First Draft: Chapter 20

Given all the stuff that had been happening to me lately, I was only too pleased to find an old friend waiting patiently for me one day when I returned to my room after class.  “Simon!  Man, how have you been?”
“Jonny!”  Simon stood up and returned my embrace.
“It’s been months since I’ve seen you Simon.  What’s going on?”
Simon grinned sheepishly.  “I know.  I know.  I always promise to keep in touch—“
“And you never do,” I finished.  Actually, considering how much this Joshua thing had consumed his whole life, Simon did a decent job of keeping in touch.  He had dropped by about once every two weeks or so for a while last year.  Of course, when he did come to the University, he would attempt to visit everyone he knew there, and the amount any one of us in particular saw him was strikingly small.  This year he had not been quiet as diligent, and the last time I had seem him at all had been during the summer.
“So what finally brought you over?” I asked.
“Well, I ran into David a couple days ago, and he told me you’ve been through some rough times.”
“Rough times?  This is the best I’ve felt in two years.  Hey, where did you run into David.”
“Oh, just out on the street.  It was a freak coincidence really.”  I knew Simon well enough to know I was being lied to: the pause before he spoke, the look in his eyes.  To those of us who knew him, Simon could rarely get away with any mistruth.  I chose to let it go however.  It wasn’t really that important to me to know where he met David.
“Simon, you wouldn’t believe how good I fell, how truly alive I fell, now that I’ve quite FJC.”
“Yes, but that choice didn’t make everyone happy, did it Jon?”
Simon had sat don on my bed, just like he was when he was waiting for me.  I pulled up a chair.  “David told you about that too, huh?”
“That’s the most important part of the story, isn’t it?”
“Man, he just went nuts on me.  You wouldn’t believe it.”
“Oh, I bet I would.”
I then remembered Simon had also had a big fight with his dad before he left to follow Joshua.  "Oh yeah, that’s right.”  I smiled at my own forgetfulness, and Simon smiled back.  “Have you talked to him at all since that big fight?”
“I haven’t even seen him.”
“How long has it been now?  Two years?”
“Just about.  What about you?  Have you seen your dad since your big fight?”
“Well, no, but it’s only been about a month or so for me.”  It seemed like a lot more than that for some reason, but it had truly only been about a month.  “I don’t ereally care if I never see him again though.”
Simon nodded.  An understanding look was on his face.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.  I’d just assume never see either of my parents again also.  So tell me all about it man.  What happened?”
At Simon’s request, I told the whole story of my falling out with my father.  Simon listened rather attentively, and when the story was finished, I felt kind of silly for talking so long about myself.  “So what’s up with you?”
Simon grinned.  “Well, that’s what I’m here for actually.  I thought maybe with all that’s been happening to you lately, you might be interested in just spending the day with me and seeing what goes on in a normal day.  You know, take it easy, get a change of scenery.  Just do something different to get your mind off of everything for a day.”
“You mean with you and Joshua and company?”
“Yeah, just see what we do in a normal day.”
I laughed.  “You’re not trying to convert me, are you Simon?”
Simon became real serious for a minute.  “My life has totally changed because of Joshua.  Jon, if I can just get you to feel a little bit of what I’m felling, it will change your whole outlook on life.”
The sudden seriousness made me feel uncomfortable.  I tried to lighten the mood by making a humorous understatement.  “So, you are trying to convert me then?”
“No, I just want you to see what’s out there Jon.  That’s all.  What you do with it is up to you.”
I thought about it for a little while.  “I’ve got a couple more classes left today.”
“Skip them Jon.  Come on man, how often do you see me?”
I thought about it for a little bit longer.  “All right fine,” I decided.  “I’ll do it.”
“Atta boy Jonny.”
“Where are we headed?”
“Down town area.”
“And I suppose you gave away your bike a long time ago so you could live in absolute poverty?”
“Boy, you’re really on the ball today, aren’t you Jon?”  And well he stood there grinning that stupid grin, my head spun as I thought about what a long walk we had in front of us.  “Don’t worry Jon.  David let me borrow his bike for the day.  I’ve got it locked up by your bike actually.  Come on.”
As we walked towards our bikes, Simon ventured forth another question.  “Oh, I almost forgot Jon.  One more thing David told me.  Something about this new, ah, shall we say romantic interest in your life.”
“Oh no!”
“Why Jon,” Simon said in a sing-song voice, “are you blushing?”
“Oh brother.  So David is going around telling people about this now?”
“Well Jon, I hadn’t seen you in a while.  I told David to tell me everything.  I would have been quite offended if he would have left a crucial bit of information like that out.”
“What did he tell you?”
“Well, he said he saw you talking to her in South hall, and an hour later you were still talking to the same girl.  He said he’s never met her, but her name is Clio and apparently Icarus isn’t too fond of her.”
