“You’re teaching him to paint?” she asked when the shoe debate died down.
“Yes. Not really teaching him, but letting him see that you can use that medium to express yourself. Besides,” he added with a sly grin, “you want to bet an early Jesus will be worth a lot of money some day?”
“Undoubtedly. Don’t forget to get him to sign it.”
They met up outside the Project J building, next to a Chronodyne SUV that Juliette had checked out. Jesus walked around the vehicle and looking inside, shaking his head all the time. But when Tamara waved an invitation for him to join her in the back seat, he complied with a smile. With a minimum of fuss, they were off.
At first, the road took them along pine covered ridges and switchbacks of that mountainous terrain. The scenery was gorgeous and Jesus never stopped taking it in. It took them less than an hour to reach the other side of the caldera and climb a ridge. It was necessary to stop twice to check the map before they found the small side road labeled “Horseshoe Loop” that led to the rented house.
The house itself was modern, one story, but fairly large with an attached two-car garage. The sides were painted a light blue with green trim. For a while, Jesus just stood there, looking at it. “Does everyone live in houses like this?” he asked. “Where are the other houses?”
“Some people live in such houses, rabbi,” Myers told him as he helped unload the suitcases. “But others live in different kinds. In your days, not everyone lived in the same kind of houses, did they?”
“In Galilee there were the small villages and the cities. All the houses were the same and all built near each other. How else could everyone share the water from the well? How else can meals be shared? And homes protected?”
Myers was explaining, or at least trying to, how things were different from Jesus’ time as they walked towards the house. Tamara grabbed her suitcase and followed along.
There were four bedrooms; Tamara’s being next to Jesus’ with Myers’ on the other side. Tamara helped Juliette with the bags of groceries she had picked up in the village, then in putting the items away in the kitchen. When that chore was done, the two women joined the others in the back patio. The concrete patio gave way to grass, with pine trees only a few feet beyond that. To one side there was a view along a grassy meadow with hints that there might be a creek running down the middle. All in all, it was a pleasing, peaceful scene. Tamara smelled the pine scent and was happy.
Myers looked to the barbeque sitting on the edge of the patio and asked, “You did bring steaks, didn’t you?”
“Of course,” Juliette responded. “And even marshmallows to toast.”
Both Tamara and Myers smiled at that. Jesus lifted one eyebrow and waited for Myers to translate. Just what a marshmallow was proved difficult to get across, so he led Jesus into the kitchen to show him.
“I’ll bet there are deer to graze on the grass. And squirrels who will take food right out of your hand. A red-tailed hawk circling overhead. And larks, wrens and mockingbirds to wake you with their songs in the morning,” Tamara happily declared.
“And not a Starbucks in sight,” complained Juliette. “The nearest good steakhouse is probably all the way down in Albuquerque, and you’ll have to go farther to find a sushi bar.”
“City gal, huh?”
“Damned right,” agreed Juliette. “Was born and raised in New York City. Best food and shows in the world.”
In the interests of good relations, Tamara did not mention that New York also led the world in muggings, rudeness and traffic jams, not to mention high prices.
“Still...” Juliette conceded, “It is peaceful out here.”
Dinner that night was, as Dr. Myers promised, barbequed steaks served with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. Dessert was strawberry ice cream. From the private conversations between Myers and Jesus, she guessed that he was seeking assurance that this food was kosher. Myers had rubbed the meat with a seasoning and Tamara found the steak quite good. Apparently, so did Jesus, for he did justice to the steak on his plate. Putting butter in his potato did confuse him a little, but not for long. Tamara noted that he was still having trouble holding the silverware and cutting his meat, but Myers – who was obviously aware of the problem – made no offer to do it for him, so neither did Tamara. She could only imagine the damage that had been done to his wrists, which were no longer covered by bandages but by two wide leather wristbands.
After the dinner, they sat around watching the stars come out. The night was cloudless, and the Milky Way a creamy band of light across the heavens. Filled with a good meal, in the company of friends, there was little need for talk.
“I used to lie on my back and watch the stars turning overhead,” Jesus said. “They were so beautiful. Maybe the finest of my Father’s creations. They still look the same.”
Myers translated for the others. “They are the same. At least something is constant in the universe.”
“Then what is that bright star that moves?” asked Jesus.
“That is the International Space Station,” said Tamara. “There are currently three men and one woman living there.”
She could sense Jesus’ head turn towards her. “Is that like the things I have seen in the sky? What you call...”
“Airplanes,” she supplied. “The ISS is very much like an airplane, only it flies very high up. It goes around the world and only takes ninety-three minutes to do it.”
She could just make out his head shaking in disbelief. But then, he really had no idea just how big the earth was, so a satellite in orbit had little meaning to him. He went back to watching it as it approached the zenith then began a slow descent to the eastern horizon. Maybe he would begin to get an idea tomorrow, she thought.
