“Now that I’ve heard what you all have to say, let me share a few things that I heard in my spirit while you were talking.” When Afua was sure that she had their rapt attention she continued. “First of all, the person behind the whole Manning tragedy was Jay Horrell.”
“I don’t think any of us are surprised about that, baby girl,” Badru said. He and Xander had said as much during their discussion.
“Yes, but you may be surprised to learn that there were three evil plans swimming around in Jay’s heart the year the Mannings went to space. These plans were all tied to the Mannings’ mission. They were all rooted in jealousy and bitterness[ii],” Afua prefaced, before telling them exactly what those three plans were.
Plan 1 was to plant a smart virus in the spaceship’s computer system in order to kill the Mannings in space. If that plan had not worked and the Mannings had made it back to Earth safely, Plan 2 would have gone into effect.
“In Plan 2, Jay would have killed Juna and Xander in a mysterious hit and run accident, much like the one my mother was in,” Afua continued, despite the fact that her eyes were glistening with tears. “A grief-stricken Elexander would have slowly lost his mind, especially after Jay escaped justice for killing his wife and child. Becoming so engrossed with the past, he would have blamed the space program for his misfortune and eventually devised a way to destroy it and himself.”
“Do you know how?” the scientist within Badru had to ask.
Afua nodded. “Elexander would have done something ingenious to the satellite systems. Unfortunately, he would have miscalculated a few things in his deep despair. Things that would have triggered a horrific chain reaction on Earth and in space.”
Despite her captive audience, Afua had to pause long enough to blink away her tears and take a deep calming breath to regain full control of her emotions. They were trying to roam all over the place with this prophecy.
“When Elexander finally pressed the button to destroy all space centers, including the one he hijacked, and every satellite ever made on Earth, satellites both near and far would have gone haywire, too. This includes the satellites still hovering in the Andromeda Galaxy. Those satellites would have hurled towards nearby planets, dragging meteors of all shapes and sizes with them. Those meteors would have caused worldwide devastation to every planet they hit.”
“May the Creator be praised for revealing the deep and secret things!”[iii] Xander exclaimed, humbled by Afua’s spiritual insight. He also felt righteous indignation because there was no doubt in his mind that Katan and Hekima would have been affected by those meteors.
Nasiir deduced the same things as Xander. As a result, he was now pacing back and forth in the wide hallway on the west side of the living room.
“You mentioned three plans. What is the third one?” Badru prodded, feeling anger like never before. Now he was convinced that Jay had had his wife killed, possibly the rest of his former colleagues killed, as well.
“Plan 3 is the one that Jay is working on now. That plans includes him becoming president of the United States and eventually taking over the whole world. After that, he’s going to fund a more aggressive space program whose main goal is to take over other planets. If Jay is not stopped, he and his wicked associates will take over the planet we call Nico-1 first, enslaving its inhabitants. Then they will eventually make their way to the planet of the peace-loving people that raised Xander,” Afua concluded. Her essence was literally sparkling with brilliant light now as the long prophecy came to an end.
“I will go kill this Jay Horrell immediately. He will never put my people in captivity! Never!” said an angry voice that only one other person in the room recognized.
________________________________________
[i] Matthew 8:16
[ii] Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10; James 3:16
[iii] Daniel 2:22
Chapter 16
Afua’s eyes widened in shock at that strange voice even as her mouth dropped open in awe. She suddenly found herself unable to form a complete sentence right now.
“Did he just…? I…Good Lord!” Afua stammered out, trying hard to speak beyond her shock.
Badru, who still had full capacity of his speech, sprung to his feet with eyes of intrigue. “Okay, I’ve seen a lot of things in my life, but I have never seen nor heard a dog talk before.”
“Nasiir is no dog. He is a Hekiman. His planet is ruled by talking animals,” Xander quickly explained now that Nasiir’s emotions had gotten the better of him. He could only hope that Badru and Afua were ready to receive this startling information. He’d hoped to ease them into the truth about Nasiir over a suitable period of time. Unfortunately, that was not possible now.
“Talking animals. Well, don’t that just beat all,” Badru said, now looking at the angry animal in a different light. His eyes widened with fascination when Nasiir changed into his real buck form right before their very eyes, long horns and all.
“Xander thought we would blend in better if I was an Earth canine,” Nasiir replied, chagrined with himself as he tapped his right hoof on the Karson’s brown and beige area rug. He was ashamed that he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him tonight.
As a strategic security specialist, Nasiir knew that he must never be ruled by emotion. That was rule number one in the Katanian training academy. As a Hekiman, Nasiir knew better than to risk exposure of his true nature to those who were not ready. Appearing unintelligent was one of the Hekimans’ most effective defense mechanisms since it allowed them to catch their enemies unaware.
Now even though Nasiir’s anger was still apparent, and despite the fact that he still wanted to kill Jay Horrell for even daring to think about enslaving his people, he would not. At least not while he was in this current emotional state.
“Well, you definitely fooled me.” Badru chuckled, enjoying every minute of this surprise. His hot anger towards Jay was not gone, just suppressed for the time being in light of this fascinating new discovery about Nasiir.
