WARRIORS: IN THE FINAL FRAY
A RUDE AWAKENING
Lenny would have found it amusing if he weren’t so shocked to realize that what he thought he had dreamt had really happened … somehow. The room spun. He clutched for something solid to hold on to and felt Mary’s arm round his waist guide him to a sofa and help him sit down in its cushioned security. She motioned to Juliana, who ran for a glass of cool water, which he gulped down mechanically, his mind racing far and fast to another place, another dimension, trying to put it all back together again. He had been sick, he had slept, he had found himself in a meeting in an undisclosed place with angelic beings and departed saints. Even Will and an ex-witch named Wally were there and Gypsy was there. At about that point he focused on the room of his fellow Family members who were still staring at him, waiting for his explanation of what had happened, yet not wanting to push him above his ability to explain, it being obvious that he was just coming to grips with it himself. He ran his fingers through his tousled hair, tousling it more, and breathed a deep breath before making an attempt at speech. “What … what … did you see?” he asked, wanting first to know if they had seen what he remembered happening or not. “We saw you and a lady,” Steve said. “I guess a sister, but I didn’t recognize her. You were in sackcloth, challenging the Chairman at the temple, appearing and disappearing, speaking in every language imaginable while they tried to kill you but couldn’t.” Samuel inserted, “I even ran into your room twice to see if you were still there and you were.” “Wow!” Lenny breathed. “What was I doing, Samuel, when you looked in on me?” “Sleeping … but kinda restless, you know.” “So, Dad,” Julie raised an eyebrow, “what happened? What do you remember?”
“I remember exactly that, exactly what you saw. I was there as real as I’m here. And the lady, well, that’s Gypsy, my girlfriend who joined the Family and married my best friend. We had a meeting first in some place in the spirit world. It was like being on a cloud or something. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk, but I had the impression that she and Don, her husband, are in Israel not far from Jerusalem right now. Through the whole thing we were never sure if we were dreaming or what. It was all so effortless. We didn’t have to do anything. The words just came. What we were to do, to say next, just came. I mean, it was quite literally a case of full possession and heavenly thought power like I’ve never experienced it before. “It just came. I just had to let go of myself and yield to the Spirit. There was never any fear and we could see the AC and his forces just the way the Lord sees them, as puny nothings who can do nothing without God’s permission. They were silly. They were ridiculous. I knew I was seeing everything exactly as Jesus was seeing it, and feeling what He was feeling at that very instant. And where I am sure I would have felt at least twinges of nervousness, there was not a trace of fear, or even of hesitation. There was only a burning desire and feeling to deliver my soul before these people, knowing that no hand of man could touch so much as a hair of my head. It was, wow, it was everything the Lord told us it would be.” Annie said, “Well, they sure looked ridiculous, unable to shoot you, unable to touch you, unable to fix their sound system. Even their cameras were trained on you, they couldn’t even control them, it seemed. When the cameras picked up the Chairman it was to show him totally out of control, totally freaked out. It was awesome!”
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