George Chesbro: The Cold Smell Of Sacred Stone

Garth's People would end up a little less than a chapter, a little more than a footnote, in the history of bizarre religious cults spawned in the United States of America.

In the stories that had surfaced in the press and on television, I'd somehow come out a hero, Garth something less than that. I'd feared that Garth would be bitter, but that hadn't been the case at all. In the preceding months he had been keeping a decidedly low profile, but he had kept busy reading a great deal, thinking a great deal, and performing all sorts of volunteer charitable work in situations where he could be reasonably assured of anonymity. For some ridiculous reason I had always considered myself the "softer" of the two Frederickson brothers, and I'd been wrong. It was Garth, not me, who had inherited the largest part of our mother's transcendent tenderness and mercy. For the first time in years, since the funeral in Peru County, Nebraska, for our nephew which had sucked us into the maelstrom of the Valhalla Project, my brother seemed completely at peace with himself, totally unperturbed by the opprobrium heaped upon him in some religious and political quarters ever since his Christmas Eve "recantation" and the storm of death and destruction that had followed.

"I've been thinking of asking my brother for a job," Garth said evenly as he pulled off the Haverstraw exit of the Palisades Parkway. We were back in Rockland County, but this time we were heading for the Helen Hayes Hospital.

I looked over at my brother to see if he might be joking, but he apparently wasn't. I thought he looked good in his beard, and with the dark glasses which he now habitually wore. "Which brother is that?" I asked with some surprise.

"The only one I've got-the short guy."

"You'd have to give up your disability payments."

"I'm not disabled anymore."

"I thought you were considering going back to the force."

"I've been giving that as much consideration as you've been giving to going back to teaching. Hell, they wanted to make you chairman of the department."

"It's true that I could teach again if I wanted to; I don't. I've still got a bitter taste in my mouth after the number they did on me during the Archangel business. Maybe one day; not now."

"You've got more P.I. business now than you can handle, and I thought you could use a partner. Are you turning me down?"

"Shit, Garth," I said with mock seriousness, "I was really hoping you'd go back to work as a cop. If you go to work with me as a P.I., who am I going to have in the NYPD to pump for information when I need it?"

"It'll be good for your character not to have me to run to every time you need sensitive information from the police. Besides, you don't seem to be hurting in that department; half the cops in the city would probably prefer to talk to you than to me." He paused, and his thin smile faded. "I'm not that person anymore, Mongo; I'm not a cop. I'm not sure what-who-I am now, and I'm hoping I may be able to find out with you. How about it? Are you going to let me come to work with you?"

"It sounds good to me," I replied with a grin.

Garth grunted. "My name comes first, since I'm the oldest and biggest brother. We'll call the agency Frederickson and Frederickson."

"No way," I said with a firm shake of my head. "I'm not only the founder, but I'm the smartest and best-looking brother. We'll call the agency Frederickson and Frederickson."

"You drive a hard bargain, Mongo," Garth said with a sigh. "Incidentally, you don't have any idea what this woman we're going to see wants?"

"Nope. Dora's an occupational therapist at Helen Hayes, and a friend. I met her a thousand years ago, when I was with the circus and we used to do benefits for the children's division."

"But she doesn't know me. Why would she ask you to bring me along?"

"You can ask her when we get there. Turn left at the intersection."

Ten minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of the Helen Hayes Hospital. We went up to the second floor, where Dr. Dora Freed had her offices. The sprightly, gray-haired occupational therapist greeted us both warmly, then asked us to wait in a large, empty recreation room down the corridor.

The man who came through the door five minutes later was clean-shaven, well dressed in blue slacks, highly polished black loafers, a blue wool sleeveless pullover worn over a white shirt. The man's face was still scarred, but plastic surgeons had obviously been working on him, for he didn't look nearly as disfigured as he once had. There was a broad, almost dreamlike smile on his face.

"Harry!"

"Hello, Mongo," Harry August said, turning in the direction of my voice and tapping his way toward us across the hardwood floor with his white cane. I shook his extended hand. "Thank you so much for coming-I was so excited when I found out that Dora and you know each other. Is Garth with you?"

"I'm here, Harry," Garth said, putting a broad hand on the other man's shoulder. "I'm sorry about what happened to you. Mongo and I didn't know."

"Please, please, don't be sorry!" Harry August said quickly.

"If we'd known you were a patient here-"

"But I'm not a patient-not any longer. Now I work here."

My brother and I exchanged glances. Garth started to say something, but Harry August cut him off.

"Garth, there are two reasons why I asked Dora to call Mongo and have him bring you here. First, I want you to know how grateful I am to you."

Garth frowned slightly. "Harry," he said quietly, "if you hadn't become involved with me, you wouldn't be blind now. What are you thanking me for?"

Harry August shook his head vehemently. "If I hadn't become involved with you, I wouldn't have been blessed with the only sight that matters." He paused, tilted his head toward the ceiling, and once again his face was wreathed with a dreamlike smile. He looked years younger. "I was blind before I met you; my whole life was filled with bitterness and hatred, clouding my vision. Then I was crippled. After I lost my eyes in the explosion. . I've had a lot of time to think in this new darkness, which for me isn't nearly as dark as the darkness I used to live in. It was only after I lost my eyesight that I could remember and fully appreciate the peace and happiness you brought to so many people. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was happy when I was with you-probably the happiest I'd ever been in all the years since my face had been splashed with acid. But there was so much bitterness and hatred for people in me, I was so crippled in my heart that I didn't even know I was happy. And so I was constantly trying to think of ways to cheat you and Garth's People."

"Harry," Garth said in a low voice, "that isn't important now, and there's no need for you to talk about it."

"But I want to talk about it. It's why I wanted you to come here, so that I could tell you how you changed my life and made me whole again. I believe with all my heart that God sent you to me on the sidewalk that day; God sent you to save me, to help erase the bitterness in my heart. Now I've been reborn, and I'm a baby in the living heart of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I feel as if I have-I do have-a whole new life to begin living, and it's one that's filled with unspeakable joy. I thank God for sending you to me, and I thank you for helping to show me the way. There are many people who hate you now; they blame you for all those deaths, for what happened. But they're wrong. I love you, Garth, and I want you to know that I'll never, ever, forget what God and Jesus Christ, through you, have done for me."

I looked at Garth, who was staring intently at Harry August. There was a strange expression on my brother's face which I couldn't read at all, and I wondered what he was feeling and thinking.