Agent finds a Warrior (3 page)

She glanced up briefly into the mirror to
meet my eyes, “Thank you.”

She was becoming more aware of her
surroundings again and with that progression came embarrassment.
Maria was a proud woman, who prided herself on control and this
whole scene was abjectly nightmarish in terms of embarrassment.

“Terrifying isn’t it?” I said only loud
enough to be heard over the running of the water faucet.

She glanced back up into the mirror as her
mind left the thought of how embarrassed she should be for a
moment. “What?” She asked.

I elaborated, “To be chastised, disciplined,
heavenly spanked if you will.”

Her corresponding shiver was answer enough
to my question.

I held up a palm full of water to her mouth
for her to wash her mouth out even as I said, “A thing to remember
in this moment is that no matter how scared you are God still loves
you.”

She spit the water out and looked up her
eyes miserable looking in their reflection from the mirror, “I made
Him angry! I……”

“His anger passes quickly and yes even
though angry He loves you still.” I said consolingly as I rubbed
her back softly.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because just like a parent, who truly loves
their child will discipline their child when he’s done something
wrong, He disciplined you. It is a pattern of love that bears
witness to how God lovingly admonishes those of us who believe in
Him. When He stops disciplining you is when you should be truly
afraid.”

Maria looked up, “I don’t ever want to make
Him angry again! It felt…….”

“Like the glue holding you together was
removed for a moment.” I inter-joined softly.

“Yes!” Then Maria asked, “You’ve been
disciplined?”

“I’m far from perfect Maria and I’ve had
longer than most to make mistakes. I’m living proof of God’s
enduring mercy.”

I gave her a little more room, as she
started to mess around with her hair.

“Out of curiosity what is it that you’re
having a hard time with in concern to God? Can I help in some
way?”

Her eyes flashed to mine, “I uhh…… I don’t
know if I’m allowed to tell you, because it concerns you.” She
managed to stutter out looking very uncomfortable.

I held up my hands, “If you don’t feel
released from God to share that is perfectly fine. Any allegiance
to me is subservient to any direction you have from God.”

She looked relieved at my words and I
couldn’t but help wonder what God had tasked her with in concern to
me.

“Now how do you feel?” I asked.

“Like a fool.”

“Well by that very statement you prove you
are not a fool, by the way of simply stating that a true fool
wouldn’t think to wonder whether or not she was a fool or not. See
the logic?”

A hint of a smile lightened up Maria’s face
briefly, as I attempted to coax her into a better frame of
mind.

“Now that we’ve determined that you are most
definitely not a fool is there something I can do for you?”

Her hands twisted together, “I’m hungry
again.”

I glanced toward the sink feeling sorry for
her. It was my opinion that throwing up never gets any better no
matter how long you live.

“But of course you are! How does pizza
sound?”

“Wonderful!”

I made my way to the door and she took
several steps after me before stopping. I saw it all take place
then on her face. She was imagining how terrible her exit from the
hotel dining room must’ve looked, only to then run into the men’s
restroom.

Both of those occurrences paled in
comparison to then walking out of the men’s room with a man after a
considerable period of duration inside. She was helpless to put
words to it, but the imploring look she gave me said it all.

I reached up and tore the cover off the fire
alarm and then I jammed it on. Alarms erupted throughout the hotel,
as Maria’s mouth fell open in shock.

Grinning at her I said, “This is a first for
me! Come on, I bet you’ve always wanted to do that?”

Her mouth moved wordlessly and I held up a
finger, “Shhh. You might lie and get spanked again.”

Her mouth abruptly closed.

I went to the door and opened it a crack, as
Maria came to an anxious fret beside me, “What about security
cameras? They’ll track us back to our room! They’ll know it was
us!”

“Curious thing about security cameras and
me. They don’t work when I’m around.”

