Chapter Two: Predictions

 ~/*\~ Nomi ~/*\~

The world had its dangers. It had ever since Cain had struck down Abel. Nomi had heard every possible variation on that story in her life, and while most everyone agreed that Cain was treated unfairly by a God that hadn't really been heard from since, nobody could deny it was the dawn of physical violence.

There had been many more incidents in the generations since then, and the women were more aware of it than most. Some took advantage, playing one foolish man against another to win favor. Others had been swallowed by fear, convinced that the world was nothing but hurt and pain.

Most had learned to take sensible precautions, and even find a degree of happiness in doing so. As a result, when the women went to the river to wash themselves and their clothes, they usually went together, making an afternoon of it. For a lot of them, it was the only time they spent with their friends and not their family.

They had found a beautiful spot, away from dirt and mud. The river ran from a cleft in the rock face, and that meant plenty of smooth stones to rest upon, rather than traipsing through mud in an effort to get clean. The reeds were thick and grew tall enough to ensure their privacy.

Today, however, Nomi couldn't enjoy herself. Her visit from Kainan hadn't gone unnoticed, and everyone was speculating what that might mean. Most of them assumed Kainan was making a move towards Nomi. She refused to tell them anything, which just caused the gossip to turn more pointed, even cutting.

Nomi had washed briskly, and bid them goodbye, the sound of their laughter chasing her through the reeds.

~/*\~

Walking alone, away from the village, was always a risk. Nomi kept her ears open for other people, though her brain was roiling. Those women had been her friends. How could they be so… scandalous towards her?

She followed the river for a while, when she heard the sound of whistling. Someone was just around the river bend, whistling a tune to themselves. Nomi hesitated, not wanting to be spotted, but it was still the fastest way home, so she crept up on the turn slowly. Her eyes automatically scanned for sharp stones, or pointed sticks; anything she might need to defend herself with.

When she came around the turn and saw Shem collecting reeds, she automatically relaxed. Her mother had deemed him a troublemaker from a family of troublemakers, but somehow, she felt sure he wasn't a threat. Shem was in another clump of reeds, collecting the stalks. They would be good for weaving a container, or kindling a fire. "I can hear you. Don't be afraid." He called without looking in her direction.

Nomi obeyed automatically. 'Hello, again."

He recognized her, and if she hadn't been watching closely, she might have missed the way his eyes flit about, looking for her mother, or Kainan. "Good day."

Nomi knew he was looking for a third party; but if he feared attack or was waiting for someone who could prevent misunderstandings or gossip, she wasn't sure. She took a breath. "We weren't introduced. My name is Nomi, daughter of Nuria."

He nodded. "My name is Shem, son of Noah."

Nomi hadn't realized she'd been thinking about it, but the next words came so easily that it had to have been on her mind. "I cannot stay long, but I wanted to apologize for the way you were treated, last time we met. I think that my mother wanted to show support to Kainan in some way."

Shem actually chuckled. "I was not offended. My family has heard far worse."

"So I've heard." Nomi nodded. "But I was impressed at the way you handled the 'accusations'. No small number of men would have become violent, even with Kainan there. You showed a remarkable calm."

"It didn't seem like a fight worth fighting." Shem conceded, returning to the reeds. "My father wouldn't approve of escalating such things."

"I will admit, I don't know much about your family." Nomi confessed. "Or about the…" She tried to phrase it diplomatically. "The issue between your family and the rest of us."

"Us?" Shem smirked. "You don't know what the problem is, but you've picked a side?"

"Well, my mother's picked a side. And with my father gone…"

"I knew your father only a little." Shem said respectfully. "I was young then, but what I know of him was good. He was a father to be proud of. If it's not too late to say so, I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you." Nomi said quietly.

~/*\~ Eleanor ~/*\~

Eleanor stood at the street corner, looking towards the coffee cart. The Literature Cart was there too, and Martine was sitting next to it, as always. Eleanor had walked past them every week without even giving a second look.

But this time was different. This time, one of the 'holy rollers' had noticed her. They were sure to pounce when she passed. So instead of walking past the Cart, Eleanor crossed the street. The library was close enough to the middle of town that there was always foot traffic, and she made her way around the block, to approach the plaza, and the coffee kiosk from the opposite side.

