The Chair

by James L. Rubart

CHAPTER 14

  As the sun crested a ridge to the east, Corin stood with A. C. Avena at the top of a long winding road, adrenaline pumping through his body. This would be a rush of nitro proportions. A great way to start a Tuesday morning.

  “Are you sure about this run?” A. C. looked at him with the crooked smile that drove girls nuts when they were in high school.

  “Shasta would have done this with me in half a nanosecond.”

  “Only after you talked him into it.” A. C. pulled on his leather luging gloves and stared at Corin. “I heard you got a little crazy up near Pikes Peak last weekend.”

  Corin grinned. “Wish you could have been there and done the jump with us. It was cool.”

  “I heard you almost got yourself killed.”

  “Not true.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  They’d driven the length of the road—two and a half miles—three times, studying the curves and the slope.

  “Perfect hill.” Corin rubbed his hands on his thick leather pants. “Let’s shoot it from the top with a no-brakes pact.” He held out his forefinger toward A. C. and bent it in.

  “Are you crazy?” A. C. took a step back.

  “Yes.”

  “No brakes, no do.”

  “Why not? I thought we wanted to get a serious adrenaline rush.”

  “There’s no way you can hold the corner on that final turn.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I read about this road. Five guys have tried it and each one has ended up with an asphalt beard.” A. C. frowned and grinned at the same time. “We both read the same pieces on this run. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”

  “So the sixth time should be the charm, right?”

  “You think you’re Superman, don’t you? Nothing can touch you; nothing can take you out.”

  Corin frowned. “No I don’t.”

  “Someday kryptonite is going to spring out of nowhere and kill you.”

  “I can make it.”

  “You don’t want to do this without braking.”

  “Yeah I do.” Corin locked his fingers together and squeezed till his hands hurt. “I have to.”

  “Why do you always push the envelope so far it tears?”

  He cocked his head. “I might have stretched it a few times, but it’s never torn.”

  “Not yet.” A. C. picked up his street luge and spun the wheels. “This shoot has paper shredder written all over it. Sometimes I wonder if you’ve got some kind of weird desire to hurt yourself.”

  “I don’t care if I get hurt.” Corin stared at the shoot. “It would be good for me.”

  “I’m not tracking with you here, Cor. How does getting hurt do anyone any good?”

  Corin didn’t answer. He set his board on the ground and sat on it, then snugged up the strap on his helmet and flipped his visor down. “You coming?”

  AS CORIN TORE through the final corner, the one A. C. said would make him Mr. Hamburger Face, Corin reached for the brake, his fingers trembling. No. Can’t do it. He didn’t deserve the chance to be safe.

  He leaned to the left, the centrifugal force of rocketing down the road at seventy miles an hour trying to fling him off the edge of the road to his right.

  C’mon, stay with it! Lean in!

  His wheels skidded across the pavement as he leaned harder to left. Too close. The edge of the road just feet away a moment ago was now just inches.

  Rolling over the edge at seventy miles an hour. Not good. Not healthy.

  Three more seconds. Hang on. No brakes, no brakes.

  An instant later he was through the turn and streaked straight down the road, relief flooding his mind and body.

  Two minutes later A. C. skidded to a stop beside him.

  Corin whipped off his helmet and grinned at his friend.

  “You did it, didn’t you?”

  He nodded, still grinning like a kid at his first pro baseball game.

  “You’re insane, you know that?”

  Corin nodded a second time. “It’s my calling.”

  “What are you going to do when a call comes that you can’t answer?”

  Corin swung his helmet up to his shoulder, bent to grab his sled, and admitted a small piece deep in his heart hoped that call would arrive soon.

  CHAPTER 15

  On Wednesday morning Corin made coffee and plopped onto his couch ready to play artifact detective. He pulled up Google and punched in “chair of Christ” and in .24 seconds got nothing. Nothing on Bing or AltaVista either. “Chair made by Jesus” didn’t bring any hits either. Jesus made furniture, didn’t He? Tables, plows, benches, chairs. Isn’t that what carpenters back then did? He had no idea.

  Then he stumbled across an article talking about a saint named Justin Martyr who lived in Galilee during the second century. Martyr said it was still common during his lifetime to see farmers using “plows made by the carpenter Jesus of Nazareth” into the second century.

  Good. This was promising.

  If a plow being battered daily by dirt and weather could last one hundred-plus years, why couldn’t a well-cared for chair last till today?

  When he typed in “religious artifacts” things got even more interesting.

  He clicked on a link that said Sudarium of Oviedo and started reading.

  Fascinating.

  The Sudarium was a blood-stained cloth thirty-two-by-twenty inches that Jesus’s head was supposedly wrapped in after He died. And tests on blood from the cloth confirmed a common blood type among Middle Eastern people but rare among medieval Europeans.

  Pollen residue showed strong evidence the cloth was at one point in the Palestine area.

  Corin read further. Nothing about the Sudarium healing anyone.

  Next was a link to the Image of Edessa, a picture of Christ allegedly sent by Jesus Himself to King Abgar V of Edessa to cure him of leprosy, with a letter declining an invitation to visit the king.