“Even though I suspected that you were no ordinary dog from the moment I met you, finding out what you really are still threw me for a loop just then,” Afua said, having gotten her composure back as she relaxed in her seat again. Usually she seldom lost her composure about anything, but with Xander and Nasiir around, she was starting to think she would never be the same again.
“It seems that we have more to talk about than I first thought.” Badru returned to his seat on the beige settee. “Now I want to know everything about these other planets and the people that inhabit them.”
Xander exhaled in resignation. After such a long day, he’d hoped they would part company for the night and make plans to strategize sometime tomorrow. Now suddenly his day had gotten longer. His only comfort was in the fact that at least Badru and Afua were trustworthy enough to handle the things they’d seen and heard thus far.
Xander was unaware that the Karsons were also extending their bedtimes since they were early risers, as well. However, the prospect of having their curiosities satisfied caused even the thought of sleep to flee from them.
“Dr. Karson, if you must know all these things tonight, I think it would be better if I just showed you. We have extensive records aboard our spacecraft.” Xander stood to his feet. He turned to Afua and added in a softer tone, “Would you like to come, too?”
Afua rose to her feet. “Yes,” she replied with unmasked enthusiasm. Her almond eyes looked a lot like her father’s now.
“Very well then. We will travel the Katanian way. Nasiir, you know what to do.” Xander moved closer to Afua while the buck moved closer to a now standing Dr. Karson. Within three seconds they were at their intended destination.
As soon as they materialized on board, Xander quickly realized only too late what he failed to do. Afua’s loud gasp of shock confirmed his negligence in not warning the Karsons about the transporter’s organic factor.
“What in the world happened to my clothes?!” Afua
asked, moving swift hands to cover certain parts of herself. She had materialized completely naked due to the fact that she’d been wearing all manmade materials. Even her earrings had been left behind.
What’s worse, Xander couldn’t seem to stop staring at Afua long enough to courteously offer her a cloth to cover herself. From the way he was gawking at her, one would think he’d never seen a naked woman before.
He hadn’t. On Katan, they never saw the opposite sex completely nude until it was time to mate.
Fortunately, Nasiir was less affected by the sight of a nude human female and quickly went to retrieve a coverlet from one of the cabin areas.
In contrast, everything Badru had worn had transported well since the scientist only believed in wearing clothes made from the earth. The only thing that hadn’t transported was his leather boots. Those had metal objects on them and had been left behind.
Thank God, neither Badru nor Afua had metal fillings in their mouths. Otherwise, they would have been screaming in pain right about now due to Xander’s oversight.
“Please look away, son,” Badru prompted the gawking young man. He smoothly moved to stand in front of his daughter until Nasiir returned with the cloth.
“Of course, sir.” Xander blinked rapidly to refocus as he forced his whole body to turn in the opposite direction. Even still he could not get the image of Afua’s shapely frame out of his mind. The heat of what he’d seen was still stirring in his loins. No doubt he would dream of her tonight. He couldn’t wait to.
“I gather your transporter only processes organic materials, right?” Badru asked, remaining in place while Afua securely wrapped the coverlet toga style upon her body.
“Correct. Please accept my apologies for not telling you that sooner.” Xander moved farther away from the Karsons, lest he be tempted to look over his shoulder and sneak another peek at cinnamon goodness.
“All is forgiven,” Badru and Afua echoed simultaneously, revealing how quickly they were to forgive others.
Once everyone was much calmer and nearly fully clothed, Xander and Nasiir gave the Karsons a tour of the spacecraft. Then they led them on a scenic tour of their homelands via computer.
The whole time Xander kept stealing longing looks at Afua. The whole time she kept avoiding his eyes, kept feeling things she never wanted to feel for any man.
In Afua’s opinion, falling in love only led to heartache and pain. She’d not only experienced it in her own life at the tender age of sixteen, she’d seen it in the lives of others, including her parents. Even now her father refused to remarry. And look what happened to Jay Horrell. Because of his misguided love for Juna, he’d become the evil creature that he was today.
As a result, Afua determined within her heart to only associate with Xander as she felt absolutely led to. If only she could have seen the dark patches of fear swirling around her head right now, she might have reconsidered that decision.
Chapter 17
Afua wasn’t too enthused about Xander attending church with them on that sun-drenched Sunday morning. She wasn’t trying to block his spiritual enrichment or anything foul like that, mind you. She simply wasn’t interested in trying to fight the feelings he stirred within her at church of all places.
If only I could have flown away like Nasiir. Afua looked over at the large bald cypress tree where the Hekiman was enjoying the life of a swamp sparrow today.
Nasiir was on a high branch, singing praises to God with the rest of his red-winged and gray-faced fowl friends. Afua could hear their lovely slow trills from here.
Badru had gone over to talk with the Gladwins, two of their neighbors, at their vehicle. This left Afua and Xander alone to enter the small white-steepled church together.
“Good morning, Afua,” Era Latimer said super-sweetly before focusing on who she really wanted to look at. “Who is your handsome friend?”
