Sacrifices

by Alan D Jones

  Chapter 3 - False Gods

  August, 1963

  Hoping that others know your heart is like wishing on a star. Better to know your own heart and take comfort therein.

  Ruth was curious child, often so lost in her own world that the movements of this world passed her by. Many thought that she was odd. But thankfully, Ruth rarely cared much about what other people thought of her.

  Riding down I-20 in the back seat of the Caballeros’ Buick with Gabby, Ruth Ann, her pink ribbon flickering in the wind, made faces and waved at her sisters every time the two cars passed one another.

  Looking over at her sister, Deb asked, “Why does Bubbles always have to be so childish?”

  Cil responded to Deb, “Because she’s a child. Let her be.”

  Sarah, who was six years old at the time, played along with Ruth Ann’s game, giggling and playing peek-a-boo with her sister in the other lane.

  Hosea drove Miss Elizabeth’s car. Cil rode in the front passenger seat while Deb and Sarah rode in the back seat. It was a warm day and neither car had air conditioning, so all the windows were either down or at least cracked.

  Miss Elizabeth was supposed to go on the picnic with everyone else, but when Lola showed up unexpectedly, Miss Elizabeth thought it best that she not go. The attraction between Hosea and Miss Elizabeth was clear to everyone around them. Yet, they resisted and were always careful not to cross that line of no return.

  Hosea had moved the family to Atlanta to start over after things fell apart in New Orleans. Lola never took a liking to Atlanta and was back in New Orleans before the close of that year. In the nearly five years since, she seldom visited although she often promised to. Rightly or wrongly, that was just fine with her daughters because Lola always brought drama. Miss Elizabeth, who had relocated to the neighborhood less than six months after Lola departed, stepped right in to help Hosea with his girls just as she had done in New Orleans. When Elizabeth first started helping Hosea with the girls, it was more a case of just trying to do the right thing but it became much more. Sarah spent so little time in Lola’s care that she had no real attachment to her as a mother. The only mother Sarah would ever claim was Miss Elizabeth. But Ruth on the other hand, even though she too loved Miss Elizabeth, longed for her mother to take her place as her mama. She believed every story, every lie her mother told – even the ones she told to herself.

  The two families arrived at the state park just after ten in the morning. They found a fairly secluded beach and set up camp. Setting up in an isolated section of the lake was not by chance. Jorge looked every bit like what one would expect a Mexican to look, albeit bigger than one might expect. His wife did not. Alejanda’s pale skin, next to her husband’s dark tan flesh, often raised an eyebrow or two when they traveled in the States. The fact that Hosea was there as well gave them even more reason to be cautious in the rural south.

  The two big girls, Cil and Deborah were allowed to row their small inflatable rafts into the lake. Gabby was busy trying to teach the plastic sunglass wearing Sarah some Latin variation of “paddy cake”. The adults sat at the picnic table discussing the matters of the day and the events of the previous evening. Ruth Ann was in her own little world, blowing bubbles out over the water and making her dolls fall in and out of love. Each bubble she blew would fall softly upon the lake and rest there for a moment shimmering in the sunlight.

  Jorge, Alejanda, and Hosea surveyed their children and smiled. Finally, Jorge spoke up, in English, although they often conversed in Spanish. “What a beautiful day. Almost makes you want to forget about last night. Man, what happened?”

  Hosea, who was fluent in English, Spanish, French and Creole, answered, “Lola just popped up. I didn’t know she was coming, but that’s what she does, pop up.”

  “That’s got to be hard on the kids,” Jorge offered.

  Hosea took a breath before replying, “I think they’re all dealing with it just fine, thankfully.”

  “What about that one?” Jorge’s wife Alejanda asked and nodded towards Ruth who sat alone on the beach blowing bubbles out and over the water.

  Hosea smiled, “Yes, I think she is the most affected. Look at her. She’s in her own little world. I’m sure it’s a much more beautiful world than this one often is.”

  “On that note,” Jorge leaned in so that he might lower his voice, “what are you going to do about your wife?”

  Alejanda leaned in, “What is he going to do? I think it’s already been done. She’s left him. She just visits from time to time when she sobers up and feels guilty. Then after a day or so she gets bored and leaves again for who knows where. And where does she get the money to buy these drugs she uses? She has no job and hasn’t in years. Think about it. You don’t want to hear it, but you know what she’s doing. You should divorce her, wait six months and a day, and then marry Elizabeth.”

  Hosea grimaced as he massaged his salt and pepper goatee, and then he shared, “You both know that I have prayed on this matter a lot. But you don’t know how many times I’ve asked the Lord to release me from this marriage. Each time He has said no, reminding me that drug addicts need love, too. Yet lately, it seems that He does not reply at all. Perhaps our Lord has grown weary of me and my petitions.”

  Alejanda shook her head and answered Hosea, “Hosea, what are you talking about? You’re known as ‘the one to whom God listens’. Certainly you have His ear in this matter as well.”

  Jorge added, “She’s right, God not only hears you when He calls you to cast out demons, but also when you cry out during your own trials. Even more so, I would argue.”

  “Oh, I know, my brother. I know God hears me, but…,” Hosea’s voice trailed off.

