Society of the L.A.M.B.

by DuCharme, Judy;

  After Teleos left, Grandfather and Josiah caught up on family news and memories as well as the truths of King Glory.

  * * *

  Lily fought hard to maintain her composure. It was dreadfully difficult. The shiny tile floors of the retraining center reflected her grimace. Glancing up, she tried to remain deadpan as Nathan approached with his demeaning smile. She could almost hear the snarl behind his teeth. Nathan was not tall. He was stocky. She assumed at first he was muscular and strong, but his stockiness belied that. Probably how he tricks and deceives. He looks fun-loving, almost roly-poly, but he’s cruel and harsh.

  Lily tensed every muscle. Granted, they were tiny muscles because she was small for her age. She’d always been strong, though, inside. Of course, Nathan would hum “Jajireh Loves Me” merely to taunt her. He was a master of forced persuasion. He would hum just long enough for her blue eyes to flicker in any way, and then he would slap her.

  Maybe I should give up, give in, and be an outer man…forget the inner man. Yeah, I can talk the talk, but maybe I can’t walk the walk. Lily peeked at her younger brother. Timmy’s freckled face looked thin. He was getting so weak. She feared he was starting to believe the lies. It was perhaps the best way to survive. She knew Timmy feared to look at her, lest they lock eyes and remember joy and love and determine to stand strong. He was only eight, but Nathan would hurt him. He might take Timmy away.

  Resolve rose within Lily. King Glory is real, and my inner man will remain strong! Timmy and I must remember who we really are. She looked straight at Nathan.

  Nathan’s smile was big. He’d won. Grabbing Lily’s arm, he slapped her face full force. Lily’s teeth tingled and her neck ached, not to mention the major sting on her cheek. She caught Timmy’s eyes and knew he saw the tears of pain glistening in hers. Timmy’s big brown eyes blazed, and then glazed over. He knew to be quiet, but one glimpse of the red mark on Lily’s face and he dove for Nathan.

  Sidestepping, Nathan grabbed a shock of Timmy’s red hair and threw him to the hard tile floor. Lily feared his nose would break. Timmy struggled to his feet, blood oozing down his face, while Lily implored him with her eyes to do nothing more. He held his peace as Nathan’s laughter faded down the hallway.

  Both waited until Nathan was out of sight. Then Lily threw her arms around Timmy’s straight, tense body. He was almost as big as Lily, even though seven years younger. Because he was the boy and almost as big, Timmy felt he should protect Lily. She, at the same time, felt responsible as the elder to protect him. Timmy pulled up his shirt to wipe at his bloody nose. They quietly walked toward their room, their footsteps the only noise now in the bare hallways.

  The hallways were straight, narrow, cold. Nothing in this place held the warmth of home. Everything was straight, gray, hard, unyielding. Her mind returned to the day Nathan first brought Timmy and her to this retraining facility. Even though she feared her parents were dead and that Timmy and she would die too, Lily would not let her faith die. “Let’s go out strong, Timmy,” she told him. Together they sang, “Jajireh loves me, this I know, for the Logos tells me so.” She knew it would be considered a taunt, knew she would pay, but she determined to honor the Voice within, no matter the cost.

  Lily loved the Voice inside. She heard the lines she had read and memorized at the instruction of her parents, words of truth and comfort, words that provoked the watchers to rage. At first, she purposely taunted them with those words, but soon they just taped her mouth and refused to feed her. She was isolated until mealtime and then allowed only to watch the others eat. Timmy ate but cried over Lily’s forced fast. So they beat him in front of everybody, especially when he made eye contact with Lily.

  “Timmy, we must shout in silence,” she told him. Watchers were abundant, so often she would look at her feet and proclaim within herself, “I always triumph in King Glory! No weapon formed against me shall succeed!”

  On occasion, the watchers would see her lips move and know. As a result, the routine of taping, isolation, and beating Timmy would begin again. Lily prayed she could speak and shout without her lips moving. She longed for wings to take her away and comfort and warm her like a hen would do with her chicks, like her mom with that oversize robe. Her face softened as she remembered how Mom would envelop them in that robe on cold evenings, wrapping and hugging and loving them. A tear sneaked into her eye. Oh no, you don’t, she silently commanded it.