After a while of more silence, Myers got up to go back into the house, followed shortly by Juliette. With their translator gone, there would not be too much talking going on, but that was fine with Tamara, and apparently Jesus also. They sat and watched the stars grow brighter until there were so many that it was hard to identify the constellations.
Two shooting stars dashed across the sky, one right after the other. She wanted to ask Jesus what his people called meteors, but did not even try. The English words would have no meaning for him. So it was a surprise when, after a period of time, he reached over, placed his hand gently on top of hers and said, quite clearly, “Thank you.”
“For what?” she said before she realized that was the first English she had heard from him.
“For being kind to him,” came Myers’ voice from behind them. Neither had heard him walk up. He spoke a few words to Jesus, and then told Tamara, “Yes, he’s thanking you for all you’ve done for him.”
“I’ve hardly done anything. I’m not even a member of the project.”
“You saved his life.”
“Does he know that?”
“Yes. I told him that zealots had broken in and you stopped them from getting to Jesus. Not the absolute truth, but a version he would understand. I suspect he thinks they were agents of the High Priest. He also thanks you for showing him your auto. I fear he is more impressed with that flashy sports car of yours than he is of most of our technology. He can relate to that more than he can some machines he hasn’t seen and would never understand anyway.”
Jesus started to remove his hand, but Tamara put her other hand on top of his. “You are welcome,” she said slowly, wondering if his limited vocabulary would cover that. She thought she saw him nod just before he pulled his hand back.
“I’m off to bed,” Myers told her. “Please tuck Jesus in when you two get tired. Fielding insists that someone be with him every minute. Of course, that doesn’t include when he’s sleeping.”
Was there a hint of amusement in his voice? Surely the older man could not be thinking that Tamara would make any sexual move towards Jesus! She almost said something aloud when she realized that he had already left. She turned back to the showcase sky before them and thought about it. She
was unmarried, but Jesus was. To a woman dead two thousand years. Did that make him a widower? Probably, in a technical sense. But to Jesus, she was certain, his wife was still alive, along with his children. There was simply no way he could have any concept of the incredible amount of time that had passed since his day.
Tamara shrugged off the idea of anything between them. She did care for him as a man, true. And here was a man who would never see his wife again. But the idea of actually going to bed with him... No! It wouldn’t be right. She had to laugh at the idea of bedding down with Jesus. That would really make a good tale for the National Tattler!
The night was beginning to turn chilly, as it does at the higher elevations. If they were going to stay out watching the stars, it would be a good idea to put on a coat or something. She rose from the chair and Jesus did also. In the dim light coming from one of the house’s windows, she could make out his face. Wrapping her arms around herself, she made shivering motions. He nodded and turned towards the house, waiting for her. They walked into the warmth of the house together.
Tamara showed him to his bedroom. At the door, Jesus turned to her and again took her hand in his. “Thank you,” he said again. Then, with a gentle squeeze, he let go of her hand. After she walked away, he closed the door.
Chapter 45: A Good Way to See the World
It was early the next morning, after a breakfast of warmed up leftover steak and eggs, that they set out to show Jesus the world. The first part was a road down to a small village called Jemez Pueblo where they stopped for gas. It was only a forty-minute drive, but all got out and stretched their legs. Jesus was particularly interested in Tamara refueling the car, but it was beyond her power to explain about the internal combustion engine, and would have been even if she could speak Aramaic. The concept was simply too advanced. He did, however, get the idea that adding that funny smelling stuff into that hole in the side of the car was necessary to make it run. He also stared at the handful of people around, most of whom appeared to be Indians or of Mexican descent. This was the first time he had seen more than four people at a time since he awoke.
They followed the two lane road down until they came to Interstate 25, then turned south. Before long they were entering the outskirts of Albuquerque. As the city grew, Jesus could not take his eyes off the buildings. This was also the first time he had seen so many cars driving all at once. Tamara, who was driving at that point, could hear him muttering to himself as the buildings grew in size until they were opposite the downtown portion and some of the buildings reached twenty-stories.
“You have so many people in your land,” Jesus said, the awe showing in his voice and on his face.
“This is one of our small cities,” Myers told him. “We have much bigger.”
Jesus could only shake his head.
“In Jesus’ day, Jerusalem held only about fifty thousand people maximum. Of course, that increased dramatically during the holy festivals when pilgrims flooded into the city. The population of Albuquerque is about half a million, around ten times that of Jerusalem.” Myers chuckled. “He should see New York.”
“Got that right,” chimed in Juliette, “finest city in the world. Also one of the biggest.”
When the densest buildings were opposite them, Myers leaned forward and told Tamara, “I hope you’re not going any farther south. We wouldn’t want to run into a border checkpoint. Remember, Jesus is an undocumented alien.”
