A Warrior's Journey (28 page)

She was really going to kill him and if she
didn’t I’d volunteer to do it for her.

“Evette! Please stop darling!” Said Larc who
had come closer unnoticed in the heavy drama taking place center
stage.

With great difficulty Evette managed to take
her impassioned gaze off of her father’s panic strickened eyes and
glanced at Larc and uttered a monosyllablic cry of, “Why?”

She sounded more like an enraged little girl
than the mature woman, who still held a knife to her father’s
throat.

“Honey I’m not trying to tell you that
you’re wrong to feel as you do about your father. There’s no
question about it he deserves everything he gets, but what I ask of
you is let God fulfill the judgment that your father deserves and
not you. Don’t put this on your conscience give it to God! Please
listen to me on this, I know. There won’t be any satisfaction
gained by you killing him yourself, let God deal with him and heal
your heart at the same time.”

Tears dripped steadily off of Evette’s face
to the floor as she gazed at Larc. Slowly the hand that held the
knife lowered until it was by her side. Her father moved to step
away, but the knife was back threateningly in front of his
nose.

“I’m not done with you! These men,” she
gestured to me and Larc, as she turned back to her father and wiped
the tears from off her face with her free hand, “have come a long
way for an item that our people have for the most part either
forsaken or corrupted. That item is the Bible, God’s word and
nothing but! Tell them where they can find one now!”

“I wasn’t lying earlier! They came by
surprise and took them all. They even wiped off all of my audio
files and old sermons! They took everything!”

Evette tapped the tip of the knife several
times off of his nose, “Now papa I know when you’re lying to me.
Growing up I came to view it as your natural state of being. They
didn’t take everything did they?”

The point of the knife pressed against his
nose. He had been particularly vain about his nose she remembered,
perhaps he still was. Evette deepened the pressure and the blade
broke the skin.

“They overlooked two books!” He jabbered out
looking pained as he did so.

“And what two books would those be?” Asked
Evette.

“There dictionaries one’s in Greek and the
others in Hebrew.”

Larc looked at Evette, “How does that help
us?”

“When the Bible was written it was done in
two parts in two different languages other than the one you speak
and read. The translations of the Bible into our language don’t
always capture the full meaning of the native languages that the
Bible was first written in. It would be very helpful for your
people to have those books to help them understand the full meaning
of the Bible.” Finished Evette.

“Okay we’ll take them where are they?” Larc
asked.

“There in an old baptistery room that I had
sealed off years ago under the stage area. Move the pulpit and
you’ll see a trapdoor, it’s the only way to access the room.” Her
father finished somewhat resignedly.

Evette gestured towards the front pew with
the knife, “Sit!” as Larc and I moved the pulpit to the side.

It was quite heavy. Sure enough there was a
door under it. Pulling the door open Larc looked down into the
darkness.

“There’s a switch that will turn on a light
at the bottom of the ladder.” Her father added.

Larc turned to me and said, “Zevin I want
you to take the SUV and get it filled up while I find these books.
When you’re done come back for me and Evette and then we’ll see
what can be done about getting that last Bible away from the
Baron.”

Larc turned to Evette, “Are you okay up here
Evette with him?” Larc asked indicating her father.

She nodded and I left for the SUV.

Evette watched as Larc climbed down the
ladder and moments later she saw a light come on. She didn’t want
to look at her father, who sat breathing heavy on the pew near her,
so she went to a window and stared out at the little town that lay
below the church.

She had been raised in this church, but had
never cared for it or the town. They had always seemed to be empty
of substance to her. Her father and mother had come here after all
of her father’s attempts to make it on the big television
evangelist circuit had all failed.

She wasn’t quite sure why all his attempts
to make it big had failed. Hadn’t done enough believable miracles
or hadn’t convinced enough people that all they had to do to be
wealthy and blessed in life was to sponsor him in his sharing of
the gospel. Maybe they had seen through his cultured veneer or
faked sincerity and seen him for the shallow ego centrist that she
had always known him to be.

Much of what she had learned spiritually had
come from her quiet study times with her mother. She had never
gained anything from her father’s grandiose bigger than life sermon
topics that were often built on personal opinion and a liberal
interpretation of the scripture, when he hadn’t even bothered to
quote from it. The only message that had come across to her most
predominantly in her father’s sermons was, ‘I need your money and
you should give it to me, because I’m better than you and more
deserving because of the work I do for you all.’

Having been a failure for the most part to
gain a wider following and deeply in debt, from living a life well
beyond his limited means, he had brought her mother to this hole in
the wall to hide from his past mistakes and creditors. He had been
in a self forced exile from the greater world, until he had come up
with a big idea. One that he had thought would launch him back onto
the big stages and packed auditoriums.

He decided to start a revival and bring the
people to him first before branching out and accepting the pleas to
rejoin the big crowd. It had been going well for a while, but then
the disaster had struck and everyone’s life had turned upside
down.

He lost his new following and his new found
source of capitol along with it. Her mother had died in that time
frame, not that he had cared much about the occurrence of it. Her
mother’s death had rocked her world though.

Her father still trying to make his dream
come true, but without the money to make it happen, came up with
the devil’s bargain that he had struck with the Baron. Her in
exchange for the Baron’s funding of Papa’s ministry. Remembering
the past made her want to vomit and slit her father’s throat all
over again. She steered her thoughts elsewhere before she did
both.

How were they going to get the last Bible
from the Baron? Movement outside the window caught her eye. Pickup
trucks and cars converged on the church pulling up outside.

Men armed with guns spilled out of the
vehicles. Then it dawned on her how much she resembled her mother
all grown up. She shouldn’t have washed her hair dye out!