  “What is it brother?” Jorge asked.

  “It’s more than just an issue with my marriage. For the first time since I entered the ministry I am unsure about the future. Up until now, I’ve always been able to remove myself and my own desires from the conversation, so that I might hear God’s voice. And, while not explicitly knowing the future, I always got a sense of it, a real oneness with what shall be. But, not now. Now, all I see is darkness.”

  The three of them sat in silence listening to the brisling treetops. Suddenly, as the wind slowed, Hosea focused his attention on the lake. There, he saw a blue-tinted man floating in the water. The man had a white beard and large sparkling crystals wrapped around his neck. He was speaking to Hosea’s oldest two daughters. Hosea raised a brow and stood up for a better look.

  The man began to move away from the two older girls, but in his wake, the waters began to swirl and the wind began to whip. Hosea then jumped when he heard the worst thing any father could hear, the frightened calls of his daughters crying out “Daddy!” Hosea ran towards the beach to see a whirlpool forming in the lake around his two oldest girls.

  The man rose up out of the water, grinning as he floated skyward. “I am Poseidon, god of the seas. Consider these two an initial offering unto me. I will be back for the others later. Meanwhile, I leave you a gift to remind you of me until I return.” With that one of the jewels around his neck glowed brightly for a second. Then two serpents sprung from the veins in his arms and fell into the lake. Once in the lake the water snakes grew to monstrous proportions. While Hosea tried to make his way to the water, Jorge ripped the wooden top off of the picnic table and hurled it like a saucer at the neck of one of the raging serpents slicing its head clean off. Before he could move on to the second beast, Jorge noticed the first beast was not dead. Where he’d sliced off the creature’s head, two new heads replaced the first one.

  Jorge cried out, “Señor!”

  Hosea amazingly managed to dodge the sniping head of the second hydra as he made his way towards Cil and Deborah. As he waded out into the fast-moving water, he saw little Ruth Ann walking across the water towards her sisters. Although the raging winds threatened to dislodge her from her glowing blue walkway, she stayed steady on her course and on her pace. Unlike her
three sisters, Ruth-Ann had never liked the water, yet there she was running across the lake on a nearly invisible, shimmering pathway. Once she was above her two older sisters, who were hanging on to their rafts for dear life, Ruth stretched out her hands. Two blue bubbles floated from them encircling her lake-bound sisters. Each bubble held a sister and some lake water, and each one slowly rose into the air and followed Ruth as she walked briskly back to shore. All of this took place while the two hydras where focused on Hosea and Jorge.

  Hosea, no longer speechless, began running towards the girls as they reached shore yelling, “Run!” over and over as he motioned towards the car. Then, panic hit him as he realized that the baby, Sarah, was missing. Hosea stopped in his tracks as everyone else raced on and in frenzy he called out, “Sarah, Sarah!”

  Suddenly, there was a burst of light as though someone flipped on a 150 watt bulb in a totally dark room. For a moment, they were all blinded and the air filled with smoke. A smiling six-year-old Sarah walked out of that smoke as though nothing had happened. As the smoke began to clear, the group could see the hydras lying across the beach behind her. Every ounce of flesh of both beasts was smoldering as their ashes rose to the sky.

  Jorge, mouth agape, asked Hosea, “What just happened here?”

  A relived Hosea replied as he scurried his last little one along, “I don’t know and at the moment, I don’t much care. Let’s just get out of here!”

  Once in the car and headed back to I-20 for the ride home, Hosea engaged in a litany of commands to his daughters as he tried to calm down, “When I tell you to run, you run! That not only goes for Sarah, but for all of you. Do y’all hear me?”

  “Yes, Daddy,” the girls all said in chorus.

  “That there was Poseidon, with his alien, would be demon self. He’s a real…,” Hosea, almost cursed. But, he caught himself.

  The girls would sometimes, for fun, imitate their dad. They’d pretend to work themselves up to the verge of cursing, like their father. So, they looked at each other as Hosea searched for a word, wondering if this would be the time they’d finally hear their father curse.

  “He’s a real jerk, a bad man, or whatever he is.”

  Hosea in his work for the church had faced many demons, but by his faith, he was able to cast them out. However, Poseidon wasn’t a demon but an alien from another world who had aligned himself with other dark forces who sought to rule over the earth.

  Hosea continued to remind his girls about the need to take cover and the need to not leave your sister alone. As he ranted, Cil gave Deborah a look. At first she just stared as the still panting Deborah gazed back at her. Once she had Deborah’s full attention, Cil raised one eyebrow ever so slightly. Deborah’s eyes and mouth flew open in astonishment. Cil then nodded her head in confirmation. Through a series of glances and the hint of a smile, Cil had conveyed to Deborah that everything that had happened was according to plan.

  The stress of the events had created such an emotional response in Ruth and Sarah that they, too, now had access to their gifts. Cil knew that dark days and many threats lay in front of them and that the little sisters would need to be able to defend themselves. Deborah looked over to her two younger sisters sitting in the back seat with her and shook her head. Then she looked back at Cil. Cil smiled slightly. All four girls rode all the way home in silence except for the repeated chorus of “Yes, Sir” to their father’s requests.