The sun broke over the horizon, casting shimmering rays across the ocean waves. Bella smiled as her eyes moved from the sunrise to Lloyd's face. His head was resting against the passenger side window. Lloyd's face was relaxed, eyes gently closed. The dirt on the passenger side window refracted the light in just such a way that Lloyd's head seemed to be framed by a halo. Between the halo and the frazzled beard Bella couldn't help but draw parallels between Lloyd and Jesus. The difference being that Jesus had been sent to save her, but Bella was fully convinced God wanted her to save Lloyd.
Bella had been raised a Christian. In her heart there was no doubt that God existed. God existed, and he had a plan. There could be no other explanation for the series of events that had led Bella to this point in her life. So many tiny miseries, so many tests. All of them leading up to this point. This chance to save both the body and soul of this broken man.
Bella remembered the night of Lloyd's accident quite vividly. Bella's plans for that evening hadn't included a trip out into the wilderness to drag a bleeding man from the forest. In fact, her plans had been quite modest. On that particular evening she had gotten dressed in plain clothes and prepared herself for the cold trip out to the soup kitchen. Twice a week she went down to help serve hot food to people in need. It hadn't been that long since she had been waiting in those lineups, and she always remembered how much it had meant to her to be able to get a hot meal a couple times a week, especially once the weather got cold.
Bella had always walked to the soup kitchen. It wasn't far from her house, and she always hated using the tow truck for anything but business. The only exception she made was once a month when she took the truck out to get groceries. Before she left she had done exactly the same as she always had, she knelt on a small plush rug in her living room and prayed for guidance.
She still remembered those words as if they were yesterday,"Lord, thank you for taking me from the streets and helping me to see your light. Give me strength tonight to help others in need. Amen." As she had left the apartment a gust of wind had torn the outer door from her hand, whipping it open and nearly pushing over a man who was standing beside the entrance. He had jumped aside, startled.
Bella apologized and he had looked at her and asked, "I can't find Mrs. Poule on the buzzer here, do you know what unit she's in?"
Normally in her neighborhood Bella wouldn't answer such a question. Jesus may teach kindness and forgiveness, but occasionally that had to be tempered with the knowledge that killers walk among us daily. Bella had looked the man up and down and then realized that in this case there was no reason not to answer. She replied, "I'm so sorry, mister. She moved out last month, I really couldn't tell ya where she ended up." Bella bowed a bit and walked out to sidewalk.
As she reached the curb a huge truck came speeding past. From beneath its wheels slush rode up in a wave, completely soaking Bella from head to toe. Bella stood rigid by the roadside for several moments before she remembered the man who was standing behind her. She spun about and saw that he was completely untouched. Bella's body shook, both from mirth and cold. She brought a hand up and wiped some of the salty sludge from off her face.
As soon as the man saw that Bella hadn't been phased by the incident he said, "Well, now you've both helped AND saved me. Here's my card, I work at Cafe Sumatra just a few blocks from here. Come in and I'll sneak you a couple free lattes."
Bella had thanked him and run into the house. She had quickly changed into her work coveralls, they were the only thing she had that was clean. She was two steps from the door when the phone rang. Bella picked up the phone.
Janet's unmistakable voice crackled out, "Bella, honey, I know it's your night off but the new guy, Lloyd, is stuck up North a bit. We've got nobody else, and I'm afraid he'll freeze up there."
"How's he fixed for gas?" Bella asked.
Janet responded, "He'll be alright for a bit if you need to clear up some stuff."
Bella had agreed to go pick up Lloyd after the soup kitchen. She had stopped by the garage on her way out of town to gas up, and then made her way up towards the B.C. border. What had started out as a simple tow had ended up a true rescue.
Lloyd stirred in the seat beside her. He groaned a bit and his eyes wrinkled a bit as pain touched the edges of his consciousness. Lloyd had slept for most of the trip so far. His injuries were severe, and if the doctors were to be believed he shouldn't even be out of bed. But Lloyd had made it very clear that he put little stock in what doctors thought.
Lloyd tried to sit up a bit straighter in his seat and moaned, "Jesus fucking Christ."
Bella made a soft coughing noise and shot a disapproving stare in Lloyd's direction. He glared back at her and said, "What? What the fuck did I do now? Bella, you swear all the time, don't give me that stare."
