“Sorry,” Ryan finished chewing and then swallowed hard. “I said, I just got dumped!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ryan. That’s a tough pill for any man—or woman, for that matter—to swallow. Did you know her long?”
“Yeah, we met first day of school and I’ve liked her ever since. Just the other day, we walked along the quays together and I thought I could sense her waiting for me to kiss her. I finally worked up the nerve and stepped forward, but then I thought she was objecting to me coming closer so I backed away. And that was it. She won’t speak to me again and has already found a Brazilian muscleman to take my place.”
“What, in just a few days?!” Alex asked incredulously.
Ryan nodded as he bit down into another breathtaking bite.
“Arr, yes, hidden messages and expectations can get us human beings into a lot of trouble!”
Swallowing another bulbous mouthful a little too early, Ryan almost choked trying to speak. ”You’re so lucky you have a career all mapped out, earning your own income and somewhere of your own to live and don’t have parents on your back all the time. Obviously the wife and family issue is settled too, and you can do whatever you want when you want.”
“I wish it was as easy as all that, Ryan,” Alex seemed a little distant and aloof with Ryan’s speech.
“What do you mean, Alex?” Ryan hesitated in mid bite.
“I know all too well the decisions and treachery facing teens making life decisions that affect your future when you’re still not much more than a kid. And more importantly, what happens when you get it wrong. As for caring parents...! Your mum and dad are the best parents I know and if I’d had someone like Marie-Laure and Jonas to guide me, maybe I could have spared myself and the people I loved a whole lot of pain.”
Ryan had completely stopped eating while his concerned and questioning eyes blazed into the older man with great curiosity, but trying not to pry into his private world. Nevertheless, he couldn’t avert his eyes, silently pleading for Alex to explain the path he had been forced to walk and maybe give Ryan a hint of what the mistakes were and how to avoid them altogether. Overwhelmed by curiosity and the need for someone to connect at his level, the words escaped Ryan’s mouth before he could grasp at their collar and restrain their entry into the audible universe.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Ryan’s embarrassment skyrocketed and he babbled, trying to recapture the words.
Alex halted Ryan’s awkwardness with a kindly grin and a reassuring gesture. “Sure, Ryan, I’d be delighted to share my journey with you, but be warned, it isn’t pretty!”
*~*~*~*
Chapter 21
Looking for something to divert the uneasy silence, Ryan took another healthy bite from the kebab balanced in his hands, momentarily glancing sideways at Alex’s contemplative and empty stare. Alex almost seemed lost in another world, searching the bustling crowd as if he was seeking an unknown apparition or a blurry doorway back in time.
The busy gawking throng, probing the vendors’ stalls and shopping for another trinket or gadget, seemed blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place or Alex’s concerned eyes roaming their hollow expressions. In a captive bid for distraction, the world offered every kind of entertainment and pleasure, averting the need for people en masse to consider an endless eternity while the sands of time marched on relentlessly, drawing them ever closer to the abyss and permanent destruction.
Alex raised his voice above the noise and took Ryan off guard, bringing a startled but temporary halt to Ryan’s chewing and clicking jaws. “People need parental discipline, a sense of purpose and a place to belong, knowing they’re cherished and valued. But if we don’t find it in the secure boundaries of a family and under the guidance of a firm and loving hand, it becomes an endless lifelong obsession searching for a place to belong,” Alex articulated with a sweeping hand across to the milling crowd while Ryan’s eyes followed his gesture.
“Roaming from one relationship to the next, burying yourself in work, or perhaps worshipping an idol or rock star and so on, are all signs of a very basic discontent looking for fulfilment. Most people don’t realise—or care, I might add—that they have a divine destiny and a parent God who loves them above all creation and has a specific purpose—a job, if you like—that only they can do. That void you are sensing in your life, Ryan, is a space that can only be filled by the knowledge and presence of your ultimate parent, Papa God Himself. That’s the way He designed us.”
Ryan suddenly squirmed and a disbelieving expression crossed his face.
