The REIGN: Out of Tribulation

by Jeffrey McClain Jones

  “Oh, I expect they let us mess up our lives pretty much of the time and won’t get involved in this stuff, unless it’s divorce court. Are they the ones running divorce court?”

  Emma shrugged. “I don’t think it matters, the damage is done. The courts really don’t do anything to save a marriage.”

  “Seems like the immortals could, though,” Rodney said. He thought for a while, Emma leaning her head on his shoulder rising and falling with his breath. “Suppose I should talk to Pete? I mean just talk to him, not try to beat some sense into him?”

  “You’re gonna have to talk to him sooner or later, about something, if not this. Just do it when you’re ready,” Emma said.

  “Yeah, I’ll have to calm down before I try.”

  Curious about Emma’s comment, Rodney researched the newly-formed judicial system on the Internet, sitting at the kitchen table. He looked for divorce court information but found none that originated after the war. The courts for solving business and criminal matters, however, had formed through an alliance between the new national government and the King in Jerusalem, who appointed immortals to serve as judges on various levels, from local towns, to the High Court in Pittsburgh, the new Capitol City.

  As Rodney sat looking at this on his mobile, Daniel kicked off his shoes by the back door and dropped his backpack on the kitchen table, greeting Rodney and heading for the refrigerator. “What you looking at?” he asked.

  “Courts and judges,” Rodney said, looking up to see what Daniel was doing. Nearly sixteen, Daniel had become even more independent, but with very little of the rebellion that Rodney remembered from his own youth. He remembered what Daniel had said about the war aging people faster and found that explanation credible, in the light of his stepson’s manner.

  “Do you understand how that works?” Daniel asked, pulling a block of cheese out of the dairy drawer.

  “I’m just trying to figure it out,” said Rodney. “It seems like the boldest attempt of all to cooperate with the Jerusalem government.”

  “Cooperate?” Daniel said, slipping a small wedge of white cheese between his teeth. “Did we really have a choice?”

  Rodney looked up at Daniel. “Is that school making you cynical?” he said, half in jest.

  Daniel shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’m not even sure that it’s a bad thing if the immortals persuade us to do things that we might not do otherwise,” he said.

  “Assuming they know way more than us, I’d have to agree with you,” Rodney said. Then he remembered his conversation with Steve about the King’s severe judgment against the followers of the Dictator.

  “What have you heard about the way the war in the Middle East ended?” Rodney asked, hoping to benefit from Daniel’s new era education.

  “Mr. Peterson, our history teacher, talks about those stories as current events, so we can’t yet tell how true they are. You have to get some distance in years away from something before you can begin to figure out what really happened,” Daniel said.

  Rodney nodded. “That sounds like a historian’s perspective. What about political science, or current events?”

  Daniel sat down at the table and began making little stacks of cheese and crackers, with crisp, reddish-brown slices of Jerusalem protein to top them off. Rodney idly watched the construction and demolition process for a bit, when a notification on his computer drew his attention.

  The message said that “the Guardian” application had detected attack software on the site Rodney had last clicked to and would clean it up. Rodney made a surprised hum.

  Daniel asked, “What is it?”

  “A virus or something,” Rodney said. “It says ‘the Guardian’ software is cleaning up the infection.”

  “That stuff is really cool,” Daniel said. “In basic programming class, the teacher explained how the immortals have taken charge of the Internet infrastructure worldwide and are policing cyber-attacks in real time.”

  Rodney raised his eyebrows. Daniel had just said something in a technical language that he had avoided learning whenever offered the chance. “That sounds good,” he said, playing mostly off Daniel’s tone of voice.

  Daniel smiled tolerantly at his stepdad. “Yeah, they’ve basically become the police of the Internet. You try to find porn on there lately? It’s gone. They cleaned it up.”

  Rodney balked at the distracting question about finding pornography, but then adjusted gladly to the rhetorical nature of Daniel’s question, and hit on another question of his own. “Who’s creating attack software these days?”

