Warlock, page 11
“Uh-uh”
While Alex brush his teeth and do his usual morning things, Jim bring him a cup of coffee, so when Barns came out, he takes it from a hand of his friend. And when he sipped the first portion, he noted that Helper had a towel on his hand, imitating a waiter.
“Very funny”
Helper throw towel into the bathroom:
“You know, that someday I’m even don’t want sun to rise. You’re shining every morning!“
“Shut up,” said Alex, sipped one more time. “So, you read that. What do you think?”
Jim shrugged:
“I thought that it was pretty empty. But you said that it had sense.”
Alex nodded.
“As I had said it gives us starting point. Proof that he was common guy with nice family”
“We knew this already. Or do we?”
Alex sipped his coffee and shook his head. He gulped his coffee:
“Not exactly. You know the biggest claim for Kubrick's “Shining”?”
“I see what you mean,” said Jim. “You want to tell that our guy may be schizo even before arrival.”
“Yep,” answered Alex, and begin to dress himself. “Ok, let’s go to have a lunch – I had overslept our breakfast,”
Jim smiled, when they came out from their room:
“Oh, don’t worry – I think Nancy will do everything for your smile.”
Helper was right only partly – at “Nancy's” they can’t order meals from breakfast menu, but they got new pie with mushrooms and crème, just cooked. Friends said, “thank you” to smiling hostess, and begin their half breakfast, half lunch.
“What do we get for today?” asked Alex.
“Hmf…” tried to answer Jim, but he need to chew to the end. “Now…” He opened a piece of paper that Alice gives him. “We got – address of one of the victim girls, one of the friends of Antony, and bonus – his father’s telephone.”
Alex nodded:
“Perfect. His father we need to leave for later and…”
“Why? It’s our jackpot!”
Barns shake his head:
“Nope. Look, we will make a deal with sad parent. Parent of unstable killer kid. How do you think – what kind of story we will hear from him? No. I need to hear bad things in first, then – his version,”
Jim frowned.
“Besides” said Alex, “In that age parents don’t know what happened with their kids. His friends – then father”
When they push their plates aside, Nancy comes with a nice mint apron, and take them.
“Thank you, Nancy,” said Helper smiling. “Delicious as always!”
“Thank you, Jim,” answered she. “Say, guys, how long do you stay here?”
Alex looked at her:
“If it depends on it, whether we try some novelty or not – we can revisit our schedule.”
“Oh you,” she laughed and waved her hand on Alex. “If you're stay here till Sunday, I’m heartily recommend to you our Sunday service. They are leading by young and talented priest…”
Even from his place across the table, Jim saw light in his friend’s eyes.
“…Maybe you’re not religious…” continued Nancy, but guys hear her with half of their mind. Jim knew perfectly way of thoughts of his friend, and was sure that their schedule will change in this moment.
“.. I hope that I’ll see you.”
“Yes,” said Alex. “We’ll try. How much do we own you?”
Five minutes later, their van was rolling from the parking lot.
“Oh, how it was stupid!” lamented Alex. “Three days and I’m didn’t get it!”
Jim shrugged:
“But why do you think that it would be valuable? You read words of that girl – Antony wasn’t religious.”
“This town, Jim” – Alex pointed with his head to the view behind glass. «This case only partly about Antony, another sub-story is about this community“
Helper for a moment looked to the landscape. He saw pretty houses, children that play with their dogs, their moms that looked for them, or hang out clothes.
“But…Is there a community? I mean, have they a core, a spirit? I don’t see it…”
Alex smiled:
“That’s the answer! You do not see it, and maybe you are right in some way. It may be weaker in our open world, but when somethings like our incident happened – community becomes denser, more solid.”
Jim decided to stop arguing. What could happen if Alex wrong? Just another empty interview. Nevertheless, if Barns right – they can catch something interesting. Jim, as a city habitant can’t say for sure is there a seed of reason in the speeches of a friend, but he believed to his senses. In Helper’s mind, like from the bottom of the lake lifted face of Alice Prey, that sparkle of fear that he saw during their conversation. She told about something that left a print all over. Maybe she had strictly meant something about the spirit of what Alex said - about the community. Alternatively, maybe she was a little crazy, and Alex just see a wrong path.
Thinking that Jim parked their hornet like van beside the church. Last was accurate and almost totally white. It made a strange impression. It hadn’t that solemnity or greatness that some churches have. No, it seems very quiet and peaceful. And just for one second it seemed to Jim that form of the building repeat an outline of the town itself (if you look at the city in the perspective of the building), like some portal, but illusion disappeared in a moment.
Friends step in, and looked around. And here Helper do not feel anything. Just a nice white building, and if you put down all crosses and icons you can say that you’re inside of the library or town hall. Voice, that connected strength and calmness said from the rear part of the interior:
“Hello. How can I help you?”
