SECRET SALVATION

by Chad Josey

  Several minutes had passed after the ceremony. The graduates searched for their families; their families searched for their graduates. During the happy reunions, Joseph and Mary became separated for a few moments.

  “There you are,” Mary said with a burst of happiness and the biggest smile Joseph had ever seen from her. She ran to him screaming, “Joe! Joe, I love you.”

  A camera flashed from behind them. It captured the perfect moment. Mary had jumped into Joseph’s arms, wrapping her legs around his body. In the sudden attack, his graduation cap had fallen from his head. Liz had taken the perfect picture of pure happiness between them.

  Mary unwrapped her legs from around his waist and slid down his gown standing. “I can’t believe we’ve finally graduated,” she said.

  “So, where are you two headed off tonight?” Liz asked in an approving way.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be home sometime tonight.” Joseph laughed as Mary pinched his ass out of Liz’s view.

  “Okay, well, if you need anything call me. You both have fun, tonight,” Liz said as she gave them a hug together at one time.

  As the crowd thinned, they walked back to the faded-green Oldsmobile. Their graduation gowns and diplomas held like prizes in their hands. Joseph placed their things in the backseat and pulled the car out of the parking space. As he backed out, a brilliant flash of lightning blinded them.

  “Wow!” They both yelled together as the booming crack of thunder muffled their voices. The sudden clasp caused her to leap over from her seat onto his shoulder.

  Joseph looked at her startled face and stopped the car leaning to kiss Mary. But unlike the thousands of other kisses over the past four years, this kiss felt different. Intense.

  Large raindrops exploded on the windshield as if they were under attack by small water balloons. The innocent kiss became more passionate as Joe placed both his hands around the bottom of Mary’s petite face. Joe pulled away from Mary, her eyes still closed. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s drive around behind the elementary school and wait this storm out there.”

  “Um, okay,” she said back in a soft whisper, opening her eyes to him.

  Joseph again started the car and left the parking lot. Everyone else turned right to go into town. Joseph turned left and into the parking lot of the elementary school. The rain became blinding.

  They parked out-of-sight behind the back of the school building. The fading stadium lights became blurry. Heavy rain pelted the windshield creating a kaleidoscope of light shining into the car.

  Joseph turned off the car’s engine and unbuckled his seatbelt sliding closer to her. His right hand caressed her hair.

  Mary had not taken her eyes away from him since leaving the stadium parking lot. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, resting it in his hands. Mary opened her eyes and turned toward him kissing his wrist supporting her head.

  He leaned closer and reached across her waist to unbuckle her seatbelt. As the belt slid across her t-shirt, he caught the buckle in front of her, pressing his hand into her chest. Joseph released the buckle, causing it to bounce off the side of the door, slamming into the window. He massaged her chest, leaning to kiss the side of her exposed neck.

  His lips moved upward meeting her cheek. Mary turned her head away from his wrist and kissed his lips with a hunger building for years. The pounding of the rain hitting the car’s roof provided a rhythm to the kissing and caressing.

  For the next half hour, wind and rain bombarded the parked car, hidden by the darkness of the building. The rocking of the car back-and-forth from the wind assisted the passion.

  It was as if Mother Nature had provided a soundtrack to their desire for each other. The pelting rain subsided. Blue gowns covered their heaving naked bodies. Joseph and Mary held each other tight. Rolling thunder matched their heartbeats.

  “I love you so much,” she whispered into his ear.

  Joe hugged her closer.

  “I cannot believe what happened? It was like something came over us from out of nowhere?” Mary said brushing her hair away from her eyes.

  “Uh, I know. I mean, we’ve talked about it before. We always said we would know the right time, but I didn’t see that coming?”

  “Well, it’s been building for so long,” she said smiling.

  Joseph stroked his fingers back-and-forth across her naked arms wrapped around him. She squirmed. The sensation tickled.

  “Mary, I have been in love with you since the day we met. And, I promise you this. I’ll always love you, and we’ll always be together.”

  “Joe,” she said holding back tears in her eyes, “I love you, too.”

  4-Destiny

  August 23, 1999

  Stony Brook, New York

  “SHIT!” Joe yelled AS he bolted from the number 4 bus as it rumbled into the stop at the Student Quad. He threw his black backpack over his shoulder and darted between the students on their way to class. Joe felt like he was the starting running back for his University of Stony Brook football team darting to his left, then right, avoiding the people in his way.

  Brookings Hall… Room 411…

  Joe wiped the sweat from his forehead walking into the four-story, brick classroom building. Green ivy climbed across the façade. As a junior, he felt the pressure to decide on a major narrowing his choice between biology and chemistry. Late, on his first day of class, only added to his pressure.

  Joe made it inside the classroom as the door closed catching his backpack on the handle. The noise from the students talking muffled the snap coming from the door. He slid his backpack off his shoulder to remove it from the handle.

  The classroom had a similar arrangement as his freshman chemistry class. It had a comfortable familiarity. A large wooden desk and podium sat at the bottom of the lecture hall. A green chalkboard behind the desk spanned across the entire width of the room. Rows of seats cascaded upward from the floor, like a small stadium.

  His preference was to sit near the back, in the middle of the class. But, being late, the only seat available to him was in the center of the first row. Joe hurried to the seat, removing a notebook and pencil from his backpack.

  As he tried to close the tear, he heard his new professor say, “Good morning, class. My name is Professor John Baptiste. And, yes, my parents had a sense of humor with my name.”

  Professor Baptiste stood before the class welcoming his fifty new students for the semester. The overhead fluorescent light reflected off his glowing baldhead catching Joe’s attention from the front row.

  As the professor scanned his new audience, he removed his black-rimmed reading glasses snagged by a silvery, metal-linked necklace around his neck. “Welcome to Genetic Biology 401.”

  Professor Baptiste turned his back to the students. He stepped up on his toes to reach the small cord hanging from a rolled-up projector screen. Joe smiled taking amusement at the professor’s short stature.

  The screen lowered with a zipping sound releasing streams of dust particles into the air highlighted by the projector beam coming from the back of the lecture hall. Professor Baptiste faced his students holding a wireless clicker he had removed from his front shirt pocket hidden underneath his pale-brown sweater with its dark-brown, leather elbow patches.

  The professor wasted little time as he jumped into his opening speech he had delivered twenty times in the past. The professor’s words intrigued Joe as he had expected the usual routine of reviewing a course syllabus and learning about office hours.

  “My class is very challenging. Not in the subject matter itself, but in the work you will need to put into this class and in the lab. Our field of study is expanding exponentially every year. It potentially holds the key to solving some of humanities biggest challenges, determining how genetics influences the human biology.”

  With each passing statement, the professor advanced the slides projected behind him. Images of people suffering with various epidemics throughout human history appeared with magnified views of th
e responsible bacteria or virus.

  “Ebola… the plagues that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages… fear of Avian Flu… on and on.” The slides advanced with each grotesque disease mentioned with small snippets of history.

  “Researchers believe in the Fourteenth Century the Black Death reduced the world population from about four-hundred-fifty-million to three-hundred-million in only seven years—”

  A voice beside Joe interrupted the professor. “But, Professor, I thought rats carried the plague to Europe?”

  Professor Baptiste broke his rehearsed cadence and turned to the students. “Technically, the rats carried fleas—”

  “And, the fleas infected the people,” the voice said interrupting him again lost in the crowd of students.

  The professor pointed his clicker in the air as a Y-shaped image zoomed-in behind him on the screen. “No. The Yersinia pestis bacterium is the culprit, which the fleas carried via the rats.”

  The voice fell silent. Professor Baptiste held everyone’s attention.

