Soulshine (9 page)

“Eustace, come in. Take a chair, please.”
“Hello, Vicar. It"s good to finally gain an audience with you. We"ve both been so busy, and I have enjoyed teaching the youth immensely.”

“I have also heard that the boys are fascinated by your lessons, Eustace.” Michael cleared his throat. “As a matter of fact, that"s the main reason I asked you here.”

E ustace detected a reservation in the Vicar"s demeanor. “Is everything all right?”
Michael sat back and smiled to help put Eustace at ease. “From what I hear, you shine the Holy Scriptures through your own personal light for the benefit of the boys… which is the reason why they are so captivated with your teaching.”
“My own personal light? I don"t know if I would go
that
far. I just believe in teaching anything from its historical perspective, Vicar.”
“May I ask what books you get your historical perspectives from, Eustace? For example… and again this is strictly from what I have heard… you seem to know a lot about the personal life of the apostle Paul… beyond what is recorded in God"s Word. I am unaware of any other reliable source of such information.”
Eustace thought carefully before responding. “Well, Vicar… the apostle Paul"s writings are quite transparent. That is to say… his beliefs and convictions are clear. Do you think that I take too much liberty regarding my assumptions concerning what we already know about some of the Bible characters?”
“Eustace, I did overhear one of your recent lessons as I stood outside the classroom door.”
“You eavesdropped on me? Why didn"t you just enter the room and sit in the back?”
“Please don"t take any offense, Eustace. I wanted to listen to you without causing you to be self-conscious in any way. And… well… there
have
been insinuationsthat you… how should I put it…
deny
the divine inspiration of Scripture?”
“I caution against believing that a council of men, a few hundred years after the fact, could possibly divine what God perfectly inspired to be written. The Bible contains a lot of man"s opinion and certainly has a lot of omissions as far as what God would say to us. At best, we can get a glimpse or… as Paul phrased it… we can see through a glass darkly.”
“You
do
realize that goes strictly against the Church of England?”
“I do. Vicar, I love the Church. Though I refuse to blindly believe in the complete authority of a collection of books and letters, I don"t believe in tossing the baby out with the bathwater. Take the red letters… those of Jesus. Though I question the exact quotations because they were allegedly written decades after Jesus reportedly said them, I still acknowledge that the spirit of His words was preserved. And I acknowledge that strictly by faith. In fact, that is why I can call myself a Christian.”
Michael absorbed Eustace"s words before leaning forward in his chair. “The Church of England would call you a heretic.”
Eustace smiled. “The Church in Rome would call us both heretics for not believing in the infallibility of the Pope. It is sad that the Church of England would do the same thing to me for not believing in the infallibility of the Canon of Scripture.”
“Let me ask you something, Eustace. Do you take the same liberties with Jesus as you do with Paul?”
Eustace considered a direct answer of „no", but then pondered what the next question would be. He trusted Vicar Michael Westbrook as a devoted man of the cloth, so he did not fear the repercussions of simply telling him the truth. “No, Vicar, I do not because I didn"t know Jesus personally.”
Michael was taken aback. “And you knew
Paul
?”
“Vicar, you are sworn to confidentiality in matters of confession, especially if the matters do not constitute any crime… correct?”
“Yes?”
“Then… yes… I knew Paul. Not closely… but… I had met him when he traveled to Greece.”
Michael just stared at his young associate.

Evan held Michelle tightly as the waves splashed playfully near them, spraying and refreshing them on a sunny East Bay afternoon. He never tired of gazing at Michelle"s cute face. He sometimes wondered, as he stared into her eyes, what she might look like had she continued to age. She was now eighteen years old, but he did not regret preserving her at the tender age of thirteen.
That’s the girl I fell in love with, and that’s the girl I am committed to,
he thought to himself. He softly stroked her wet hair. She gently blinked and smiled.

Michelle held Evan tighter. “I love this area so much. There are so many memories. It"s where we met. I dreamed that every year on the anniversary of our first date, we would go to the sundry shop and have root beer floats.”

Evan loved her innocence. “How much longer do you think everyone could go on without getting suspicious of us? Michelle, I"ve been around a long time… you know that. I"ve seen towns, and even cities, change drastically within a couple of decades. We"ll come back here someday… you"ll see. It won"t be the same place. You"ll be glad we moved on.”