Alex saw the sudden shift but continued on regardless, “We spoke of hidden messages and unmet expectations. The reason you aren’t open to hearing of a loving God is because your mind has been taught by hidden subtle messages that God does not exist. Or if He does, He isn’t concerned about you personally and you are just so much evolutionary sludge, worthless and insignificant in billions of years of pain and death. But nothing could be further from the truth. So then, where do these hidden messages come from? The people you surround yourself with; the things you watch on television; the music you listen to; the video games you play; the schools and universities you attend; and the biggest one, the opinions of that respected someone you hold in high regard.”
Ryan stared uncomfortably at the concrete path, oblivious to the background noise and the mass of humanity just metres from where they sat.
“Once you’ve been powerfully indoctrinated into the purposelessness of worldly thought and firmly trapped into this vicious circus, you become like your lady friend.”
Ryan flinched like he’d been stung and searched the older man’s probing eyes, waiting for the revelation.
“Ryan, don’t you see? She’s searching for someone to fill her aching need and she will always be searching, going from this relationship to the next and spiralling further down into debauchery, looking for the experience to fill her emptiness right into her old age. You always would’ve been a stepping stone in that lost little girl’s world, never able to satisfy her; and although it’s impossible to see it now, you’ve been spared a harrowing path. To find the right woman—and to be the right man for her—is to find yourself and God first, before attempting to carry wrong thinking into a marriage and becoming yet another broken statistic. Strong, healthy and lasting relationships are far deeper and so much more complex than the ‘feel goods’ and the disastrous ideals of meaningless casual sex that so many young people are sold today.”
Ryan swallowed hard and almost choked, trying to talk. “How do you know all this, Alex, and how do you know you haven’t been deceived?!”
“Because twenty years ago, Ryan, I sat here where you are, a worthless and desperate individual listening to a Godly man, a gendarme who’d taken me under his tireless care just before he led me to Jesus and then into jail.”
Wide-eyed and trying desperately to digest Alex’s speech, Ryan pulled in a gasping breath as if he’d been punched, and stared at Alex in disbelief.
“Do you still want to hear my story, Ryan?” Alex’s kind gaze focused on the younger man.
Ryan nodded emphatically, balancing the half eaten kebab but too stunned to take another bite.
Alex gathered his thoughts, but this time he knew exactly where to start. “I wasn’t a bad kid, Ryan, just affectionate, undisciplined and searching for love. When that’s denied, a kid will take any form of attention-–good or bad—and that’s usually where things go wrong. Mum and Dad were firmly on that cycle we just talked about and neither wanted to take responsibility for their unwanted experiments... that’s me, of course. After years of being shunted from one relative to another and at the age of fifteen, I hitchhiked across the border to Italy and soon found a common goal among the street rats of Naples. Kids who had no parents, like me, stole to stay alive and fiercely defended each other, making a game of the authorities trying to eradicate us... the problem.
“At the age of seventeen, heavily into drugs and
trafficking, I met a wonderful girl. She was like me, a street rat, yet beautiful and deep inside she was solid gold and looked after me like I was someone special. One Friday night, we were doing a mule run for my drug boss in a high powered sports car across the border into Switzerland, but unknown to me or my girlfriend, the Swiss police were waiting for us, acting on a tip-off. With the car loaded and the police in pursuit, I decided to make a run for it and pushed the sports car to the breaking point.”
Alex paused and drew a swift, shuddering breath, recalling memories too painful and sacred just to blurt out into a public arena without due respect. Then after wrestling with the haunting images, he grasped the high powered fast moving threads and tried not to burn his fingers—or enter the intolerable path of if only.
“I approached a sheer mountain bend at nearly 160 kilometres per hour, but the sports car couldn’t make the turn and rolled over and over until it came to a mangled stop halfway down a steep valley. Miraculously, I wasn’t hurt badly, although my girlfriend was and I can still remember her laborious and gurgling breathing. Yet the thing that really broke me just before she died, she managed a smile and then the most profound words I’ve ever heard and they still haunt me to this day. She said that she loved me and she was carrying my baby. When life escaped her beautiful broken body, I cried like I have never cried before, nursing her until the gendarmes pried her body from my embrace and convinced me to let her go.”
Alex hesitated, trying to regain his composure, restraining the strong emotions to a degree until the words escaped around the harrowing memories and allowed him to continue.
“In the weeks after the accident, I became introvert and violent, shaking my fist at the God I didn’t believe in and taking out my pain and frustration on anyone close enough to strike at. While I was in remand and waiting for sentencing, they moved me to isolation where I couldn’t hurt myself or anyone else. That’s when I met Capitaine Bisset, a big gendarme with an even bigger heart for wayward kids. To cut a long story short, Capitaine Bisset stood beside me as I raged at him for representing a cruel, heartless God. He visited me every day in the remand centre and was brutally honest with me about all the mistakes I’d made in adopting the wrong kind of friends. Helping me to see the company I kept led directly to the poor choices and decisions that ended in heartbreaking loss and incarceration.
“Just before I was sentenced, he brought me down here in handcuffs and sat me down where you’re sitting now, explaining the same things we’ve just talked about. The hidden messages. The God-shaped hole in our hearts. And our need to surrender the fight to a God who really does care. While the same but different aimless crowd, like you see here, painted me a harrowing picture of hopelessness and it all became so real to me. I know you can’t see it now, Ryan, but Papa God changed my life; and when I was finally released from prison, I was nearly twenty-five years old and eager to share what God had done for me and to help young people find their meaning in a purposeful life.”
“Wow! What a story! I almost feel shell-shocked,” Ryan bubbled. “So did you ever marry, Alex?”
“No, Ryan. I guess I felt honour bound to my girlfriend and never found anyone who fitted me like she did. But the thing that really tears at me... she died without Jesus.”
Ryan shifted uncomfortably on his seat, balancing the remainder of the cold kebab. “I don’t get it, Alex. What’s the big deal about Jesus, anyway?”
Alex turned to face Ryan and searched for an easy answer to a good question. “That’s the most important question of your life, Ryan. Who you understand Jesus Christ to be and what He means to you will determine everything else about you and your eternal destiny.”
Ryan pondered the bearded man but he still didn’t understand.
“Okay. A few important things that you need to grasp before you can understand the big deal about Jesus Christ. First, God is perfect and can’t tolerate any sort of imperfection in His perfect presence. Second, humanity is God’s pinnacle creation and all life is in the blood. Take away the blood and all you have is a dead body. Third, God gave us a set of rules to live by and ultimately, it depends on our performance against these rules as to whether we have an eternal destiny in God’s presence or an eternal destiny separated from God and languishing in the painful flames of hell... eternally! I’m sure you’ve heard of the ten commandments?”
Ryan nodded and confirmed that much.
“Okay. In God’s perfect eyes, at any time in your life if you break any one of these ten commandments you automatically head for hell.”
“That’s not fair, Alex! No one can do that!”
“That’s the point, Ryan!”
Ryan held Alex’s gaze, pondering the bearded man and feeling desperately condemned.
“Then how do we avert an eternity in hell if no one can live up to God’s standards?”
“Now that you understand the quandary from God’s perspective and that He doesn’t want any of us to perish in hell, you now have to grasp His atonement for breaking His rules.”
“So there is a way to be forgiven for breaking a rule? I guess I must break most of His rules every day,” Ryan offered honestly.
“Yes, there is. But to understand that, we need to take a little journey back into the past. God made man in a body form and gave him his life contained in the blood. Initially, He intended man to live forever on Earth and in a garden, and at that stage we didn’t know what sin was and didn’t need the ten commandments because we walked with God already. You need to grasp the importance that God places on life and the blood and the reason why He says do not commit murder, the sixth commandment. In understanding the cost of breaking any commandment to God, you have to understand that process which He calls sin and remember, He can’t tolerate it. To Him every time we sin it’s like a death, because that person is condemned to hell and so to offset that death requires another innocent and sinless death to take its place and release the sinner, and that’s the high price of redemption.”
“So someone else who doesn’t sin has to pay for me breaking a commandment with his life?” Ryan prompted.
Alex nodded. “It used to be done with the blood of animals in early times but as the population grew, so did sin and it just became a nightmare. People abandoned the redemption process and before long the devil had a steady stream of participants heading for hell. The pain of watching His creation choose the heartbreak of separation, with the all important life pulsing in man’s veins being wasted in hell, prompted God to find a solution once and for all. Sin was grafted onto man like a cancer and it wasn’t going away, ever.”
“So Jesus, being the Son of God and the only perfect sacrifice, shed his blood on the cross to pay for our sins!”
“Yep, that’s about it, Ryan. The wonderful thing is, and all we are required to do is to confess our sins, accept Jesus as our Lord and King, and turn our backs on our sinful behaviour.”
Almost as a deliberate distraction, a rowdy band began to belt out across the crowd, drawing their preoccupied attention. Alex could see the commotion was working with Ryan also, and the seeds he had just planted were being pushed into the mud and stolen before his eyes. Raising his voice above the clanging din and hoping to open another avenue for communication, Alex bellowed, “Who’s your favourite rock group, Ryan?!”
“The Sticky Lizards at the moment!” Ryan shouted back. “I love Sfidare il Male, their new single!”
“Yeah. They’ve come a long way since ‘Bastone i vostri occhi insieme con Sicad!’”
Ryan appeared confused. “What?!”
“Stick your eyes together with Sicad… Italian glue!” Alex rolled his eyes.
“Oh, yeah, that one was a bit dumb! But this new one is way cool! How do you know so much about the rock groups, Alex?!”
“I like to keep track of the messages they’re singing. Often times, teen rebellion and crime waves are spurned in the wake of these musical geniuses.”
“Really!” Ryan bawled sceptically.
>
Alex nodded confidently, checked his watch and then beckoned to the teenager. “Come on, Ryan, it’s time we made our way into work. It’s almost 5 pm!”
*~*~*~*
Chapter 22
Securely held by a lap belt into the back seat of a hovering Euronews helicopter, Julien Combarel gaped through the helicopter’s open sliding door and into the lens of a news camera waiting for the cameraman’s cue. The fearless cameraman, harnessed to the helicopter’s body one hundred metres above the lake surface and standing on the landing sled, leaned backwards over the vast empty heights and waited for the perfect shot, trusting the harness with his life before giving Combarel the go ahead.
At the cameraman’s instruction, the pilot skewed the machine, turning the tail slightly and capturing a portion of the rear deck of La Suisse in the camera’s outer field of view while keeping Julien Combarel as close to centre of the lens as possible. Focusing through the view finder with his hair blown violently by the rotor blades and satisfied with the setup, the cameraman nodded to Combarel, prompting the news anchor to unleash his embellished tale. Without missing a beat and needing to shout above the turbulence of the helicopter, Combarel’s dynamic windblown features entered lounge rooms all over Europe, delivering the breaking news with confidence while the facts he didn’t know were soon constructed in a carefully worded series of questions, leaving the audience to choose the ending they thought most appropriate.
“Today, in Switzerland, a dramatic and secretive police chase was undertaken entwining the Suisse icon, the steamboat La Suisse into a dramatic air and water pursuit attempting to apprehend an unknown felon stowed away onboard the ancient steam-driven craft. In a bid to elude capture, it is believed the felon jumped from the speeding vessel, only to be drawn into the furiously pounding paddle wheels and deposited some distance behind the powerful passenger boat. La Suisse, packed to capacity with tourists, only slowed down when a DARD gendarme heroically abseiled down a rope from a police helicopter and forcefully ordered the captain to a stop, begging a serious question. Was the captain in some way colluding with the terrorist group and benefiting from the drugs being sold onboard? However, we do know from eyewitness accounts that the felon was forcefully dragged from the water and deposited onboard one of two formidable Suisse police Zodiacs, the culprit brandishing a submachine gun and only surrendered when overcome by twenty gendarmes carrying pepper spray. Although the identity of the man or terrorist group he belongs to is not known, the police remain defiantly tight-lipped over the incident. But, strangely, the captain of La Suisse has been allowed to continue with his duties. When you need to know, we want to tell you and we will keep you up to date with this story and many others. This has been Julien Combarel reporting for Euronews, going to extremes to bring you all the latest in the breaking events affecting your community.”