I shook my head in mock disgust.  “Man, does he have to tell everyone that story?”
“Well, the thing we all want to know Jonny is: is this girl just a passing interest, one of the many hearts you’re going to break this year, or is there something more to it then that?”
“Well, it’s gotten a little more serious.”
“Yes?  Yes?”
“I kissed her on Friday night.”
“Aha!  So David wasn’t just playing with me.”
“And I made out with her on Sunday for an hour or so.”
“Nice, nice.  So you two are official now?”
“Well, we’ve never really talked about it, but I guess so, yeah.  It feels like we are.”
“I’m going to have to meet this girl sometime.”
“Well, just keep this on the down low, okay Simon?”
“What?  Is this some kind of secret relationship?”
“No, I just don’t want to be bugged about it.”
“Well I would like to meet her someday.”
“David hasn’t even met her yet.”
“How much do you see of David these days?”
I shook my head.  “Less and less every year.”  He’s just been spending so much time with Helen lately.”
“Yeah, I suppose that doesn’t surprise me.”
We arrived at our bikes, and embarked on our journey.

The cool air encircled us as we sped through town on our bikes.  It was a pleasant feeling actually.  After a day of being inside studying, it felt good to be surrounded by a steady stream of air.
It was the middle of the afternoon and the sun glistened on the roofs of the houses as we darted past.  The road, long ago haven fallen into disrepair, was rough on the bikes but we were both used to it.  I would yell occasionally for Simon to slow down, but other then that the speed at which we were going did not allow much more of a conversation then that.
Simon came to a screeching stop right outside an old abandoned building.  I practically had to jump off of my bike to avoid hitting him.  “We better lock up the bikes here,” Simon explained to me once I recovered.  “It’s going to get awfully crowded pretty soon.”
“Is this place safe?” I asked, unwrapping my lock.
“Pretty safe.  Nobody’s lived here for years.  Hardly anyone ever comes by.”  He shrugged.  “Your bikes probably about as safe here as it is anywhere else.”
We locked the bikes up, and then we cut through the house.  (Simon claimed this was a short cut).  We jogged down a couple streets, made a few turns, went up one long street, turned a corner and—
“Wow.  Where did all those people come from?”
“Amazing, isn’t it?  There are crowds that follow him around where ever he goes.  When he wants to get some peace he has to sneak away.”
“How does he get away from all of these people?”
“It’s not easy.  We leave at night and we bring him out into the country or something so he can recuperate.  It’s a big pain.  We have to be super quiet and super sneaky, and lately he’s been needing to get away more and more.  I don’t know Jon, these crowds just drain his energy.  I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be able to keep doing this.”
“An early retirement is in the cards?”
“Very funny Jon.  No, I don’t think he’s ever going to stop being active.  I just don’t know how much longer he can be this active.  He’s going into his third year of doing this you know.”
“So can we see him?”
“Yeah, just follow me.  I’ll get us through the crowds.”  Simon, by this point in his career, was well experienced with handling crowds.  He simply grabbed me by the hand and I followed him as he zig zagged his way around.  He moved with such determination and sense of purpose that often people would just move aside for him when they saw him coming.
As we continued, the crowds just got thicker and thicker, but Simon’s speed didn’t seem to diminish at all.  The amount of people was really unbelievable though, and I was floored by the fact that they had all gathered to hear Joshua.  They were from all walks of life too.  Young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, they were all there.  “Boy, I hope nobody wanted to go anywhere on this road,” I commented briefly.
Simon looked back at me briefly, then kept moving forward.  “Yeah, that’s a problem actually,” he admitted.  “With these kind of crowds we stops traffic where ever we go, whether we intend to or not.  The Strates are constantly complaining to us, and trying to get us to disperse the crowds.  But Joshua has no control over these crowds.  They just follow him.  And even if he did have control over them, he would never turn back people who wanted to see him or wanted his help.”  I had a hard time hearing Simon through all the surrounding noise of the crowd, but I leaned in close and strained my ears as we made our way forward.  “Yeah, it’s tough.  They’re even talking about banning Joshua from the city.”
“Just for that?”
“Well, I think they’re just looking for an excuse.”
This didn’t make sense to me.  Joshua seemed harmless.  “Why would anyone want to ban him?”
“You’d be surprised.  He’s got a lot of enemies.”
“Joshua?”
“Yeah.  You wouldn’t be so surprised if you knew him better.  He’s not the most diplomatic person in the world.  He speaks his mind and he doesn’t seem to worry about who he offends of who he upsets.”
The crowds began to grow so think that even Simon had a hard time finding his way through them.  “We must be getting close to Joshua,” he said as a humorous understatement.  I gave him a sympathy laugh.  “Alright, we’ll go back this way later Jon,” he said, pulling me down a side street.  “There are other things I want to show you.”

Not far from the large teeming crowd, there was a smaller crowd at another intersection.  Simon explained what was going on as we approached.  “Now this is probably the most important thing we do here.  You know a lot of times it’s easy to forget how many hungry people there are in Urbae, because we never see them.  I mean, they certainly don’t live near where we live right?  They were never around our parent’s house.  This is true for one of in particular I think.”  Simon winked at me, but I chose to ignore it.  I was sick of jokes about my father’s wealth.  “Even when we went down town as kids, we never hung out in the same areas that they do.  We can just forget they exist so easily.  But that’s not what Joshua wants to do.  He’s always dedicated himself to helping those who need it, so that’s why we set this thing up.
“Those who can afford it donate food to us everyday.  We serve it here to anyone who wants it.  All sorts of people come here everyday, and we give them what we can.”
“Awfully decent of you Simon,” I said, faking a Northern accent.
“Of course, we don’t have near enough food to feed everyone who is hungry, but we do what we can.  If we can feed a few people, that’s better then nothing.”
Simon fell silent, and I began to grow suspicious of his motives for bringing this whole thing up.  “What is this?  A pitch for a donation?”
He laughed.  “You’re right Jon.  I’m sorry, that was inappropriate.  But if you ever feel like it, we sure could use some more…”  His voice deliberately trailed off.
“I’ll see.”
“Hon we turn away a lot of hungry people everyday here man.  It’s not a pleasant thing.”
I was beginning to get slightly irritated, because I was pretty sure I had a good idea of what was going on in Simon’s mind.  He was thinking about how rich my father was, and how luxurious my child hood had been, and how selfish I was not to give to the hungry.  But just because my father had a lot of money to throw around didn’t mean I had a lot of money to throw around.  I decided to correct his fallacy.  “Listen Simon,” I said with patience, “I’m living a students lifestyle right now on a student’s amount of money.  Besides, after that last fight with my dad I can’t really be expecting any money from him anytime soon.”
“I understand Jon.  Just if you ever have anything extra just keep us in mind.  That’s all.”
We moved forward.  Two men had a little make shift table set up in a corner of the intersection, from which they hurriedly dispersed cold sandwiches to a tattered, eager crowd.  Those receiving were almost all dressed in rags.  In many cases the rags barely covered them, and they certainly didn’t look like very appropriate clothing in this cold weather.  Most of them looked filthy, with much clinging to their face and greasy hair, as if they hadn’t bathed in months.  “They look like some of the poorest wretches on the planet,” I commented.
“I know.  I know,” Simon replied.  “Well Jon, it looks like things are a little bit hurried here to do formal introductions, but I believe you know Stephen and Matthias.”  I took another look.  Yes, it was them all right.  I scolded myself for not immediately recognizing them.  The two men hurriedly handing out the sandwiches to greedy mouths had been old classmates of Simon and myself.
“They dropped out of the University to follow Joshua too?”
Simon nodded.  “Neither one knew him when we were in school, but they heard him speak once and that was enough.”
“He’s that amazing?
Simon looked surprised by the question.  “What?  Oh, that’s right.  You haven’t heard him yet.”
“And I suppose that’s on today’s agenda as well?” I asked dryly.
“We’ll see.  I’d like for you to hear him, but I don’t think he’s feeling good as it is.  By the time he gets done speaking to this crowd, he’ll be exhausted.”
“So what did you bring me out here for?” I was more curious then upset.
“Well, I just wanted you to see what we’ve got set up here.  I really think we’re doing a lot of good to this community.  The food distribution is only the beginning.  Come on, follow me.”  Simon started walking again, and I followed him as he continued his explanations.  “Off course, another problem, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, is most of the poor in Urbae have little to no adequate clothing.  When it gets cold out, they’re really hurting.  So, another thing we have organized is to try and get these people some decent clothing.  We have people donate some of their clothes, and we try and get it to the poor who need it most.  It’s a much slower operation than the food thing because the clothes are harder to come by.  We have a couple old ladies who sit at home all day and knit clothes for us.  Without them, we would have given up on this long ago.”
“Interesting.”
“Isn’t it?  God really does provide for us when we need him too.  Now the third thing we want to do for the poor is to get them a decent place to sleep.  This is the least we can do for them, right?  They shouldn’t have to sleep outside in the rain or cold.  And, there are really a lot of decent people in Urbae who have donated their houses and their beds to give these complete strangers a place to rest.  The problem is we’ve found a lot of people who are willing to take in a stranger for a night or sometimes even a week.  But what good does that do?  At the end of that time the homeless person is just out on the street again.  And no one is willing to let a stranger into their house indefinately.  So, we just do what we can.  We try and find places for these people to sleep, even if they are only temporary places.  If nothing else, Joshua brings the ones that need shelter with him.”
“But Joshua himself doesn’t have a home, right?”
