The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  “Never doing anything wrong,” somebody said.

  “Never, ever?” Keith asked.

  “Well, yeah, if you’re perfect, you can’t mess up,” another student answered.

  “So who here is perfect?” Keith asked. Silence. David started to raise his hand and everyone burst out laughing.

  “So not perfect, David,” someone snickered. David grinned and put his hand back down.

  “Nobody? There’s nobody perfect?”

  “Well, yeah, no, Mr. Bradley. You and Ms. Ramin been teaching us that verse that says There is none righteous, no not one. Righteous is pretty much like perfect, right?

  “Are you sure? There’s nobody, nowhere, who’s perfect?”

  “Well, God is,” somebody ventured. Murmurs of approval and Oh, yeahs! rippled around the room.

  “So all we need to do is get with God, and we can be perfect too, right?” Keith asked.

  “Yeah…” Keith smirked at the number of doubtful expressions, as if some students thought it was a trick question. Keith had to admit that he was famous for asking them in science class. He sobered his expression and held up an air-filled balloon.

  “Let’s say this balloon is a connection to God. It’s nice and big and full, like when we are right with God and everything’s going right.”

  “Okay …” the class assented.

  “So, suppose this candle represents sin. We’re perfect right now, right? Close to God, doing good. Or are we? Somebody name a sin.”

  “Lying!” someone shouted.

  “Good one.” Keith suddenly whipped the balloon into the flame. The pop made everyone in the room jump. “One sin? One little sin? And just like that, the connection to God is broken. Give me another sin. Anybody.”

  “Cheating.”

  “Cheating! A great one to remember at school.” He popped the second balloon in the flame. “Look at that! Cheating breaks the connection to God too! Another sin. Quick. Give me one more.”

  “Stealing.”

  “Bam!” Keith exclaimed as the third air-filled balloon popped. “Connection broken. No more perfection. No more fellowship with God. Three little sins, each of which broke the connection. Now …”

  Keith walked around the room, holding out the shriveled remains of the popped balloons. “Can you fix my balloon, Katie?”

  “No,” Katie laughed.

  “What? Luke, can you fix my balloon?”

  “Man, it’s busted good, Mr. Bradley. Toss that sucker,” Luke said.

  “Nobody can fix my balloons? Nobody?”

  “Naw, Mr. Bradley. Sin burned ’em up.”

  “But why? I had a relationship with God here. How did sin break that relationship? What if I don’t sin anymore? Will that fix my balloons, or my relationships with God? No. They’re still popped. My relationship’s still broken, because I sinned. Somebody give me that verse about sin and how it affects everybody. Come on, I know you know it.”

  “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” At least half the class chimed in.

  “But I had a relationship!” Keith protested.

  “Maybe you never had a relationship. Maybe all you had was hot air,” Tom giggled.

  “Oh, yeah?” Keith scratched his head. “You mean maybe I only thought I had a relationship with God, but it was just in my head, in my mouth … it wasn’t a relationship that came from God? How can I get a relationship that’s from God, not just my own hot air?”

  “Jesus,” Jayna said with a huge grin.

  “Yes.” Keith pointed at Jayna. “That’s right. Now, what did Jesus say about believing in him? Give me a verse.”

  Several students called out verses, and finally someone said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

  “All right!” Keith shouted, startling the students. He swung back to his desk and pulled out the water balloon. “So, here’s my real relationship with God, the one that’s filled with the living water Jesus gives me. Now, what happens when sin comes along?”

  “Mr. Bradley, no!” several students shrieked. “You’ll get water every –”

  Keith hovered the balloon over the candle. Nothing happened. Silence fell, along with jaws. Keith waited for the mood to reach its peak, then pushed the balloon straight down into the middle of the flame. Squeals and gasps and whispers of amazement filled the room. Keith raised the balloon up in the air.

  “Relationships with God based on our promises to be good, our strength to do right, our ability to be perfect – They’re just hot air,” Keith said. “Sin breaks them – pop! Only Jesus Christ can fill us up with His living water. That relationship is one sin can’t break. Yeah, we might sin, but Jesus can fill us up and keep it from breaking the relationship.”

  “Is the water like … reading the Bible?” Tom asked.

  “It’s God Himself, it’s Jesus Christ, it’s the Holy Spirit,” Keith answered. “And how do we learn all about God and get filled up with Him?”

  “By reading the Word,” several voices responded.

  “That’s right.”

  “Cool class, Mr. Bradley,” Samantha said as the kids filed out at the end. “But is Ms. Ramin okay? When will she come back?”

  Friday evening he heard a new voicemail message when he tried to call Talia. Her voice said her uncle was out of danger. She apologized for not taking calls and said she would be back soon. He couldn’t dismiss the possibility that Talia was simply dealing with a rough situation as well as she could. But could she really not call or contact them one single time? Why would Clark, for crying out loud, the most rigorously honest man in the county, be in on a big plot with Talia to deceive him?

  Keith retreated into the loving arms of the two people who helped him most when he was confused and afraid. On Saturday he spent time with his sister, who prayed with him and made him watch that movie Talia had given her, One Night With the King. He was astonished at how it resonated with him. It was fiction, and dealt with things in the story of Esther that weren’t in the Bible. The explanations were plausible for why the king wouldn’t call for his beloved wife for such a long time.

  “Jo-Jo, was Esther lying when she didn’t tell who her people were?”

  Keith and Joana lay on her bed together, his arms wrapped around her fragile body.

  “Nobody asked her.” the artificial voice sounded very flat and very reasonable. “Why is it lying to not answer a question that isn’t asked?”

  “Wow. But do you think that might have happened, that the king maybe saw her meeting Mordecai and thought she was cheating on him? He’d probably already murdered one wife. Why didn’t he kill her too?”

  “Baby brother, he didn’t marry her for power or position. He married her because out of all those women, the best in the world, she was better.” Joana repeated better about six times. “He may have even loved her, like in the movie. Look how the Bible says he reacted when she broke the law and faced death to come to him. Look what he said when he thought Haman was trying to rape her. Cover up his head. Hang him high.”

  “I can’t hang her uncle high for getting hurt, though, can I?” Keith asked.

  “There’s more going on with Talia than a family emergency,” Joana said. “You’re worried she’s taken off somewhere, and isn’t who you think she is, and is going to break your heart.”

  “Joana, you are crazy!” Keith didn’t dare just leap up out of the bed. But he did shift away from her. Joana couldn’t exactly go after him, but she did her arm and leg swinging routine and whacked into him a few times, until he embraced her again, mostly to get her to stop thrashing.

  “She hasn’t lied to you,” Joana said. “You told me Clark believed her and even escorted her to the airport, siren blaring. But maybe, when she gets back, you could figure out what questions to ask her. Just don’t break her heart.”

  The number of times Joana repeated don’t when she said that sentence irritated Keith. “But she’s kee
ping stuff from me – from us. What’s up with that Doomsday Duffelbag of hers? What’s she mean, she can't even get in touch with her aunt and uncle sometimes? And do you think those golden testaments she talked about are real?”

  “I can imagine archaeologists jump from place to place. They could get out of touch sometimes. Talia has another life besides mild-mannered English teacher and beautiful girl driving my brother crazy. But then, everybody does, don’t they, have another life besides the one the people they work with know about?”

  “She’s been at our house, Joana. She’s been … great, and nice, and … I don’t want to think she’s going to turn out to be lying to us. She keeps hammering in the class about the truth of the Scriptures, like it’s the most important thing in the world to her. How can someone who respects truth like that lie?”

  “She is not a liar. Not not not …” The nots turned into an endless echo, like the voice synthesizer was a stuck record. Keith grabbed Joana’s head and bobbled it, but he did it gently. A tap on the bedroom door announced the arrival of a caregiver.

  “Okay, Jo-Jo. I’m gonna go see Grandma now.”

