The Teacher

The Teacher: Part II Testament, Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

ON A PERFECT LATE-SEPTEMBER DAY the descending sun, shining in just west of the 10-story Van Vleck Hall, was still bathing a wide swash of Bascom Hill. Stately elms had lined the Bascom Hill walkway since the 1850s, but as they aged and died, or fell to disease, red oaks replaced them. All over the campus other trees, many black locusts, were planted through the years to provide a veritable arboretum of distinguished specimens. The most remarkable, a 300-year-old bur oak perched at the top of Observatory Hill, reportedly survived being used for target practice by Civil War soldiers.

Students were sunbathing, tossing Frisbees, studying, or just relaxing after a full first day of activities. Mid-afternoon classes had just let out spilling a stream of students along the wide sidewalks, ambling for some destination like schools of single-minded salmon. Holden, Professor Dorsey, and I were among them and holding our own despite being preoccupied with conversation. Approaching Memorial Union, I suggested we get a table on the patio. As soon as we sat down, Professor Dorsey spoke up getting right to the pressing point.

"Holden, I heard your personal story, I know what believing in the Guardian did for you. After what just happened, I know something of the power you can channel. I'm just not sure what it is I need from the Guardian. My life seems pretty good. Please, help me understand why I should risk everything and follow you down this path?" he pleaded, desperate for an reassuring feeling that it would be the absolute right thing to do.

Though still struggling with the decision I made, I knew just what the professor needed to hear.

"You said you thought your life was pretty good. You must be in your 60s, no offense, but how much longer do you expect to live, that is, live a useful, productive, vital life?"

"Well, I see what you're getting at, but no one escapes the Grim Reaper, do they?" he answered candidly.

"Take a good look at me...what do you see?" I asked.

The professor paused, knowing he should carefully choose appropriate words, given I was one of his students.

"An exceptionally lovely young woman...or isn't that what you were getting at?" he replied.

"Yes, but what you couldn't know is what I looked like before, that is, before I met Holden and the Guardian."

"I don't understand."

"I've walked the runways in Paris and Milan as a successful supermodel. I was cast in a major motion picture that shot this summer and will be released early next year. None of that would have happened had I not turned my life over to the Guardian. Do you understand, now?"

"Not really...how did all that come together, and so quickly?" Professor Dorsey replied, still as confused as ever.

Holden decided to try and close the deal.

"Look closer at Fallon. Yes, she was attractive when we first met, in a high-school-cheerleader sort of way, but now...she is breathtakingly beautiful with stereotypically perfect height, body type, and facial features. She transformed within days of accepting the Guardian's power. As far as her dream to become a model, whatever your desire, ambition, aspiration, the Guardian gives you the power to realize it. Getting back to your age, Fallon will look like this, and continue to live on vigorously for hundreds of years...she, we, are all virtually immortal in our physical bodies. When our flesh does need replacing, our consciousness can simply transfer to a new host or we can transition to life without bodies."

"Can you give me any proof this is so?" the professor pleaded.

Holden sighed, closed his eyes, and looked down before speaking.

"Now I know why the Christian Bible teaches followers to walk by faith and not sight. Wasn't what you experienced by the Lincoln statue proof enough?" Holden answered.

"You want to know if this is for real. Absolutely! I'll never forget my first night as a brand new Disciple. The endless streams of energy and ever-escalating euphoria never stopped. I didn't have the slightest sense of needing to sleep. All those wasted hours as mortals, you can now put to good use. Early that first morning I got up and took my dog for a run. Usually, it's the other way around," I shared, just touching on a much longer story.

"Remember what happened next? You bumped into me at the gym. You'd run your poor dog into the ground and still weren't tired. At the gym I couldn't get you off the treadmill," Holden added.

"You want proof, Professor...you'll experience all this and more when you go through the initiation ceremony. That's when the power you felt earlier will embed as you connect to the source. Your conversion experience will be completely unique, as mine has been, and Holden's, and every other Disciple," I added.

As is the case with any meaningful personal relationship, it must be voluntary. If there's any taint of deceit or pressure the quality of the relationship will suffer. The Guardian wanted committed Disciples and was willing to pay a high price to make sure each new convert stayed in the fold.

Holden knew when to back off pressing the professor.

"Look, you need some time...come by if and when you're ever ready. I don't mind admitting, though, that I'm very pleased with your interest. You could help me spread the word to the faculty. Then, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Give all of this careful consideration, but I do hope we'll see you at Delta Gamma soon," Holden said.

Professor Dorsey left to keep his office hours, I paid the bill, and Holden was eager to get back to Delta Gamma just in case some of our classmates had already stopped by.