Book 3. A Legend Reborn. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Merciful Assistance In Defiance
Jeshua washed himself and his clothes, and hung them to dry in a nearby tree. Then he sat in the grass to sharpen his katanas, he ran the sharpening stone away from him along the blade edge, alternating on each side many times. When he was finished with both swords he redressed himself in his damp clothes, and strapped on a pair of sandals, then headed off toward the trail to track Aisha’s captors.
It was most likely her brother Ander who was carrying her when Jeshua last saw her, and he wondered if they were aware of what happened to Anna, he guessed that they must know and pushed on anyway. One of David’s drones hovered along side him, of course, it was definitely advantageous to have one accompany him, even if only to get a lay of the land.
A sudden stench seared Jeshua’s senses, it was the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh. Something was decomposing nearby, and despite the urgency of his plight, Jeshua had the urge to investigate. “I must have been upwind from it on my way in not to have smelled it,” he said. It stung his nose and made his eyes water as he followed the acrid smell into the bushes, and it grew thicker in the air the closer he got.
All of sudden Jeshua emerged from the bushes into a clearing, where flies were buzzing around a man who was sitting against a huge pine tree with his head on his chest. Long brown hair hung over his face, and his legs were covered with a blanket, this was surely the source of the smell. Jeshua put his hand in front of the man’s mouth to check if he was breathing, he was, so he touched the man’s shoulder and he jolted awake.
“I ain’t dead yet,” the man said, straightening his back against the tree and eyeing Jeshua up and down appraisingly. “I’m Bruce,” he said holding his hand out in greeting.
“Jeshua,” Taking his hand he shook it once, but pulled it away automatically to cover his nose from the smell, not that it helped mask the odious odour.
“Pleased to meet you Jeshua, I like that name, did Sarah ever tell you how she chose it?”
“No, did you know my mother?” Jeshua asked.
“I have spoken to her, although we’ve never met. The story is that she chose your name to honour a couple that sacrificed themselves so she could escape Asher, she was pregnant with you at the time.”
“Jessica and Joshua,” Jeshua said through his hand.
“Yes, very perceptive.” Bruce said. “Please try to excuse the smell, I have a rare skin eating disease that has finally incapacitated me. It’s spread from my groin to my legs, and I’m afraid I don’t have long left to live if I can’t get around anymore.” Bruce’s brilliant blue eyes flicked to Jeshua’s swords. “You came along at just the right time, I reckon you can help me, and in exchange I have a gift for you, what do you say?”
“You want me to put you out of your misery,” Jeshua said through his hand.
“Yes, and for my destined death dealer I have a story to tell before the daring deed, deal?”
“Okay, but keep it short, I’m in a hurry,” Jeshua sat on the bed of dead pine needles under the canopy. Fresh tears welled in his eyes, and not entirely from the smell. He realized that the drone was keeping it’s distance, although Jeshua knew it would be close enough to hear them speaking.
“I’m in a hurry too bud,” Bruce smiled. “The good book says to ‘endure unto the end’, I think your appearance now marks my end, I’ve endured enough.”
“Maybe you are being tested,” Jeshua pondered.
“Most likely we both are, but I’m hoping I can buy favour with one last story.” Bruce’s piercing blue eyes were lit with life and demanded attention from Jeshua.
“Have you heard of the Witch Hunts?” Bruce held Jeshua’s gaze steady with the question.
“Only vaguely, wasn’t that when women were hunted down and killed for practicing witchcraft?” Jeshua asked.
“Yes, that excuse has been used for millennia, Witch Hunts have been enacted throughout history, and the worst of them went on during the late fifteen hundreds to early sixteen hundreds.”
Jeshua had an odd synchronistic feeling, “This is the third instance that period has come to my attention,” he said absently.
“Not just mere chance you are here then, there must be a message for you to decipher.” Bruce said, then Jeshua asked; “Do you know the story of the two young lovers that killed themselves?”
“Yes.”
“Who wrote it?”
