The Jehovah Contract

'Yeah?'

'I guess my point is that-with every other man-I have to exert a lot of mental power to hold their attention. That's one reason I put so much effort into my clothes and makeup.'

'You certainly catch

my

eye, sister.' It was obvious she was heading toward a point. I let her take her own route.

'That's the point,' she said. Bingo for me. 'I don't have to do anything. You

see

me.'

She stood up with what the poets call 'feline grace'-a lovely flowing motion. For an exhausted person, she stored an astonishing reserve of energy.

'You can see me because you are the man who doesn't believe lies.'

I snorted. That was a laugh. 'Tell that to the Reverend Zacharias.'

She dismissed the gag with a flip of her hand. 'You don't believe lies, and you seek to uncover the truth. You don't take the easy way out if it involves belief in things false.'

'`What is truth?'' I asked, mostly to show her I'd been doing my reading. 'Look where it's taken me-to a life of murder. That's the truth for you.' I closed the book to gaze at her. I felt tired. 'How's this for a lie-telling myself that the world is wrong and that the generals and kings and politicians I killed were evil men who deserved to die. Have I made the world any better?'

Her earth-red nails tapped at the tabletop. 'I seem to recall asking you a similar question a few weeks ago. You've apparently changed your mind. You told me you only killed tyrants.'

'Everyone else called them `leaders.' It'd be pretty presumptuous of me to put my opinion above everyone else's.'

'Stop playing devil's advocate, Dell.'

My laughter echoed through the library. It took me awhile to calm down. All of three seconds.

She hit me with that gaze of hers.

'I don't really care what you

think

you believe. Do you know what it's like being unable to hold a man's full attention for more than a few moments? The closer he gets, the harder I have to concentrate. Usually the effort is too taxing, and he snaps away. He stands there wondering where he is and what he's doing there.'

'Must make shopping difficult.'

She didn't even hear me.

'I don't know,' she said. 'Maybe I just didn't want any of them.'

'But we want each other.' I figured it was my place to state the obvious. They must have been the magic words, because she suddenly fell silent and gazed dreamily at me with those piercingly blue eyes.

'And I wasn't even trying,' she murmured. 'You truly want me?'

I nodded.

'Then,' she said with a luscious smile, 'take me.'

I looked around me. 'Here?'

'Of course not,' she said, reaching to take my hand. 'In the philosophy section!'

She was the sea; I, a mighty rider sailing upon the crests of her waves. She moaned like the wind through hidden forests; I bent like a tree beneath her. She burned-a fiery essence; I was consumed utterly. She covered me like soft, warm earth; I lay buried in ecstasy.