“Yes, but it’s never hard to find shelter for a celebrity.  People actually compete to house Joshua for the night.  Sometimes, even people who don’t like him will just want to be able to say that Joshua slept in their house.  And if we have people that need shelter, Joshua will refuse to sleep anywhere that doesn’t accommodate them as well.”
Simon continued his monologue as we walked further down the street.  As far as I could tell, we were just generally wandering.  There seemed to be no particular place we were headed.  As Simon talked, I noticed a figure huddled in a corner eating his food.  He had the free sandwiches that Matthais and Stephen had been handing out.  Two of them actually, and another tow in his coat pocket.  He had a familiar look to him.
It was someone I knew, I could tell that much already.  But he looked familiar in very old and distant way, like it was someone I had known in my childhood.  Somone I hadn’t seen in a long time.
His pants were so covered with mud it was impossible to tell what color they had originally been.  In many areas his skin shone through where the pants had been ripped or worn away.  He had no shoes on, but his socks were caked with mud as well.  His shirt was muddy, but a distinct shade of orange was visible.  His neck and face were caked with mud.  He had a big brown beard, which hid most of his face from view.  His long hair was tangled and matted with mud.  It was Timothy.
Timothy, the drunk, my father’s friend, here with four sandwiches prepared for him by hard working people.  I couldn’t believe it.  I stared back at him as Simon and I kept walking.  He didn’t seem to notice me as he eagerly devoured one of the sandwiches.  Simon just kept on talking, not noticing the interest I had taken in this figure.  I tried to listen to Simon, but eventually took another look back at Timothy, who was shoving the last bits of Sandwich into his mouth, and getting ready to start on the next one.
When Simon paused to take a breath, I jumped in with my two cents.  ‘I think you’re wasting your time,” I blurted out, disrupting his monologue.
“Excuse me?”
“I think this whole thing is one big waste of time.  You guys really aren’t helping anybody.  You’re just making yourselves feel good.”
I could see on Simon’s face that he wanted to yell at me, but he was restraining himself.  ‘Okay, well explain this to me Jon.”
“Do you see that man over there?”  By this time, we were far down the street from Timothy, but he was still visible.
“Yes, what about him?”
“He would have plenty of money to spend of food if he wouldn’t waste it all on alcohol.  And yet you still give out free food to him.”
“We never turn away anyone who’s hungry.”
“But you expect to take food and resources away from decent, hard working people so that you can let him continue to spend all his money on alcohol.”
“Now Jon, I think you’re being a little bit—“
“You know, there’s no good reason why most of these people can’t get jobs.  They’re just as healthy as you or me.”
Simon took a deep breath.  “Jon, that’s not for us to judge.  We give food to all who are hungry.”
“Well fine Simon, you can do with your money and your time whatever you want to do, but don’t guilt trip me for a donation.”
Simon’s face was getting red.  Three years of living with Joshua had not taken away his short temper.  ‘You know Jon, I can’t believe I’m even hearing this stuff.  You know what your problem is?  Your too—“  Simon seemed distracted by something.  “Too—“  He was looking at something past me.  “Too—“
“Too what?  Spit it out Simon.”
Simon swore.  “What is he doing here?”
I turned around to see who Simon was talking about.  “Look down that road,” Simon said, “and tell me who doesn’t belong.”
In the crowd of rags and mud, one very nicely dressed individual approached.  Even from a distance it was obvious he didn’t belong.  His shoes looked far to nice to be walking down the dirt road, and yet he strolled ahead with out apparent concern for them.  He had on solemn black pants, and a shiny brown belt.  He wore a perfectly white shirt, which was becoming dirtied just from the dust that was kicked up along the road.  He had a nice black tie, and a black sports coat.  He moved quickly, and all the ragged fellows scrambled to get out of his way.
“This isn’t good,” Simon said, starting to walk back in the direction we came.  When I only stood there, gaping at the oncoming stranger, Simon snapped, “Come on Jon, we’ve got to go.”
Simon and I ran through the streets.  “What’s going on?” I asked.
“That’s Pastor Alex we saw,” Simon explained.  “I don’t know what he’s doing here, but it can’t be good.  He doesn’t like Joshua at all.”
“Pastor Alex?”
“Yeah, Alexander actually.  He’s the pastor of one of these downtown churches.  He disagrees with just about everything Joshua says.”
Simon was running at a pretty good clip.  I was impressed.  I didn’t know he was in such good shape.  Of course, I was still in shape from the FJC training, and was able to keep pace with him.  Simon darted down a few streets that were new to me, but I followed him anyway.  He was trying to find a way to get around the crowd, to try and get to Joshua directly.  It proved impossible, even though we went around the long way.  Simon then proceeded to try and squeeze his way through the crowd.  I followed as best I could, but Simon was so pre-occupied with getting to Joshua he didn’t really seem to care if I followed behind or not.
