Brimstone

{ 36 }

The Reverend Wayne P. Buck Jr. sat at the counter of the Last Gasp truck stop in Yuma, Arizona, stirring skim milk into his coffee. Before him lay the remains of his usual breakfast: white toast with a little marmalade, oatmeal without milk or sugar. Outside, beyond the flyspecked window, there was a grinding of gears: a large semi pulled off the apron, its steel tank flashing in the brilliant sun, heading west toward Barstow.

Reverend Buck-the title was honorary-took a sip of the coffee. Then, methodical in everything he did, he finished his breakfast, carefully cleaning the bowl with the edge of his spoon before setting it aside. He took another sip of coffee, replaced the cup gently in its saucer. And then at last he turned to his morning reading: the ten-inch stack of periodicals that lay tied in heavy twine on the far end of the counter.

As Buck cut the twine with a pocketknife, he was aware of a sense of anticipation. His morning reading was always a high point of the day: a trucker, whom he'd cured of fits at a camp revival several months before, always left a bundle of outdated newspapers for him outside the truck stop every morning. The papers varied from day to day, and Buck never knew what he'd find. Yesterday there'd been a copy of the New Orleans Times-Picayune in among the more common Phoenix Sun and Los Angeles Times . But his tingle of anticipation, he knew, extended beyond the selection of reading material.

Reverend Buck had been in the vicinity of Yuma almost a year now, ministering to the truckers, the waitresses and busboys, the migrant workers, the broken and wandering and uncertain souls that passed through on their way to some place and rarely lingering long. The work was its own reward, and he never complained. The reason there were so many sinners in the world, he knew, was that nobody had ever bothered to sit down and talk to them. Buck did just that: he talked. Read to people from the Good Book, let them know how to prepare for what was coming, and coming soon. He'd talk to the drivers, one at a time here at the counter; long-haul truckers just stopping in for a leak and a sandwich. He'd talk to groups of two or three regulars in the evenings, out back by the picnic tables. On Sunday mornings, fifteen, maybe twenty, at the old Elks lodge. When he could get a ride to the reservation, he'd preach there. Most people were receptive. Nobody had explained the nature of sin to them, the terrifying implacable promise of the End Days. When people were sick, he'd pray over them; when people were grieving, he'd listen to their problems, recite a parable or some words of Jesus. They paid him in pocket change; a few hot meals; a bed for the night. It was enough.

But he'd been here in Yuma a long spell now. There were other places, so many others, that needed to hear. Every day that went by meant there would be less time. For truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Buck was a firm believer in signs. Nothing that happened on this earth happened by accident. It was a sign that carried him from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to Borrego Springs, California, last year; another sign that had brought him from Borrego Springs here to Yuma a few months later. One of these days-maybe next week, maybe next month-there would be another sign. He might find it here in these stacks of newspapers. Or he might find it in the story of a passing trucker. But the sign would come, and he'd be gone, gone to some other remote spot with its full share of those in need of the balm of salvation.

Reverend Buck plucked the first newspaper from the pile: the previous Sunday’s Sacramento Bee . He leafed rather quickly through the national and local pages-big cities like Sacramento could always be counted on for stories of murder, rape, corruption, vice, corporate greed. Buck had read enough such stories for a thousand cautionary sermons. He was more interested in the squibs and sidebars, the news bites taken off the wire feeds and recounted in odd corners of the paper for reader amusement. The tiny town where two brothers hadn't spoken to each other in forty years. The trailer park where every single child had left, a runaway. These were the stories that spoke to him; these were the signs that impelled him and his message.

The Bee completed, Buck turned to the next: USA Today. Laverne, the waitress, came over with coffeepot in hand. "Another cup, Reverend?"

"Just one more, thank you kindly." Buck practiced moderation in all things. One cup of coffee was a blessing; two cups was an indulgence; three cups, a sin. He perused the paper, put it aside, and picked up a third: a day-old copy of the New York Post . Buck came across this tabloid only rarely, and he had nothing but scorn for it: the brazen mouthpiece of the world's most dissipated, sin-ridden city held no interest for him. He was about to put it aside when the headline caught his attention:

DESTRUCTION

Renowned Scientist Claims Recent Deaths Signal End of Days

by Bryce Harriman

More slowly, Buck turned the page and began to read.

