by M. B. Lewis
She tried to change the subject. “I appreciate you coming. I realize you have your own issues to worry about.” Duke had to see his doctor about his oral cancer once they returned to the States. He had discussed the seriousness of the disease on their way back to America. She had no idea he was that bad, nor had she known he planned to quit flying upon his return because of the impending treatments. The man did mask his ailment well. Even now, he had a grin on his face. You’d never know he was dying of cancer.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I—”
A loud creak came from behind, and they both turned to see the door to the doctor’s office swing open. The neurosurgeon walked out with a clipboard in his hand and a grim look on his face. Oh no, she thought. I can’t handle this.
The doctor stopped in front of her.
“Kadie,” he said. The doctor glanced at Duke and nodded. Duke reached out and shook his hand.
“I’m Duke Ellsworth, friend of the family.”
The doctor shook his hand and turned back to her. “Kadie, I don’t know how to say this . . .”
Kadie felt her legs grow weak, and her knees buckled. Duke placed his arm around her shoulders to stabilize her.
Saving me once again.
She glanced at him. The pilot still grinned from ear to ear. She’s about to get terrible news, and the jerk keeps smiling. His ability to comprehend what’s going on around him is lacking.
“Kadie,” the doctor said. “Brian is completely healed. He’s okay.”
“Yes, I understand. But it’s been two months and—”
“No, I guess I’m not making myself clear. There is no indication of the tumor. I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s not showing up anywhere. We’ve done every test twice, and every test came up negative. We compared his films today with past films. I wish I had an explanation other than a miracle, but I don’t. It has to be an act of God. The tumor is gone.”
Tears streamed down her face. But Duke? The man’s grin seemed even more full now. Could he have known? How?
At that moment, the doors swung open again, and Brian came strutting through, his arms pumping up and down like he had just won the Olympics.
“I don’t have no tumor,” he was singing. “I don’t have no tumor.”
When he eventually focused on them, and his eyes grew wide. “Duke!” He ran to the pilot and hugged him.
“Hey, Brian,” Duke said.
The doctor spoke briefly to Kadie. He wanted Brian to have a follow-up in three months and encouraged her to get a second opinion just to be sure, but he was confident their machines were accurate. The boy’s tumor was gone.
When the doctor left, the three of them stood hugging, laughing, and crying, and praising God for the miracle they had just experienced.
Kadie stopped and turned to Duke. “You’ve been sporting a mischievous grin since you got here. Did you know something?”
“That’s what I wanted to tell you. I didn’t want to say anything until Brian was done, but Kadie, my cancer is gone. I’m one-hundred percent cancer-free. No more smokeless tobacco for me. I’ve kicked the habit forever.”
Her mouth fell open. “How?”
“I’m not one-hundred percent sure,” he said, “but I have my suspicions.” Duke went on to explain the story from the Book of Matthew when a woman touched Jesus’ cloak and was healed by her faith.
“The prayer shawl wrapped around the Scroll must have belonged to Jesus,” Duke said. “We certainly believed it belonged to Jesus. We touched it and were healed. It was our faith in Christ that healed us. It’s the only answer.”
“Two miracles,” Brian said.
“Yeah, bud. Two miracles.”
Kadie sobbed.
“What is wrong—Kadie?” Brian said.
“I—I wish . . . oh, it’s dreadful for me even to think about it. But you hear about how Jesus healed the lepers. I—I just wish you didn’t have Down syndrome.”
Brian eased over to her, took her hand in his, and looked in her eyes. “Don’t cry, Kadie. Jesus m-made—me this way. I do not need to be cured. I-I’m special.” He reached up, and his fingers lightly stroked her face. “God sent me here—to save you.”
Kadie burst into tears once again and squeezed her brother. God had sent him here to save her—to save her soul. He had been showing her the way for years. Unfortunately, it took this event for her to see the light.
After a brief amount of time, she backed away and ran her hand along her blouse and slacks, then wiped the tears away with the back of her hands.
She turned to Duke, her hands on her hips. “I don’t understand. We all touched the shawl. It cured your cancer. It cured Brian’s tumor. Why didn’t I get cured of anything?”
Duke approached her and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Maybe Christ healed your heart,” he said.
Once again, the floodgates opened, and Kadie poured out her emotions. They all sat for a few minutes until she could compose herself. Christ did heal her heart, and he showed her the way. Brian had been the catalyst for most of her life, but Duke was brought into their lives for a reason. That was clear to her now. She only hoped he knew that as well.
“I think a celebration is in order,” Kadie said. “How about we get lunch?”
“Sounds great!” Duke said. “I owe you a celebration lunch for your Princeton job.”
Kadie’s head lowered. “Yeah, about that . . . I didn’t get the job.”
Duke looked stunned. “What happened?”
“GDI . . . or rather the parent company, Alligynt. They made a phone call, and suddenly the job was no longer available.” Her shoulders sagged, and she felt her eyes well with tears. Crying for her brother was one thing, but she didn’t want to cry for herself. Not here.
Duke stood in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. It calmed her some, mainly because every time he did it, something positive came out of it. He hunched down in front of her to get her to look at him. It worked. His smile warmed her heart.
“Kadie, you need to channel your energy into your faith. Make that your work.”
Her head tilted. “What do you mean?”
“I think you should write a book about our experience.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Do you remember why you joined the team at GDI to begin with?”
“I do. It was a noble effort. We were going to change the world with science and technology, not bombs and bullets. But we were a team working together for the good of everyone.”
“Kadie, now you have a platform to share your experience and your message. Have a little faith,” Duke said with a smile. “Sometimes, it only takes one person to change the world.”
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THE END
Acknowledgments
First of all, I want to thank the good Lord for letting me play on this big blue marble called Earth, for as long as I have. I was once one of those ‘casual Christians’ Duke talks about in the book. My Christian journey has been a long and joyful one, but the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. Thank you, Lord, for not giving up on me.
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I want to thank my wife, Kim, for making me want to be a better man and a better Christian. The main character in this book, Kadie, was named after a good friend of ours, Kadie Whitard. Miss Kadie passed away a few years ago, but the life she lived as a Christian inspired me to name my heroine after her.
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I can’t remember exactly when the idea for this story came to me. But I do know when the idea for a story did. The Pilate Scroll, is of course, a fictional artifact. Its origin is what makes the story so much fun. In May of 2018, Kim and I were on a tour of Israel, led by Governor Mike Huckabee with his Blue Diamond Travel group. It was a first class operation that opened our eyes to the Bible like nothing else could. This was a very historic time in Israel, as we were there for the 70th Anniversary of the nation of Israel, and the American Embassy moving to Jeru
salem. We were probably on the second day of the tour and I told Kim, “There’s a story in here somewhere. I’ve just got find it.” Well, I never found the story—it found me. And once it did, it flowed faster, and more effortless than any story I’ve ever written.
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I don’t remember when or where the idea of a Down syndrome character came from. I’d worked with Tim Tebow’s “Night to Shine” that our church hosts which had given me some insight to the character as I began to develop him. Once I decided what I was going to do, I reached out to a friend of mine from high school, Bill Johannessen, whose son Will, is Down syndrome. I explained to Bill what I was trying to do, and sent him an outline of the story. I didn’t want to exploit the character, but rather show he was a person who was relevant to the story. Bill’s assistance was invaluable, as he helped throughout the process, from outline to final product. It has been said that the mark of a good character, is that if you remove that character, the story totally changes. And that’s what happens with our character, Brian. If he’s gone, The Pilate Scroll is a different story. I also want to thank the folks at the National Down Syndrome Society. Their assistance in fleshing out my character, Brian, was very helpful.
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Writing a Christian Thriller was a little out of my wheel-house. I’d read a few over the years and I wanted to make sure this book was three things: relevant, Biblically sound, and not overly preachy. I wanted a fast-paced adventure story that contained a message of the Lord’s salvation. And I think I got it. I want to thank the people who assisted me in this aspect: Pastor Karl Stegall; Gene Mills, President-Louisiana Family Forum; and my fellow Christian authors David Jeffers, Jason E. Fort, and James R. Hannibal. David is the author of Man Up! What the Bible Says About Being a Man! Jason is the creator of Fortress Books, and James is also a fellow pilot and the author of the multi-award winning Christian Thriller, The Gryphon Heist.
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The Pilate Scroll is not real. Claudia’s life-threatening illness is fiction and Pilate searching for and finding the Disciples is fiction as well. And of course, Pilate writing about Jesus’ resurrection on the Scroll, and sending it to Emperor Tiberius is fiction. The back-story involving the Emperor Constantine is all true, with the exception of him finding and hiding the Pilate Scroll, which of course is fiction. Extensive research was done, and a great deal of information was derived from D.G. Kousoulas’s book, The Life and Times of Constantine the Great. The journey to the Holy Land by Constantine’s mother is true, but her learning about the Pilate Scroll is fiction, and Constantine’s building the secret Cathedral of Helena is fiction.
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Thank you to another high school friend, Doctor Vince Tullos for your medical expertise, and special thanks to my niece, Tyler Jeter, whose pharmaceutical expertise was vital to the story.
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Thanks go to my good friend and fellow Ghostrider, Dick Clark, for his input on King-Air operations.
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A story isn’t a novel until it’s written, and I’ve got a team of trusted agents I need to thank for ensuring my garbled thoughts have morphed into an entertaining novel. My go-to guy, as always, is my good friend and fellow pilot, Scott Tyler. Scott has a way of finding those nuanced issues that smooths out all the rough edges; and he’s not afraid to tell me when I’m wrong. Rob Rolfsen, a good friend from college, is a living, breathing encyclopedia, who points out so many different facts about so many different things. Thank you to my special, dear friends Rickey and Debbie Heroman, Mike Burton, Richard and Becca Overton, my son Derek, and my daughter Lydia—thank you. Thank you for my Beta Reader team from my newsletter group, Terrie James, Netta Pickering, and Richard Mott. Your insight and inputs helped immensely. My friend and fellow author Gary Westfal also assisted in identifying those easy to miss author mistakes. And once again, special thanks to my editor John Briggs.
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Finally, I want thank you, the reader. I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much I enjoyed writing it. May God Bless you and yours!
About the Author
M.B. Lewis is an Amazon #1 International Bestselling Author, and his books have also been on the Bestseller lists on Barnes and Noble Nook and Kobo platforms. The author of the award-winning Jason Conrad Thriller series has been on numerous author panels at writer’s conferences such as Thrillerfest, The Louisiana Book Festival, The Pensacola Book and Writers Festival, and Killer Nashville.
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A 25-year Air Force pilot, he has flown special operations combat missions in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan in the AC-130U Spooky Gunship. Michael is currently a pilot for a major U.S. airline.
A proud Christian active in his community, Michael has mentored college students on leadership development and team-building and is a facilitator for an international leadership training program. He has participated as a buddy for the Tim Tebow Foundation’s “Night to Shine” and in his church’s Military Ministry program. Michael has also teamed with the Air Commando Foundation, which supports Air Commando’s and their families’ unmet needs during critical times.
While his adventures have led to travels all around the world, Michael lives in Florida with his wife Kim.
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Follow Michael Byars Lewis:
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www.michaelbyarslewis.com
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www.facebook.com/mblauthor
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Contact Michael Byars Lewis:
[email protected]
Books by M.B. Lewis
The Pilate Scroll
The Jason Conrad Thriller Series
written as Michael Byars Lewis
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Retribution
Surly Bonds
The Right to Know
Veil of Deception
The Quiet Professional