I tried to keep up, temporarily loosing Simon now and again as the crowd closed up behind him, finding him again when the crowd would re-open.  Eventually I made my way to the center of the crowd, where Joshua was standing in a very small space surrounded by people.  Simon was already whispering something in Joshua’s ear by the time I got there.  Joshua nodded, indicating he understood, then patted Simon on the back and whispered something in return.
Simon left Joshua, found me, and guided me to the edge of the crowd.  “Joshua’s decided to keep speaking,” he said.  “But he wants us to monitor things and make sure Pastor Alex doesn’t cause any trouble.”  But although Simon and I spent the rest of the afternoon looking everywhere we could think off, Pastor Alex was no where to be found.

When Joshua was finished speaking, he grew tired and needed to rest, and he pleaded with the crowd to leave him alone.  But they kept pressing in on him.  Some people wanted his advice.  Others sought his help with various problems they were having.  Others seemed to believe he had some mystical healing power.  Although Joshua cried out they just kept pressing.  Word of the situation was brought to Simon, and through Simon to me.  Joshua’s followers pleaded with the crowd, and argued with the crowd, and when they became frustrated enough they started shoving the crowd.  Joshua was too tired to object.  They cleared a path for him, and Joshua was escorted, almost carried, away to a safe haven.
Leda, one of Joshua’s childhood friends, opened up her house to allow Joshua and his followers in.  I was able to come in because of Simon.  Once we were all inside, Leda locked the doors.  “Maybe we’d better close all the window drapes too,” she suggested.
We went through the whole house closing all the blinds.  I tried to be helpful, so I followed Simon upstairs and helped him draw the blinds.  We headed back downstairs.  Joshua was asleep on the couch, so everyone talked in hush tones.
Leda had a worried look on her face.  “How long are they going to be out there?” she said, gesturing towards the door.
“I’ll go out and ask them if you want,” Matthias joked.
“Leda, is this okay?” Simon asked.
“Yes, of course.”
“Are you sure?”
Leda gave another worried look towards the door.  Then, she looked around at all of us.  ‘Look, you guys are welcome here anytime.  You know that.  It’s just that my parents will be home tomorrow night and if the house is completely trashed, I don’t even want to think about what they’d do.”  Joshua stirred in his sleep, and everyone looked over as he rolled around on the couch before settling down again.  Leda looked back at us.  “I know he’s exhausted, and I know he hasn’t gotten the right amount of sleep in probably days, and I wouldn’t dream of kicking him out when he’s like this.”
Simon put his hand on Leda’s shoulder.  “All right.  Calm down, calm down.  That’s a peaceful crowd out there, a very peaceful crowd.  They’re not going to do anything to your house. They just want to see him, that’s all.  And it’s getting late.  I don’t think they’ll be here more then a couple hours.”
Leda seemed reassured by this.  I was upset at the prospect of having to wait inside that whole time.  “A couple hours?” I moaned.
Simon had little tolerance for my impatience.  “Oh shut up Jon.  You can wait that long.”
And so we sat.  Joshua slept peacefully on the couch.  And the rest of us tip toed quietly around the house so as not to wake him.  I was surprised at how many of Joshua’s inner circle I knew from my school days.
I went to the window at one point to see how many people were still waiting outside.  I pulled the curtain back just enough to see what was outside and was immediately scolded by Simon.  “Jon!  Get away from there.  If they see you it will only encourage them.”  So I let the curtain fall closed again and walked away.  I was beginning to feel claustrophobic in this place.
Simon was busy talking to the others, so I just made my way to the stairs and sat down.  Soon after Leda came by.  “Hellow Jon.  Mind if I join you?”
“Be my guest,” I said, making room for her to sit beside me.
“So how are you doing?” She asked as she sat beside me.
“I sure wish I was outside right now,” I said, hitting the railing in frustration.
“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?  Oh, don’t look so hurt Jon, I’m only teasing you.  What I meant was, how are you doing in life?  I mean, it’s been forever since I saw you.  Since our school days, right?  What have you been up to since then?”
I hate these kinds of questions.  Somebody I haven’t seen in two and a half years asks me what I’ve been up to, and where do I begin?  “Well,” I said, trying to decide what was important and what was not, “I’m in my third year at the university now.  I’m studying geography.  What about you?  I didn’t even know you still lived in town.”
Her fingers brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face.  “No, I’m still here.  I’m actually at the University too, but you probably never see me because I live at home still.  I can’t afford to pay for on-campus rent right now.  I can barely afford tuition.  I had to take last semester off because I just wasn’t making enough money.  I’m back in school now though.”
“You’ve been at the University this whole time.”
“Except for last semester, yeah.”
I held my forehead in my hand.  How could I have not known that?  “Boy, I feel kind of silly.”