  Now he was getting somewhere.

  But as he read on, it was clear rampant speculation far outweighed the facts.

  Corin kept clicking.

  According to legend The Veil of Veronica was used to wipe the sweat from Jesus’s brow as He carried the cross and rests in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

  He skimmed the research.

  Nothing about it having healing powers.

  He clicked past the Holy Grail. Indiana and Henry Jones had taught him all about that one. But at least that legend supported the idea Christ objects could have healing powers. No, actually, it didn’t. That was a movie and as he read further, it confirmed his feeling. There was less evidence for the existence of a real chalice than for the Sudarium, Image of Edessa, or the Veil.

  He skimmed over articles on pieces of the cross, nails from the cross, the Coat of Christ, and the Crown of Thorns.

  Again nothing about those objects healing anyone.

  Corin sighed and stretched. The best he’d come up with in three hours of research was maybe something Jesus made could have lasted until today.

  Time to see what the Bible said about healing.

  His fingers flew over his laptop keyboard and he watched Google splash multiple Bible verses onto his screen.

  Twenty minutes later he smiled.

  He copied three verses into a Word document, saved it, then printed the page and read through over it, his smile growing into a grin. At least according to the Bible, the idea of a chair with healing powers was very, very possible.

  Acts 19:11–12: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

  Matthew 14:35–36: “People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.”

  Mark 5:27–29: “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘
If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

  Corin leaned back and smiled. Handkerchiefs, aprons, and clothes. Why not chairs? Especially one constructed by Christ.

  And it sat in his store smack-dab in the middle of the picture window.

  Not good.

  When he got to the store he would move it to the hidden vault at the back of his store.

  What next? He needed to talk to someone who knew more than Tori. But who? Corin strolled into his kitchen, stuck two pieces of eight-grain bread into the toaster, and brainstormed. Before the toast popped up he had an answer.

  After slathering both pieces with a robust amount of strawberry jam and pouring himself a glass of nonfat milk, he settled back onto his couch, Googled churches, and dialed the first one listed.

  “Hello, Cold Canyon Community Church.” A woman with voice two ticks beyond perky answered.

  “My name is Corin Roscoe and I’d like to talk to someone about . . .”—what should he say, ‘I found a magical chair that might be healing people?’—“a possible religious relic.”

  “What is it?” The perkiness dialed down four pegs.

  “A chair. Very old.”

  “Have you talked to an antiques dealer?”

  Corin sighed. “I am an antiques dealer.”

  “So why are you calling a church?”

  “I think it might be tied into Christianity.”

  “I see.” All perkiness was gone. “And how is that?”

  “The person who gave it to me said it was made by Christ.”

  The receptionist sniffed out a laugh. “That must be a very old chair.”

  “It is.”

  “She told you it was made by Jesus?”

  “She didn’t right out and say it. But she strongly implied it.”

  “I see.”

  The woman didn’t offer anything else.

  Corin rubbed his eyes. “Would I be able to talk to someone about it?”

  “What would you like to know?”

  “If there’s . . .” Corin hesitated. What did he want to know? If it was real? If it had really healed Brittan? “Did you see the story in the paper the other day about the kid who was healed of his asthma?”

  “Yes.”

  “The chair he sat in was mine.”

  “I see.” The woman again offered nothing more.

  Corin shifted the phone to his other ear. “I was hoping to talk to someone who knows about religious artifacts . . . someone who might be able to explain if this whole sitting-in-the-chair thing and him getting healed is a coincidence or if some kind of miracle really happened.”

  The line buzzed for ten seconds.

  “I’ll tell you what,” she finally said. “If you’d like to give me your name and number, I’ll find out who the best person is to talk to and have him give you a call back. Will that work?”

  “Fine.” Corin gave her the information, hung up, and stared at his cell phone. No one would be calling back.

  He dialed two more churches and had the same conversation.

  Corin didn’t blame them. It sounded like something out of The Amazing Spider-Man. Who was he kidding? He should probably just stick it on the floor with a hefty price tag, write up copy offering up the idea it was made by Christ, and make some coin.

  Who could he talk to about it if not someone from a church? Tori he’d already dismissed, he didn’t have any friends who were religious, and the lady who gave it to him hadn’t followed up on her promise to stay in touch.

  A moment later Corin laughed. He knew exactly who to talk to about it. Maybe not someone who knew about ancient healing chairs, but definitely someone he could probably talk into experimenting on: A. C.

  A. C. rode with him on all his extreme adventures. Why wouldn’t he go on this one? When A. C. dropped off that rolltop desk this afternoon, Corin would get his friend to go for a little ride in the chair.

  CHAPTER 16

  A. C. stepped through the back door of Corin’s store that afternoon at three thirty, lugging a rolltop desk as if it were made of balsa wood. “Hey, Cor, got your rolltop; where do you want it?”

  Corin jogged toward the shipping entrance. “Need a hand with that?”

  “Nah, only weighs about three hundred pounds.” A. C. grinned and carried it over to the door outside the prep room. “Can I set it here?”

  “Perfect.”

