MARIEL

11~ The Prediction ~

Friday, February 7th, 2020 - Loranger, Louisiana

Fluorescent lights clicked on. The Bible thumped onto the table. Phil Jameson took a seat and straightened his tie. He cleared his throat.

"Brothers and sisters in Christ..." He paused. "Nope!" Phil slammed his fist onto the rectangular interview table. The Bible jumped. "Excuse me!" He tilted to the side, as if they would hear him better if he leaned two feet closer to the door. "The mic has a ring to it? Can you come in here, please, and fix this?" He coughed into his elbow and straightened the blue tie again. It hadn't been his first choice - the blue tie, that is. He'd demanded to wear his "#1 Dad" tie, but Kaemon, Carolyn, and Hailey insisted that he would not be taken seriously.

"Quite the opposite," Phil had protested. "It will show my true nature. I'm a family man. I'll be able to relate to the public on a much more personal basis." Alas, his opinion had been disregarded, something Phil Jameson would never become accustomed to. Lately, he'd felt like he was being ganged upon.

Across the table, with a large mirror on the wall as a backdrop, a tripod with a cell phone mount stood in the dimly lit interview room. The cell phone in the mount looked crooked. Impatiently, Phil stared at himself in the tilted camera. They would need to fix that too. This whole room needed to be fixed. The fluorescent lights had no covers. The ceiling tile had holes in it. There was an erratic, buzzing noise in the room, like that of a large insect.

Phil drew in a noisy breath, snorting a little, and exclaimed, "Excuse me, I need assist-!"

The door slammed open. A disgruntled secret service member entered the room. "Sorry, Mr. Jameson, sometimes I never know if you're talking to us or to yourself. Because you never stop fucking talking."

"Watch your tone, and do not curse!" Phil roared, eyes wide. "I will report you to Mr. Spears if you don't -"

"Yeah yeah, I gotcha. I'll shut up. What's wrong with the mic?"

Phil straightened his tie again and settled into his seat. "It makes a ringing noise and I don't want that in the video. Also, fix the camera. It's leaning like the tower of Babel."

The guard eyed him. "It's ringing because the mic is almost in your mouth. Move the mic down."

Phil looked down at his white shirt. His bottom lip brushed the mic. It made a scraping sound in his ear. "Oh." The blood flooded into his face and made his skin hot. Hastily, he unclipped the small microphone and moved it further down. "Tell my wife I will speak with her after the video," he muttered. "She pinned the mic to me the first time. Oh, and remind Carolyn and Hailey to enter the room when I say 'I hope you'll give me a few minutes of your time'. Understood?"

The man grunted and exited the room. He did not close the door gently behind him.

Phil Jameson straightened the Bible, snapped his blue suit jacket downwards until it was taut, and then raised his eyes to the camera. On the table, he folded his hands before him, and the red circle on the camera turned square.

"Hello," he said. "My name is Phillip Jameson. Some of you may know me. Most of you do not. However, I pray my - oh goodness!" A large roach clattered across the table. Phil shot from his seat, staggering backwards and tripping over the chair behind him. "Get that thing out of here!" He roared, landing on his backside. Enraged, he kicked the table. "I hate this godforsaken land!"

The door opened. Carolyn stepped inside. Phil could not stand her face. Ever since she tied him to the railroad tracks, that darned smile never seemed to leave.

"Dear."

"Where's the guard? Agh!" Phil scrambled to his feet as the roach clattered towards him on the floor. His squeal was high pitched. He was humiliated. Before the Lord's return, he would make sure to sue someone. Anyone. He thought these things, realistically understanding that Kaemon Spears had arranged this 'witness protection'. While he knew it was a part of God's bigger calling, he could not ignore the mounting frustration that Spears' appeared to think he was a joke, Kaemon's own personal Jack in a Box that was meant to stay put until it was time to just... pop up.