  “But, what about the diseases of today? AIDS… Tuberculosis… the Swine Flu… What about future diseases? What about the bacteria or viruses unknown to us which may even be worse than what humanity has already seen?”

  Joe attempted to keep pace with the professor in his notes. The names of the diseases and hand-sketches of the matching responsible bacteria or virus scribbled across the pages of his red notebook.

  “In this class, we will learn how genetics play a role in the evolution of bacteria and viruses. How the human biology adapts in positive ways to fight these infections. And, the negative ways the body succumbs to them.”

  Professor Baptiste paced in front of his students. His pacing reminded Joe of Minister Greene back home in Texas. The only things missing from Baptiste’s sermon were the damnations to Hell and a chorus of amen echoing from the classroom.

  “From this understanding, scientists will learn how to prevent or cure these diseases and the ones not even yet known. Who knows, maybe one day even leading to a cure for various cancers that humanity has had to endure.”

  Joe again paused his note taking. He wrote the word ‘cancer’ in capital letters as he tapped the eraser end of his pencil on his notebook. His tapping caused his Mom’s metal, University of Stony Brook pin to fall from his shirt pocket. His earlier encounter with the door had loosened it.

  He had worn her small, red pin with the school’s mascot inside a white triangle and circle for good luck on the first day of class and during his exams. The anguish he felt was too much as he watched it bounce off his desk, spin on the floor, and come to rest to the left of the professor’s foot.

  Professor Baptiste saw the rolling pin and gave it back to Joe without pausing his lecture. “So, this is my challenge to you. Whatever your major… whatever your chosen career after college… find your passion and follow it. You will be successful in life. And, if your passion is genetics and biology, then you are in the right class.”

  Joe snapped his pin back onto his shirt, giving it an extra push to make sure it was not falling off again. The professor’s challenge to the class caused Joe to write simple questions across his notebook without answers. What is my passion? Mama. Cancer. Cure???

  The class continued for the next forty-five minutes. Professor Baptiste presented the course syllabus, his office location, and office hours. Joe took more notes than he remembered. The words the professor spoke resonated, today.

  Maybe it was the direct and straight approach the professor delivered? Or, maybe the challenge Baptiste made in finding one’s passion triggered the answer Joe already had known of what his true purpose in life was to be?

  While he had always excelled in math and science, deciding on his major was a difficult decision for Joe. He switched many times between chemistry, biology, and engineering with accounting as a backup.

  As the class ended, the students gathered their belongings. Joe collected his notes, placing them inside of his backpack. Halfway to the door, he stopped and turned back to the professor, who sat behind the desk.

  “Professor Baptiste, thank you for handing me my pin back. It was my mom’s.”

  “No problem. I didn’t want you to disturb the class to get it.” Baptiste sat shuffling together his lecture notes.

  “Professor?”

  “Yes?”

  “I am looking forward to your class this semester. Your opening speech to us hit me. I’ve been debating on my major for some time now, and—”

  “Hold that thought, Son. Don’t let one lecture decide your fate or your major. Do the work. In a few weeks, make an appointment, and we can talk further.”

  “Thank you, Professor Baptiste. I will definitely schedule a visit. See you Wednesday.”

  Joe left the classroom to walk back across the Quad to his next class, Statistics 201. He took his time since he had twenty minutes. An open bench outside Edwards Hall welcomed him to sit and watch various groups mulling about on the Quad.

  Thoughts of the professor’s introduction to the class raced through his mind. Joe unzipped the top of his backpack and pulled out his red notebook opening it to his notes from Professor Baptiste’s class.

  Joe read the various bullet points of facts the professor presented and reviewed the course syllabus. But, his eyes kept going back again to the words he had written at the top of the page: What is my passion? Mama. Cancer. Cure???

  “Hey, Joe… How was your summer?” came a loud voice from a large guy running to Joe.

  “Charlie! Hey, great to see you, Man.” Charlie’s greeting made Joe realize he had missed his best friend during the past three months. “My summer was good… the best it can be I guess since I had summer school and all. How was yours?”

