First Draft Chapter 14

My friend the reader, do you tire of my leaps in chronology?  Have I abused the privilege?  I can think of no other way to tell my story.  I need to jump ahead yet again.  I am still in my first year at the University, but it is the spring now, not the fall.  I am only a couple months short of turning nineteen.
I had continued rather aimlessly in my studies.  I had even signed up for a couple art courses for second term as I told Helen I would.  FJC consumed my mornings, but my body soon adjusted to the rigors.  I learned to march in place, to obey orders and to arrive on time and to be attentive and I hated every moment of it.  I also found myself continually attending art guild meetings throughout the year, and becoming better and better acquainted with the other members.
Eating lunch with David and Helen in the University cafeteria had become almost a ritual for me.  Since I saw David less and less then, both of us treasure our daily meeting at lunch.  On this particular day, it was a Monday afternoon.  Having just completed the weekend, we were sharing our stories.  David mentioned how he had spent Sunday dinner at his parent’s house.  “What about you Jon?  Have you gone home recently?”
“I try not to go there anymore then necessary.”
“When was the last time you were there?” Helen asked.
My mind researched its archives.  ‘A month ago maybe.  I don’t know.”
“You know Jon, I don’t think I’ve ever met your dad,” Helen said.
I laughed.  “Don’t worry about it.  You’re really not missing out on too much.”
David snapped his fingers excitedly.  “Hey Jon, do you remember when Simon and I were at you house and we were all pretending we were gorillas and your dad walked downstairs just as we were –“
The mention of Simon set off a train of thought in my mind, and I interrupted David’s reminiscing.  “Hey, Dave, whatever happened to Simon.  I heard he dropped out?”
“Yeah, I heard that too.  I haven’t seen that guy in a while.”
“We should visit him sometime.”  I mentioned it only casually.  It seemed like the appropriate thing to say.  David took me seriously.
“Yeah, we should.  Do you think he’s gone back to living with his parents again?”
“I don’t know.  Probably.”  I stared off, and thought aloud, “who would know where he is?”
“You know his house isn’t that far from mine.  We could just bike over there sometime and see.”
Well, I had nothing against seeing Simon.  “Sounds good to me Dave.”
“What about tomorrow night?”
Helen nudged David.  “He has art guild tomorrow night dear.”
“Oh, right.”  David paused to take another bite of his food.  “Well, what about tonight then?  I’m free.”
The more I thought about it, a night away from my studies did not sound that bad.  “Sure.  Yeah, tonight is fine.”

Helen, David and I biked over to Simon’s house that evening.  Simon’s father, who spent all his life in manual labor, was not a rich man by any means.  He was a hard working man, however, and had provided enough money for Simon to attend the University, and Simon had repaid his father’s dedication by dropping out after one term.
The house was simple.  It was nothing like the luxurious surroundings I had grown up in.  It was a middle class dwelling by most estimates, but one of the poorest looking I had seen.
Parking our bicycles, we approached the door, and David rapped on it.  An older woman came to the door.  David and I had met Simon’s mother before, and there was mutual recognition as she looked at us.
“Hello Ma’am,” David said.
She put her forearm against the doorframe and leaned wearily on it.  She looked tired.  “What do you want?”
‘We came to see Simon,” David replied.  “Does he live here?”
There was a pause.  A pained expression filled her face.  A tint of red creeped into her eyes.  She closed the door part way, viewing us only threw a thing opening.  She had retreated into the house.  “He’s gone off to follow Joshua.”
“What?”  Which one of us blurted out the question?  It was probably all three of us.
The door closed completely, but I was not satisfied.  “Wait,” I yelled after the door.  “Where is he staying?  When did he go?”
David put his hand on my shoulder.  “It looks like she doesn’t want to talk about it Jon.  Come on, let’s go.”
We walked back to our bicycles.  “I thought this whole Joshua thing had blown over,” I said.  “I mean I hadn’t heard about if for a while.”
“You haven’t been following the news Jon,” Helen said.  That was true enough.  The University had become my world.  I had time for little else.
David nodded.  “Joshua has only gotten bigger, if anything.”
“I don’t see how this is possible,” I wondered aloud, picking up my bike.  “How does Joshua attract so many people.  David, you and I grew up with him.  Was there anything about him that impressed you?”
David picked up his bike as well, but he was looking off thoughtfully.  “You know Jon, we really ought to go down to see him tomorrow and find out for ourselves what all the fuss is about.”
“But we have class tomorrow.”
“Jon, every time I suggest we go down to see Joshua you always say you’re busy.”
“I am busy!  How would you like to kiss away four hours of every day to running obstacle courses and marching in formation!”
Helen put her hand on my shoulder.  “Easy Jon.”  She was concerned because I had raised my voice.  Her touch felt good but I resented the fact that I couldn’t even raise my voice a little without her worrying.  I stepped out of her touch.
David spread his hands out to indicate he was giving up.  “Fine Jon, you don’t have to come.”
But I was just as curious as he was.  I swallowed.  “No, I want to come.  I just wish we didn’t have to miss class.”


But when the morning came I would decide not to go.  David was disappointed in me of course.
He looked at me with a disgusted face.  “What?  Why?”  The sun was still climbing in the sky, and was directly behind David.  It surrounded him with a golden glow, and made it hard for me to look at him.  His hair was getting slightly longer now then it was in high school, and the sun glistened on the tips of it.
I didn’t feel like arguing.  I was tired.  I had spent all morning running through the mud with Zeus yelling at me and Orion harassing me and every muscle in my body was aching.  The last thing I felt like doing was jumping on my bicycle to go across town trying to find Simon.  “I don’t want to David.  I don’t feel like it.”  Let it go David.  I don’t want to debate it.
“You said you would.”  I gave a tired shrug in response.  “It figures I guess,” David said before he turned to go.  He walked away into the sunlight, and I had to turn to shield my eyes.
Helen turned with him.  “Have a good day at class Jon,” she cooed.
And that was that, they sped off without me.  I stayed at the University and attended classes and dragged my weary body back to my dorm room where I lay down in a daze.
I saw David and Helen the next day at lunch at sat down with them.  David had quickly forgiven me for not coming.  He was happy to see me and he chatted about classes and offered me his extra food.  He has always been like that, never one to hold a grudge for very long.  I kept waiting for either him or Helen to tell me what had happened, but neither did.  Helen opened her mouth a couple times as if to bring it up, but David kept rambling on about inconsequential stuff, and she never got a chance to speak.  Finally I just asked.  David quickly and rather painlessly switched into the story of the day before and told me how they had found the crowds without any problem, and how he was amazed at how many people were there, and how there had been so many people he could hardly hear Joshua talk.  Helen simply nodded her agreement.  Apparently it had taken the two of them a while but they eventually tracked down Simon and tried to talk to him.  Simon was one of Joshua’s inner circle interestingly enough.
“So has Simon changed at all?” I asked.
No, not that they could tell.  Same old Simon.  They had talked to Simon for a while, but soon Simon was needed by Joshua.  “He asked about you,” David added at the end of the story.
“Who did?”
“Simon.  It’s too bad you weren’t there.”

But eventually I would run into Simon.  One day he was just waiting for me when I got back from class.  I opened my door and found him sitting on my chair.
I was obviously surprised at first, and he stood right up to greet me with an embarrassed little smile.  “You don’t mind do you?  The door was unlocked?”
His physical appearance at least had not changed as far as I could tell.  He was still the same old Simon.  Tall, muscular but well toned, glistening green eyes.  I smiled back to try and make him feel at ease.  “If I cared I would keep the door locked.”  He returned my smile out of courtesy.
“Are you just getting back from class?”  There was a nervousness in his voice that made me uncomfortable.  Perhaps he felt awkward about dropping by uninvited.  We were childhood friends, and yet we had not talked to each other in months.  That shouldn’t have made a difference, and yet some how it did.
I slipped one arm out of my book bag and let it fall to the ground.  “Yeah all done for the day.”  I motioned for him to sit back down, and he did but sat on the edge of the seat instead of leaning back in it.  “So what has been happening in your world recently Simon?”
A quick smile flashed on his face.  “Where do I begin?”
I sat down on the bed, right next to the chair.  “I heard David and Helen dropped by to see you last week.”  He nodded.  “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry too.  I’m sorry I couldn’t have talked to them longer.  And I’m sorry I’ve never dropped by.  Things have been so busy for me lately.”
“We’ve all been busy.  Hey, do you want some food or anything?”
“If you have some, yes.  I haven’t eaten since this morning.”
I walked over to my desk and rummaged around.  “All I’ve got is candy,” I said apologetically.  “Are you really hungry?”  He shrugged.  “Do you want to go out and get some food?”
“I don’t have any money.”
I hesitated briefly.  I had plenty of money, and Simon knew that, and I knew Simon knew that.  My father’s wealth was no secret.  But would Simon accept it?  To my surprise he eagerly did.  We walked across campus to the local student diner, and I paid for both of us.
Simon ate his food hungrily.  He tore away at the loaf of bread on his plate.  For a while I just watched him eat.  “Do you have a job?” I asked him finally.
