John Frum The Reluctant Messiah

Checking In & Checking Him Out

"1218... to the right" John pointed out. 

He grabbed Em's backpack and handed her the key card. She opened the door and they both stood on the landing while Em searched for the light switch, but the lights came on automatically. They stood there for a moment, mouths agape, staring at the sunken living room before them. It was cavernous and sumptuously appointed with a huge, king sized bed as it's focal point. They both burst into laughter.

"Holy shit!" John said in disbelief. 

"Look at this place!" Em gushed. "Oh my God! Look at that bed!"

She wasted no time throwing herself on it, hugging the chamois pillows and rolling back and forth. John looked away nervously.

"Uh, I'm gonna take a quick shower," John announced.

"Me too."

"Oh! Do you want to go first?" John asked.

"No."

"Then I should go...Now?" nodding, "Now." John stammered.

"Okee Dokee." she said with a playful grin spreading across her face.

"Okee Dokee? Okee Dokee!?! Geez, she's enjoying making me nervous!" he thought. 

He entered the bathroom, turned the hot water on and tossed the door shut. He began to remove his cold, wet, plaster infused clothing and the heat from the billowing steam felt good against his cold, damp skin. The door never completely latched and unbeknownst to him had opened slightly. Em happened to glance over from her position on the bed and immediately shot upright, her eyes visibly widened. 

There was John's near flawless form on display wearing nothing but steam clouds. She grimaced in that OMG, finger biting, holy crap fashion and decided to sneak over for a closer look. She grabbed her phone and took a selfie with John's naked, V-shaped back in the steamy background. She quickly reapplied her lipstick, mussed her hair a bit and pulled down on her V neck T-shirt and snapped another. She scurried over to her backpack and began to dig around inside. With a quick flick of her wrist, a shiny blade snapped into position and she snuck back over to the partially opened bathroom door. If she had been trying to make John nervous before, had he been aware, this move would have guaranteed her success.

She quickly raised her hand over her head and threw the knife across the room. It stuck deep into her intended target, a ripened orange in the fresh fruit bowl arrangement next to the enormous flat screen. She proceeded to cut it into quarters. From just outside the door, leaning against the adjacent wall she called out to him.

"Hey! want an orange?"

"Yeah. NO! uh... maybe when I get out!"

Em was not waiting and had already begun to sample it. And she did so in X-rated style.

"These are soooo good! Mmmm... you've got to try 'em." John stopped to listen.

"Uh... yeah, I will, yeah."

Em went back to her bag, checking to be sure John wasn't watching and began rummaging around again. This time she produced a large, scary hypodermic needle, the over-sized, disposable kind often used by veterinarians to tranquilize animals. She then took a small glass bottle filled with a minute amount of clear liquid and filled the syringe to capacity. She flicked it, testing it to remove any bubbles and began walking towards the steamy shower. With each step, an article of clothing came off so that by the time she reached the shower door she too was completely naked. And completely, stunningly, beautiful.

The steam was so thick as she raised the needle it would have been easy to imagine it being part of a girl-gone-crazy murder mystery.  But its target was not John's vulnerable back but rather the remaining pieces of quartered orange. She had used the remaining contents from an old airline bottle of Tito's Vodka she had discovered in the bottom of her bag and was intent on sharing it with John. 

John's head was under the shower when something touched his shoulder. Em had slipped in and shoved an orange in his mouth from behind.

"Here's that orange with a little something extra." Em bit into a slice as well. "Oh! a lot something extra!" 

Completely flustered and talking with an orange wedged in his mouth, he tightly shut his eyes and turned to face her.

"Princess Leia! Princess Leia!"

"What?" she asked.

"Princess Leia!" John mush mouthed. Em reached up and pulled the orange out of his mouth. His eyes were still closed. 

"You know...like in Star Wars?"

"Well...Luke, Luke. I am not your father!"

"He actually didn't say it tha-" 

Oh! what was he doing?! His eyes still pressed shut. The funny quips and playful banter suddenly ended and for a moment everything in the world stopped, everything was deadly serious. John opened his eyes and lowered his gaze, looking deep within hers. Her hands moved up to his broad shoulders and slowly slid them towards his back. John reached out, placing his hand on her hip, and slid it across her glistening skin coming to rest just above the small of her back. His other hand found its way to her cheek and gently tilted her head upward. She was, in a word, phenomenal. Any line between what was right or wrong, moral, or not was dangerously close to being blurred. This was neither the place nor the circumstances under which he would have chosen to tell her about their connection but felt he no longer had a choice.

"If only things were diff..." John was unable to finish, distracted by Em's sudden change in expression. 

Em's eyes had been half closed but were now wide open and John felt her body recoil from his. Her hands leaving his back and now covering her mouth. Her eyes no longer locked with his but rather looking behind him, staring steadfast into the floor to ceiling mirror.

"Are you Ok? What is it?" John asked with urgency. 

Em just continued to stare and point at the mirror. There was genuine fear in her face and John turned to see what it was that struck such abject fear in her.

"No! You! Your back! It's on your back!" 

She turned him so his back was in the reflection. He struggled to look over his shoulder and what he saw took him aback. There in the steamed-up mirror was a distinct nautilus shape taking up nearly his entire back, stretching from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. It was almost scar-like, raised and redder than the surrounding skin. But there was no mistaking it. It wasn't sort of like a nautilus, it was as if someone had carefully drawn its likeness on his skin.

"Game on." John said matter-of-factly.

"What does it mean?" a concerned Em asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think we're being summoned."

"We? WE!?"

John nodded for her to look in the mirror. She had trouble seeing so John grabbed both her hands and placed them behind her back. She gasped as she felt a small nautilus that had formed just above her tailbone.

"It's Ok," John tried to reassure her. "It's gonna be Ok."