Armageddon's Prisoners 2

Jack’s nose still bled two hour after he got home, nothing helped.  He’d plugged with tissue, pinched the bridge of his nose, applied ice; the blood did not stop.  Now his neck hurt and he had a headache.

“Dad, you look terrible,” JJ asked, concern in his voice, “I think you should see a doctor.”

Jack looked up from where he lay on the couch.  JJ looked fuzzy and kept trying to turn into two people.

“I’m not sure I can see well enough to see a doctor.”

“Bad joke, your eyes are swelling shut.”

After a few minutes of discussion Jack let his son talk him into going to a drop in clinic a few blocks away.  Sally wasn’t answering her cell phone, probably indicating she’d joined a group in Disciple-making, the groups public preaching work.  As JJ drove him to the clinic, Jack fumed internally.  He wouldn’t say anything to his son, but it annoyed him that his wife put saving Outsiders ahead of checking on her husband.

The doctor poked and prodded, made noises and asking questions.  Jack thought some questions were none of the doctors business and refused to answer them.  The staff took an X-ray, after examining it, the doctor concluded that Jack’s nose was broken, but the headache wasn’t serious.

“Mr. Thornton,” he intoned, “I know you don’t think some of my questions are any of my business, in this business we get pretty good at putting puzzles together.”

Jack sat silently.  After a moment the man continued.

“I’m curious, what kind of church service involves fist fights.”

“I’d rather not answer, and it isn’t a church service.”

The doctor nodded, “so you’re a Disciple.”

“Well… yes,” Jack spoke hesitantly, he didn’t want to say or do anything that would give an Outsider a reason to criticize The Lord’s Word.  Then it occurred to him that he’d done nothing wrong.

“A couple of guys got mad, and it got out of hand. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Jack left the clinic with a bottle of pain pills and tape on his nose.  He felt foolish and his head still hurt.  The reception when they arrived at home didn’t help.  When they came through the door Sally looked up from reading a Bible study aid.

“What is that on your face?”

“My nose is broken.”

“You should have stayed out of that stupid fight.”

Jack explained that he didn’t think he’d been in a fight, he’d been trying to stop one.  Sally ignored the remark, turning back to her study.  After a thirty seconds of dead silence, Jack said he had a headache and wanted to lie down.  Sally continued to ignore him.  Jack turned and walked silently to the bedroom and lay down.

“So what does she think I should have done,” he said to the ceiling.

Jack woke up with a start.  The pain pills must have done their job, a glance at the clock told him he’d slept for two hours.  Although the headache had dissipated, he still felt lousy.  He walked to the kitchen where Sally was sautéing onions.

“Smells good.”

She stirred the pan vigorously without answering. Pulling a can from the cupboard she slammed it on the counter, utensils rattled as she yanked a drawer open to find the can opener.

 “What did I do?” Jack snapped.

Sally took a deep sighing breath before answering through clenched teeth.

“I can’t believe you got in a fight at the Gathering House. Everybody is talking about it.  And your name keeps coming up.  You’ve humiliated me in front of all our friends.”

Jack protested the unfairness of the remark.  He’d only wanted to calm down the situation, to defuse the argument.  Arnie and Isaac were the ones in trouble.

“Well, you know they’re going to appoint a review committee, they’re going to ask you questions.  They could even remove you as a Servant, it’s a major setback for our standing in The Word.”

Jack didn’t see how they could have grounds to do that.  But he didn’t see any point in continuing to argue with Sally as long as her mood continued.  He turned toward the living room, maybe he could find a ball game or something on TV.

“Matt Kesselring called,” she said as he walked out of the kitchen, “I told you they’re setting up a committee.”

Jack flopped onto the couch, pulled out his cell phone called Kesselring, the current chairman of the Servant body. Matt answered immediately and asked Jack how he was feeling.

“Terrible.  Arnie broke my nose, I’m in pain and the trip to the clinic cost me three hundred and fifty bucks.”

“That’s too bad,” Matt said, sounding sympathetic for a few seconds, “I’m trying to organized a committee 

to look into what’s going on with those two kids. I could use your help.”

Matt’s comments left Jack nonplussed, “What about Arnie and Isaac?”

“Well, we don’t have any instructions in the manual for such a situation, so we had to kick it to New Jerusalem.  In the meantime we’ll look into our problem with the teenagers.  It probably isn’t just those two.”

Jack sighed.  As a Servant, the Word required him to help take the lead in keeping up Godly standards.  But sometimes, it just sounded ridiculous.  In reality, “New Jerusalem” meant the twelve Apostles at the world headquarters across the lake in Seattle.  It seemed silly to involve the leaders of four million Disciples in a fight between angry dads.  But eventually New Jerusalem settled all questions.

“Ok, but give me a day or two to recover.”

Later that evening, as he and Sally prepared for bed, she continued with the silent treatment. For a moment, fear gripped Jack.  If New Jerusalem, or even the other servants, thought he acted incorrectly, he would be Cast-out.  No one would even speak to him.  This would be his life.

“Sally, I was just trying to stop that fight.”

She sighed, “My cousin called, they already heard about it in Spokane.”

Jack wasn’t surprised.  Shari Covington having lived in the area for many years, had numerous contacts.  

She was also the biggest gossip in North America.  He decided to just give up for the day and climbed into bed.

 Sally flipped out the lamp as soon as Jack was in bed, and turned facing away from him.  Then she rolled back for a moment.

“I don’t understand why you think it’s odd that Matt wanted to call the Apostles.  They are our spiritual leaders, The Lord speaks through them.  Of course they will know what to do.”

“You’re right I guess.”

Jack didn’t really think she was, but his head hurt again and he wanted to go to sleep.  He would say anything at the moment to kill a late night pillow talk session.

“Good, you’ll see, they will provide the direction the Gathering needs to move past this and promote The Lord’s will.”