Chapter One
Unwanted Burden
The lights passed by in a blur of color outside the windows of the taxi. We were in the city where we would spend the night.
Tomorrow, who knows what tomorrow would bring.
One thing was for sure. It was bound to be different all because of her.
I glanced away from the window and over to Maria where she lay up against the other car door fast asleep. She was going to change everything about my structured existence.
It certainly didn’t help any that I burned with desire for her either. This was the hardest test I had ever been given. I didn’t for a moment doubt that this test was of God’s creation.
There was no other way to explain the involvement of angels or how perfectly I had been set up to have to take care of another, who had my similar condition of stretched out existence.
Why was God tormenting me so?
What was to be gained by exposing me to someone that canceled out all the barriers I had so carefully erected over the years?
What was I missing in all this?
I thought about it and through the course of that thought I remembered the circumstances of Job. Grimly, I admitted to myself that I had been laboring under the assumption of his mistake. I had thought it unjust of God to tear me down, as I had been ever faithful to do His bidding.
It was the same with me as it had been with Job. If God chose to build me up He could do so and if He wanted to tear me down He could do so as well. As a creation of His handiwork, who was I to say otherwise?
It was hard to except that my destruction, as it felt like to me, was at the orchestration of God. What was I to do other than to be obedient, as I had always been, even if it felt like I was being exposed to hell.
Speaking of hell my temptation started to awaken.
Maria straightened up blinking her eyes, “Where are we?”
“Unimportant for you to know.”
She glanced at me, “Are you always this cryptic?”
I felt my jaw tense, “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had a tagalong before.”
Maria cocked her head to the side to regard me curiously, “You’re not happy at all to have me along are you? Am I cramping your style?”
“Yes!” I responded emphatically.
“Good!”
I blinked, what did she mean by that?
She folded her arms and regarded me smugly, “So glad to know that I’m a burden to you. Just think how much less of a burden I would be to you if you’d let me keep the Agency. Can you imagine it Elon? Going for years at a time without seeing each other, as opposed to this up close working relationship, which I detest as much if not more than you do!”
“Then why did you come?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
She looked away to the city lights flashing by her window, “Because I was asked to.”
“By God?”
Maria nodded.
I sighed and glanced out my window.
So be it then.
I turned back to Maria, “Okay some ground rules to start out this working relationship, as you’ve termed it. I don’t need a partner who is committed to stabbing me in the back verbally or figuratively every chance she gets because of past occurrences that she feels she is owed some level of revenge for.”
She nodded, while still looking out her window.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I require a verbal answer to that, as it denotes the respect that I am worthy of as a man.”
To my surprise Maria turned her head away from the window to meet my eyes and say, “Yes Sir.”
Her eyes fell from mine as she asked, “Is there anything else?”
“Yes, there is. In this roundtable discussion platform we’re having on joint relations I’ve expressed one of my desires for a better working experience together. Do you have a request of me in regards to something you’d like to see changed or different in my approach to you?”
Her eyes rose to mine and she softly said, “I would appreciate it if you’d stop looking at me as if you’d like to strangle me with your bare hands, burn my remains and toss the ash over a cliff into the sea.”
I felt myself wince visibly. Had I been telegraphing my displeasure with the situation that morbidly? Apparently she thought so.
She was partially right about one thing. I had almost murdered her. To have walked away from her at the gravesite would have been murder, because I’d had the ability to help her. I hadn’t walked away though and now her life was my responsibility.
I reached my hand out to her and offered it in the traditional form of a business partnership. She looked at my hand held in midair closely and for a moment I wondered if she was too much of a germaphope to shake it, but then I saw that she was looking at the interlaced scars on my palm.
Hesitantly her slim fingers slipped into my grasp and we shook.
Her eyes were still on my hand as I pulled it away and she asked, “How does that work? What you did to restore Utah and now me?”
“It’s complicated, but if you would like I could teach you how to do it.”
She gestured to herself in surprise, “I can do that?”
“Surprisingly yes.”
She tensed up somewhat at my words and regally asked, “Why is it a surprise that I could be capable of doing it?”
“Because you’re the first person in over a thousand years that I’ve met that still had the capability to do what I do.”
Her jaw fell open in complete astonishment and I took a moment to enjoy how completely I’d just unsettled her, with a glimpse as to my length of days upon the Earth. Good, maybe she wouldn’t question my judgment calls so much from now on.
