36.

The Gospel

One Year Later

Jennifer sat in the cool shade beneath the umbrella that poked through the table, sheltering her from the scorching sun. Waves crashed with a comforting rhythm on the beach nearby. On the table was an empty drink, a basket and a laptop. Her fingers danced across the keyboard. She was writing about the last time she held Mike in her arms, and as she did, her mind drifted back to that night.

She had been trying to muscle two suitcases and a laptop down the hallway toward the stairway of her apartment building. The doorway to the stairs was right next to the elevator in which Tony Malone was coming to kill her. As she struggled to follow Mike down the hallway, to get to the exit door, she heard the dreaded ding of the elevator. The doors opened up to reveal a determined Tony Malone holding a gun. Mike confronted Malone. And as much as she needed to get out of there in order to survive, she froze in her tracks at the top of the stairs and watched the confrontation.

Mike was speaking to Malone, but since he was facing away from her, she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Suddenly, Malone dropped to his knees. There was a blinding flash of light and she looked away to protect her eyes. When she looked back, Mike was gone. Malone was collapsed on the hallway floor, grabbing for his eyes and rolling in pain.

As she dragged the bags clumsily down the stairs, she cried. The bags somehow seemed heavier, burdened by the sadness of losing Mike for a second time. She made her way out to the taxi waiting outside. She got in and, with a tear-streaked face, instructed the driver to take her to Reno.

On the way to Reno, the driver tried to cheer her up. He told her about a ride he gave several weeks back. “The guy looked just like Jesus Christ and wanted to be dropped off at the Tropicana.”

“Imagine that,” she said, managing a small smile.

As Jennifer tapped the keys of her laptop, she recalled the next morning’s newspaper headline: “LV Rabbi murdered. Suspect arrested, blinded by a startling vision of Christ.”

Her train of thought was interrupted when a tall, chocolate-skinned bartender dressed in white shorts and shirt walked over to her table. He said, “Can I get choo any ting to drink, Mam?”

She looked up at him and smiled. “I’ll have another one of those things . . .” She pointed at the empty glass. “What did you call them?”

He gave her a friendly smile, showing his large white teeth. “We call dem Rum Runners, Mam.”

“Please.”

In a few minutes, the bartender returned and set a tray with a drink down on her table.

“You spend an awful lot of time on dat computah, Mam.” He said pointing at her laptop. “Tahiti is da place to relax, not work all da time. What choo workin’ on dat’s so important?”

“A book that will change the world.”

“I hope you do, Mam. It shore could use some changin’. What’s da book called?”

“It’s called ‘The Gospel According to Mike’.”

“Where you get all deez ideas to change da world, sitting out dare on da beach?”

“A special friend. He tells me what to write.”

He shook his head. “I work here every day, and I don’t see no friend, Mam.”

“He visits me in my sleep. We go flying together.”

“Whatever you say, Mam. Some day when you rich ‘n famous, you gonna give me a copy?”

She smiled and said, “Sure,” and the man walked away.

Jennifer pulled the basket closer, making sure it was out of the sun. She reached in and moved the blanket to uncover a baby’s bushy head. The baby looked out at her with unconditional love and simply said, “Ga!”

“Mike was right,” she said to the baby, “You are my special angel.”

The baby made a gurgling sound and grabbed his feet.

She said, “Just a few more paragraphs, Joe, and we’ll take a walk on the beach. Then I’ll tell you all about your daddy.” She ran her fingers through the baby’s curly red hair and he smiled back at her with a twinkle in his half-Asian eyes.