The Caleb Collection Page 34

  A strand of her dark hair played along her cheek, bent by the breeze. He saw her throat move with a swallow. And below, just below that blue collar, began the rumpled skin that she was relegated to hauling through this life— her skin of this world. One which she couldn’t step past if she tried.

  “Would you like to walk in the kingdom?”

  Caleb asked the question, and it sounded odd on that lonely hill.

  Jason joined them in looking down-valley. “What do you mean walk?”

  “Would you like to empty your heart and let the Spirit of God give you the strength to walk in the kingdom?”

  “Yes,” Leiah said.

  Caleb turned to her. “Then you should first want it like you’d desire a treasure. More than anything you could own. It’s your desire that will guide you, not your intention.” He spun back to Jason, excited. “Do you understand?”

  Jason thought about that. In all honesty the things that once seemed so important to him felt like crumbs next to the peace he’d felt last Sunday. He was being a fool about his son’s death, letting it hold him in this impossible place. What he would give to be free from it all—to walk where Caleb walked.

  “ . . . give it up,” Caleb was saying. “Surrender it all for the treasure. Even your life. It’s not worth anything anyway!”

  The boy scrambled to his knees. “Then you ask and trust him,” he said.

  Just ask and trust? Easier said than done. Jason glanced over at Leiah. She sat cross-legged and her face rested in her hands as if she were praying.

  He looked to the horizon and closed his eyes. Dear Father, I’m a fool. I feel like an ant down here. He paused, thinking on the truth of that. This kingdom Caleb talked about seemed so far beyond him.

  But I will set it all aside to walk with you. With your Spirit. Fill me with your Spirit, Father.

  He paused. In all honesty he would give up everything to walk with the Spirit. He would soon die anyway—another fifty years maybe. But to live with Caleb’s simple joy, now that would be something. Just ask and believe? And why not? If Caleb could walk in this kingdom, why couldn’t he?

  Father . . . fill me with your kingdom, your Spirit. Open my eyes—the eyes of my heart.Maybe he should put it like a relationship, he thought. I will leave everything for you.

  For a few moments the silence continued. Jason opened his eyes and looked over at Caleb and Leiah. Leiah had lifted her head and was staring ahead without expression. Caleb knelt between them wearing an openmouthed smile.

  Jason grinned patently. “Is that it?”

  Caleb didn’t speak. He bounced his head a little and looked at Leiah.

  That was it, then. And what had happened? Jason looked back to the tree line. He felt peaceful enough; the breeze tickled his neck and the sun was warm. But had he just been somehow changed again?

  “I don’t feel anything,” he said.

  Caleb giggled and Jason faced him again. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel any power or anything. I just don’t—”

  Caleb’s hand suddenly covered Jason’s eyes. The boy’s high-pitched voice rattled off a short string in Ge’ez. Then he stopped and Jason could hear the boy’s quick breaths.

  “Open the eyes of his heart,” Caleb said softly in English. He removed his hands.

  A high-pitched ringing filled Jason’s ears, but otherwise nothing happened. Nothing at all. The field grass still faced the same sun; the breeze still rustled through the nearby trees; the sky was still lined with that distant gray haze. A voice came to Jason’s mind. It was Dr. Thompson and he was repeating himself—“Maybe the boy can help you see some things. Whoever said . . .”

  Whoever said.

  Jason was about to turn to the boy when that gray sky exploded.

  He caught his breath and jerked back. White light streamed from a round hole cut from the clouds, as if a bomb had detonated over Los Angeles. Nothing else around him had changed (unless you count the boy’s sudden laughter a change), but that hole in the sky hung there, glowing white like a small sun. A low roar filled the air. The thought that it really might be a nuclear bomb flashed through Jason’s mind.

  He glanced quickly toward Leiah and saw that her mouth hung open. She saw it too.

  The hole in the sky suddenly rushed them, widening with a transparent blue throat, as if it intended to swallow them. The roar grew louder.

  Jason threw his arms up instinctively. The hole smashed into them, and Jason clenched his eyes and cried out.

  Only it didn’t really smash them. It swallowed them, and then it was gone, leaving pitch blackness and absolute silence in its wake.

  Jason heard a soft rushing and it occurred to him that it was his own breathing. He let his eyes flutter open. The blackness was as thick as cotton. He could be in the void of a black hole and see more, he thought. A thumping drummed in the background, but he quickly realized that it was only his heart. Had he gone blind?

  “Caleb?” he called out.

  Nothing.

  “Leiah!”

  Not even his own voice echoed back.

  I’ve died! I’ve died!

  A pinprick of light suddenly poked through the blackness. A tiny spot of white, like a star a hundred miles off. He blinked and steadied himself on the grass. Yes, the grass was still there, at his fingertips. He glanced down but saw nothing. When he lifted his head again, the pinprick had become a hole. And it was widening, slowly. There was something in it.

  Jason pulled back instinctively. His first thought was to run. To jump up and scramble for safety. But to where? And who said that hole there, growing by the second, wasn’t safety?

  It was the size of a headlight now, like a train heading toward him in the dark. The hole in the black sky swelled to the size of a three-story house just over where the trees had been a moment ago, nearly close enough to touch, it seemed. And then it hung there, motionless: a tunnel of light.

  Jason recognized the shape in the light: the silhouette of a man. A tall, strong man walking directly toward him with a deliberate step. Footsteps echoed through the sky. Clack—clack—clack—clack.

  It was the sound of Florsheims on a marble floor and they came louder. Clack—clack—clack, right toward him with hands swinging at the waist and shoulders square.

  The sound of the man’s footfall joined the pounding of his pulse to fill the black sky. And then it was only his pounding pulse, because the silhouette had stopped at the tunnel’s mouth, standing much taller than an ordinary man and gazing faceless at Jason.

  “Do you believe?”

  Jason jerked at the rumbling voice. The man had said that! The man had talked!

  Thump—thump—thump. Only his heart answered. The man stood still. He was waiting! Did he believe? Yes! Yes, he did believe, didn’t he? Yes, he did! He scrambled to his knees.

  “Yes,” Jason said, but it came out scratchy and breathy. He tried again, with more power. “Y—”

  “Then I will show you something,” the man interrupted. The silhouette whirled around to leave, as if he’d done what he intended to do here. Jason saw his cloak swirl around his body, like a bold musketeer.

  What happened with the sweep of that cloak could only be described as a detonation in his mind, because it was too large to have occurred over the trees. The horizons of his skull blinked to a brilliant white and Jason gasped. He clenched his eyes tight.

  When he opened them three seconds later he stared at a new world.

  The first thing he saw was blue. Not only above them in the sky, but all around them, as if they were submerged in a warm, transparent blue sea. But he could still see the sky and it was even brighter blue. Wisps of red and yellow swirled through the air, as if carried on a breeze that drifted lazily about the meadow. The distant smog was gone, but the meadow remained, surrounded by trees greener than they had been a moment ago.

  He turned slowly, stunned. Leiah was there, where he’d last seen her, looking around, fascinated. Their eyes met.

 
There was something strange about those beautiful eyes of hers. A very faint blue light was streaming from them. He looked down at his chest and saw that the light played on his shirt. If he wasn’t off the deep end here, he could actually feel it, warm and numbing.

  Then I will show you something.

  And what was he seeing?

  Jason smiled and looked up at her, filled with a strange intoxicating love. He felt the impulse to shout out to her. Something like, Hey, Leiah, did you see what I saw? Are you catching this? But actually it sounded . . . crazy. Childish.

  Leiah smiled sheepishly, and a green light spilled from her lips.

  Jason rose to his feet. Dear God, they were in heaven!

  Caleb skipped up to them from the direction of the cabin. He was pumping both arms into the sky, laughing. How had he gotten over there? He skipped around Leiah, and a red hue rose from his skin like colored steam. His eyes shone bright green and a yellow light glowed around his mouth.

  Leiah stood and stared at her fingers and then touched her mouth with them. If Jason hadn’t been firmly rooted to the ground, he might have run over to her and swung her from her feet and given her a great big bear hug. But his feet seemed unable to move.

  They had entered a world of impossibilities.

  Light was everywhere. Yellow light, red light, green light, blue light. Oozing from their dumb smiles and streaming from their eyes.

  Caleb started to giggle again. “Say something, Leiah,” he said. “Tell me what you think of me.”

  She faced him and spoke immediately. “I love you, Caleb.”

  A shaft of red light rushed from her mouth with those words. Jason’s heart jumped. The thick beam was laced with wisps of smoke like at a laser-light show. It struck Caleb in his chest, cascaded over his body, and was gone.

  The boy threw his head back and laughed as if tickled by some great unseen hand. Leiah stared ahead, mouth still open, dumbfounded.

  Caleb dropped his head and looked past his eyebrows at Jason. “Now how’s that for power?” he asked with a smirk. “And don’t think it comes from your own heart.”

  “What’s . . .” Jason’s skin tingled with anticipation. “What’s happening?” he asked.

  “He’s showing you! Do you see it? This is what it’s like! The kingdom of God is among you. It’s like Elijah’s servant! You’re seeing some things. You think he still uses chariots today? I’ve never seen it like this. Have you read John’s Revelation? This makes me think of John’s Revelation.” He laughed, delighted at the idea.

  “This?”

  Jason looked at Leiah, who was breathing into her palm and watching it as if she expected fire to consume her fingers. She suddenly faced Jason and smiled.

  “I love you, Jason.”

  The shaft was bright red, but it was laced with gold. It struck Jason’s chest like a battering ram and took away his breath. It didn’t physically hit his flesh. But it slammed through his heart, and it might as well have been a real shaft made of raw energy, because his whole body buzzed with it. Maybe it was real energy.

  His knees felt weak. He loved her desperately, but it was a new kind of love. Suddenly everything in him wanted to say that back to her. He did.

  “I love you, Leiah,” he said, and it came out like a shout.

  A red shaft of light from his mouth smashed into her, and she took a step backward, gasping.

  “See? See?” Caleb shouted, jumping up and down now. He suddenly ran over the knoll and tumbled from his feet. He somersaulted through the grass once and sprang to his feet again.

  Jason’s head swam in the mind-numbing intoxication of the moment. Leiah was still staring at him, wide-eyed at his last statement.

  “I love you,” he said again, and the light shot out again.

  This time she stepped into the shaft and walked to him as if she were walking upstream. “Say it again,” she said, locked on his eyes.

  “I love you, Leiah.” He stepped toward her.

  “And I love you, Jason.”

  His body trembled with her words, and he loped the last three steps. They collided there on the meadow, lost to the world, swimming in this mad passionate love spun from words made flesh. This love born of the Spirit.

  Leiah broke away, laughing with Caleb, who still skipped around, delighted at their display of love. She danced, twirling, like that shot of Maria spinning on the hills in The Sound of Music. She began to sing, and despite the silliness of it all, Jason joined her twirling.

  They were children on the meadow. Ha! The air felt heavy with anticipation and pleasure all bundled into one. It was like a surreal version of Hansel and Gretel’s candy land.

  The boy ran up to them, panting. “Do you know what’s happening now?”

  “Our eyes have been opened?” Leiah said.

  “It’s . . . it’s like a picture. Today it’s his picture,” Caleb said.

  “The kingdom of God?” Jason asked. “It’s full of colors?”

  “Today it is! You’re seeing the power of the Spirit. Dadda called it the fruit. The greatest power.” Caleb grinned. “Love, joy, peace. Pretty neat, huh?”

  Jason blinked at the revelation. God was showing them the stunning power of the simplest things born of the Spirit. Love. Whoever said that a straightened hand was more dramatic than a healed heart?

  “Thank you, Father,” he breathed.

  The swirling colors suddenly stopped their drifting as if they had taken note of his words. Silence engulfed them. All except for Caleb, who’d rolled to his back and faced the sky spread-eagle, still giggling, as if he knew something they did not.

  Jason spoke again in the quiet. “Thank you, Jesus.”

  The ground began to tremble.

  Leiah lifted both hands and whispered to the sky. “I love you, Father.” White light streaked from her mouth toward the heavens.

  Jason lifted his chin and joined her. “I worship you, Father. I love you.”

  Three blazing shafts of light fell from the sky, like supercharged spotlights illuminating each of their heads. The light pounded through Jason’s skull and numbed his bones with a love so pure and raw that he thought he might die. He dropped to his knees and then collapsed to his back, trembling from head to foot.

  God was responding.

  I love you.

  Jason could barely breathe. An ache rose through his chest and he began to weep.

  “I love you, Jesus.”

  The light washed through his body, like an airborne intoxicant, and he lay there quaking and begging forgiveness and loving his Creator in a way he did not think humanly possible. Beside him Leiah and Caleb lay on the grass, receiving this kiss from heaven.

  And then, like tractor beams pulled in on themselves, the shafts from heaven were gone.

  Jason lay still for a while before rolling to his belly and pushing himself to his knees, dazed. The colored lights had not gone. Caleb was already on his feet dancing around. Jason dropped back to his belly and rolled through the grass. He bumped into Leiah and their eyes met, wild and zany.

  They burst into laughter simultaneously. Gut-wrenching peals of laughter that refused to let them go. It took them a full minute to find enough control to stand.

  “I saw something,” Leiah said.

  “I did too,” Jason returned, and for some inexplicable reason, that made them bend in laughter.

  “No, I mean I saw a vision,” Leiah said.

  “Oh.”

  Caleb suddenly grabbed both of their hands and began to jump up and down in his customary form of dance. Without a word and smiling like a chimpanzee, Leiah peeled his hand off theirs and put it through the crook of her elbow. She winked at Jason, bent her other arm for him to take, and then led them in a circle dance.

  They laughed and danced as if this were a fairy tale and they were the children, expected to live happily ever after. But it wasn’t a fairy tale. It was somehow more real than life itself. Jason knew that. Unless you become like a child, you cannot enter
the kingdom of God. Caleb said Jesus had said that. Did that mean you couldn’t be in the kingdom of God without being like a child?

  They were mid-dance when it occurred to Jason that Leiah hadn’t told them her vision. They’d become distracted.

  He pulled up. “What was your vision?” he asked.

  Leiah was showing Caleb a chorus kick and giggling with him. She turned to him. “My what?”

  “Your vision.”

  “Oh, yeah. The vision.” She stopped. “Yes, I should tell you the vision. It was important.”

  Caleb found a little humor even in that statement. It was like that. The importance of anything but this display of Dadda’s fruit, as Caleb put it, seemed to pale in comparison.

  Leiah continued, still smiling. “I saw a small fledgling bird in a nest. And at first it looked okay, like any innocent little bird. But then it began to grow big. Very big, and black too.” Her smile softened as the details came back to her.

  “Then it cried and flew into the sky, growing even bigger. It circled, screeching.” The smile left Leiah’s lips. She turned from them, suddenly serious.

  “Suddenly the bird dove to the earth, breathing fire and looking very angry. It was headed for a woman.”

  “That was my vision!” Caleb said.

  “I know what it means too,” Leiah said.

  They looked at her, expectant. She stared back with wide eyes.

  “Well? Tell us,” Jason said.

  “The woman was me. But it was also you, Jason. And you, Caleb. It was the whole . . . church. The bird wanted to destroy the church.”

  “Really?” Jason asked.

  “Really. And the bird is Crandal. He’s the fledgling bird. But when he gets into power he’s going to grow.” She became excited and grabbed Jason’s arm. “Do you see it? He may not even know it yet, but if he gets in power, then someday he’s going to try to destroy the church.”

  Jason looked at Caleb, who didn’t seem too concerned. “How?” Jason asked.

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. He’s an evil man who’ll grow worse in power. Much worse.”

  Jason looked around. The blue light covered the field, and he suddenly felt like running through it. Oddly enough this revelation of Leiah’s seemed perfectly natural. Incidental information.