Mel Ebed arrived at the main entrance at precisely 10:30. Five minutes later, Jeremiah ambled through security. A red tie with a small but noticeable stain on the front hung from his white collar. He handed Mel a flat box.
“They had to scan it twice,” Jeremiah said. “Then, Darryl decided to try a piece. Just to make sure it was safe.”
Mel opened the lid and counted two empty spaces. “Who tried the other piece?”
“I didn’t want to be rude and let him eat alone,” Jeremiah offered as an explanation.
“I see.” Mel closed the box of chocolates and slipped it under his arm. “You know I can’t carry it with me, and if the vultures find out you brought me another one, it’ll be gone before I get back to lunch.”
“The sacrifices we make in this life,” Jeremiah said.
The daily banter felt forced today. Mel noticed and figured the direct approach would work best.
“You doing alright?” he asked. “You seem preoccupied.”
Jeremiah raised his eyebrows and let them fall. “That obvious, huh? Yeah, I guess I’ve got something on my mind.”
“Anything you’d like to unload?”
Jeremiah shook his head. “This is between me and Jehoiakim.”
Mel’s face fell. The joy he carried all morning took its leave, replaced by a dull ache in his stomach. He shut his mouth and led Jeremiah down the marble corridor. The secret service agent’s shoes clicked against the black and white checkered stone. Past the rotunda, a thick carpet replaced the marble. A statue of Athena sat on a pedestal guarding the entrance to the carpet. Jeremiah lost count of how many times he wanted to topple the statue and watch it smash on the hard floor beneath. Mel saw the look in his eyes.
“I know how you feel,” he said and kept walking.
Around the corner, Josiah and Jehoiakim watched from the wall. The paint on Josiah’s portrait glistened in the soft light of the hallway. Jeremiah raised his head to acknowledge the presence of the former president as he prepared to do battle with the current one.
“Raining again,” Mel said to break the silence.
Jeremiah checked his sleeves and saw the splotches of drying water on them. “Not too bad. Big drops but not a lot of them.”
“It’s hard to tell when you’re locked inside all day,” Mel said.
Jeremiah nodded.
“It almost makes you forget we ever had the drought,” Mel continued. “You remember it, don’t you?”
“I do,” Jeremiah said.
“When the first rains fell, Jehoiakim ordered a celebration. He went on tv and thanked God. Can you believe it? He thanked God publicly.” Mel laughed at the thought. Nostalgia tinged with sorrow. “His faith didn’t last long, did it?”
“The seed fell on the stone beside the path,” Jeremiah said.
“But God still chose to bless our nation again,” Mel said more to himself than Jeremiah.
“He has withheld his judgment for a time. Nothing more.”
Mel understood enough of the implication to recognize he would prefer not to know the rest. “How long do we have?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
Jeremiah’s mouth clamped shut. Striations in his jawline appeared and disappeared as his teeth rubbed together. The hushed tapping of footsteps filled the emptiness. Outside the office he knew so well, they both stopped. Mel knocked on the door and stuck his head inside.
“He’s here,” he said.
Jehoiakim’s voice called back. “Give me a few minutes to finish the call.”
Mel shut the door and folded his hands in front of him. A small yawn forced Jeremiah’s mouth to open.
“How’s Ben doing?” he asked. “Have you seen him around?”
“I catch him in passing,” Mel said. “He’s a busy man.”
“And Victoria?”
“As well as can be expected under the circumstances. I figured you’d know more than I did.”
“I don’t drop by much,” Jeremiah said. “Not as much as I should. The last time I saw her was before Christmas. She knitted me a hat, the orange one with the ball on top.”
Mel laughed. “You wore that every day you came. I always wondered why you did. It was … how should I say it … noticeable.”
“I guess she figured I didn’t stand out enough.”
“As though you didn’t have a large enough target on your back already,” Mel added. A glimpse of worry flashed over Jeremiah’s face. “I’ve got your back, though, Jer.”
“It’s not that,” Jeremiah said. His lips locked together indicating he didn’t want to talk but would.
“It’s going to be that bad,” Mel said.
Jeremiah looked off to his right. Two secretaries walked the hall, speaking quietly to each other. One raised her head but turned quickly when she recognized him. He waited until they left.
Mel bit his lip, his white teeth clamping onto the dark brown of his skin. “Where did we go wrong?”
“The Russian occupation was meant as a punishment to us, but we refused to take correction,” Jeremiah said. “For a moment, we returned to the Lord, but only with our mouths, not our hearts. As soon as God restored the rains, we drifted away from him. We immediately became ungrateful and denied him the praise only he deserves. You know the rest.”
