Chloe was in the kitchen when Tsion Ben-Judah arrived. She had a pot of vegetable soup on the boil, and was throwing together a quick salad, when he popped his head in. “Need a hand?” he asked.
“No thanks, I’ve got it all under control.” She tossed the lettuce. “So, how is everything?”
“Confusing.” He frowned. “Jesus keeps telling me something, but he won’t explain. Every time I pray, I get the same message, ‘Be watchful’, but he won’t tell me what that means.”
“God answers our questions in his time, not ours.” Chloe smiled, feeling a moment of...satisfaction at her ability to find such a pious answer. How far she’d come from the days where she’d questioned and picked at everything, subjecting it to the harsh light of intellect! How she’d grown in faith!
“I know,” Tsion nodded. “I’ve prayed for contentment and faith. But Jesus would have me watchful, and I don’t know what to watch. I mean we’re supposed to have a thousand years before Satan returns with his hordes...” He stopped.
“What is it?” Chloe asked.
“There it is again. Be watchful. Watch what?”
Kenny came tearing through the kitchen, trailing a pack of little boys. “Hi, Mom! Is it okay if I bring some friends for dinner?”
Chloe glanced over at the boys. They were mostly about Kenny’s age, with a few older ones. A rather grubby black boy stood in the back, scraping his muddy feet on the welcome mat. She subdivided the soup and salad, and came to a conclusion. “Sure, honey. I’ll just call Irene, and see if she can bring a dish of buttered vegetables to round out the meal. And I think your little friends,” she paused, glancing meaningfully at the black boy in the back, “should get cleaned up properly. What is it you kids play at that gets you so dirty, anyways?”
“I don’t know, Mom.” Kenny grinned. “I stay nice and clean. See?” He held up his hands for her inspection.
“Yes you do, dear. Very good. Now show your friends where to wash up, and you might want to lend...Chris, right? Lend Chris a nice clean outfit.”
As the kids tromped out, Chloe smiled at Tsion. “There’s some sort of trend going on. Mud pies, or mud-ball fights or something. I don’t know what. Half the kids are into it, and it involves getting really dirty.”
“Kids,” Tsion nodded. “Would you like a hand now? I do a mean fruit salad.”
Chloe sighed, glancing down at her salad bowl. “With Kenny’s friends eating here, I get the feeling the more food, the better.”
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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10 comments:
I guess no one eats bread? Just vegetables?
Love your story line. :-)
When this storyline first started (and I thought it was just one entry), I loved it. But now that it's ongoing, I find I have this mounting sense of dread. It seems inevitable that Chloe, Buck..er..Cameron, and the rest of Jesus' minions will find out what the kids doing, and I fear they'll do something awful to the kids "for their own good." Is a happy ending for the "CoTs" too much to hope for?
(Forgot to click "other" so I could post under my usual handle.)
That would be a reasonable way for the story line to continue, Alan. If they do something to the kids, such as locking them in a building and subjecting them to 24/7 prostelizing I would like to see if Chloe at least starts to question the methods and evaluates what sort of Paradise she has joined.
And what she will do with this insight, and what the rest of the minions will do if she acts on it.
When this gets done, please find a place where you can post the entire story with the beginning at the top and the end at the bottom.
I take it the thing with Chloe looking at the black kid and noticing him most is a job at L and Js VERY thinly veiled racism not to mention the thinly veiled racism of most Evangelicals right?
Or did I just read to much into it? LOL
Just a thing that jumped out at me... "God answers our questions in our time, not his." Shouldn't that be his time, not ours?
I'm also getting that feeling of dread. If this is seen as rebellion against God-- well, we all know what happened to Lucifer.
I hope Chloe gets unbrainwashed in this story. Of course, that sort of thing violates the rules of the universe she's stuck in.
The implicit racism was intentional; I was trying to get at the weird racial attitudes of the books.
"Our time, not his" was a typo. Fixed now.
"Be watchful"...
Vigilo Confido?
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