The Atua Man

by John Stephenson

  Gary Howell disassembled his rifle in the rear of the box on the Grand Tier, put his tripod and the deadly components back into the sound equipment case and closed it. He left the box and ran down the curving hall toward the stage pulling his kit behind him. He stashed the trunk with the rest of the audio gear and dashed toward the stage.

  On the stage, David shouted, “Where’s Gary!” Lillian sobbed prostrate over Jason. David handed Alex over to Melanie, who guided the hysterical boy away from his father. The Albert Hall guards secured the stage, and the Ministry people gently pulled Lillian off of Jason and covered his body with coats and jackets.

  “Where is fucking Gary!” David shouted again.

  At that moment Gary pushed his way through the mob gasping and out of breath. He saw Jason and dropped to his knees as if shocked. “Oh my God! Oh, sweet Jesus.”

  Chapter 49

  Hanalei Bay, Kauai

  December 25, 2004

  The press reported every nuance and theory about Jason’s murder in the ten weeks that had elapsed since his death. Half the press blamed the religious right. The other half would make no judgment until an arrest had been made. Speculation was rampant on the television talk shows about who murdered Jason and why. They also asked, was Jason St. John really the Antichrist? Or was he in fact a Christ figure who suffered a modern-day crucifixion?

  Jason’s closest friends were gathered on Kauai where that debate was a world away. There, on Hanalei beach, things were quiet. Melanie owned a beautiful estate on the west end of the beach, away from the Princeville resorts. She had invited Lillian, Alex and David to join her and Michael for the Christmas holiday. David insisted on staying in a hotel until Melanie persuaded him to move in with the rest of them.

  Christmas dinner was a beautiful affair with a Hawaiian touch. The buffet was set on a sideboard carved with Hiva designs. A large painting of Larry and Melanie hung over the buffet. It showed them posed on a promontory overlooking a tropical bay where the Mata‘i was anchored. They toasted Larry with glasses of Cristal champagne and burst out laughing.

  “If my dad were here, he would have made a breadfruit poi and a poisson cru,” Melanie declared as they lined up to fill their plates. “To Larry and J.J.”

  “That’s Anaho Bay, our last stop before we sailed home,” David told Alex.

  “It was heaven,” Melanie added.

  They all filled their plates and sat down to dinner. The afternoon sun sent shafts of light through the clouds. Typical of the Hawaiian winter, it rained most of the day, but now the clouds had parted to give the island another spectacular sunset.

  “Dad said he’d tell me about his initiation when I was old enough. Does anybody know what happened?” Alex asked.

  David looked at Lillian who said, “Your Uncle Dave knows. Maybe this is the time.”

  “Your dad had been gone for three days and everybody thought he was dead. Not just us,” he gestured around the table awkwardly, “but the islanders who knew about the ceremony. I had a plane ticket home. I thought that finding him was hopeless. Then the Mata‘i sailed back to Taiohae and Melanie came ashore crying that Larry was dying. The French doctor was useless. He said we needed a tuhuna; that Larry was dying of a curse. Then your dad showed up and healed him.”

  “But that doesn’t tell me anything about the initiation.”

  “Let me say this. Besides having had his body covered in tattoos in forty-eight hours, your dad was given mind-altering drugs that were supposed to reveal the secrets of the Hiva people to him.” For some reason David couldn’t tell the story the way he wanted to. Alex was so hungry to know, and words seemed so inadequate.

  “Like LSD?”

  “No. The main intoxicant was a drink called kava. We all drank it. But your dad was given something else. They told me it opened your mind, but it also was a strong aphrodisiac.”

  “What’s an aphrodisiac?” Alex said pronouncing the word syllable by syllable.

  David turned to Lillian for guidance.

  She just smiled at him. “You’re on your own.”

  “Did he have sex?” Alex continued. “Do I have any brothers and sisters there?”

  “You take over,” David told Lillian.

  Lillian continued, “I don’t know, honey, if you have any siblings, or not. They did force your dad to have sex. But he told me that his biggest lesson was learning the difference between the physical and the spiritual. The sexual part wasn’t as traumatic as other parts of the ritual. I mean, you came into our lives with all the joy and anticipation every normal couple experience. It was the psychic initiation that troubled him the most, but it was also the experience that gave him the greatest insight into the nature of reality.”

  “What do you mean by psychic initiation?” Alex was a great Harry Potter fan and had pictured his dad in some kind of great magical battle. “Did those people have wizards?”

  “Their priests were shamans. I guess they were like magicians. But they didn’t succeed in what they set out to do. They wanted your dad as a human sacrifice…”

  “What! Were they cannibals?”

  “I don’t think so. But your father escaped their knife.”

  “How did he do that?”

  “You know. You’ve seen it.”

  “Was he doing instant appearing back then?”

  “I don’t know what took place. Their belief in good and evil couldn’t penetrate the consciousness your dad had developed. He saw through those beliefs into the omnipotent nature of spiritual reality. He wasn’t scared of that world—well maybe he was to a degree—but he knew not to fight the forces set against him. That allowed him to be enough detached from his body that they couldn’t complete their sacrifice in the way they wanted. I think he experienced a oneness so complete that their beliefs, their gods or whatever they thought they were going to make of him, were completely powerless. That’s why your dad was so threatening to the fundamentalists. Without evil they have nothing to fight.”

  “But why did he have to die?”

  Lillian got up from the table and walked over to where her son sat and embraced him. They had done all their crying in the days and weeks after Jason’s murder, but finding the answer to Alex’s question might never come. Everyone at the table waited for Lillian to continue, but she just shook her head sadly.

  David stepped in: “I loved your father, Alex, and I love you too, so I don’t want you to take this as a criticism. You’re so young, but you’re also an old soul. You know what that means?”

  “I guess.”

  “Your father was so advanced in his perception of life that he wouldn’t ask that question. He understood the eternal nature of life, and he demonstrated his incorporeal self. Are you with me?”

  “You mean his instant appearing?”

  “No. It was so much more than that. He showed the world that life isn’t confined to physical form. And he showed that his body was as transcendent as his soul. He gave me a great gift in the Marquesas, you know. He gave me an embrace that shifted my whole perception of the world.” David stifled his tears. “He told me that I had nothing to regret. You have nothing to regret, Alex. I’m sure he’ll always be with you.”

  “But was he tortured?”

  “Not in the way you’d think.” David had to hold it together for Alex. He walked over to Lillian and Alex and joined in their embrace. “He suffered because we weren’t with him, and he might have missed a chance to make things right with Larry. It angered him that Larry had judged him and that he had reacted to that judgment. When he finally got free and found us, we thought Larry was dead.”

  “But how did he get away?”

  “I don’t really know. All I know was that he was there on the shore in Taiohae after Melanie’s dad had died.”

  Alex looked up at the picture of Larry and Melanie on the wall as the pieces of his family’s relationship began to click in his head.

  David continued, “J.J. wanted to see Larry and told Melanie and me to wai
t outside his cabin. While he was in with Larry, Melanie and I could feel something extraordinary happening. Just like you’ve felt in your dad’s classes. Then the most amazing thing happened. We heard Larry and your dad laughing, and there was this bright light that came from the cabin. When they both came out on deck Larry said, ‘Let’s go home.’”

  Melanie knelt down next to Alex and caressed his cheek. “So, the idea that your dad’s healing gift was the product of some South Seas voodoo was entirely false. In fact, the change of relationship between your father and my father was amazing. We sailed back to Hawaii in a state of bliss. At one point a school of whales began riding our bow wave. J.J. went forward and sat on the bowsprit to watch them more closely. Coming off one wave, our bowsprit went slightly under water. At first J.J. stood up so his butt wouldn’t get wet and when he looked down, a whale was right under him. On the next wave he didn’t get up and when another whale showed up, he rubbed its back with his feet. That was communicated to the pod and soon all the whales were lining up to get their backs rubbed. We all took turns riding the bowsprit and massaging the whales.”

  “I wish I could do that someday,” said Alex.

  Lillian sobbed. David held her and she put her head on his shoulder. Alex got up and hugged them both. David said; “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t be telling stories about J.J.”

  “No,” Lillian replied. “This is what I need. I got so jealous when you three returned and you had that shared experience. I could feel the spiritual reality of it, but I missed being there.”

  “You didn’t miss a thing,” Melanie kissed Lillian on her cheeks and wiped away her tears. “Why go through hell when you can gain the truth through grace? You had J.J. in your life for fourteen years. You got the best of him. You saw him in his most giving state. Count your lucky stars.”

  Epilogue

  Though Jason’s funeral was public and there was no doubt about his death, people still thought he lived. There were many sightings of him with various leaders and he was seen by whole groups of people so it couldn’t be said that those sightings were hallucinations. The board never commented on them.

  The murder changed the organization completely. Thomas Parker had actually copied the phone logs like Jason asked and had turned them over to the police. He hadn’t trusted anybody at the Ministry. The police found a connection between Tony Bass and the calls to various government agencies confirming that Tony was indeed trying to undermine the purpose of the foundation. The board voted him off by a five to two margin. A week later Gary Howell killed himself. Today the trust is back in the hands of its founders.

  The End

  Acknowledgements

  Many people gave their time and expertise to make this book what it is. I thank them all.

  SANDRA KNIGHT, my muse, partner and best friend went through every draft, questioned every unclear sentence, and made sure this was the best read possible. I am most grateful.

  CHRISTINE WAGNER was a champion of this book from the first draft. She has read, corrected and coaxed from me the most creative way to say what was said. She’s the best.

  SUNNY CHAYES loved the story early on and made sure the story conveyed the message I intended it to. She was extremely helpful in getting the book out to publishers. I’m so grateful for her help.

  There were many people who read early drafts, gave notes, and generally encouraged me to continue on. They were Marty and Liz Parker, Wendy Thomas, Beth Halter, Ann McCoy, Laurie Parker, Anne Dillon of the New York Book Editors, and many others.

  A special thanks to the person who wants to remain anonymous yet was instrumental in getting the book edited.

  For more background on the story and photos from the Marquesas Islands go to www.theatuaman.com

  For more information on contemporary mysticism go to www.alohamystics.com

  About the Author

  John Stephenson

  Praise for John’s book:

  Fullness of Joy

  A Spiritual Guide to the Paradise Within

  “John Stephenson is an amazing and unique man who has expertise in so many areas. Aside from teaching the spiritual wisdom of Joel Goldsmith, he is also a sailor, surfer, artist, sculptor and scriptwriter. As one of the most committed individuals I know who lives and tastes life to its fullest, John Stephenson writes with authenticity, sincerity, honesty, inspiration and conviction … he truly walks his spiritual pathway.”

  Gerald G. Jampolsky, MD

  “In his book, Fullness of Joy, John Stephenson, a truly inspirational teacher has given us the ‘keys to the kingdom.’ He clearly outlines the steps to a life free from physical limitation, financial limitation and emotional limitation. Can you think of a greater gift? I can’t.”

  Raymond Wagner,

  Motion Picture Executive