the jiggle made the chair squeak like a captured rodent.
“Oh,” Porter said getting up. His short hair fell like the fur of a long-haired dachshund after hanging upside down. “I’m a research assistant.”
“I know plenty of research assistants without offices,” she said, measuring him with her eyes. He looked tall, but that may have been due to his thin bone structure. His face also looked thin and awfully plain. There was nothing attractive about him, but nothing unattractive at the same time. Well…his hair did look soft, but it caused no emotional stir. If only he could clean up his attitude.
Porter smiled again and sighed. “It’s who you know in the world that counts, they say.”
“Yes, but who is they?”
“The cause of all good and bad; the blamed in every society,” Porter said as she smiled. He stood and gave her his hand. “John D. Porter.”
She took his hand without getting up. “What does the D stand for?”
“Desirable,” he said, sitting down.
“I guess you…already know who I am.”
“Erma Alred. No middle name. Been with us at Stratford for…five semesters now? And you’re in the same position I am in.”
“What position would that be?” said Alred.
“The desperate need for a dissertation, of course,” his smile faded slightly.
“If I understand things correctly, the D in your name deserves the word desperate far more than I do.”
He scratched his head with one abrupt movement, focusing his eyes on his desk. John Desperate Porter. Why did that have such a natural ring to it?
“Why aren’t you married?” she asked suddenly.
“Why do I get the feeling everyone’s asking me that?”
“I thought Mormons were supposed to wed and have lots of little kiddies like the Catholics,” she said matter-of-factly.
“You know I’m Mormon.”
“It sounds like we know a lot about each other.”
He smiled at her. “And still so very little.” She watched him examine her medium-length auburn hair, green eyes, and fair, unfreckled skin.
“Just enough to get the job done,” she said.
“What?”
She tilted her head. “Mind wandering, Mr. Porter?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You have green eyes.”
“You always this perceptive?”
“Lived in Japan for a few years. Green eyes are highly praised there. If you were half Japanese and kept the eyes, you could make it big in the Nippon entertainment industry.”
“That’s good to know in case this dissertation ruins me.”
“You don’t want to do this?” Porter questioned as her eyes wandered down and over the papers throttling her chair.
From the floor, she lifted a thick pad of pages bound by one heavy paper clip and said, “Frankly, I was hoping to do a dissertation on early Athapaskin settlements.”
“Who are they?”
“The Athapaskins?” She looked up at him, her eyes wide and wondering if he was joking. “The ancestors of…many North American Indian tribes. Tell me, how is it that you are leading a study on an ancient Mesoamerican find without knowing the rudiments of American archaeology?”
“Just lucky I guess,” he said. “You already know I have religious interest in Mesoamerican history.”
“Yes, but I hardly believe someone’s religion validates a worthy academic assessment of an area outside one’s expertise.” She looked down and dragged her eyes over the paper in her hands. “This is written in Spanish. What is it?”
“Nothing you’d be interested in. Solid evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. It’s an ancient Indian history compiled by a Aztec prince.”
“Ixtlilxochitl?” she said, trying to find the first page-an impossible task.
Porter waved his head in what might have been a nod. “Seems his curiosity about the white, bearded god revealed some finds so disturbing that after the book was shipped to Spain, it got buried in the archives of a church until only recently. Of course, now that it has been so long since the original writing, scholars can say the man made the entire thing up based on his own religious system. But it does back up facts already in our grasp.”
“The white, bearded god,” Alred said. “And who would that be?”
“Don’t you know?” Porter said, glowing with his quirky smile.
She waited a few seconds before answering, her eyes examining the titles of stapled articles and worn books ganging up on her chair. She saw the words, “The Canaanite Text from Brazil” by Cyrus H. Gordon and “Who Discovered America First” by William F. Dankenbring. Some of the words leapt at her in Germanic, Arabic, and other languages that left her feeling like she didn’t belong in this office.
Looking again at Porter, she said, “Mormons believe Quetzalcoatl, Kukalkan, Tohil, or whatever one might call him…is none other than Jesus Christ, don’t they?”
Porter’s face didn’t change. “Some do.”
“Don’t you know Quetzalquatl was represented by a feathered serpent? The serpent in Bible stories represents the Devil, if I understand the symbolism correctly. How do you get Jesus in there.” She put the document back from where she’d snatched it, sorry she’d picked it up.
“You’re forgetting the caduceus,” Porter said, leaning back in his small chair. He crossed his arms and looked completely at ease.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The symbol of the medical profession?” he said. “Two serpents wrapping around a pole with wings? It was the staff of the Greek god Hermes.”
“I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t see how that has anything to do with Quetzalquatl or the Devil.”
“It is quite arguable that the caduceus is also based on an often forgotten Biblical story found in the book of Numbers,” said Porter.
Alred pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows.
“While the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness after Moses freed them from Egypt, the Torah states that they encountered ha-nechashim ha-seraphim, fiery or poisonous snakes.”
“Torah,” said Alred, “I thought you said this was in the book of Numbers.”
Porter nodded, shutting his eyes momentarily at her biblical ignorance. “Many were bitten by the serpents and needed serious medical attention, death being the alternative. Moses constructed a pole with a serpent made of brass on the top of it. He told the dying all they needed to do was look at the brass serpent, and they’d be healed.”
“That’s it?” Alred said, disappointed.
Shaking his head, Porter said, “But too many of the afflicted children of Israel wouldn’t believe they could be healed that easily…even after all the miracles preceding the experience. Some looked up, following the admonition, and were healed.
“Now the snake Moses made obviously didn’t represent the Devil. On the contrary, both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles recount the sins of the children of Israel in worshipping the pole with the bronze serpent, many years latter.
“Now, Christians compare the brass serpent, which was ‘lifted up,’ to Jesus Christ, who was put up in like manner, and forever after all followers of Jesus have professed to the world that all anyone need do is look to the man on the cross…and live.”
Alred squinted her eyes. “So you’re saying the serpent on the pole of Moses was Jesus, who is also Quetzalcoatl.” Doubt laced her tone.
“Can’t you see why some people would make the connection?” said Porter.
After swabbing the inside of her dry mouth with her tongue, Alred said, “I once had a grammar school