Black man in the cassock stepped to them. It was hard to tell how old is he, but Alex thought that forty – the biggest guess. Thirty-five? Seven? Thinking that narrator of the “ABnormal” smiled:
“Good day to you, sir. You may be reverend Ray?”
“Yes,” man answered. “How can I help you…”
“Alex. And this is my friend and companion Jim” they shake their hands.
Reverend Ray spread his arms:
“So, Jim, Alex. How can I help you?”
Alex answered in abstract who they are, and what do they search here.
“I see” All with the same calmness said Reverend. His lost some gleam, just for a moment, but Jim noted this. Reverend pointed to the bench. “Please, sit down. Yes, I know this family and know this case.”
Just this moment Helper totally understands why Nancy spoke about him so well and enthusiastically. He was the concentration of greatness and solemnity that church lacks from the first glance. Jim said pointing to the camera in his hands:
“Do you mean?”
Reverend smiled:
“No. I had nothing to hide, especially here.”
Jim nodded, and put camera on his head.
“Please, Reverend…” begin Alex
“You can call me Ray.”
“Ok. So, Ray, how did you meet Tychov family?”
“Like all my parishioners, here at church. They came here on the second month after their arrival here.”
Alex meanwhile gets his notepad:
“How do you know this?”
“Oh, they told me after the service. They left to talk with me, and it was pleasure conversation.”
“If it’s not the secret of confession…”
Reverend smiled:
“No, it’s not. They want to meet me, talk with me about their religion. I know a little about their country, so I said them that this…” He looked over. «Is a house of God and I believe that that is also their God. They excuse themselves for the future, said that they do not have a habit come to the services on Sundays, but said that they will come as they can.”
Alex nodded:
“And what did they seem to you? Do you feel something wrong, something…”?
“That forecast things that happened…” Finished Ray without question.
“Exactly”
“No,” Reverend answered firmly, but soft in that same time. “There was one thing that was unusual to me – their strangeness. They were here, with their neighbors, but everything in them told you that they came from far away, that they are not part of this community. It almost invisible thing you can feel it with your skin. But it was then.”
“I see,” said Alex. “So, do you know them only because they came to service?”
Ray smiled with a mild smile:
“Actually I knew Anton much better than some of mine parishioners. He had come to me couple of times to talk, and sometimes he had left after service to ask a question.”
“You said.“Anton”, not “Antony.” Why?”
Reverend shrugged:
“He himself asked me when we had talked at first time. He told that his true name – one of that things that left from his former life” he shrugged once again. “Simple respect I think”
“Your conversations. They were about religion?”
Ray took a minute to answer.
“Yes and no. He wasn’t religious boy but he was interested in theory of religion.”
Alex mentioned something in his notepad, and then asked:
“Explain, please.”
“Well… Oh, I know. There are two kind of people that loves cars – one is fans of speed and good look, other – like all that mechanics that hide under the hood.”
“Antony likes mechanic,” said Alex.
“Yes”, nodded reverend. Then smiled once again, and Jim feels uncomfortable because that smile reminded him one of once of Alice with a bitterness inside. “Sometimes I think that he laughed at me, but when I saw that total seriousness in his eyes…”
“Can you tell us about those conversations?”
Ray nodded a little:
“First one was unique in that way that he never again returned to that theme. He asked me about one homeless guy that lived not far from town. Anton met him during his first week here and wants to know who it is? I saw that man couple of times, and ones even tried to help him with a food, shelter or job, but…” Ray looked strictly to Alex’s eyes. “There are people that don’t want any help…So I told all this to Anton, and said that I can’t help him.
Then he asked me about God and how can he let such things to a man. I said that everybody had its own road, and only God know why we walk by this path, why we carry one or another thing, and there is purpose in every second of our lives. Anton mentioned that it is a little bit cruel, but then we stop our conversation. If I remember all facts correctly – his parents call him.”
“That homeless guy”
“Yes”
“Do you know his name or how we can find him?” said Alex writing notes.
“Unfortunately, he died.”
“Oh” Barns put a sad smile near the last note.
“Then was a brief meeting. I was cutting my mint and eating banana. He drove pass me one time and said that I should not throw out banana peel – they just perfect fertilizer. First, I thought that he joked on me, but later, when I use his method, I start to look at him from a different point of view. When I… Oh, where is my manners? Mint I had grown for tea. Do you want some?”
Friends looked on each other, shrugged a little, and then Alex said:
“Yes, it would be nice.”
“It would be too bed, if we change our disposition?”
Alex look around, close one eye, look on Jim without seeing him and answered:
“Please, tell us about that conversation, and then we’ll change view.”
Reverend nodded “Ok. That one, with a banana was pretty short. We talk about God in general. He said that he thought about religion and made a conclusion, that there is no God now in that meaning that we all think of him. Every person has its own religion, his own Jesus, like everybody have its own internet. Therefore, he said if everybody belief in his own set of rules – everyone is starting his own religion. He said that now everyone has its own God in a pocket.”
