(pronounced: noh-BLES oh-BLEEZH; It’s French.)
Billy slept.
After a good while, he found himself in a dream. It seemed to take a few seconds for everything to come into focus. As the details became clearer, he noticed that he was standing in a sort of dining room, but completely unlike any that he had seen before. The rectangular room was made mostly of handsome rough-cut stone, possibly slate. Although the walls were made of dark gray stone, the room itself was unusually bright. He noticed that the room was strangely lit from above. The weird sunlight gave a shimmering watery effect over the entire room. He looked up and noticed that the ceiling was glass with a pool of rippling water above. This explained why the light was refracting in a relaxingly nice way. Strange, but pricey-looking, paintings of nothing definable adorned the walls. A merry tune by Mozart was playing in the background. Angular windows revealed a rocky coastline.
This was all too peculiar. But far stranger was when he caught a glimpse of himself in a large wall mirror. He was the one dressed like a butler this time, right down to his white gloves. He then looked over and noticed that it was James sitting in the master’s seat somehow and just finishing up a meal. James was impeccably dressed and was reading the financial section of the newspaper as he ate. The scene gave Billy the impression that it was sometime in the mid-afternoon.
The dining table and matching chairs were perfect geometrically – but also uncommonly ugly in his down-to-earth opinion. Still, they left the impression of being expensive. The same could be said of the utensils, dishes, and even the nearby vase. At least, the flowers were pretty.
James had just laid down his utensils and wiped his mouth on a cloth napkin which also matched the color of the room. “Now that was truly a superb meal. Excellent. Billy, would you please offer my gratitude to Francois? And tell him that the salmon fillet was a poem – a culinary sonnet.”
A poem? he thought. All I see is fish. Billy was confused. James was supposed to be the butler and Billy was the master. A switcheroo? He had to get to the bottom of this. “What is going on here? Shouldn’t you be waiting over me while I eat?”
James turned in slight anger toward Billy. “That is a rather cheeky statement for a butler to make.”
“Butler?! Who dreamed this up?”
James casually dropped his napkin onto the table next to his gold leafed plate. “Apparently, you did. In this house, I am the master and you are the butler - - and a rather bold one at that. Don’t forget your place, young man.”
“This isn’t how my dreams are supposed to be.” Billy looked around the room and then once again at his reflection.
“Well, I am the master of the house in this dream. And by the way, I want to thank you for giving my house a more cosmopolitan sense of style than those traps that you dreamt yourself in.” James made a grand sweeping gesture to this strange-looking domicile. It was very modern in a Mediterranean way. “Do you not agree?”
Billy thought the room was weird, but he wanted to say something nice. “I do like the watery light effect.”
James sneered and seemed dismissive toward that particular comment. “Visually stunning perhaps – but dreadful for reading. But alas, we are not here to read. We need to relocate anyway. Come with me, Billy.” James rose up from the table to face his new manservant. “But before we go any further, I would like to congratulate you on your recent promotion.”
This confused young Billy. He had no idea to what James was referring. “What are you talking about? What promotion? Going from a rich dude to some lowly butler?”
“Of course,” James said with a celebratory smile. He began to talk and lead Billy into the next room. “Billy, my boy, there are many things that you need to learn. I speak of the merits and rewards that accompany a servant’s heart …”
Billy followed James like a student receiving instruction.
“From an immature point of view, becoming wealthy and having people do all your work for you is a desirable thing. But in the end, a person can become lazy and mentally soft. Understand that I am speaking in generalities; this is not always the case. But more often than not, that is what occurs. Recall your Scripture …”
At this point, Billy had to interrupt James with a lightly sarcastic comment. “That’s just great. Now even my former dream butler is going to be telling me about what the Bible says.”
James spoke with excited energy. “And why not? The Bible gives us the perfect example. Upon meeting God’s Son, we should all rightfully get down on the floor and worship. But in an unexpected twist, he declared in the gospels that one of His purposes in arriving was not to be served, but to serve. What a tremendous pattern for us all. He healed the sick. He fed the multitudes. He even washed the feet of His disciples. This does not sound like the actions of a king as we know it – and yet, He is the greatest King of all.”
By this time, the two of them had walked down a long hall and entered what Billy instantly recognized as a large personal library, right out of the old movies. Hardback volumes filled the shelves with visual harmony. The overhead chandelier was unneeded at this time thanks largely to the enormous amount of natural light pouring through the bay windows on the far side of the room. These windows had stained glass portions which featured many colorful artistic designs. In front of the bay window sat a small table with two chairs sitting opposite each other. Something was resting on the table under a large handkerchief. Billy stepped past a large globe which he gave a gentle turn.
