Chapter 34: Friends in Wet Places117
“A night and a day I have been in the deep;” 2 Corinthians 11:25
The next word to sing in his heart was, “Mexico.”
Wondering what wonderful surprises God had planned for him there, Luke began to grow impatient. It isn't wise to climb mountains at night, but night had just fallen, and it just seemed so long until morning! Finally, restless, reckless and rash, Luke began to feel for footholds, and started down the mountain.
Midway down the mountain, Luke missed a foothold; though he felt for it, he could not find it. He started to wonder if he mightn’t have done better in the daylight. Dangling precariously from Hun-strong arms, Luke cursed himself for the lack of forethought. Then, more productive, a little prayer... “A little help, please.”
Luke was startled when he started to see the blinking of fireflies. Kinda high up, he thought to himself. But then there were more, diffusing a soft glow. And finally, enough light to see just a little better. Ah, there it was! Luke grinned, and resumed his descent.118
After that it was a long and rewarding climb, cool and comfortable in the high sky breezes, bathed in electric glow and the warmth of angels' love. It was easier going down, with gravity on his side. Towards the bottom where it was less steep, Luke could even run and slide down the slope. Soon he was back at the Hotel Hough.
Full of hope and emotion, he burst into the lobby, and hunted down his friend Bertralamus J, who was having sips with Hough the Hockey Player, Gillis the Bartender and Donnelly the Bouncer, playing cards and biding their time until tomorrow: when they would put together a coalition of the willing to go down the road and throw punches with the Troilustowners, just for kicks. (“I heard Dale Hunter is coming!” “No way” “Way.”)
“I have seen strange sights!” Luke proclaimed. Then he animatedly recounted his adventures, and his encounters with Mikki (Hough had seen her too, as she ate breakfast there, and he was equally awed), and The Angel. (“More beautiful than Mikki, you say?” “As if she shone with God’s own radiance” Luke testified.) That sealed it for Hough, and after Luke had departed, Hough spent many days journeying up the mountain and waiting for an angel himself, and eventually she came to meet him as well. Moved by his own mountaintop experience, Hough went on to found the Greek Orthodox Church, which was ironic, considering that he didn't speak Greek, he was highly unorthodox, and he seldom went to church. Talk about God using the foolish things of this world to shame the wise: Who better than a hockey player?
Bert was coolly impressed too. “Aliens, angels, and revelations regarding salvation, huh? See, I told ya you always find the good stuff.” Luke smiled, Ha. He was fixin’ to go find some more good stuff, too.
When he made that known, that he had come to say his good-byes, his gang tried to stall him a little. “Won’t you stay another night though? You could have pancakes in the morning,” Hough offered temptingly.
“I have a meeting I have to get to, in Mexico--more things I need to learn. True, it might wait... But I don’t want it to!”
They could see Luke was pretty eager to get going, so Hough accommodated Luke’s wishes, without sacrificing the offer: “Well you could have your pancakes now then! I’m the owner, I can open the kitchen, can’t I? Donnelly, go see if Chef Roland is awake.” Big Donnelly nodded and went down the hall. Hough grinned, “That means ‘wake him up if he isn’t’. He won’t say no to Donnelly!”
Luke was a little embarrassed, and tried too late to say that it really wasn’t necessary. Hough told him not to worry about it, Roland would somehow be compensated for it--bonus in his check, promotion to maitre d’, whathaveyou.
But once the pancakes had been cooked and eaten, Luke made it up to Roland himself. He gave him his guitar as a gift. “I figure you guys’ll need someone to back up that saxophone, when you get to playing the blues again,” he explained modestly.
Still, Bert was surprised. “Engaging in risky behavior, wild mood changes, and now giving away prized possessions. You aren’t thinking about suicide, are you?”
Luke was startled, but grateful for the concern. “On the contrary,” he assured them, “I’ve never wanted to live more!”
“Great,” said Bert, relieved. “As long as you’re just giving free stuff away then, I’ve got dibs on your football shoes.”
