7Chapter 2 God Bless The Water Bearer
The road got slimmer, and the washboard trees slowly diminished into extravagant houses. And what seemed like miles of dirt was transforming into something resembling a community. Christian crawled his way through, gazing out of his BMW window. An old man was sitting on an oak bench in front of vast brick home. Christian waved his hand. The man sat motionless, as if the silver BMW hadn't even passed.
And when the road was completely walled with homes, Christian felt his car bounce along, as though his back tire had gone flat. And when the dirt road turned to a paved roadway his car leaned awkwardly to one side. "That's strange." He murmured under his breath, clutched his wheel, and pulled his BMW to the roadside.
There must have been ten homes stretched along both sides of the roadway. Each with a paved driveway that curled from their front door down to the roadside, and where the driveway and the roadway intersected there was a mailbox with its flag down.
Christian killed the engine to his car and sat still as stone. He contemplating getting out of his car and switching his tire with a spare from his trunk. As he opened the door to get out, in the distance was a glowing red. A red that looked quite like blood, and it seemed to be getting closer. Christian blinked, and stared intently at the moving red object. He backed up, put his foot into his BMW, pulled himself into his car and started the ignition. A clean cut getaway if this thing breaks loose. He thought and continued staring in the distance with one foot on the seat of his car and the rest of his body hanging out.
The red object had gotten significantly closer, and by this time Christian caught a glimpse of a face. He arched his head underneath the doorway, pulled himself into his car, pressed on the acceleration and crawled forward. The car hopped along the road. "I swear if curiosity doesn't kill me I don't know what will." Christian whispered under his breath, and started the biblical hymns on his car speakers.
Christian sighed in relief. "It's only a girl!" A young girl wearing a red sweater was walking along the side of the road. Her hair was tied in pigtails, and she was carrying an empty bucket.
The BMW bounced back and forth favouring its front tires, as Christian pulled up to the little girl. He lowered his window. The girl took two uneasy steps toward the ditch at the side of the road. Her eyes grew to the size of beats, and a tear dripped from her young eyes. "I can't. I can't." She murmured, fretting a storm from her eyes.
Christian killed the biblical hymns, leaned over to the window, looked at the innocent girl and said "Honey, honey. Don't cry I only need to know where the town of Oshawitz is." The girls head tilted and her eyes looked straight into Christian's.
Another tear streamed down her cheek, and ran off the arch of her naive lips. "I can't talk to strangers. My father says." She let go of the bucket and turned her head toward the clear road where she had come from. Her head spun around the forest and the extravagant houses.
"I just need to know which way to Oshawitz...Please. Your father won't hear a word of you talking to strangers."She wiped her palms along her cheeks. She looked up, her eyes full of fear, and her arms erected at her side. "I am not going to hurt you. I promise."
She took a long breath, and whispered nervously, "Oshawitz? You are in Oshawitz." She pointed down the long stretch of roadway, where in the distance a town of lavish buildings erected higher than the tree's. "Can I go to the water well now?" She asked timidly, picking her bucket up off the ground.
"Yes my dear." He looked straight at the child. She stood silent, her body shook violently. He leaned out his window and said, "God bless you." And at the sound of these words, the young girl dropped the bucket, and her eyes widened in a hurry. She gazed up at Christian as if he had internally damned her. She tucked her head, and ran. "Where you going?" He screamed after her, but she was gone around the corner.
He looked down at his tires, and saw that he had ran over shards of glass, and popped his two back tires. He only had one spare in the trunk. So he decided to walk down the path, where the little girl had run to.
Christian left his BMW at the side of the road, adjusted his beret, dusted off his coat and walked toward the city of Oshawitz. He whistled intently to the music playing in the back of his head. And as he walked bobbing his head, and swinging his arms like a gay child, he noticed that all the elegant houses had a bucket hung on a wooden post at the end of their driveway. He looked back at the pail that the little girl had dropped, and looked back at the buckets on the poles, they were all the same and it made Christian curious. And he noticed that the driveways were empty.
As elegant, and extravagant as the houses seemed, they looked bare from a usual community. But the windows were polished, the curtains were wide open and everything seemed ideal. The leaves were raked off the driveways and the trees were neatly trimmed. And what caught Christian's eye was the arched gateway leading to the back garden. It was a wooden gateway with ivy running through. And on each of the lawns was a wooden bench, and a small flowerbed on one side, and a garbage bin on the other, and the grass was freshly cut. Each house seemed similar, with very fine details. It scared Christian as he walked, as everything seemed artificial, like plastic scenery he expected to see on a real estate agent's desk.
The leaves dancing at Christian's feet and the trees whistling in the breeze made Christian uneasy as he walked. And when he got closer to Oshawitz the bright sun was interrogated by tainted grey clouds that filled the sky. And as he got closer to Oshawitz the sun had become completely covered by the mass of clouds. And in the distance a ray of light shook the sky, as a thunderous storm took the once subtle skies.
He had walked around the bend, and came across a sign that read:
The main town of Oshawitz, ahead,
No electricity, cars, or foreign objects allowed, please and thanks you.
And we promote religious execution. Religion is not a part of our community.
Christian didn't take much to the sign, other than a quick glance. But when he read NO CHRISTIANS in bold black writing, he stopped and scratched his chin. What on earth? He thought. No religions? He looked into the distance. He shook his head, "I don't have a choice..." A tear streamed down his cheek, and a glossy shine came off his cheek. Just grab the tire, and get out... That's all. He turned his head toward his BMW, contemplating walking the long stretch back to the gas station. I can't, go back; I'll die, it's to dam far. The storm was dancing in the sky; Christian felt a rain drop "Splat" against his exposed hand."FUCK!" He yelled, standing in the rain that was getting heavier, bouncing off the Roadway. He clutched his fist, wiped his face, and walked toward Oshawitz. And as he came to the edge of the main town, a mass of thoughts overloaded his brain.
Just get in and get out, that's the one rule if all else fails.
O yes, and no one needs to know I am Christian, not a single soul. He thought of the little girl when this thought came to him.
And never kill unless... hell there is no unless, God says there is no killing... So I shall not kill.
And one more thing Blasphemers are people too, DON'T FORGET. Please don't forget.
Christian stood drenched from head to toe. He was standing in front of Oshawitz and for the first time in his life fear conjured in his veins. He knew before he took a step forward he was going to regret walking into the place. Every memory of his wife and children bolted through his head and he got dizzy with the thought of dying in a foreign land. To Christian Thomas, the curious religious man it was not death that made him tremor, but the thought of dying without living out his promise to his wife and children. It is mere betrayal, if death itself makes a devoted man's stomach churn.