  “Oh, man. I can’t fix Kevin’s broken,” Joana lamented. “He’s bringing out the big guns. Hug Gram-gram for me big big big.”

  Keith grinned. Joana had never forgotten his baby talk, when he had been about three. She had been the one to find him crying over his little smashed balsa airplane. She hadn’t been able to fix that, either, but she had hugged him big, big, big, and that had helped.

  “I will. You kinda helped fix my broken, big sis. It's just not all the way fixed.”

  Chapter Fifteen– Grandma’s Advice

  It wasn’t all that far to jog to Grandma’s. Only a couple of miles. Keith had given up his apartment and sold his car when his mother had died. He hadn’t realized how close to bankruptcy his parents had been from all Joana’s medical expenses. Now he was able to help pay off some of the bills, and moving back home hadn’t been so bad. Not having his own car sucked, but his dad had gone out to run errands.

  Keith jogged most of the way, but cooled down the last half mile, because he didn’t want to be all sweaty when he hugged Grandma. He had to hug her, for Joana’s sake, at least.

  Who am I kidding? I’m gonna hug her for my sake! He wanted to start running again, he was so anxious to get some Gram Time. But he still didn’t know how he was going to explain about Talia. Crap. What had happened to him from that moment when Clark had knocked on the door and told him she was gone?

  Grandma’s apartment building loomed before him. Keith tramped up the walkway and into the foyer, and buzzed Grandma’s number.

  “Who is it?” Grandma’s voice sounded like the old gramophone recordings she had played for them before the parts and money ran out to fix the thing. Timeless and sweet, even with the scratchiness.

  “It’s Keith, Grandma,” he answered, and the buzzer sounded at once. He turned down into the main hall, and saw Grandma standing in her doorway, her key on that coiled thing hanging on her arm, her extra-milk hot chocolate face all full with smiling. She hobbled around in a half circle with her walker and led the way back into her apartment.

  “Your father just stopped by. He was on his way home. What brings you here, Keith?”

  “First, Joana says hug, hug, hug,” Keith grinned, and demonstrated, making the last one a little tighter and a little longer, and for him. Grandma smelled like eucalyptus, since she always had breathing problems and always kept rub on her side tables. Keith loved that smell, and still used Vicks when he had a cold, rubbing it on his chest, putting on a sweatshirt, and putting his face down inside to breathe the vapors. It always made him feel better, like hugging Grandma did.

  “Something’s troubling you,” Grandma observed. “What is it?”

  “Grandma … I don’t know how to explain this ... this girl I met,” Keith stammered.

  “You better not be meeting a girl, young man. She better be a woman.”

  “Well, yeah, of course. She’s a woman. Her name’s Talia Ramin, and she’s the new English teacher at the school. We also team-teach a class. We kind of clicked, you know? And we’ve gotten pretty close. She took care of Joana a couple of times, and Joana loves her.”

  “Then I expect I’ll love her too. When are you bringing her to meet me?”

  “I’m … I’m not sure, Grandma. Right now I guess she’s out of the country with a family emergency.”

  “You guess? What’s that supposed to mean, you guess?”

  “I tried calling but all I get is voicemail and ‘no signal’ messages.”

  “Where did she go? How did you even know there was a problem?”

  “Clark Johnson found her in her car. He said she was really upset, told him her uncle had been hurt, and he escorted her to the airport.”

  “Well, then, I don’t suppose Clark, of all people, is lying to you. Have you got some reason to think she would lie to you? And that she could persuade the real-life version of Barney Fife to lie to you as well? Clark might be a little foolish, but I can’t imagine him being party to some plot – ”

  “Yeah, I can’t either,” Keith grunted. “So I’m crazy, and I need to be patient, and she’ll explain everything next time I see her?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. Keith. Sometimes things are going on in a person’s life that they can’t explain to an outsider. What does Joana say about her?

  “She says she’s not not not not not not not a liar.” Keith grinned.

  “I agree. And patience seems to be your only choice. Patience and prayer, of course. It’s impossible that this young woman does not need your prayers, Keith. Just impossible. You pray pray pray pray pray for her, like Joana would say.”

