Persecution: God's Other Children. Book 2

by Rob Mclean

  But John had hardly heard her. He knew what he had to do. He let go of Maddie and went back outside, ignoring his mother’s demands, to find Jarred.

  “Hey bro’, I need to find that geek friend of yours,” John said, then seeing his brother’s confused look, added, “the one from the nightclub. The one who started all this.”

  “You mean Blake?” Jarred scowled. “I told you he’s no friend of mine.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” John waved away his protests. “but I need to find him real soon.”

  Chapter 43

  Angela knew her mother was right. Having thought about it all morning, Angela knew it was her immortal soul her mother was trying to save. To her, that was all that was important.

  “If you don’t marry Zeke, having already given yourself to him, then you are condemning yourself to an eternity in Hell,” Clarice had repeated herself with damning regularity ever since Angela had first gone out with John, only this time, it lacked the disapproving undertones. Now, she said in a conciliatory way, as if she were seeking understanding. “It’s that simple,” she added with a sympathetic shrug.

  Angela didn’t know which irritated her most; her mother’s unusual outbreak of reasonableness, or that it had been her mother’s idea to use John in the first place, or that she was right – again.

  “Now, freshen yourself up, dear,” Clarice said as she cleared away the lunch-time dishes. “He’ll be here soon.”

  “Here?”

  “Yes,” her father confirmed. “Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be, him coming to you?”

  “I guess…” she said although she felt uneasy about the whole thing.

  “Of course it is, dear,” her mother chided lightly. She put her hands on Angela’s shoulders and steered her towards the staircase. “Now, go and get yourself ready.”

  Her mother’s apparent enthusiasm only served to make Angela even more wary. She pondered this as she went up the stairs.

  ‘Does she know something about Zeke? What did they talk about? What did she say to him?’ Angela wondered as she picked out her clothes.

  She briefly considered changing into the lacy, black underwear set with stockings and heels that he liked so much, but then remembered, with a wry grin, that she had reclaimed her virginity from him. While she would miss the intimacy, she would relish the sense of empowerment she imagined she would feel from denying him his ‘needs’. She purposely chose some beige bloomers and mis-matched top instead.

  When she later descended the stairs, she was dressed conservatively in a mid-calf length denim skirt with flats and a buttoned up to the neck white blouse. A red headband with a decorative flower held her finely brushed hair in place. Her mother smiled her approval and promptly fussed about straightening out non-existent creases and flaws.

  From his chair by the window, her father called her over. He took her hand and held it tight. “You are so beautiful,” he said, his face shone with pride, but it sounded tinged with sorrow, as though he feared her loveliness would bring her only anguish. His features twisted and changed as he added, “I hope he does right by you.”

  For a moment she thought her father might be referring to John, hoping that he hadn’t given up on her, but as she followed her father’s gaze out the window, she saw it was Zeke who had pulled up outside. He was standing next to a big new 4x4 talking, on his phone.

  “He’d better,” she frowned, bending down to give her father a kiss on his forehead.

  “Of course he will, dear,” her mother said with such assuredness that Angela felt certain her mother had done some secret deal.

  “Why? What have you said to him?” Angela asked. “What did you two talk about?”

  “Now, dear, don’t be like that. I just reminded him of his duties.”

  “Duties?”

  “Yes, you know, responsibilities.”

  “You mean how we’re all but married in the eyes of God?”

  “Yes, there’s that…”

  “Well, I’ve been telling him that for ages now.”

  “Yes, well…” Clarice paused and frowned thoughtfully.

  “And?” Angela felt her rising irritation overtaking her suspicion and wariness.

  “I told him how you haven’t been yourself lately – all that carry on with that security man…”

  “What do you mean – not myself?”

  “Well, I may have let him believe that you might be pregnant.”

  “Pregnant? I’m not pregnant! How dare you tell him that. It’s a lie.”

  “Now, I know you’re not, but…”

  “But what?”

  “You could have been.”

