Persecution: God's Other Children. Book 2

by Rob Mclean

  “No,” John said, “you’re perfectly beautiful.”

  “I know,” the woman in yellow blessed him with a glowing smile that surged from within him. “But she doesn’t.”

  There were also the fears, wraith-like mists that clouded her mind; that he would not find her attractive, that her insanely strict mother and her sick and dying father might put him off, or that her friends were not interesting enough.

  He brushed these aside, truthfully dismissing them as not important. There was also the worry about his monstrous mother and step-father. In her mind, his boss, Eloise, was represented as a wonton whore who was manipulating her way into John’s affections.

  He acknowledged these as real, but countered with his happy memories of his mother, how confident he felt David had changed and how he really felt about Eloise. Yes, she was attractive on a physical level, but her soul was cold and selfish. He could never be happy with her, not like he hoped to be with Angela.

  “When a man and woman marry, they are to be as one,” the woman in yellow said. John had heard it before, but now he felt the rightness of it resonate deep in his soul. Not just sharing a bed, or a house and mortgage, but sharing everything; their very souls, their minds merged, united in thoughts, independent yet interconnected, open with nothing hidden.

  With that in mind, John turned to face her greatest fear; the fear that he wouldn’t accept Jesus as his saviour. He could see that she couldn’t see herself without Jesus in her life and how important it was that he was on-board with her Christian beliefs.

  “I can’t,” John said with utter honesty.

  “I can see that,” the woman in yellow said without judgement.

  “It just doesn’t make sense…”

  She hushed him with a soothing surge of warmth. “You think too much,” she said.

  “I do, but…”

  “Jesus is love,” she said, the simplicity silenced him. “You love her and she loves you. What more do you need?”

  Relief flowed through John’s soul, along with gratitude for her understanding.

  “So, if you’re ready?”

  “Ready? For what?”

  “To be with Angela, of course.”

  “Yes,” John said without hesitation, “I am.”

  “Good, then I will let you in.”

  *

  John felt the woman in yellow had withdrawn from his mind. It was strangely empty and lonely without her, but then amid the detached, distant, dull discomfort of the plastic arm-rest and the E.R. room noises, he became aware of another presence.

  “Hello?” he ventured.

  “John?” It was Angela’s voice, but it was inside his head, distinctly different from his own internal voice.

  “Yeah, it’s me…”

  “Where are you? What’s happening?” He could hear and feel the rising worry in her voice.

  “Don’t stress, it’s okay…” he tried to send her the same soothing emotions the woman in yellow had sent him, but suddenly the contact was lost. Steel walls slammed down between them and he was left alone, outside her mind.

  He awoke with a jolt. Next to him, Angela was sitting bolt upright.

  “What happened just then?” she demanded.

  “You were dreaming?” John wanted to tell her everything he had just experienced, but her reaction wasn’t exactly receptive at the moment.

  “I was…” her voice trailed off. Her brow creased with the effort of remembering. “I was talking with this really nice older man. He was such a good listener, so patient… I felt I could have talked to him forever.” Her eyes glazed over as she recalled the dream. John felt his skin on the back of his neck prickle and goose-bump. He felt certain she had been talking to his father. Partly he felt spooked, but he also felt a large dose of jealousy.

  “Anyway, he was asking me how I felt about you…”

  “And?”

  “And?” She shot him smile. “That would be telling.”

  “But you told him?”

  “Yes. Like I said, he was a very good listener and it felt good to tell someone. It helped me get things straight in my head.”

  “Let me guess; you told him that I’m not a Christian and that it’s a deal breaker if we were ever to get together?”

  “You already know that.”

  “But then he told you that Jesus is love and since you love me and I love you, then it is all you need, right?”

  She stared at him for a long moment, her eyes wide. “But… how…?” Then her eyes narrowed.

  “But you knew that already, right?” he smiled.

  “Yes,” she said in a small voice while bowing her head as she admitted a long denied truth.

  John put a hand under her chin and lifted her head. He looked into her eyes. “From the moment I first saw you,” he said and kissed her lightly.

  Her gaze slid away. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Sorry?”

  “For… well, everything, I guess.”

  “Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” John said with a grin. “As long as it works out that you and I are together at the end, that’s all that matters.”

  “But…”

  “But what? What else do you need?”

  “I still don’t understand what happened just then, you know, when I was dreaming?” Her eyes narrowed. “You were in my head.”

  “I was dreaming too…” John paused to judge her reaction.

  “And?”

  “In my dream, I was talking with a woman in a golden flowing gossamer dress…”

  “Oh, my… goodness…”

  “You know her?”

  “Well, yes, sort of… She… “Angela frowned and took a calming breath. “I see someone like her in my thoughts sometimes, usually when I’m down and feeling miserable.”

  “She told me she’s your guardian angel.” John studied her face as he spoke. He could see her trying to reconcile this information with her experiences.

  “Guardian angel?” Angela repeated, clearly still having trouble with the concept. “I’ve heard of them, but it doesn’t say angels are assigned to individuals.”

