The Soulkeepers

by G. P. Ching

  * * * * *

  What was good for the goose was good for the gander. At least that’s what Jacob told himself as he parked the big blue truck that he’d borrowed from the Laudners around the corner from the Gupta residence. He’d had to roll the beast down the driveway in neutral; the engine was loud enough to wake the dead. But it was worth the risk of getting caught if Malini had some answers.

  Just after midnight, he crept below her window. Her room was on the second floor with a small terrace barely large enough for a lawn chair. Bright pink flowers bloomed in flower boxes on the railing.

  He picked out several small stones from the landscaping. Unlike the Laudners, Malini lived in town, making his midnight visit all the more dangerous as the street lights glowed brightly and the neighboring homes were close enough to see clearly. But it must have been late enough because he saw no evidence of life behind any of the neighbors’ windows.

  Cachink

  His first rock hit Malini’s window and ricocheted back, rolling out from between the slats of the terrace railing. It was louder than he’d expected and he ducked behind a bush near the side of the house. He waited but Malini’s window didn’t open. After scanning the houses for curious neighbors, Jacob came out from behind the yew branches.

  He searched the wall of the house, looking for some way to climb up. The brick held no convenient rose lattice to rely on. But at the base of the house, directly under the terrace, there was a garden hose. Once he’d determined there was no other way, Jacob decided it was worth a try.

  The puddle he formed on the side of the house wasn’t very deep. The water sank into the ground almost immediately but he let it run long enough to make a twelve-foot circle of very wet grass. Then he turned the water off and placed himself in the middle of the soggiest portion of lawn. He closed his eyes and envisioned himself rising, surfing up to the terrace on a spray of water. Nothing happened.

  Jacob concentrated harder, reaching out with his mind to listen to the hum of the water at his feet. He thought about how he’d felt when Dane had touched Malini, how the jealousy and anger had coursed through his veins, how he’d needed to help her. Something beneath his feet shifted. He concentrated on how he needed to get to the terrace. It was absolutely essential he get to her, to protect her. A wave of self-induced panic lurched in his stomach.

  Whoosh

  All of the water from the lawn rushed out in a geyser beneath his feet. He squatted a little for balance as the pressure shot him into the air and then abruptly let him fall. Jacob landed awkwardly on the terrace railing and had to circle his arms for balance before jumping down onto the small square of wood. The water had already returned to the lawn below.

  “That was interesting,” he said to nobody. For as much as he was desperate to believe Dr. Silva was crazy, he could no longer deny that this gift was very real—and very cool.

  He knocked lightly. The lace curtain moved aside and Malini’s face lit up behind the glass. She fumbled with the lock and threw open the window.

  “Jake! What are you doing here?”

  “Needed to talk to you. Can I come in?”

  “Of course,” she answered. Her arms snaked around his neck and she gave him a peck on the cheek. “How did you get up here?” She moved aside so Jacob could crawl through the window.

  “Jumped.”

  “Very funny.”

  As his eyes adjusted to the inside light, he was surrounded with Malini. Every inch of wall was covered with a reminder of the vastness of the world. There were framed photos of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, and European castles, but also pictures of a Bengali marketplace, African orphans pulling water from a well, aboriginal dancers, and an American Indian meditating on a red mesa. There were maps of the world, as well as more detailed ones of the Middle East and Asia. An oversized picture of Anderson Cooper hung beside the multicolored sari print of her bedspread.

  It was exactly the type of room he would have expected Malini to have.

  “Wow,” he managed.

  “Thanks.”

  A pang of jealousy and resentment of his grossly pink room shot through him.

  “What’s with the poster of Anderson Cooper?” he asked, trying to get his mind off his own self-pity.

  “He’s who I want to be when I grow up.”

  “You want to be a middle-aged white guy?”

  “No!” she said, slapping his shoulder. “I want to be a journalist, a citizen of the world. I want to be someone who makes a difference, not just for one country but for everyone.”

  Jacob stared silently at her, wondering how so much good could be contained in one person’s body. He wondered why God, if there was one, hadn’t given Malini gifts like his. He was sure she would do something better with them.

  “So, what’s going on?” she finally asked.

  “You’re Christian, right?” Jacob asked, awkwardly.

  “Yep, all my life.”

  “Do you have a Bible?”

  “Of course.” She pulled down a thick book from her shelf and placed the heavy volume on her desk. She turned on a small desk lamp.

  “What can you tell me about fallen angels?”

  “Hmm. You came to my room at midnight to ask me about fallen angels? You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “It’s like homework, for Dr. Silva. She wants me to research fallen angels. I’m not sure exactly why but if it means I pay off my debt faster, fallen angels it is.” He looked at his feet, hoping she would buy it. He hated misleading her, but wasn’t ready to share what he’d learned so far.

  Malini considered him for a moment, then resigned herself to whatever conclusion she had drawn and opened the Bible. She also reached across the desk and booted up her computer.

  “I’m not sure where to start,” she said, flipping to the back of the massive book.

  “How about Genesis?” Jacob said, recalling the passage Dr. Silva had mentioned.

  “All right.” She flipped back to the beginning. “I’ve actually heard of this one before. It’s very controversial. We spent an hour talking about it in my Bible study.”

  “Why? What’s it say?”

  “Genesis six, when men began to increase in number on the Earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took of them all which they chose.” Malini looked up from the page. “See it’s controversial because not everyone agrees on what it means.”

  “What does it mean?” he asked.

  “Well, there are different interpretations. See some people believe that the ‘sons of God’ were people descended from Seth.” Malini paused at his quizzical expression. “You have no idea who Seth was do you?”

  “No.”

  “The remedial version then.”

  He winced.

  “Seth was a later son of Adam that was said to be exceptionally godly.” She raised her hands and elongated the word gaawdly, like she found the term a little humorous. “Another interpretation is that it refers to leaders from neighboring countries: like how the Egyptians thought of their pharaohs as the sons of Ra. But the last interpretation is the one that applies to your research. It says that the ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels who married human women and had children by them.”

  “Why would anyone believe that one? The first two sound much more reasonable.”

  “You would think, but the biblical evidence actually points to the third interpretation. Look at this.” She flipped to the index again and then back to a page in the middle. “Job chapter one, verse six, now the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord—and Satan also arrived among them. See the ‘sons of God’ here is clearly referring to the minions of Satan—fallen angels. In fact every other passage in the Bible referring to ‘sons of God’ is about fallen angels. But the best evidence that the third interpretation is correct is not in the Bible at all. Well, not in this Bible.”

  She turned to her computer and typed someth
ing into the search bar.

  “This Bible? Isn’t the Bible … the Bible?”

  “Actually no. Different branches of Christianity have different books that they include. The book of Enoch, as it so happens, is a book in the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but no other Christian church recognizes it as anything but a prophetic writing.” She turned the computer monitor toward him.

  “Anyway, the book of Enoch comes right out and talks about fallen angels. It calls them Watchers. See what it says here, in chapter seven.” She pointed to the screen. “Then they took wives, each choosing for himself whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited, teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. And the women conceiving brought forth giants.”

  “Giants?”

  “You’ve heard of the story of how David slew Goliath?”

  Jacob nodded.

  “Well, the theory is that Goliath was a giant descendant. King David was battling a child of the fallen angels.”

  A chill ran up his spine. It was the same story Dr. Silva had told him.

  “But if all this is true, Malini, don’t you think someone would have noticed if angels and giants were here?”

  “Well, the great flood … You know the story of Noah’s Ark, right?”

  He nodded again. Even he’d heard that one.

  “God sent the flood to kill the giants and the humans that had turned to the angels’ dark ways. Then He made it so that it couldn’t happen again.”

  “How?”

  “I think … I’m not sure but I think He made it so that they can’t have relations—you know, sex—with human women anymore.”

  “That wouldn’t have killed the fallen angels, though.”

  “I don’t know. It isn’t logical. That’s why most people believe the other interpretations.”

  Jacob stepped back and sat on the multicolored bed, feeling overwhelmed. Was this what Dr. Silva wanted him to learn? Was this what she meant by destroying man again? Was the battle between good and evil really a battle between the descendants of the Soulkeepers and the followers of Lucifer?

  It couldn’t be true.

  “Are we done with the Bible, now?” Malini asked.

  “Oh, sure. Thanks for helping me,” he said.

  “No problem.” She turned off her computer and her desk lamp. “I fully intend to extract payment for my services,” she waggled her eyebrows and puckered her lips, “in kisses.”

  The next thing he knew, she was in his arms.