  “I can’t believe you’d lie like this.”

  “With all that you two have been up to, you could have gotten yourself pregnant at any time. It’s only by the good Grace of God that you’ve not fallen pregnant already.”

  Angela met her mother’s admonishment with a sullen stare. “But I’m not pregnant.”

  “We know dear,” her father said gently. “Your mother does have a point though. As soon as you have that sort of relationship, you have to be prepared that you might become a parent.”

  “Yes,” Clarice added quickly, “he had a duty to you.”

  “But I can’t tell him I’m pregnant. I can’t tell an outright lie like that.”

  “We thought you might be able to tell him that you only thought you might have been pregnant,” her father said, then with a look to Clarice, added, “and when your silly mother found out, she got all excited and ran to tell Zeke, on account of you not talking to him.”

  Clarice gave him a brief faux frown that Angela could see lacked any real hostility. “That’s right,” Clarice turned back and smiled at Angela, “you can always blame your silly, old mother.”

  “But I’m not pregnant,” she repeated with a rising shrillness. “That’ll become pretty obvious soon enough.”

  “Now, dear,” Clarice said gently, spelling out something obvious, “You can always tell him you’ve lost it.”

  “Yeah,” her father added with uncharacteristic venom, “then blame him for all the stress that caused you to lose it.”

  He turned away to look out the window again, but Angela saw her mother flinch at his words and knew it wasn’t to check on what Zeke was doing.

  “I can’t believe you – both. I don’t want him to be with me out of some false sense of duty. He has to be with me because he loves me.”

  “I’m sure he does, dear,” her mother said gently, blinking back tears. “He just needs reminding.”

  “He’s finished on his phone,” her father said, still looking out the window at Zeke.

  “I’ll save you both the trouble of having to talk with him,” she said heading for the front door.

  Her father nodded and smiled, but her mother asked, “Aren’t you going to let us see him?”

  “Don’t think so,” Angela replied as she opened the door. “Maybe next time.”

  ‘If there is a next time,’ she added quietly to herself.

  Zeke had parked his scaled down monster truck in the driveway. It was new, in that it wasn’t the thing he was driving last time she was with him. It was a matt grey pick-up truck with huge, chunky tyres, a row of floodlights on the roof and a Superman logo in the middle of the front grille. It looked about as military as a civilian could legally drive. All it lacked was the roof-mounted, anti-aircraft gun. Had he needed to go out and buy something like this to make up for not having her? She smiled at the thought.

  Zeke was swiping his phone as he rounded the golden elm trees towards the driveway. He almost walked into Angela as she stood in his path.

  “Oh, hey,” he said looking up from his phone. He gave her a triumphant grin that quickly twisted into a voracious smile, making it clear at least part of him had missed her. He was wearing a familiar surf print t-shirt she had given him for his last birthday. It now hung loosely, showing how much weight he had lost. He matched it with ripped jeans and skate
shoes and still managed to look rakishly cool.

  “Hey, yourself.” She stood with her arms folded across her chest, not sure how to handle the situation.

  Zeke sidled up close to her, wrapped an arm around her waist and moved in to kiss her. She instinctively turned her head and it landed on her cheek.

  “Yeah, nice to see you too,” he said, pulling back. His smile faded as he slipped his phone into his jeans pocket.

  “What’s my mother been saying?”

  Zeke glanced up at the house. Angela could see the outline of her parents at one of the windows.

  “Not here,” Zeke said, pointing his keys at his car.

  Angela huffed, but walked, with her arms still crossed to his car. Zeke uncharacteristically held the door open for her, which earned him another huff.

  “Where to?” he asked after he had started the car.

  “I don’t want to go anywhere,” Angela said, summoning an inner firmness, “until we’ve talked.” Her eyes narrowed. “So you may as well turn the engine off ‘til then.”

  “We’ll just grab a coffee, okay?” He gave her a boyish grin as he started to drive off.

  Angela reached across and with a grunt, yanked the hand-brake on hard. The truck jerked to a sudden stop in the middle of the road.

  “What the hell?” Zeke barked. “Don’t you touch my truck.”

  “Don’t you ignore me.”

  “I…” Zeke’s brow crinkled as he frowned. He studied her as though she were an alien doppelganger. “I just thought we could talk over coffee.”

  “I said I didn’t want to go anywhere until we’ve talked.” Angela felt herself relaxing a little. Control of the situation brought a sense of satisfied calm. “But you could have asked first.”

  “Okay,” Zeke shook his head. “You sure have changed.”

  “Maybe I have,” Angela caught an impression of the demon woman in yellow flowing robes. She was radiating her approval. Was that a good thing?

  “Is that what it does to you?”

  “What?”

  “Being preggers? Does it stuff up all your hormones, make you all Ms. Grumpy Pants.” Zeke rolled his eyes. “I thought PMT was bad enough…”

  “Ignoring me will do that just fine,” Angela snapped, but a stab of guilt ripped at her soul. By not correcting his misconception, she could so easily let him continue to be deceived. But maybe that was what he needed to treat her right?

  “Sorry,” Zeke said.” I just thought we could talk over a coffee. You can still drink coffee, can’t you?”

  “Yes,” Angela answered, feeling the burden of untruth growing as Zeke checked his mirrors and pulled out into the street. She knew she couldn’t keep up the deception even if she wanted to. She couldn’t understand how her mother ever came up with such a suggestion, let alone ask her to live with it.

  She didn’t want to trap Zeke like this. He should want to be with her out of genuine love, not forced to through guilt or obligation. Still, it did make her feel kind of special the way he was now treating her.

  “Like the new truck?” Zeke asked. “Isn’t it cool?”

  “Um, yeah, I guess.” Angela noticed all the electronic gadgetry for the first time. It was lit up like the cockpit of a fighter jet.

  “Got CB and shortwave radio, plus satellite phone, heads-up display and, of course, top-speed internet.”

  “Bit hard to park?”

  “Nah, it’s all hands free,” Zeke said proudly. She didn’t want to think how much his new toy would have cost, or why he thought he needed it all.

  “And, I’m sure there’s an anchor bolt back there somewhere,” the same boyish grin returned as Zeke patted her on her knee, “you know, for the baby capsule.”

  Angela stared at him as he drove. This was not like the Zeke she had known. Had the prospect of being a father suddenly made him grow up? Or had her mother been right about dating John making him realise what he was going to lose? Either way, she preferred the new version.

  Zeke turned to look for some sort of response, then noticing her intensity asked, “What?”

  “Nothing,” Angela shook her head. She made her mind up to tell him the truth, but wondered if she should wait until they were in a public place, in case he didn’t take it too well.

  “You okay?” Zeke asked, glancing at her between watching the traffic.

  “Look, I have to tell you – you’ve got the wrong idea, from my mother…”

  “What?”

  “I’m not pregnant, okay?”

  Zeke took his eyes off the road to scrutinise her. “What are you talking about?” His voice took on a familiar darker tone.

  “I was a bit late.” Angela hated the lies, but ultimately the truth, however tortuous, she reminded herself was best.

  Zeke drove in stoic silence.

  “Maybe it was the stress of everything that’s been going on…”

  “The stress of a new boyfriend,” he said, pulling into a small shopping centre. He looked around for a parking spot.

  “Whatever,” she said icily, as she felt the relationship slipping back into old patterns. “Anyway, my mother naturally assumed I must be pregnant.”

  “And didn’t waste a minute to tell my parents all about it,” he said as he pulled into a parking spot.

  “I guess she felt you should know.”

  Zeke turned off the engine and started to undo his seat-belt.

  “Are we there?” Angela asked. She couldn’t see a coffee shop from where they had parked.

  “Well, I’m glad you came clean,” he pointed out a druggist store, “cause that’s where we were going – to get a home pregnancy kit.”

