But you’re all they have, she reminded herself. This has to start somewhere. She just hoped she didn’t bungle things so badly that no one would listen. God, You may really regret not giving me some help with this.
“During these seven years,” Megan said as confidently as she could, “the people who have been left behind are going to see miracles come to pass. As these things happen, I feel that more and more people will turn to their Bibles to seek answers for what they’re supposed to do. They’re going to see for themselves, and they’re going to discover the same answers I’m bringing to you today. But only if other people point the way.”
“And that’s what you’re doing?” Devon asked. “Pointing the way? So you’re like what? A pathfinder to Jesus?”
Megan kept from reacting to the young girl’s challenging tone through sheer effort. She kept her voice normal. “That’s what I’m trying to do, Devon.”
“Who pointed the way for you?” Juan Rodriguez asked from the back corner. He was tall and athletic, a senior in high school and a crush for most of the girls on post. He leaned forward as if interested. “I mean, did you like get a vision or something?” His accent was faint, more put on than natural.
“No,” Megan answered, turning to face him, “I didn’t get a vision.”
“God talk to you through a burning bush or something?”
“No.”
“Maybe He talked to you through the Internet. A Web page or something.”
A few of the kids laughed.
“No,” Megan said. She struggled to think of how to bring the discussion back to the subject in the correct manner. The last thing she wanted to do was step into the disciplinarian role. She suddenly realized she was dealing with her emotions for a change. Her insecurities, her lack of knowledge, and her fears were on display now instead of those of the teens. She felt incredibly vulnerable and uncertain standing in front of them.
But she had come too far, said too much even in five minutes to back away now.
Juan shook his head. “I thought all of God’s prophets talked to Him in some special way.”
“God hasn’t talked to me,” Megan said.
“Then how are you so sure that the world is going to end in seven years?” Geri Krauser demanded. Like Devon, Geri was pretty and popular, but she tended more toward the geeks and the freaks than the preppies. She wore her hair in a punky spike and had piercings through her nose and eyebrows. She also maintained a 4.0 average and had scholarship offers from seven colleges at last count.
“Because I read the book I’ve handed some of you today,” Megan answered. She’d gone to the PX and found twelve copies of the book she and Jenny had read and liked so much.
Juan peered over the shoulder of the young blonde in front of him. Kristi Coker looked a little perturbed at Juan’s actions, but she let him take the book. Kristi had been a close call for Megan, and she’d added the girl to the class at the last minute. She was bright and articulate, but not much of a people pusher, which was what Megan felt she needed to have to get the word out.
“And this book says the world’s going to end in seven years?” Juan asked, flipping through the pages. “So, what? It’s got a date in here somewhere?”
Megan got a stranglehold on her anger just in time. She was beginning to feel that she was back in Major Trimble’s office. “The book doesn’t give a date,” Megan replied.
“Then how do you know it’s seven years?”
“Because the book shows that the Bible says the world will end seven years after the Rapture.”
Juan shook his head. “I’m Catholic, Mrs. Gander. My church doesn’t believe in the Rapture.” With obvious disdain, he dropped the book back on Kristi’s desk and leaned back in his seat. “I don’t believe in the Rapture.”
Megan took two steps toward Juan although she never moved her presence from the front of the room. It was all body language again, an effort on her part to narrow the room down and focus it all on Juan and her. For the moment it was a contest of wills. All she had to do was pull the belief and support in the room in her direction.
“What do you think happened to all the people who disappeared?” Megan asked.
“I don’t know,” Juan said. “I know I don’t believe that God just scooped them up and took them off to heaven in the twinkling of an eye.”
“So which is it then?” Megan pressed. “Aliens or some secret superweapon?”
Juan shrugged.
“And if it’s either of those,” Megan went on, “why haven’t we heard from the aliens again? Why hasn’t the superweapon been discovered or used again?”
Holding a hand up to fend Megan off, Juan said, “You know, I got out of bed to come here because I thought you might have something I wanted to hear. But now you’re talking about the Rapture, the Second Coming, and all this mumbo jumbo that I’m not going to buy. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, Mrs. G, but I don’t see how listening to you is going to help me.”
Several other teens agreed.
“Actually, there’s a new theory going around,” Shawn Henderson said. He was a gamer and a computer junkie, brilliant but barely making passing grades because he refused to apply himself to schoolwork. He often knew more than the teachers who taught computer science and mathematics.
Everyone in the room turned to look at him.
“I was watching the news,” Shawn said. “Anybody seen the new Romanian president who’s got everybody talking?”
“Carpathia,” Kyle Lonigan said. Like Shawn, Kyle was a gamer, but he was also