  Where were Mom and Daddy now? Were they even alive? Were they suffering, starving, being beaten in some jail? Had they let their inner man die and joined the outer men? Would she ever see them again?

  Perhaps I should rebel and let them kill me. Then I would join Mom and Dad in heaven and be happy again. This time, tears spilled from her eyes as she remembered Mom and Daddy.

  At that instant, Nathan saw her weakness. He had moved stealthily down the hall and was watching her.

  She felt his eyes upon her, the rage emanating from him. This was it. Lily was certain he would beat her to death. She heard the swat of his whip in the air. She might as well go out strong. Opening her mouth, she proclaimed, “King Glory is my shepherd. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.”

  “You got that right, girly. You’re going to lie still in the waters. If you won’t train, it’s down the drain!”

  TWO

  Smile

  In the evening, Josiah sat with Grandfather on a bench beside the small pond. The chipped flagstone patio and stone-lined pond had been there as long as Josiah could remember. Fascinated as a little boy by the few fish his grandparents kept, he tried to get a little koi to take food one day. Instead, a rock, slippery as a slide, escorted him into the water to join the fish. In the process, Josiah knocked over Grandfather’s bubbling fountain and scared everyone around. He almost cried from embarrassment until everyone started to laugh. Guffaw was a better word, for when he came up, he was draped with all the water plants his grandmother had placed in the pond.

  “Remember?” Grandfather asked with that wonderful twinkle in his eye.

  “Every time I’m here, I do.” Josiah laughed, running his hand through his hair.

  “Those fish didn’t come out from hiding for three days.”

  “I felt the same way, and I still don’t eat fish,” Josiah said.

  Grandfather stared at him, eyes big. “Really?”

  “I figure they’re intent on getting back at me.” He chuckled.

  Grandfather smiled, and his blue eyes seemed to get bluer. Josiah wondered if his own blue eyes did the same. “Do you know that shortly after King Glory walked on the earth, when His followers were being hunted by the authorities, they used the symbol of the fish to identify themselves to other followers? One would draw one half of the picture. When the other completed the drawing, they knew they were safe with each other.”

  “Why the fish?” Josiah tossed a pebble in the pond. Ripples fled outward to the edges.

  “The word fish in their language provided an acronym. Each letter represented and began a word that told who King Glory was. Today we use the concentric circles with the smile. In the Logos there is a prayer that our whole body, soul, and spirit be preserved blameless.” Grandfather stood and walked over to the edge of the patio, gazing out toward the bay, barely visible through the trees. His back was straight as an arrow. “Long-waisted,” Grandmother always said.

  Josiah’s mom had always noted how Grandfather, Josiah’s dad, and Josiah had that same long back with powerful, though shorter than average, legs. She actually would take pictures as the three males walked together to prove that they were built alike and had the same gait. His mom loved to notice the similarity in how children and parents walked alike. It seemed weird to Josiah, but his mom delighted in her little connections. She brought them back to the Logos, the Word of Jajireh, and how we should walk and look like our father, the Great Jajireh.

  Josiah sighed as he remembered. Both parents were gone, arrested a few years ago. He he
ard they had died in prison. As much as it angered him at the time, it also made him question Jajireh and King Glory. He found himself letting go of the truth and believing the lies.

  “Josiah, do you know that we are a spirit?” Grandfather turned to face Josiah. “That’s our inner man, restored to life by King Glory. We have a soul. That’s our mind, will, and emotions, and we are responsible to renew our soul by knowing the Logos, listening to the Voice, and obeying and loving Jajireh with all our strength. And we live in a body. It’s our house, so to speak, here on earth. When Jajireh rules in our lives, there is definitely a smile within us, and our inner man lives only because of Him. We truly are the Society of the L.A.M.B. because Love, Authority, Mercy, and Boldness operate within us and through us.”

  “And King Glory perfects what concerns us.”

  “Yes, He does. And, He protects what concerns us, too. That’s why we use the three circles. The outer circle is the body, next the soul, and then the inner man, our spirit, with a smile right in the middle.” Grandfather returned to his seat on the bench next to Josiah.