“No, no don’t feel silly Jon, that’s okay.  I know you haven’t really had time for much of a social life with FJC.”
“Oh, you know about that?”
She nodded.  “How’s that going by the way?”
“I quit this year.”
“You quit?”  I just nodded.  “But you can’t quit.”
“I did.”
She had a very confused look on her face, but I didn’t feel like explaining everything so I just changed the subject.  “What are you studying?”
“Sociology.”
“Do you like it?”
“Oh, it’s very interesting.  I can’t wait till I graduate and start doing field research.”
I suddenly thought how pathetic my own life must sound.  Since I graduated from school I had done none of the things I dreamed I would.  No big adventures.  No heroic escapades.  I hadn’t even left town once since graduation.  And now I was just kind of floating along without any clear end, and the only sure track to a job I had was FJC, and I had dumped that.
“So where are your parents anyway?”
“Oh, my dad’s out of town on business and my mom went with him.  There just gone for a couple days.  It’s kind of nice having the whole place to myself.”  She looked at the door again.  “That is, as long as things don’t get out of control.”
“Do you think they will?”
She tried to think about it briefly, then decided.  “Oh Jon, I don’t even want to think about it.  Don’t ask me that.”
But already the noise outside was beginning to subside.  It appears Simon had been right about this crowd.  “Do you see a lot of Joshua these days?”
“A fair amount.  When he started this whole thing, my parents used to let him sleep here all the time.  Now a lot of times he wants to come here with twenty other people who need a place to stay, and my parents don’t like that too much.  Occasionally when he’s by himself he sleeps here still.”
“What about his mother’s house?”
“She moved out to the country a few years ago.  Besides, she doesn’t have her own house.  She lives with her relatives.”  Leda leaned in close to me and lowered her voice.  “You know those guys over there,’ she said, indicating who she met with a slight movement of her heard, “your friend Simon and the rest?  Those guys are great.  Really, I think they’re truly good for Joshua.  They do so much for him.  They’ve sacrificed everything to follow him.”  She leaned in closer still.  “But they don’t really understand him.  They try, but Joshua’s not always the easiest guy in the world to understand.  Most of them barely even knew who Joshua was when we were all in school.  I’m one of the only friends Joshua had back then.  I know him as a human being, not just as a celebrity or a great teacher.  I know him.”  She leaned back a little but kept her whispering voice.  “I think he really needs me.  He’s surrounded by people who only think they understand him.”

Simon’s a smart guy.  Even though it took the crowd almost four hours to disperse instead of his predicted two.  I prepared to forgive this one mistake.  The rest of his predictions were dead on.  They didn’t leave in a big group.  They just trickled out.  They came peacefully, they stayed peacefully, and they left peacefully.  I was just about bouncing off the walls by the end of it, when Simon finally said something like, “All right Jon, you can go outside for a while.  But please don’t make a scene or attract any attention, okay?”
I think Simon was just as glad to get me out of the house for a little while as I was to leave.  I’m not quite sure why I’m such a pain to be locked up with.  It’s not that I have never sat still in my life before, or have never been inside for long periods of time before.  I think it was more the fact that I was trapped inside the house.  It was the fact that I couldn’t get out if I wanted to that gave me such a claustrophobic complex.
I burst out the door and breathed in the sweet outside air.  The sun was long gone, but somehow it still seemed brighter outside then it was inside.  I walked around the block a couple times, and then came back.
When I got back Stephen, Simon, and Leda were discussing things.  Ijust walked up and observed the conversation.
“Listen Leda,” Simon was saying, “you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
“I know.  Thank you Simon,” she answered.  “I just really hate to disturb him .  He’s been sleeping peacefully for so long.”
“We’ll make sure he gets a good night of rest,” Stephen commented.  “You don’t have to worry about it.”
“I mean, I just don’t want my parents to freak out if there’s a mob in front of their house when they get back,” Leda said.
“I understand,” Simon answered.  “You’ve helped us out enough for one day Leda.”
But Leda felt the need to further justify it too herself.  “And he probably wouldn’t want to sleep here by himself right?  He’d want to make sure everyone else in the city had a place to sleep first.”
Simon nodded.  “He’d be furious in the morning if we just let him sleep without providing for everyone else first.”
There was a pause.  Leda’s eyes were getting red as she looked over at Joshua.  “I’ll go wake him up,” Stephen said, probably just as an excuse to leave the conversation, and I began wishing I had an excuse as well.
“Are you all right Leda?” Simon asked.
“Look at him,” Leda said, motioning towards Joshua.  “He’s been looking so sickly.  I mean, when’s the last time that crowd let him alone long enough to eat a decent meal?”
“We try and make sure he gets enough to eat,” Simon said.
A tear began trickling down Leda’s cheek.  She was looking over as Stephen knelt down and gently shook Joshua to wake him.  “He’s always so tired now.  He didn’t use to be like that.”
