Christian Clarity Review

Harrell hears as if from a long way off: A guy like you prays that God save me into what you need saving out of yourself. He’s hearing all that! It isn’t that he don’t hear it. It ain’t that at all.

Harrell is sweating profusely. He wakes with a start, wants to say “I’m sorry!” but it only comes out as a muffled whoof through the gag. All he can hear is himself breathing faster and faster mainly through his nose as the man circles around him.

He had come out of nowhere, hit him from behind.

Waking up in this place… Clean house. Not his. He knows the man doesn’t own it but doesn’t know why he knows it: no one is home. We are in a family place doing non-family things. The man and the décor don’t match for some reason Harrell can’t see immediately. They are both visitors here. The only thing out of place in the home is not belonging; being tied up.

Some guys travel to hear things. They take them extreme vacations. Know what I’m sayin’? .. join the military to hear things, see things. To listen. On a certain level, seeing a goat farmer in Afghanistan, who don’t know nothin’ ’bout Mexican drug cartels or porno kings or Russian mob guys say ” mi guarro en el centro” .. in Spanish –not farsi mind you, while looking over th’ fightin’ goin on.. ” the man stretches out his hand and points as if on that hill himself “.. in the valley below. You had t’ be there. Where the hell did he get that saying: Piggy in the Middle? in Spanish? A freakin’ Afghan goat herder? That’s an English saying. Then it hits me –how they travel. Like viruses that jump species, see? They jump languages. TV. Internet. Radio. Because they is the whole language. It don’t matter none to them.

There are no sounds from outside. Even the usual neighborhood sounds are gone. Are they in some remote place? The décor isn’t rustic. If you live in a rustic place would you automatically have rustic furniture? Harrell tries to calm down and thinks of his survival skills in deep woods; wonders how fast he can run through a thick forest. He thinks of the huge golden orb spider webs that are found in the southern part of the United States.; how they creeped him out when he would run into them in the woods at home when he was younger; wonders if he will run into one in California. Are you still in California?

I’ve seen young men so fast –you wouldn’t believe it. But God ..negated their speed by making them enjoy the thought of fakin’ somebody out so much, that they put the move on their opponent three times more than they needed too. So the effect was as if they was slow. And their team, that shoulda won, lost becuz of that very thing. I seen that a lot.

I seen God be a genius, a guru, through a retarded person. I seen it. And they didn’t even know what they’d said. They just got that smile cause they knew something had happened but they didn’t know what. But they knew it was good by the way every body was looking at them. Then they’d change their mind and cry or take a dump in they pants or somethin’ ‘cause they wanted it to buy them somethin’ from the other people and they couldn’t do it again.

I seen billions of dollars of effort and years worth of sweat ..God sends a hurricane and it be, gone, baby.

I seen things Man can’t admit exists and yet they do exist –all at the same time –man’s lie –them sayin’s? — and the reality that proves them a lie. I seen some wild stuff, let me tell you. Poetic, freakin’ epic stuff.

But until ..I was just like you. Young punk. No direction. No goals. No wisdom. No depth. Then this dude put the move on me ..just like I put it on you. Now this dude, he was righteous. I didn’t know it at the time. He was usin’ them sayin’ against theyselves! I kid you not. I mean a guy like me –back then– was just goin’ through life hopin to hear somethin cool. Maybe wise if I was lucky and could keep m’ mouth shut long enough for somebody to think I was worth it. But this dude. I mean .. to use them sayin’s like radar, to pinpoint the invisible and draw ‘em in ..so you can put the hit on the invisible. That’s it, man. That’s it. That’s righteous, brother.

I’m gonna help you out. Like he helped me out. It won’t hurt. You won’t even remember it for ..a while. And when you do you’ll know you were blessed. Now this dude..

Harrell can hear footsteps. The man hesitates.

Who.. am I to be a part o’ such things? To even see and hear them?

This dude a while back had me kinda like I got you. And he took my head in his hand and ..I thought I was dead. But that dude, with all that power, he had mercy on me. He had all that power to have mercy with, see? To have that much power –a man’s head in your hands — and then to have mercy like that. That’s.. that’s ..mercy. Where do that come from and where do it go?

I been sittin here, while you was out, thinking how I could give it to you without confoundin’ you with it. How to .. ( he moves his hand forward through the air, turning it at the last instant as if sliding something under something else..) …get it in between. See?

Harrell sees the small, flexible video lens slide out from beneath the door, rotate slowly across the room.

There may be thousands of such things. Millions. And it may be I ain’t got but one. But I got that one, see? So the mercy I have I give you. It’s all I got. And that means I’m a good person. ( he laughs.) God gave me somethin’ good to give away. That means I’m a good person. See? ( laughs hysterically and cries at the same time. ) I’m okay! “Cause somebody gave me some o’ that ivory tower shit. I don’t mean shit. I mean .. I shouldn’t talk like that.

