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“After my death, you will expose a hypocrite while taking your life.”
Ed’s hand trembled as he looked into Senator Walker’s eyes. “After all I’ve survived, you want me to kill myself?”
“We both will, but you’ll rise from the grave only a few days later. Billions will see your resurrected body and follow your example. We’ll put the Creator on trial for misleading us and making us weak.”
“You think we’ll depose Him with a majority vote, and He’ll voluntarily step down? ”
“The dark angels will help us. As I said, we’re His equals.”
Ed wanted to leave; this man sounded crazier than Helen. “Enough magical thinking.”
“Accept who you are, and promise to join me in death.”
“Sorry. I need time to be alone.” Ed imagined himself drowning in a vast stormy ocean. He imagined God extending a hand from a rescue boat, and he pictured himself not only refusing help and blaming God for inventing such dangers in the first place.
The senator squeezed Ed’s hand and pulled him out of the day dream. “Make the pact with me before I go.”
The Senator pointed at the wall. A glowing blue portal appeared and opened before Ed saw the face of his own brother, Stephen. “Here’s the hypocrite you must ruin. Observe his sins more closely before you confront him.”
Ed wondered how this portal worked as he watched his brother in the passenger seat of Jennifer Parker’s Volkswagen Jetta. Ed’s favorite high-school English teacher looked sexier than ever to him, and he felt a tinge of jealousy when he noticed Stephen’s hand inching up her thigh. “He’s screwing her? After all the lectures he gave me on self-control?”
The senator shrugged. “Observe his thoughts and feelings.”
“I can’t.”
Senator Walker touched Ed’s forehead. Ed took a deep loud breath, sensing a new power in his mind. He could even feel Stephen’s breathing and heartbeat.
“Water’s a little choppy.” Jennifer looked over the shoreline as Stephen parked his car in front of her family’s camp.
“Don’t worry. Something tells me that they’re biting.”
A swarm of bloodthirsty mosquitoes ambushed the two lovers as they stepped out of the car onto the tall grass. Jennifer walked around the car and sprayed cold, sticky bug repellant on Stephen’s hairy legs. Ed felt the spraying sensation on his own legs.
“Something’s biting already.” She laughed and kissed the priest’s lips with a strong suction. The aroma of her shampoo rushed through Stephen’s nostrils.
On the opposite side of the portal, Ed questioned his newfound ability to read Stephen’s mind. He wondered if the senator had drugged him.
“This is only the beginning of the dark powers you’ll possess,” said the senator. “They’ll multiply once you join me.”
They watched Stephen grab the picnic supplies and stroll to the covered area at the end of the pier. The waves slapped the bottom of the weathered wooden pier, and a breeze cooled the perspiration on the priest’s face. He uncorked a 1.5 liter bottle of Merlot, sat on a hammock and looked at the oilrig platforms that peppered the horizon. The priest felt guilty for coming out here and what might happen next.
Jennifer slipped out of her shorts when she stepped on the pier. She reminded Stephen of a swimsuit model as she approached him in her red bikini. As soon as she reached him, she poured herself a full glass of wine. Afraid of being recognized, Stephen winced as a boy on a jet ski buzzed past the pier towards the rocks that protected the shoreline.
Jennifer pushed a frozen shrimp onto the end of the hook and threw her line into the water. Her cork soon disappeared. “Look at this.”
“Already?” Stephen poured himself a second full glass. “Whoever catches the first one has to clean all of them. That’s your family’s rule, right?”
She wiggled the croaker’s lip off the barb and dropped the fish into the live well. “Is that why you don’t have a pole in the water?”
“Sometimes I just prefer watching you.” He climbed out of the hammock and hugged her from behind.
“Watching me clean all the fish?” Her tongue poked out of the edge of her mouth as she maneuvered another shrimp onto her hook. “Did you ask someone to take your mass tomorrow?”
“No. The bishop asked me to do it months ago. It will look bad if I cancel now.”
Jennifer reeled in her lure and leaned her pole against a wooden post. “Do you ever regret our first kiss out here?”
“I don’t regret our relationship, but maybe we’ve been too sexual.”
