FIVE

New Truth

LIONEL liked having Bruce to himself for a while. If there was one thing frustrating about living with the three other kids, it was that he didn’t get much time with Bruce, and when he did, it was usually shared with someone else.

Trouble was, Lionel couldn’t think of much to say, now that they were on their way to Chicago to visit Talia in jail. All he did was fill Bruce in on the whole situation and tell him what Talia had said about her own spiritual life. “Her mother disappeared at the Rapture, and Talia says her mother tried to warn her. Now she thinks she has no chance because someone taught her that when Jesus raptured the church, the Holy Spirit was taken away.”

“So she thinks no one can be saved now?”

Lionel nodded.

“We can counter that argument fairly easily, I think,” Bruce said. And they lapsed into silence again.

Lionel wondered how Bruce found time to do everything he had to do. But he was afraid to ask. Lionel figured the answer would have something to do with Bruce’s not having a wife and kids anymore, and who would want to be reminded of that?

Bruce found a parking place several blocks from the precinct station house. “If there’s any problem with your getting in to see her,” Bruce said, “let me try a few angles.”

Josey Fogarty had impressed Judd, too. From several items she had found in a freezer, Josey had cooked up some sort of a ground beef casserole with noodles and vegetables and cheese and all kinds of other good things that everyone seemed to enjoy.

Judd was also taken aback by Josey’s beauty. He had never seen someone so pretty who was dressed and made-up so plainly (or, he should say, not made-up at all). Mostly, though, Judd simply loved being in her presence. She was warm and friendly, interested in everyone. If she made the others feel as warm and special as she made him feel, he assumed they all felt the same about her as he did.

“I’m here to see Talia Grey,” Lionel said at the desk of the station house.

“She’s not up for bail yet, son. Anyway, how old are you?”

“His age is not relevant,” Bruce interrupted. “He’s related to her former fiancé, who has died.”

“I thought it was her former fiancé she was accused of murderin’,” the desk sergeant said.

“She’s not been accused of murder,” Bruce said. “Now—”

“He’d have to be accompanied by an adult. Would that be you, Mr. Attorney?”

“I’m not an attorney. I’m clergy.”

“Oh, why didn’t you tell me, Father?”

“I’m not a pr—”

“Right this way. You weren’t wearin’ your collar, so I didn’t even . . . I mean, you know. . . .”

The desk sergeant asked someone to cover for him while he led Lionel and Bruce into the bowels of the tiny jailhouse. “I don’t know if you’ve been here before, Father, but we have only three men’s cells and two women’s.”

“Thank you, Sergeant. So, is there a meeting room or . . . ?”

“Nothing sophisticated like Plexiglas walls or nothin’, no. Just this little room over here, and we’ll have a guy hanging around outside the door if you need anything. Now, I’m sorry but I have to pat you down for weapons and contraband. Rules, you know.”

As helpless and panicky as Talia sounded on the phone, Lionel was surprised to see that she had slipped back into her more normal sassy and sarcastic tones. As she was led out of her cell by the matron and delivered to the desk sergeant, who walked her down the hall to the interview room, she said, “You all won’t be seeing me much more in here, I’ll tell you that right now! I got my people coming to get me out!”

The matron must have smiled or shook her head or something, because Talia immediately responded with, “Don’t you be looking at me that way now! You just watch me! I’ll be out of here soon!”

The desk sergeant told her to watch her mouth and manners and to behave herself in front of her company. Talia just cackled. “You don’t have to be telling me what to do. Just mind your business.”

Talia maintained her attitude until the desk sergeant left and someone else was assigned to stand in the hall. The door was shut behind her, and she quickly sat down and acted like a schoolgirl again. “I’m so glad you came,” she said. “I had no one else to call. And this here, who’s he?”

“This is my pastor, Bruce Barnes,” Lionel said. “I think you should talk to him about your questions about heaven and all that.”

“I already told you, Lionel, I don’t have any more questions about heaven.”

“Why don’t we sit down, Lionel?” Bruce said.

Once they were seated, Talia started right in again. “I’m going to need you to find me a lawyer, preacher man,” she said.

“I’ll do what I can,” Bruce said, “but mostly I’m here to support Lionel and to answer any questions you might have.”

“And what makes Lionel think I have questions?” she said.

“You said you thought your mother was in heaven,” Lionel said. “But you were afraid you had no more hope for some reason.”

“I was always told that after the church got raptured, the Holy Ghost would be gone. No Holy Ghost, no salvation.”

Bruce pulled a small New Testament from his pocket and opened it on the table before them. “Did you ever hear of a teaching from Revelation that says that during the time of the seven-year Tribulation God would raise up 144,000 witnesses who would go about the world evangelizing?”

“Yes,” Talia said, “I think I did hear something about that somewhere along the line. Yes.”

“Let me ask you something, Talia. What need would there be for evangelizing during the Tribulation if no one could come to Christ?”

Talia looked up and raised her eyebrows. “I never thought of that,” she said. “How do these people get saved if the Holy Spirit is no longer here?”

“I’m not sure I agree that the Holy Spirit is gone,” Bruce said. “I don’t see that in Scripture, but even if it’s true, apparently God finds another way to bring men and women to salvation, doesn’t he? Otherwise, those 144,000 witnesses are out of business, aren’t they?”

“I guess they are!” Talia said.

Bruce stood. “I’ll tell you what, Talia,” he said, “I know we don’t have much time here, so I’m going to leave you and Lionel alone for a few minutes. Lionel, as you already know, is a new believer after growing up in a Christian home. It sounds to me like you are in a similar position to where he was not that long ago. It’s important for Lionel to learn to tell others about his faith and how to come to Christ. I don’t know how interested you are right now, but even if you are not, you would be doing Lionel a great service to simply listen to him and maybe even critique his approach. Perhaps you could help him learn to do this better. Could you do that for us?”

“Sure,” Talia said.

Vicki was amused to see that even when they were finished with dinner at Judd’s house, Josey Fogarty was still in charge. While her husband sat seeming bored or at least not surprised at her outgoing nature, Mrs. Fogarty began clearing the table and barking assignments. As usual, she was not in the least offensive. She had Ryan organizing the dishes, Vicki washing, and Judd drying, while she wiped everything down and even had her husband sweep the kitchen floor. “Make yourself useful, Tom,” she said, smiling.

Vicki got the feeling that Josey was on a mission, had something to accomplish, something she wanted to do. That soon became clear. When the dishes were done and the place was spotless, she said, “So what do you want to do now, talk? That’s what I want to do, talk. Where can we do that?”

“OK, Josey,” Tom Fogarty said. “We can talk anywhere. Just slow up and sit down. We’re not going anywhere until you get off your chest whatever it is you want to talk about.”

For the first time, Josey looked slightly embarrassed. “Your friends thought I would enjoy talking to these kids, that’s all,” she said. “And I think I just might.”

Vicki caught Ryan’s eye and nodded toward a chair in the living room. Judd seemed to have already caught on that this woman was not going to be happy until she had nothing else to do but talk to everyone. Tom sat in an easy chair, Vicki in a wing chair, Judd and Ryan on the couch. Josey slid the footstool over from in front of her husband and sat on it, facing everyone.

“So you kids think the disappearances were what, something God did?”

Vicki blinked. Now there was an example of getting to the point! Vicki looked at Judd, who appeared at least temporarily speechless. He had been the one doing the talking to Sergeant Fogarty’s coworkers after the sting. Vicki figured it was her turn now.

“That’s exactly what we think,” Vicki said. “Everybody we know and loved who disappeared had told us about this and warned us. It happened just like they said it would, in a split second. They were gone, and we were left.”

“But where are all the children?” Josey said. “The little ones, I mean. The babies, the toddlers, the . . . the . . .” She broke down and couldn’t continue. She didn’t hide her face or cover her eyes. She simply sat there open-faced, those beautiful blue eyes streaming.

Vicki glanced at Judd again, wishing Bruce was there. Judd appeared content to let Vicki have the floor. “We don’t totally understand that either,” she said. “Bruce Barnes, that’s our pastor, says it has to do with something called the age of accountability. He says no one knows for sure about this, but it seems that God holds people accountable for what they know about him only if they’re old enough to understand. We don’t know how young a kid could be and still be held accountable, but, like you, we haven’t seen too many kids left behind who are younger than Ryan.”

Josey took a labored breath. “Did you know I lost two boys?”

Vicki shook her head. Why wouldn’t Tom have said something?

“They were from my first marriage, and I didn’t see them as much as I wanted to. I’ve always been curious about God, and I tried all kinds of religions and belief systems. Unfortunately, I was into some kind of strange stuff when my husband Steve left me for someone else. Even though he was living with another woman long before we were divorced, he got custody of Ben and Brad. I couldn’t keep him from moving out of state, and I’ve been able to see the boys only about one weekend a month for more than two years.”

“And your first husband?” Vicki said.

“What about him?”

“Was he left behind?”

Josey nodded. “Bless his heart, Steve blames himself. His young wife has already left him, so he has no one. But the boys, they were just gone from their beds the next day. He tried to file a missing person’s report and was laughed off. Someone told him that if they filed missing person reports now, the cops would never get anything else done. Poor Steve had to swallow his pride and call Tom for advice. He wanted to know how he could get somebody somewhere to help him look for his kidnapped kids. Tom told him he’d maybe be a little more sympathetic if he didn’t have a grieving mother to take care of too and if Steve would quit being so naïve as to think someone kidnapped millions of kids all at the same time.”

“Basically,” Tom interjected, “I just reminded him that he wasn’t the only father to lose children that day. I mean, that may not have sounded too sensitive, but did he really think law enforcement was going to help him find his two kids when the whole world was grieving the loss of millions? Even Josey was realistic enough to know there was no future in driving six hundred miles to look for her boys.”

“But don’t think I didn’t consider it,” she said.

Vicki couldn’t imagine the pain of losing your own child. It was hard enough for her to miss her big brother and little sister, and she felt guilty every day for the way she had treated her parents, right up until the time they disappeared. It was no wonder the world was in such chaos. There were millions of grieving mothers all over the world, hoping against hope that whatever these disappearances were, wherever their children had gone, it was not painful or frightening for them. The hardest part for parents whose children have been victims of crime, she knew from a mother in the trailer park, is imagining the fear and pain and loneliness of their last minutes alive. Vicki’s neighbor, whose daughter had been kidnapped, said her worst nightmare was her complete inability to do anything for her child in the moment of her greatest need.

Vicki felt a flash of inspiration, a question crossing her mind that surprised even her. She hesitated, wondering if she should actually say it aloud. Before she could talk herself out of it, it talked itself out of her. “So, is that why you’re so interested in knowing whether these people are in heaven? Because of your sons?”

“Of course,” Josey said. “If I thought this was some kind of an alien invasion or attack from some foreign power, I’d rather die than think my boys are scared to death and suffering, or that they’ve been killed. They’re dead to me unless they come back anyway, but I have to know they’re all right.”

“Nobody can tell you that for sure,” Tom said.

“He’s been saying that all along,” Josey said, “and I know he means well. But someone must know. I’m not asking you to say something just to make me feel good, but—”

Vicki was glad when Judd finally decided to chime in. “If they disappeared right out of their pajamas in the middle of the night of the Rapture, then they’re in heaven. You don’t have to believe that, but that’s the only explanation that makes sense to me.”

“Well,” Josey said, “thank you for that, anyway.”

Lionel was talking straight with Talia Grey. He had run through all the verses Talia had heard in church from childhood. He started with the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). He said there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. He reminded her that she could not earn her salvation, that it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy” that God saves us. He added that Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear that we’re saved by grace and that not of ourselves, not of works “lest anyone should boast.”

With Bruce out in the hall, Lionel said, “You’ve got to be honest with me, Talia. I don’t know what you and your brother and LeRoy were running out of my house, but if it was a burglary ring or dope selling or whatever, you’re gonna wind up in jail for a long time, just like them. They’re going to try to get you in on André’s murder too, and—”

“There’s no way! I loved him! I knew nothing about that! I would have tried to stop LeRoy if I’d known he was gonna do that.”

“I’m saying that LeRoy and Cornelius will try to say you were in on it.”

“How could they?”

“Criminals turn on each other all the time. André told me that.”

“But Connie’s my brother, and me and LeRoy go way back!”

“You know them better than I do. But didn’t you tell me that Connie has already tried to kill you?”

Talia slapped a palm on the table, rousing the attention of the guard, who asked if everything was all right. “We’re all right,” Talia snapped. “Mind your business.”

Lionel knew she was upset because she realized he was right. The only people she had left in the world would leave her high and dry if they thought it would do them any good. “Don’t you think you ought to make sure about you and God before you go to trial or even to county jail? You never know what’s going to happen to you.”

“That’s why I asked you to come here,” she said. “I’ll think about it.”

“What’s to think about? You grew up with this just like I did, and your mother was raptured just like she warned you about.”

“I know.”

“It takes more than knowing.”

“I want to do this. But I’m not going to be pushed into it. I have to do this on my own.”

“Fine. Then do it.”

“Who do you think you are, talkin’ to me like this? You’re what, thirteen?”

“Talia, that has nothing to do with anything, and you know it. I’m being straight with you because you talk that way to people. I wish someone had talked to me this way before it was too late.”

“Let me talk to the preacher man a second.”

“Time’s up,” the guard said.

“No it ain’t!” Talia exploded. “Not yet!”

“Yes, it is,” the cop said, entering.

“I’m ’bout to get saved, so let that preacher in here now.”

“You’re what?”

“You heard me, now give me a minute.”

The cop hesitated, looking at the glaring Talia and then at Lionel, who responded with a pleading look of his own.

“Awright, you trade places with the preacher man, and he’s got two minutes.”