1
The phone rang in the Meyers house just after 2:00 AM. Karen jumped up from the sofa before the FBI agent could respond.
“Hello.....yes.....Oh, thank God!....”
“What is it?” Vic insisted. “Is Jamie okay?”
Karen smiled and nodded to Vic. As she listened to the voice at the other end of the call, her eyes filled uncontrollably with tears. She hung up the phone and wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist.
“She’s okay! My baby’s okay.”
She related the information to Michael, Vic and the FBI men.
.....
Jamie arrived about thirty minutes later with two police officers. The sight of her bloody clothes caused Karen to immediately panic, but Jamie assured her she was unhurt. They hugged for a full minute before Jamie suddenly looked around and found Michael among them.
“Are you all right, Michael?” she asked.
He hugged Jamie and replied, “I’m fine, Jamie. Are you?” When he felt her head nod, he whispered in her ear, “Was it one of the devil-children?”
Jamie nodded once more and whispered back, “Maria’s going to be all right too, Michael. I’ll explain later.”
Jamie sat down and began her story. She told of her abduction by two people she never saw before and how they overpowered her at the gas station. She explained how the boy tried to inject her with something and how she managed to wrestle the needle from him and inject it into him instead. Then she explained how she waited for the older guy to come back and then whacked him on the head time and time again out of pure fear and rage. Then she told them how the boy was still alive, but the older man was dead. Just for effect, she forced herself to cry uncontrollably after she mentioned the death.
There was another half hour of intense questioning by the FBI and the police before Karen put her foot down and demanded that Jamie be allowed to clean up and get to bed.
In the morning, the questioning began again. This time the news media joined in also. The phone rang continuously. It was the beginning of what was starting to look like the publicity campaign of the century; a film star’s dream. Jamie almost derived pleasure from it.
.....
Jamie took the next couple of days off from work and UCLA. Michael Pearlstein stayed at the Meyers house to keep Jamie company after the ordeal. It was a terrible time for Jamie, and her doctor prescribed a mild tranquilizer to help her through it. The strangulation bruises emerged and became very painful. Jamie spent most of the time in bed trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable.
Jamie’s emotional problems far outweighed her physical ones. She was tormented. She should have felt wonderful knowing that she had almost finished God’s mission. Mason was the last of her quests. She had literally spent her whole life preparing for this very moment, and preparing for that glorious reward she was promised by Zoron.
The torment grew. Every time she managed to fall asleep she would awaken from the same nightmare. In the dream she would be flying like an angel and then swatted out of the air by a grotesque, large hand that proceeded to strangle her. The whole time she was being strangled, she could hear the applause of a huge audience and see the flashes of photographers’ cameras capturing her suffering on film. She would then start to push the hand away with all her might, and just as she was beginning to budge it, other hands came to the assistance of the grotesque one. She would look up to see whose hands they were and she would stare into the smiling faces of Zoron, Jonah, Maria and Michael. Then, the face of Frank would appear and he would laugh out loud as he swung an ax straight toward Jamie’s face. Just as the ax was about to strike, she would wake up screaming and soaked with perspiration.
The nightmares were so scary that Jamie tried unsuccessfully to fight off sleep. After three days and fifteen or twenty of the same nightmares, she decided to face her demons head-on. She got out of bed and went over to the window. She looked toward the sky and began to speak aloud.
“Zoron, I can’t stand it any more. You have to forgive me. I know I didn’t have to kill Frank. I don’t know what came over me. I couldn’t help myself. Zoron, please forgive me.”
She lowered her head and began to cry. She walked back over to her bed, climbed under the covers and fell asleep. This time there was no nightmare. She opened her eyes five hours later. Somehow she knew then that the nightmares would no longer haunt her. As she lay there in the dreamy world of semi-consciousness, she thought about her stardom. She thought about the sweet life of ease and luxury that came with stardom. She thought about her struggle with Mason and the exhilaration that accompanied her victory. She thought about the sweetness of life; the sweetness she hadn’t really ever tasted before. She tried to imagine herself taking her own life.....
