World in Shadow

Chapter One: The Ides of March In my eyes, indisposedIn disguise as no one knowsHides the face, lies the snake... -- Soundgarden ("Black Hole Sun") Jami stared intently at her Bible, but she was not reading any of the words on the tissue-thin paper. She was instead trying to keep a surreptitious eye on her brother, who was sitting on a couch two people over and looking as if he were just about ready to explode. Christopher's social skills had improved a lot over the past few months, but he still forgot to keep his mouth closed sometimes, especially when he was running out of patience.She winced as she saw that his eyes were closed, and his head was slowly moving from side to side. This was not a good sign. Christopher did that whenever he was trying not to listen to something, and she knew tonight's aimless discussion must be driving him up the wall. It was hard enough for her to sit through it all, and she could listen to one of Holli's endless lectures on the importance of eyeliner without even blinking."...so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."Asako finished reading the verse. She was a cheerful Asian girl with long raven-black hair. "I don't know, I just think that's really neat!"Christopher's eyes snapped open suddenly. Oh, please help him keep his temper, Jami whispered under her breath."You think...what?"Her brother's voice was low and controlled. Too controlled, Jami thought to herself. She could hear the venom lurking beneath his polite tone."Well, I just think it's really neat. You know. What the verse says, and all."Jami had to bite her lip to keep from laughing when she heard Christopher groan, and saw him put his head in his hands. She could understand if he was feeling frustrated tonight, because she was, too. The last hour had been nothing but a repetitious circle of readings followed by agreeable but meaningless responses. It would have been almost funny, if it wasn't so painfully boring. Christopher smiled briefly, and for a second Jami thought they were past the danger zone, but she was wrong."I mean, don't you think so?" Asako looked to the rest of the group for support.There were several nodded heads, and a few voices mumbled assent in one form or another. Jami desperately shook her head at her brother, but he ignored her as he closed his leather-bound Bible with an audible snap and rose to his feet."Yeah, it's really neat," Christopher echoed sarcastically. "It is the eternal Word of the Creator Lord of the Universe, and it's neat, you say? Well, that's tremendously insightful. We can all agree on that, can't we? The Bible is neat! It's really, really neat!"Now it was Jami's turn to put her head in her hands. She didn't have to look up to know there were ten horrified sophomores, juniors, and seniors all staring at her brother with open mouths. This wasn't the first time he'd gone off like this in public.Mr. Maples, the youth pastor who led the study group and was the only adult there, tried to defend poor Asako, whose cheeks were bright red."Really, Christopher, it's important that everyone shares their feelings -- ""No, it's not!" her brother interrupted impatiently, his brown eyes blazing. "How many times do we need to repeat this nonsense? Look, we're all Christians here, right? And this is a Bible study, right? So can we just, once and for all, agree that everything in the Bible is really, really neat? Then no one has to mention it ever again! Yes, it's all neat and it's all good and it's all important -- so what? Can't we just forget about how it makes us feel, and for once talk about what it says we should do?""Sure we can," Mr. Maples assured him. "That's what we're here for, after all.""Then why don't we ever do that?" Christopher asked, his voice suddenly soft. He pointed toward one muscular senior, a football player. "Blaine, you were askingBeale, Theodore is the author of 'World in Shadow', published 0014 under ISBN 9780671024543 and ISBN 067102454X.