As Era waited for an answer she patted the tall, stiff hairdo upon her head. In this day and age, most Earth women wore their hair piled as high as possible upon their heads. With so many people on the planet, they had to find some way to stand out in a crowd, some way to get men to notice them above all the other billions of women around.
The only women that still wore their hair down were those who didn’t want to be noticed. Women like Afua, who even now wore a black and gray shift dress that did little for her figure.
Afua fought not to roll her eyes or shake her head with exasperation at the brazen woman. She also wouldn’t allow herself to concentrate too much on Era’s strong floral perfume, which had actually approached them before she had.
Women like this give the whole gender a bad name. Afua wished Era would have at least waited until they were off church grounds before flirting so shamelessly with Xander.
Aloud Afua said, “Good morning to you, too, Era. This is Xander, one of my father’s associates.”
Afua refused to go beyond that simple introduction for several reasons. For one thing, Xander had not yet embraced his birth parents’ last name and thus still didn’t have one. Secondly, he wasn’t necessarily an out-of-town visitor and thus saying so would be a lie and incite more questions. Most importantly of all, Afua just didn’t want Era to know that much about Xander anyway. Truthfully, she didn’t want any woman to know much about Xander.
Yet a first name was all Era required from such an attractive man. Xander’s last name could have been Tootie-Fruity for all she cared. Besides, she’d find out more all on her own.
“Hello, Xander,” Era cooed. She gracefully extended her right hand towards the man dressed in a 3-button black suit that most American males wore nowadays. Except this suit looked specially made for his broad shoulders, wide muscular chest, and strong thighs.
“Hello, Era,” Xander replied, speaking the name he’d heard Afua say as he shook the woman’s hand.
With his natural eyes he could see that the red sheath dress Era wore looked like she’d been poured into it. With his spiritual eyes, he could still see red and also sour green upon the woman. Such colors revealed that Era was inundated with passion and envy; and on church grounds no less.
Xander had never seen such colors in a place that was supposed to be holy and sacred. He looked back at Afua to see if she’d discerned anything. When he did, he was surprised to see the color of envy upon her, too. Except Afua’s sour green tint was engaged in a sort of wrestling match with the purple color of wisdom. Xander wondered which one would win.
“Now that we’ve been properly introduced, why don’t you come inside and sit by me?” Era suggested as she reluctantly released his hand.
“Sorry, he’s sitting with me,” Afua inserted, regretting those words as soon as they left her mouth. “Us…I mean, he’s sitting with us. My father is here today, too,” she tried to amend.
Xander smiled. He knew which color had reared its head first. He was kind of pleased by it. It meant that Afua wasn’t as immune to him as she often appeared to be.
“Afua is right. I am sitting with her…I mean, them,” he said, deliberating fumbling his words just to see his future mate blush. Then Xander reached for Afua’s arm and walked with her inside, leaving an open mouthed Era staring behind them.
“She thinks she’s something so special just because she can prophesy,” Era muttered, allowing jealousy to swell to overflowing in her heart now.
Before she could say another bad thing about Afua, one of the swamp sparrows swooped down from a tree and literally attacked her hairdo.
That is for trying to come between my friends, Nasiir thought, snatching a third and final patch of hair from the shrieking woman’s head.
When Badru cleared his throat noisily and gave him a look of disapproval, Nasiir released Era’s hair completely. Even still, he flew away with a satisfied smile upon his bird face. After all, his main purpose on this mission was to protect Xander, no matter what form he was in, no matter who the enemy was.
~~~ >< ~~~
All
during service, Xander felt curious eyes upon him. Most of those eyes were from women. Some were envious of Afua for having found such a man. Most seemed genuinely happy for the young prophetess, who had never come to church with a man other than her father.
As for Afua, she seemed to try even harder to behave as if Xander was just a friend. As if he was not the man she was destined to be with.
Xander found the whole thing amusing. He’d never seen a woman go out of her way not to like him before. He couldn’t wait to see how this whole thing was going to pan out. Especially since somehow, someway he and Afua were going to end up together. That much he was sure of.
On another front, Xander found the Karsons’ church spiritually stimulating. When he wasn’t trying to discern the latest colors within Afua’s essence, he actually enjoyed the animated preaching from the pastor. The man was serious and heart-stirring when he needed to be, funny at other times, which kept the message lively and the congregation interested.
At the end of the message, Afua and other prophetic persons like her were called forward to issue any fresh words of encouragement that the Lord may have for the congregation. Xander especially liked this part of the service since he had never seen anything like this in his life. It thrilled him to see so much bright light pour from the lips of these select individuals.
When it was Afua’s turn to speak, Xander saw her go into a whole other zone from the one she’d been in all morning. There were no greens, no reds, no flashes of any other colors except for brilliant white as she gave herself completely over to the Creator’s will. This was a woman that could put aside every fleshly weight[i] in order to tap into the spirit realm with her whole heart. Xander found the seeds of love stirring in his heart as a result.
After the service, Afua was back to her old reserved self again. She said very little to those around her. She said even less to Xander. Yet she couldn’t hide the colors of her essence from the discerning man. Therefore, Xander wore a knowing smile all the way back to the Karson homestead.