  “It seems almost childlike.”

  “Yes, childlike, but not childish. He told us to come to him like little children, eager, trusting. Not childish, immature. The times, the days that we’re in, require maturity, courage, and discipline.”

  “How do we know we’re ready for these days, Grandfather?”

  Grandfather didn’t answer right away. He focused on his gnarled hands then met Josiah’s eyes. “We’re never really ready. We’re just His. We lean on Him, look to Him. Jajireh makes us ready with His strength. King Glory said we live and move and have our being in Him. We plunge in with all our heart and strength. Then He has something to work with, and He shapes us into the people He has purposed us to be.”

  “But you said we have the responsibility to renew our soul.” Josiah leaned out and fanned his hand in the spray from the fountain. The fading light of the sun reflected and rainbowed in the spray, bathing the patio in a myriad of colors.

  “Yes, we have choices every day to obey the Voice, follow the Logos, do His will, but we never fully make ourselves ready for it. We simply do it, ready or not, and He fills in the gaps. It is really quite glorious. And every season is different. Just because I planted green beans in early summer and got a great harvest doesn’t mean I should do that in early winter. Wouldn’t do much good. Instead, I get the shovel and clear all the winter snow out. And then, in the summer, I don’t worry that I’m missing it because I’m not shoveling snow. It’s not the season. We have to stay tuned to King Glory and simply obey. He knows the season, the tools, the harvest.”

  Josiah and Grandfather sat gazing into the woods, pondering the mighty wisdom of Jajireh. They listened as the tops of the trees swayed in the late summer breeze and the fountain gurgled.

  Suddenly, Grandfather glanced up. “I believe our company has arrived. Ready or not, we are entering a season to conquer. It is time for Jajireh and the inner man to dominate. Let’s be strong and do exploits, son.”

  * * *

  Nathan was a chief watcher and a good one at that. He gloated as he thought about detecting those who would dare defy the Over Garments and Shades laws. Who wanted to see the inner man, anyway? What was the point? The power, the glory, the fun was in the outer man. Besides, OGs were impressive. The variety was insane, and the more bizarre the better he liked it.

  He was now the number one watcher in this district. True, it was hemmed in by water, and not a huge peninsula, but still, it was his to rule. When walking through the colony meetings, he would hear the whispers:

  “He’s the best.”

  “He has magical powers.”

  It had been rumored that some from the Society of the L.A.M.B.—“Lamers,” he liked to call them—were still in his area. He’d already rooted out several. Just today he’d found a new enclave. Because of the highly wooded areas, some residential segments could be well hidden. The one he’d found was at the end of a dirt lane that broke off from an almost hidden driveway. It resembled more of a walking path than a road. A slight hill blocked the initial view of the houses, making them almost undetectable. But Nathan was the great detector.

  His stocky build made him feel strong, even though he dealt with fears deep within. Those fears he would keep hidden. Showing weakness was not an option. Losing his parents at a young age had left its scar, but so had a few fights. He’d rather think about the fights. Those he usually won. The roundness of his face sometimes gave him a softer, kinder look, but the anger he held usually came through loud and strong.

  Today he’d let the softer look play on his face. With delight, he rubbed his hands together and strolled down the cul-de-sac humming “Jajireh Loves Me.” Never would he say the words of the song, but the kids were always attracted to it. “Hi, mister. What’s your name? We know that song.”

  “Hey, that’s great. Go get your folks. I have a message for those who know this song.”

  “Oh, cool, a secret! We’ll be right back.”

  It always worked. Nathan’s smile wasn’t feigned. He knew he’d won again as three sets of parents came out of the houses. No OGs but they did have their shades on. Cautiously, they approached. Nathan smiled and began humming again. Like clockwork, each parent stopped, listened. Their bodies always relaxed a little. It was their song. They knew it.

  Then came the best part. Nathan reached up as if to take his shades off. As if choreographed, each one did the same, either taking them off completely or looking out over them. Detection! It was the sweetest thing and the most detested thing. He hated the glimmer of inner life he saw in those eyes, but it meant he had succeeded in catching his prey.

  “You’re all under arrest!”

  One couple grabbed their children’s hands and ran into the woods. They didn’t know that Nathan had other watchers with dogs slowly surrounding the neighborhood. One family ran into the house, thinking they could hide in some secret place. If not found, Nathan would simply set the house on fire. The third couple stood limp while their children cried. Nathan never had to fight. The only hard part was stopping his smirk, so he never tried.

  He loved carting the adults off to jail and taking the kids to facilities to be retrained in the dark ways that inner life was unnecessary and only the outer man held importance. Only one problem plagued him. At times, he couldn’t stop humming the song inside himself and heard the words “Jajireh loves me” within. He stopped listening, of course, but it drove him nuts.

  No one, except for a very few, knew his tactics, for he never wanted to even say the words aloud. Because of this, he continued to be feared as well as respected by most. He let them assume he had great detection ability that was almost magical. He fed on that fear and believed he was the best, the highest.

  * * *

  As they detached themselves from the cabin, moonlight shivered on the lake. Josiah always loved to see the shiny path the moon made on the water. He imagined it a path for angels to walk on. Hmmm, could there really be angels? The water was smooth, almost glassy. It was only three miles across the channel at this point where Grandfather’s cabin was built atop the bluff. High winds often buffeted the straits and created huge waves, which threatened the safety of any who ventured there. Other times, they offered a great passageway for any type of water vehicle.

  Then Josiah saw them—three small shadows bobbing on the water. At first glance, he imagined angels were swimming toward them. The water droplets, lifted by oars in an arc and reflecting moonlight, shimmered as though angel wings moved silently through the water. Soon the boats glided onto the sand, and their contents spilled out. Not one person had OGs or shades on. Josiah did not think it was possible to have so many LAMBers in one place at one time.

  Grandfather’s eyes twinkled at the surprise on Josiah’s face. “There are even more than these. They’ll join us another time perhaps. We don’t want to alert the watchers.”

  As they got out of the boats, each one foun
d another and drew three circles in the sand. The second person then drew a smiley face. Together they whispered “Praise to Jajireh!” A little dance followed as they scuffed out the symbol in the sand and headed up the well-worn path to the cabin.

  Once inside, Josiah drew the shutters and shades. Grandfather circled the building to be certain no light could be seen, a sure invitation to watcher investigations. Those investigations were mounting, so Grandfather was extra vigilant. Up to this point, watchers did not even know his home high on the bluff existed. The trees blocked the view of the house. And, as so many of them were pines, they provided obscurity even in the winter season.

  The small, sandy beach at the base of the bluff was also hidden from view by a rocky crop that jutted sideways into the water. Common along the shoreline were cedars that had tipped over, extending horizontally over the water but clinging to the bluff with strong and tangled roots. Boats could pass twenty feet from the entrance and, unless they looked at the precise moment of passing, no one would ever notice the tiny bay that now provided such refreshment to the LAMBers.

  Satisfied that no light escaped his home, Grandfather slipped inside and sat down. Immediately a low hum began, and soon all the voices became one soft voice. “We sing as one, we are one, we are clothed in the truth of the LAMB. We are full of His Love, we walk in His Authority, we delight in the Mercy of our king, and Boldness is ours for we have no fear. We are children of King Glory.”

  Then Grandfather sang, “We are strong in Jajireh and the power of His might. We believe His Love, exercise Authority, Mercy is ours and we walk in Boldness. We rejoice, we rejoice in His security.” The others joined in, and Josiah remembered the unity of spirit that was once common. The several preceding years of watcher rule brought a loss and weakening of that unity. Josiah sensed the longing for a return to the former strength of the inner man.

  “Friends, you need to know the Voice, that which is written and that which is within. King Glory has provided us with wisdom to live, and His people have forgotten it. The outer men have outlawed the Logos because it speaks of and to the inner man. We wear the shades because the eyes reveal our inward being.” Grandfather wore a wistful expression, as though remembering days when life was free and full, when everyone knew each other by the inner personality. “All the joints supplying,” he whispered.