by Rob Mclean
“I don’t see it as being so bad.”
“Why should I sacrifice my freedom to please the heathens?”
Pastor Greg was tempted to remind Zeke of the real sacrifice Jesus had made, instead he said, “It could be a lot worse.”
“Yeah, at least they’re letting us keep our religion – for now,” Zeke sneered.
“At times like this I think it’s best to ask yourself – what would Jesus do?” Pastor Greg asked. “I think he would look after his people and I think the best way of doing that is for us to move to a righteous area.”
“What? No way am I moving anywhere.”
“I intend to talk to everyone about this in today’s sermon along the theme of turning the other cheek.”
“But Jesus threw the traders from the temple. His wrath was righteous then.” Zeke jabbed his finger towards the Pastor’s chest as he spoke, then stabbed his thumb into his own as he added, “As mine is now.”
A worried look crossed the Pastor’s face as he remembered that Zeke had been arrested before for his protesting. “I hope you’re not thinking of doing something rash.”
“Only what needs to be done.”
The Pastor put his hand on Zeke’s arm. “Vengeance is mine-sayeth the Lord, remember?”
“Ephesus 6:12, if we’re quoting scripture.” Zeke crossed his arms and waited for the Pastor to recall the passage.
“For we do not battle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Pastor Greg quoted.
“That’s not too bad,” Zeke raised his eyebrows and nodded in appreciation, “for an old Pastor.”
“Actually it’s going to be part of the theme of today’s sermon too.”
“So you agree this alien is definitely the AntiChrist?”
“I had my doubts at first, but not now.”
“It’s all like it says in the Bible,” Zeke spoke loud enough to turn nearby heads. “He’s messing with our minds, making us think he’s this wonderful, magnanimous, caring being that’s just here to help, but really he’s turned us against each other.”
“That’s how he works…”
“There’s probably not even a spaceship there over Beijing. It’s probably some mass mind trick…” Zeke’s voice fell away. “How can you fight that?”
“You can’t,” Pastor Greg said loudly enough for the onlookers to hear, “except through faith in God.”
“No, I don’t agree,” Zeke spoke to the people nearby who were listening as much as to the Pastor. “We can’t just hope and pray that we’ll wake up one day and it’ll all have gone away. Someone has to do something.”
Pastor Greg felt he was losing patience with this angry young man. “And what can you, a mortal human, do against Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness?”
“Nothing. Not without the Lord’s help.” A smug grin appeared on Zeke’s face. “And we know that the Lord helps those who help themselves.”
“You sound like you’re going to get yourself in trouble.”
“You know Pastor, I’ve been meeting with people from other faiths about this, and you know, this Muslim guy thinks jihad is the only way.”
“But Islam calls for your sons to be martyred in the fight for God,” Pastor Greg said, “but with Christianity, God sacrificed His only son to save us all.”
“Yeah, I know, I know. I’m not saying I totally agree with him, but he does have a point. I don’t see how this AntiChrist can be defeated by wishful thinking alone.”
“But we don’t have to,” Angela stepped forward from the crowd of onlookers. “God battles for us. We just have to keep our faith.”
Zeke scowled at her and turned away.
“He’s coming to L.A.,” Zeke called out loudly for the whole congregation to hear. “Anyone who wants to help, well, you know where to find me.”
He then strode out of the church, leaving behind a babble of dismayed voices.
Chapter 30
John stretched as the lights came back on after the sermon.
He turned to Maddie, on his right, who had sat; wide-eyed and open-mouthed through the whole service between himself and Angela. He wondered what his little sister had made of the whole thing.
“I like the bits when we sing,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “But the bit when he talked wasn’t so good.”
John leaned in and whispered loudly to Angela. “Can’t argue with that.”
Angela rolled her eyes and shoved him away. “We all know how you like to sing.” Then to Maddie, “Are you glad you came?”
“Oh yes,” she said, bouncing in her seat. “Everyone’s so nice. I like it here.”
That was true, thought John. All of Angela’s friends and even her mother had made a big fuss of John’s little sister. Partly it was good to see someone new, but also, maybe being a bit simple, Maddie had brought out their caring nature. That and that she was such a cute kid. Being so open with her feelings and thoughts could get a lot of people into trouble, but with Maddie, it was all good.
“You’re always welcome here, Maddie,” Angela said with a quick look to John, who frowned.
Both his mother and David had still been sleeping when he came to take Maddie. Too early on a Sunday morning for them to be awake, so he left a note for them. He knew his mother would like the respite from looking after Maddie. He was also pretty sure that when she found out they had been to church, there’d be all Hell to pay. She would find out because Maddie couldn’t be relied on to keep a secret.
“Can we come again?” Maddie asked Angela, then looked to John.
“We’ll see,” John patted Maddie on her shoulder, knowing he couldn’t promise anything.
More concerning was the news the pastor had delivered during his sermon about Chelsea’s bookshop having been targeted again. He had urged restraint and reminded everyone it was just the start of the difficult times to come.
“So what was all that about your shop being attacked?” John couldn’t help sounding terse. “You didn’t think that was something I should know about?”