Michelle"s eyes brightened with hope. “When will we return?”
Evan tried to soften the blow with a kiss. “When we are certain that those who knew us are no longer here. We"ll get to witness the next generation of your old town.”
Michelle put her head under Evan"s chin. “My parents will be dead when we return, won"t they?”
“They would have to be. I know this is a lot for you to accept. I"m sorry.” Evan paused, not knowing what to say next. “I love you and I look forward to spending year after year with you.”
Michelle was visibly torn. “I… suppose that even normal people move away from their families because of jobs or the military… but they
do
get to keep in contact with their families.”
Evan shrugged. He loved Michelle enough to let her choose to stay.“I could go far away by myself and keep in touch with you by letters. You could come to visit me from time to time. Maybe you could tell your parents what happened and everything will somehow work out for you. I just know from my own experience that staying in one place raises too many questions. I understand if you need timeto think things through. I"ll always be waiting for you.”
“I could do that… but then I"d be watching my parents get old… and eventually they would die. No, Evan. I"ll go with you. I want to be with you. Can I just spend one more night at home… just to tell my parents that I love them? If I am going to leave without telling themI"m leaving, I would at least want to leave them with some nice words to remember me by.”
“Sure, you can. You can have a week or a whole month if you"d like.”
Michelle gave Evan a big kiss. “You"re the absolute greatest… and a week should be fine. It will give me a lot of chances to do some nice things for them. Plus I"m anxious to start my life by your side.”
“I have to correct you, Michelle.
You’re
the greatest. We can tell your parents that we decided to go on a little trip. That will spare you from sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night. They may not approve of us going off together, being unmarried… but after all, you
are
eighteen.” Evan paused and looked forward to being with Michelle for countless years. “I can hardly wait to make love to you again.”
Michelle looked lost in thought.
“Is everything alright?” asked Evan.
“Do you remember when we made love on my birthday?”
“I may be old, but my memory is impeccable,” laughed Evan. “It was excellent… the best experience of my life.”
“Mine too. But… I didn"t get pregnant with your child. I would have known by now if I did.”
Evan sighed. “Michelle… I don"t know if you will ever get pregnant. That day was a good test. We were both so ready for each other. But I knew there were three possibilities. Either you would have a baby that would eventually grow older than us… the least desirable of the three scenarios… or you would have a baby thatwould never age… I"m not sure if that would be very desirable either… or no aging would take place inside your womb… and therefore no life would come to full term. It could very well be that the latter is our fate. Still… perhaps it"s best for us to use protection.”
“I wanted so much tohave a baby with you… I didn"t think of the possibilities.”
“And I just wanted to make love to you… so I didn"t think about it either. But it looks like your body just may not be capable of providing growth to new life. I suppose we can look for the silver lining and be glad that we can keep making love to each other.”
Michelle giggled. “You know what might be a fun thing to do? We could adopt children, have fun teaching them and playing with them, and then as they reach your age… well, the age you look anyway… they could go off on their own. And with each child we adopt, we could let each one in on our little secret before they go off on their own.”
Evan chuckled as he thought about it, then he shook his head. “Michelle, I don"t think I could bear to nurture someone and then send him or her off knowing they are going to grow old and die while we keep on living and enjoying life.” He gave her a big hug and kiss. “From here on out, I think it"s just you and me, honey.”

Michelle arrived back on the third floor of the hospital. She wanted to get away from the phone booth where her mother was talking to her dad. The conversation was everything that she dreaded it would be… and more. As she approached the area near Evan"s room, Dr. DiLaurio called her over.

“Hi, doctor. How"s Evan? Please tell me that he"ll be alright. I need him so badly right now.”
“Miss Fleming, Evan is in a grave situation. There is nothing more we can do for him. Tomorrow an ambulance will be transporting him to Fletcher University Hospital, where at least they are more advanced than we are. It is our hope that they can save him. However, I wanted to talk to you about… yourself.”
“Me?”
“Yes. When you both arrived here after your accident, you recall that we ran tests on both of you… in your case for precautionary reasons.”
“Yes… is there anything wrong?”
“No… no. Congratulations, young lady. It appears that you are pregnant.”
Michelle"s mouth dropped. “But that"s not possible… or so wethought.”
Frank smiled. “You"ve been trying for a long time, have you? Well, I just can"t get over how young you look. Anyway, you are approximately two weeks pregnant. I suggest you find a good obstetrician.If you need a referral, I"d be happy to give you one… though it would be a local doctor.”
“Two weeks? That
is
impossible. Why, it"s been longer than that since Evan and I…”
“Has there been anyone else that could be the father?”
“No!” shouted Michelle instinctively. “I"m sorry, doctor. It"s just that I know for certain that I only… um, you know… with Evan.”
Frank smiled again. “Well, maybe it
was
about two weeks ago and you just lost track of time.”
Michelle went over the last few weeks in her mind. She and Evan had been doing a lot of traveling. Their romantic moments together had been wonderful, but… they always used protection.

