Nicolae High (2 page)

“Thank you, Deacon,” she said.

Judd wished Vicki had told him she was going with or without him. He would have at least made her promise to call him once in a while so he’d know she was all right. Now how would he get word to her about school? Loudspeakers began blaring late Friday night, informing residents to tune in certain radio and TV emergency-broadcast stations. “Local schools will reopen a week from tomorrow,” came the announcements, “and those stations will carry the details.”

“What details?” Ryan said, and he and Lionel joined Judd in front of the TV.

“Listen and find out, stupid,” Lionel said.

“I just figured you’d know, genius,” Ryan said.

“Knock it off, you two,” Judd said. “I want to hear this.”

“We already know what they’re going to say,” Lionel said. “We know when, we know where, and we know what. School. Yuck.”

“You both go to Lincoln, right?” Judd said.

Lionel nodded.

“Me too,” Ryan said. “But we’re not in the same classes.”

“At least I have
something
to be thankful for,” Lionel said.

Judd shushed them as the list of schools came up. As the names of junior highs scrolled past, Judd read, “Formerly Lincoln Junior High, now Global Community Middle School.”

Lionel seemed to flinch. “Why would they do that?” he said. “Change a perfectly good name. I liked going to a school named after a great president.”

The phone rang.

“I’ll get it,” Ryan said. Judd let him as he watched the high school listings. But the station did better than just list the openings. The news of Prospect High was accompanied by film footage of the changing of the sign out front.

“It’s for you,” Ryan said from the kitchen phone. “Judd!”

Judd heard him but didn’t respond. He stood, staring at the screen. A cherry picker and crane on the back of a truck hoisted a workman to the Prospect High sign. As Ryan nagged him from the kitchen, Judd saw the man on TV trade one sheet of plastic for another that slid in front of the lights on the sign.

Prospect High was no longer. His school would now be known as Nicolae Carpathia High. The sports mascot would also be changed. The teams formerly known as the Knights would now be the Doves.

“C’mon, Judd!” Ryan whined. “It’s Bruce for you.”

“Y
OU
been watching the news?” Bruce asked.

“Yes,” Judd said, “unfortunately.”

“You understand what’s going on?”

“What’s to understand? School starts a week from tomorrow at Nicolae Carpathia High.”

Bruce laughed. “Well, it may come to that, but I meant—”

“What do you mean it
may
come to that? I was serious.” Judd told him of the school announcements.

“It doesn’t surprise me about their changing Lincoln to Global Community,” Bruce said. “That’s going to happen everywhere with the new emphasis on a one-world government. They’ll want to remove nationalism and make everything planet oriented. But to already start naming things after the UN secretary-general? Wow.”

“I thought you were calling to make sure I knew school was back on,” Judd said.

“No, you caught that before I did. I just finished a meeting with the adult core group I told you about—the Tribulation Force.”

“Yeah, the pilot and his daughter?”

“And the magazine writer. Anyway, they had not heard the big international news today, and I wanted to make sure you heard it. I have to prepare my Sunday sermon tomorrow morning, but I wondered if you four would want to come to my office early so we could talk about it.”

“Three of us can. What’s the news?”

“Carpathia is making himself unavailable for several days while he and his top people work on what he calls ‘an understanding’ between the global community and Israel, and a special arrangement between the UN and the United States.”

“What does that mean?”

“That’s what I’d like to talk to the Junior Trib Force about tomorrow. Sorry, the Kids Trib Force.”

“How about we just call it the Young Trib Force?” Judd said.

“Sure,” Bruce said. “Now, who can’t make it?”

When Judd told Bruce where Vicki was, Judd was met with a long silence. “Judd,” the pastor said finally, “this is not going to work.”

Judd felt his neck flush. “What’s not going to work?”

“You being in charge of these kids. If you can’t control—”

“Controlling them is not my job!” Judd blurted. “I’m just giving them a place to stay. I’m not their parent. I can’t tell them what to do.”

“Judd, listen to me. I feel responsible for you guys too, because I know you and know where you are. You’d never get away with living alone at your ages if we weren’t in the middle of a crisis. If the police weren’t so busy, they’d never stand for this. I ought to call them and have them watch for Vicki, and if they don’t have the manpower, I should be out looking for her myself. Where is she headed?”

“I’m not sure,” Judd said, “but you’re not responsible for us. We don’t answer to you, and we don’t have to do what you say. What are you going to do? Tell on us? Get us in trouble? What kind of a friend is that?”

Judd couldn’t believe he was talking that way to a man he admired and respected as much as he did Bruce Barnes. Bruce had led all four of the kids to Christ and treated them with respect. But Judd didn’t like to be lectured or told what to do. Now he sensed he had hurt Bruce, who was silent again.

“I’d like to think I’m your pastor,” Bruce said at last. Judd felt guilty when he heard the emotion in Bruce’s voice. He had broken the man’s heart, and he knew he should apologize. Judd didn’t have much experience with that, but he knew he would have to get around to it sometime soon. “Will you at least come early tomorrow morning so I can tell you what I think about what’s going on?”

“Of course,” Judd said, trying to sound encouraging and apologetic. “How early?”

“Like I said, I’ve got sermon preparation, so if you could come as early as eight, I’d appreciate it.”

“We’ll be there,” Judd said. “All of us who are here anyway.”

“You don’t mind telling the younger ones what to do?”

Judd knew he had been caught in his own weak logic.

Deacon looked at his watch. Vicki was aware that they had been getting puzzled stares from other truckers as they ate at the counter in the truck stop. Deacon insisted on paying, though she told him she had borrowed plenty of money from Judd.

“Don’t be saying that too loud either,” he said. “You don’t want anybody knowing you’re carrying a lot of cash.”

“Hey, Deacon,” a man said on his way out. “Keep preachin’, bro.”

“Will do, Claud. Hey, you’re not runnin’ to Michigan tonight, are you?”

“Nope, sorry. What’s up?”

“Looking for a ride for a friend. Can’t let her ride with just anybody.”

“But you’d trust her with me?” Claud said, smiling at Vicki. “I’m flattered. If you want to see Pennsylvania tomorrow, you can ride with me, little lady. Otherwise, I can’t help ya.”

“Thanks anyway,” Vicki said.

Deacon checked the time again. “I’ve got to get going soon,” he said, “but tell me something. Did you say your boyfriend had wheels?”

She nodded. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“But he took you and the other two in, so he’s a good friend?”

“You could say that.”

“I need you to do me a favor, Vicki. Would you?”

“Depends.”

“I want you to call your friend and have him come get you. Now don’t shake your head. Hear me out. I don’t think it’s an accident you wound up riding in my truck tonight. I think God put us together to protect you.”

“Believe me, I can take care of myself.”

“Little lady, I can’t even take care of
my
self in this new day, and I’m a big, old, ugly man. Who knows what kind of trouble you could get yourself into out there? Now I have to go, but I’m not leaving until I know you’ve got a ride home.”

“But I have to get to—”

“Let me finish. I promise I’ll check with some people I know, people in law enforcement who can track this guy down for you, make sure he’s all right.”

“But I need to talk to him face-to-face. He treats me like a little girl and wouldn’t listen to me on the phone. If I was right there, he couldn’t just blow me off.”

“Well, then one of these days, when I know far enough in advance that I’m going to Michigan from the west, I’ll let you know and you can go with me.”

Vicki sat back and stared at Deacon. “You’d do that for me?”

He nodded. “What’s a brother for?”

Judd was relieved to hear from Vicki, so much so that he didn’t even mind the trip in the middle of the night to get her. He was not happy, however, to discover that she had given their phone number to Deacon. He seemed like a harmless and wonderful old guy, but who knew who was for real these days?

Judd was stony on the way home. Vicki badgered him to find out what was wrong.

“Bruce says this isn’t working,” he said, “and when you pull a stunt like this, I wonder if he might be right.”

Vicki shook her head as if she was frustrated and angry. “So kick me out of the house,” she said. “We don’t answer to Bruce. At least I don’t. And I don’t answer to you either. I mean, I’m grateful for all you’ve done, but you’re not my mom or dad.”

“You didn’t obey
them
either,” Judd said, and he knew he had gone too far this time. “Well,” he added, trying to make it better, “you told me that yourself.”

V
ICKI
could hardly believe herself. How could she be talking like that to the one person who had made her life bearable? She believed she had made Judd say something crueler than he had intended. The worst of it was that he was right. She was starting to talk to Judd and about Bruce the same way she had talked to and about her parents. Yet now she missed them with an ache so deep she knew it would not be soothed until she saw them with Jesus.

She wanted to apologize, but the words would not come. Bruce had taught the kids about having to deal with their old selves, their sin natures. Now she was discovering what he meant. Vicki had endured Lionel’s and Ryan’s bickering, passing that off as childishness and blaming it on their ages. But she and Judd should have known better. How could they let their old natures take over after all God, and Bruce, had done for them?

What had the encounter with Deacon been all about if not God showing her that he would protect her even when she did something stupid? Vicki had felt free and powerful when she started out, walking from the house out of the neighborhood and onto the main roads leading to the expressway. But then fear and foreboding had overtaken her, and she felt tense every second. Only when she finally saw Judd and was safely in his car and on the way back to the house did she realize how afraid she had been. Why couldn’t she say that? Pride? Resentment at having been scolded, in essence, by both Judd and Bruce?

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but Judd beat her to it.

“I’m sorry, Vicki,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know why I do that. I care about you, that’s all. I really thought it was a bad idea for you to go to Michigan at all, but if I had known you were going to do it anyway, I’d have taken you.”

“You would’ve?”

“Of course! I haven’t been able to sleep or do anything, wondering about you, worrying about you.”

She put a hand on his arm. “You’re sounding more and more like a parent all the time.”

“I know,” he said, smiling. “And I can’t believe it.”

Vicki felt Judd tense under her touch and quickly pulled her hand away. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea. She appreciated him. She liked him. But getting really interested in him, interested that way, would be a mistake.

“I’m sorry too, Judd,” she said. “I feel rotten when I act so selfish. I think I had the right idea, wanting to find Bub. God really did put that in my heart. But going myself was just trying to show you I was independent or something—I don’t know. It’s just that I feel this desperation to tell everybody about God. There’s been enough death. Nobody should still wonder what the disappearances were all about.”

“I know,” Judd said. “Maybe this Deacon guy can get you in touch with Bub somehow. You’ll get your chance.”

“I hope so.”

Judd told her about the school announcements.

“Oh, brother,” she said. “That sure seems like a waste of time. Aren’t you going to feel squirrelly, sitting in school while the rest of the world is dying?”

He nodded but didn’t say anything.

“What?” she said. “You don’t agree? I mean, what will we be studying and why? I was never that good a student, but I knew I needed that diploma to get any kind of job. School was all about the future. Well, now there is no future like that, so what’s the point?”

Judd was still quiet, and Vicki was intrigued. Usually she could tell when he agreed with her, and now he didn’t seem to. “You going?” she said. “Back to school, I mean?”

He nodded.

“You’re going to be a Carpathia Dove?”

“That I’ll never be,” he said, “but, yeah, I’m going to go.”

“You mind saying why?”

“For the same reasons you’re talking about.”

“The future?”

He nodded.

“But don’t you agree you’ll be studying subjects you’ll never use? Whatever kind of job you’ll have will have nothing to do with what you learn in high school now.”

He nodded again. Vicki sensed herself getting mad again. “So, why waste your time?” she said.

“I told you,” he said. “The future. Everybody at that high school needs to know what we know. You’d rather be out telling everybody about Jesus, but what about all those kids we’ll see every day? They were left behind just like we were. We’ll probably meet some believers, but I’ll bet not many.”

He had a point. “But will we be allowed to tell them about God?” she said. “Especially if Carpathia
is
the Antichrist? I can’t imagine anyone letting us do that in a building named after the guy himself. And what kind of sense does it make that we go to a school with that name?”

Judd pulled into the driveway. “It’s going to seem weird,” he said. “I don’t guess I’ll be buying a varsity jacket.”

He told Vicki about the morning meeting with Bruce, then let her out of the car before pulling into the garage. “Thanks for coming to get me, Judd. I didn’t deserve it.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Well, you’re grounded.”

She was too tired to smile.

Judd, on the other hand, was unable to sleep. He wandered into his father’s den, where the latest monster computer sat. Judd and Marc and Marcie used to play games on it and surf the Net. Judd had enjoyed all the chat rooms, though his parents warned him about the worst ones. Those didn’t even tempt him now.

He pulled the dustcover off and fired up the machine. He was stunned to see how many advertisements he found for people with schemes on how to get rich in light of the global mess. One ghastly Web site promised a listing of everybody who had died or disappeared. Judd spent an hour there, pulling up names of his own family and other acquaintances to see how accurate the thing was.

His parents were listed as having disappeared. Ryan’s parents were listed as known dead. Vicki’s parents were listed as killed in a trailer fire, which he knew was not true but would also be impossible to prove. Judd wanted to look up Bub for Vicki, but that wasn’t enough to go on. Bub couldn’t be his real first name, and even if it was, Judd had never heard a last name. Vicki had to know it, though, because she gave Deacon enough info that he was sure he could track down Eddie Byrne’s friend.

Judd was amazed to see how late it was. He had promised Bruce he would bring at least Lionel and Ryan to the church in the morning. Vicki would be a pleasant surprise for Bruce.

The phone awakened Judd, and he was startled to notice that it was already ten minutes after eight. “Oh, no,” he groaned, knowing the caller would be Bruce. He was right, and he quickly apologized, promising to get everybody rounded up and over there as fast as he could. Judd explained he had been up late, going to get Vicki.

“At least that’s good news,” Bruce said. “Now please respect my schedule so I can get to my sermon preparation when I need to.”

Judd scolded Lionel and Ryan for not getting him up, but they, of course, blamed each other. “You never told me when the meeting was,” Vicki said, sitting at the table in the kitchen. “I’m ready when you are.”

Twenty minutes later, after Judd’s shower, they all piled into the car. No surprise to Judd, Bruce seemed perturbed when they arrived. He didn’t lecture them, but he did say he was willing to have a regular meeting time every other day and that they would be expected to be there on time and ready to study. “There’s so much for you to learn, and if you’re going to back to school, you’re going to be in the minority there. It won’t be easy.”

He prayed and then opened his Bible, but before saying anything, he took a deep breath and seemed on the verge of tears. “I feel a tremendous responsibility for you all,” he said. “I know you don’t want me to. You want to be independent and not answer to anyone. We’re all that way. But it’s nothing but pride and selfishness. The Bible says that as your pastor, I am also your shepherd. That doesn’t make me your parent, but if you want to be in the church and in this little group, your responsibility is to respect my authority over you.

“That’s not easy for me either. I’m not used to it yet myself. I’m trying to run this church, but I’m also spending most of my days and evenings studying the Bible and commentaries so I can try to explain to you and everyone else what is going on.”

“And what’s to come,” Judd offered.

“Exactly. I feel the press of God on me. It’s hard. And I know I’m not the only one who feels it. We’re all hurting, we’ve all lost people, we all missed the truth. I don’t want to lay this all on you, but my house is so big and so cold and so lonely without my family that sometimes I don’t even go home at night. I study here until I fall asleep, and I go home in the morning only to clean up and change and get back here.”

Judd didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t seen Bruce like this. One thing was for sure: Judd wouldn’t let anybody be late to these meetings again.

“One of the things I had never been good at was reading the Bible every day,” Bruce continued. “I pretended to be a believer, a so-called full-time Christian worker, but I didn’t care about the Bible. Now I can’t get enough of it. I know what people meant when they used to say they feasted on the Word. Sometimes I sit drinking it in for hours, losing track of time, weeping and praying, forgetting to eat. Sometimes I just slip from my chair and fall to my knees, calling out to God to make it clear to me. Most frightening—and thrilling—of all, he’s doing just that.”

Vicki was riveted, and she could tell even the younger boys were too. They hadn’t seen Bruce like this. Something was weighing on him, and it had nothing to do with the fact that the Young Trib Force had been late that Saturday morning.

“I need your prayers,” Bruce continued. “God is showing me things, impressing truth on me that I can barely keep quiet about. Yet if I say these things publicly, I will be ridiculed and might even be in danger.”

“Like what?” Vicki said.

Bruce stepped to the corner of his desk and sat on it, towering over the kids. “We know Nicolae Carpathia is the Antichrist. Even if the story Mr. Williams told you about Carpathia’s supernatural hypnotic power and his murder of those two men was not true—and of course I believe it is—there’s still plenty of evidence against him. He fits the prophecies. He’s deceptive. He’s charming. People are drawn to him, flocking to support him. He has been thrust into power, seemingly against his own wishes. He’s pushing a one-world government, a one-world money system, a treaty with Israel, moving the UN to Babylon. That alone proves it.”

Vicki’s ears perked up at the mention of the treaty with Israel. “He’s said that?” she said. “On the news, I mean? Isn’t that the start of the seven-year tribulation?”

Bruce nodded. “Yesterday,” he said. “His spokesman said Carpathia would be unavailable for several days while he conducted strategic high-level meetings.”

“But did he say what they would be about?”

“He said Carpathia felt obligated to move quickly to unite the world in a move toward peace. He’s having nations destroy 90 percent of their weaponry and donate the remaining 10 percent to the UN in Babylon, which he has renamed New Babylon. He’s also pushing the international money people to settle on one form of currency for the whole world. And he wants all the religions of the world to unite as one big group that tolerates everybody’s beliefs. I’m guessing we’ll see a one-world religion.”