The thought came to her from out of the blue. She and Maria Cortez were the last of the six. Nobody else on earth knew what they knew. Jamie said the words to herself several times, but their full meaning only sunk in when she spoke them aloud, “Eternal life!”
.....
Jamie spoke with Michael in the late afternoon.
“It was Mason alone,” she explained. “I’m certain that he never had any contact with the others. Maria is safe for now.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” he questioned.
“I’m quite certain, Michael. Remember who I am and remember why I’m here. I wouldn’t dare take any chances with Maria’s life. She’s my whole reason for existence.” She watched his eyes for a sign of trust. “There’s only one devil-child left,” she lied, “and I’ll find it. That’s a promise.”
Michael hugged Jamie and said, “Thank you.”
“You can take her back to the hospital now. That’s where she’ll get the best care. She’s going to be fine, Michael.”
Michael made arrangements for a return flight to the Philadelphia airport. Then he called Cathy Rhodes to let her know he would be coming for Maria to return her to the hospital. He said good-bye to Karen and Jamie, gathered his things together and left.
2
It was two weeks before Jamie returned to her normal schedule. The nightmares had stopped, but feelings of deep depression replaced them. Jamie had never felt anything quite like this before, and she struggled to cope. The depression became so intense that Jamie thought she was going crazy. Then she began to experience wave after wave of panic attacks. It was more than she could deal with. At first she was afraid she was going to die. As it got worse she was afraid she wouldn’t.
She knew she had to get a grip on things. She needed to talk things out with someone. After some careful consideration she got up the nerve to talk with Josh.
“I’m not a psychiatrist,” Josh protested. “I’ve taken exactly four psychology courses and I barely passed them.”
“I don’t know who else to turn to,” pleaded Jamie. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You should really get professional help, Jamie. I do enough research around here to know for a fact that gifted children often have terrible psychological problems.”
“It’s the panic, Josh. That’s what I have the most trouble dealing with. I don’t want to go to a doctor. Can’t you help me some way?”
“I’ll tell you what little I know, Jamie. Do you remember that book you borrowed by Toby Sinclair?”
“Yes. What about it?”
“Well, I read the book after you did. It was all about Multiple Personality Disorders. One of the case studies mentioned a little boy who had extreme anxiety attacks. Do you remember that one?”
“No,” replied Jamie, “I don’t think I do.”
“Well, it said that kids sometimes create special personalities to deal with things they can’t cope with. Then they suppress these personalities along with the memories they couldn’t cope with. Anyway, Toby says that anxiety attacks are sometimes caused by these personalities resurfacing later on.”
Something clicked in Jamie’s head. “Yes! I do remember that. It was that case where they did that Inner Child healing thing.”
“That’s the one,” Josh confirmed. “If you remember, Toby said the attacks were just horrible memories resurfacing. The boy wasn’t even aware of the memories while the attacks were happening. Toby had to dig down deep to get those Inner Children to talk about their memories.”
“Josh, you’re a genius. I think I have an idea about what’s going on with me.”
“Whoa, Jamie!” Josh cautioned. “If you’re suffering this badly, you really should get professional help.”
She barely paid attention to Josh’s last remark. “Thanks,” she said politely, then she walked over to an empty office, sat down and began to think....
It’s about my mission. Zoron and Jonah are inside of me calling me back to them. That’s what’s causing all this.....No!....It’s Joan Spencer that they’re calling back. It’s Joan Spencer that I’ve somehow suppressed.
Jamie felt a burden lifted from deep within her. She began to understand something about herself that she never would have believed possible. She thought about Zoron and Jonah and God. Then she thought about her struggle with Mason. She remembered the feeling she had when she smashed Frank’s skull to a pulp...Pleasure! How could that possibly be?
She remembered Oren’s words about the knowledge of good and evil; the tasting of the fruit of the tree of life....God forbid that any man shall enter the world possessing this knowledge, lest he shall then become the equal of God.