  “I will, Grandma.” Keith hugged her again.

  Chapter Sixteen – The Ransomed Greek

  Talia breathed in spearmint tea and almost put her nose into the beautifully ornamented little bronze cup the man in blue had offered her. She knew the sweet herbal tea concoction would give her a boost for a few more hours. Jiggly also sat at the small, linen-covered table, but his head and hands lay inert on the cloth.

  The man stood by a narrow counter in the narrow kitchen, sipping his own drink. Talia felt immensely better.

  “Do you know where Guglielmo’s girlfriend is?” Talia forced herself to ask the question. She cared nothing about Jiggly, but the girl’s life was important. Uncle Naddy and Aunt Sophie were safe, and the locked bag could wait. It couldn’t wait long, but Talia hoped she was in the right place to learn more about it.

  “Yes, she is here, and she is safe,” the man responded.

  Jiggly’s head jerked up. “Maria is here?”

  “She is here. She does not want to see you, and I cannot fault her wisdom. Regret what you have lost, because you have lost her, to a new life and a new hope. In fact, your part in the conversation has ended, and you may go.”

  “Go?” Jiggly stared at Talia. “Should I wait in the Rover?”

  “No, you should go wherever you can,” the man said. “Honorable people have no use for dishonorable servants.”

  “Maybe I should leave that up to Naddy and Sophie,” Jiggly grumbled.

  “Go,” Talia said.

  He got up, glared at Talia and the robed man, and slowly left the tiny room.

  “I am going to invite my wife to continue this conversation with us,” the man said. “I have lived my life under customs that dictate a man does not speak to an unattached woman when her relatives are not present. I understand why you had to come here without them, but I must gather such shreds of propriety as we can muster. She has been listening in the next room, while watching over the girl, and will join us now.”

  A small woman entered the room and sat where Jiggly had been. There were only two chairs. “My husband is an honorable man,” she said. “Please believe that. He is not to blame for what happened to your uncle. Why does he keep trying to expose what we have risked our lives to keep hidden?”
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br />   Talia tried to stay calm. “We have been told, over and over, that everyone who used to guard the Testaments was dead. I met a doctor back in the States at the airport who had a ring just like yours. But she practically threatened me. If you are Guardians of the Testaments, why are you acting like we’re the enemy? Don’t you understand we want to help?”

  “A secret is not a secret if a madman poking in the dirt makes it his mission to expose it to all the world,” the woman replied.

  “How dare you call my uncle a madman? Our family has been faithful to the Word too! Uncle Naddy almost died trying to preserve the testaments.”

  “He was not trying to preserve them. He was just trying to find them,” the woman said sternly. “They already are protected, by being hidden, and by people like my husband, and others, humble-hearted and eager only to serve the cause. Your uncle has his life, a blessing most unexpected considering his rash methods and corrupt thinking. Once again, we can only pray that the Testaments remain safe until the Time of Great Thirst.”

  Talia started to retort again, but that last phrase gripped her. It was like the Scripture Uncle Naddy had quoted to her so many times – the Amos passage that was the first thing out of his lips in the hospital.

  “Is it coming soon? The Time of Great Thirst?”

  “We cannot be certain, but we know there is talk of an enemy determined to find and destroy the testaments.” The man spoke when his wife hesitated and looked to him for confirmation. His eyes seemed to soften. “Soon, we will want help. Every faithful soul will be needed if we are to keep protecting the testaments.”

  “Can you tell me what is in the leather bag with the seal?”

  “I can do better. I can show you.”

  He pushed aside the curtain at the back of the kitchen, the one through which his wife had emerged, and Talia followed them into an even tinier room where she saw a bruised and huddled figure lying asleep on a mat in one corner. Talia had met Jiggly’s girlfriend Maria once, but had trouble recognizing her in this state. In another corner lay a sleeping infant. Talia knew Maria and Jiggly didn’t have a child so she realized the baby must belong to the cafe owner and his wife.