  Daniel chewed and swallowed, grabbing his glass of milk to wash a mouthful down. Then he answered, “Well, that’s one of the really interesting things, ‘cause you’d think we’re all gonna stop committing crimes, like infecting computers and all, but obviously some mortals are still looking to control the Internet. With the banking system still primitive, though, it can’t really be money they’re after. No one has online financial accounts anymore, so it must be political.”

  Impressed that this thinking summarized a discussion from a class at school, Rodney just nodded, acknowledging the logic. He did, however, wonder about the political motives of hackers in the current environment. Wouldn’t the immortals disable computers used for cyber-attacks, just as they disabled guns?

  The next morning, Rodney and Emma talked about Daniel’s education as they drove into town, Joshua strapped into his carrier in the back seat. Turning left on Main Street to visit the new Jerusalem protein shop, they passed the Lutheran church. To their surprise, several people, dressed more formally than average, filed in through the front door. The roof and window had been repaired long ago, but Rodney hadn’t heard that the building was being used on Sunday mornings.

  Emma and Rodney looked at each other.

  “You think it’s church?” Emma asked.

  “I don’t know. It kinda looks like it,” he said, glancing in the rear view mirror again to see another man enter the church building.

  After their stop at the store, they drove past the church in the opposite direction, but the flow of people had ceased, for the time being. Filled with curiosity, Rodney drove to the old Baptist church, now occupied by Phil. There he found no evidence of a meeting in progress, but he pulled into the parking lot to see if he could contact Phil. They had discovered that they could contact the immortals each in a particular location, any time of night or day, even if that person were in Jerusalem.

  Emma and Rodney, who was carrying Joshua, entered the silent building through the front door, which they found unlocked, as usual. As soon as they entered the sanctuary, Phil emerged from the direction of the pastor’s office.

  Watching Phil, smiling and approaching with his hand out, Rodney asked, “You weren’t sitting in the office, were you?”

  Phil’s smile turned a bit more mischievous. “No, but I expect it makes people feel more comfortable to think of me coming from the office, rather than rocketing in from the other side of the globe.” He laughed, as did both Emma and Rodney.

  Phil seized the agenda, before the other two could stop laughing. Looking at Joshua, who was just opening his eyes to figure out where he was, he said, “About time for a baby dedication, don’t you think?”

  Caught entirely by surprise, Rodney and Emma both stared blankly at Phil, then looked at each other and smiled as if caught trying to sneak past watchful parents. Then Rodney said, “We haven’t talked about it, but now that you mention it, it sounds like a good idea.”

  Phil welcomed Rodney’s frankness with a glint in his eye. “I know I’m introducing the idea, but I want you to consider it and get some friends together to join you and then contact me here.”

  Emma and Rodney agreed.

  Then Phil asked, “So what brings you here today?”

  Rodney adjusted back to his original gear and started in motion. “We drove past the Lutheran Church this morning and it looked like they were having some kind of meeting.”

  Phil nodded
, clearly aware of the gathering. “Yes, they’ve started weekly meetings on Sunday mornings, just like the old days. A pastor has taken responsibility for the building and invited folks to come worship, just like before the King arrived.”

  Looking around the room, Rodney asked, “But not you? No church meetings here?”

  Phil tilted his head slightly, squinting just a bit and said, “I’m not interested in going back to those old ways. That was for before, preparing the way for what we now have. Now we prepare for the next coming, not the previous one.”

  “And church meetings aren’t necessary for this new preparation?” Rodney said, his tone insistent.

  “Not necessary for me and I think not for you, if you don’t mind me saying. But I need not say anything against other people’s meetings, of whatever kind. It’s a free world, you know.” He grinned.

  “It seems strange for people to sort of bypass you and the other people from Jerusalem like this,” Emma said. “It seems like church would be something to consult you about, at least.” Taking Joshua from Rodney’s arms, she started using a cotton washrag to wipe drool off his little round chin.