That was it! It was so simple and so obvious. She couldn’t imagine why it hadn’t hit her before. It was the ultimate paradox; the ultimate Catch-22. She needn’t feel any guilt or remorse. If she defied God, she was only proving Him right; confirming His infinite wisdom.
For weeks Jamie had known what she had to do. Now she had found the correct rationale to release herself from the shackles of her conscience. She walked back over to Josh.
“I think what you said really helped me,” she announced.
“I’m glad if it did, but I still think you should see about getting some professional help.”
“Maybe I will.”
.....
Jamie began planning for the final battle. It had to go exactly right or everything would be spoiled. The hardest part was going to be finding a way to convince Michael to get her what she needed.
She still felt a lot of anxiety, but the depression faded away. She got back into the swing of her everyday routine and made every effort to appear as normal and nonchalant as possible. The filming of the movie had begun and there were only a few weeks left before they’d have to go away on location in New England.
Jamie spoke with Michael and arranged for him to meet her in New England while she was there for the filming. She told him she needed his help with something, and she couldn’t talk about it over the phone.
.....
Michael met Karen and Jamie at the hotel in Boston. They had dinner together and then Karen gave Jamie permission to spend some time alone with Michael.
“Don’t be out too long,” Karen cautioned. “You’ve got a 6:00 AM call tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, Mom,” Jamie agreed. “I promise I’ll be back by nine.”
Jamie suggested that she and Michael take a drive so they’d have some privacy.
“So what did you need to talk to me about?” Michael asked as he pulled out of the hotel’s underground parking lot.
“There’s still one devil-child left,” she lied. “I have a lead, Michael, and it may all be over soon.”
Michael spun his head around in shock.
“Watch out!” Jamie cried as the car in front of them stopped unexpectedly.
Michael turned his head forward and jammed the brakes on just in the nick of time. “God, that was close,” he said. “Maybe I’d better pull over.”
“I think we’ll be okay if you just watch the road,” Jamie kidded. “You drive and I’ll talk.”
“Okay,” agreed Michael. “Go on with your story.”
“I need you to trust me one more time, Michael. I need you to get me a gun.”
“What for?” he asked in total surprise.
Jamie began reciting the story she had fabricated. “I checked out a lead I got on this prodigy child in the Midwest. It came from the wire services and it said the kid was seven in January. He claims he’s reincarnated. I checked and found out he was born on January 5, 1977.”
“Really?” Michael asked excitedly.
“Yes!” Jamie continued. “Anyway, they’ve been bothered by a lot of reporters and curiosity seekers at their house. It seems that somebody broke into their house while they were out and went through all their drawers and stuff. The kid’s father is a policeman and he warned that he would shoot the next person that tried to get in.”
“So why do you need a gun?” demanded Michael.
“Michael, this is the last one. It completes my mission on earth.”
“So?”
“I’m going to have to do this one myself,” explained Jamie. “I need the gun just in case someone tries to stop me. Don’t you see, Michael? When it’s over I’m going to return to my maker. It’ll be all over. We can’t take a chance on having you do this one. If something went wrong, it would ruin your life. That wouldn’t be fair to you or your family.”
The look on Michael’s face was one of total shock. Jamie saw his expression and tried to say something to reassure him.
“If anything happens to me that prevents me from completing my mission, then you’ll have to step in. I’ll tell you the name and address of the boy just before I leave to complete the mission. You’ll have to verify that the boy dies. Well, you can figure out the rest.”
“And then I’ll never see you again?” he asked.
“Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be. You knew what I was sent here to accomplish. Rejoice in the fact that Maria will be safe. The soul of Rabbi David Pearlstein will lead humankind into a new age of peace, love and understanding.”
Jamie looked over and saw that tears were streaming down Michael’s face. She actually felt remorse about what she had to do.
.....
Five weeks later, Michael made his next trip out to California. As usual, he swung by the Meyers house to visit Jamie. The two of them headed over to see Maria at the hospital.
“Francine’s off the case now,” Michael reported. “It doesn’t look like anything’s going to bring Maria out of this.”
“God will bring her out of it,” Jamie reassured him. “I know how much you’d like to see her up and about, but God will work His miracles when the time is right.”
“I just wish I knew when that’s going to be,” he confessed. “I hope I live to see her talking and laughing again. And I hope I live long enough to see her bring God’s message to the world.”
“I wish I could tell you what you want to hear,” Jamie confided, “but I myself don’t know any more than you do.”
They visited Maria for half an hour. Jamie sat and watched as Michael sat next to Maria and talked to her non-stop. She wondered if Maria could hear any of what he said. Sadness began to fill Jamie’s heart.
On the ride back home, Jamie asked Michael about the gun.
“It was no easy task,” he told her. “I had to arrange to buy it out here in California. I couldn’t risk checking my luggage through on the plane with a gun in it.”
“That was smart,” Jamie commented.
“I picked up a 38-Special through an acquaintance I have up North. It’s in the trunk. I’ll give it to you as soon as we get back to your house.”
“Did you get bullets for it?”
“I got a box of shells for it, but I loaded it and threw the rest away. I didn’t think you’d need any more than six shells.”
“No, I won’t,” Jamie agreed, “Six is more than enough. Is there anything I need to know about using it?”
“Point and shoot. That’s all there is to it.”
“Don’t you have to cock it or something?” she asked.
“You can if you want,” he explained. “If you cock it first, then it’ll be real easy to pull the trigger. That’s what they call single action.... Oh, just forget about that! If you need to use the gun, just hold it with both hands and pull the trigger. Just make sure you’re not too far away from the target. It’s not as easy to hit something as the movies make it seem. And there’s one more thing, Jamie. This gun will have a pretty hefty kick when it fires. Be ready for that or it might fly out of your hands. That wouldn’t do if you needed to fire off a second or third shot.”
“I understand. Is there a safety or something on it?”
“No,” he said. “But as long as you don’t cock it, the gun can’t go off unless the trigger is pulled.” He shook his head and added, “Oh, Jamie, you can’t imagine how bad this makes me feel talking to you about this stuff. It makes everything seem so final. How am I ever going to say good-bye to you after all we’ve been through together.”
“I know what you mean. I feel the same way.”
She reached over and touched his right arm. He pulled his right hand from the wheel and took her tiny hand in his. He squeezed it gently and whispered, “I love you, Jamie Meyers.”
3
For the next month, Jamie prepared for the last battle. She mixed a batch of the poison and carefully filled her last syringe. She spent many hours holding the gun and getting familiar with it. She unloaded it and practiced pulling the trigger so she knew how much force it would require to fire. She found a pair of cotton gardening gloves that almost fit her and she practiced pulling the trigger with the gloves on.
She rehearsed things over and over again in her mind. She knew the importance of getting things just right. There wouldn’t be any second chances. Gradually her nervousness was replaced by confidence. She knew it was time.
She called Michael from Josh’s phone at UCLA. She tried to make herself sound as nervous and excited as she could.
“Michael,” she said, “something’s come up. I need you out here as soon as possible.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s about this last devil-child,” she informed him. “There may be a problem.”
“Is Maria all right?”
“Yes, she’s fine. But I need your help out here right away. How soon can you come?”
“My wife’s going to kill me, but I guess I can come tomorrow if necessary. Are you sure it can’t wait for my next work-trip, Jamie?”
“Absolutely not!” she warned. “Get on the next plane out if you can.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I’ll call you back.”
“I’ll be at Josh’s number for the next hour or so. Call me here.”
She hung up the phone and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She mentally rehearsed the next act.
.....
Michael arrived late the following afternoon and drove out to meet Jamie at her house. He was a bundle of nerves when he walked in.
“Hi, Michael,” Karen greeted. “What’s all the panic about? Jamie told me you were coming out.”