  “Tell her that,” John said with a grin. “She’s a bit of a hard-ass.”

  Angela nodded a wry smile. “Sounds like her.”

  “She takes her job very seriously.”

  “And the old man I was talking to? He’s your guardian angel?”

  John took a moment to think about that. He hadn’t considered that possibility. He had assumed the voice in his head had always been his father looking out for him. In a sense, it was much the same thing.

  “Sounds like my dad,” John said. “I guess it could be the same thing. I hear him every now and then. Usually has pretty good advice.”

  “But, didn’t you say he died?”

  “Well, yeah…”

  “But, how do you know?”

  “Pardon?”

  “I mean, how do you know it’s him? Didn’t he die when you were really young?”

  “Yeah, but I just know it’s him.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “It could be anyone, or anything. You just don’t know.”

  “What do you mean, ‘anything’?”

  “You’re not a Christian…”

  “So?”

  “So, you’ve not got any spiritual protection,” she gave him a pleading look. “I know you don’t believe in any of this, but it says in the Bible that if you dabble in the spiritual, there are bad spirits that can invade your soul.”

  “You’re right, I don’t believe it…”

  “Believe what?” Clarice asked. She had come out of the treatment room without John noticing.

  “Long story,” John said, trying to dismiss her.

  “He talks with his dead father,” Angela reported matter-of-factly.

  John stared at her in disbelief.

  “Well,” Angela said by way of apology, “it’s important.”

  “I’ll say it is,” Clarice added. “You don’t walk in the light
of our Lord and shepherd, so who knows what evil has got a hold on you…”

  John stood. “I’m not someone who goes around judging other people, but…” he pointed at Clarice with a stiff index finger that protruded from his tightly clenched fist.

  A small smug smirk lifted a corner of Clarice’s wizened tight lips as if his anger would only serve to prove her point.

  “You know, I don’t care if it’s my dad or not,” John shrugged to show his indifference. “You’re probably right, it could be the alien visitors, or the Devil himself for all I know – or care. All I know is that I get good advice.”

  “It could be the gift of prophesy?” Angela ventured.

  Her mother scoffed immediately. “He’s not a Christian…”

  “You know,” John deliberately disengaged from Clarice and turned to direct his words to Angela, “From that night I took you home from the club, I wanted to be with you, to share my life with you. I thought we had something happening there…”

  “I…” Angela reached her hand out to him, but he didn’t take it.

  “And I know you thought so too. That connection we just had…” he put his fingers to his temples. “It meant something…”

  “I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it was just a dream?”

  John shook his head. “Your father is a top guy. I like him a lot and I really hope he pulls through, but he’s not going to be around forever.” He threw a glance at Clarice. “And neither is she. One day you’re going to figure out what’s important to you,” John said stepping away.

  “Don’t go…” Angela stood and went to stop him, but her mother held her back with a hand on her shoulder.

  John dug the keys to the car from his pocket. He put them in her hand and wrapped her fingers around them.

  “No, it seems to me that the problem is not my beliefs,” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I’m a Christian or not…”

  “Doesn’t it?” Clarice voice dripped with contempt.

  “No, it’s what she believes.” With a flick of his eyes, John indicated Clarice.

  Angela looked to her mother, who pursed her lips and frowned.

  “You don’t have your phone anymore, but she has my number. So, if you ever decide to be with me, give me a call.” He started to walk away, then called back over his shoulder, “but you’ll have to get it from her.”

  “Well, that certainly won’t be happening,” he heard Clarice say, but he just kept walking.

  Chapter 58

  The day of the Envoy’s visit had arrived without any word from Angela.

  John had not really expected to hear from her, not with the way her mother seemed to control her life, but he had caught himself checking his phone constantly over the last couple of days. Although he tried not to let it show outwardly, every time it showed she hadn’t called, he couldn’t help but feel down about it all.

  In his mind, he kept replaying the conversation he had with the woman in yellow, supposedly Angela’s guardian angel. Her words had filled him with hope at the time that they could be together. Now he wondered what had really happened. Had it been just some weird dream? But she had dreamt the same sort of thing… Had they dreamt together and if so, what did it mean?

  He had given himself to her completely. Committing to the chastity vow had not been easy, but he had hoped it would show her his sincerity. As reluctant as he was to admit it now, Angela had occupied almost every waking thought. By allowing her guardian angel into his mind she had filled his sleeping thoughts as well, but all to no avail as ultimately Angela’s fears had held her back.

  Another wave of bitterness and disappointment threatened to engulf him. Rather than ruminating on the unfairness of it all, or to avoid thinking about it altogether, he brought his mind back to the job at hand.

  BlackSky had been deployed, along with many layers of new governmental security to guard the envoy’s safety as he spoke at the Los Angeles Rose Bowl stadium. It wouldn’t have been John’s choice, if he were head of security. He would have preferred the L.A. Coliseum, but the renovations to accommodate the upsized public had reduced the seating capacity, but more importantly, it had acquired a fancy plastic roof that meant the envoy’s shuttle couldn’t land. So a late afternoon gig at the Rose Bowl, with ninety thousand seating capacity was the logical next choice.