Bryan and Eric relaxed in their favorite New York jazz club. “Can I buy you a beer or something?” Bryan asked.
“You know I don"t drink alcohol. Besides, I never could figure out what men found desirable in that beverage.”
“Oh, that"s right. How about a soda then?”
“Too much sugar. Really… I"m content with a slice of lime in a glass of water.”
“Boring. Do you not drink for religious reasons?”
“Health reasons. I want to ensure that I live a long time.”
“Ah, who wants to live forever?”
“Maybe
I
do. Besides, even if we all eventually die, shouldn"t we at least be in the best of health while we live?”
Bryan took another sip of his scotch. “How do you like the music?”
“I like it. You know… back when I was in Kansas City, there was this club that featured some great old jazz bands that played the old stuff. There"s not much new jazz going down today. I"m starting to convert over to rock and roll. You know, Elvis, Buddy Holly...now there"s a guy who"s ahead of the pack and doing something new.”
Bryan nodded. “I"m still partial to jazz. So how are things withJean?”
“We"re good friends. I told you a long time ago that"s what she needed… a guy who knew how to just be her friend. She needs to be able to trust men.”
“I was just thinking that she wouldn"t like Elvis all very much. The provocative hip movement would be in sharp contrast to her religiosity.”
Eric laughed. “She"s a good person. She turned to religion as a bandage for her wounds. I can"t get into any deep spiritual discussions with her without shaking her faith. So I concentrate on justbeing her friend.”
“Would you like to be more?”
“Not really. It wouldn"t work.”
“Do you think… all things being different… you"d like to make it withher?”
“I suppose. She
is
attractive. And there
is
something sexy about a good-looking older woman. Yes, it would be nice to have something more intimate with Jean… but I"m still young and have all the time in the world. She"s the one who is more or less on the clock.”
“Wow, I don"t know how you do it. Almost six years ago, you just turned thirty.You"re almost thirty-six and you
still
look like a college kid.”
“Age doesn"t mean anything. I don"t think about my age, nor do I fret over the age of others… especially my women friends. What about you? Anything interesting in
your
life?”
“Only my work, Eric. I was married once. That was misery. Why would I want another girlfriend? I"m happy with my circle of friends.” Bryan turned the conversation back to the subject of Eric. “Jeanlikes you a lot, you know.”
“Maybe she does, Bryan, but thatis because I"m her friend. She doesn"t
love
me nor is she able to.” Eric tried to deflect the topic of conversation back to Bryan. “So… what has been interesting with your work?”
“Well, there"s this monastery in the mountains of New Brunswick. The monks who reside there live to serve mankind in different capacities. They work the land, donate to the needy, and also operate a hospital for the needy. I"ll be going there to interview them for a feature story.”
“Hmm… now there"s a place I"ve never been. I hear it"s quitescenic.”
“Wow… I finally uncovered a place that the man who"s been everywhere hasn"t been to yet.”
Eric chuckled. “Then maybe you should take me along.”
“You don"t have work to do at the theater?”
“I need to spend some time reading the next play we will be putting on. I didn"t tell you that I landed a part, did I?”
“No, you didn"t. That"s great. I remember you saying that theater directors eventually discover your talent once you get your foot in the door.”
“So when are you going to New Brunswick?”
“I"ll be renting a car this weekend and driving up there. Once I reach Mt. Carleton, I need to get in touch with them and schedule a time to visit. They don"t usually entertain guests. I was fortunate to get this assignment and the best part is that I got it myself.”
“How did you hear about them?”
“I met someone a few weeks ago who happened to mention in conversation that the Brotherhood of Keepers took care of him when he took ill during a visit to the province. He was quite impressed with the hospitality and the fact they wanted no compensation for their services. I just had to contact them to see what they"re all about.”
“Brotherhood of Keepers… what an interesting name.”
“At least it"s easier to remember than the Order of Gerasimos.”
“Gerasimos?”
“Yes.” Bryan looked quizzically at Eric. “That"s the order the brotherhood belongs to. Does the name sound familiar to you?”
“No… no… I mean it"s just a name that I recall somewhere in my past… but it was definitely nowhere near New Brunswick. It"s just a coincidence.”
“Well, they should provide an interesting story. It should be a nice trip,too.”
“Yes,” said Eric. “Yes,it should. I"ll bring my work along with me.” Eric gazed at his watch. “I should be heading back to the apartment to get some sleep. Are you heading back also?”
“No,” said Bryan. “I"m going to stick around a while and have another drink. I"ll catch up with you later.”