“I just need to see Maria.” He kept his answer brief, just as Jamie had instructed him the night before.
“Is she okay?”
“I hope so,” he responded. “Where’s Jamie?”
“She saw you pull up and she ran up to her room for a second. She said she’d be right down.”
Jamie came down the stairs a moment later. She hugged Michael and then turned to her mother.
“We’re going to leave now,” she told her. “Are you ready, Michael?”
“Sure,” he answered.
They said goodbye to Karen and left. As soon as they got in the car, Michael began interrogating Jamie.
“What’s happening?”
“The fourth devil-child is on his way to California. He’s arriving later tonight.”
“How did you find out?” Michael inquired.
“It’s such a long story that I hardly know where to begin.” She continued from rote, “I decided to finally take care of him this weekend, so I had someone call his house to make sure he would be home. To make a long story short, his mother said that he and his father were going to be in California visiting a sick little girlfriend in the hospital. She said they were coming out today and would arrive around ten tonight. Michael, I’m so scared. I just know he’s coming for Maria. I can feel it. And to make matters worse, I’m afraid he might have told his father something about this.”
“What should we do?” asked Michael.
“We need to get Maria to safety. Then we have to try and track him and his father down. I have a few ideas, but I’ll go over them with you after we get Maria to safety.”
There was very little conversation during the rest of the ride to the hospital. They arrived and immediately signed Maria out of the hospital on a temporary pass, telling the staff nurse they’d have Maria back in an hour or so. The three of them got into the car. Jamie sat in the back seat with Maria right next to her. Michael turned to look back at Jamie.
“Where to?” he inquired.
“Just go out of the driveway and turn right. Stay on that road and I’ll tell you when to turn.”
Jamie sat in the back seat shaking like a leaf. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the syringe. Maria didn’t even flinch as the needle pierced her. Jamie could feel Maria’s body go limp about thirty seconds later. Phase one was complete.
Jamie had it all planned out. In five more minutes, Maria would effectively be brain-dead. Jamie would make it look like a murder-suicide. She quietly slipped the cotton gloves on her hands. She felt to make certain the gun was still there in her jacket pocket as she went over the plan in her head. She would get Michael out of the car and shoot him in the head at close range. Then she would drag Maria over to him, wrap his right hand around the gun and fire it into Maria’s head. She’d then dispose of the gloves and run screaming for help.
The story would be that Michael had been so depressed over Maria’s autism that he killed her and then took his own life. An inquiry would reveal that Michael believed Maria was the reincarnation of his father. Juanita and Corina would substantiate that theory. It was so bizarre that it was beautiful in its simplicity. Jamie would be nothing more than the victimized bystander. The publicity would be wonderful. It would certainly boost the box office sales on her latest movie.
“Turn right at this next drive,” Jamie instructed.
Michael followed the small road through the woods.
“Pull over to the left there, Michael. I think the house is back in the wooded area over the hill. This is where we have to get out. Oh, it looks like Maria’s asleep. I’ll stay here with her for a minute while you check to see if this is the right spot.” She pointed off to the left of the car and added, “Check just over that hill for a two-story white house.”
Michael walked off toward the hill about fifty feet away. Jamie reached in her pocket and pulled out the gun. She opened the door of the car and stepped out. She quietly closed the door and leaned back against the car holding the gun just out of sight behind her. She looked back and forth to make certain there was nobody around.
Michael walked back toward the car and said, “I didn’t see any house, Jamie. Are you sure this is the right place?”
“Well, I thought it was here. I’m sure this is the right road. Maybe I had you pull over too soon. Let’s try driving a little further down.”
As Michael approached the car, Jamie began her mental countdown. Three, two, one....
He was just three feet in front of her when she swung the gun up toward his head. He froze at the sight of it. Jamie pulled the trigger just as his reflexes kicked in. The shot was deafening. It struck Michael in the forehead and blood sprayed everywhere, but he had managed to turn his head to the right the instant she pulled the trigger. The bullet shattered the bone away and exposed the brain cavity, but it didn’t travel directly through the center of his brain as Jamie had intended.