  Angela felt her face flush, whether through the guilt of lying or anger at not being believed, she couldn’t tell, her emotions swirled about in a heady rush.

  “And if that had scored a home run, then some sort of paternity testing was going to be next.” Zeke’s smug smile invited a slap.

  “Not my idea,” he continued, happily oblivious to Angela’s irritation. “I, of course, believed every word of it. After all, we have been, um, intimate, until just recently and since you had that ‘celibacy vow’ with that rock-ape, naturally it couldn’t be him, could it?”

  As she met his stare, Angela could see the insecurity behind his feigned mask of aloofness.

  “No,” she said quietly but with firmness. “We only ever…”

  “Don’t,” Zeke cut her off abruptly. “I don’t want to know.”

  “Okay, but nothing happened.” A pang of regret tinted the hostility she was feeling.

  “Yeah, sure,” He gave her a look that made it clear that he didn’t believe her. “Anyway it was my parents who insisted on all the testing,” Zeke said as he undid his seat-belt. He climbed out and shut his door with energy.

  “I’m sure it was,” Angela said to herself, while she waited for him to open her door.

  Zeke had strode a few metres away before he realised that Angela was still in the truck. He scowled briefly before he came back to open her door.

  “If you’re not pregnant, can’t you open your door yourself?”

  “Of course I could,” Angela put a lightness in her voice that belied her dark mood. “But that would take away your chance to show me what a gentleman you are.”

  Her false smile made Zeke’s scowl deepen as he opened her door.

  They walked in silence while Zeke led them to the franchised coffee shop, a bland but familiar replication like thousands of its brethren. She felt that, like her relationship with Zeke, it was nothing special, but then she chided herself for being too negative. She could hardly hope to have a happy marriage with such a gloomy headset from the start.

  They ordered and took their number to a booth.

  They sat in silence. Zeke splashed his keys onto the table with a loud metallic jangle and sat himself so he had a good view of the whole place. Angela watched as he checked out everyone as they came and went; everyone but her.

  She
groaned inwardly. She hated to have to bring up the subject, but as Zeke absently played with his keys while he scanned the patrons, she could see he wasn’t about to start any meaningful discussions about their future anytime soon.

  “So,” Angela said by way of getting his attention.

  “So what?” He dragged his eyes to her.

  “So, where does this leave us now?” Angela asked, absently toying with a sugar sachet.

  “What do you mean?” he said, looking over her shoulder. “The rock ape’s gone, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah…”

  “And you’re here,” he shrugged, “back with me.”

  ‘Just like that,’ Angela thought. With all the stuff that had happened, still nothing had changed between them. She still wasn’t any closer to her dream of getting her perfect husband and living a happy life. With a rueful twist of her lips, she saw that her dream had soured.

  “Look,” Zeke said. He took her hands in his. An earnest look creased his face. “I stuffed up, okay?”

  Angela said nothing. She had never heard him admit a mistake before, at least not to her. She didn’t know what to say.

  “Losing you really messed me up. I guess that’s what it took for me to see it.”

  Angela still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had her mother been right again? Had using John, like she did to get Zeke’s attention, finally motivated him to act?

  “I was kinda taking you for granted,” he continued.

  “Uh huh,” Angela ventured, not wanting to interrupt.

  “I don’t know what I was thinking, you know, the night the AntiChrist arrived. I guess I thought it was the end of the world – and in a way it was. I mean, we all thought it was a real alien spaceship – everyone, even me.”

  “Yeah, but…” Angela wanted to ask how that was relevant, but didn’t get a chance.

  “‘Cause if it was…” Zeke shook his head, “then everything in the Bible would be wrong, wouldn’t it?”

  Angela frowned. She didn’t agree, but couldn’t exactly say why.

  “I mean, we – humans - are God’s children, His only children. He doesn’t have any other. We’re created in His image. There’s nothing else but us, mankind. Everything else’s a lie.