The cleaning lady must have recognized her
and told the Baron in exchange for what money she could coax out of
him. They would be here for the strangers too no doubt. She had to
warn Larc!

She was halfway to the trapdoor, when she
stopped abruptly. What would Larc do?

He’d go out there and try to defend her in
order to give her time to get away. He’d be mowed down by gunfire
within seconds and killed! She couldn’t let that happen!

She had come to care for him to much to see
him die, especially when there was another way. Going to the hole
in the floor she got down on her stomach and peered into the room
below. Larc was at the far end of the narrow subterranean room.

“Larc!”

He turned to look up at her and smiled,
“Found them!” He said as he held up two big books.

“Larc there are men outside with guns sent
by the Baron! I’m sorry but I have to do this for your own
good!”

She finished with three words that she
really didn’t say, but Larc was able to clearly read them from off
her lips.

“Evette don’t!” He yelled, even as he ran
for the ladder, but Evette had already reared back, and slammed the
door shut and locked it.

The door shook violently from the force of
Larc’s bodily blows against it. Briefly Evette stared at the
bucking door in panic, as muffled shouts sounded out from below
demanding for her to open the door.

They’d hear him!

She saw the pulpit and relaxed. Leaning down
she kissed the frame of the door and whispered, “Please come for
me!”

She jumped up to her feet and pushed the
heavy pulpit over the trapdoor. There was silence.

Evette picked up the knife she had set down
and walked over to her father brandishing the knife as she did
so.

Holding the knife up she said, “If you tell
those men outside about Larc or the whereabouts of the others I
swear I will find you even if I have to come back from the grave.
I’ll skin you and roast you over a fire myself and that’s a
promise! Do I make myself clear Papa?”

The man, who was her father shrank back from
the hellish promise he could seeing glowing from her eyes with
savage intent for him, not doubting one word of which she had
spoken would come true if he talked.

He managed to shake his head, but it was
hard to tell because of how badly he was shaking overall. Leaving
him, Evette hurried up the main isle of the church toward the big
double doors saying a prayer as she did so.

She slipped the knife into a fold of one of
the linen bandages that were beneath her shirt. Rebuttoning her
shirt she paused before the big doors and mentally forced herself
to put on a face of nonchalant coolness, which had been her
trademark for years, to shield the outside world from being able to
see the mixed up emotional child that she viewed herself to be
inside.

She hadn’t needed such a look while being
with Larc, because he demanded authentic emotion and could handle
what it was to be her. With her face in place she pushed the doors
open and stepped outside. Over twenty guns were instantly trained
on her, which she responded to only by a lifting of her hands to
show that she was unarmed.

The guns stayed on her though as she made
her way down the stairs. The car door of a black shiny sedan opened
and the Baron himself stepped out of it. He was a man of about
sixty five, who had only recently begun to gray.

He had the healthful vitality and appearance
of a man twenty years his junior. Most people agreed that his most
remarkable feature were his cobalt blue eyes. They could pierce
straight through an individual and were capable of expressing
volumes in a single glance.

He was known to be utterly ruthless when he
wanted something and a shrewd businessman overall. He had an iron
grip over the town and was answerable to no one. He did as he
pleased while making sure to drop enough crumbs to keep the people
of the town dependant and loyal to him only. He was a confident
man.

His sharp features creased into a smile,
that didn’t reach his cold eyes, as he saw her draw near. “I didn’t
believe it was true, when I heard the news, but now I can see that
they spoke the truth. You are even more radiant than your mother! I
will very much enjoy discovering you all over again!”

Evette’s heart threatened to break free of
her chest. She wanted nothing more than to rip the knife free and
slash into him, but she kept her face devoid of the savage emotions
that ran amok within her or at least she hoped she did.

His eyebrows rose and his eyes seemed to
laugh at her, “My, my you have changed! You’ve learned to control
that hellcat temper of yours! Impressive!”

Evette continued to stare levelly at him
showing no emotion. He was only trying to get a rise out of her so
that he could show how he was in control of everything again.

“One thing before we leave darling, your
companions where are they?”

“They’re gone.”

“Why did they come here?”

“They came for a Bible. They found two and
now they’re gone.”

“A Bible! What on Earth would they want one
of those for anymore?”

“Someday you’ll find out.” Evette said
succinctly.

The Baron laughed slightly, “Touché my
dear.” and held open the car door for her.

She got in and he got in behind her. Within
minutes all the vehicles were gone from the church parking lot.

I stepped around the corner of an outlying
shed on the church grounds and made my way to the church quickly.
They had taken Evette, but I hadn’t seen Larc taken.

I bounded up the front stairs of the church
two at a time in fear that I would find Larc dead inside or wounded
and near death.

I burst into the auditorium and ran up the
aisle. Evette’s father was still where he had been only now he was
blubbering unintelligibly to himself about something that sounded
like, “This is all my fault!” ,over and over as he shook his
head.

I didn’t see Larc anywhere. Turning to him I
fairly yelled unmindful of being heard by others, “Where’s Larc?
Where is he?”

He paused his blubbering to point at the
pulpit. I jumped up onto the stage and shoved the pulpit to the
side. The trapdoor fairly exploded apart before I could even unlock
it.

Two books were thrown up and out, which I
deftly caught. An irate and panicked Larc exploded up out of the
hole in the floor and looked around feverishly.

“Where is she?” He asked turning to me in
desperation.

“There were a bunch of vessels pulled up
outside with armed men. They took her with them.” I said and then
added, “She saved your life by what she did.”

The anger faded away from his face to reveal
that it had only been a mask to hide the naked fear that I saw in
his eyes now, “I’ve got to rescue her!” He said almost to himself,
as he wiped the sweat off his brow with a hand that was bleeding
all along the knuckles, from where he had been pounding away at the
trapdoor.