Somehow I doubted it, because at heart she was a very independent woman, which was likely going to cause problems between us, as I only took orders from a Higher Authority.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maria stared out the window at the passing scenes of the city. Who had she gotten mixed up with?
Over a thousand years!
That meant he was older yet and she had thought that her condition had been a strange one!
The things he must have seen and done!
How old was he and why of all the women in the world had she been picked to be his companion?
No answer from heaven was forthcoming to her question. She glanced at him to see him studying her with a small smile playing about his lips. She quickly looked away back out the window. Did he have to be so gorgeous?
Everything about Elon was attractive and now he was as mysterious as she was on top of it all. She didn’t want this!
She didn’t want where she thought this was all headed. She’d never wanted anything like that!
Okay that was a lie.
There had been a time, but that time was no more. But what was the worst of it though was that she sensed that there would be a forced surrender on her part at some point and alarmingly she had the feeling that she would like it.
It started to rain and she inwardly groaned at the sound of water hitting the taxis’ roof. She had to visit the restroom so bad!
Maria’s face flushed, as she realized that Elon had interpreted her shifting about on the seat, in correlation to the sudden downpour outside.
“Give me your hand.”
Maria glanced at Elon mortified, but obeyed with his request.
His big fingers pressed and pulled rhythmically in and around some of her fingers and the abrupt need to go was gone suddenly. The need to go was still there, but the urgency was not.
“Maria?”
She looked up into his eyes from where his fingers worked upon her hand and he said, “Don’t let your pride get in the way again. When you need something ask me. When you have to go or need a rest tell me. If you’re in pain let me know and if you’re hungry and so on and so on. Don’t try to be a tough girl or else this relationship isn’t going to work for you as well as it could.”
Maria studied him closely. His eyes weren’t mean, rather they were sincere. This relationship that was forming almost felt like a marriage in terms of how much was to be shared and in turn jointly trusted.
Swallowing slightly she nodded.
In a small way she had just submissively agreed to give away a part of her precious privacy and she didn’t like it, but it was what was best for the relationship.
They reached the hotel, which was a nice one and quickly dashed in out of the rain, after Elon paid the taxi driver a tremendous sum of money for driving them on a two-hour trip from one city to the next. Elon then directed her to the front desk clerk and gave a fictitious name and a 14 digit security code.
The clerk nervously nodded and handed over a passkey to what appeared to be a single room.
Maria saw a restroom, but she passed it up even though her need was dire.
Before she knew it she was in the elevator alone with Elon. She lifted one foot up anxiously and caught Elon regarding her with humor. His features lightened by humor were quite eye-catching.
Maria glanced away, but then spoke as she figured that she owed him an explanation according to her new tell-all agreement with him, “I passed up the restroom because……”
“Because you’re a germaphobe and the option of a more personal choice of facilities, as opposed to a facility frequented by the often unwashed masses is a more desirable alternative. Am I right?”
Maria looked down smiling slightly and nodded.
“I never imagined you for a germaphobe. With your immune system it’s doubtful that you’d fall prey to any of the normal bugs that you might encounter in a restroom.”
Maria’s voice was tinged with anxiety as she responded, “Believe me right now I wish I wasn’t a germaphobe!”
Elon’s hand claimed hers and his fingers were pressing on hers again, as he had done in the taxi. It helped once again and before she knew it Elon was holding the room key card up in front of her face, “Room 703 on the left.”
The doors of the elevator opened and Maria took off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I leaned back against the wall as I waited. I felt at the smile on my face with the fingers of one hand. I really needed to stop smiling so much, but it was hard not to.
Maria had always been such a mystery to me, partially because there were few mysteries I wasn’t somehow partly aware of. In the last several hours I had learned a wealth of intangible knowledge about Maria and I had only grown more fascinated with her, which was very bad.
I heard my name called and I stepped forward to rap the door lightly with my knuckles. The door abruptly jerked open and Maria stood there looking embarrassed. In fact I had never seen her so embarrassed before.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t realize that I’d locked you out in the hall. I……”
I held up a hand and she stopped and I waited for her eyes to raise up to mine. “Your world has been turned upside down. A man as close to you as a father has departed from your life leaving a big hole behind. You almost died and now you’re alone with a stranger in a partnership that you don’t want or understand and you’re not sure what’s going to hit you next. Am I right?”
I saw her lean into the door slightly, as the emotion of everything that she was dealing with seemed to catch up with her.
