Stampede
Seth Gets Out
Seth made it through his ten days without giving in, and was the first to be released. The daily routine exhausted him, but he gained weight from the prison food. He walked down the steps of the courthouse to Jovel, who started patting his own stomach when he saw Seth.
Jovel chuckled. “Been on vacation Seth? Looks like they fed you well.”
Seth rubbed his belly. “The food is awesome. Everything is for the first seven days. They made me feel like a king when I wasn’t in the chair.”
“Really?” Jovel shrugged his shoulders. “You would have never guessed it from watching TV. It looked horrible.”
“Some parts were. From nine at night until sunrise the Past Finder videos played on the walls and ceiling of my cell. It showed every detail of my sins, and had interviews with those I’ve offended.” Seth swallowed hard. “Those were the darkest and longest ten nights of my life. My heart was never intent on any of those actions, but when you see your life play out… well, over time the past doesn’t look as glorious as it felt in the moment.”
“Ahhh. They tried to turn you on yourself.” Jovel nodded, grinning as if impressed.
Seth laughed. “Yeah. But I guess the one thing the Past Finder can’t do is measure heart. It had no idea I was already my hardest critic. Its software couldn’t pick up how I felt about those experiences once I matured, and it has no indication of my desire to be a better person or worse person. It’s a recorder. It’s soulless… that’s why it wants to control your soul.”
“But a soul under that control would never be free.”
Seth wagged his finger. “Exactly. And that’s one thing that tipped me off to the fact they’re fake. I mean, Christ either forgives or He doesn’t. I’m willing to pay for the sins I’ve failed to repent of… and I’m not just talking about remembering. You have to really have a change of heart, and it is often measured by guilt. But guilt is not the goal. It’s the result of maturation. It doesn’t have to be a sustained guilt. You recognize it and do what you can. The rest is in God’s hands. These guys were trying to scare me into their program, but I didn’t buy it. I knew it would suck real badly if my tapes got aired, but I’m betting Christ gets back before it causes too much chaos. Besides, how much more embarrassed can I be?”
Jovel stared out the window. “Wow. King by day, tortured by your past at night…”
“The king treatment was great until the last three days, when they start to pull back and isolate you. On the last day, after the trial, a hooded guard takes you to a room with a priest. It’s your ‘last chance’ to convert. The prosecutor has you sign a bunch of documents regarding the Past Finder and your testimony, and how you officially deny the presence of God, bla bla bla.”
Jovel cut Seth off. “Oh, hey, some of your old friends saw the tapes and came to camp. A couple others from the city I think. They want to see you too.”
Seth turned to him. “Really? Who?”
Jovel shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I only know one of them is camping by ‘Bus Creek’.”
“Bus Creek? That’s cute.” Seth shook his head, chuckling. “Bus Creek, huh.”
Jovel pulled into the Whistle Punk section of the campground. Seth patted his hand on the dash when he saw Megumi going inside their tent. “You can let me out here. I want to surprise Megumi.”
Seth got out and turned toward the tent, but Jovel called to him. “Hey, Seth… Take these.”
Seth looked back to see Jovel holding a dozen roses. “Ah man! You’re the best Jovel. I mean it.”
He took the flowers and ran up to their tent.
*****
Megumi put clean sheets on the air mattress, using her hand to spread the wrinkles out of the middle. She shivered as a cool breeze came in, but thought nothing of it. Seth's hands gently covered her eyes. A soft voice whispered in her ear. “Tadaima, tadaima.”
Megumi turned to see Seth only inches away. She grabbed him and knocked him on to the mattress. She gasped and squeaked, but didn’t say a thing.
Seth reached over and grabbed the roses. “Here, these are for you.”
Megumi took the roses and waved them in front of her nose before placing them off to the side.
Seth rubbed her back. “Still not talking, huh?”
Megumi grabbed his hand and pulled him close, hugging as tight as she could.
After a moment Seth leaned and kissed her on the forehead. “Hey. I’ll be right back and we can go eat together. Jovel told me I have a visitor, so I better check it out.
Megumi pulled back and frowned, giving Seth room to get up.
He looked at her. “You know who it is?”
She nodded yes.
Seth smiled. “Come on Megumi. After that trial, what could be worse?”
*****
Seth climbed from the tent and walked around to a shadow standing by his truck, rubbing the artificial grass on top of the box. Seth walked over to him. “What’s up?”
The guy turned around with a big smile. “Hey! Long time no see! You guys have a serious camp going on. You have no idea how hard it was for me to convince your protection to let me see you.”
The guy in the shadow reached to shake Seth’s hand, but Seth bent down and retied his shoe. “How many came with you?”
The guy withdrew his hand into the shadow. “Just me and my son.”
“What about…” Seth started to ask.
“We got married.” The guy interrupted.
Seth nodded. “I heard. Where is she?
