Catching Kate (Scenic Route to Paradise)

by Andrea Aarons

  Early on, Merry had obtained Bibles for each of them; a Spanish Bible for Zeff. Whatever Mac studied, the group studied. If the day was warm and windless, they met above on deck for an hour or more to examine the scriptures. The cool, breezy or wet days drove them below but almost everyday they had a study. There had been some rough seas and hellacious storms but there had been mild weather for the most part since Madagascar.

  The multitude of earthquakes and the outbreak of Mid-east war had piqued Mac’s interest in the signs of Jesus’ Second Coming. He told Merry when he began the study that he felt God’s stirring in his chest. Merry confirmed that the Holy Spirit would often move within a Christian like that.

  Mac brought up relevant current events that matched what the scriptures said about the final days before Jesus would come to gather His saints. Even Zeff found this study interesting.

  The day after Kate joined them, Tino said, “Mac, people have been saying Jesus is coming for a really long time. My grandma said that during World War II, everyone thought Hitler was the anti-Christ.” Then Tino asked, “What makes you so sure that this is the time. Don’t get me wrong. I can see for myself how crazy the world is but it’s been upside-down and crazy before. Wouldn’t you say?”

  Zeff and Junior nodded their agreement. Mac was ready for them. “I thought about that a lot. Finally, when we left the port at Durban I started praying about it. Now open your Bibles to Luke 21,” he said. Mac flipped through the New Testament to the letter called Luke saying, “In three of the gospels when Jesus starts talking about the end of the age, He always mentions the sign of the fig tree.”

  Mac went on to expound on the symbol of the fig tree representing Israel as a nation. He took them to the Old Testament scriptures that indicated this and then Mac brought them to the New Testament where Jesus curses the fig tree for its fruitlessness. He said, “You see, the nation - not all the people because all those early Christians were either Jews or from D’Almata... Just a joke!” Zeff had looked up surprised and then they all smiled together with Mac at his poking fun of D’Almata national pride. “So the nation of Israel rejected their Messiah and Jesus uses the fig tree to explain what was happening. They put Jesus aside but God put them aside too. Still, Jesus says the fig tree will blossom and that generation which sees this tree coming to life again will not pass away or die-off before He returns.” There was a pause as each of them thought about Israel becoming a nation again after a 2000 year hiatus.

  Junior said, “I’m not much of a reader but I’ve been reading about these signs since we started talking about them. It sounds like some really bad stuff is going to happen first, before Jesus comes.” Coco the pup moved from the deck to Junior’s lap. Junior began rubbing behind her ears until she slept.

  “That’s true. Bad stuff has been happening since the beginning of time, Junior. Look what is happening in your country,” Mac said. “Even Tino’s grandmother said that everyone thought Hitler was the anti-Christ. World War II was horrible. The difference is that Israel wasn’t a nation yet. That is our time marker. It’s our reference point much like a lighthouse or directional buoy. Those give us certain information so we can sail safely so we don’t go aground. Israel becoming a nation again is a milestone from which we use to read the other last day scriptures accurately.”

  Mac said, “Look here in Luke 21:36. Jesus’ own words telling us – that this generation that would see these things begin to happen, must pray to escape the disasters and coming judgment. Look at it. Read it out loud, Tino.” As a group, they had been looking in Luke.

  “Uh? Crazy but okay... It says to watch and then to pray so you can escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man," Tino paraphrased. But he said, “Yeah but this was written a really long time ago. Like a thousand years or more right? So why would Jesus be telling those people if it wasn’t for a long way off in the future? Crazy!”

  Mac smiled, “Good thought there, Tino. It’s important to undergird our faith with strong questions to find answers in the Word of God.” Mac went on to explain that some scriptures have dual meanings. Also, he added in the simple fact of the population explosion.

  “Right now there are more people alive on planet Earth than have died since history has been recorded,” he explained. “You see, when Jesus was speaking these words why not speak them also to the final generation of people? There would be more people alive than had ever even died but also, more literate people who can actually read for themselves, the Messiah’s own words.”

  Zeff said nothing but he had read that the population that was presently alive was more than all the generations who had lived formerly. In school, that fact hadn’t seemed relevant to anything excepting planet sustainability but now it meant so much more. Was it true that Jesus had foreseen the need to speak directly to this living generation? If so, what a genius and preemptive move on His part, mused Zeff.

  Merry and Kate had been quiet. They knew most of what Mac was explaining. They heard about the signs of the times since they were in children’s Sunday School. They had seen the signs unfold before their eyes and while many of their Christian friends had become indifferent as crabs being boiled in water, the Merriweather children had planned their lives accordingly. As world events heated up, they endeavored to climb out of the pan and into God’s protective arms.

  When their father, Vance Merriweather died unexpectedly, the family spun-out. Where was God? Hadn’t Vance prayed to be translated in the Rapture? How would we go on without him? Even Vance’s wife was momentarily knocked off kilter. Then she realized, the Dead in Christ are raptured too. “They rise first and then we which are alive join them in the air to meet Christ,” she explained to her children, showing them the scripture found in 1st Thessalonians.

  His death had been a wake up call for the entire family and also, for many of their Christian friends and agnostic extended family. Over the last several weeks, Kate had wondered how she would have reacted to the disasters befalling the world at the present time if she hadn’t first learned her lessons of trusting God after her father passed away. At that time of his death, she had begun to recalibrate the faith of her childhood. Her trip to South Africa had come out of that period of reassessment. Kate recognized, she was still processing those lessons of making her faith genuine.

  Wednesday August 8th

  This is an interesting crew... Mac and Merry seem to be happy but I have my eye on them.

  Merry didn’t have a boyfriend back in March. She never once mentioned this guy and we talked several times a week. And now she is married? I have to wonder if she didn’t marry him out of necessity or convenience or even fear because of the horrible stuff happening... People do whatever they have to when survival is the main concern, I suppose.

  The other crew members include the cousins, Tino (very cute and smart but too young for me) and the indefatigable Junior; Zeff from Mexico City and the silly pooch, Coco!

  Zeff Zeferano is handsome, too. He is about my age - slightly older and is fluent in both English and Spanish. Unless my discernment button is broken, I think he has seen a lot of the worldly side of life. No one has said so but I’m sure his family is wealthy as his body language exudes confidence and snobbishness... He probably doesn’t know it though!

  As for Merry’s Mac... He seems like a nice enough guy - very capable. He is a new Christian and to his credit he has been having Bible Studies every night before dinner. Oops! Dinner is done...

  Kate watched Mac as he taught and she listened to his accented explanations. She noticed his teaching was fresh and anointed. In the 18 hours since she met Mac, Kate found no fault in him or their marriage.

  The timer from the galley bing-binged, letting everyone know dinner was finished. Merry jumped up.

  “I’ll get it. You finish up,” she announced. Kate closed her notebook following Merry down the companionway.

  The galley was warmed by the cooking. Kate liked that. She was done wit
h winter. As the sloop headed north, they would all be done with winter, literally. It would be getting hotter as they drew near the equator.

  Once they were settled about the table and Mac had Junior pray, Mac asked about Kate’s cabin.

  “It’s very cozy, thank you,” she told him. As Merry had said, the cousins took the larger single bed in the forward cabin and Zeff along with Coco moved into the smaller single berth. Kate moved from the settee to Junior’s cabin that was aft of Zeff’s.

  After dinner, Kate was washing dishes and Merry was organizing for the morning meal. In the adjoining room, Zeff lay with Coco asleep on his chest. His long body stretched out on the settee; his feet protruding beyond the armrest and his right arm hanging down to the floorboards. He had night watch so he would be needed above decks soon enough.

  Kate asked Merry about Mac.

  Merry replied, “Coco, it’s really strange. I was just going along trying to keep my head above water after Albuquerque and Los Alamos took those hits. It was bad. I had the girls from the halfway house looking to me for directions and also, an elderly neighbor who didn’t have anywhere to go and then there was Patsy...! Thank God for Patsy!”

  Kate grinned widely at the thought of Patsy Sena. She was like an aunt to the Merriweather children. She had become a Christian out of the Santa Fe barrio about the time her parents had become Christians and they attended the same church together for over 30 years.

  “She became a mother hen watching over us. Praying for us,” Merry told Kate. “We were both over our heads and we knew it. Mac was there; unsaved and ruthless in his endeavors to keep us protected, fed and housed during the aftermath of the attacks. He took over an old folks home and I’m telling you Kate, if Patsy and I were going to bail out, that would have been the time,” Merry laughed at her sister’s response.

  “An old folk’s home? You’re kidding? Didn’t someone try to stop you... I mean, that’s brutal!” Kate responded as she tried to grasp why Merry thought it amusing.

  “Nope! According to Mac we needed a place that was defensible. He thought we would be better roommates to the elderly than a bunch of hoodlums, ransacking the place. Mac knows more about war than Napoleon,” Merry gushed.

  It was Kate’s turn to laugh. “Well, let’s hope so! Napoleon eventually lost!”

  “Oh, you know what I mean! Anyway, by the time we had to separate from the larger group who were leaving for a ranch up by Colorado, I don’t know, I just knew that Mac was him,” Merry confided. “Judge Biggs from the old folk’s home married us. Mac is the guy God ordained for me to be with or vice versa... I was divinely designated for him.”

  “Hmmm, is that how it works? I don’t read that in the Bible,” Kate retorted.

  Merry hopped up on the counter as Kate dried and stowed the dinner dishes. “You know Coco, don’t take this wrong but don’t go falling for any of the guys on this boat. Okay?”

  “What? You little monkey! How am I supposed to take that?” Kate began but then she saw the puppy stir and look over at them with her ears up, at Kate’s raised voice. The elder sister motioned to Merry indicating Zeff who was lying just a dozen feet from them in the salon.

  “Don’t worry. He speaks very limited English and I think he’s asleep,” Merry told her. But he wasn’t.

  Kate had thought his English exceptional but she nodded. “You’re offending me, little sister. I have no intentions of falling in love with anyone on this boat... Come on! You’re married to the captain so who else is there?”

  Merry said, “Kate, you are always falling in love and out of love with someone. Mac and I are praying for these guys so please, watch it... Just leave them be.”

  “You know very well, I have never fallen in love with anyone... Infatuation is not love!” Kate said and using the damp twisted dish towel, she snapped Merry’s leg. Merry grimaced and shifted while shushing Kate.

  “The problem is my dear Coco, the guys fall for you too and guys that are not Christians aren’t usually thinking about a real relationship. Tino and Zeff are not Christians,” Merry emphasized.

  Kate was getting angry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m 29 and I’m still a virgin. I haven’t been falling in and out of love. I have never fallen in love! Attraction and companionship and things like that... Anyway, I won’t be flirting with these guys, okay,” Kate said but added before throwing the wet dish towel aside and going up the companionway, “Little sisters aren’t what they used to be!”

  Zeff lay there wide awake. He had heard everything. The sisters were not like any American women he had met at college or anywhere else. He knew lots of religious girls too; his parents had set him up with at least a dozen before giving up on him but none of them were like these two. Twenty-nine and still a virgin? Zeff had not thought that possible. He didn’t know any virgins older than perhaps 18 years of age at the very eldest. The Merriweather sisters were far from ugly.

  They were different. Mac had said at one of his mandatory Bible studies that Christians were different from God’s chosen, the Jews and they were different from the unchosen, the Gentiles. Christians were a new creation because of their born-again experience. They were changed... different, new creatures.

  It is a strange religion that Mac is promoting, Zeff concluded. He waited until Merry turned the light out and went to her cabin before shifting from his spot to go above decks.

  Chapter 9 Strange Night - Strange Sight

  “Saint Hell-in-a? Where the hell-in-a is that?” Kate asked when Merry informed her that they would be making a stop there.