Simon put his hand on her shoulder, but she must not have felt like being comforted because she shook it off.  “He puts in long days now,” Simon reminded her.  “The crowds take a lot out of him.”
Leda leaned in close so that Joshua, now awake, couldn’t hear what she was saying.  “Please Simon, take him out of here.  Not for a weekend this time but for a whole month.  Please.”  Another tear followed the first one.
“You know he’d never agree to that.”  Leda swallowed hard.  “Right?”
She nodded.  “Yeah, I know.”

Joshua was groggy when he first woke up.  He wondered around the house for a bit with that “half asleep” look and Leda gave him some cold water to drink.
Leda then began insisting that there was no way she was going to let Joshua leave without a hot meal and most of us were drafted into the kitchen to help in the preparation.  Joshua himself offered to help, but Leda promptly turned him down and he was smart enough not to argue with her.
It was certainly an amusing sight in the kitchen.  A bunch of guys whose idea of cooking was spreading peanut butter on a slice of bread (adding the jelly was too much work) were hovering over boiling pots and grills and mixing bowls.  Few of them escaped injury.  Stephen cut his finger while slicing a tomato.  Matthais banged his head over a light while checking on the soup, and Simon, after burning his hand, strung together four letter words in ways that I would never have thought off.  By the end of it, I think Leda was almost sorry she had asked for the help.  It made me glad the food distribution project had stuck with simple cold sandwiches.
I decided to escape the chaotic kitchen, and went into the living room where Joshua was reclining.  I wasn’t even sure if he would remember me.  I mean, my interaction with him during our school days had been minimal at best.  However, he welcomed me warmly.  “Jon!  Hey, have a seat.  How are you doing man?”  and  “Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk to you earlier.  I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
We didn’t talk long before Joshua got called away by someone, but I was impressed that he was so friendly to me.
Dinner, despite a wounded kitchen staff, turned out to be pretty good actually.  Joshua, worn out from the day’s events, was pretty quiet, although he did tell a couple of good jokes.  There was plenty of food left over, and Leda insisted that Joshua take it with him, although she must have known that he would give it away at the first opportunity.
We said our good-byes, and left Leda’s house.  She stood in the doorway and waved to us until we were out of sight.
I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I knew it was getting pretty late.  All the streetlights were lit, illuminating the dark roads.  I started saying something to Simon about how I should really get back to the University, and if he could kindly tell me where our bikes were locked up because I had run down so many streets during the course of the day I had no idea where I was anymore.  I was babbling about this when I got cut off.
“Look,” Matthias exclaimed, pointing down the street, “it’s our old friend.”
And there, walking down the middle of the street was Pastor Alex.  His tall body was straight and confident, and he walked with determination, heading right towards us.
“What is he doing here?” Stephen asked.
“It figures,” Simon commented.  “He disappears when the crowds are around but he magically reappears as soon as they’re gone.  He was probably waiting this whole time.
Matthais tried to make light of the situation.  “Everyone calm down.  He’s probably just looking for a prostitute.”
“So what are we going to do,” Stephen looked over at Joshua.
All eyes were on Joshua.   Joshua just took one look at the tall, well-dressed pastor, and then turned to me.  “Have you ever been to a cemetery before Jon?”
“Joshua, the man’s heading right towards us,” Simon warned.
Joshua just ignored the comment.  “Have you Jon?  There’s a couple cemeteries almost right downtown.  Have you ever just walked through them?”
“Um, yeah a couple times.”
“Good.  Now have you ever seen a casket in on of them, like right before it was buried or something?”  I nodded.  “You know, those things are really pretty interesting when you think about it.”
“Joshua, he’s coming,” Simon blurted out.
“Yeah, hold on Simon.  I’ll deal with him in a second.  I’m talking to Jon right now.  Okay, now Jon, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it before, but those caskets are really pretty interesting.”
Joshua seemed to be waiting for me to show interest, so I played along, although like everyone else I was really more concerned about the approaching figure.  “Really, how so?”
“Well a lot of those things are really ornate and beautiful.  They’re spotless, shiny, sparkling.  They even have nice designs on the outside.  I mean, these things are really a work of art.  But, on the inside, there’s a dead decaying body.  Fascinating, right?  Humans take this dead, smelly, maggot eaten body, that’s all discolored and slimy and rotten, and we put it in this beautiful case so no one can see the rot that is inside it.  Well, our friend Pastor Alex is really the same way.  Nice looking on the outside, rotten on the inside.”
“You mean the way he dresses?”
