Socks away, so she could get in.
“I hope he’s not still as anti-Christian as he was in college and high school. That was no problem with me back then, but it’s different now,” he said, in the midst of the hungry sniffing of the coyote and the rustling of groceries.
“Oh, why don’t you go kill a rabbit like a normal coyote?” Rodney said to Socks. The coyote tipped his head, trying to detect whether he was in trouble.
Emma piped in. “Hey, it just occurred to me, the whole lion-and- lamb-lying-down-together thing. Maybe that’s why Socks lets rabbits chase him around.”
Rodney furrowed his brow. “I thought that was just for Christmas cards.”
“Might be something to it.”
Socks whined at the sight of some cheese. Rodney laughed. “I was assuming that he just had a coyote personality disorder.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
On the day that cell phone towers in the area became accessible to the general population, Steve Svoboda moved in with Rodney, Emma and Daniel. He even greeted Chip courteously, when the robot made an obscene gesture as a welcome. Daniel covered his face and shook his head at the glitch.
“Gotta work on my programming,” he said, under his breath, leading Chip from the room.
“Which one of those two was your son?” Steve teased Emma.
“The smart one,” Rodney said, answering for her.
Daniel had helped Rodney prepare a room for Steve, the second one finished upstairs. They hadn’t finished the attached bathroom, but the pipes had been run and the walls were in place.
With the garden promising its first fruits within a week, and what felt like a house full, the farm had become home for Rodney. He now lived with a woman he loved, a stepson he enjoyed, and his best friend from childhood. The obligations of his new political role pulled at him, but the gravity of this new home kept him anchored. He even managed to convince the other three area representatives to hold their weekly meetings in his dining room.
The return of reliable mobile phone service presented a stretching challenge for the survivors of the Dictator’s rule. The new government had facilitated the repair and commissioning of the same network that their predecessor had used to effectively track and manipulate the nation. Accepting that the intentions of the new ruler were benign, seemed impossible for many, who had been tortured and widowed by the old regime. For these, activating a mobile phone represented the next stage in subjugating themselves to global tyranny.
He had kept his political views to himself, for the most part, watching with interest his old friend’s involvement in the coming congress in Pittsburgh. Steve had been the political activist, with Rodney brushing off the politicians as parasites, who produce nothing of value. Of course, the reign of the Dictator had turned politics into a deadly poison, much worse than useless. Now, against his past, Rodney showed signs of some measure of faith in the process of governance.
One unusually warm Tuesday night in late March, after Pete, Sara and Will had left, Rodney joined Steve on the porch, taking the second rocking chair, with a short scrape of wood-on-wood and a satisfied sigh.
“How’d it go?” Steve asked. “I didn’t hear any yelling.”
Rodney smiled. “That’s why I can do this. These folks aren’t crazy, and they’re not mean.”
Steve took that in as he watched a couple of rabbits venturing into the clover next to the barn. Then he decided to test his friendship with Rodney a bit.
“So what’s the relationship between this congress and the ruler in Jerusalem?”
Rodney looked at Steve, wondering at how they had managed to avoid any conversation about Jerusalem up to that point. He could only assume that this was because Steve wanted to avoid it.
“That’s the mother of all questions, as far as I’m concerned,” Rodney said. “The stuff about politics and logistics, all falls below the question of Jerusalem.” Rodney’s answer sounded more like a politician than he wanted.
Steve persisted. “Any sense of where the others stand on that?”
Rodney thought a moment, taking a short census of the other representatives. “Well, Pete’s been my best friend for the last ten or fifteen years,” he said. “But I’m getting kinda impatient with him on this. He acts as if we can just ignore Jerusalem. Will Snyder is not far from him on that. Sara is more like me, more convinced that what’s happening in Jerusalem is bigger than any human government.” He stopped there, wondering if he had tripped a detonation cord with Steve yet.
Steve turned and looked squarely at Rodney. “You’re starting to sound like a convert,” he said provocatively.
Rodney held up his right hand. “You didn’t see me when I was missing the tips of these two fingers,” he said.
Steve shook his head, intrigued with where this was headed.
“Daniel fell down and injured himself really badly one day and a couple of young kids from Jerusalem popped in to help him. They put his broken hand back together in a minute, and then one of them took hold of this hand, which had been injured in the war, and she basically grew the tips of these two fingers back, skin, bones and all,” he said. “It’s hard to ignore something like that.”
Steve’s dark eyebrows stood arched high, as he stared at his old, atheist friend. “Wow, that must have been really cool.”
Rodney stared back. Where was Steve’s old skepticism? Where was the honed intellect that needed nothing supernatural to complete his universe?
Steve saw Rodney’s surprise and decided to reveal one of his biggest secrets.
“Remember how I told you about my cell mate, Pedro? And the way he just disappeared that one night, with the other Christians?” Steve asked, at a pace that invited Rodney into something surprising.
“Sure,” Rodney said.
“That wasn’t the last time I saw Pedro,” Steve said.
Rodney took a few seconds to catch up to the significance of that statement. “He visited you after he was taken up?”
Steven nodded slowly, then said, “Though it would be more accurate to say ‘he visits me.’”
Rodney stood dumbstruck.
“Remember that first afternoon we met in my apartment, when I said I was meeting with someone?” Steve said. “That was Pedro. He comes by to see me regularly.”
Now it was Rodney’s turn to arch his eyebrows.
“I’ve felt that healing power too,” Steve said. “I had a real nervous twitch after prison, nightmares and something really wrong with my stomach. Pedro healed those completely.”
Rodney started to laugh and the laughter grew. Steve joined him for a few seconds and then looked at him inquisitively.
Rodney got himself under control to explain, “I was so nervous about letting you know about my sympathies with those folks in Jerusalem,” he said. “I had a visit from Anna the night I met Emma and I had no intention of telling you about it.”
Steve smiled, then grew sober. “I wish I had taken things more seriously back when I was an altar boy.” He squinted through the darkness, wondering if the cottontails were still there. Darkness had conquered the yard and he couldn’t tell one way or the other.
“Pedro tells me about Timmy,” he said. “He doesn’t see Eileen. She’s gone. But Timmy’s in Jerusalem, when he’s not out doing some kind of work he’s been assigned. The way Pedro talks about him he sounds like a little man, but he says he’ll stay a boy and won’t grow old here.” He stared into the distance, more intent now on seeing his son in his imagination than the wildlife in the yard.
“I wonder why we can’t see our kids,” Rodney said.
Steve shook his head slightly. He asked, “What was it like seeing Anna?”
Rodney kept his eyes intent on the dark, trying to find an answer. “I can’t describe it. It was terrible and wonderful at the same time. She was there and yet not there. It was definitely her, but she was completely changed.” He gave up. “I guess none of that makes sense. But I’ll never forget that night.”
Steve allowed the cool evening air to fill in after Rodney’s thoughts.
“She told me I was free to go with Emma,” Rodney said.
“Wow. You think that was the main reason for the visit?”
Rodney nodded.
Headlights, turning off the highway onto the county road, ended the conversation. The look of the lights reminded Rodney of Pete’s vehicle. Out of habit, Rodney tensed. Driving that fast at night, Pete wouldn’t be making a social visit. When the lights turned up the driveway, Rodney rocked forward and stood up, striding down off the porch. Pete skidded to a stop several feet away.
“Some of those parents with the missing kids have gone over the edge,” Pete said, as soon as the sound of the skid died.
“What’d they do?” Rodney asked.
“They’ve taken hostages.” Pete clearly still rode on elevated adrenalin.
Rodney looked skyward and swore. “Who’s doing it?” He wanted to gage the sort of enemy Pete was asking him to face.
“I’m not sure who all it is. I know Jason Cooper isn’t one of ‘em, but he knows ‘em. He’s the one who called me,” Pete said. “Hey, why don’t you have a phone yet?”
Rodney shrugged. Daniel was the only one in the house with a mobile phone and they hadn’t yet found a handset for the old land line, which was also live. “Too many meetings, not enough carpentry work,” Rodney retorted.
“Hell, we’ll get you a phone,” Pete said, referring to the fledgling government.
“Who did they grab?” Rodney asked, getting back to the crisis. He headed for his old PFV and motioned for Steve to follow.
Steve held up one finger, to say wait a minute, and ran inside to tell Emma where they were headed, or at least why they were leaving so late.
Pete, whose volume surely would have alerted Emma to the crisis by now, said, “That’s part of what’s so weird. They tried to grab some of the Jerusalem people visiting town, but those folks slipped away, so then they grabbed Hyo and Young.”
Rodney stopped next to his vehicle and scowled through the darkness, trying to grasp the situation. He turned and reached down for his keys tucked under the driver’s seat. As he hopped into the seat, he reached over and unlocked the glove compartment, checking for a weapon. He found his electric gun that sent a stun charge over fifty feet, a police weapon.
When
he sat back up, waiting for Steve, he asked, “What do you think they plan to accomplish with this?”
Pete, who had started to back up, stopped and yelled. “Revenge for those people taking their kids, I’m guessing.”
“Revenge?” Rodney asked, as if addressing the night air.
Steve skipped down the stairs, over the gravel and around to the passenger seat. He spotted the stun gun in the dim LED light of the vehicle interior. He looked at Rodney, who nodded, thinking about their old conflict over his military career.
“It’s what I do,” is all Rodney said.
Pete pulled out of the yard, with Rodney following. As they hummed along the highway at a hundred miles-an-hour, Rodney shouted over the sound of the wind. “With a hostage situation, I’m glad to have you along. This is more about psychology and negotiations than fire power.”
“Who are the hostages?” Steve shouted back, having missed that part of the story.
When he heard the answer, he started to laugh. “Who are we going to save, the hostages or the hostage takers?” And he renewed his laughter.
In the rush to respond, stoked by Pete’s obvious anxiety and at the end of a long day, Rodney hadn’t dug into the implications of the immortals being in danger. Now he too started to laugh.
When he sobered a bit, Rodney said seriously. “Well, the Koreans warned me once about the danger of mortals hurting each other if they try to lash out against the immortals.” Still smiling slightly, he said, “There’s still some work to do here.”
Steve understood. “The curious thing is why they would allow themselves to be taken,” he said, after a few seconds.
Rodney repeated Pete’s story, that they had tried to grab some others that had escaped. Then he said, “I get the feeling that Hyo and Young are sort of assigned to Somerville, like it’s their town. Where better to deal with a crisis, than from inside it?”