“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Once you’ve met the king, you never forget him.”
The possessed man fell prostrate before the anglers. In a loud, plaintive voice, the besieged man cried out. “What do you want with me, king of the most high? Swear that you won’t torture me.”
“Torture—what is he afraid of?” I asked.
His words haunted the lake like a siren’s mournful calls.
A familiarity seized me. Déjà vu. The wilderness memory exploded in my mind.
The king said to him, “Come out, you evil spirit.”
Were there underlings roaming the earth looking for an unfortunate victim? Captivated by the king’s eyes, the anguished soul stood still for the first time in front of the fishermen.
From off the lake, a breeze stirred, slowly at first and then gaining momentum. Like onionskin, vaporous creatures peeled from the brain of the madman, and the swirling wind tore at the naked and exposed shape shifters. The black, formless creatures were like bats without bodies.
The dark beings smelled rancid, and the awful odor settled over everything. The demons cowered submissively before the king. The creatures hissed, screeched, and made themselves fools. The fearful pig herders withdrew a safe distance.
“What is your name?” the king asked.
“My name is Legion,” one of the demons replied, “for we are many.”
The king’s power and authority over the spirits was omnipotent. The underlings knew him. They knew the king. The muscles in my shoulders tensed, and my legs twitched. Much-Afraid hid her face under my arm.
The demons begged. “Please, do not send us out of the area.” They pointed to the pigs. “Send us among the pigs. Allow us to go into them.”
At the king’s command, they fled from the man and entered the herd. Their formless bodies slid inside the pigs. I shuddered. The pigs shook violently. The herd, numbering in the thousands, stampeded down the steep bank and headed straight into the lake.
The herdsmen watched their valuable livestock disappear, and they shouted accusations at the king. “By whose authority did you drown our herd?”
They flailed their arms at the anglers, and the shepherds traipsed back up the field resolute for answers. “Who is this man that sends pigs into the lake? By what authority does he do such things?” They continued to argue among themselves.
At first, Cherios, Lowly, Much-Afraid and I were too stunned to speak. Cherios spoke first. “Lowly, that is the king, the king of the garden. He’s here. The king is here among us.”
“J-just as Baruch told us,” replied Lowly, “But I didn’t believe him. I-I mean, I sort of did, but now that I’ve seen with my own eyes, I believe better.”
We continued to watch, but the deranged man’s appearance was now strikingly different. He had washed his hair, face, and hands in the lake and sat quietly at the king’s feet. One of the others brought him clothes.
The cemetery prisoner no longer flailed about like an ox in distress. For the first time, a faint smile covered his face—a face alive with hope. Thankfulness exuded from his pores. A miraculous cleansing transformed more than the man’s outward appearance—the king set him free.
By this time, crowds of people swarmed the hillside, having heard the herdsmen’s rants.
“Please leave us,” they cried. “We don’t want you around here.”
We hung around for a few hours, but I was too afraid to get close to the king. Besides, others wanted his attention—and I wasn’t sure what I would say. Torn between wanting to be near him yet afraid to get too close, I lingered, watching and hoping someday I’d be brave enough to approach him.
Later in the afternoon, the fishermen began preparations to leave, but the cemetery man the king healed ran up to him and begged. “Please, let me go with you.”
The king said, “Go home to your family. Tell them what I did for you and how I had mercy on you.” So the man went away to do as the king instructed.
Soon the fishermen unhooked their boat and left. Sadness filled me that I didn’t meet the king. Would I have another chance?
I was drawn to him in a way I didn’t understand. Who was he that even the underlings obeyed him?
On the way home, Cherios was unusually quiet. Lowly kept mumbling, “I-I know you’re the king, I-I believe you’re the king, I accept you as the king,” until Cherios asked him why he felt like he had to say it so many different ways.
“Suppose I didn’t do it right the first time,” Lowly replied.
“Do what the first time?” Cherios asked.
“Suppose he didn’t hear me?”
“Lowly, the king heard you the first time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I know the king. Whether the king is in the garden or here or there, the king hears, knows, and is everywhere.”
Despite Cherios’s assurances, Lowly persisted in his fears. “The pigs wouldn’t listen to me. If they had, I’d be-been feeding with them when the demons entered them.” And he kept on repeating, all the way home, “I believe you’re the king,” but he still wasn’t sure the king heard him.
“Help me with my unbelief,” Lowly whispered.
Much-Afraid had taken off on a romp and now returned with a “present.”
“What’s in your mouth?” I asked.
“Oh, Much-Afraid, that is disgusting,” Cherios chided.
I examined Much-Afraid more closely. “Are you going to eat that?”
The mouse’s tail dangled over her snout. She chomped it down and gulped a couple of times. The wiggly tail disappeared in her throat.
“I don’t need to worry about you starving,” I chuckled.
As we headed back to the cave, I admired the green rolling hills. The sheep grazed peacefully, and the blue sky, dotted with white puffy clouds, stretched out past the horizon. Inhaling the fresh air lifted my spirits as I remembered Daniel and the good times we had together. Now that he was gone, I was on my own. My father was too busy to come home, and Scylla falsely accused me of everything. In Daniel’s and my father’s absence, I felt responsible for Nathan.
What did I want? If I knew, would I be willing to risk everything to obtain it? I gazed at the lake—where was the king headed? I wished I knew the lake’s secrets. If he was the king from the garden, how did he get here? He seemed powerful in some ways but not in others.
I was stuck at an impasse. I couldn’t get Daniel out of my mind. What would happen to Nathan? And why had I killed Judd’s dog when I was just a kid? Could the king help me to get over it? If he could, how could I meet him in the future?
I had been too fearful today to show my face, too guilty about my past to approach him. Now a plan formed in a secret place in my mind. Would I be willing to risk everything?
A gentle breeze touched my face, like the hand of God, energizing the desires of my heart. Yes, I could do it. My life depended on it. I held up my fist and shook it in the air. “If you are really a king, show yourself to me.”
Tears welled up in my eyes and I began to weep. Much-Afraid lumbered over and pawed at my dress. I scratched her behind the ear. “You love me, don’t you?”
She barked happily. “Of course I do.”
Chapter 24
TRUTH EXPOSED IN MULTIPLE REALITIES