“Well, that’s part of it certainly.  Look at him, he always wearing nice new shiny clothes to hide the rot inside.  It’s much more then that though.  I mean, his whole life is dedicated to keeping up the appearance of his shiny outer casket.  He’s always trying to act as holy as he can, hoping other people are watching.  His church is one of the nicest in the city, and he keeps it perfectly clean.  His office is something else too man.  I grew up in his church and his office was one of the neatest things you could imagine.  Not one paper out of place.  Imagine what his home must look like.  Probably every sock is perfectly folded and in the drawer, every piece of clothing on hangers.  I mean this guy has got his look down.”  Joshua stopped for a second and looked down the street.  Pastor Alex was still a ways off, so he started talking to me again, as if it was just the two of us and no one else existed.  “You would not believe what a drag his church was.  Everyone was dressed in nice clothes and they were all trying to look as holy as they could.  They all had very pious looks on their faces when they sang hymns and they said all the right things when they prayed.  And everyone of them was rotting beneath that pious casket.  Pastor Alex was the worst.  Some of the most holy sounding sermons came from his mouth, and the whole congregation adored him, but he was dead and decaying on the inside.”  Pastor Alex was close enough to over hear what was being said, but Joshua didn’t seem to care.  Alex walked right up to us, but Joshua pretended not to see him and kept to talking to me.  “Okay, another example here Jon. I don’t know if you’ve ever been unlucky enough to be out in the woods and stumble across a nest of snakes, but that’s really what the church is like.  You see—“
It was all Pastor Alex could take.  His hand went up and then came down and smacked Joshua across the face.  Joshua’s weak, tired body spun around under the force of the blow and Stephen had to catch him to keep him from falling.  Simon lunged towards Alex, but Joshua’s voice held him back.  “Simon, no!”  Simon obediently halted.  Joshua stood up.  “No violence Simon.  Not for my sake.”
We were all glaring at Pastor Alex.  Joshua’s peacefulness was making him feel a little uneasy about his outburst.  He tried to explain himself.  “I’ve spent my whole life serving God,” he barked out angrily.  “So you treat me with at least as much respect, at least, as you give to all those drug addicts, whores and queers you’re always hanging around.”
“Those are my friends,” Joshua answered.
“They’re the scum of society,” Pastor Alex yelled back.  “And they’re not friends of God.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Joshua replied.
Pastor Alex instinctively raised his hand.  Joshua cringed.  “You want to be hit again for that blasphemy?”
“Certainly not, sir,” Joshua braced himself for another blow, but Pastor Alex just lowered his hand.
“I’m sick and tired of you little punks distorting God’s message.  Now before you started mouthing off to me, I just came here to talk.”
Alex paused.  “Well, what did you want to talk about,” Joshua asked.
“I came here to warn you Joshua.  We’re watching you and we don’t like what you’re doing.”
“Well stop the presses,” Matthias muttered.
“You shut your mouth,” Alex yelled out.  “I’m not talking to you.”  He turned back to Joshua.  “This is a warning Joshua.  Take it seriously.  You’re leading people astray and we won’t stand for it.”
“What am I doing that’s so bad?” Joshua asked.
Pastor Alex ignored the comment.  “If you don’t watch out Joshua, you’ll be hearing from me again.”  And with that, he walked away.  We were all silent until he was out of earshot.
“What a prick,” Simon said.  “I wish you would have let me hit him.”
“That wouldn’t have solved anything,” Joshua replied, “and you know it.”
“What is he so upset about?” I asked.
Joshua turned to me.  “It’s really simple Jon.  Just remember the casket analogy.  If you keep that in mind it will explain almost everything the church does.  The church is obsessed with surface issues.  You see Jon, the single most important commandment that God has given us, all the holy books summed up in one word, is love.  And how much love do you see in the church?  They’re making sure the casket stays nice and shiny well people rot on the inside.”
“You didn’t show a lot of love to Pastor Alex,” I pointed out.
“I know.  I know, maybe I could have handled that better.  It’s just hard to show love to someone who spreads so much hate.”

At the end of the day Simon led me back to our bikes.  “I’ll get this one back to David later,” her said.  “I’ll probably see him before the end of the week.  Are you going to be okay going back in the dark by yourself?”
“I should be fine.”
“Do you even know how to get back from here?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“It’s easy.  Main Street is a couple blocks that way.  Once you hit that, you’ll know where you are.”  I nodded.  Simon walked with me as I carried the bike out of the house.  “So did you have a good time today Jon?” he asked me.
“Yeah, not too bad.”
“Glad you came out?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“Well, you’ve got a couple stories to tell when you get back now at least.”
I smiled.  “I’m sure the guys will really enjoy them.”
“Jon, I’m sorry you never got a chance to hear Joshua speak.  I mean, he is really amazing.  Do you want to give this another try sometime?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“How does next week sound.”
I made a face.  “Next week probably isn’t all that good.  I’d rather not commit to a time anyway, but if you’re ever on campus again or something, just look me up.  “Okay, will do Jon.  Take care.”