Bella smiled and said, "You know I don't mind fuck and shit and all that. But I won't have you taking the Lord's name in vain in this truck." Bella winked and added, "This here is holy ground as far as you need be concerned. Don't make me pull the 'I saved your life' card on this one, I was kind of hoping to save that for when we got to California. I'm going to need you to take a break from your investigation to take me to Disney Land."
Lloyd wasn't quite in the mood for jokes yet, it seemed. He grumbled angrily under his breath and finally said aloud, "You seriously can't expect me to..."
Bella laughed out loud as she cut him off, "No! Of course we don't need to go you dumb fuck! I guess I should know better than to pull a guy's leg when it's so broken." She gazed down at the hefty cast on his leg, steel pins poked out in several places at obtuse angles.
For a brief moment Lloyd's eyes crinkled near the edges, and Bella thought she may have finally broken his shell and gotten a smile out of him. But his mouth was almost completely shrouded by beard, so a subtle smile wouldn't register, she'd have to try harder next time.
They continued driving in silence for some time. They pulled over at about two in the afternoon to get lunch at a roadside diner. As they entered the diner all eyes had turned to the unlikely pair. Bella stood a bit over five feet tall and had a fairly thin build. She wore baggy overalls when she was driving, and often a Seahawks cap to keep the sun out of her eyes. Lloyd on the other hand was immense. With all the casts, pins, and bandages he almost seemed as big around as he was high, and he was definitely no slouch in the height department.
Bella's face split into a manic grin and for a moment she was tempted to say something like, "Bitch, get us a table. I'm going to go buy smokes." The idea of her as the abusive girlfriend was incredibly amusing to her right this moment, and secretly she hoped that at least one person in the diner was thinking she was the one who had put him in the cast. Bella held her tongue. Lloyd hadn't managed to lighten up yet, and Bella imagined with the pain he must be in it might be a long while before he was ready to joke around about the accident.
A waitress came up to seat them and directed them to the last remaining booth. Bella slid in sideways and pulled the table towards herself, giving Lloyd more room on his side to angle himself in. Lloyd turned so that his back faced the booth and lowered himself down onto the bench with his back was facing the wall and leg pointing straight out from the table.
Bella ordered them both coffee and then got up to go to the washroom. When she got back there were two hot cups of black coffee on the table. Lloyd had already started drinking his. Bella asked, "You need cream or sugar?" She noted that there was no way for him to really reach either of them himself, and figured she had better ask in case he was drinking his coffee black simply because he was too proud to ask for help.
Lloyd said, "No. I'm good. It's good black. You're probably one of those types who load it up with sugar and milk and shit, huh?"
Bella took a sip of her coffee. It was actually decent. She guessed it must be a fresh pot, too. She took a second sip and said, "Nah. Sometimes I like a bit of sugar if I need an extra kick, but mostly black is fine."
Bella could see Lloyd struggling with the cup a bit, but there was really nothing she could do to help him. Instead she decided to use this opportunity to ask a few questions. She led with the obvious one, "Okay, Lloyd. Where do we go from here? What's the plan?"
They sat in silence for a few minutes sipping coffee. Just as Lloyd was about to speak the waitress came to take their orders. Bella ordered the breakfast special, even though it was already early afternoon, and Lloyd ordered a burger.
Once the waitress was gone Lloyd continued, "I can't get any backup on this one. I've got to see it through myself. You already know some of the details of what I'm investigating. I need to get to a warehouse in Los Angeles, I have the address in my notebook. I need to talk to everyone who was involved in arranging that shipment, they would be the only ones who knew where it was going. One of them has to be the leak."
"Or worse," Bella added, "they could be responsible for the sabotage."
Lloyd shook his head and said, "No, that doesn't fit. The only way I can see someone even leaking the information would be if there were someone outside the company bankrolling the jobs. Why would an investor want these shipments stopped? I'm guessing the attacks are coming from a competitor or something to that effect."
"None of it makes any sense at all to me," Bella said between sips,"How could they get trees to attack you? And why pick on a pharmacy company? Are they doing animal testing or something?"
"How much do you know about that 'spirit energy' stuff that's been on the news lately?"