That was a bit forward. Luke laughed. “What would I wear then?”
“Wear mine,” Bert offered. “We could swap. Then we’ll each have them for a memory. Like being blood brothers, except, Football Shoe Brothers! Besides, it would probably do me good to walk a mile in your shoes, so to speak.”
Why not, thought Luke, and gave away his shoes too. Bert had a pretty good old pair of Nike LandSharks, so it was an even trade. A little absurd, but like Bert had said...if it was ‘for a memory’, something absurd would definitely remind him of Bert!
He would have more absurdity than he bargained for, to remember Bert by, for Bert was announcing, “A Haiku of Parting! Ahem:
Hun with heart of song,
You have joined the joyous throng.
May your faith grow strong.”
Luke was a little uncertain: “Are haikus supposed to rhyme like that?”
Bert shrugged, “Who knows? They’re not my specialty. Better safe than sorry though, right? Besides, just call it a bonus--With me, you get the goofy rhymes for free! (See?)”
Luke was still not satisfied. “But it still wasn’t really a haiku of parting. Of blessing, yes. But you never said good-bye.”
Bert sighed, and tacked on a second verse. “Not that haikus are supposed to have more than one verse, either! But you’ve forced my hand...”
“You’re right. I was wrong:
God’s been with us all along.
I’ll see ya. So long.”
And that one sounded more like a haiku of concession, Luke thought, until the last line. (He could almost hear the shrug at the beginning of it!) That one casual line would have to do for good-bye, he supposed. That was Bert, after all.
Luke offered his handshake, but Bert turned it into an embrace. “Brothers, remember?” he reminded him. Then, “So where will I find you, traveling man?”
“Well, Hun-Country is home. It would be good to get back there. Maybe they’ll make me a king, maybe the court jester. Either way, I’ll be reading my Bible and praying,” Luke promised confidently. “And I’ll share whatever I have with you.” Then he caught Bert’s scoundrelly leer--Oh Really? “Except her!” Luke qualified, appalled. Bert laughed, and Luke decided that was a good note to leave on.119 A little punch on the arm, and he was off.
Luke wandered down to the seaside, beaming and bright in the blessed night. When he got there though, he realized he had no transportation home, and he stared mystified at the cold blue waves, wondering what he would do next. Had to trust that God would make a way, but he sure didn’t see one.
Finally, in a moment of faith, Luke said to himself, Why not? He zipped the Bible’s waterproof cover up tight, and simply stepped off the rocks, into the dark waters of the deep harbor. Stepping out on faith...
There was a big splash. Then a moment of panic. Then something solid beneath him, lifting him back up to the surface! In Portuguese, a familiar voice chattered, “What did you think? That you could walk on water? Are you Christ himself then?”
It was his friend Helena the Tidal Snake! Luke’s feet slid down around her slithery back, and he wrapped himself around her long dark neck and gave her a little squeeze. “Good to see ya!” Luke exclaimed. Then his excitement gave way to embarrassment, as he answered her question. “I just thought that God would make a way. ‘All things are possible to them that believe,’ right?”
“Possible is not the same as appropriate. Why would you say to a mountain ‘Be thou removed’, if God put it where he wanted it in the first place?” she pointed out, referencing the rest of the verse. “In the same fashion, walking on water was Christ’s special miracle. Maybe it shouldn’t be tainted by the
likes of you,” she scolded playfully.120 “Besides, God did make a way. You’ve got me, right?”
“And you’ll take me clear across the ocean?” It seemed pretty far out of her way. “Well, I’ll take you out into the middle of it anyway.” Luke figured she was kidding. He hoped she was, at least!
Away they went. Luke wrapped his arms tightly around Helena’s firm and slippery body, and she surged through the surf at great speed.
They had long conversations in Portuguese as they traveled. Long because Luke spoke slowly, struggling with words. But that was all right--the more he talked, the less likely she was to forget and dive underwater, as she occasionally did when he grew silent! (“Oops, I forgot ya there.”) Luke told tales of his trip. She was especially pleased to hear of his changes in Greece. “So you’re not lost any more then. You’ve been found.” Luke liked the way she put that. Not ‘you’ve found your way’, but the passive, ‘you’ve been found’. Like a pair of mittens that had fallen out of a pocket on the playground. Except, even better: found by God! (Who doesn’t wear mittens.)
It was a wild and amazing trip, racing through the sea and the spray, Luke hanging on for dear life as Helena cut through the dark and troubled waters, buffeted by wind and waves. On through the night, and well into the next day, she sped on. Then suddenly, she announced, “End of my territory. Sorry bud. Goodbye, and good luck!” Then she dove under to gather momentum, and then turned upwards and shot out of the water. At the top of her leap, she gave her slippery coils a special twist, and flicked Luke loose. In panic and fear he flew upward in a high arc, then fell feet first like a missile, back into the sea.
There was a big splash. Then, a second time, he landed on something solid which bore him upwards to the surface. This time it was his friend Sheila the Whale, one of the very ones he had rescued with his ‘Whales, Duck’ warning so long ago! “Need a lift?” she offered. Grateful, Luke hugged her and said Sure.
Looking about, he saw Serpent St. Helena still there, relaxing in the water, floating tiredly, after swimming a maritime marathon. She was laffin’. “You shoulda seen the look on your face, little friend! Forgive me; all in good fun,”
Heartbeat slowing back down now, Luke forgave her, and thanked her for all her help. So she gave him some more--repeating the instructions she had shared with him previously, but this time ending them not with a question, but a promise: “In the beginning, you follow God. In the middle, follow God. In the end, you follow God...The map you already carry with you.” Luke wasn’t sure if she meant his Bible, or his conscience, but he was in good shape either way.
The Whale didn’t have as many interesting thoughts to share, but that was good, coz she had kind of a screechy voice anyway. At least she was better, as a fellow mammal, at respecting Luke’s need for air. She traveled slowly and surely at the surface for him, all day and into the night. In the silence, Luke beamed back at the south sea skies and full white clouds, and tried to compose a new credo, now that things had changed. He began with Bert’s patented ‘rhyming haiku’ pattern, but then finished it his own way. It always has to be like that, he reflected. You take strength and lessons from the others, but you need to come to God yourself.
“My hard heart shattered,
Shards of God’s love are scattered
In all directions.”
Luke smiled and prayed for God to make it so. Then, thinking of Bert made him remember another thing he had said. “!st Day of Life!” Luke finally realized how that would feel! But Bert had said that we can’t really imagine it, we can only pretend and kid ourselves. Nope, not today, Luke laughed. Today it was the real thing! Tomorrow, who knows? But he had a good feelin’ about that too...
Then, exhausted but comfortable, Luke was able to stretch out and fall asleep on the whale’s broad back. “Like a big waterbed.” His final thought before drifting off, as he stared up at endless starry skies was, “So peaceful, so perfect! So safe in the hands of a mighty God!”
So it was with surprise and alarm that Luke was later awakened, being seized roughly by someone else’s hands! Or talons, rather. Out of dreams of God’s green pastures, and into the yellow claws of a dragon!
At least it was a friendly dragon. “Say, did I wake ya? Sorry, just tryin to speed things up for ya.” He recognized the voice as Daniel Speedboy’s. “Sheila’s nice, but what’s that saying? The bigger they are the slower they move?121 But me, I’m built for Speed, remember? So where to?”
“Land,” said Luke, still scared and short on words.
“Ah. I’m goin’ there myself. Finally got around to making that trip to see my dentist friend, Featherbelly the First! Been putting it off. You know how it is. Dentists.”He laughed, with a few sparks. “Sleep now,” he said, and Luke closed his eyes, and felt the rush of wind as they hurried on through the night.
Part 3: Searching by Bus