He shook his head.  “No time,” he said with his mouth full.
“I’m guessing your parents don’t feed you.”
Simon guzzled down some grape juice.  He put down the cup and wiped his chin.  “I haven’t seen them in months.”
“So how to you eat?”
“I don’t know.  I find food I guess.  Some one will always give it to us.”
“Who does?”
“I don’t know.  People.  It always turns out somehow.  People give food to Joshua, and he shares it with all of us.”
“With his followers?  How many of you guys are there?”
“There are eleven of us.  Hey, Jon, I’m so sorry I didn’t ever bother to get in touch with you guys.  I’ve just been so busy lately.  When David and Helen stopped by I just realized what a lousy friend I had been and I thought I’d come over and see you too.”
I flashed a brief smile out of habit more then anything else.  “It’s okay.  Who has time?  I don’t have time for anything anymore either.”
“FJC?”  I nodded.  “Are you happy doing that Jon?”
No of course not.  “I guess so, yeah.  I mean it’s something to do.  It’s a future, you know?  Are you happy following Joshua around?”
“I think so yeah.”
“What’s he like?”
Simon put down his piece of bread and starred off thoughtfully while he collected his thoughts.  “Where do I begin?”
“I didn’t know him well in school at all.”
“Neither did I.  None of us did.  I heard about what he was doing and I decided just to check it out and stuff, and afterwards I was walking back and he came up to me.  I wasn’t even sure if he would recognize me, but he knew my name and everything.  He just struck up a conversation with me, and he was so easy to talk to and I felt so relaxed with him.  It really made me wish I had gotten to know him in school.  He asked me to come and join him, and I did.  My parents were furious, but I felt like I had to do it.”
“Your parents didn’t understand?”
“Not at all.  It’s like they had all these ideas of what I was going to be like, and this wasn’t close to any of them.  They wanted me to go to school and get a good job and make lots of money, and now I sleep on the ground and I beg for food.  They just couldn’t understand why.”
And for that matter neither could I.  Why anyone would leave school for that kind of life.  But what I could understand is the frustration of not being understood by your parents.  “I can dig that, yeah.”
“So I haven’t spoken to them sense.  I keep so busy I don’t have time to think about them much anyway.”
“Keep busy doing what?”
“Trying to get food for the day takes up a lot of time.  Joshua always wants us to get extra food, and then we give it to the hungry people.  Joshua has all these people that depend on him for food.  People are always trying to come to him with their problems, and everyone wants to hear him talk all the time.”
“Is he that interesting?”
Simon shrugged.  “I don’t know.  It’s more—“  Simon stopped for a moment to collect his thoughts.  “It’s more that people can identify with what he’s saying I think.  But everyone wants to see him all the time.  He gets so tired.  We have to hide him from the crowds, he just gets so worn out.”  Simon tore off another hunk of bread with his teeth and chewed it thoughtfully.  “Do you know what I think his problem is?  He wants to solve everyone’s problems.  The whole world is in misery and he thinks he can make it all better.  But he’s just a man, just like you and me and he get so drained.  I feel so bad for him sometimes.  He gets so weak sometimes, and sometimes he spends all day trying to help people and his eyes just get glazed over.  And everyone who is hungry he thinks it’s his job to feed them.  But no matter how many hungry people he feeds there are always more of them.  Some days it’s hard enough just to feed ourselves.  And he’s got so many things we wants to say to people, and he tries to preach to the crowds ever day even though his voice gets so worn out.”  Simon took a drink to refresh his voice from the monologue.  “I don’t know.  Sometimes I just don’t understand the man.”  As if caught up in the significance of his own words, Simon drifted off into thought.  I bit down into my food while I waited for him to recover.
“Well, Simon,” I said after a while to break the silence.  “If you ever need a warm bed to sleep on you could come on over to my place for the night.  I don’t have a roommate and I’m sure we could find extra blankets for you or something.”  I only had one bed, but it wouldn’t hurt me to sleep on the floor for a night.
Simon shook his head.  “No, thank you though Jon.  Sleeping on the ground isn’t that bad.  I’m close to Joshua and I’m close to the others and that’s all that matters.  All the other things don’t really seem to make a difference after a while.”
This I didn’t understand either, but I let it go.  “Well if you ever need food then.”
Simon looked at me thankfully.  “Yes, yes I might take you up on that sometime Jon.”  Simon and I talked a little longer.  He left shortly before too long, saying he had to get back to the others before it got late.  He promised to try and do a better job of keeping in touch.
It was certainly one of the more interesting conversations I had taken part in during the past few months.  However there was little time to dwell on it.  I had schoolwork to do and that morning I was up early for FJC again.