  “Yes,” Phil said. “Churches and meetings and such had their purpose for us before, but no longer. For centuries the Church prayed, ‘Come Lord Jesus.’ It was our central prayer. That prayer has been answered.”

  Like the shepherd he had always been, Phil knew how to guide these unchurched people into the language and culture of his faith, without leaving them feeling like the delinquent outsiders that they feared they were. He seemed unshackled from the past and truly ecstatic about the present. Rodney and Emma both wished they could join him there.

  Phil sensed their regret. “So you missed the boat. That’s no reason to jump on the next one that shows up, any more than you should just stand there on the shore moping. There’s a new age and a new world to enjoy, and the King we’ve all been longing for is reigning now over all the Earth.” He ended his proclamation with a fervent flourish of his hand.

  Both Rodney and Emma felt the sort of relief that comes after holding their breath, letting go the unnatural restraint and sucking in the life-giving air Phil offered them. But Rodney turned to another question that remained for him.

  “What’s going to happen to the pastor and his church down there?”

  “Oh they’ll try to return to the religion they took so lightly in the age that’s passed. Like religion always has, they’ll find that it actually pulls them away from God. Encourage your friends to avoid that temptation and feel free to embrace the God who is here and alive and ruling from his throne in Jerusalem.”

  “So why do you work out of this church?” Rodney asked.

  “It wasn’t being used. Besides, this is where people expect to find a preacher like me, so I accommodate them. So far, none of them have tried to talk me into opening up for meetings.”

  Joshua squirmed and Emma gave Rodney the look that said, “Let’s go, I need to feed this little guy.”

  Phil read that look and said, “Go ahead and take care of Joshua. And think seriously about what I said about a baby dedication. There is still a place for declaring our loyalties, and staking our claims, even without all the old church structures.”

  A motion in the hallway behind Phil caught Rodney’s attention and a pale, roundish man with mongoloid eyes and a thin smile stepped into the light of the sanctuary. “Ready when you are Phil,” he said, as Emma and Rodney headed for the door.

  Rodney stopped, intrigued by the new arrival. Emma saw his interest and motioned toward a corner of the vestibule. Rodney freed a chair from a stack by the wall and arranged it for Emma to sit out of sight of the sanctuary. Phil said something brief and muted to his friend and they waited, as Rodney turned from settling Emma and Joshua.

  “Sorry to butt in,” Rodney said, “but you look…well…you look like someone I used to know.”

  The man smiled and extended his pudgy hand. “Barry,” he said. “You used to smile at me and say ‘hi,’ when I hung around my cousin’s store here in town.”

  “Ah, Jay’s cousin,” Rodney said, his voice trailing into recognition.

  “Yep, that’s me.”

  “But you were…ah…you seem different now.” Rodney stumbled, trying not to say what he meant.

  Phil and Barry both laughed gently.

  “I was mentally handicapped, back then,” Barry said.

  “We all were,” Phil said meaningfully.

  “Right,” Barry said. “But I had Down syndrome, so I couldn’t really take care of myself in those days. Now I’m healed.”

  “Wow, what a change,” Rodney said.

  “One thing you may not have considered,” Phil said, “is that all of us were healed when we crossed from mortality to immortality. I had bad knees that hurt me all the time. All better now.” He flexed his knees to demonstrate.

  “Some just seem more dramatic than others, I guess,” Rodney said.

  Both Barry and Phil nodded. Then Barry said, “Now I get to do what I always wanted.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Farming,” Barry said, with a satisfied smile.

  Rodney shook his head and returned that smile, still learning to expect surprises from the immortals.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Lengthening days, new crops of vegetables, hatchlings in the barn and a visit from Socks with his little pack, marked the height of summer. Emma declared that a second round of abundant tomatoes proved the Kingdom of God had indeed arrived on Earth.

  In contrast, Rodney confronted his old friend Pete on a warm and calm day just a week after he heard about Sara’s and Pete’s indiscretion. Maybe the world had changed more radically than anyone could have imagined, but people seemed to still be very much the same.

  Driving in to the building supply store for material to build a shed for a new client, Rodney saw Pete leaving Randi’s computer shop, a small, black object in his hand. Feeling sufficiently cooled off about what he had heard, Rodney felt safe confronting the mayor about his love life. Pete stood still and waited when he saw Rodney wave and pull into one of the parking places outside the shop. Shifting the new external storage device to his left hand, Pete reached for a handshake as he squinted at Rodney’s exit from the van. That early extension of his hand signaled his awareness that he had to make peace with Rodney, among others, and Rodney recognized the diplomatic maneuver.

  “How ya’ doin’, Rodney?” Pete said, shaking Rodney’s hand slowly.

  Rodney found that, not only had he cooled off enough not to hit Pete, he didn’t even feel like yelling at him. After an extra breath, Rodney said, “I’m okay, Pete. I was hopin’ to talk to you about some news I heard.”

  Pete grinned, familiar with the head-up and straight forward approach from the old captain. “Yeah, Sara said she told Emma about us. I knew you would have something to say about it,” he said. “I know I would if I was you.”

  With hitting him and yelling at him off the agenda, Rodney could only think of one question. “What about Jenny? What happens to her?”

  “Happens?” Pete said, raising his eyebrows. “Oh, it’s already happened. She’s started packing up to head west, just like she always dreamed. With the warmer weather, there’s nothing to keep her from the cabin in the Rockies that she always wanted. I was just an old anchor to this place for her.”

  Rodney knew nothing of Jenny’s longing for the high peaks of the mountain states. And Pete’s news connected with other things he had been hearing. “She’s not joining the resisters in the mountains?” he said, his throat tightening at the thought of it.

  Pete laughed. “No, no, Jenny would never do that. There’s more than rebels moving out there, though. She told me about a new town she heard of out there, built high among the aspens and next to a crystal clear lake. I guess the immortals are making life quite pleasant in spots that were too remote in the old days.”

  Rodney shook his head. “So she doesn’t mind about you and
Sara?”

  “Oh, I didn’t say she was glad about it. No, we had some weepy conversations at first. Yeah, it was hard on her, just like it was hard on me. I didn’t give her up without a lot of thought. It just seems like me and Sara are more alike, both settled here and glad for a future here.”

  For the first time, Rodney considered how the peaceful new order opened up possibilities for people to break away from the settled life that he and Emma were building, even if they weren’t inclined to gather with the resisters in the hills.

  That initial conversation prevented Rodney from cutting himself off entirely from Pete, though he never did feel comfortable about the transition in Pete’s relationships. Even in the new world of the immortals, and all of its’ new possibilities, Rodney believed in loyalty and felt his heart entwined with just one woman, and that for the long haul.

  Rodney travelled to Kansas City in July, the second year of the Reign, to meet with area National Guard commanders and discuss the growing underground of antigovernment exiles. Chester had joined a coalescing movement of people escaping the circle of government influence, rejecting the currency, avoiding the collaborators and establishing their own network of like-minded refugees.

  Fuel for this movement continued to flow from among the parents who lost children to the King, parents grieving their loss and hating their powerful enemy. They acquiesced to his superior force by ducking out of the towns and cities, where his influence showed in buildings converted to parkland and twisted metal recycled for sculptures and infrastructure. They escaped from the peering and patronizing immortals, so infuriatingly loyal to the tyrant who stole hundreds of millions of children.

  The gathering in Kansas City represented three regions, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa, regions that had prospered in the post-war era, the best-preserved towns and small cities growing toward half of their prewar population. Kansas City, Missouri had become the food distribution center of the continent, even reaching into the lands formerly known as Mexico, where remnants had gathered in the north and along the new gulf coast, forgiving the enmity during the war and reaching out to the new American Republic. Rodney had seen his old friend Baxter in an Internet news story, negotiating a treaty with the new government in Monterrey. The photo convinced Rodney that this peace was real, the look on Baxter’s face assuring the viewer that a new relationship had truly opened between the two wobbly-legged governments that were just beginning to rise to their feet.