The Wrath of Jeremy

by Stephen Andrew Salamon

  “Do you think this kind of miracle relates to the wars that are going on in Iraq and Jerusalem?” another journalist asked, while Bob noticed out of the corner of his eye that the parents of the boys were walking away slowly.

  “Listen, I already told you, this isn’t a miracle, and there is a reasonable explanation. Also, I do not believe that this has anything to do with the wars. Wars in Iraq and Jerusalem have been going on for years. I don’t think that this incident has any relation to that, so let’s not create this into religious propaganda and call this a miracle,” Bob replied in a strict manner, trying to walk away from the media and people who still begged for answers.

  Another journalist stepped in front of him and stopped his walk, demanding, “Do you believe that this miracle is a sign that something will happen if the wars don’t stop?”

  “Listen, by my recollection, a peace treaty has been made in Jerusalem already, and one is in effect with Iraq, but that’s not up to me to remind you of that. Besides, like I said before, this wasn’t a miracle. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s be professionals about this and not create this incident into a religious mockery; it’s embarrassing. I know that it’s baffling to see all this dirt, but I could assure you that this was not caused by God or anything of that matter!” Bob shouted and then started to run away from them.

  “All I see is soil, sir, I think this is a form of a miracle,” the same journalist stated with sarcasm, seeing Bob running to his red convertible. He got inside of it and drove away from Grewsal without answering the question. Suddenly the media noticed the boys’ parents in the distance.

  They ran up to Jeremy’s mother first and began asking her the same questions, seeing her tears at the same time, noticing that every question they shouted toward her meant one more teardrop would leap to its death from her melancholy-filled eyes. The word “miracle” echoed in her mind, drowning out her will of hope, confusing her even more to the perception of Jeremy’s whereabouts, as well as all the other patients who lived at Grewsal.

  All the journalists stood quietly, waiting for her words of truth, and the only sound that was heard was the sparrows singing their tune. The mother noticed the lovely pitch, stared and gazed at the sparrows that huddled in a large tree right next to them all, and then answered, “I don’t know if this is a miracle or not, all I know is I want my son back! I don’t know what happened here, but I know in my heart that Jeremy, as well as the other boys, are alive, somewhere. So please, listen as I say that all I want is my son, Jeremy, in my arms again….”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The sunlight became a God-like entity to the boys’ eyes, as well as Mary’s, as it pounded down its heat through the airport window. They stepped out of the airplane in Amman, Jordan, with incomprehension in most of their minds, except for David’s. The puzzlement was mixed with trepidation in Michael, Jeremy and Gabriel’s psyches, the confusion and fear of why exactly they were here in Amman. They recognized the rational incentive that they had contained within them, the reason of them being cured. But their thoughts changed as Grewsal faded to a pile of dirt, and as they saw miracles occur that they couldn’t believe. ‘Understanding’ was gone from their lives, and all they had left was a metaphoric mountain to climb, that had no top or bottom.

  As they exited the airplane, Sam, the stewardess, was still knocked out cold. “Why don’t you help her wake up, David? After all, you did make her wound disappear,” Jeremy asked. They reached the outside of the airport while Sam was beginning to slowly open her groggy eyes, piercing them toward Jeremy’s sight. She gave a small smile toward him, and he did the same, showing his attraction toward her beauty, her beautiful hair and eyes of wonder and mystery. Yet the smile on her face vanished as she tried desperately to open her eyes more, not knowing where she was, who these people were, and why she had to fight her eyes to open.

  “Put her down,” David said. Gabriel and Jeremy placed her down on the dirt of Amman and watched her eyes begin to open even more, with passers-by looking their eyes towards them, but not stopping at all to see if they needed help with Sam. A few men in the distance were staring at Mary and Sam in an appalled manner, rubbing their beards and cracking their knuckles, as if they were about to attack these women with their hair of beauty. They noticed these men, and suddenly the look in David’s eyes went from confusion to realization. He snapped his fingers, showing that he had a thought in mind. “I forgot their customs here,” David noted, running back into the airport and leaving all of them confused at his actions and words. He came out five minutes later with two long, black scarves. “Here, Gabriel, you put this on Mary’s head, and Jeremy, put this on Sam’s. This is their custom. We don’t want to draw any more attention to us than we already have.” The boys placed and wrapped the scarves around Mary and Sam’s head, and after they completed the ensemble, Jeremy noticed the men, who were watching them before with harm in their eyes, were no longer watching them. David was right.

  Sam once again fought to open her eyes, and when she fully opened them, her pupils dilated at the sight of Mary, Gabriel, Michael, David and Jeremy all watching her with their bodies around her in a circle. The heat began to make her flush, and perplexity started to eat at her already anxiety-filled mind, to the point where she suddenly yelled out, “Somebody help me, help me please!” David immediately touched her fretful head and allowed her to be knocked out again, closing her eyes immediately with her head falling back into Jeremy’s hands.

  “We have to take her with us, there is no way that we can leave her here. When she wakes up, she’ll tell the Amman police what she saw on the plane, and then she’ll tell them about us—shit, we have to take her with us.” David panicked, and each of them picked up her body from the soiled ground again and brought her across the street from the airport. They sat her down on a table that was right next to a wooden building, resembling a tavern with its simple design.

  Mary rubbed Sam’s head quietly and calmly.

  Jeremy asked, “What do we do now?”

  David thought about his question for a second or two, and replied, “Well, my last memory tells me to go to the Jordan River. Beyond the banks of it shall lie a man who goes by the name of ‘Luke’. He shall guide us—”

  Gabriel, with anxiety racing through his veins as he eyed the surroundings, interrupted David with: “Wait a second! How are we supposed to get there?” Gabriel then noticed the time on his watch reading 6:15 a.m. He looked toward the orange sun, perceiving its beauty and how it slowly went downwards and seemed as if it was burning the sand that made up Amman. He added, “Damn, that’s right, it’s sundown now, what time is it?”

  “Who cares, but right now our transportation is sitting right across the street,” David answered. He pointed toward a grimy, parked taxi that was waiting by the airport.

  They grabbed Sam and carried her to the taxi, placing her in first in the passenger’s seat. The driver looked at them with wide eyes, knowing that this was an unusual moment. They then all entered the taxi and David told the driver the directions, but in another language, once again impressing Jeremy, Michael, Gabriel and Mary.

  They headed to the banks of the Jordan River, as darkness overshadowed the earth, and a feeling of terror of what they would see when they reached the river traveled through their minds with infinite speed. Jeremy just looked out the window of the taxi, seeing this new and beautiful land, trying to grasp beyond this surreal moment if this was all a dream or reality. But he knew it was real, yet the trip allowed his wandering mind and eyes to rest, and in his sleep he dreamt, for some reason, of a memory he had when he was fifteen years of age. Jeremy’s flashback began with his best friend, a boy by the name of ‘Joe’ coming up to him while young. Jeremy was sitting on his back porch, gazing out at the stars that twinkled their reflection off his pupils, being so bright.

  “Hey, Jeremy, why weren’t you in school today?” Joe asked, sitting next to Jeremy and noticing a sad look on his face. No answer came from him, just si
lence. “Jeremy, you know, you can tell me what’s wrong. I mean, you are the most popular guy in school, you have everything going for you when it comes to grades. Man, what’s wrong?” Joe asked again, this time with Jeremy showing a shield of tears in his eyes. Joe noticed the tears in the reflection of the stars, and suddenly patted Jeremy on the back, knowing that he was in fact upset about something.

  Jeremy turned to him and answered, “Joe, did you ever have a feeling or a sense that maybe you were meant for something great, that you were special, that God heard your prayers every night and would answer them?”

  Joe didn’t know what to say, so he replied, “Um, dude, what’s wrong? You are special, man, in your own way.”

  “Well, I’m losing that feeling. I’ve lost it already, and now I don’t know what to do. It’s like I feel that God isn’t hearing me anymore!”

  Joe raised his body up and went in front of Jeremy, blocking out the starlight from Jeremy’s eyes. “Jeremy, maybe one day all of us will find out how special we are. I mean, dude, God loves all of us, everything that existed and exists. That’s why he’s God. You have a perfect life, and when we turn eighteen, we’ll be free to go wherever we want, and you can do whatever adventure you want to do,” Joe explained.

  Suddenly Jeremy’s dream and flashback ended once the taxi went over a bump, with his eyes opening to the sight of Mary sleeping on his shoulders. In his mind, Jeremy closed his eyes again, and found himself at a funeral, standing over a coffin, giving a speech to over a hundred people who stood crying. “He was my best friend, and we were both gonna turn eighteen tomorrow. But he taught me one thing out of many, that we all have an adventure to live, and that God loves all of us,” young Jeremy cried out. He then opened his eyes again and the flashback ended once more, with his perception being that of tears. Jeremy found himself in the taxi again, with tears in his eyes of a memory hidden deep in his mind. Jeremy whispered to himself as he stared out the taxi window at the brilliant stars of Jordan, “We all have an adventure to live, and God loves us all.”

  Nevertheless, the taxi finally reached the Jordan River, and the driver told them the price of the ride in another language as Mary awakened from her sleep. David continued speaking the same language of the driver to the driver. He touched the driver’s hand and said, “Thank you for taking us, that will be all!” The driver looked at his hand, without seeing any money in it, and smiled at David. They exited the taxi and helped Sam out of it when her eyes slowly opened again.

  The taxi drove off and headed straight to the river’s bank with Jeremy and Gabriel holding onto Sam, trying to help her walk with her still sleepy body. Yet Sam began to come out of her sleep. “Where am I?” she asked while opening her eyes wide. She looked around at the magnificent view, the view that held deserts in its texture and stars that reflected off of the river, showing its beauty to their eyes. She became overwhelmed with confusion, looking down at her stewardess’s uniform, feeling the scarf on her head and then looking at the landscape again.

  Did the plane crash…? Sam questioned that in her mind over and over.

  Jeremy said to David, “Yeah, I’d like to know the same thing, David. Where are we?”

  David reached his hand into the river and pulled out water, forming his hands into a sort of cup. David didn’t answer him, but just looked at the water in wonder.

  Jeremy quickly became flustered toward him for not answering his question. So Jeremy shouted out, “What do we do now?”

  Still David didn’t answer and all stood quiet. He then swallowed the water he held in his hands. “That’s sick, David, it’s salt water, not drinking water,” Gabriel stated.

  “It’s still water to me. Anyway, we have to go to see Luke—follow me.” They all followed David without saying a word, walking until they reached a sea that they remembered being called “Dead”. The night became colder, and they felt as if they were freezing while they tried to demand some heat from the twinkling stars above by pointing their faces toward their light, sealing their eyes, and hoping that one of the stars would admit light to their shadows. Coming upon the Dead Sea, they walked toward it while the light that shined by the stars became their only guide through this place that was known to them as a desert, and to others as the Holy Land. David’s last memory was to walk to a cave that was next to the Dead Sea. After that, the mysteries that were to be revealed were not in David’s mind.

  “The last thing I remember is to go there,” said David, pointing to a cave that was lit by three single lanterns which stood on separate poles. “That’s it: after this, everything we see our eyes will be equal to. I know nothing more about where to go.” This became a bit of a problem for everyone, knowing that they trusted David as their security blanket, because he knew where to go. But now, at this defined moment, he was lost as well, and all they could trust was David’s understanding that a man by the name of Luke would tell them the rest.

  They surrounded the opening of the darkened cave, while Sam stood in the distance, showing tears of fear in her eyes. “Why am I here?” She looked down at her reflection in the sea, amid Mary looking at Jeremy and Michael, wanting one of them to go and talk to her. Sam still gaped at the sea, saying to her reflection, “I want to go home…. Why did you take me here?”