You said you know where I live. You said you were gonna come and get me ‘cause I stood up to you young punks. Cause I said no –in public. So I got somethin’ for you. I got the mercy.

The man seizes Harrell by the head in both hands, stands over and looks down in his eyes. Say hello to my little friend. He’s not much: just a saying. But he will freakin’ amaze you at what he can accomplish. You said you know where I live? May you keep knowin’…

The door bursts open and a rifle barrel appears first, followed by men in armor behind clear, bulletproof shields with POLICE in large, white letters across the front.

Police! Step away from him! Step away from him!

He hears the shouting; it is unintelligible to him. Harrell is all eyes and ears on the man and understands nothing but what the man says. ..May you be unable to tell anyone and yet everything be unable to stop tryin’ to get it out of you. For five years, Harrell. You hear me? Fiiive years. There some things you’ll see during that time. Things that..

A shot and the man is falling. As he falls he puts one hand to his lips as if extracting something invisible and winks at Harrell as he turns his hand toward Harrell and opens his fingers wide as if throwing what he extracted from his mouth. When he hits the floor, his eyes are open but he’s gone.

You okay?! You okay, son?

Harrell is breathing slower now. A man with bulging muscles in a black jump suit and body armor that says POLICE in the front and back and wearing a mask is holstering his sidearm, ..taking off the gag: You okay? You hurt? Cut? Shot? Bruised? He is patting Harrell down for signs of blood in what Harrell instantly understands is a pre-fab search pattern in regular probes here and there. They do this all the time. They practice it. This is happening to other people too. People get paid a regular salary just to be prepared to help people out in these types of situations. Other men fan out in the house. The man grabs his head and looks at his eyes; but not within. He give you any drugs?

No. I just ..Hm?

You know this guy? Where he lived?

Wha’?

Where is he now?

Huh?

The guy, where is he?

Uh.. Harrell looks over at the man lying on the floor. He knows, it’s right on the tip of his tongue. He rubs his wrists, scratches his head clumsily and laughs nervously.

It’s okay. We can talk later.

———————————–

Harrell is hustled outside. A cheer goes up from the crowd as he emerges. Cameras rush forward.

Harrell takes it all in: urban neighborhood, emergency vehicles; organized activity going n by the police; reporters; himself the subject of attention; all speaking and understanding a language in which he is ..fluent.

California.

—————————————-

Inside the house, Mike Valis looks down at the corpse. He finds a chair and sits down slowly; stares at the corpse and lets out a long breath.

Jim Barber is coming out of the rear bedrooms: What? It was a good shoot.

Look at him.

Jim squats beside the body, looks at the face. That’s ..

Mike: ..the guy from Afghanistan.

Remind me. What was his deal?

He was running heroin out of Uzbekistan for the Black Muslim Brotherhood. On the border?

R-U six eighty. Three tours ago. Two thousand ..four? three? Somewhere in there..

That’s him. All the way back home..

What was he doing?

You know what he was doing. God changed him. He wanted to help somebody that came at him. Kid’s probably a low level somethin’ or other in the same gang. They told him to do something to this guy to make his name…

You take the shot?

Yeah.

Jim nods; shrugs. Not your fault.

Mike stands up and they walk to the door as forensics come in: No. Not my fault. God did through me what God did through me. That’s how it goes.

You know how I remember that guy? Strange –I don’t remember him that way. I remember that was the same day we got the new interpreter in –that fat chick? She was all proud she could speak six languages, had a masters, Phd .. something like that. You –like it was nothing, pointed to the bodies that were piled up by the road after the mortar attack. “The one with the shoe missing? The only bare foot in the pile? He could do the same thing. Only he did it for the enemy and he wasn’t vain or proud about it. He probably went to college in the States, got some advanced training from Russian FSB, could fire a mortar as good as the best and yet there he is, just like all the rest.” She just stood there, Man. I don’t think we heard a squeak out of her the rest of the time she was with us.

Margaret? From Jersey, Jonestown, something..

That’s her. Wonder what she’s doin’ now?

She had a kid with MS. Husband was sleepin’ around on her while she was in country. I still pray for them. Less and less. Thanks for reminding me.

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Proverbs 22:17-21 Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee: they shall be together fitted on thy lips. That thy confidence may be in Jehovah, I have made them known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things, in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest carry back words of truth to them that send thee?

Pro 22:17-21 Inclina tu oído, y oye las palabras de los sabios, Y pon tu corazón á mi sabiduría: Porque es cosa deleitable, si las guardares en tus entrañas; Y que juntamente sean ordenadas en tus labios. Para que tu confianza sea en Jehová, Te las he hecho saber hoy á ti también. ¿No te he escrito tres veces En consejos y ciencia, Para hacerte saber la certidumbre de las razones verdaderas, Para que puedas responder razones de verdad á los que á ti enviaren?

Hab 2:12 -15 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by unrighteousness! Behold, is it not of Jehovah of hosts that the peoples labour for the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, –that pourest out thy flask, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen