The Didymus Contingency (16 page)

Tom’s long stream of lengthy words seemed to confuse the men. They looked at each other and then walked away. David looked at Tom, wide-eyed and attempting not to smile. “I can’t believe that worked!” David said.

But he spoke too soon. The two lumbering men returned with two more beefcakes in tow. Tom and David were outnumbered and outsized. One of the new men stepped toward Tom and asked, “Did you all call Billy fat?”

“No, I called him girthy,” Tom replied.

“That ain’t even a word,” the man said, as he cracked his knuckles.

Tom couldn’t help himself. “They teaching English lessons at the hog farm now?”

The response was instant and massive, “Git’im!”

Two of the thugs leaned forward, arms stretched out, hands grappling. David was pulled from his bench and tossed onto a table, which he slid across. He careened over the other side, taking two plates of food, a large Coke, four settings of silverware and a small vase of fake flowers with him.

Tom was a little quicker. He pivoted his bench and thrust his right leg forward, catching one of the assailants in the nose with his heel. The man screamed in pain and fell backwards into Billy. The two men toppled back like thick dominos and destroyed a chair beneath them. The man on top of Billy held his nose and whined, “He done broke my nothe!”

“Git off me so as I can kill ’im!” Billy shouted, trapped beneath his heavy-set friend.

“I gat ’im!” shouted the third hick, who had yet to get his hands on anybody.

The bulbous man, whose overalls barely fit, surged forward, threatening to crush Tom right there in his bench. Tom used the bench’s slippery surface to his advantage and slid beneath the table. The bench cracked as the weight of the overalls-wearing man mashed down on it. If Tom had been still in his seat, he would surely have been compressed beyond the point of breathing.

Tom rushed out from under the table. Two of the men were still squirming around on the floor, trying to get to their feet, but the man with the broken and bloody nose was writhing around so much that the other couldn’t roll over onto his belly and push himself up. As for the man on the bench, he wasn’t going anywhere fast either. He was wedged firmly between the wall, the bench and the table. Tom imagined it would take the Jaws of Life to cut him free.

The last of the four attackers was at the opposite end of a table, facing David. They were moving back and forth from side to side as the lumbering behemoth attempted to wrap his thick hands around David’s throat. The man took the table in his hands and tossed it to the side, as though it was no more then a chunk of Styrofoam. Tom knew he had to act quickly and picked up a plate from his table.

Moving quickly, Tom rounded the last of several tables blocking his path and slammed the solid plate down on the last hick’s head. The plate shattered from the blow and the man fell to his knees, though he wasn’t knocked unconscious. David stood still with wide eyes.

“David,” Tom said.

David didn’t budge.

“David!” Tom said with a smile, knowing David had probably seen his life flash before his eyes. “Let’s get out of here before they get moving.”

David snapped out of his trance and his eyes met Tom’s.

“C’mon,” Tom said, and David moved.

Tom turned and headed for the door with David right behind him. They didn’t make it two feet before being stopped by a wall of three more rotund, country warriors.

“Where you ladies off to?” one of them said with a smile, as he gnawed on a toothpick.

Tom sighed and without a word, slugged the first man in the stomach.

From the parking lot around Peggy’s Porker Palace, the sounds of breaking dishes, glasses and screaming men could be heard echoing from inside the establishment. The front door whooshed open as Tom and David ran out into the parking lot. Both had been trounced fairly well. Tom’s nose was bleeding and David’s eye was swollen. “Quick! Around back!” Tom shouted.

Tom and David sped around the building, out of sight from any locals and activated their watches. The two bright flashes of light and two loud bangs, heard and seen by everyone with a window seat at the Porker Palace would later be explained as swamp gas—even though there wasn’t a swamp for hundreds of miles around.

Seven angry hicks pounded out of the restaurant and scanned the area for their fleeing prey. It wasn’t every day they got to beat down a couple a fairies!

One of the men, struggling to catch his breath said, “Damn! They gone!”

Another followed, “Them drag queens...sure can...run!”

*   *   *   *   *

The twelve disciples, Jesus and David trudged up a steep hill, which led to a lone dwelling, just outside Bethany. They hadn’t been walking long, but the steep incline took the muscle out of even the fittest man. David, Tom and Jesus led the pack.

Jesus looked at Tom and David, attempting not to smile while doing so. They were both bruised and battered from their encounter with the Porker Palace thugs. Tom had been quick with a cover story; that he and David were mugged, beaten and left unconscious in an alley. “The men who robbed and beat you, were they blind?”

“You’re not going to get into the blind that can see stuff again, are you?” Tom asked.

Jesus smiled, “No. I mean, were they physically blind?”

“Why?” Tom asked.

“You claim that five large men beat and robbed you,” started Jesus.

“Yes...” Tom was unsure as to where this was leading.

“Yet your money purse remains at your hip,” Jesus pointed out.

Tom looked down to his hip, where indeed, his money purse still hung. “Huh, I guess I must have fallen on top of it during the fight. Maybe they couldn’t see it?”

“Maybe they were blind?” Jesus asked with a smile.

“Not likely,” Tom said, wishing Jesus would change the line of questioning. While the truth would never come out, he didn’t want to be seen as a liar, not to his friends anyway. Yet Tom couldn’t resist the opportunity for a friendly jab, “Why don’t you just fix us up with a little God zap?”

David’s head snapped toward Tom, his eyes angry. Tom had just crossed the line with that comment. David turned to Jesus, afraid for what the repercussions for such a statement might be, “We’re fine. Ignore my ignorant friend. His ego was bruised along with his face.”

But Jesus, seemingly unfazed by the dig, said “Healing you would only make you forget more quickly the lesson you’ve learned. Pain and suffering can be wise teachers, and some lessons need to be learned over time.”

Tom mentally sifted through an array of witty replies, but never got the chance to utilize one. “Stop,” Jesus said to the group. At the top of the hill was a large home, built of clay bricks, surrounded by fig and olive trees. Jesus stared at the building, absorbing its shape and the surroundings, like he was remembering. At the top of the hill stood a man, whose presence shouted strength and power.

Lazarus had been working outside all day, and the roots of the stump before him lay exposed, yet still clinging to the ground. Lazarus gripped a rope tied to the stump and wrapped it around his hands and wrists. With a mighty pull and a scream of exertion, he wrenched the stump and all its roots from the earth.

Tom’s eyes widened as he saw the feat of amazing strength from a safe distance. “Who is this guy? Maybe we shouldn’t bother him,” Tom said.

“Stop worrying,” Jesus said, “It doesn’t become you.”

Jesus strode toward the man. Tom wondered what death wish had possessed Jesus now.

Mary, Lazarus’s sister, ran from the house, long black hair undulating through the air behind her, and shook Lazarus by the shoulder. “What is it?” Lazarus asked, knowing the look in Mary’s bright green eyes meant trouble.

Pointing to the road on which the fourteen were walking toward the house, Mary said, “There, on the road.”

From this distance, only the number of men could be made out. Lazarus picked up his shovel and wielded it like a gladiator.

“Get inside,” Lazarus said, “Find Martha, and be ready to run.”

“What about you?” Mary asked.

“My life is inconsequential. I would willingly give it for my sisters’,” Lazarus said, “Now go.”

Mary obeyed her big brother’s request. She ran back inside as quickly as she had run out. Lazarus took a few broad steps toward the encroaching group and shouted, “Stay where you are and state your business.” His voice boomed.

The fourteen stopped in their tracks. Lazarus had a commanding voice and even more commanding body language. Jesus turned to Tom and smiled, “Perhaps we all need to learn a lesson, eh?”

“What? No. What are you—?”

Tom’s brief protest fell on deaf ears. “We’re here to eat your food and be served by your sisters!” Jesus shouted.

Tom audibly gasped. Jesus had gone insane! “What are you doing?” Tom said, “That guy is huge!”

Lazarus held up the shovel, ready to strike down the first man to try. “Turn back the way you came, stranger.”

“Stranger?” Jesus shouted, “I haven’t been gone
that
long.”

Through squinted eyes, Lazarus attempted to make out facial features.

Jesus pushed on, “Perhaps I should come up there and beat some sense into you!”

Tom looked at Jesus wide-eyed. Tom thought all this God business must have really been going to Jesus’s head.

Lazarus stood up straight and his head tilted. “Jesus?”

“In the flesh,” Jesus replied.

A smile stretched across Lazarus’s face. “Mary! Martha! It’s Jesus!” Lazarus shouted, as his huge feet carried him toward Jesus.

They met halfway and embraced like true friends. Jesus was lifted off the ground in Lazarus’s arms. “It’s been too long, my friend!”

Tom let out a long sigh of relief. He looked at David, “I thought we were all dead for sure.”

“I’m sure that’s the same thing he was thinking.” David said, as he looked at Lazarus.

Jesus was released from Lazarus’s bear hug. He looked at Lazarus’s arms and said, “I see you’ve been working hard.”

“Jesus!” Mary shouted, as she just about barreled him over with a hug.

Tom couldn’t help but smile at such a happy reunion. He could tell these must have been lifelong friends of Jesus, and Mary...was stunning! Her hair looked soft, but not as soft as her face, and her smile—beautiful, the way it pushed her cheeks into firm apples... Tom was pulled from his wistful distraction when Jesus spoke.

“Where is your sister?” Jesus asked.

“When Martha heard who was here, she got to work on a meal for you and your friends,” Mary explained.

“Come,” Lazarus said, “Come inside. Our home is your home. Our food is your food.”

Lazarus led the fourteen men, who Tom knew were all strangers here, toward the house. He had never seen such friendship or generosity. Tom felt instantly at home.

—TWELVE—

Exhale

2005

2:56 P.M.

Arizona

Thirty seconds after David launched into the past in search of Tom, Captain Roberts, George Dwight and Jake Parish entered Receiving Area Alpha. Sally watched as Captain Roberts, who looked out of place in his ancient garbs and modern crew cut, was allowed free access to any and all classified equipment and material that had been transported to LightTech from the future. Roberts didn’t seem to find anything useful in the cluttered room, but Sally was sure he simply couldn’t make sense of anything he was seeing. This was the man her superiors were entrusting to save the world.

“Find anything useful?” Sally asked.

“Nothing of interest,” he replied.

Nothing of interest? Roberts was a joke, Sally thought. Absolutely every device and sheet of notebook paper within the confines of the room was of interest.

“Of course, finding anything of interest is a moot point,” Roberts said, “You and your science team have already combed through this equipment, correct?”

“Of course,” replied Sally.

“Then you tell us. Is there anything of interest that might help our cause?” George asked in a tone that suggested she better tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help her God.

Sally picked up one of the remaining time travel watches and handed it to Roberts. As Sally moved her arm toward Roberts, she worked the buttons expertly. Sally was in charge of the science team and held an executive position at LightTech, but had once been a formidable scientist herself. She had studied the watches and had made some discoveries she didn’t want known—not yet anyway. She also wanted to protect her two prized scientists. She had been hard on them over the years and she rarely saw eye to eye with them, but without them, none of this could have ever been possible. And she respected them greatly for that...especially David.

She knew that Roberts would kill them without hesitation. He was the kind of man built for killing, and after the years of training he’d received at LightTech, she imagined he was long overdue to draw blood. She couldn’t let that happen, but she also had to make sure the blood spilled wasn’t her own.

Sally pressed the final button on the watch; she finalized the changes she had swiftly made to Roberts’s landing zone, placing him ten miles outside his intended target area. The plan was to give him a hike, and hopefully give David a little more time.
Beep, beep.
Sally froze. She didn’t expect the watch to make any kind of confirmation noise. Roberts squinted at her and she could have sworn his hand moved toward his knife. Sally worked hard not to panic in the following seconds. She knew that even the oddest change in facial expression might draw suspicion. Sally felt a deadweight pulling down on her shoulders. Would her attempts to slow Captain Roberts be found out? Sally glanced at the watch as casually as she could manage.

Thank God!
Sally’s tense muscles relaxed. “Top of the hour, gentlemen.”

Sally handed the watch to Roberts. It was 3:00 p.m.

Roberts slipped the disguised watch onto his wrist and glanced at the face. “How’s this doohickey work?” he asked, causing Sally to roll her eyes.

George and his assistant Jake looked at each other with a tinge of embarrassment. All the years of training and education and Roberts was still a simple-minded buffoon. Sally saw the exchange and attempted not to smile.