Parousia

Chapter 3

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PAROUSIA – Avodus "From a Roman family name which meant "ancestral" in Latin. This was the name of an emperor who briefly reigned over the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. It was also the name of several , including a 6th-century bishop of Vienne" ("Behind The Name", 2017)

Araceli, Thyone, and Avodus sit at the table for dinner that night. The corn casserole intended for the starving is what sits before them. The smell is like the field baking in the sun so much it could squelch their appetite, but they've worked hard and eat as if this was the last food to survive their world.

"Make out with any corn cobs today?" Thyone asked Araceli with a smirk.

"I would have but they all claim to be your boyfriend. What spell have you cast?" Araceli bantered back.

But then, Araceli looks at the only empty chair at the table, and Thyone kicks her in the shin. The girls wrinkle their noses at each other, but it's as if a silent form of communication has taken place. It's like they've invented a sign language only for the two of them. Sisters always do seem to have their own form of communication. Perhaps that will be what saves these two. Thyone takes the cue from Araceli and speaks.

"How come you never tell us about our dad?" Thyone asks Avodus.

"Yeah, why don't we have any pictures of him?" Araceli continues the interrogation.

"Your dad is God as I've always told you. You may not believe me, but I am still a virgin," Avodus responds.

"Really, so you're like Mary?" Araceli asks.

"Yeah right! You're just trying to hide something from us," Thyone argues. "Perhaps we were adopted or manufactured in a test tube." As she says this, she knows neither can be true. She and Araceli hold perfect genetic makings from Avodus. Araceli's auburn hair like Avodus' hair once was, and her pale, freckled skin serves as a mirror into Avodus' sun baked life. Thyone knows her own sculptured muscles mirror her mother's even though years should have withered Avodus. Plus, there's no way a test tube baby could have been afforded from this farm house full of dust and sweat. So how had Avodus done it, what could possibly be the truth?

"God told me, before he went silent, that not one but both of you would betray me the night before the day of reckoning," Avodus answers.

"Why do you always have to speak so cryptically?" Thyone asks with a sigh.

"What do you mean? I would never betray you," Araceli says.

"And so, was the kiss of Judas," Avodus closes and stands up gathering the dishes. Her back and other joints pop with the effort.

"Here, let me help you," Thyone exclaims.

"I'll go feed the hens before it gets dark," Araceli says before walking outside.

"She's so brittle. She can't meet confrontation the way I can," Thyone says as she helps rinse dishes with water from the pump outside.

"I wish you two could see more eye to eye."

"We're polar opposites. It's not that I don't love Araceli, but she seems to view the world through completely different lenses."

"So true you are, Thyone."

Avodus thought about how the girls were indeed polar opposites and always would be, but then do opposites not attract each other? As she ponders further about their conversation, the thought that it could be their last supper turns her blood into lead. Every beat of her heart takes extra effort to move the thick, laden liquid through her system. God's been absent when she needs him most.

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