Ray looked aside and then continued:
“Much more important talk happened just before car crash,” said Reverend. “Anton came to me and said that he wants to talk about evil. That day he made awful impression. He said that God is dead. That believer has only old stories and fear to look into the future…”
“Hm,” said Jim.
“Yes, “hm””, answered Ray. “But Anton continued his speech, because all that he had said before wasn’t his main thought. He said that it is nonsense if finally everybody belief in different ways. He blows my mind at first. I began to tell him that people need faith, they need to know that something lies at other side, that their doings may make their life here and there better. Nevertheless, Anton was not such simple guy. He continues to talk with such cold logic, you know? In such way without any emotions, that this conversation began scare me at the end.”
Reverend looks to the altar, and Alex was ready to bet that conversation of Antony and Reverend happened on the steps, which he looks at, but said nothing. He knew perfectly that in such states interlocutors could recall most interest details. But Ray shakes his head a little, and smiled:
“Let’s go for a tea.”
Fifteen minutes later, they had seat in the small room of Reverend Ray. It was in the nearer building to church where was situated all gardening stuff things that left from carpenter work and some building material. You may call this building a storehouse if not part of it wasn’t house for Reverend. He makes them mint tea that remind them one that principal of local school did other day.
Jim smiled after first sip:
“Now I thought that mint tea is a local feature”
Reverend nodded with a warm smile that seems a part of mild weather and warm drink:
“Yes. I took this receipt from one old guy.”
Alex put cup on the table:
“Do you mean Bill?”
Reverend glance at a narrator with surprise, then nodded:
“Small town, huh? But I’m improved his formula a little. Can you recognize?”
Jim took a sip one more time and tried to guess:
“Cinnamon?”
“Fine,” said Ray. “One more ingredient?”
“Something light,” said Jim. “No, can’t”
“It’s pretty hard,” said Reverend. “Melissa. This was Anton’s prompt too. He said that his grandmother mixed mint and Melissa, one to one, but to make tea good small pinch is enough.”
They took a pair of sips for better taste of all ingredients and nuances that they know for this moment.
“So,” said Alex. “Can we continue?”
“Yes”, answered Reverend, looking on Jim and how he turns on his camera. Helper nodded, and Ray continues his story. “As I had said, Anton left me after first conversation in strange mood. One side – he talks about my life and calling, other side – he said heresy, if it’s not too much… However, I thought about his words and found, as I thought right answers. I was ready to continue our conversation from place where we left it, but Anton was full of surprises. Next time was after one of mine services, month or...” Reverend looked to the window, recalling. «Yes”, he nodded. “It was a month after the crash.”
Alex lifted his hand:
“I’m sorry, Reverend,” he said. “But we are heard about crash from everyone. Do you know something about it?”
Reverend clenched his lips and waved with his head:
“No, sorry, boys. Nothing special. Regular things – it was a party at home of one classmate of Anton. Some fight… That’s all.”
Alex nodded and writes down something at his notepad. Then he looked at Ray:
“I’m sorry for interrupting you. Please, continue.”
“After one of the services Anton told to his parents that they may go home without him. His father asked me to call me if something will happen. I am prepared to hard talk on previous theme, but Anton said that it is not interesting him. He wants to talk about my God.”
“Your God?” clarified Alex.
“Yes, exactly. My God. He said that my God was not solid. He consists of a child, dead propagandist and emptiness. That emptiness he said everyone fill with his own meanings. I was bewildered. Child? Dead propagandist? But he calmly nodded – yes, he said, carpenter’s son. I was shocked, but his question was how these parts hold together? He said that he thought that emptiness isn’t enough to clue all this in one.”
Alex wanted to say something. He looked down, frowned, open mouth, but close after a second. Then he gathers his thoughts together:
“Rather radically”
“Yes,” said Ray. “From a high scholar especially. I sat like you now, and tried to answer him something that must say Reverend. It took a little time before I can tell him something about his thoughts. I said that all that he described is a part of human nature, some parts of society evolution. That’s the way in what that people saw our world. And maybe if these things work for such many years, maybe, just maybe there are seed of truth there?...”
Jim thought that even now Reverend arguing with Antony, again and again trying to convince him. Or himself?
“But he said that all this time showed us that people belief in stories. I am retorted that these stories have something inside – moral, way in what people must to act. He made a conclusion that nowadays religion is a set of rules, which stands on a basement of old so-called true deeds of saints. I said that his description is little bit sketchy, but in some way, maybe he is right. «Ray looked on the floor and said. “We sit a minute or so just like we are sitting now and Anton asked if I saw the God? And before I am even try to open my mouth he said – Not in a heart of yours. God as he may be. Some… Bearded man of pure energy or something like this. I am answered that I’m seeing only his imprint on my soul. Anton nodded, and in a doorway he said, even not asked, just say – what if you someday would see God, and he wouldn’t your God…”
Ray took cup in his hand, but a couple of seconds after he put it on a table where it stayed before. He said looking directly to Alex:
