The God Experiment

Chapter No.31 The Visit.

Chapter No.31 The Visit.

Robert and Janet were in a local grocery store buying the staples they needed when someone came up behind Robert.

"Hey, old buddy!" An older African American man said.

Robert turned around to see someone from his past. "Oh my God! I don't believe it."

They hugged and shook hands, making a lot of people notice.

Robert turned to his wife. "This is Roger Baylor, we served together in Iraq."

Janet smiled.

"This guy saved my life," Roger told his wife, Alice. "I would have died if it weren't for him."

"I was just doing my job," Robert said.

Roger turned to his wife. "This is Alice, my wife."

"You live around here?" Robert asked.

"Yeah, on Greenwood." He smiled. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you come to our place for a outdoor get-together?"

"Sure," Robert said. "How about we bring our son, James."

"No problem. He can hang out with our son, Vince."

The Steris family arrived that evening at Roger's house. James joined Vince to shoot some basket balls in a backyard hoop while Robert and Janet sat down in a patio with Roger and his wife. Roger spent some time grilling their eats.

James and Vince stopped for a moment from making baskets.

"You're pretty good at this," Vince told James. "You should try out for the team."

"I really don't have time for that. Ever since my dad revived from his coma we've been trying to connect again."

"Yeah, that must have been terrible growing up without your dad."

"I helped my mom deal with the loneliness."

"I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but my parents think that you're the healers that everyone is talking about."

James suppressed a smile. "Actually, they're right. I suppose it's because they're members of the Welcome Baptist church."

"That's it. How is it that you can cure people like that?"

"It's because of who my dad saw while he was in a coma. He gave him healing powers and my mother and I have them too."

I have a rather annoying ankle sprain," Vince told him. "Think you could fix that?"

James stared at him for a moment before squatting and placing his hand on Vince's left ankle. When he stood up, he smiled. "Problem fixed."

Vince ran around for a moment before stopping and smiling. "Cool!"

James smiled.

The two families joined at a large table to enjoy burgers and beer.

"So, how have you been doing since Iraq?" Roger asked.

Robert hesitated before he began. "I was in a serious accident. A drunk at the wheel of a semi plowed into me. I ended up in coma for ten years."

"No kidding!" Roger reacted. "I can't imagine being out of it for that long."

"Yeah, I guess I was a miracle case."

That's when Alice, Roger's wife, said something that changed everything. "We're members of the Welcome Baptist Church, and we heard that a family like yours cured a group of our members."

Robert exchanged a glance with his wife before turning back to her. "Yes, that was us."

Roger's eyes grew larger. "No kidding! How . . . how did you . . . do that?

"While I was in a coma, I made contact with someone from God. He told me that I would be able to do anything as long as it didn't cause harm. I was also told that I was assigned the task of stopping Armageddon."

"Who told you that?"

"I don't really know. Some people believe it was Jesus, but he didn't look at all like the artistic renditions that one sees in churches. He looked more like a Palestinian from the West Bank, dressed in worn jeans and a dirty tee shirt."

"That sounds like a take on 'Oh, God!" Roger said.

Robert smiled. "Yeah, but he wasn't an old guy like George Burns."

Roger gave him a serious expression. "I have a bad case of prostate cancer. Can you cure that?"

Robert stood up and came to him. "Sure." He placed his hand on Roger's forehead for a moment before taking it away. "It's fixed. Now, you'll be able to pee well again."

Roger laughed, but he then got serious. "Thank you." He waited for a moment to add something else. "You three look a lot like the superheroes that are all over the news these days."

Robert smiled briefly before staring at him. "Let's say we are. Would it matter all that much? Think of it this way. We will be looking out for you. In fact, we can cure any aliments you currently have and will develop." He paused before adding the most important part. "Our biggest problem is remaining hidden from the press and the internet. If we have to hide, it will only make our job more difficult."

The Baylor family looked at the Steris family differently than they would have under normal conditions, but it didn't mean that they were afraid.

"Well, I'm okay with that," Roger said after taking a long swig of beer. "You saved my life and cured my prostate, so I owe you."

Robert clinked glasses with him. "We thank you."

Later that evening, when the Steris family was back home, they elected to discuss the situation they were faced with.

"It appears that people can finger us," James said.

"Yes, but in this particular case it was established by the religious connection, not the political one," Robert said. "The news agencies are looking for us in the elite segment of society, not the working-class proletariat."

"It seems that we are the Incredibles," James said.

"You could say that, but the Incredibles were forced by a government mandate to hide as a suburban family. We are governed by God's rules, not any government's mandate."

"That was just a Disney animated movie," Janet said. "There was no religious context to it."

"That's true, but it's the fact that we are a typical suburban family that prevents us being connected to the concept of a superhero family. We might represent a new protocol when it comes to this idea."

"All superheroes are fashioned in the same way," James said. "They achieve superhero powers by some pseudo-scientific methodology and end up fighting super villains. We obtained our power by means of a God conceived experiment. Theoretically, we should end up fighting some superhuman monsters."

"I believe you're right, but it will eventually be revealed who we end up fighting. For now, our job is to help relieve any suffering and death as best we can."

"Our only hope is that we can remain hidden," Janet said.

"I think we will because the Vestals realize that we must," Robert said. "It's why they're helping us."

No matter how they thought about it, the Steris family was caught in something that they couldn't escape. It was inevitable that they would question who they were and what their ultimate mission was.