“Believe it or not, Adam, I don’t like to see you hurt,” she said.
“If that’s true, why have you beaten the shit out of me so many times?” I strained to keep things light, but she wasn’t making anything easy.
“No, asshole, I mean really hurt. The kind that takes a long time to get over, if you ever do. And you’re falling for this woman, and that only hurts you in the long run. I know. I’ve watched it.”
“Yeah, I’ve always meant to ask why you were there that night in—”
“Don’t. You don’t need or want to know why I was there, but you needed me, and I was there. That’s all that matters. Now I can see the look in your eyes with Myra, I can see how she looks at you, and you’ve got to remember, this isn’t smart. It doesn’t work out for us. Ever.” She was right up in my face, speaking low and very intensely. A lot was going on behind her eyes that she wasn’t saying, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to get into it in a motel hallway.
I went through a thousand responses in my head before I finally decided on the best way to say it. “Butt out. I appreciate your concern, and I’m grateful for your help back in Ireland, but this is my deal. I’m a big boy, and I can take care of myself.” I turned to head into the waiting elevator.
Eve followed me. “I know you can take care of yourself, dick.” She pushed the button for the third floor. All the rooms were on the same floor, so I just leaned as far away from her as I could in the cramped space. “But for once in all these years, please think of something or someone outside your own skin. I don’t even really know what you’ve gotten me into here, but if it’s as big as you claim, then for my own good, and maybe the good of everybody else in the world, we need you to keep your shit together. That means you can’t go tits-up and tail-waggy over Little Miss Cuppa Joe until this is all over. Let’s just stay focused, save the world, and then you can chase waitress tail for another thousand years for all I care.”
Eve’s monologue contained so many absurdities that I couldn’t even begin to address them, so I stayed quiet until we got off the elevator.
I tossed her a glance as I opened the door to my room. “Eve?”
“What?”
“I’ll keep it in mind. Really.”
She didn’t look very mollified, but she obviously knew it was all she was going to get, so she gave me a little smile, shot me the bird, and went into her room.
I went into mine, kicked off my boots, and flopped down on the bed for a quick nap before dinner.
Chapter 28
When I woke up, Myra was lying next to me. She was awake, just lying down after a shower. Her hair smelled fresh and clean, reminding me that I could use a quick shower to get rid of the road grime. From time to time over the years, I’d forgotten how nice it was to wake up next to someone. Someone you actually give a shit about, that was.
I realized that Eve was on to something, that I actually had started to care about Myra. I was going to have to deal with that before too long. She had been special to me when we were first together, and the intervening years had only softened the sharp edges of youth. She looked more comfortable in her skin now, and I liked that she wasn’t out to impress anyone. She just lay down next to me in a baggy t-shirt and panties on top of the scratchy hotel blanket, not trying to get all supermodel on me, just comfortable.
Yeah, I was definitely going to have to cut this short before it got in the way of things. If I had a Choice of my own coming up, then I needed to focus. All signs pointed toward the great Event happening sooner rather than later, so I had better get in the game.
Eventually. First, I kissed the top of Myra’s head, then kissed my way down her forehead to her temple and along the side of her face as she looked up at me. I paused for moment or two at her ear before moving on to her lips.
We kissed rather seriously for a minute or two before she pulled back and grinned. “Shower. Shave. Mouthwash. Dinner. In that order. More playtime later.” She kissed the end of my nose, got out of bed, and dug through her bag for a fresh pair of jeans.
I got up, tossing clothes around the room as I headed for the shower.
One of the great things about travel in the modern world is the advent of little hotel soaps and shampoos. I know women still carry seventeen pounds of hair goop and facial scrubs, but all I require nowadays is a razor and an electrical outlet.
I took a quick shower and dutifully scraped off a few days’ worth of stubble, then headed back into the room to get dressed. I instantly regretted not taking more clothes into the bathroom with me when I was greeted by a chorus of wolf whistles from Myra and Eve, who were both sitting on the bed watching TV.
“Hey, baby! Shake what you got!” Eve had more than a few years of experience with what men yelled at strip clubs, so she dredged up the more prurient phrases she’d learned strutting runways from L.A. to Miami in an effort to embarrass me. Once I realized Emily was nowhere to be seen, I just tossed the towel on the floor. After all, there was nothing there they both hadn’t seen before, right?
“Pick up that wet towel!” Myra shrieked.
“How dare you throw that towel on the carpet?” Eve followed right on her tail. Great. Two of them. I tossed the towel into the bathroom and dug around in my bag for some clean underwear, jeans, and my favorite Johnny Cash t-shirt.
Hey, if we’re in Nashville, might as well rock the Man in Black, right?
“Underwear, Adam?” Eve smirked a little.
“I call it progress, sweetheart. We’ve come a long way since fig leaves,” I shot right back. I pulled on my boots, and we went downstairs. I was a little worried about what the two of them might have been chatting about while I was in the shower, but I figured I hadn’t left them alone long enough for them to get into any real trouble. I never was that bright.
We walked across the hotel parking lot to an Applebee’s because wherever there was a critical mass of hotels, there was an Applebee’s, and the food was harmless, if not terribly interesting. And there was beer. We grabbed a big round table in the corner and loaded up on bar food and beer.
After we eased our appetites, I looked over at Michael and started the party. “Okay, Michael. Who are we looking for and where do we find him?”
“Well, I’m not certain of his name, but I will know him when I encounter him. He is a young lay minister who frequents the downtown area.”
“A lay minister? You mean like a street preacher?” Cain asked.
“I believe that is one way that people refer to his ministry, yes. He speaks from the Book to passersby downtown. He is very… how should I put this? Um, he’s very outgoing in his ministry,” Michael continued.
“So he’s an obnoxious street preacher in downtown Nashville, the big gold-plated buckle of the Bible Belt. That’s not gonna be easy to find,” I opined.
“As I mentioned, I will sense that he is the one we are searching for once we are near. For now, I suggest that we depart this fine dining institution and make our way downtown to begin our search for the young man in question.”
“Well, you boys have a good time quizzing street preachers. I’m sure that with Mikey’s spidey-sense in full bloom, you don’t need Myra and me to find one Bible-thumper, and we could use a little ‘girl time,’ if you know what I mean.” Eve stood and, motioning for Myra to follow, started for the door.
“I don’t know what you mean, and I think we should all stick together,” I said.
“He’s so cute when he tries to play leader, isn’t he?” Eve said. “C’mon honey, we’ll leave Emily with him to make sure he doesn’t get in too much trouble, and we’ll take Cain with us to make sure that we do. I hear there are a couple of bars in this town where they might play a little music. Let’s see if we can find one, and I’ll tell you more stories about Adam from the good old days.” With a cheery little wave, my first wife and my latest lover went off with my eldest son in tow. Cain looked back at me with a helpless expression as they headed to the door.
“Don�
��t get busted,” I called after them. “I can’t afford bail for three.” Eve flipped me off as the hostess held the door for them. I paid the tab, and Emily, Michael, and I headed to the car. Though I would be wandering the streets of Nashville with an angel to look for a harmless street preacher, I knew that somehow the night was going to end badly.
Chapter 29
I found a parking deck just off Broadway because I figured if a street preacher was worth his salt, he’d hang out at one of the dens of iniquity that made up the redneck street of dreams. Enough sins were committed against the memories of mamas, pickup trucks, dogs, and trains in that three-block stretch of downtown Nashville to make Lucky blush, so I figured it was just a matter of time before we found our guy.
Sometimes, I took being right to a whole new level. We’d barely made it a block when a body came flying out of a bar to land almost directly on top of us. A skinny kid ended up flat on his ass against a newspaper machine while a couple of neckless bouncers glared at us as though they needed a little more ass to kick. Another guy came out from inside the club and threw a Bible at the kid’s head, but Michael leaned over and caught the Book before it could hit the ground. He handed it to the kid, who took it gratefully.
“Thanks. This was my dad’s. I’d hate for anything to happen to it. I guess they don’t really mean it when they call it an ‘open mike’ night.” He just lay there on the sidewalk, leaning his head on the newspaper box as if his being thrown out was something that happened every night. Hell, for all I knew, it did happen every night.
“Why? What happened?” Emily looked all kinds of concerned for the kid, which immediately set off the Daddy warning bells in my head. The kid looked like ten miles of bad road, with a pierced lip and eyebrow, more hardware in his ears than Emily, Eve, and Myra combined, a couple of armfuls of tattoos, and a t-shirt that said, in big jagged letters on the front, “Jesus Rocks.” He wore jeans that looked as if they’d been torn more from getting thrown out of bars than from work, and pair of scuffed Chuck Taylors on his feet. I hated his guts a little, I thought.
“I signed up for a slot on the open mike list, and when my time came, I took the chance to speak the word of the Lord to those gathered. The proprietors took some exception to my version of an open mike performance, and I was asked to leave. When I objected… well, you saw the results.” He sounded a little like Michael. I definitely hated his guts a little. I looked over at Emily again and saw a little glassy look in her eyes. Shit. She was smitten. Things only got worse when I looked at Michael, who was grinning like a cat with a mouthful of feathers. Shit twice.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered to the angel.
“No, Adam. This is who we’re looking for. This young man is the Chosen. I can feel it.” Michael looked about to wet himself. Emily looked head over heels in puppy love, and I was sure I looked as though I’d just swallowed something rotten. I was going to need a drink or ten to deal with this one.
“All right, Junior. Get up, come with me, and keep your mouth shut.” I reached down and hauled the kid to his feet. Putting an arm around his shoulders, I steered him halfway down the block and into another bar.
The bouncer gave me a look that said “If I hear one syllable of proselytizing, I’m gonna toss you out on your ass.” Okay, the bouncer probably didn’t actually think the word proselytizing; I might have given him a little too much credit. Either way, I led the kid to a booth in the back and ordered four PBRs. We sat there in silence until our beers arrived, along with our cohorts.
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t allow alcohol to enter the sanctuary of my body.”
“Jesus turned water into wine. Now, sit there and drink.” I was not in the mood for it, but it looked like I was going to have a conversation on faith and fact with a true believer whether I wanted to or not, and I was most definitely in the camp of the “not.” True believers gave me gas.
Michael and Emily joined us, with Emily sitting next to me to better observe the tattooed and pierced messiah-in-training. Michael made a face at the beer, but after a look from me, he wisely refrained from comment. I drained the first PBR in a long pull and motioned for the waitress to bring another round.
“Sir, I must insist. The body is a temple, and I must honor my Almighty Father by keeping it pure.” The kid’s attitude was starting to wind me up a little, so I leaned forward and made sure I had his undivided attention.
“Look, kid. I’m gonna drink my next beer like I’m on a mission, which I am. Then, I’m gonna nurse my third one while Michael and I tell you a little story. And I can pretty much guaran-damn-tee that you’ll accept what we’ve got to tell you a little better if you’ve had some booze to grease the mental wheels.” About then, my second beer showed up, and I did indeed swallow it down with a certain intensity. I dropped the empty on the waitress’s tray before she had finished unloading the other three, and motioned for her to bring me another. “This time I promise to take my time, hon.” She gave me a little flounce of her denim mini-skirt and headed back to the bar.
The kid looked from Michael to me and back again, studiously avoiding meeting Emily’s gaze. I was fine with that. I wasn’t interested in any budding romance, especially if he really was important to the “mission” we were on.
When my third beer got there, I started talking. “All right, kid, let’s start with the basics. What’s your name?”
“Sidney. Sidney Joseph McEwen.”
“Okay, Sid.”
“Sidney. I don’t answer to Sid.” The kid was really going to irritate me. I could tell.
“Sidney, then. Sidney, how much do you know about the book of Genesis?” I figured that I might as well uncork the heavy stuff right off the bat.
“The book of Genesis is where we learn the origins of man, his dominion over women and all the beasts of the field, and—”
I interrupted, “Wait a minute, kid. Where did you get that stuff about dominion over women?”
“It’s clearly stated in Genesis that Eve was given unto Adam to be his mate and his servant, as were all the beasts of the kingdom.” Wow. He was going to have some serious issues when he met Eve.
“Okay. Let’s start right there. Nobody ever gave anybody dominion over anybody else, and Eve was never anybody’s servant, I promise.” Emily had started to look pretty grumpy about the whole “servant” thing, but she settled back into the booth when I corrected the kid’s misconceptions.
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t mean to disrespect my elders, but are you really qualified to question the written Word of God the Father? I have dedicated my life to the study of the Bible, and I daresay I know the Book a little better than the average man on the street.” Okay, he’d brought out the smug. It was time to play a little rough.
I reached over, grabbed his lip ring, and pulled him close enough to feel my breath on his nose. “Listen, pincushion. A couple of points here. One: nobody under the age of fifty uses the word ‘daresay,’ especially not in a bar in Tennessee. Two: if you’re going to measure peckers, you’d better make sure you’re not whipping it out next to John Holmes. I’m not the average man on the street, and while I haven’t really dedicated much of my life to studying the Book, I’ve got more than a passing familiarity with the book of Genesis. Mostly because I was fucking there.” I gave his ring a twist with each of the last few words for emphasis. When I let go of his mouth, he bounced back to the booth and looked at Michael as if he wanted to bolt, but the angel just smiled at him.
“I think you should listen to Adam, Sidney.” Michael finished his second beer and waved over the waitress. He motioned for another round, and Sidney took the high road and polished off his drink.
“Let’s work from a point of common agreement: you don’t know shit about the book of Genesis, and probably not much more about the rest of that book you’ve been thumping. So, I’ll start at the beginning, or at least as much of it as I remember.
“A long time ago, there was a guy alone in a Garden. It w
as a nice garden, if a little boring with no one to talk to. Then one day, this chick appeared, and things got a lot more interesting. After a while, with just the guy and the chick, the normal things happened, and there were some more people. Then, there was a snake, an apple, a really bad afternoon, a couple of brothers, a big rock, another really bad afternoon, and then the rest of the world happened. You with me so far?”
The kid just sat there, looking at me as if he thought I might bite him, which was probably fair. I had meant to scare him a little, and maybe I got a bit out of hand. But he annoyed me, okay?
“Adam, let me try,” Michael began, but Emily jumped in before either of us could say another word.
“Sid, here’s the deal. This guy is Adam. That Adam. The whole Adam and Eve thing? He’s half of that dynamic duo. The blond guy next to you with the rapidly fading British accent? He’s the Archangel Michael, although he’s tucked away the flaming sword for the time being. We’re trying to save the world, and Michael says that you’re going to be very important to that. So, are you in?” She certainly did have a way of cutting through all the bullshit.
The Chosen Page 14