“Pretty soon, God no longer had a place in our lives,” Mel said. “But that God-shaped hole needed to be filled.”
“Yeah,” Jeremiah said and fell silent again.
“God is not a God to be trifled with.” He waited for the secretaries to make their way back down the hall. “How much worse will it be this time?”
“The word of the Lord came to me,” Jeremiah said. “For the sons of this nation have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places in the Great Valley to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called the Great Valley but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury there, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. And I will silence in the cities and in the streets the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.”
“In days not too far ahead,” Jeremiah continued, “the nation will be destroyed by the sword and the bullet. Those who survive will succumb to the plagues that ravage their bodies and minds or to the wild animals descended from the forests to eat them alive. And a time will come when the survivors will call the dead the fortunate ones. Hunger will gnaw at their stomachs like a lion gnaws at a sparrow’s bones. Nothing will satisfy them as nothing satisfies their appetites now.”
“You have killed my children in the womb and called it good. My holy church has become a shrine to the prostitutes who preach from their pulpits. The land has been defiled by the gods which are not gods, the gods to whom you bow your hearts and strip yourselves bare and worship all day and all night. I withheld the rain and you did not listen. I sent my judgment from the north, told you to wear their yoke around your neck, but you threw it off. I extended my mercy to you one more time, and you played the whore with the rocks and stones, the gold and silver, the women, the men, the moon god and the god of the earth who are not gods.”
“For this, I send my punishment. Who will survive? Who will receive the blows and not know they come from me? In that day, you will call out to your gods which are not gods. Will they listen? Will they show you mercy? For I will not. I will wipe you from this land and give it to another nation. But out of the remnant of those who seek my name, I will keep a remnant for myself. They will know I am God and will worship me with their hearts upon which I will write my laws.”
“Is that what you came to tell Jehoiakim?” Mel asked.
“In part,” Jeremiah said.
“If he listens,” Mel said, “will the nation be saved?”
“God is a merciful God.”
“Will he listen?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “That’s to be determined.”
He indicated the opening door with his chin. President Jehoiakim poked his head outside.
“Thanks for waiting,” Jehoiakim said. “Come on in.”
Nearly three years as his advisor and Jehoiakim still hadn’t gotten over his distrust of Jeremiah. He had, at least, grown to tolerate him, much as a prisoner tolerates the guard when the camera points its eye at them. In the end, expedience and not devotion kept the preacher close to him, a known and close enemy better than one left to his own devices.
“I’ll be outside if you need me,” Mel said.
Jeremiah took his customary spot in an armchair on the far side of the office. Jehoiakim joined him in his own.
“I suppose you have the word from the Lord that I asked about,” Jehoiakim said.
Jeremiah nodded.
“I can tell by your face it’s good news,” Jehoiakim continued. A lush smile spread over his cheeks.
“These people have a rebellious heart,” Jeremiah said. “Much like their president.”
Jehoiakim’s smile thinned out. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Lies and slander, arrogance, hate. They worship God with their tongues, but their throat is an open grave. Every man lusts after his neighbor’s wife …”
Jehoiakim cut him off. “You sound like a broken record, Jeremiah. Every time you come, you say the same thing. How many years have you been saying it? Look around you. Things are going great for us. The economy is strong. Crops are growing again. The Russians are stretched thin, and their army is weakened. Your God is looking out for us.” He threw his hands up. “What more could you ask for?”
“For you to be obedient to the Lord like Josiah was, like the people were in his time.”
“Like Josiah was? Like the people were? You think people weren’t having sex during his time? You’re such a prude. And a fool. There’s nothing new under the sun. Just because you look at a woman in a bikini doesn’t make you a bad person. You do it too. I know you do. You’re a guy. Unless you’re one of those fruits. I never did like them. Barely tolerated Charles when he worked for me. But that doesn’t make it wrong. Checking out a good-looking woman. A couple of guys going at it in the privacy of their homes. What’s that to me? And how does it affect you? I took care of your people when I enshrined Christian liberty into law. God gave me credit for that. That’s why he’s blessed me for so long. I signed another law to protect Muslims so that Allah would shine his grace on me. Buddhists. Hindus. I took care of all of those religious nuts, and their gods took care of me. The only downside was when the witches and satanists demanded equal rights.” He laughed out loud. “That was a funny sight. Dressed in their red robes outside the palace with those symbols painted on their foreheads. What were those things? Goats? Something stupid like that. All that chanting and moaning. I felt like I was watching a grade school production of The Handmaid’s Tale. I should’ve turned the fire hoses on them, but I was having too damn much fun.” He continued his laugh. “I gave them a tax exemption just to shut them up. But between you and me, I hope they stick around. For the entertainment value, of course.” A serious tint came over his face. “Look, I know we’re not a perfect people, but we’re not like those godless Russian idiots.” His mouth had the urge to spit. A slight grunt stopped him from following through. “I’m a spiritual man. You’ve seen that for yourself. This is a spiritual nation. We look after poor people. We don’t let people get away with murder. Everybody has equal rights. The racism of yesterday has all but disappeared. We pray and tithe and do good works. What more could God, could any god, ask of a nation?”
