Twisted Linen (12 page)

“I hope this doesn’t offend you, but I think
you have simply created fancy star movements in a software
program.”

“You think I’m faking this?” Baculo
defensively responds. “This sign declares a King will rise…a King
born of a virgin.”

Grace pushes her objective forward and
seductively asks, “Maybe you can show me the real thing…in the sky
outside?”

Baculo squints at her for a long moment,
hesitant to accept her proposal. Grace attacks Baculo with her
eyes, beaming manipulative charm at him. Baculo is not immune to
Grace’s piercing gaze and it quickly befuddles him.

“I could. I’d love to!” Baculo boasts.

With tantalizing excitement, Baculo strolls
toward Grace, coming to stand behind her chair. Grace feels his hot
and heavy breath on the top of her head as he mutters, “Would you
please join me out on the terrace? I have a telescope I’d like to
show you.”

Baculo gently slides Grace’s chair back from
the table, inviting her to stand. As she does, Baculo takes a deep
sniff of her hair; his eyes flutter in response.

“Please…it’s right this way,” Baculo says
gesturing toward the door, desperately trying to exhibit a sense of
composure.

Grace fakes a nod of gratitude and sashays by
him, but internally she cannot help but quiver in disgust at
Baculo’s courting game.

* * *

29

Revelation
12:1-2

Off Baculo’s dining room, down two steps, is
a spacious terrace with a terracotta tile floor. It’s a dimly lit
place with wrought-iron fixtures, most notably a decorative iron
railing wrapping the perimeter. Baculo leads the way out, stepping
down two short steps, then turning back to extend a hand for Grace.
She tries not to hesitate, but it requires all her fortitude to
place her hand in his. As Grace’s hand touches Baculo’s, her eyes
close briefly and she imagines that it is Simon’s hand she holds.
You can do this
, she thinks.

Grace glides down the steps as Baculo waves
his right hand back in a panoramic manner, presenting his
extravagant outdoor retreat. The terrace offers an unobstructed
view of the surrounding hillsides and a breathtaking view of the
stars above. Grace gently retracts her hand and paces across the
terrace, coming to lean over the iron railing, acting as if she is
overwhelmed by the ambiance.

“My, oh my, what a splendid night,” she
announces.

The words are hollow, but they offer Grace an
opportunity to evaluate her surroundings. There is no city light
visible and it’s obvious that they are in a very remote location.
In fact, Grace can’t see a single light, not one home can be
identified in the rolling hills that surround them. She turns her
attention to the terrace and estimates it’s fifteen, maybe twenty,
feet off the ground. Either way, it would be a dangerous jump for
her. But Grace also notices an opening in the hand railing, off in
the far corner. She needs a closer look in order to determine where
it leads, but that will require a distraction.

Grace turns around and leans back against the
railing, striking a pose. The contemporary “Virgin Mary” looks
irresistible in her striking red dress, and Baculo is aroused by
the thought of picking the dress out for her. Grace’s alluring pose
flusters Baculo causing him to senselessly adjust his necktie. The
tactic is effective; Baculo slowly wanders out to the hand railing
to join her.

“Do you like the view?” he asks in an
undertone.

“Yes, it’s very peaceful out here,” Grace
responds while her eyes scrutinize the far corner of the
terrace.

In the corner, the railing opens to
accommodate a spiral staircase descending into the unknown. It’s
not apparent where the stairs lead, and now there are two thugs
observing from the dining room doorway. Grace must be careful to
conceal her intentions of escape, and the thugs need to be removed
from the equation.

“Are they going to join us?” Grace asks as
she nods at Baculo’s two henchmen.

The two men are unsure if they are welcome on
the terrace and wait for Baculo’s instructions. This is a fantasy
come true for Baculo: He is sharing a romantic evening on his
terrace with the beautiful mother of David Cohen. After so many
years of anticipation, Grace stands in his presence and he so badly
wants to impress her. Oh, how badly he just wants her.

“Please,” Baculo berates as he dismisses his
henchmen with a wave of the hand. “Leave us!”

And just like that, Grace isolates Baculo on
the terrace outside. She smirks at the thugs as they retreat back
inside, imagining that she’s blowing a kiss their way. Her playful
interlude yields a sense of power and confidence, something she
desperately needs right now.

But it doesn’t last long. Her confidence is
immediately shaken when Baculo moves behind her and places his
hands on her shoulders.

“I want you to experience something,” Baculo
whispers into her ear from behind.

Grace closes her eyes and swallows hard,
fighting the urge to gag on his hot breath.

“Show me…please,” she responds trying to
sound coy.

Baculo points over her left shoulder,
directly above in the night sky.

“Look right up there. Do you see the
constellation Virgo?”

“Hmmm, yes I see her.”

“And now look between her legs. The bright
star you see between her legs is the king planet Jupiter.”

Grace pretends to strain, looking hard into
the night sky.

“I’m not sure which one it is. How do I know
which star you are talking about?”

“The first time is never easy,” Baculo says
with a hint of perversion. “Here, let me make it easier for
you.”

Baculo swaggers over to the far corner of the
terrace, just beside the spiral staircase. He is unsuspecting as he
places the items in his right hand down onto a small patio table;
it’s the knife and laser pointer.

“I think this will help,” Baculo says as he
pulls a heavy tarp off a large Cassegrain telescope. The telescope
is huge. Normally it would be taller than Baculo, but he has it
configured at the lowest setting to accommodate his short
stature.

With both hands he grabs the telescope’s
controls and expertly adjusts it to focus on the king planet
Jupiter. Grace wanders toward Baculo, glancing over his shoulder at
the knife and laser pointer. Would she be able to defeat Baculo
with a knife? The only thing Grace has ever stabbed was lying dead
on a dinner plate. She’ll have to find another way.

Grace withdraws her eyes from the knife just
as Baculo lifts his eye off the telescope.

“See for yourself. The king planet is almost
ready to be birthed between her legs. In two days it will be
finished.”

Grace stands up straight and adjusts the
shoulder strap of her dress while Baculo backs away, offering her a
tight space in front of the telescope. Grace steps in front of the
telescope and bends her knees, assuming a semi-squatting position
in order to get low enough to look through the eyepiece. Even
without shoes on, she’s probably a head taller than Baculo. As she
arches to accommodate the low telescope configuration, she ponders
the thought of Baculo behind her.
I’m sure he is staring at my
ass right now
, Grace thinks.
Whatever it takes
, she
justifies in thought.

After a few blinks of her eye, the field of
view comes into focus and the beautiful planet Jupiter shines
forth. In the planet Jupiter, Grace sees God’s hand in creation;
the majesty of it strengthens her will once again.

Grace knows more about astronomy than she is
letting on. It was Genovi who first introduced astronomy to Simon
when he assigned Simon the task of researching cultic practices
years earlier. Simon found it so fascinating that he included Grace
in his research and findings. Astronomical observation quickly
became a romantic hobby for Simon and Grace, one they often shared
over a glass of wine while lying under the stars. So, Grace
understands that the heavens declare the glory of God, and she
understands how rare it is for large, gaseous planets like Jupiter
to form far from a central star like our Sun. Gases dissipate
rapidly in the vacuum of outer space, especially the lightest two
gases, hydrogen and helium, which comprise most of the mass of
Jupiter. Scientific explanation claims all the planets coalesced
over billions of years out of a disk of particles orbiting our
young Sun, but gas molecules orbiting a massive star do not
gravitationally merge with themselves; there is not enough internal
attraction to overcome the Sun’s gravitational force. The lack of
attraction reminds Grace of the fallacious attraction she must
present to Baculo.

“That’s amazing,” she disingenuously says,
trying to build Baculo’s confidence and relax his senses.

“But there is more,” Baculo adds as he walks
away, out toward the terrace railing. “As the king planet is
birthed in two days, the new moon will sit at Virgo’s feet. And,
above her head lies a twelve star crown, formed only when the nine
star constellation, Leo, unites with three additional planets –
Venus, Mars and Mercury.”

While Baculo’s back is turned, Grace snatches
the laser pointer and knife from the nearby table. She then quickly
resumes a pose beside the telescope with the items hidden behind
her back.

Baculo turns around to face Grace with his
hands held out wide. “See…now you must see?”

Grace simply gapes back at him, trying to
determine her next move. The stairs are just beside Baculo, and she
needs to find a way past him. She has an idea.

Baculo continues with more conviction, “It's
what John describes as the wondrous sign in Revelation, Chapter 12.
This celestial alignment marks a unique moment in time, never seen
before in the past…maybe never again in the future.”

Grace wants to dismiss Baculo’s message, but
she knows that one of his claims is true: God put the stars and
planets in the sky for signs and for markers. Her confusion is
disconcerting and Grace hastily blurts out, “This sounds like
astrology.”

Baculo is frustrated by the remark.

“It's not astrology…it's astronomy! And, God
flung the stars and planets into the vastness of space for signs
and seasons…for divine appointments.”

“So, you’re an astronomer?” Grace heckles in
response.

With a glowering stare Baculo begins to walk
directly toward Grace. That’s what she needed; this is her chance.
Grace points the laser light at Baculo’s face and presses the
button. The green laser beam pierces through the night air, hitting
just above his right eye. Her hand quivers as she tries to adjust
her aim, trying to strike Baculo directly in the eye.

Baculo growls in pain and turns his back as
he covers his eye with both hands. Grace darts past a hunched over
Baculo and scampers down the spiral staircase, following the metal
stairs down into the darkness, unsure of where it will take her.
It’s a desperate act, but it might be the only chance she has to
escape. Her eyes fight to see what’s below while her long dress
trails behind, sliding down the winding stairs. Every turn of the
staircase moves her closer to ground level, but what waits there in
the darkness is still a great unknown.

A bellow echoes just above at the top of the
staircase, “Grace! There is nowhere to run!”

In a startled and immediate reaction, Grace
looks up towards Baculo’s voice. It is a mistake; she slams
face-first into a wrought-iron gate at the bottom of the stairs.
The sudden impact stuns her and she collapses, momentarily dazed
and confused.

She pulls herself up by the rails of the gate
and desperately jerks on its handle. It’s locked; it’s a dead-end.
Shanking the gate wildly, she looks around to see the stair railing
is too high to climb. There is no escape and her glimmer of hope
fades in an instant. What’s going to be the consequence?

Baculo’s feet make a slow and rhythmic
clapping sound on the metal stairs as he slowly descends from
above.

“I’m no astronomer,” grumbles Baculo as he
steps down a stair at a time. “It was the Vatican, decades ago,
that originally discovered this great sign.”

Grace hastily prepares herself, fondling the
laser pointer in one hand, firmly grasping the knife in the
other.

“It was discovered by a team of Jesuit
astronomers using the Vatican’s very own VATT observatory, in fact.
But I’m now done sharing divine knowledge with you, Grace.”

Baculo’s certainty on the matter haunts
Grace. She had no idea the Vatican took these types of things
seriously. She assumed this was the kind of thing only the occult
and tarot card readers practiced.

Baculo’s legs appear around the last turn in
the staircase, slowly moving down the last few stairs, and then he
declares, “We are simply fulfilling God's will, bringing God back
to Earth on His holy appointed day.”

Grace activates the laser pointer, trying to
anticipate where his face will emerge from behind the winding
staircase. Ominously, Baculo’s dark eyes reveal themselves. They
appear even blacker now, a deadly black.

The Holy Spirit speaks through Grace as she
refutes Baculo’s claims: “Why would God need ‘man’ to genetically
manipulate His creation? He doesn’t need you to bring Him
back.”

Baculo withholds his response; he wants to
deliver the answer with special emphasis. Grace nervously tries to
point the laser beam into Baculo’s eye while he bobs his head from
side-to-side, dodging her repeated attempts but still slowly
approaching her. As Baculo nears, Grace jabs the knife forward, but
he snatches her wrist and bends her arm back over her shoulder.
Baculo squeezes Grace’s wrist with freakish strength and the knife
slips from her grip. It falls to the tile floor with a clatter.