  All up, over six thousand security operatives were stationed in the area. From some serious special-forces, black ops, S.W.A.T teams toting heavy-duty armaments, through to regular National Guardsmen, L.A.P.D traffic cops through to minimally armed contracted security companies, like BlackSky. F16 fighter jets patrolled the skies and watchful Abrams tanks stood sentinel duty outside the stadium. These, in John’s opinion, were a bit of overkill, but they did look impressive. There were so many diverse organizations all supposedly working together under the joint command of the New World Government and its outsourced operatives that John felt certain that with so many chiefs, something would surely go wrong.

  ‘But not my crew,’ John thought. He watched them, with more than a small degree of pride, from his vantage point above the iconic ‘Rose Bowl’ southern gate. He could overlook the Court of Champions where his squads were stationed admitting people through ‘Gate A’. Next to him, a pair of soldiers, in full combat uniform watched the same crowds. One had a pair of binoculars and the other an oversized sniper rifle. Once they had verified his security credentials, they took up their positions and besides telling John to keep out of their way, had ignored him since.

  While the firepower was being handled by the military and police, the BlackSky people were doing what they did best; crowd handling, scrutinizing the public entering the stadium. The people wanting to see the envoy today had to pass through airport style body scanning x-ray metal detectors, surrendering personal belongings, which could only be held in transparent plastic bags of a limited size, into plastic trays that were similarly checked before admission. Suspicious people were ‘profiled’ for closer inspection, including testing for traces of explosives. After decades of the ‘War on Terror’ people were accustomed to it at airports and public transport hubs, but it had slowed up the entry process. Now, as the appointed hour approached, the crowds arriving had thinned. Just a relatively small number of stragglers remained, the sort of people, John mused, who were at the tail end of the bell-curve and would always be late, no matter how important the event.

  The envoy had made appearances at many other New U.N. cities previously, from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and a slew of many other Chinese cities, then Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Vladivostok and now working his way down the U.S. west coast. He had been well received in Seattle, Vancouver and San Francisco, delivering the same message of world peace and future prosperity.

  Although the Envoy only spoke for a little over half an hour and despite the footage being all over the net, people were still flocking to hear the alien envoy for themselves. It spoke volumes about human nature, having to see to believe, but John wondered if these events were being shown throughout the rest of the galactic community and if so, what the alien audiences made of the human crowds.

  John had watched a couple of the Asian events. Like almost everyone on the planet, he had seen the premier event in Beijing and also the latter ones in Osaka and Seattle. It still amazed him how the envoy could speak in the native tongue of whichever city he was in. Was it some trick of alien technology, or simply a prodigiously intelligent mind that had been studying humanity for God knows how long? Either way, John along with the rest of mankind, was most impressed.

  No matter what language it was delivered in, through sub-titles, John found the message was being repeated, virtually verbatim, at every venue. The envoy was reiterating his initial message he had delivered, not all that long ago, at the Egyptian stadium. Although much had happened since then, he spoke at each venue with a calm efficiency that was totally at odds with the human hysteria that surrounded him.

  The message was basically that life
was abundant throughout the galaxy but intelligence was rare and precious to be nurtured and encouraged. Earth was a jewel beyond treasure that was generally underappreciated by humanity. He always then quickly reassured everyone that the galactic community had no interest in taking over the planet, as the biochemistry was incompatible and other habitable planets were readily available.

  He went on to point out the precarious position humanity was in. How many other races throughout the galaxy had evolved intelligence and technology enough to control their environments, but had gone on to exterminate themselves in competitive wars over dwindling resources and exponential population growth.

  He reminded everyone of their offer to grant humanity the technologies that would free them from their current predicament and join the galactic community.

  In exchange, he again appealed for mankind to abandon all their systems of religious beliefs, asserting that they were archaic and parochial. God, or the force that created the universe, he asserted, was a concept too grand to be constrained by mankind’s interpretation of it.

  It made sense to John and he wished Angela would try to see things differently, but he held little hope of that ever happening.

  John didn’t expect today’s performance to be any different. In the stadium, there had been a procession of world-class rock bands to entertain the crowds. Between changes of bands, Hollywood celebrities made guest appearances along with sporting legends and politicians, all throwing their support for the alien’s message.

  Some spoke of mankind’s coming of age, a new golden era of prosperity as humanity took its place amongst the almost limitless vistas of stars and yet to be colonized planets. Others spoke of the maturing of mankind, how we no longer needed the comforting illusion of God and heaven, yet urging understanding and tolerance for those poor souls who still clung to their childish beliefs.

  In the very next breath, was the thinly veiled threat of annihilation for those zealots who refused to surrender their weapons of mass destruction to the New World Government, the New U.N based in Beijing. John supposed they were referring to India, Pakistan, Israel and Iran, but maybe it was for the benefit of those rogue Texans?