  Merry shook her head at Kate’s response but she teased, “You’re the one that knows so much about Napoleon, Coco! Remember?”

  “The only thing I know about Napoleon is that he was French and short... And I am not really attracted to men who are either... Oh, yes! It’s pronounced Saint He-LEE-na. Napoleon was exiled on St Helena. We’re going there?” Kate did her victory dance as Merry watched.

  Merry sighed. “Yes, but some people never grow up,” she said.

  “True. Peter Pan and me, forever young!” Kate retorted. Kate had peeled a South African naranje which is a small tangerine but sweeter. She gave Merry half.

  Merry said, “Mac told me the D’Almatan sailors always stop either at St Helena or the Cape Verde Islands or both. They trade and keep their connections with the local merchants open.”

  Their fresh water supply was not yet at the halfway point but Mac liked to keep his boats well stocked; water, fuel and food were the essentials.

  It was late when Kate came up the companionway. Her tiny cabin had been stuffy but above decks the air was cool; the breeze was delightfully warm. She had very few summer clothes with her, knowing South Africa would be in pre-winter during her visit. Her other luggage had been shipped to D’Almata before she left Flagstaff. Kate wore a long sleeve sports shirt that had been selected for her safari trip.

  “Oh!” she said involuntarily when she turned and saw the lights of the Jamestown Harbour. It had been so dark the last few days with a sliver of a moon and then no moon at all. She shifted her focus to Zeff who sat at the helm. He had given a grunt when he heard her exclamation.

  Going up the steps to the pilot’s station, Kate greeted him with a “hola.”

  Zeff smiled at her effort. “Hello. How are you tonight, Merry’s sister?” he said modifying his near perfect English to sound stilted.

  “I’m well, thanks. And how are you? Como esta?” Kate said.

  He smiled again but she couldn’t see him in the dim lighting of the deck lights. “I’m well, tambien,” he replied. He said in Spanish, “It is late. See those lights? It is Santa Helena. Tomorrow we will go ashore.”

  Kate understood much more Spanish than she spoke. She studied Spanish in college but most of her interaction with the language came from her business. She knew a lot of medical and dental terminology in Spanish and so, she answered in English, “Yes, my sister told me. Captain Mac stops here frequen
tly when he sails along the African coast. He trades and buys the Saints coffee as it is highly valued on D’Almata. Sabe?”

  “Yes,” he said with a grin. “My English is actually very good,” he added in Spanish and then he repeated the phrase in articulate English.

  Kate had been looking forward but now she looked sideways at Zeff. “Yes, apparently it is. You’ve been practicing with the boys?”

  “Something like that,” Zeff replied.

  Kate was silent. She didn’t know how to process Zeff’s disclosure after Merry’s description of his linguistic limitations. The lights on shore although several miles in the distance, were mesmerizing. They looked like Christmas lights strung up the side of the mountain.

  Kate said tentatively, “So what happened the night Mac pulled you from the bay?” The swell was small but she grabbed the rail in front of her that encircled the control board to keep her balance.

  “Here, sit down,” Zeff told her. There were two seats at the helm. Kate sat as he answered.

  “My family lives in Mexico City but I was visiting Puerto Vallarta that week,” he said in English. In Spanish, Zeff said, “I got very drunk and I was jumped but I don’t remember much else.”

  Kate asked, “Did they steal your wallet or were they just looking for a fight?”

  Zeff chuckled. He had tried many times to conjure up from his memory what had happened. They hadn’t taken his wallet. It was soggy and a mess but still in the pocket of his jeans the next day. His crucifix was missing and his hat but not his wallet. There wasn’t any money in it but considering he had spent all he had at the cantina, that fact was understandable. His father and his brothers had been extremely angry with him. Zeff had gone from being the family pet to the black sheep but he was sure that his family had not been behind the assault. Not his immediate family but possibly the extended members. On the other hand, his father’s business associates had been known for irrevocably violent rebukes. He wouldn’t put it past them to target Zeff as an example and warning.