“William Shakespeare, and it’s titled Romeo and Juliet.”
“Is there a connection between Musashi, Shakespeare, and the Witch Hunts?” Jeshua’s question was to no one in particular, and no answer came to him.
“Our time is short, yes? You must be off?” Bruce reminded Jeshua.
“Yea— wait who are you? Did you see or hear anyone in the area not long before I arrived? Jeshua was looking at Bruce with suspicion.
“I was asleep so I didn’t see anyone, besides I am just a faceless plot device, thought up by a traumatized twit as a therapeutic telling tool.” Two maggots came inching their way onto Bruce’s belly from under the blanket, he took one between thumb and index finger and popped it in his mouth, then picked up the other and offered it to Jeshua, “Hungry?” He asked.
“Not anymore, thanks,” Jeshua said, he covered his mouth and nose again, although his eyes smiled , which squeezed tears out the sides of them.
Bruce burst out laughing, “Not anymore he says. Thanks for that.” Bruce said, taking the second maggot in his teeth, and with a grinning gnash he bit it in half then chewed it slowly.
Jeshua tried not to retch by forcing himself to ask; “You said that you are a ‘plot device for a traumatized twit’, do you mean our narrator?”
“Ahh you know of him, then you’ll meet him soon enough.”
“This is the third time I’ve heard mention of a narrator, how will I meet him?” Jeshua’s curiosity caused a deep furrow between his eyebrows.
“Simply because you are aware of him, but enough about that asshole, back to my story, I won’t delay you much longer if you could refrain from asking so many questions.” Bruce smiled broadly.
Putting the petulant pen pusher from his mind, Jeshua plucked a palm full of pine needles from a low hanging branch, and ground them between his fingers, then covered his nose with them, which did help with the smell somewhat. “Go on, please,” he said.
“So the way I understand it is, these so called ‘Witches’ in the late fifteen hundreds, were actually Herbalists and Healers. Men were primarily Warriors and Craftsmen, Blacksmiths, Carpenters and the like. So women were the ones that healed the sick and injured, raised the children, and kept the home in order, while the men built and battled, bettering and protecting their communities. But you see, there are always those who want to control the masses with force and fear. Usually it’s the leaders in charge who have the power to make the rules for everyone else to follow. This was a turning point in history, where the ones in positions of power took total control of the populace’s health and wellness. They accused the gifted Naturalists and Healers of using dark magic to perform their healing arts, the accused were then given short ‘show trials’ in corrupt courts. Having lost to the lies, the accused were executed publicly, their lives ‘cancelled’ so to speak, which is a very effective way to instill fear into the community and turn people against each other.”
Bruce’s voice trailed off and he directed Jeshua’s attention to the blanket by looking at it.
“Mother Nature is already reclaiming this body, she is repurposing it as it is returned to her earthy embrace,” Bruce removed the blanket.
Jeshua instantly dry heaved at the sight that accompanied the smell and looked away, but the brief glimpse stuck in his mind’s eye. Bruce’s bare crotch and surrounding thighs were black with decay, and crawling with maggots, meal worms, and a few large centipedes, that were devouring his dead flesh.
“It’s difficult to prove the claim in my story by comparing it to historical accounts, because history is written by the victors, and the victors are always evil-”
“Evil wins every time because evil is willing to do what good will not, evil stops at nothing to win,” Jeshua interrupted Bruce with a lump in his throat from both the memory of who taught him that wisdom, and the effects of his heaving fit.
“That’s right,” Bruce said, “and I could elaborate on the complexities of ‘Good versus Evil’ but that’s another story. So the ones in power have twisted the facts of history to suit their narrative needs, and the further down that path we go the worse it gets. To get the public’s health under governmental control, Doctors are taught how to make people sick rather than how to help heal them naturally. This extends to all aspects of health; mind, body, and spirit, everything under their unholy umbrella has been unimpededly undermined unanimously. True Doctors that want to help people do exist, but they are demonized and ostracized from the larger community. The majority gives a ‘show’ of the moral high ground, and most people would rather die than go against the majority. It takes great courage to stand out from the crowd and say: ‘This is wrong.’ Sadly the majority gives in to fear time and time again.”