I pulled the door open and escorted Maria
out into the scene of pandemonium taking place within the hotel.
People rushed all around highly agitated, the last thing on their
minds being the woman who had dashed into the men’s restroom.

By the time I reached the street I was
laughing hard. I caught Maria looking at me enigmatically and I
sobered up in a Peloponnesian moment.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“I’ve never heard you laugh. You have a very
nice laugh. I like it.”

I was quite positive that I’d never had my
laugh complemented before and I really didn’t know what to say in
reply. Vaguely I pointed off to the right, “Pizza’s this way.”

She reached out to me to grasp my hand
briefly, “Thank you for getting me out of there, with a little
pride left intact.”

I nodded and then we headed up the street
towards the glowing sign of a pizza parlor.

I only had a little of the pizza, while I
watched her devour the majority of it. She was quiet and pensive
looking as she ate. She looked like she needed cheering up. I
glanced at a clock above us, there was enough time.

I leaned forward across the table and
engagingly asked, “Want to hear a story?”

Her eyes lifted to mine and I saw curiosity
gleam brightly in the smoky brown depths of them, “What kind of a
story?” She asked slowly as interest lightened up her downcast
features.

She really was a gorgeous woman. I was
getting myself in deeper, but there was no hope for it.

“I know many stories. Come up with a sub
genre type story and I’ll try to pick one out for you.”

Her eyes now positively glowed, “For real?”
She asked excitedly.

I nodded thinking again to myself how
different Maria was from whom I thought she had been.

“Hmmm, I want something old and Robin
Hoodish.”

I put my elbows on the table and leaned
forward conspiratorially toward her and watched her eyes get big. I
began my tale, “Our story began a very long time ago in a kingdom
that has since been swallowed up by the sea. The kingdom of
Artaxoriana was a prosperous one ruled over by a wise king. It was
a tumultuous time in the world, where small kingdoms fell all the
time, but such was not the case for Artaxoriana. Since its
inception by its king it was a place of well-run order, for her
king adhered to the old ways and was just and righteous. For 300
years this king ruled and governed his people well. Time caught up
to him and he made plans for his departure from this life to the
next. He wanted all of his children to be left with something. He
had several wives and had accumulated over the years in excess of
100 children. He planned to give something of value to all of them.
The youngest son fearing that his inheritance and position of
prominence would be least of all, chose instead, to ask his father
for his blessing to leave the kingdom and venture out and make his
own way and be prosperous on his own terms. All he asked his father
for was his blessing. His father gave him his blessing and the son
left, but he didn’t get far. Two days later traveling along the
seacoast he was picked up by pirates and turned into a galley
slave. The king died and the son he appointed to rule in his stead
was murdered by some of his brother’s who ransacked the kingdom.
Many atrocities were committed. Four brothers by one of the old
king’s wives rose to the forefront and eliminated all the other
sons of the king as well as his daughters, who they abused horribly
before they let them die. The brothers mother came of a different
belief than the old kings had been and she had warped her sons with
the unclean tenets of her faith in the dark arts. She believed her
blood was of pure divine origin. They went so far as to keep the
purity of their blood that all four brothers jointly married their
one sister. The kingdom was thrown into ruin and chaos. Outlying
towns were raided and traders left off trading with the kingdom,
because of how they were treated by the ruling brothers and their
sister. Several kingdoms banded together to attack Artaxoriana in
order to end the rule of the brothers, who were bringing
instability and economic loss to the whole region. The attack
failed and the other kingdoms were brought under harsh submission.
Help for the situation came from an unlikely source. Pirates.
Without the heavy trading income, which brought trade ships for the
pirates to prey upon they had no rich game anymore, because of the
four brothers harsh mismanagement of the kingdom and of the
surrounding kingdoms. The youngest son managed to escape the life
of a galley slave to become a pirate in order to save his life. He
was as his father had been and soon the pirates of the galley
looked to him as their leader. Instead of attacking what few
remaining trade ships were left they protected them in exchange for
enough to get by on. The youngest son had a bigger idea though. He
took the initiative to solicit other pirate ships to do the same.
He even married a pirate queen in the process. Instead of just
protecting the remaining trade ships that made their way around the
surrounding kingdoms they began to use the pirate galleys as trade
vessels as well. They aided the surrounding kingdoms to build back
up in this way for which in return the youngest son asked only that
food be given to the starving people of Artaxoriana by the
surrounding kingdoms. They did so and as news spread that a son of
the wise king yet lived the people rose up and the army switched
sides and heralded the arrival of the youngest son of the old king
at the head of a motley band of pirates turned kingdom savers, with
his beautiful pirate queen by his side. The four brothers and their
sister were removed from power and within fifty years the
prosperity of the kingdom was restored aided by the pirates that
now protected the trade routes themselves, who in turn were made
fabulously wealthy by the protection tariffs that they charged.
There you go, was that Robin Hood enough for you?” I asked, as I
leaned back into my seat and away from the table.

She was smiling as she said, “You just made
all that up.”

“Sure.” I said smiling easily.

With a sparkle to her eyes Maria asked, “So
what happened to the incestuous group of five siblings?”

“They were marooned on a desert island that
had giants living on it.”

Maria looked at me uncertain as to what that
meant so I elaborated, “They got eaten.”

Maria’s eyes widened as she said, “You
didn’t make the story up did you.”

I didn’t say anything but I could see her
mind racing with the possibilities.

“How long ago was this?” She asked
casually.

I just smiled at her and she guessed that
was all the answer that she would get so she settled for asking
another question, “Did the story end well for the young king and
his pirate queen?”

I sighed and looked down at the table, “It
did, but fifty short years after they were gone their grandchildren
and the people of the kingdom were sacrificing their children to a
moon goddess.”

Silence lengthened for a moment and I broke
it by grabbing the bill and getting up. What more was there to be
said of such a story?

I’d been trying to cheer her up and I had
depressed myself with memories of the past.

I stepped up to the cash register and
glancing around I found a box of chocolate bars. I threw two of
them down with the bill and then moments later I walked out the
door to where Maria was waiting on the street.

I tossed her one of the chocolate bars and
she caught it with a surprised look.

“You like chocolate don’t you?”

The look on her face was answer enough to
that.

“Behold your desert. Now shall we return to
the scene of our crime and see if the ant colony has calmed down
yet?”

Maria did something then I’d never heard her
do before, she giggled. It was a lovely sound.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maria lay awake in her bed by the window.
She knew Elon was still awake.

“What part did you play in the story?” She
asked softly into the soft gloom of the room.

There was a long pause, with the AC being
the only noise within the room, before Elon responded, “I helped
convince the pirate queen not to kill the son and I helped advise
the old king early on in his reign.”

Maria glanced over in the dark towards Elon,
“Good night Elon.”

“Good night Maria.”

Time passed and Maria heard Elon’s breathing
even out into sleep. Sleep was far from her though. She turned over
on her side to face the window.

Her mind filtered back over the evening and
what a wild turn of events her life had taken. It didn’t promise to
get any less exciting anytime soon either. She had her life back
and a heavenly purpose to go with it, if she chose to accept
it.

It seemed so strange, even carnally simple,
what God was asking of her, but who was she to judge God’s motives?
That point had been made very clear to her this evening and she was
never ever going to make that mistake again.

A tear slipped down her face as the last of
her will was surrendered. Softly she said, “Okay God. It’s Your
show. I’ll do whatever You ask of me in concern to this man. I’ll
pray for him and I’ll give myself to him if that’s what You
want.”

Instead of tension over what she had just
promised, peace overwhelmed her beyond any comprehension and her
head sank into the pillow and all of a sudden she felt very sleepy.
Her mind already foggy with tiredness she asked, “He doesn’t want a
relationship with me. He fights against his desire for me?”