Jeremy Robinson - The Didymus Contingency

David glanced at Sally, whose eyes were wet with tears. “Why are you crying?” he asked. “Can you understand what’s happening?”

“I can’t understand what’s being said, but I think I understand what’s happening…” Sally nodded at Jesus, “That man, he’s Jesus?”

David nodded.

“And you and Tom saw him die?”

David nodded again.

“And he’s alive again…and Tom believes in him now…”

David nodded a third time followed by a laugh.

“But how… It doesn’t make sense. It’s not possible.”

Jesus diverted his attention to Sally. He walked to her, face to face, took both of her shoulders and smiled. “Sally, before there was time, I was; in me all things are possible.”

“Come Didymus, we have much to talk about,” Jesus said, as he turned and walked back to Tom.

Jesus practically had to carry Tom out of the home, but they managed to exit through the front door.

Sally watched them leave and then looked at David. Her jaw was slack. “David… He spoke to me in perfect English…”

“I know,” David said, as his lips spread into a crafty grin.

Tom took a deep breath, partly because the air was cool and sweet, but also because he was anxious. Here was a man who he had ridiculed for years. A man who he now believed was God, who he had plotted against, who he had schemed to prove fraudulent. Tom leaned back and felt the cool earth in his palms. He looked at Jesus, who sat next to him on the grass-covered hill overlooking the grape grove. “I’ve done so many things against you in the past years…and I know you know about them…” Tom shook his head, not wanting to continue, but forged on. “This isn’t… This is hard for me. I’m not used to being wrong… I just… Can you forgive me for the things I’ve done to you?”

Jesus looked at Tom, clearly amused by the trouble Tom was having. “You know, if you’d have really listened to half of what I taught over the past three years, you’d know I already have.”

Tom’s shoulders relaxed. Not only was Jesus living, he was his old self. “Thanks.”

“I believe I have a question of yours to answer,” Jesus said.

“You do?”

“I do…and you deserve to know the answer.”

Tom waited uncomfortably. What was Jesus referring to?

“She didn’t die for nothing.”

“What?”

“She didn’t die for nothing, Tom. She died for me.”

Tom’s eyes were wide. “You knew?”

Jesus smiled, “I know everything.”

“But…”

“Do you remember Timothy, the blind man whose eyes I covered with mud and instructed to wash in the pool of Siloam?”

Tom nodded.

“Do you remember my answer then? Can you use that mind I gave you to put together the pieces of a puzzle that stretches through time?”

Tom smiled. He enjoyed a challenge, and the fact that it was coming from the mouth of God, made it that much more intriguing. “You said then…that bad things, like the blind man, happen so that your glory might be revealed. So Timothy…he was born blind so that you could heal him, in my presence…so that I would believe and this conversation could take place?”

Jesus nodded. “Now expand that theory to Megan.”

“She died so that I would come back in time?”

Jesus grinned.

“So that I would become a disciple… So that this story would be told in the Bible and people like me would relate…and believe?”

Jesus’s smile grew.

“And that’s why you let Legion live!” Tom’s mind was wrapping itself around the paradox. “You knew Legion would kill Megan in the future. You knew I’d come back. You knew…”

“Yes.”

“Unbelievable…”

“Isn’t it though?”

Tom smiled. “What about Legion… He’s a demon, right? He’s still around in the future. Do you have more plans for him?”

“Legion is a them, neither he nor she, but many demons, linked together, lending strength to one another. My plans for Legion are through, though not entirely over.”

“What do you mean?”

Boom! A noise like an explosion rang out from the other side of the hill.

Tom looked at Jesus. “That was… It’s here?”

Jesus nodded and looked at the bottom of the hill. David and Sally were running toward him. He looked back at Tom, “There is one last thing I require of Legion.”

Tom looked worried. What does that mean?

David rushed up the hill to Tom and Jesus. Sally was right behind him. “Did you hear that? Someone used a watch,” David said.

“I think we know who.” Tom said.

“Who?”

Shick Chic. Jake prepped his assault rifle, standing at the top of the hill.

Tom swallowed; he knew Legion had been used to kill in the past. Would he serve a similar purpose here?

“It’s Jake!” David said, as he took a step back.

Tom took David by the arm and looked him in the eyes. “Not Jake,” Tom urged, “Legion.”

Jake jumped ten feet through the air and landed closer to the group. “Yes, we are Legion! Yes! Yes! And we will-Aiieee!”

Legion saw Jesus and recoiled. “The Son of God! Here! No! This can’t be! Whose idea was this? Not mine! Mine either! Quiet! Wait! We have an idea…YES! YES!”

Jake raised the assault rifle at Tom.

“No…” David said.

Jake quickly turned the weapon at Jesus and fingered the trigger. “We killed you once, Jesus, we can do it again!”

“No!” Tom yelled, as he pushed Jesus down and took his place.

Bang! A bullet ripped through the air and pierced Tom’s chest, dead center. Tom’s body went limp and he fell to the grass.

“Tom!” David fell to his knees next to Tom.

Sally screamed and ran for cover, which only attracted Jake’s attention. Bang! Bang! Jake fired two more shots, laughing joyfully with the voices of fifty men. Sally hit the ground hard, lying motionless.

“Stop damnit! Stop!” David screamed. “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to stop!”

Jake raised the gun at David. “Quiet, human! We will not!”

David looked desperately at Jesus. “Do not worry, David. All is well.”

Jesus looked at Jake, “Stop.”

Jake became rigid as though he had been paused, unable to move. Jesus stood to his feet and walked toward Jake.

“No! No!” Jake screamed, “Mercy! Have mercy on us as you once did! Yes! Mercy! It is your way! It is!”

“Quiet, demons!” Jesus yelled.

Jake clamped his mouth shut.

“You have served your purpose on this earth. You have been a plague for long enough, foul creature. You gave up your place in the Heavenly realms and your time in the world of my children has come to an end.”

Jake’s eyes were wide with horror.

“Be gone! To the burning abyss for all eternity with you!”

Jake fell to the ground in a fit of convulsions. His body shook violently for ten seconds and then abruptly stopped. Jake’s eyes popped open and he glanced around. He saw Jesus. He saw Tom and Sally lying dead, and David staring at him. He looked to his side and saw the assault rifle…and the watch on his wrist. “What did I do?”

Jesus grabbed Jake’s wrist and pulled the watch from it. He worked the buttons with his fingers while saying, “It was not you who committed these crimes but the beast to which you gave access to your body by rejecting my word. Return to your own time and sin no more.”

After he pushed the final button on the watch, Jesus placed the watch on Jake’s lap and stood back. Whum, Whum, Whum, Boom! Before Jake had a chance to register what had happened or where and when he was, he was gone, returned to the future.

As glowing blue particles settled to the ground, Jesus bent down and picked up the loose watch, which was not attached to Jake’s body and did not return to the future with him. He placed the watch in David’s hand and closed his fingers around the device. “It’s over.”