Angela gave him a long, appraising look. She hadn’t heard that tone from him before. “Someone tagged the shopfront again…”
“And smashed the windows,” her mother put in, then muttered, “This town’s going to the dogs.”
“I was going to tell you, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter? What if they came during shop hours?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Angela’s voice became firmer, “because they’re selling the shop.”
“The business you mean?”
“No-one will buy the business, not now, not after the vote,” Angela shrugged. “They’ll write off the business and sell the building.”
“But what about your job?”
“More importantly,” Angela’s father interjected with a wavering finger from his wheelchair in the aisle “is what about this church?”
“Huh?” John was momentarily confused. How was the church more important than her job? But then he remembered who he was talking with. To these people, a job could be found anywhere, but a church was the central part of their lives.
“I mean,” Geoff spelt it out, “where will this church be going?”
“You mean moving?” Angela looked as though she was considering the possibility for the first time.
“You heard him, didn’t you,” Clarice pointed to the pulpit. “If this church has to move to the other side of the city, well… I don’t know how we’re going to manage.”
“We might have to find another one closer to home,” Angela suggested with a frown.
“I don’t want to leave this church,” Clarice matched Angela’s frown. “Not after all this time.”
“You realise that it might be relocated further away than that?” John said.
“Further?” Clarice’s face fell. “What are you saying?”
“All I kno
w is that there aren’t many parts of this city that voted against the alien’s offer.” John looked genuinely apologetic. People in L.A. had treated the result of the referendum as a licence to party. Many had seen the rejection of religion as a reaffirmation of the beliefs they had long held, but hadn’t been able to prove; that religion was the way the tyrannical moral minority oppressed everyone’s base desires. Since the vote, they had been celebrating like it was the liberation of Europe after W.W.2. It was no wonder the bookshop had been targeted.
“You might find,” John said, “that this church might have to move to another county or even interstate.”
“There must be some churches that will be left somewhere in L.A., wouldn’t there?” Angela asked. “Maybe we could go to one of those?”
“We’ll have to wait and see what Pastor Greg and the church elders decide to do,” Geoffrey said.
“Besides,” Clarice added, “in the end it might be better if we were to move away. If this city rejects God, then I don’t think it would be safe to be here.” She gave them all a knowing look. “You know what happened in the Bible when people rejected God before.”
“Yes mom,” Angela said for John and Maddie’s benefit. “He flooded the whole world.”
“But why would He do that?” Maddie asked, her face screwed up in confusion.
“Because He was angry, dear,” Clarice said as she laid a hand on Maddie’s shoulder. “And He’ll be angry again real soon. Just you wait and see.”
“All I know,” John ignored Clarice’s dire predictions, “is that there’s a list of churches and such that have done deals with places in other parts of the country. They’ll move to places that voted against the alien and there’s folks there who’ll move here.”
"Sheep and goats,” Angela said.
“And we’re in a city full to the brim with goats,” Geoff added. “Looks like time we moved the farm.”
There was a moment’s silence as they all thought about the implications and logistics of moving.
Maddie broke their reverie. “Do you have a farm?” she asked hopefully.
“No,” Angela smiled as she gave Maddie a one armed side-hug. “But we might end up on one if we move.”
Clarice asked John, “How do you know about this list?”
“It’s a work thing,” was all John wanted to say. He had seen the e-mails from head office. His company, BlackSky had been contracted ‘To assist the New United Nations government with the relocation of persons opposing the acquisition of properties within their mandate.’
“And you don’t know if this church is on that list?” Geoff asked.
“Haven’t seen it yet,” John shook his head, but he had no doubts that it would be, “Once a deal is done, it’ll appear.”
“And then what?” Angela asked. She had a fair idea why John’s security company was involved and John couldn’t miss the edge to her voice.
“And then we, BlackSky, make sure the handover goes smoothly.”
“You mean that you evict anyone who doesn’t want to move on.” Angela’s eyes narrowed.
“Pretty much,” John shrugged. “They’d be trespassing once the swap deal is signed.”
“Just doing your job, right?” Angela shook her head. John heard the disappointment in her voice.
“I don’t make the rules,” he shrugged. “I just have to pay the bills.”
“That’s just what they said as they rounded up the Jews in Nazi Germany,” Clarice added with a sneer.
“Hey, what am I supposed to do? Quit my job and join Zeke handing out flowers at the protests?” John looked to Angela for support, but she pressed her lips tight and said nothing.
“At least that boy has some morals,” Clarice replied. “He knows to do the right thing.”
“Come on now,” Geoff put a restraining hand on his wife’s arm. “Give the guy a break. He’s just trying to put the bread on the table. He’s got a job to do. Nobody says he’s enjoying it.”
Neither Clarice nor Angela said anything, but Clarice gave John a look that would strip paint.
“I don’t think I’ll be real happy about that part of the job. Not since coming here and meeting real church-goers…” He reached out and took Angela’s hand. “Especially not since meeting you.”
John saw her features soften slightly. She was clearly upset at the whole situation, but couldn’t she see that he was just as much caught up in all this as she was? Couldn’t she see that, for him, there were no easy choices to be made?
She sighed and pursed her lips. “See how you feel,” Angela said, taking Maddie’s hand and pushing her way past her parents, “when it’s time to evict us from this place.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Geoff said as he fumbled with the wheel locks. Clarice took off after her daughter, leaving John to help Geoff.
“Don’t worry ‘bout them, son,” Geoff wheezed between laboured breaths as they watched the women disappear.
John saw that the oxygen line had fallen from the old man’s face. He laced it back over his ears and under his nose. John watched the colour return to his face as Angela, Maddie and Clarice marched away up the aisle.
“You know,” John said to Geoff as he wheeled him up the aisle, “I could set up some security cameras at the shop. They might think twice before they do it again, or we might even catch them.”
“Yeah, I know where you’re coming from,” Geoff said without turning around. “You could talk to Chelsea about that. Or Zeke. They might appreciate your help.”
John grunted dismissively. He couldn’t see that happening.
“I wouldn’t worry ‘bout the shop,” Geoff waved away his concerns. “They’ll tell you they have the best protection there is – God’s protection.” This time he did turn around to grin. “Besides, I think our Angela won’t be there much longer.”
John would have liked to ask him more, but they had caught up with the rest of the family. Angela was talking to one of Zeke’s friends from the band, the kid with the loose, hanging lips and the dribble problem, Goober. John couldn’t remember his real name.
“Hey, I’m John,” he said stepping up and offering his hand. “We met the other week in the toilets.”
“Oh hey, yeah, I remember,” he said, taking John’s hand in a clammy clasp.
“You’ve met Curtis?” Angela asked, using the kid’s name, much to John’s relief.
“Yeah,” John slid his hand around Angela’s waist. “And the rest of the band, Zeke, Aaron and some other gangly guy with frizzy red hair.”
“That’d be Lochie,” Curtis said. His eyes were fixed on John’s hand resting on Angela’s hip. “Hey, are you two together?”
“Uh huh,” John nodded. He noticed Angela had said nothing.
“But what about Zeke…?” Curtis wrinkled his nose as he frowned. He turned to Angela. “Weren’t you…?”
John could feel Angela writhe beneath his arm as she struggled to answer the question.
“Not anymore,” John intervened with a grin. “It looks like his ‘try before you buy’ offer expired.”
John felt Angela’s body stiffen and pull away.
“Pardon me?” Her expression was thunderous. He saw a ring of shocked faces looking from Angela to him and back to Angela again. John realised he had the wrong audience for that sort of joke.
“Well, um… he did try going out with you.” John mentally fumbled for an out. “And that didn’t work, did it?” He gave her a sheepish grin, hoping to pass it off as a lame joke, but he could see by the mixture of anger and hurt in her eyes that it wasn’t working.
Angela said nothing. She just pressed her lips together, as if to stop herself from saying something hurtful, and turned away.
“Aw, come on,” John pleaded to her back, “it was just a joke.”
Her mother muttered something, but the only words he caught were ‘expect’ and ‘disgraceful’ before she followed her daughter.
John shrugged a silent question to Geo
ff, but all he said was, “Son, we don’t make jokes ‘bout things like that.” He shook his head. “Not about those we’re supposed to care for.”
“Oh, shit.” John went to rush after her, but then remembered that he had left Geoff behind.
“What’s the matter?” Maddie asked amid all the rush.
“Nothing,” John said, then with a look to Geoff, he added. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Where has Angela gone?” Maddie asked.
“Hey,” Curtis said in a low voice, “I don’t see what the problem is. It’s like everyone knew what they were up to. It wasn’t, you know, like Zeke kept it all a big secret.”
John growled as he grabbed Maddie’s hand in one hand and pushed Geoff’s wheelchair with the other.
“Thank you Curtis,” Geoff said dryly as they left. “That makes us all feel so much better.”
“That’s okay Mr White,” Curtis said with a bright smile. “See you later then.”
“I like him,” Maddie said, looking back over her shoulder. “He’s nice.”
“Yeah, sure.” John had no doubt that if Curtis didn’t report their little spat back to Zeke, then some other nosey, eavesdropping onlooker would.
They pushed their way past the few people that were left. Geoff made cursory greetings as he was whisked past. They made it to the reception area just in time to see Angela and her mother disappear out the front doors to the car park.
“Hold it, son,” Geoff held up his hand for them to stop. John wanted to catch up with them, but it was clear that Geoff wanted to talk to him first.
“Sweetie, why don’t you race ahead and find Angela for us, okay?” Geoff asked Maddie. Her face lit up and she took off on her mission.
“But…” John didn’t like to let his little sister go anywhere without him.
“Relax,” Geoff said. “She’ll be fine. We’re in a church.”
John let the comment pass while he watched his little sister dash out the front doors.
“Now look,” Geoff lowered his voice and John responded by leaning in closer. “You know that we know what our Angela got up to with her nice Christian boyfriend.” He looked about, checking that no-one else was listening. “As does everyone else here, especially after his sweet mother’s outburst the other week…”