  Craving to see what lurked in the cave, Jeremy let go of his addiction toward the large opening, and walked up to Sam, looking down at her reflection in the water and she saw his.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll be going home very soon,” Jeremy replied, stroking her beautiful blonde hair and being amazed that she allowed him to. “Nothing will happen to you, I promise. We’ll all be going home very soon.”

  Suddenly, Sam threw Jeremy’s hand away from her hair, yelling, “Don’t touch me, I don’t even know who you are!” She saw the hurt in Jeremy’s eyes, and Sam, being a kind and gentle creature of life, felt bad for doing that to him, even though he took her this far, without her knowing. “Listen, I’m sorry for that, it’s just I’m under a lot of stress, especially at this point where I’m in another part of the world wearing a stewardess’s uniform and a scarf over my head,” Sam sincerely vocalized. “Everything’s happening so quickly, and I don’t even have time to catch up.”

  “It’s alright, I understand, trust me, I do. But I promise you, Sam, all of us will be going home very soon.”

  They stared at each other, with Sam somehow understanding and believing that she could and should trust this stranger named Jeremy. Abruptly, their silence was ended by a voice, a deep, strong voice coming from the cave. “No you’re not!” They turned around and faced the cave, seeing with the help of the lanterns a man standing next to the flames, having warts on every end of his face, and a brown, grayish beard that stretched a mile long. He walked toward them wearing a brown robe for his clothes and watched as their eyes opened wider while he came nearer to them. “You have to stay till December twenty-fifth, that’s the big day,” explained the man, having Jeremy walking up to him slowly and everyone else staying where they were. With David’s last memory for the direction of this mission being that of this cave, Jeremy felt that he should be the leader now for this mission. So, Jeremy continued to walk closer to the man, stopping right before the lanterns.

  “Are you Luke?” Jeremy noticed the man was silenced after he asked who he was. But then Jeremy saw the man nodding his head. “What are we doing here?” asked Jeremy. He held out his hand to shake Luke’s wart-filled grip.

  They listened attentively at the man of strange qualities, waiting for him to explain the reason why Jeremy, Gabriel, Michael, and David were drawn here. Mary wondered the same, while Sam was trying desperately to catch up with the mission that she didn’t know of yet.

  “First, you have to find the maps in order for me to tell you who you are,” Luke replied. He pulled out a cross from his pocket and added, “This is your guide to where the maps lie. Man has been searching for the Shroud and the Kerchief for many years. But little did they know that the
guide to where they are has been right under their noses every time they visit the Holy House on great Sunday, or every time they wear this holy object around their necks for protection. Take this, and after you find the Shroud and Kerchief, come back here and I will tell you what will become of all of you.” Luke handed Jeremy the golden cross that resembled something that came out of the Dark Ages. “I see that Michael, Gabriel, Christopher and Peter have already begun the first sign out of the signs.” Luke looked at the blood marks engraved on Jesus’s feet, hands and crown that he wore and they all followed his eyesight to the wounds.

  “What signs?” asked Gabriel, approaching Luke, concurrently staring at the cross which Jeremy held it in his nervous, shaky hands.

  “The signs that the wrath is coming. Many people will try to harm you on your search for the two maps; people who protect them will try to harm you. But always remember that you can’t see or feel death.”

  They didn’t quite understand the last part of Luke’s words, yet Jeremy ignored that and demanded, “Listen, could you at least tell us about some Testament that David was talking about?”

  A smile appeared on Luke’s image. “When you find the second map, the map that the Kerchief shall hold, all of you will know what Testament I and David speak of. But you, Jeremy, you will not remember the Testament. After you find them, bring the maps to me and I will allow you to release the memory that’s hidden in your mind, and you will be allowed to remember,” Luke replied. Jeremy put the cross into his pocket.