October 25, 2004-A respected scientist yesterday predicted imminent destruction for New York City and possibly much of the world.

Dr. Friedrich Von Menck, Harvard scientist and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, says the recent deaths of Jeremy Grove and Nigel Cutforth are merely the "harbingers" of the coming catastrophe.

For fifteen years Dr. Von Menck has been studying mathematical patterns in the famous disasters of the past. And no matter how he cuts the data, one number shows up: the year 2004.

Von Menck's theory is based on a fundamental ratio known as the golden ratio-a ratio that is found throughout nature, as well as in such classical architecture as the Parthenon and the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. Von Menck is the first to apply it to history-with sinister implications.

Von Menck's research has revealed that many of the worst disasters that have befallen mankind fit the same ratio:

79A.D. : Pompeii

426A.D. : The sack of Rome

877A.D. : Destruction of Beijing by the Mongols

1348A.D. : The Black Death

1666A.D. : The Great Fire of London

1906A.D. : The San Francisco Earthquake

These and many more dates line up in ratios of uncanny precision.

And what do these natural disasters have in common? They have always struck an important world city, a city notable for its wealth, power, technology-and, Dr. Von Menck adds, neglect of the spiritual. Each of these disasters was preceded by small but specific signs. Von Menck sees the mysterious deaths of Grove and Cutforth as precisely the signs one would expect preceding the destruction of New York City by fire.

What kind of fire?

"Not any kind of normal fire," says Von Menck. "It will be something sudden and destructive. A fire from within."

As further evidence he cites passages from Revelation, the prophet Nostradamus, and more recent clairvoyants such as Edgar Cayce and Madame Blavatsky.

Dr. Von Menck left today for the Galápagos Islands, taking with him, he said, only his manuscripts and a few books.

Buck lowered the paper. The rest of the pile sat at his elbow, forgotten. He felt a strange sensation rise up his spine, spread down his arms and legs. If Von Menck was right, the man was a fool to believe he could take refuge on some faraway island. It put in mind some lines from Revelation, his favorite book of the Bible, which Buck frequently quoted to his flock: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men . hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains . For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

He raised his cup of coffee, but it no longer seemed to have any flavor, and he replaced it in its saucer. Buck had long believed he would see the End Days in his lifetime. And he had always believed in signs. Perhaps this sign was just larger than the others.

Perhaps it was very large, indeed.

Revelation, chapter 22:Behold, I come quickly .

Could this be what he'd been waiting for all these years? Did it not also say in Revelation that the wicked, the men with the mark of the beast on their foreheads, were taken first, in successive waves of slaughter? Just a few, here and there, would be taken. That's how it would start.

He read the article a second time. New York City. This was where it would begin. Of course, this was where it would begin. Two were taken. Just two. It was God's way of getting the word out to his chosen people, so they in turn could spread the message of repentance and atonement while there was still time. The wrath of God would never descend without warning. Let he with ears hear .

Behold, I come quickly . Surely I come quickly .

But New York City? Buck had never set foot beyond the Mississippi River, never been in a town much larger than Tucson. To him, the East Coast was Babylon, a foreign, dangerous, soulless region to be avoided at all costs, no place more so than New York. Was it meant to be? Was it, in fact, a sign? And more to the point: was he being called? Was this the great call from God he had been waiting for? And did he have the courage to follow it?

There was a chuff of air brakes outside the diner. Buck looked up in time to see the morning Greyhound cross-country express, traveling on I-10, stop outside. The sign above the driver's window read New York City .

Buck walked up just as the bus driver was about to close the door. "Excuse me!" he said.

The driver looked at him. "What is it, mister?"

"How much for a one-way ticket to New York?"

"Three hundred and twenty dollars. Cash."

Buck fished in his wallet and pulled out all the money he had in the world. He counted it while the bus driver tapped his finger on the wheel and frowned.

It amounted to precisely three hundred and twenty dollars.

As the bus pulled away from Yuma, Reverend Buck was sitting in the back, his only luggage the day-old copy of the New York Post .