James crossed over a large Oriental rug and hardwood floor toward the table and expected Billy to do the same. “Jesus served his disciples and now you will perform a service for me.” He lifted the handkerchief up in the air revealing an exquisite chess set. The board itself was part of the table and consisted of black granite and Mother of Pearl inlay. One player’s pieces were made of gold and the other out of jade. He noticed that they possessed strategically placed gems. Diamonds adorned the crowns of both the kings and queens. The rooks had rings of amethysts swirling around their tops. Sapphires were attached to the bishops. Even the pawns had emeralds on their heads. Billy picked up a knight and noticed that small rubies burned in their eyes. Beautiful. He marveled at how handsome this set was. This could be the most expensive chess set on earth - - well, certainly the most expensive in his dream world.
Billy smiled. “Wow! That’s dope!”
“Oh, I know that it is a little humble looking for your fastidious tastes, but the same rules of the game apply. I am guessing that you still know your way around the board. Please have a seat and brace yourself for a great game.”
The lad tenderly returned the knight to its rightful place on 1B. “I’m really not so sure that I want …”
“SIT DOWN!” James cried.
Intimidated and a little startled by James’ booming voice, Billy instinctively obeyed and looked up at him.
Towering over his young opponent, James had a wild look in his eyes as he brought his hands up. “Young man, do not treat me like one of your little high school chums. I am challenging you to perhaps the greatest game of all time. Do you even know the history that you are now ostracizing? This exercise dates back fifteen centuries from ancient India where it was known as Chaturanga. It was then transported through Persia and into medieval Europe, and finally brought to the Americas by the Spanish. All that history, all that tradition, generations of chess masters, it has all led us up to this climactic moment. Mankind itself is hinging on what we are about to do. Today, we play Chess! Not only that, but we shall play precisely the way they did it in the days of yore. That means none of this parley business! We play TO THE DEATH!!!”
“WHAT?!”
James laughed as he sat. His voice resumed its friendlier tone. “Good grief, child. People don’t play Chess to the death. Where is your sense of humor?” At the sight of a somewhat comforted Billy, James waved toward him. “Gold over jade. You have the opening move.”
Billy was still unsure about this whole thing. He hesitated, but then looked down at the board and moved a pawn. James stared down at the pieces in silence and made the same opening move. After a few seconds of quiet chess-playing, Billy broke the hush. “Would you like to know where I’ve been all night?” He moved another pawn.
James did not react. His eyes continued to look intently down at the chess board. Without any sign of caring, James answered, “I already know. But if it makes you happy, we can talk about tonight’s events.” He moved his bishop forward. “You decided to mislead your parents so that you could attend a party that you mistakenly thought would be fun. After an episode in which you were openly disgraced, your father came to pick you up. Then you ventured off into the big city to do a little charitable work and enjoy a delightful dinner of cheeseburgers and fries to punctuate the evening. Your dad shared the gospel while you shared a vanilla milkshake.” He finally looked up at Billy. “So just what did you learn from the experience?”
Billy answered the question without hesitation. “I learned that the friends that I already have are awesome.” Billy reached down and took James’ pawn with his pawn. “I also discovered that I dislike rich kids with a purple passion.”
James replied without missing a beat. “You’re a rich kid.”
“Yeah, but my parents were smart enough to …” Billy’s sentence stopped in a screeching halt. What was he about to say? After getting so horribly ticked at his parents for not allowing him to have free-reign with their money, their actions suddenly made a little sense to him. Maybe he was not as mature as he thought he was. Perhaps his parents were right in trying to guard him from himself. Maybe he was now having to face his own weaknesses.
James moved yet another pawn forward and looked back over at Billy, nodding in a sympathetic fashion. “That’s right. Your parents decided to raise you in a common middle-class home. They were unsure of how you might turn out if you were reared among the rich.” He looked back down at his pieces with a shrug. “In fairness, they were unsure about how you would end up being brought up under more normal conditions, but let’s give your parents come credit for trying.” James went back to being quiet again to give his young opponent some time to let that reality soak in a bit. Then he sat up straight in his seat and raised his voice back up to its usual aggressive level. “May I pose a personal question?”
“Sure. Why not? I mean you are in my subconscious mind anyway.” Billy had lost the pawn in front of his king, so he moved a bishop in front of it as a defensive measure. What would happen if I lost this game of chess to my subconscious? Either way I win. “Knock yourself out.”
James moved his knight over and spoke slowly, crafting his question with care. “If someone came along and decided to make a movie of your life, who do you suppose would be the hero? You?”