“You’re tired Maria. It’s all right if your actions don’t seem to make much sense right now and that you’re not your usual controlled self. You are after all only human. So this is going to be the way of it. We’re going to see what is of use in that pack that you were given and while you get a hot shower and relax a little I’ll make reservations for us to have dinner. We’ll go out and eat and then come back. You’ll camp out on your bed and I’ll camp out on mine and we’ll amicably fight over what we want to watch on TV, not that there’s anything worth fighting over.”
Her tired eyes watched me curiously, as she leaned against the door, “You’re being nice to me, why?”
“Males by nature are fix-it people and right now you’re broken.”
“So once I’m not emotionally stressed and overwhelmed you’ll go back to being mean?”
“Probably.” I dryly responded.
She rolled her eyes and opened the door wider. I stepped in and set the heavy pack down on a nearby table.
“I’ll take the bed by the door and you can have the one by the window.”
“Why?” Maria asked defensively.
“Because if someone breaks in I want to be the first one to deal with them.”
“I can protect myself!” Maria hotly responded.
I turned to her and stated in a firm manner, “Maria this is a case in point of where you’re just going to have to accept what I say as the final word on the matter and yes I am well aware that you are capable of protecting yourself.”
To her credit Maria kept her mouth closed and I turned away and refocused on opening the pack. It zipped open to reveal two sides jam-packed with stuff.
One side was obviously for her, while the other was for me. How quaint.
I did not like the vibe that I was repeatedly getting from my Creator. Why was He doing this to me?
“I don’t understand any of this! These clothes, their my size and and…… why is all this happening?” Maria finished with in exclamation.
I looked up at her, “It would appear that we were meant to be together.”
Something flashed in her eyes for a moment and then she was quickly looking away from me. She knew something that she wasn’t telling me. I’d let it go for now, but later I would need to know what it was.
“I believe you have everything you need here. Enjoy your shower and then I’ll get one and we’ll go to dinner.”I said.
Maria nodded and grabbed what she needed and quickly went to the bathroom and closed the door. I waited for it, but it didn’t happen. She didn’t lock the bathroom door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maria stood staring at the door. She wanted to lock it, but it felt wrong to somehow. To lock it was to say she didn’t trust him, but she had to trust him. Her life could easily depend on it.
Maria resolutely turned her back to the door, but a nervous shiver swept up and down through her.
She stripped down till she was naked. She looked at the pile of heavenly appointed clothes laying on the counter and tears came to her eyes as she acknowledged the truth of the fact that God knew what size clothes she wore and even her sense of style.
Maybe that sounded like a simple thing, but it wasn’t. It meant a lot to know that if the Creator cared for the small details that He had to have the bigger ones taken care of as well.
Maria wiped at her tears and stared at herself in the mirror for a long moment before softly saying, “I’m not ready.”
“I know.” Came the soft response that thrilled her with its authority.
Maria turned to the side and caught sight of the bruise on her hip. She ran her hand over the two scars and the mottled bruising that surrounded them, which bore evidence of how Elon had saved her.
His hand had been pressed there giving her a second chance at life somehow. The scarred area really wasn’t even all that noticeable as a blemish, especially for an action that had saved her life.
He’d said that she had the ability to learn and do what he had done. She really didn’t want to think about that or what else it was capable that she might learn from Elon. She just wanted a shower and then a bed, with food somewhere in between.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maria stepped out of the bathroom and I steeled myself against the emotion I had expected to be confronted with and I miserably failed.
I was so hopelessly attracted to her and yet I hated my weakness for her with a passion that exceeded my desire for her. At least I hoped so.
I slipped past her into the bathroom, as I tried to not notice how erotically enticing she was in a fluffy bathrobe. Even her hair smelled pretty and I’d never seen her hair so curly before as it was now.
I closed the bathroom door behind me with relief and for a brief moment I actually had to fight against the urge to lock it. Not because I expected her to come in, but rather out of the need to have something to keep me away from her.
I looked around the warm bathroom for a long moment.
It was so strange not being alone, as I had always been before now. The soggy towel on the floor, the mirror all fogged up, feminine stuff littered all across the counter top. The bathroom was a mess and yet I liked what I saw. It looked better this way somehow.
Groaning I rubbed at my eyes savagely for a moment.
“Get a grip on yourself Elon! This can never be!” I said warning myself of the temptation that could not be warded off, but seemed to press in all around me.