“With her parents. We both know the Millennium will be here soon, so we’ll wait.”
“And your dad?” Seth stood up.
The shadow started to shake as the guy cried. “Bunkered down on the ranch. The family is going down with the ship.”
Seth looked up into the sky. “It’s a ship they’ve been sailing for generations. Of course they will. That’s why we have the Millennium. Maybe your presence here will lead to reaching them there? I don’t know man? I’m just glad you didn’t stop and stay outside of Sacramento with Pastor Single. I told you that guy’s DVDs were flirting with disaster.”
“No.” The guy took a deep breath. “I kept your notes. We covered them several times. Your one pager nullified an entire forty-page report my granddad wrote.”
Seth nodded to add. “Not to mention the works of White.”
The guy shrugged his shoulders. “She’s still special to me.”
Seth smiled. “I’m sure she is. She is special to everyone over in the SDA camp. You can pitch your tent there.”
“What? You don’t want me here to help? I brought a lot of my tools.”
Seth shook his head no. “Take them to the other side and help your kind.”
“Do you still hold something against me?”
Seth laughed. “Of course I don’t. You wouldn’t be allowed in camp if I did. Our security has a black list, and a brown list. Randy’s crew knew who you were long before you got here. Cruz’s top guys know too. There are some people that will never get this close to my tent.”
“What’s wrong then?”
“Listen man, forgiveness has nothing to do with it. I forgave what bothered me a long time ago. I just never forget, and it was a lesson I’d rather not repeat. If you are here as your heart proclaims, then you can work your way into our community through your own people. Just because I’m glad to see you doesn’t mean I agree or care what you think. We split that path a long time ago.”
The guy pointed down to the water where his son checked out the boat with Andrew. “I’ll go get him and we’ll head around.”
Seth’s compassion won over just a tad. “Hey. My guys will take you across. Just load up on the boat.”
The guy pointed toward the entrance shack. “We brought the Suzuki. It’s on the other side of that hill.”
Seth rubbed his chin. “You can leave it there. I’ll send a runner for your things.”
The guy tossed Seth his keys. “There are two packs in the back. That’s all we’ll need for tonight.”
Seth whistled for a runner and gave him the keys with brief instructions. He turned back to the guy. “Better still, you two should go to the island in the middle. It’s a free zone with no dominating group. If you think Robinson Caruso had a tree house? These guys have had months, and tools! I’m sure they would treasure your skills. I did once.”
The guy looked confused. He didn’t know if he should laugh or be embarrassed. Seth broke the weirdness. “Hey, do you guys still play music?”
“Not really.”
Seth pointed to the screen and gear on the dock. “Well, a few of us are going to play Rock Band tonight. You should be able to hear it clearly from the island.”
The guy shook his head. “Don’t tell me you’re playing video games up here?”
Seth smiled. “It’s more than a video game man. You’ll know by the end of the first song tonight.”
Cruz interrupted. “Sorry Seth, there’s someone at the gate to see you.”
Seth nodded. “Be right there.” He turned back to the guy. “Take your packs and go check out the island tonight. If you guys want you can go to the other side in the morning. I got to go.”
“That’s it?”
“Yup.” Seth called to Andrew. “Take these two to the island, and make sure they get introduced around… and feed them the first servings from the table.”
“Thanks, I guess. We can talk later.”
Seth started to walk toward Cruz, but paused and looked back. “There’s only a few weeks left. You had twenty years. I’m not interested in what could have been. . .” Seth felt his lips tightening, and his fists clenching. He took a deep breath, turned and walked away without looking back.
Cruz stepped in pace with him toward the entry gate. “What was that all about?”
Seth shook his head. “Bad memories, a million dollar mistake, a lot of things. If he knew how I really felt, well I’m sure he never would have come. Secretly though, I’m glad he made it up. We did have some good times in the past.”
On the way to the front entrance Seth rolled his shoulders a few times to shake any remnants of his previous visitor. “So! Who’s here now, and why are people asking for me all a sudden?”
Cruz shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. It must be the airing of your trial. A lot came out man. Anyway, this guy has a wife and several older kids with him. He says you lived near him in Truckee.”
“Didn’t they sign in?”
Cruz shook his head. “They don’t want to stay. They just wanted to see you.”
Seth’s eyes widened and he smiled huge when he saw Davis with his family. “Hey. That guy invested in my company a long time ago. Just before it crashed. I still owe him eighty big ones, plus interest.”
They made eye contact Seth, as he and Cruz worked their way through the crowd.
Seth grabbed Davis’ hand with both of his. “I am so glad to see you guys!”
Davis shrugged. “I didn’t want to come. I said you forgot and didn’t care? My wife said she didn’t see that in you, even back then. She said it just wasn’t time yet.”
Seth looked down to his boots, and blew out his air. “They don’t call it ‘young and dumb’ for nothing.”
Davis responded. “You weren’t dumb. As soon as those fat cats pulled their game contract I knew there was a problem. On that day in our meeting when you asked me to do something, well, I couldn’t. It was your dream, and it died.”
Seth’s face saddened. “It did.”
Davis’ wife added. “The problem was beyond you Seth. You pulled management together and asked them to do something. There’s no shame in that.”
Seth looked at Davis. “I needed help.”
Davis nodded to partially agree. “I already helped you with what I could. But you were the one driving. You were the only one that could have pulled it out. Like we said, the timing wasn’t right.”
Seth looked over how big the kids grew. “What brings you guys here now?”
Davis answered. “We saw your trial. That must have been rough?”
“You have no idea.” Seth shivered, but his shoulders dropped as he confessed. “But every path the prosecutor took me down was with reason. There were many paths I used to sprint toward in ignorance.”
Davis’ wife said. “You were a fool to stay away Seth. Nobody hated you.”
Seth’s tears welled up. “I used to think maybe if I would have had some real engineers? But I didn’t. I couldn’t. I hit a wall that I couldn’t get over. I failed. I fell flat on my face.”
Davis said. “Everyone does. The bigger the hill, the bigger the fall. You’re a skier. You should know that.”
Seth looked up in the sky. “Life would have been so different… We were ahead of our time in design and artistic qualities. Even you saw it enough to lose eighty grand.”
Davis placed his hand on Seth’s shoulder. “I didn’t lose it. I invested.”
Seth shook his head. “No sir. Taking a write off doesn’t take away from the fact you earned it first, and trusted me with it second.”
“No it doesn’t. But what if you did make it back then? Your heart was in the right place, but you were totally gung ho for your church. You guys even had offices in the same building as the pastor. See how smooth Satan orchestrates the distractions? Didn’t you think everything was a little too storybook? Didn’t they have hundreds of acres from a donation? Look around you Seth. Their land is still empty. Just sitting there. You are here. Everyone is here. It is happening and now the timing is right.”
Seth realized what Davis said. “Wow. You’re right. We might be living large on the hill, and all those families would be with us. We would probably have made the biggest rapture seeking church retreat in the world. We would have had a tongues camp… I have to admit, it would be a camp for a different team than the one I’m with now. Man, was I dancing with the devil in a pale moonlight or what?”
“Well, here we are today.” Davis’ wife pointed at a couple of box vans working their way through the crowd. “These are packed tight as they can be. The first one has medical and first aid supplies. The second one has canned goods, and the third one has pastas and rice.”
Seth’s eye’s started to well up. “How can I take anything from you?”
Davis smiled. “We gave a portion the first time we met. We saw the timing was off, so we pulled back. When you started camping most people still were in doubt. A lot has happened in the last few months. The Two Witnesses cut right to the chase, and made it obvious this is the time. These three box vans are for this campground, and four more sets of vans are spreading around the lake.”
Tears ran down Seth’s face. “That’s five total. The number of grace.” He tried to regain his composure. “I hope I can build some houses with you in the eternity. I’ve been working on my skills for the past ten years or so.”
Davis laughed. “Sure. If my original eighty grand gets counted as a tithe?”
They both laughed. Davis’ wife smacked him on the arm. “That’s not funny.”
Davis replied. “Yes it is.”
She started to chuckle, but it didn’t last long. “We have to get back home. There are several family members and a few friends staying with us.”
Seth reached to shake hands. “I would love to see you again.”
Davis shook his hand. “Let’s get together next week at our home for dinner. You remember where it is, right?”
“You bet I do. I drive by Bear Meadows every time I come up.”
They waved goodbye, Seth turned to Cruz, drained of his emotions. “Let’s go. I need to rest up a bit.”
Cruz patted Seth on the back. “There are still two more people waiting to see you.”
They started walking. “Tonight? Who? From where?”
Cruz shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. People started to show up about the sixth day of your trial, I think. There’s a guy from the city. He says you used to pound nails together. There’s also someone from down south.”
Jovel walked up. “And don’t forget that guy with a girl.”
“You know how many people that could be?” Seth sighed. “Find out their preferences and send them to their groups.”
Jovel tapped his clipboard with a pencil. “Everyone’s checked in and into their camp already.”
Seth ran his fingers through his hair. “We’re good then.”
Jovel asked. “No meeting?”
Seth paused. “Maybe later?”
After dinner Seth told Andrew to round up the band. They came down to the dock where Seth paced back and forth. “Everything is on.”
Seth handed Jovel and Cruz their guitars. “You guys are already logged in. Tonight we’re starting with 'Dead On Arrival', by Fallout Boy.”
Cruz strapped on his guitar and looked over to Jovel. They did an air guitar move while Seth adjusted himself behind the drums. The Bud Break Band played fifteen songs before calling it a night.