Bella snorted and said, "That bullshit? Yeah, I've heard of it. Sounded like some Scientology shit to me. Just more scientists trying to tear down the word of God, as far as I'm concerned." Bella's eyes had grown hard and cold, her entire face was tense as she spoke.
Lloyd spent a few moments considering how to proceed. This was obviously a hot button issue for Bella, and the last thing he needed right now was to be left abandoned in his condition at a diner in the middle of nowhere. The waitress passed by the table and Lloyd used it as a chance to buy himself a bit more time to think. He turned to the waitress and said, "Excuse me, could we get a couple refills here?" He gestured at the coffee cups, both of which were still mostly full. The waitress looked at him with a puzzled expression for a moment and then walked away from the table.
Lloyd looked back at Bella and said, "Okay. Lets just say it isn't a load of horse shit." Bella's face tightened even more, her brows furrowed and Lloyd quickly interjected, "Lets say that the spirit energy is actually something created by God, and we are just now learning to detect it. Maybe we're even detecting the fabric of God himself. If God really is everywhere, then maybe we are just starting to be able to comprehend him."
Bella leaned forward a bit. She bit her lip for a moment and then said, "Go on."
Lloyd tried to sound relaxed, "So lets say that a small team of scientists discovered that there were whole parts of our brain that were designed to detect and process these waves. That the brain could actually act as both a broadcaster and a receiver. This energy could be responsible for our desire to be closer to God. It could be that we feel Him all around us, and that people can chose to ignore Him or they can focus on Him, and hear him better."
Bella simply said, "Okay. Okay, I think I see what you mean."
"Yeah. Exactly, so the reason we have prophets and psychics and miracles is solely based on belief. Because belief is the human system of tuning yourself into the fabric of God. Belief has real world effects, real world consequences."
Bella's face completely softened. "So you are saying that the scientists have proved that God exists?"
Lloyd smiled and said, "Well, that's my take on it. But not everyone agrees. You see most scholars think that the energy is just that, another form of energy like light and sound. That's why I'm a cop now and not sitting at a soul shrink's desk analyzing rich kids for a hundred bucks an hour. They threw me out of the program my second year because I thought the energy was God. Why else would the mechanism that allows us to affect this energy be faith?"
Bella looked upwards, lost in thought. She looked back at Lloyd and said, "Okay, I understand. So you are saying this energy is God, and it's real. What does that mean? What do you mean by 'affect'?"
Lloyd said, "Can you do me a favour? I can show you exactly what I mean if you go get my book from the truck."
Bella practically jumped out of the booth. Now that she knew that there was a chance that the things she had heard about on TV could actually be holy in nature she wanted to learn about it. Anything that brought her closer to God could only improve her life. She jogged to the truck and threw open the door. She flipped the seat forward and reached behind it for Lloyd's duffel bag. She pulled the whole thing out and slammed the truck door closed.
When she got back to the table Lloyd was smiling from ear to ear. It seemed as if he had completely forgotten about his bumps and bruises. Bella tossed the duffel bag onto the table and sifted through Lloyd's clothes, medicines, bandages, and other personal effects until she got to the bottom. She pulled out the book from inside and slid it over to Lloyd. She had been curious as to what was inside the book since the first moment she had laid eyes on it. In fact, it had occupied her thoughts on numerous occasions while Lloyd was laying in the hospital. Bella pushed the clothes in the duffel back into place, covering the gun and badge, and then zipped it and put it underneath the table by her feet. She looked across the table at Lloyd, who was practically beaming with excitement now.
The truth was that since college he hadn't spoken of his theories, he had grown tired of the blank stares and angry retorts. Lloyd had long since grown tired of scholars telling him that science was the pursuit of truth, not myth. Lloyd had always felt that myth was simply science that hadn't been scrutinized yet. Any myth could prove to be true, just as some myths could end up being nothing more than fantasy.
Lloyd fumbled with the clasp on the book for a couple minutes before finally getting it open. He knew that with the use of only one hand he probably couldn't do many of the more complex rituals he had uncovered during his studies, but he certainly could do something simple that would illustrate his point to Bella.
He ignored some of the gasps that came from Bella as he flipped through the book. He knew that some of the symbols on the page were considered demonic or evil by Catholics, but he knew that the one he was looking for wouldn't frighten her. By the time he reached the page he was looking for Bella's face had begun its journey from relaxed to righteous wrath. He knew he had better work quickly.
He took the bottle of salt from the edge of the table and shook some out onto the table. Using the edge of his hand he pushed it into a line. He then took a couple pinches and applied them to the edges of the line, forming a cross. He then began reading from the page, "Our Lord, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Lord we beseech thee, grant us a sign in these times that the salt of the earth may be stripped and the crops be bountiful." He then began a soft chant in Latin, the words of which were slurred and too low for Bella to make out. She wasn't sure what the effect of this was meant to be, so her eyes wandered from Lloyd to the table and back as he chanted.
She looked into Lloyd's eyes, half expecting this to be some sort of joke. She thought he might simply burst out laughing at any moment. As she watched she saw his eyes dart downwards and back. He didn't pause his chant, but he was clearly trying to get Bella to focus on the table. She lowered her eyes and saw the salt start to shift. At first she wasn't quite certain what was happening. The salt almost seemed as if it were melting. Then she saw the salt glitter. A drop of what appeared to be dew had formed near the top of the cross. As she watched more droplets formed until the salt was completely covered in moisture. A small pool of water had formed around the salt, completely dissolving it.
"It's a miracle," she whispered to herself.
Lloyd stopped chanting and looked seriously across the table at her, "Yes. It is. Our blind pursuit of science has made us spiritually blind. This ritual was lost for ages, but it is the same effect in many languages. The native Americans had a similar one that we call a 'rain dance'. The truth is that all of these things are just ways of focusing our faith in ways that allow us to touch God. It might only be a few drops here, but with a hundred people doing this we could collect enough moisture to really affect the crops in a season. In a way it's magic, but in actuality there are very specific rhythms and patterns that can set your brain to the same wavelengths as the spiritual energy."
Bella really seemed to be getting it. Her face lit up as she wrapped her head around it. The media had described it as a sort of magic and science hybrid. That had turned her off, after the first few news reports she had begun tuning it out. Bella wasn't unlike the majority of the world's population in that regard. The year it had been announced had been filled with riots, the second had given rise to a hundred new religions, and by the third year an entire field of science had been condensed down to a slightly comical character on a popular sitcom. It was like so many other scientific breakthroughs, it only really affected your life if you were suffering from a related problem or were willing to put in the work to make it useful.
Bella chimed in, So in a way it's like, um, microwaves? Only your brain is what focuses them in a way that can be used for stuff. Am I close?"
Lloyd smiled gently and said, "Almost exactly right. In fact, if you wanted to cook a meal with spiritual energy you probably could. It's just it would take half of a day and about ten close friends."
Bella wanted to know everything about this new thing now. She felt like a child who had just walked into the museum for the first time, gazing up at the skeleton of a Brontosaurus. What colour was it? What did it eat? How many were in a herd? What colour was it.... Did she say that one already?
And it was in exactly that manner that her next stream of questions flowed out of her, What are these waves called, can anyone do it, are some people better than others?"
Lloyd was shifting in his seat a bit, trying to reach down below the edge of the table to scratch under the cast on his leg. He tried to stay focused and positive but the itch had started just as Bella had begun her stream of questions. He awkwardly maneuvered himself out of the booth and to his feet and picked up his crutches. He turned to Bella and said, "Okay, I'll try to answer as many questions as I can when I get back from the can. In the meantime if the waitress comes back tell her I want a couple extra strips of bacon for my burger. For now I'll tell you the name of the energy if you promise not to freak out."
Bella scrunched up her face a bit and said, "Why would I freak out? It's just a name!"
"Okay, okay. The energy is called 'Hellmann waves'. They are named after the woman who discovered them, Doctor Sandra Hellmann," Lloyd smirked as he said it. He honestly didn't know Bella would take knowing that the source of all miracles had been discovered by a Hellmann.
It seemed that Bella had gone a long way towards accepting this new discovery. Her eyes glittered with mischief and she said, "Well, if God put it here, then maybe it's His way of saying we should pay attention. Pay attention or risk going to Hell, man."
Lloyd laughed and shook his head. "That was terrible. YOU are terrible." He hobbled off towards the bathroom, leaving Bella with two cups of coffee, a puddle of salty water, and an entirely new perspective on life.