I stepped out of the bathroom shirtless and headed for the AC unit in the window at the far end of the room. Maybe a liberal use of the AC would help me cool down and stop sweating so much. I doubted that it would do much good for my other problem though, but one could always hope.
I heard a gasp, as I walked by Maria already dressed sitting on her bed, but I kept walking. I knew how extremely well-built physically I was and how pleasing I was to a woman’s eyes, but I knew that wasn’t what had Maria gasping.
The cold air was refreshing against my hot skin.
I felt Maria’s presence before I felt her hand touch my back. Her fingers were cool against the roughed up skin of my back. Although cool to the senses her fingers had the impact of a branding iron upon my tensed up nerves.
By way of explanation I said, “I was a galley slave once, actually twice. Once during Roman times and then later at the hands of Barbary Pirates.”
I knew I was stroking her imagination needlessly so and I prepared myself for her barrage of questions, but no questions came. Curious, I turned around to see her and was surprised to see her standing there crying of all things.
This was so not the Maria I knew from before, as a hard edged agent of the Agency!
The Maria from before had never showed emotion. What had changed in her since then?
I watched her hand drift out across space to touch my stomach and then lift upwards toward my chest. Her features were twisted in a sort of grim anguish, as if she was feeling the remembered pain of the scars that I was covered in. Then to my sudden startlement I realized that in a small way, even unknown to her it would seem, that she was accessing my memories!
How was she doing that?
She wasn’t seeing specific memory, but instead just remembered emotion. Painful emotion.
I swallowed and captured her wondering hand, as my mind lit up at the possibilities of her having such a gift. Was it a gift or had something been Divinely imparted to her?
Did she have this ability with everyone or just me?
Her eyes rose to mine and I said, “Maria the pain was felt once, but now it’s over and done with so don’t dredge it back up.”
She glanced back down her eyes still silently crying.
Her free hand came up and touched one of my bullet hole scars, “This one had to hit your liver!” She said incredulously.
“Went straight through it actually. It was very painful and hard to recover from.”
“Impossible to recover from!” She exclaimed searching my eyes deeply, even as unbelievably I felt her thoughts begin to probe into mine.
“Maria I am not immortal. I can die. I’ve been blessed not too time and time again, but I am as fully human as anyone else alive today is. My body’s cellular structure has been kept from corruption unlike the rest of humanity, much the same as your life has been extended and your aging process halted.”
Maria was shaking her head, “Why? I have lived and suffered so little in comparison to you and I’m tired of it! I have to fight with not pulling the trigger on myself or stepping into the path of the bullet all the time! How have you suffered all this and kept your sanity? I feel half crazy with the need to just have peace, because I don’t want to experience any more pain! I’m tired of pain! I’m tired of seeing everyone I care for die! I’m tired of being alone! How do you do it Elon?”
She was crying in her hysteria, as sobs shook her body hard. How could I not try to comfort her? My arms came around her and I pulled her head to my chest, even as she shook hard with the force of her emotion.
I waited until she quieted down and then I sensed when she wanted free. I let her back, but I held onto her shoulders, as I gazed into her watery eyes.
“I’ve felt as you do. I understand, but I have given up what I can’t understand to fulfill the purpose my Creator has for me. I don’t focus on understanding, at least I try not to. I focused on doing what God has next for me to accomplish and the journey of my life goes on and I experience peace knowing that my life lines up with God’s will and He keeps me healthy, sane, and even willingly eager to continue doing good for the Kingdom of God. The peace I’ve experienced in my journey can be yours too Maria.”
“I don’t think I’m made of the same material that you are Elon.” Maria said softly.
“Don’t underestimate yourself Maria. I know I certainly have underestimated you. I’m nothing special Maria. I’m created of God and maintained by God. All I have supplied to the equation is my will to choose. I have chosen the path God set out for me and I have been faithful to keep to it and He has done with me according to His will. He can do the same with you if you’re willing to let Him. Now let’s go get some dinner.”
I turned her and pushed her towards the door, as I grabbed up a shirt along the way.
This softer and completely unexpected side of Maria was fast undoing every mental block I had set up to halt my growing infatuation with her. She had a far richer personality than I had ever imagined. Why was God exposing me to this woman, when He full well knew what a temptation she was to me not just in the physical, but now also in all the emotional planes of my consciousness?
“God help me!” I whispered.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”