Tamara did not know if that was meant as a joke, but it was literally the truth. If stopped by authorities, how could they prove Jesus was legally in the country? For that matter, was he?
Shortly after the downtown section, they turned off the freeway and headed towards a sizeable airport nearby with commercial jets taking off and landing regularly.
“This is Albuquerque International,” Tamara said. “Please tell Jesus not to worry about the noise. We’re going to a business called ‘Sunport Jets’, and it’s on the flight line. I’m sure he’s never heard a 747 taking off.”
Driving along a main street paralleling the airport runways, she found what she was looking for: a row of restaurants. She pulled into one called “Milton’s,” and parked.
“But first, lunch,” she announced.
Milton’s, as Tamara had planned, was an upscale delicatessen. The waitress looked at Jesus’ long hair, beard and sandals with disdain, but seated them anyway. The food, as she expected, proved to be quite good and they all had a sizeable lunch. Jesus liked the turkey with cranberries and stuffing. It was a bit early for lunch, so the restaurant was not crowded, which pleased them because avoiding crowds was high on their list. Talk over the meal was casual. Jesus did, at one point, ask where they were going, but Tamara and Juliette looked at each other, grinned, and told Myers to inform Jesus that he would really like where they were going. They did not, however, inform either of the Jews just exactly where that was, but Myers undoubtedly had a notion.
An incident occurred during the meal that left Tamara in a state of confusion. They were eating when Juliette began choking, apparently on a piece of food lodged in the windpipe. When she saw what was happening, Tamara leapt out of her chair and was coming around the table with the intent of administering the Heimlich Maneuver to clear Juliette’s air passage. However, Jesus, who was sitting next to the distressed woman, reached over and touched her on the shoulder. Immediately the piece of food was coughed out and Juliette sucked in air gratefully.
Jesus said nothing but turned back to his plate.
Tamara stood there for a few moments, confused and surprised. Looking across the table, she saw that Myers was also surprised but perhaps less confused. She went back to her seat, shaking her head. What had she just seen? she wondered. Had the problem cleared by itself and just happened to coincide with Jesus’ touching her? Or did his touch have something to do with it? Tamara was confused. The manner in which he had acted, the calm, confident look on his face, and the results, combined to make her wonder.
No one spoke of it and the meal went on, but Tamara was left wondering what she had just seen.
After lunch, it was a short drive to Sunport Jets. As they disembarked from the car, a 787 Dreamliner took off, its engine roar loud enough so you could not talk. Jesus stood there, staring at the aircraft in astonishment – or disbelief – as it climbed into the sky, banked, and departed into the blue.
Jesus turned to Tamara, tugged on the sleeve of her blouse and said something.
“He wants to know if that is the same thing you showed him up in the sky. I told him yes.” Then he said a few more words to Jesus before returning his attention to Tamara. “You aren’t going to do what I think you are... Are you?”
“Don’t worry, he’ll like it,” she told Myers with a smile. Then she and Juliette were leading the men into the office building.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Myers commented as Tamara went up to the desk and began talking to the clerk. “Whose idea was this?”
“Tamara suggested it, but I fully agreed,” Juliette told him. “Don’t worry.”
“I should have guessed it, coming from a woman who took Jesus joyriding around the compound.”
Tamara returned to them. “The pilot is checking out the plane. We can go onboard in a couple minutes.”
She turned to Myers. “Now I want you to explain to him that we are going to take him for a ride on an airplane. Make it sound like it is nothing more than driving in a car. Got that?”
Myers sighed. “I’ll try.”
He need not have worried about Jesus’ reaction. It was positive, to say the least. Maybe he had been prepared for it by Tamara’s showing him a high performance sports car, or maybe he simply liked the idea of flying into the sky. He nodded, and smiled at them all.
The clerk called to Tamara that the plane was ready. Tamara gestured towards the side door, and Juliette took Jesus’ arm to escort him outside. There they found a sleek jet with twin engines mounted by the tail and swept-back wing
s. A young man walked up to them from the aircraft.
“Welcome,” he said with a smile. “I’m Sandy Nelson, your pilot. This is a Beechjet 400. Seats eight, has a fifteen hundred mile range, and will cruise at five hundred miles per hour. I’ve just finished pre-flight, and you can come on board.”
As he stood by the boarding ladder, he gave Jesus a funny look, then shrugged.
The inside was not overly large but did have seven seats, each a window seat. All were of soft black leather. The walls were white and the windows were round portholes about two feet wide. The second and third pair of seats faced each other, and it was into one of the forward facing seats that they placed Jesus. Tamara and Juliette took the seats facing backwards, but facing Jesus and Myers. Each seat had a good view out the adjacent window with the leading edge of the wing only obstructing Jesus’ and Myers’ view slightly.
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