Sally and Brian tried to engage further with both “John Smith of NASA” and the less anonymous, “Dr. Reid,” but neither replied. Emails and calls to Dr. Reid were unanswered.
She pulled up CME Research Institute’s website or CMERI as they liked to refer to themselves, and read about the Carrington Event that occurred in 1859. She read further about the dire warnings and posts of these CMEs occurring all the time. Then she downloaded a free survival book from their website, The Solar Apocalypse Survival Guide, even though it sounded a little too much like what would be found on one of those websites that catered to the crazies. Perhaps they aren’t too crazy, she thought.
Then it all hit her: Realization of what Max had been saying at the party, why he had her dad build that safe room for them and their electronics, and what was about to come… To everyone.
21.
Coffee
Darla took a sip from her coffee and then continued, “No, Google Plus is a much better social platform than Twitter and certainly Facebook. All your posts are searchable, whereas they are not on Facebook.”
“Yeah, but it’s a digital wasteland,” Steve refuted as gently as he could. “They only have a half a billion users.”
“ONLY? Really? Actually, it’s just over one billion, and it was built only in a couple of years vs. over a decade for Facebook. Besides, FB is for silly exercises like poking and friending, G+ is for serious people.
“I don’t suppose your exuberance has anything to do with your sister Sally making a living off it?” Oops, the cat is out of the bag now, he thought to himself.
“How…”
“Okay, I admit it. I’m one of Sally’s followers.” Steve then added bashfully, “She’s a good writer, and well, I was curious when I saw the name.”
“Should I be jealous that you followed my sister before me?” She played with him.
“I couldn’t even find your profile… I—”
“I’m just playing with you. I’m glad you looked for me,” her face radiated a full smile.
“Me too,” Steve grinned back.
They sat silent for a long comfortable moment, without any awkwardness, just enjoying where their newfound relationship was going.
Darla broke the silence first, “So tell me. Where are you and your dad flying, and why all the mystery?”
Steve proceeded to tell Darla all about Cicada, including showing her the GPS location on his Google Map app on his phone. His phone interrupted, pinging with an incoming text.
“Sorry,” he glanced at his phone. “I’ve really gotta go. I actually have to do a little work before we head out tonight.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out something, laying it on the table in front of Darla.
“What is this?” she asked, puzzled.
“You gave me a little sand dollar from when you went to Mexico. I had it covered in silver and made it into a necklace… Ah, it’s for you.”
“I remember that. Wait, you’ve been planning this for a while.”
“Is it too much? Am I starting to scare you? You know-“
She kissed him this time, long and slowly.
She gradually withdrew, and when she opened her eyes, he said grinning, “I love kissing you.”
“Me too. We need to continue this, although I don’t know when.”
His phone chirped again, pulling him away. “Me neither, but I promise you, we will again soon.”
22.
The Teacher
The crowds were ginormous, Thomas thought. Far bigger and different from any other revival he had ever seen. They all came to see, hear, and for some, to be healed by the Teacher. “The press,” he told Thomas, “fanned the flames of the embers he already ignited in the hearts of men.” Thomas didn’t exactly know what that meant, but it felt true. And on fire was right, because every night, they did a gathering, the crowds got bigger. Now, the Teacher, as his daddy would have said, “Was hotter than a whorehouse on dollar night.”
It started, at least for Thomas, outside Charleston, but then grew as the Teacher and his group of followers traveled the rural highways from West Virginia, through Ohio, then Indiana, and now Illinois, in the Southern rural suburbs of Chicago, always working their way West. Today, it was Joliet. With each town, the crowds grew. Today, hours before the big event, there were over one thousand people. Many attended on a previous night, but today, many brought family members, who probably told their loved one they were “full of bunk” after hearing their testimony.
When he first met the Teacher, Thomas was like many of them, sitting there waiting, hurting on the inside. He was unemployed after working in the mines for years. Then, his government checks ran out and his bitch of a wife kicked him out. Let her take care of those snot nose shits herself, he thought to himself.
While thumbing for a ride to Columbus, where he heard his second cousin’s boss might have a job for him, somebody handed him a flyer. He couldn’t read so he asked, “What is this bullshit?” The guy told him, all happy, “Come for free and you will be saved. There’s a map on the back.” He never made it to Columbus
Thomas had seen lots of preachers in his day, but this one was different. The man, whom everyone called Teacher and no other name, was amazing. Thomas went to one gathering — the Teacher didn’t like calling them revivals — and came out like he was drunk, his mind all twisted up. He had to go again. The second night, Thomas touched the Teacher and something happened he couldn’t explain. The Teacher felt him touch his clothes and turned to him, giving him a big smile and staring into his brain, as if he could read his thoughts. He said, “Thomas, your worries are few. Lift up your infirmities unto me.” The Teacher grabbed his hand and said something, and it was as if he was filled with electricity. Then, he felt peace. His mind was quiet. Before he looked up, The Teacher was already several people behind him.
On the third gathering he went to, there was a miracle. “It was no parlor tricks like those done by most big tent revival healers, or like you would see at the fair,” he would tell others. Those false preachers always reminded him of the movie his bitch-of-a-wife loved, starring Steve Martin, who played the huckster preacher, using slight-of-hand deceptions to cheat hard-working farmers out of their money. The Teacher was different. He performed real miracles.
Thomas thought back to when a man, known by the whole town to have born blind at birth, approached the stage. The Teacher walked up to him and asked him what he wanted and the blind man fell to his knees and said, “If you are willing, Teacher, heal me.”
The Teacher said, “Arise, you are cleansed. Now, go tell the world.”
The man stood up, turned to the faces in the crowd, who were silent, anticipating. The blind man opened his eyes. Thomas could see him clear as day. The milky color in his pupils gone, replaced with dark eyes that stared in shock at the crowds, then the ceiling of the tent, and then his hands. His mouth opened but he spoke no words.
He didn’t need to say nothing. We all knew what he felt.