“Certainly not me – I can promise you that.” He gave a light laugh and then thought about his answer. “I reckon after tonight, I would say that my dad was the real hero – the way he comes to my rescue time and again.” He brought one of his rooks up out of its hidey hole.
James merely nodded, but in a way that Billy could not tell if that was the approvable answer that he was looking for or not. James’ face and body language were not so easy to read. He apparently brought his poker face to a chess game. When Billy was around him, he felt that there was so much more that James was not sharing.
James continued. “You’re on the right path; but that’s not quite right. This does bring up another interesting question however. So what about the villain? If your life were being turned into a movie, who would be the bad guy?”
Billy scarcely had to think about his answer. “Oh, that’s easy. Obviously Chloe. It took me way too long to understand that, but I totally get it now. She has hated me from the beginning. Wow, do I ever feel like an idiot?!”
James’ face looked doubtful. “Think so? You honestly think she is the bad guy?”
Billy was certain about his answer at first, but he could be wrong. “Uh … her dad maybe? Mr. Chastain? He was threatening dad’s job the other day.”
James shook his head. “Now you are getting colder, as the expression goes.”
Billy was not sure of anything anymore. “Could it be those rich kids at the party?”
Clearly that was also a wrong answer. James silently shook his head.
Billy thought hard. He finally snapped his fingers and pointed right at James. “I know! It’s the devil – the ultimate bad guy!”
James laughed slightly. “Well, I’ll have to give you credit for that. That’s not the answer I was looking for; but First Peter 5:8 does describe him as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He wants to totally destroy you and any kind of work that you could do to further God’s Kingdom. But I was thinking about the ‘hidden villain’ – the one that you would never suspect. The bad guy in your movie would be much closer to home.” James moved on and said, “Don’t worry. You’ll get it sorted out before it’s too late. Of course as your dad brought out earlier tonight, you cannot simply dismiss all rich kids as being bad, just like you cannot assume that all middle-class or lower-class kids are good.”
James moved his other knight across to the vacant square in front of his king while he carefully considered his next words. There was a line of reasoning that he wanted Billy to consider. “Here is something else that I would like you to think about. There are far too many simple minds in this world that are focused only on the differences between people: rich, poor, black, white, tall, short, left, right. And so it goes. People are always trying to divide us up. An untrained observer would think that everyone should belong in some demographic someplace and stay there. We should sit still with our little label that was imposed on us, pointing at people who are different. But the truth is that we are far stronger when we are united.” James shifted his weight and cleared his throat before continuing. “I believe that it would be a more profitable use of our time to focus our attention on what all these people have in common.”
Billy looked up at James’ face in curiosity.
James continued his inquiry. “So young man, what quality do rich people have in common with poor people? What do all these classes share?” He sat back in his seat and patiently waited for Billy’s response.
Billy sat motionless as the wheels in his head began turning. After a few thought-filled moments, Billy looked back at James with an answer. “What do all classes have in common? They all have sinned. They are separated from God and need to be restored to Him. They need someone to tell them about Christ.”
James nodded. “Very good.”
Billy thought for a quiet moment. In a soft voice, he added, “My dad does that.”
“Correction: Both your parents do that.”
“It’s crazy. This entire time, I looked at my dad as if he were the biggest geek in the world. Everything he said would embarrass the fool out of me.” He chuckled for a moment. “But now …”
The chess game was momentarily suspended during this time of reflection and repose. There were some important matters to discuss in the company of all these surrounding books in that beautiful library.
James was waiting for Billy to finish his sentence. “But now …? You were saying?”
“Now …” Billy took in a deep breath. He was about to say something that he never thought he would say in a million years. “Now I think dad is kinda cool.”
“You have it in you to ‘be cool’ as much as he does. Even back in Pecan Falls, the pecan doesn’t fall too far from the tree. You share your parents’ generous spirit.”
“Pffff! I wish.” He looked away toward the trees just outside the bay windows. Pecan trees.
“It’s true. For years, you and your associates have been making sure that your friend Clay had something to eat during lunch at school. The four of you have developed quite a little support system. You found a creative way to work through literature books and have even made the deliberate decision to open it up to others outside your little network. And there are other examples. I could go on, but I don’t want to fill you with pride.”
Billy ignored the flattering words and put a question to his chess opponent. “But what I don’t understand is why my parents don’t do more with their money. If they are sitting on this much dough, why don’t they just start doing big things with it?”
James stood up from the table and walked over to one of the book shelves. “They do. Big things come from small things. The mighty oak comes from little acorns. But they do not want their wealth or their generous spirit to be made public.” James had picked up a Bible and was walking back with it.
This sounded strange to Billy. “Why not? That’s silly.”
“It isn’t silly; it’s scriptural. Child, revisit the words of Jesus.” He opened the Bible and began to read from Matthew 6:2-4. “‘Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.’”
He may not have known what the Bible meant by alms; but for the first time, Billy had heard that passage and it began to make sense to him. “So God rewards the things done in secret? Why is that?”
James searched his mind for a good way to explain it. Then he looked down at the chess board and had a flash of inspiration. The two of them had already exchanged both pawns in the king’s column. At present, James’ knight was sitting directly in front of his king. Likewise, Billy had moved a bishop in front of his king so they now faced each other from a distance. He smiled and glanced back up at his opponent. “Young man, look down at your bishop? If you were small enough and could stand precisely where your bishop is right now, what would you see directly in front of you?”
This was an odd way of making a point, but Billy went along with it. “Ummm …” He looked down at his bishop and followed the column with his eyes to the far end of the board. “I would see your knight.”
“Okay. Good. Now here is my next move.” James picked up the knight and moved it two squares forward.
Billy caught on to James’ incorrect move. “Uh, that isn’t legal. Knights move two spaces one direction and another space to the side.”
James complied and moved his knight one square to the right, then returned sitting upright in his chair. “Now, what does your bishop see directly ahead?” James looked at Billy’s face and grinned.
Billy shrugged. Starting from the bishop, he followed his eyes down the column again and reported, “The king.”
James leaned forward and looked right into Billy’s eyes. “Your mother and father are good knights for God. Like the knights on a chess board, they boldly advance forward and then take a step to the side so that others too can see the King.”
Billy was silent. He was not used to hearing anyone talking about his parents in such a positive way, but this compliment was a difficult one to grasp. What precisely was James trying to say?
James continued. “When people give to the needy in a very public fashion, the attention falls on themselves. They get to spend their time in the spotlight, and that spotlight is all the reward they will get. But your parents do not crave the spotlight. When people give in secret, the focus is taken off of them and put on God. God gets the credit and the glory - - which is where it truly belongs. And God will one day reward them with a reward incorruptible.”
Billy had no idea what to say. He was left silenced by the whole thing.
James explained further. “Look. Your parents recognize that all this wealth is simply a huge gift from God. And like all of His great gifts, it is best used for furthering His kingdom. So with all the needs of people around the world today, this is simply a classic case of noblesse oblige.”
“No bless … huh? What is that? It sounds familiar. It’s French, isn’t it?”
“Oi, monsieur. It was mentioned in one of your classes a couple of years ago. Your subconscious mind knows precisely what it means.”
Billy gave James a comical look. “Why don’t you pretend that I have never heard of it before and tell me what it means?”
“Noblesse oblige is an expression meaning that it is the obligation of members of nobility to use their wealth and their influence to aid people of a lower status. In the case of your parents, God has placed them in a unique position in which they can help others less fortunate than themselves. Not only do they answer God’s call, but they actually have fun doing it. I think that you would find it much more enjoyable than spending large amounts of money on yourself. Any idiot with tons of money could do that, but it won’t make them happy.”
Billy looked down at the knight and thought about his parents. He thought about the evening that they had just spent feeding that old homeless man. He thought about all the money that was going to those various charities in their accountant’s report. He thought about the mysterious way his dad disappeared at the hospital on that horrible afternoon of Clay’s accident. His eyes moved from the knight to the king. “So, my parents are knights working for God’s kingdom.” He looked back up at James. “That sounds like quite a responsibility.” He reached up and rubbed his chin. “ …and a rather fun hobby.” He smiled at last.
The older man looked back. He nodded. “Have you given any more thought to my questions?”
“Which ones?”
“You have forgotten already? If your life were made into a movie, who would be the hero and who would be the bad guy?”
Without warning, an irritating, high-pitched noise filled their ears and interrupted James’ line of questioning. The sound itself was piercing and electronic in nature.
“What is that awful noise?” yelled Billy.
James looked up at the ceiling. “If that noise is what I think it is, you need to wake up right now. You can think about answering my questions later. You’ve got to go wake up.”
“Wake up? But I just got here. Besides, it has been a long night already – and we didn’t finish our game.”
“The game can wait! Go wake up!”
“But who is the bad guy in my movie?”
James spoke with a sense of urgency and alarm. “There’s no time for that. You need to wake up now. I believe you are in considerable danger.” James stood up and began to collect the chess pieces. “We will have to postpone that game. Now go on. Now! Don’t worry about the chess board; I’ll put all this away. You worry about getting out of your house. Go!”