  Forty-one years old and still built like an NFL middle linebacker. Slightly damp strands of his blond, still-teenage-thick hair fell across his forehead, the only indication he was straining at all to carry the desk, his taut biceps pressing into the sleeves of his Where the Wild Things Are T-shirt.

  If Ultimate Fighting had been as big ten years ago, before A. C. had kids, he would be dancing around a caged ring and ripping his competitors apart like they were made of cardboard. In fact a large part of A. C. was still considering getting into the ring.

  A. C.: The Aqua Cowboy. The nickname their mutual friend Jeff Stucky had given him because of the way he rode a tube called the Extreme anywhere there was a body of water big enough for a ski boat. The tube was the bronco and A. C. was the bronco buster. Most tubers gave the kill sign at twenty-five knots. For A. C. that was warm-up speed. Same thing on a water ski. Barefoot as fast as the boat could go was his comfort zone.

  Ironic that his best friend would be named for going extreme in an arena Corin would never enter again.

  “Thanks for dropping it off.”

  “No problem. You’re right on the way to the job I’ve got going.”

  “What are you working on these days?”

  “Nothing fancy. Pouring sidewalks and driveways for a new housing development up north.”

  “One of the few I’m guessing.”

  “Work’s been a little lean, but not bad.” A. C. rubbed his hands on his jeans. “How about you?”

  “Still the same. Skeletor lean.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No worries. People will start buying again.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  “No.”

  They both laughed.

  “How was the weekend hanging out at Disneyland?”

  “Fun. Sticky, but fun. Kids loved it. Dineen loved it. I loved it.” A. C. ambled over to the coffee pot, grabbed an oversized cup, and filled it to the rim with black tar.

  “That coffee’s six hours old.”

  “Perfect.” A. C. glanced at his watch. “I should hit the pavement. I want to avoid afternoon rush hour if possible.”

  “Before you go, let me ask you something.”

  “Sure.”

  “Are you scared of anything?”

  “What?” A. C. gave Corin his trademark crooked grin. “Did you pick up a copy of Psychology Today recently? How to examine your friends for cracks in their psyches?”

  “No, I have a reason for asking.”

  A. C. threw back a big swig of his coffee. “How long have you known me? Twenty years? You ever seen me scared of anything in all that time?” He smirked. “How about you? Is there anything that keeps you up nights?”

  Corin’s face instantly felt scorched. He’d never told A. C. about the drowning or even about his fear of tight spaces, but if A. C. noticed he didn’t say anything.

  “Nothing? Public speaking? Heights? Clowns? Death?”

  “That’s it, clowns.” A. C. nodded. “You got me.”

  But Corin had seen the fear in A. C.’s eyes when he’d said “public speaking.”

  “Talk to me, buddy. I have real reason for asking.”

  “What did you smoke today?”

  “I want you to try something for me.” Corin rubbed his knees and leaned toward A. C. “Something that might get rid of that fear.”

  “You picked up a hypnosis course on the back of a matchbook, right?” A. C. folded his arms and laughed. “And I’m your first patient.”

  Corin took his key
s out of his pocket and walked toward the vault at the back of the store where the chair now rested. When he reached it he inserted a key as A. C. strolled up behind him.

  Corin spun the combination on the vault door and swung it open.

  “What’ve you got in the inner sanctum these days?” A. C. said.

  Corin motioned with his eyes for A. C. to follow and stepped inside the room.

  “Nice chair.” He joined Corin inside the vault.

  The chair sat in the center, nothing else within ten feet of it.

  “I want you to sit in it.”

  “Oooooo.” A. C. grasped at the air with his hands. “Let me guess. After I sit you’ll say the magic words and instantly I’ll be over whatever fear you think I have.”

  “Precisely.” Corin smiled. “So tell me the fear and we’ll get started.”

  “Nah, I don’t think so.” A. C. shook his head.

  “What?”

  A. C. rarely held anything back. Even the uncomfortable things. My Life Is an Open Book should be a bumper sticker on his car.

  “I’m not sure I want to admit that fear to anyone.”

  Corin studied his friend. There was no one more loyal than A. C. As well as wise, heroic, and larger than life. No wonder the kids on his son’s football team called him Mr. Incredible. He even looked like the Pixar creation. Corin wouldn’t ever try to push him into something he didn’t want to do. As if he could push A. C. into anything.

  “No worries. You can tell me about it another time or never. This was just a stupid experiment.”

  A. C. didn’t move. “You’ve brought up a memory I rarely think about.” He rubbed his face and frowned. “In fact, if I didn’t like you, I’m not sure I could resist the temptation to break your face for making me think of it.” The frown turned into a smile.

  “Face-breaking day is tomorrow, isn’t it? So let’s—”

  “But maybe I should talk about it.” A. C. folded his arms and suddenly grew an intense interest in his tennis shoes.

  “Nah, later.”

  “I’m okay, Cor. Really.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah.” A. C. gritted his teeth, shook his head, and after another ten seconds began speaking. “When I was in sixth grade we did a unit on speaking. I liked doing it. Three speeches to the class, and I nailed every one of them, but then we gave our fourth talk in front of the whole school. The kids in my class were cool, they liked me, but . . .”