With seemingly supernatural strength, Michael managed to throw himself forward and grasp Jamie’s head with his extended left hand. His body continued forward as he brutally smashed the back of Jamie’s skull against the car door. Jamie’s body went limp. The back of her head smeared a grotesque trail of blood along the car door as she slid down onto the ground with Michael’s body collapsing on top of hers.
.....
Jamie awoke to the sound of sirens and she stared up into the eyes of a young man in a white jacket. She felt her body getting jostled from side to side. She looked around and realized she was in an ambulance with two men and the eyes looking down at her belonged to a paramedic.
“Take it easy, honey,” she heard him say. “You’re going to be just fine. We’re on the way to the hospital.”
The sensation she felt was indescribable. It was almost as if she were floating through space and nothing around her was real. She was incredibly tired and she felt like she wanted to sleep.
She tried to remember what had happened to her. It was so hard for her to concentrate. Then a vestige of a memory surfaced. She remembered something about Michael. It was just a fuzzy, obscure thought at first, but then a story began to develop around it. As it became clearer to her, she suddenly began to feel cold. She began shivering under the gray woolen blanket that covered her body. The images of Michael Pearlstein and Maria Cortez became clear in her mind.
She had failed. How could she have failed? Now they’d all know she had killed them. It was all over for her. There was nothing left in her life. Gone forever was her stardom. Gone were the dreams of fame and riches. Why? She was only trying to do God’s work. How could this have happened?
God’s work! Yes, she remembered about God’s work. She remembered about the six, and about Zoron and Jonah and Oren. She remembered that she had to go back and kill the others. But why? It was something about their knowledge. It was something that she knew also. Knowledge! The fruit of the tree of knowledge. What did it mean?
The desire to sleep became stronger. She fought it off with every ounce of energy left in her tiny body. What was the knowledge? Then the words suddenly came to her as if someone were speaking them out loud; Eternal Life.
She concentrated as hard as she could on those two words. Then the image of the chamber and the conduit materialized in her mind. Reincarnation! That was the knowledge that the six had. They were all gone now; all but her. But she somehow knew that she was soon to join them.
No! There was one difference. She alone had the knowledge. The others were gone and their knowledge gone with them. That was the work that God had sent her to do.
But what now? As she lay there feeling the life drain from her body, two paths materialized in her mind. She saw the path leading to Zoron and to God, and she saw the path back through the conduit; back with the knowledge she alone would possess. Eternal life! As she began to drift into the inevitable sleep, she took solace in the thought of the second path. Her life wasn’t ending. It was just beginning.
.....
The ambulance stopped and she heard the doors open. She felt herself being pulled out through the doors. Then she saw the ceiling of the hospital corridor rush by above her as the two young men ran alongside the gurney. She began to hallucinate as she felt the life-force leaving her body. Colors began to change and the images around her became ghostly and surreal.
The gurney turned suddenly and the ceiling above her changed to one of continuous lights. The figures around her began to change colors and dance about in ever-changing shapes. She was so tired. She knew that she could stay awake no longer.
As her eyes began to roll back and allow the sleepiness to consume her, she saw the surreal image of an arm bringing a mask down over her face. Her eyes traced a path along the arm, across the shoulder and up the neck. She struggled to bring into focus the gray, distorted, elusive image of the face before her. For one fleeting moment she looked into the face of Zoron. Then the last ounce of energy left her body and her world went black.
4
The lights suddenly surrounded her and she expected to see the familiar cells once again. Instead Jamie found herself in Zoron’s chamber. She was seated in one of the six seats. Zoron and Jonah sat on the raised platform looking down at her.
“Our purest of souls is now returned unto us,” said Zoron.
Jamie wondered how she had ended up directly in Zoron’s chamber.
“We have been waiting for you,” Jonah said. “That is why you have been brought here directly.”
Jamie was startled. Then she remembered that Zoron and Jonah could read minds.