  Joe and Charlie were roommates in one of the freshman apartments off campus. It did not take long for them to develop a close friendship. Neither had a brother, and it was their shared bond of being from the South with Joe from Texas and Charlie from Georgia, which had developed their brotherhood. Their inside joke was they needed to stick together up in Yankee Country.

  “Dude, my summer was awesome. Couple of friends and me, we rented a house at the Shore and had a blast,” Charlie said.

  Charlie had invited Joe at the end of last semester to join him this summer. Charlie had promised Joe that after one last summer filled with parties, he would get serious about college.

  “Beer and bitches everywhere.” Charlie had a devilish grin visible through his unshaven, chubby face.

  Joe admired Charlie’s carefree spirit while hoping he would get serious about his studies.

  “How’s Mary doing?”

  “Mary? She’s doing okay. She’s decided to go into teaching.”

  “Awesome, that’s great. Man, too bad y’all are still together. You would’ve loved spending the summer with us.”

  “What class do you have next?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. I think it’s biology with Baptiste.” Charlie turned his body following a six-foot-tall blond girl passing between them. “Damn, Dude.” Charlie tapped Joe’s shoulder. “That ass.”

  “I just got out of a biology class with Baptiste. I really like him, but his class sounds hard.”

  “I tell you what’s getting hard…. Hey, I’ll check ya later, Dude.” Charlie left Joe sitting on the bench as he watched Charlie catch up to the blond in the center of the Quad.

  Joe checked his watch and closed his notebook, slipping it inside his backpack. He stood in time to see the aftermath of Charlie’s meeting with the blond girl. The sound of her hand slapping against his face bounced off the ivy-clad buildings.

  Charlie turned back to Joe and yelled across the Quad. “I freakin’ love college, Man.”

  “Damn, he’s crazy,” Joe said as he shook his head leaving for his next class.

  Hours had passed. Joe walked home to his apartment he shared with Mary. Professor Baptiste’s words still reverberated in Joe’s thoughts, as he opened his apartment door.
>
  “Joe? Joe, are you home?" Mary asked from the kitchen. Joe entered their first-floor apartment above the used college bookstore on Ninth Street near campus. “How was your first day of class?”

  Mary stood behind their small kitchen table with its two, mismatched wooden chairs. Dinner and wine sat on the table.

  Joe appreciated the dinner, as Mary had made it a habit to surprise him occasionally. At most, he expected a take-out pizza since Mary had her first-day also starting community college.

  “It was great, Mary.” His excitement was obvious to Mary as he kissed her.

  “Whoa, you missed me, didn’t you?” she asked as he held her closer.

  “Of course, I did. I always miss you. But, the extra kiss is for this dinner.” He leaned over to kiss her again.

  “It’s nothing special. I wanted to make something nice for us since it was our first day back to class. The chicken, that’s takeout. I made your favorite mac-n-cheese. And, the wine… well, the wine is from a bottle and not our normal box. I guess you can say that’s fancy, huh?” She laughed at herself.

  “Thanks, Sweetie, it looks great. Let me go change, and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” He kissed her one last time before going to the bedroom.

  A few moments later, he came back into the kitchen. “I saw Charlie today. He wanted me to tell you, hey.”

  “How’s he doing? I can’t believe he’s not been kicked out of school, already?” Her tone was sarcastic as she poured wine into the glasses.

  “He’s good. Charlie is well… Charlie. The food looks great. Thanks for doing this, Sweetie.”

  “So, how were your classes, today?” Mary asked, passing the chicken to him. The scent of the Italian seasonings made his mouth water.

  “Great. I think I’ve decided on my major.”

  “Really, after the first day? You still have other classes tomorrow.”

  “I do, but those tomorrow, I’ve already had the first level.”

  “So, what are you thinking about majoring in?”

  “Biology.”

  “Biology? Just like your mother and be a teacher?”