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"When I regained my senses," John Paul continued, "I ran to him. When I got close he turned to me and I could see that his face was glowing.

"An angel swooped between us and spoke to me. He said that Jesus had to tend to his flock. That I would have to wait for my time, but that I would see him again.

"He said that I had been shown all of what I saw because I believed. And that God said I should go and spread the word.

"The angel then told me that I and all of my kind were repugnant to him, but that, for some reason, God still loved us. Then he said that in time all would be revealed.

"After he said that, Jesus reached out, put his hand on my shoulder and said that I should find the Father. Then they were gone.

"I wandered aimlessly for days. I didn't understand what had happened and how I was to find the Father. I assumed he meant God. But I already believed, so I felt lost.

"That was when I went to my sire. To my surprise, he didn't recognize me. I told him who I was, but he wouldn't believe me and cast me out of his house.

"I wondered the desert for years until one night I was visited by the angel again. He told me that I had been wandering for forty years and God had taken pity on me. He said that none would recognize me because Jesus had put his mark on me. That I was given a new life that night and that it was not God the father I needed to seek, but the first of our kind. The one known as the Father.

"The angel again expressed his disdain for our kind, which he called the spawn of the fallen, and wished me ill, despite God's favor on me.

"When he left, I ran to the nearest oasis and looked at myself in the water. Sol, I didn't even recognize myself.

"When I was made, I was twenty years old and had black hair. The face you see before you tonight is the same that I looked at in the water."

"Jesus turned you into an old man?" Sol asked, without intending any levity.

"Yes," John Paul chuckled, "he made me an old man with white hair, a beard, and a wrinkled face. He also took away the blood lust. I realized then that I hadn't fed since the night I saw Jesus defeat death.

"At that point, I knew I had only one purpose. I had to find the Father."


[Copyright Reuben Gregg Brewer, 2005. All rights reserved.]
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