Zoron stared into Jamie’s eyes. “My precious Jamie,” he began, “you possessed the purest of souls I have ever known. You were the truest and the most incorruptible soul my eyes have ever set sight upon.”
“Oh, Zoron,” cried Jamie. “I’ve let you down. I’m so sorry. I’m so ashamed of myself.”
Zoron’s reaction surprised Jamie. “And why would you feel the need to apologize, my precious child?”
Jamie wondered for a moment if Zoron actually knew what she had done. She didn’t have to wonder for very long.
Jonah said, “Of course we know. Still, there is no reason for an apology.”
Jamie was confused. “I have sinned. I have defied the will of God. I can’t help but feel shame. You trusted me and you sent me on God’s special mission to save humankind.”
“It seems to me that your mission is complete,” Zoron argued. “Do you not believe the six have been returned?”
“Yes, I believe it,” she explained. “But I tried to defy you. And I killed people that I didn’t have to.” She began to weep. “I killed poor, innocent Michael Pearlstein.”
“Innocent?” asked Zoron. “What difference does that make? You knew that all souls would return to earth, did you not?”
“Why are you doing this, Zoron?” she pleaded. “Why do you take my horrible actions so lightly?”
Zoron stepped down from the platform and sat in the seat next to Jamie. He looked back at Jonah and then turned to look in Jamie’s eyes.
“My child, life is but a series of trials and tribulations. Life is precious because God considers it precious. You have not done anything so terrible.”
“What do you mean, Zoron?”
“Jonah and I sent you on a mission. We allowed you to return to earth with the very knowledge that God specifically forbade any human to possess. Do you remember why God forbade this?”
“Yes,” Jamie answered meekly. “It was knowledge that would make men like Gods.”
“Wonderful!” cried Zoron. “And how did that knowledge affect you, sweet child?”
Jamie just looked at Zoron and said nothing.
“Yes, my child, it caused you to defy God. And would you not possibly have defied God time and again if you had the opportunity to escape cleansing from lifetime to lifetime? It would seem to me that such actions might indeed be construed as Godlike.”
“Yes, I think I understand,” said Jamie.
“You have been tested, my child,” Zoron confessed. “We have taken the purest soul we have ever known and sent it back to earth knowing God’s most precious secret. And look what has happened! If the truest and purest of human souls cannot remain uncorrupted by the knowledge, mankind is still not ready to be entrusted with the guardianship of God’s kingdom of earth.”
Jamie asked Zoron, “Does God want to abandon mankind?”
Zoron smiled. “Perhaps it is better to say that God likes to convince himself from time to time that mankind cannot survive without Him.”
“Then you’re not disappointed in me?” asked Jamie.
“Certainly not, my child.”
“Did I complete my mission, then?”
“In no uncertain terms!” commended Zoron.
“Well, if that’s true, is it too presumptuous of me to ask if you’d keep your promise to me? Do you remember? You said that I would be the only human soul to meet with God.”
Zoron and Jonah looked at one another. Jonah had a troubled expression on his face.
“Jonah,” said Zoron, “I don’t think there’s truly any harm.”
Jonah smiled. “Oh, wise Zoron, who am I to question things?”
Zoron stood up. He stepped back on the platform and sat in the center seat. He looked directly into Jamie’s eyes.
“Behold, fair child,” said Zoron. “Know ye this moment that you look upon the face of your God. Ye shall know my face but for this one brief instant and ye shall know that I am Yahweh; Jehovah; the Lord, God.”
Zoron and Jonah disappeared and Jamie found herself in total darkness. She was floating and her body gave off an eerie white glow. That moment she realized where she was. The joy that she felt in her heart was beyond anything she had ever known. She knew that she would be given an opportunity to escape the cleansing, but she knew she would not take advantage of it. She savored the moment by remembering Joan Spencer, Paula Austin and Jamie Meyers. She knew that she would never have the opportunity to remember them again.
She lifted her head and thought the words, “Thy will be done!”