Bruce grabbed at a particularly pesky fly, then slowly opened his fist to check for it. He must have caught it because he licked his palm before resuming his story.
“The farther down that path we go, the worse it gets. It got so bad before The Power Devourer was brought into being, that people your age and even younger were convinced they were in such despair, that they didn’t want to live. They were so angry and afraid that they would rather die than live their lives. The evil entities in charge got to them young with technology and turned them against their parents, this tech (basically a baby Power Devourer) fed them lies of what was healthy to eat, and what the standards for mental health were. They were told to avoid the ‘deadly sun’ which in fact was nourishing, they were told that it was normal to be obese, while at the same time shaming them for their weight. They were told that the state of their health was hereditary and out of their control. They even made it illegal for parents to try and protect their children from all the lies, and by giving children the ability to go to a Death Dealing Doctor without parental consent, they murdered millions of malnourished and misinformed minors.”
Anger rose in Jeshua hot and fierce when Bruce concluded his story. “How can we treat each other like that?” Jeshua demanded.
Bruce glanced upward and seemed to look beyond the tree’s canopy into the sky’s infinite reaches. “Don’t ask me, I’m the guy asking for you to end his suffering,” he said with a wry smile.
“Fuck,” Jeshua said, and standing over Bruce he drew his green handled katana. Holding it point down with both hands above his head he said: “Thank you for the story.” In answer Bruce puffed out his chest by putting his shoulders back, Jeshua plunged his sword down quickly, almost up to the hilt into Bruce’s heart. Bruce stiffened for a moment then went limp as life left him, Jeshua pulled his bloody sword free and wiped it clean on the blanket, then covered it over Bruce’s corpse completely.
“HEY ASSHOLE! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!?” Jeshua shouted up to the sky, and having been called that many times in my life, I knew who he meant.
I’m hesitant, but I respond, “I want to tell a story, I want to share my unique perspective of the world, I feel it has value and it’s important that I speak.”
“Nobody gives a fuck you vain prick, you are so full of yourself that your next sex scene should be where you fuck yourself, then you’ll really be full of yourself!” Jeshua was shaking with rage as he retraced his steps back to the trail of tracks he was following. “How dare you take Aisha from me! If you do anything to her I swear I will find a way to kill you!”
Jeshua’s understanding and wit make me smile, “You are very special Jeshua, so I’ll say that she is alive, although she may wish that she wasn’t. I feel as if the same force that is driving you drives me as well. I’m along for the ride in this story the same as you are, yet there is free will, I mean I can choose not to write what I want to say, but what is surely to happen to Aisha may have happened to my mother, and I feel it’s important to tell that story.”
“MAY HAVE HAPPENED!? What the fuck do you think happened? Can’t you change what happens? Don’t do this to us! Tears welled in our eyes as he very nearly begged.
“I can’t change what happened, I do have some influence over what will happen and I will make changes, but in order to explain what happened, I must tell the story. Plus the story will change in other people’s minds to match their understanding of the world, people will see things in it that I don’t. You see the story has a life of it’s own, and it’s going in a certain direction.”
“So, are you dead? Are you the one in my head?”
“In your time I am long dead, yes, and to your second question I could ask the same thing. I responded when you called because I feel that we need each other to get through this, and Aisha needs you Jeshua, go after her and save her and the children she will bear.”
“You want me to raise children in this world?”
“Yes, after you deal with David.”
“I don’t even care that was the third time I’ve heard that, I’m done talking to you.” Just then Jeshua finds the tracks and breaks into a run after Aisha.
Confident that I inspired him sufficiently, I feel a little more able to continue the story.
“That part of the song definitely sounds like Parasite Eve,” I say as I turn off the stereo, and shutting down my laptop I decide to go out and surprise my wife at work.
“Maybe I’ll take her to see The Life of Chuck tonight.”