“Nobody can stop me, frenchie.”
Antoine pushed through taller Josiah and Joseph Henry, and was about to grab Macon’s shoulder when Constance called, “Antoine, what was that yelling?” She stood outside the main porch entrance.
“We’re friends of Mr. Nols, madam!” Macon called, still far away, picking up his pace, his sons following to the front entrance.
“Well, do I know you?” she asked.
“You may of heard talk of me. I am The Right Reverend Macon Early, pastor and deacon of The Church of The Resurrection—for short.”
“Oh . . . Well, just come in here to the foyer a minute. It’s so blasted hot. Oops! I’m sorry Reverend.”
“Not at all, madam.”
“So darn hot out. So, how do you know my husband?” she asked, standing just inside the foyer, Antoine moving beside her to block the men from going inside the large, circular entrance parlor.
“We were supposed to go on the trip with them that they left on recently, but we were delayed on account of unexpected business. Church business. And when I say we, I mean myself and these my boys, our church’s missionaries, Josiah, Joseph Henry, and the youngin’, Joseph.”
“Howdy do, ma’am. Ma’am. How do.”
“Well I’m sorry to hear that, Reverend, but I don’t know what I can do about it.”
“Mrs. Nols, I will show them out,” said Antoine, not buying any of it.
“That’s too bad. I was bringin’ news of his long-lost friend, Tyler, or T, as we all like to call him.”
“You found T?” Constance said, brightening.
“Just the other day we was with him.”
“Yeah, right in Louisiana.”
“I never met him but I know Nathan had been trying to find him for a long time.”
“Well, we did, Constance, and we had so much to tell him, your husband our friend, we’re right disappointed we missed him. I know he’da been so happy to hear about his long-lost friend.”
“Is T okay?”
“Heavenly so. That’s a mighty beautiful picture there of you Constance,” Macon said, pointing out a large framed oil of her on a wall of the main entrance parlor.”
“Thank you. We had them done together.”
“Your husband . . . Nathan, next to you,” Macon said, looking at the painting of the standing man in the portrait beside hers. “He’s a lucky man to have a beauty as you as his beloved wife, Constance.”
“Oh Reverend, I’m the lucky one. He is the handsomest man, and so kind.”
“You’re too modest I’m sure, but so right about your husband. Often I said to these boys, that Nathan is the best darn lookinest man I ever saw in my whole life. Ain’t that right boys?”
“Yeah. Yeah, Pa. That’s right.”
“And you can see I’m right, boys, if you look there at his painting there on the wall.”
“Yeah Pa, Reverend. He sure is.”
“So ya’ll see how good lookin’ Mr. Nols, my friend is,” Macon said, trying to bring his sons in for a closer look, but barred by Antoine from going farther.
“Sure is, Reverend. Never seen anybody better lookin’,” Josiah replied.
“I wish I could help you find Nathan, but as I said, I don’t know where they went. When I asked where they headed, all he said was treasure. To find their treasure.”
“I will show them out, Mrs. Nols,” Antoine said, noticing how their faces lit up when Constance said that word.
“We’d like to catch up with Nathan and the others. You know, Gus, Russ,” Macon said.
“I wish I could help you. I wish I knew how to reach him myself. He never calls.”
“Mrs. Nols,” Macon said. “Constance. I want to thank you for speaking with me today and allowing me the pleasure of meeting you. We’re goin’ to be in town a little longer to spread the word of our mission to all who may wish to hear it.”
“Oh, are you having a service? A tent service or something? I’ll come.”
“Oh no, no. We do our missionary work on the streets. Right on the streets.”
“And in the cafes.”
“There too, Mrs. Nols. The evils of drink and gluttony must be wrestled within their very own dens. But before we leave town, would you allow me to revisit you in case Nathan gets in touch with you about his whereabouts?”
“That would be alright, Reverend.”
“Good. Good. In that case, Constance, I want to wish you a most blessed day. Most blessed.”
“Thank you very much.”
“And if you hear from your husband, you don’t have to say we called on you. I would love to see the look on his face, and that of our other friends, when we show up with news of T.”
“I doubt there’s any chance of that, Reverend. As I said, Nathan doesn’t call. I mean, as you likely know, he doesn’t like to use the telephone.”
“I know. I know. Goodbye for now, Mrs. Nols. Constance.”
“Bye. Antoine will show you out. Be careful of this sun. It can burn.”
“Will do. Bye-bye.”
“Bye, Mrs. Nols. Bye,” the boys said.
When the group was beyond the house, Antoine faced Macon firmly as he led them down toward the drive. “Do not return here.”
“You don’t tell a disciple of The Lord what to do, froggie.”
“Do not return. Next time, the dogs will not stop.”
“And maybe you’ll be the one who won’t stop,” Joseph said, haphazardly trying to throw his weight, and everyone, including Antoine giving baffled looks. “I mean—”
“You just better watch it,” Josiah said to Antoine.
“That’s right,” Joseph Henry added threateningly.
“We come in peace, mister,” the Reverend Early said, “but what stands in the way of our devout ordained mission, we, I, it, will be smited by, for, and in the name of Our Lord!”
“Stay out,” Antoine said, pushing one of the C gates closed at the property’s entrance. “You have been warned.”
“And so have you,” Josiah said, walking way with his kin.
“The way of The Lord is sanctified! And He shall smiteth the wicked who stand in His path!” Macon called out, walking in the middle of the road. “Sanctified am I and The Way. Get behind me Satin!”
“Glory!” Josiah called.
“Glory! his brothers answered.
“Smite the wicked, saith The Lord!”
“Smite them!”
“Glory!”
“Glory be!
“Glory!”
“Glory be!”
>
The determined band of hikers continued their journey along the pastoral countryside, still hopeful they marched ever closer to their unknown destination. They passed not a single shepherd, these having taken their flocks to the higher elevations, but their need for one was no longer necessary. Although they were one less, Russell, who had been close to being lost, was saved by his last minute taking.
Russell’s plenitude of good looks, lavish well-proportioned body, generous strength, all had returned. His normal vigor grew exceptionally excited from the notion of greatness that Nathan had provoked in him, and he conjured and let out fiery emotions. Frolicking like a colt, he kicked and punched the air as he walked, hollered whoops and unintelligible war cries, and mocked the very sky.
“He’s certainly shook the bit between his teeth,” Gus said sternly, walking behind with Nathan.
“Hmm,” Nathan thought. “Such a bad thing?”
Gus turned to him, “We’re intended to follow the dictates decreed by nature as to all. To us, as to men. What world would come of unbridled license to do anything if one escaped his imposed order? Nothing but depravity and corruption, and eventual destruction.”
“Hey!” Russell called back. “Any word from Hain?”
“No.”
“I feel like I wanna run! Get there already!”
“Save your strength, young yulen,” Gus said, as Russell ran back.
“I wish
Shawn were here,” he said, “to see me proper.”
“He’s not,” Gus said. “The rest of us see you enough.”
“Those stinking rats.”
“They only followed their instincts.”
“You could say something else, Gus, but I would only expect you to say something like that. Like protecting those rats.”
“They could act no differently.”
“They killed our friend, you old fool!”
“That’s enough, Russell,” Nathan said.
“And you took a human. Should you be condemned?”
“Not the same, Gus.”
“It is exactly the same.”
“Ace?”
“Arguing like this can only cost us in calories that should be conserved or directed toward accomplishing our goal. After our prize is won, when we’ve collected our treasure, debate this all you want. Your yearning, Russell, like mine, should be there, ahead, focused, inspiring your regained fortune that burns in you now and powers you forward. Hold to that, not to the past to move you, to move you to your greatness. I’m going ahead to be with Leeda and not argue what I can’t change.” He picked up his pace and walked ahead.
“Sorry,” Russell said to Gus. “But you have a way of dulling people’s enthusiasm.”
“I?” Gus responded outraged, but held off saying more, and let his bold companion walk away.
Nathan came up behind the smoothly striding Leeda. “You don’t usually walk ahead like this,” he said.
“There are no doubts when there’s only open space ahead of you. Beautiful isn’t it, this land free of people and limits, and the holds you let them put on you.”
“You talk like someone still in early season.”
“When everything is new and open and imaginable.”
“And if you’re not careful, and run wild, payable in late season, no?”
“Yes. But now you sound like Gus, party pooper. If you’re coming up here to dampen the spirit I’m trying to raise after yesterday, I don’t need that.”
“Sorry, Leeda. You know I wouldn’t want to dispirit you.”
“How’s Russell?”
“Good. Fighting with Gus.”
“Your wild ideas really took seed in him. Got the best of the rest of us too.”
“We’ve got to keep our cool, Leeda. It occurs to me that cooperation—something we’ve never known as yulen—and that they’ve always known, can fall bitterly apart and hurt us, hurt our purpose.”
“And not hurt our cause is all that matters . . . huh?”
“Isn’t it?”
“Oh Nathan.”
“Leeda. We each may have come on this for reasons I haven’t asked and don’t know and don’t need to know. They’re private. But yes, our goal is what most matters.”
“To you.”
“And to you it must as well.”
“Don’t tell me what has to matter to me, Nathan.”
“Leeda. . . .” He hadn’t meant it as she took it, he thought.
“I’m with the group, Nathan. And I want to achieve what we set out to. I hope we each find in this book that something to make this crazy thing worth it. I hope you find what you want. I hope we all do.”
“And what do you want, Leeda?”
“Do you remember what Shawn said, that for him it was enough just to be, for the first time to be with and know closeness with others and the warmness of their care? That alone is a great reward, Nathan. That by itself is a treasure.” She turned from him and despite her brisk pace, kicked it up, and left him wondering behind.
>
After leaving Villa Constanza, Macon and his brood kept the grounds under surveillance. Spying through the fence surrounding the estate, they hoped to spot Constance, and call to her to ask if Nathan had been in touch. They occasionally saw her walking to the pool, but with the patrol dogs around, Macon thought it best to wait before making their approach.
He decided to stake out the grounds from the main entrance. In the bushes beside the Happy Cs gates that then always remained closed, they took turns spying any cars leaving or entering.
Antoine always drove the house Bentley, alone or with Constance, and on the morning of the third day surveilling, it was the same arrangement. “Car comin’, Pa,” Joseph said, watching hidden in the hedges near the gates as these opened. “Mrs. Nols in the back alright, an’ the feller drivin’ like usual.”
“That’s it,” Macon said, looking peeved and standing up from the rock where he read his Bible. “Clean yourselves up. We’re goin’ in. I’m tired of waitin’.”
They exited the hedges onto the street and remained hidden until the gates opened wide and the car started crossing to the road. That’s when Macon squeezed in between an open gate and the car, and with his sons following, lowered his smiling face to the car’s rear side window before Antoine could react.
“Howdy do there, Constance. We were about to call on you like I said we would couple of days ago. Remember?”
“Why yes, Reverend. Reverend . . .”
“Early. But call me Macon, just like T and your husband, Gus and the gang do. Have you heard anything from them?”
“Yes as a matter of fact I did yesterday. A postcard arrived from Nathan. I have it right here in my bag. Only correspondence I’ve received from my husband.”
“Madam, we should be going,” Antoine said, concerned Constance not share any more information with the strangers.
“You um . . . said Leeda went on the trip,” Constance inquired of Macon.
“Yes, Mrs. Nols. Leeda went along.”
“She’s so beautiful . . . ,” Constance mused; concern that Macon took note.
“That she is. Beautiful like the purple bayous before a storm.”
“So amazingly beautiful . . . ,” she repeated, fingering the postcard in her bag.
“A stunning beauty—standing beside your husband, Mrs. Nols.”
“I think it’ll be alright if I share where they are. After all, you were supposed to go.”
“That’s right ma’am,” Josiah said.
“The card’s from Germany, an inn they stayed or are staying at. Somewhere in the mountains it looks like. In the town of, let’s see, Tundle-wor-shu-flin-bay,” she said, trying to pronounce the German word.
“Here,” Macon said, taking the picture postcard, “why don’t I just take this small corner of the card with the address. It won’t hurt the picture none.” He tore that part of the card, and smiling, handed it to Josiah.
“But promise me one thing, Reverend Early.”
“Anything, Constance.”
“That when you meet them, you’ll call me and tell me if Leeda is with them. Will you?”
“Didn’t I just say I would? Don’t you worry, my fair damsel, I will call you soon as we hook up with them and I assess the situation that I think, as a reverend judge of character, you are gettin’ at.”
“Oh no I—”
“You leave it to me. And I ask you, fair lady, that if our friend calls here, you keep it to yourself that we was here. I really and truly want to surprise them with a gift of joyous feelin’ when we catch up with our good friends.”
“Oki-dok, Reverend.”
“You take care now. And you too there friend. Nice to see you again, boy ha-ha-ha.”
The window rolled up, all waved, and the chauffeured car and swampers exited the front gate.
>
Gus’s device buzzed, and he called to the ambling group trudging up an incline to a hillcrest.
“Hello Gus,” Hain’s image said on the handheld. “Nice day?”
“Yes, Conrad,” Gus said, the others gathering around to look at the screen.
“Let’s see, one, two—”
“No need,” Gus interrupted. “One is gone.”
“Permanently?”
“Permanently.”
“And did he suffer?”
“Yes.”
“Splendid,” Hain smiled.
“
Hain,” Russell shouted at the monitor. “I wish I could hate. Know the pleasure of hating. Because I would want to hate you!”
“Bravo, young yulen. And courage. That’s certainly the right spirit. All kinds of interesting opportunity still wait for you to throw that kind of passion at. With a bit of luck you’ll make it to my study and find your promised reward. Who knows what wonders, and horrors, The Book of Yulen holds for you. Onward. Onward for them, young yulen.”
“No need to make him any more headstrong and rash than he’s become,” Gus said.
“I’ll be as brash as I want,” Russell countered. “I’m going to get that book, and I’m going to rule!”
“Good boy!” Hain laughed. “Keep on. Keep on.”
“Don’t you see, Russell,” Gus pleaded. “He wants you to rush unthinking into the dangers he plans. Calm. Reason and calmness are the way to the end.”
“You can’t reason with youth, Gus,” Hain said. “You should know that. Anyway, your next leg will arrive shortly. You will like what’s ahead.”
“Like lemmings like cliffs?” Sammy said.
“Pleasant travels all.” Hain’s image disappeared from the screen.
“I can’t wait until I don’t have to listen to your disapproval,” Russell said to Gus, as Gus watched directions load.
“Straight, no, yes, over the crest and down leftward,” Gus said, Russell moving to the lead.
“You know, Gus,” Sammy said, speaking up for the first time since leaving the church, “you really should get it by now.”
“Pardon?”
“Things have changed. We have changed—since getting a glimpse of what we’d like to be that’s not as we’re supposed to be—that is, according to your infallible nature that rules the universe—but that doesn’t seem to rule man. Man, Gus, from whom we came, and to whom we might partially return, keeping our yulenness but gaining their freedoms, our freedom back.”
“Say no more. Stop.” Gus shook. “No more. Banish that filthy thought from your yulen mind. Rip it out like the heart we no longer neither possess. Stop. No more of this profane and deeply dangerous talk. I’ll hear no more!”
“I’ll shut up. For now. Don’t worry. I’m done, at least for now,” Sammy said, and when he walked away, Gus spoke to Nathan who had heard their exchange. “You don’t say anything.”
Yulen: Return of the Beast – Mystery Suspense Thriller (Yulen - Book 2) Page 15