Jeremiah stared hard as though he could penetrate into Jehoiakim’s inner being. “Do you believe in God?” he asked.
“Sure. Of course.”
“And Jesus, his son?”
“Son? I don’t know. He was a good guy. A good teacher. Had some pretty nutty ideas. I wouldn’t say he was God. What does he have to do with anything?”
“Why do you permit the worship of false gods?”
Jehoiakim’s face scrunched up. “False gods. Which ones? Aren’t they all the same just with different names? Allah. Buddha. Shiva. Young. Each religion leading to the same place. Why are you so hung up on who worships who?”
“There is one God who goes by many names, but none of those are the names he goes by. And you blaspheme him when you say so, when you approve of the apostasy committed in the names of the false gods.” Jeremiah paused and looked away. He spoke as though Jehoiakim had left the room. “As if that were all. The hearts of the people are worse than they were three years ago. They simply hide it now. They’ve been forced to hide it because the Russians won’t permit it. But the Lord sees them all. He looks down from heaven searching for a good man, anyone who doesn’t run with open arms towards evil, but he finds none. Not a one. The Lord will surely bring disaster on this nation.”
“I see,” Jehoiakim said. “And what are we supposed to do to prevent this disaster?”
“Turn to the Lord with your whole heart. Kiss the son lest he be angry.”
“Do you have anything specific you might like to offer?” Jehoiakim made sure the sarcasm was obvious.
“Tear down the abortion clinics. They are an affront to the almighty God.”
“Jerry. You’re asking a lot. You think the people are about to riot now. Wait until you take away the clinics from those women. Remember how they boycotted Carter’s Grocery when the owner spoke out against them? Do you see the chain anywhere? All the other corporations are afraid of being boycotted. There’s no way I can convince them to back me, especially with the big plans I have for the nation. I’m afraid that’s not something I can do right now. Maybe later when I have more control. But not now. It won’t work.”
“It won’t work or you don’t want it to? How much do the abortion clinics send to you in gifts each year?”
“That’s not fair, Jeremiah. You know I can’t accept gifts from any ….”
Jeremiah interrupted. “You asked me to give you specifics.”
“I did.”
“Then, tear down the clinics. Rid the land of the foreign gods, and do not try to free yourselves from the Russians. They are a punishment from the Lord. Accept his discipline and remain in his favor. Disobey and he will send a famine like the nation has never seen before. And that will only be the beginning.”
Jehoiakim shifted a couple of times in his chair. A couple beads of sweat dripped down his red face. “I don’t know where you get your information from, but if I wanted to liberate our land from the Russians, set our people free from the slave driver’s whip, how is that such a bad thing? Especially now that the Russians are occupied with problems at home. I heard the Chinese were finally going to retaliate for the incident last March. I’m sure that if we joined forces, the Russians would be off our soil by this time next month. And this famine you talk about, I guarantee we’ll never see it. We’ve spent the last three years storing crops, creating famine resistant seed, building dams and reservoirs. We learned our lesson from the last drought, Jeremiah. We won’t let it happen again.”
Jeremiah stood up and headed towards the door.
“Is that it?” Jehoiakim asked. “You gave up rather easily today.”
“You asked me for a word from the Lord,” Jeremiah said, “and I brought it to you. Your ears are closed. Your mind’s made up, so there’s no point trying to convince you to change course. If you won’t serve the earthly master God has appointed over you, how will you serve your heavenly master?”
Jehoiakim scoffed. “I have no master,” he said. “I won’t much longer, anyway.”
Jeremiah’s eyes burned into Jehoiakim’s. “Your fate is sealed,” he said. “The delusion is complete. May God have mercy on your soul.”
Mel watched Jeremiah storm down the hall. He rubbed his face and took a deep breath. From inside the office, Jehoiakim called to him.
“Mel,” he said. “Send General Brenner in. And find General Conley as well. We have some business we need to discuss.”