As Eleanor made her order, she wondered idly if she was overthinking it. She'd just increased her walk by five minutes to avoid making eye contact with someone who had been nice to her more than a week before.

While her coffee was brewed, she looked back at the Cart, despite herself. Now that she had thought it, she noticed that almost everyone was avoiding eye contact with Martine and her partner. None of them were being rude about it, but everyone walking along that strip of footpath suddenly had to check their phone, or look at their watch, or found something fascinating to glance at across the street.

Eleanor understood the instinct. Making eye contact was practically an invitation to be spoken to, and politeness meant you'd have to answer them. Who had time for that? Even so, it seemed odd that so many would react that way.

Like me. Eleanor thought to herself pointedly.

Her coffee was prepared, and she paid for it. She turned back the way she had come when she noticed Martine was handing a man a pamphlet. He nodded agreeably, thanked them politely, and then walked another fifteen feet up the road… before he scrunched the pamphlet into a messy ball with one hand and threw it aside. All this was done swiftly and without hesitation.

He hadn't even thrown it in a bin. The wind blew the paper up the street towards Eleanor, who sighed and snatched it up, fully intending to throw it away herself.

Even so, she looked at it, and the question written on the front in big block letters: Will Suffering Ever End?

It was more or less the same question she asked every day as she started and finished her shift at the Shelter.

Eleanor took it to the nearest trashcan, held the pamphlet out to drop…

… and stopped. She knew she should just throw it away, but for some reason, she didn't. For some reason, she carried it back to the Cart, and held it out to Martine.

Martine was more amused than surprised. "Oh, sorry. I've already got a dozen of those."

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "That guy you gave this to a few minutes ago? He tossed it the second he got out of your sight."

"He's probably not the only one." Martine admitted. "I was talking to people in the park once, handing some of these out. And after about an hour, I got run out of the park for 'littering'. The beat cop had seen three or four of them in the gutter, and figured we were the source."

Eleanor was still holding it out. "Well, you can have this one back. Waste not, want not."

"You can keep it yourself, if you like." Martine's partner said with a smile.

"Miss Eleanor considers herself too jaded to be fooled by a bunch of happy platitudes." Martine said primly. "Even though there isn't a word in that tract that didn't come straight from scripture."

"Scriptures are the original platitudes." Eleanor shot back, then kicked herself. "I'm sorry. I… I promised myself that I wouldn't be so short with you after last time."

"You're a cult!" A middle-aged man said as he walked past the cart. "Every single one of you is a brain-dead lunatic. You're all quite mad, and you should be illegal!" This was said with a bright and cheerful tone, as though he was talking about a sunny day. He didn't even slow down his stride as he walked past.

Martine barely blinked, and immediately turned back to Eleanor. "Well, I'm not sure what happened last time to make you feel guilty, but I assure you there's no… Eleanor?"

Eleanor was scowling after the man, pulling out her phone, and snapping a picture of his face before he got too far away.

"What are you doing?" Martine asked her sharply.

"Making sure everyone I know is warned about that guy." Martine said. "I work at a homeless shelter. Believe me, I've seen guys like him go out of his way to spit on the less fortunate and laugh at their pain. People who are cruel for fun. There are a bunch of us who keep a list."

"A list of what?"

"People we need to keep away from our charges." Eleanor said plainly. "Nothing elaborate, just a mailing list for people like me."

"An enemies list?"

"More of a watch list." Eleanor nodded with a slight grin. "Gotta look out for each other, if nobody else will."

"So if someone on your list came by right now, what would you do?" Martine asked.

"If they came by? Nothing. If they stopped to ask for directions, I might point them the wrong way." She smirked. "Sometimes Karma needs a little help."

"Must be nice, seeing cruel people get their just desserts." Martine commented casually.

"It doesn't suck." Eleanor nodded.

"Might even be a little fun, seeing them suffer." Martine added brightly. "A wrong direction here and there, maybe making them pay the extra eight cents for coffee if they don't have it…"

Eleanor was about to nod, automatically, when she got the point. "Oh. Touché."

Martine chuckled. "Trying to do good in the world is a little like a 'search and rescue'. A hundred people go out looking for someone. One of them finds the guy. Do the other ninety-nine say it was a waste of time and effort, since they haven't found anyone?" She gestured at the crumpled pamphlet, still in Eleanor's hand. "We have some good conversations on the Cart. People take little things like that. Usually, we just get noticed. We never know what that might lead to, and the next step usually happens with someone else; but we're all part of the same team."

"That how you handle it?" Eleanor gestured after the guy who had jeered at them. "You figure someone else will settle the score? God, maybe?"

Martine scoffed. "We get hecklers like that every time we sit next to one of these carts. One or two of them, I see again. At the shops, lining up at the bank… You know something interesting? Not one of them has recognized me again. When they come along to sneer at us, they don't even see me; they see the Cart." She held up her Bible a bit. "Their problem has nothing to do with me. They don't even know my name. Their problem is with the message, not the messenger."

"So it's hard for you to be offended."

"I am offended. I'm also not surprised." Martine explained. "At all."

Eleanor hesitated, and put the pamphlet in her pocket at last. She couldn't keep holding it like an idiot. "I… I promised myself I was going to be nicer to you, so please don't take this the wrong way: But if God had a problem with the way you're being treated, He could just… stop it." She couldn't help the next part. "In fact, if I was God for a day, I'd look at all the people in my Shelter, all the world's homeless and hungry… And I would stop it." She shrugged. "I would just make it stop. Wouldn't you? So why hasn't God?"

"2nd Peter 3:9." Martine already had the Bible open again. "Jehovah is not slow concerning his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance."

"I find it hard to believe that people like that moron are worth it. Like the reason you're not stopping starvation of billions is so hecklers like that can learn the error of their ways first?"

"Guys like him? Maybe. Maybe not. What about people like you?" Martine pushed back. "Jesus was described as being 'moved with pity' when he saw the crowds, for they were 'sheep without a shepherd'. He saw people like that guy as lost souls, and he wanted to help." She glanced back at her partner, over closer to the Cart. "People like us as well."

"Ahh, there it is." Eleanor sighed. "Only the 'righteous' will be saved." She slugged back the last of her coffee. "I've seen that movie too."

"So you're fine with a mailing list, telling you who the rotten people are so you can punish them; but you don't like the idea of someone who can't possibly make a mistake doing it to save the whole world?" Martine guessed.

"You don't think it's just a little arrogant?" Eleanor pushed. "Thinking you're the only ones who would be there?"

"We're the only ones who think it's coming at all." Martine returned easily. "If we're right, isn't it arrogance to think it won't happen?"

"I don't know. If God's meant to be loving, then why would He do it at all?" Eleanor gestured in the direction of the heckler, now long gone. "Doesn't He love that guy too?"

"You said it yourself: If you were God for a day, you'd make this world stop." Martine offered.

Eleanor crushed her paper coffee cup. "I did, didn't I?" She rose, but turned to make one last point, somehow committed now. "I don't mean to be insulting. Especially after that guy, and especially considering I wasn't all that better last time we spoke. But the way I figure it, you don't see faith healers in hospitals for the same reason you don't see fortune tellers winning the lottery. If there was anything in your holy books about the future, you guys would own the world. If you could prove to me that your Religion could predict the future in some way, I'd pay attention. But you can't. You can point to world events and say 'see?', but you can't show me how you could predict them. The 'Last Days' thing? Yeah, I saw that, but-"

"Oh, so you did look at the website, then?"

"-But, you can say that about any point in human history." Eleanor blew right past that. "Like Nostradamus. You can make the words fit anything in the paper. Show me one modern example of a time when your Religion knew something was coming before anyone else, and I'll start paying attention in a hurry."

"We already have." Martine countered.

Eleanor froze. "When?"

"The First World War."

~/*\~

Martine's Cart had been set up across the street from the local Library. Eleanor made her goodbyes as fast as politeness allowed, and made her way back to the Shelter for the rest of her shift. When her shift was over, she returned to the Library. The Cart wasn't there anymore; apparently done for the day too.

Eleanor went to the records room, and began looking for old newspapers. Martine had given her some clues on what to look for, and she made several keyword searches.

Searching for pretty much any religion on the internet was just looking for horror stories, and this was no exception. But eventually, she gave up on the internet and looked through old periodicals directly. Even some of the early Watchtower Magazines were available, in digitized format.

But after an hour or two, she was able to find confirmation. The 'Bible Students Association' were indeed preaching at the turn of the century, warning that 1914 was going to be a significant year in world history. There were even pictures of the preachers, wearing sandwich boards that proclaimed 'Religion is a Snare and a Racket'.

It almost made Eleanor laugh. That was almost exactly the accusation that had been thrown at the Witnesses on the Cart. No wonder Martine wasn't offended.

"We don't often get people in at this hour except for overworked college students." The Librarian asked warmly. "You finding everything you need?"

"Not sure." Eleanor admitted. I'm looking for… I don't know. An answer. I can find some of the facts, but I'm not sure if that's the same thing, given that I don't know…" She waved a hand back and forth. "I'm not sure what the question should be, exactly."

"Interesting problem."

Eleanor bit her lip. "Alright, let's try this for a topic: How significant in world history was the First World War?"

"I would say it's extremely significant." The Librarian admitted. "Library Sciences was my major, but World History was my minor. History is a hobby of mine." He immediately turned to the bookshelves and started scanning the titles. "The War was a direct trigger for the Great Depression; which put whole countries on breadlines. It's also considered a major factor in the outbreak of the Spanish Influenza. To say nothing of massively upgrading an arms race and wiping out nearly a whole generation of people directly. The Second World War was effectively a result of how the first one ended; and that led to an even bigger body count, and the Cold War."

Eleanor was hearing this, and felt cold inside for some reason. "War, famine, pestilence, and death?"

The Librarian laughed. "Yes, I suppose so."

"Well, that supplies an answer, if the question is what I think it is." Eleanor admitted, gathering her things. "I'm just not sure it helps me to make a decision at all."

The Librarian chuckled. "You sure you're not a college student?"

~/*\~

Eleanor's first job had been as a Research Assistant. Study skills had been her entire job description. Though she hadn't worked since marrying Del, she still had the skills. The internet had all the information, but to get the pertinent facts, instead of opinions, you needed to be fluent in what questions to ask, and where to ask them. She had mostly gone back about her day, but every now and then, a new question occurred, and she did another search.

After a week, she ran into Martine again, back at her post with the Cart full of literature.

"I was in the library a week ago, looking up your history, and such." Eleanor said to Martine as she gestured at the Cart. "I found pictures of your people preaching in the streets a hundred years ago. You're still doing that."

"In almost every part of the world, in a thousand languages." Martine said with pride. "Millions of people, spending a billion man-hours a year. It's never been done before. Not once, in all human history."

Eleanor groaned, rubbing her forehead. "I just… I'm not willing to throw away my reason on this subject. The Bible thumpers who come by the Shelter sometimes? They say that it's not about church, but about having a relationship with God. My husband says atheism isn't about intolerance, just about having a relationship with common sense."

"And which am I lacking?" Martine countered. "I've studied the Bible most of my life, and I find it worth listening to. Do I lack common sense?"

Eleanor winced. "Not that I've noticed. But I don't know if I can..."

"Can what? Learn more? Consider an idea without accepting it?" Martine pushed. "Look, a few weeks ago, I read you a verse from the Bible, and we talked about it for a couple of minutes. That conversation led you to do some research, and learn a little more. That's all this is. What you do with what you learn is up to you. Sooner or later, you'll have a question I can't answer, and I'll do some research of my own, and then we can talk about that."

Eleanor almost smiled a bit. "Well, that doesn't sound so tough, I admit."

Martine smiled. "Eleanor, why do you keep coming back? I paid the difference of eight cents to a Barista. You aren't here because you owe me anything."

"No." Eleanor admitted. "I have a pretty comfortable life. I married a man that loves me, and doesn't have a harsh bone in his body. I've never been one for luxury, and we can support ourselves enough that I was happy to fill in some of my days with volunteer work, helping less fortunate ones. I'm not a fool: I've got it better than most, and we're planning to start a family. It should be a happy life."

"But you are not happy." Martine guessed.

"Don't mistake me, I'm very grateful for what I have. The problem was long before my life got started..." Eleanor nodded. "I had thought that maybe I needed to give something back, put a few miles on my soul. It's why I started working at the Shelter. And it helped. For a while, it was something to be proud of… But then it just seemed like it was almost the problem."

"The problem?"

"No matter how much I tried to help, there would always be more and more and more people in need." Eleanor shook her head. "I feel like I'm pushing back an avalanche with a broom. And I know it's not on me to end homelessness, but they just keep coming, and…"

"And the avalanche is getting you down."

Eleanor nodded. "I'm starting to forget that there's anything but the avalanche. And it's not even the biggest one crushing the world." She waved a hand out at the rest of the world in general. "If the avalanche never stops, then what hope is there for anything?"

Martine smiled. "The last time we spoke, we discussed prophecy. We talked about the future. You found that one prophecy came true. Would you like to know about some others?"

"How many are there?"

"Depending on who you ask, close to a third of the entire Bible is prophetic passages." Martine said seriously. "The only ones that didn't come true with total accuracy? The ones still in our future."

Eleanor blinked. "I-I didn't know that."

Martine nodded. "The thing about the future is that it's always getting closer to being the present. So if you had a book with, literally, hundreds of pages of accurate predictions already proven, wouldn't you want to know more about the rest?"

Eleanor hesitated.

"All I'm offering is conversation. You don't have to agree. You don't have to tell me what you think." Martine said gently. "That's all it was for me. After a while, I wanted to be more involved, because I loved what I was learning. I've had four Bible studies in my life. Three have elected to go no further, one decided to get involved, and share what she'd learned with others."

Eleanor was already nodding, even without noticing it. "Is it really so much better than… I mean, when I know what's in your book, does it really change things? I still have to deal with the avalanche, don't I?"

Martine smiled brilliantly.

~/*\~

That evening at home, Eleanor was reading the book Martine had given her. It would have been rude not to at least look. The contents page was a list of questions. Really deep questions. The kind that she usually handled by resolutely not thinking about them.

She really should have thrown the book away, but she had to at least make some kind of response, right? Intellectually, she knew that Martine wasn't expecting any kind of commitment. Nobody would be checking up on whether or not she was reading this little book.

Even so, the contents page had her thinking.

"Coffee. I need coffee." She decided, setting the book down. "Big questions need coffee."

By the time she had returned from the kitchen, she found that Del had come home from work. He hung up his jacket. "Hey, babe." He came over to give her a kiss, and noticed. "Ugh. They came by here?" Del commented, plucking up the book from the side table. "You should never take anything from those people, Ellie. It only encourages them to come back."

Eleanor took a few seconds to rehearse her response, but her husband had already tossed the book into the nearest bin without blinking, the same way he would have done for any junk mail.

Eleanor said nothing for several moments. Del had been… dismissive. She'd never heard that from him before. She wasn't sure she approved of that. He wasn't angry. She'd never found anything that made him angry. And even so, she knew he'd never act or speak in anger towards her in any way. He'd never use her to hurt another. Not like her parents did.

Even so, Eleanor made no move towards retrieving the book. "I should take the garbage out." She said, plucking up the whole bin.

~/*\~

"Eleanor?"

Eleanor slid the book under her napkin quickly. Only then did she look up and see Elizabeth. "Hi. Sorry, I was…" She cleared her throat and took the book out of its hiding place awkwardly.

Elizabeth recognized the book with a smile. "I didn't know you were studying our stuff."

"I'm not." Eleanor promised. "But I've spoken with Martine a couple of times. You know her, right?"

"Oh sure. She's in my Congregation. You met her on the Carts?" Elizabeth nodded. "Any… conclusions?"

"I've only had this thing since yesterday." Eleanor demurred. "It's… I get the feeling that Del doesn't like it."

"Yes, you can't have any religion in the house." Elizabeth quipped. "That's dangerous and catching."

Eleanor chuckled, despite herself. "I know. Sounds crazy, but that's the feeling. Some things you just don't bring up around the dinner table. Religion and politics top the list." She gestured at her bagel. "Seriously, if I talked religion with my waitress, what are the odds she would have spat in my food?"

"It's a loaded topic, I'll admit." Elizabeth agreed. "But the thing is? There's only one way to find an answer to a big, frightening question like 'why is there suffering?'."

"Yeah." Eleanor admitted. "You've gotta ask."

~/*\~

Back on the Carts, Martine looked up from her phone and noticed she had company. "Eleanor?"

Eleanor spoke awkwardly, as if trying out a new language for the first time. "I have some questions." She said slowly, gesturing at the row of books on the Cart.

Martine smiled warmly. "Ask them. It's what we're here for."

~/*\~

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