The Cost

Chapter 3 - The Bible

"The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible." -D.L. Moody

"Ben Joshua. Feels like I've known him forever." Sierra sipped from her mug, seeming to be in no particular hurry to do anything else that day.

Another girl walked in with a plate of cookies that smelled fresh, set it down and grabbed a seat out of the four arranged around a square-shaped table. She was friendly enough, yet I sensed she had a distrust for me that she was trying to hide for politeness' sake.

"So why did you want to know?" She asked nonchalantly as the grandfather clock to my right faithfully ticked by the seconds. For the first time I noticed the slightest streak of white on her face, which I guessed was flour. "Just curious?"

I shrugged. "Pretty much."

Sierra yawned. "I'm pretty sure everyone would be at least somewhat curious if any guy got up in the middle of a community and suddenly started to shout what he thought. I know I would. Well, I should say, I was. How long has it been since then, Kris? Feels like ages."

Kris shrugged. "Two years. But I guess that can feel like a lot of time if you've spend it—," I noticed her pause, even though she quickly tried to cover it up, "doing a lot of stuff."

"He has a way with people," Sierra said to me as she tapped one of the cookies lightly with her finger to feel if it was warm. "Everywhere he speaks he usually gets haters—then there are those people who listen and sneak around to find him afterward."

"You were one of those people," I guessed.

Sierra laughed. "Guilty." Then, a little more serious, she continued, "I was already a Christian, so there wasn't much he said that I didn't know. Mostly I was just curious to meet him."

"Christian?" I tested the word. "What's that?"

"Basically means we're followers of Christ," Kris answered. "But I guess they didn't teach you that in school, did they?"

I shrugged. "If it has to do with religion then probably not."

Sierra was already walking towards a bookshelf near the grandfather clock. Its wood looked new and still had a gleam to it, like it had just been built.

"So what do they teach in the school system?" Kris asked curiously. "About religion or beliefs or whatever."

I raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you know?" Even if they were from a different community the school system would still be about the same.

"No. I was homeschooled."

"I've....never heard of that."

"It's exactly what it sounds," she said. "Schooled at home."

"So who was your teacher?"

"Well, Mom obviously. Who else? Then sometimes I taught myself things."

"I didn't know that was even legal." Everyone goes through the system. And just to make sure, enforcers are always checking around to make sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to.

Kris laughed. "Well, it's not exactly supported by the government. But if you really want to do something, you'll find loopholes. And Mom was determined that I wasn't going through the system. So that was that."

"Here." Sierra snapped down a book in front of me. A thick book. "Read this."

On the front was the worn golden symbol of a cross shaped figure and the words Holy Bible.

"So do you know what a cross is?" Kris asked curiously.

"Of course."

"I thought they didn't teach religion—,"

"Like you said, when you really want to do something you'll find loopholes. I found one of those crosses when the enforcers were burning some books like these in the city square. I heard someone say it was a cross and then looked it up."

"I'm surprised there is still information about it," Sierra commented as she sat down again.

"Well....I found out it was the symbol used by a group of radicals who went on a killing rampage. That was about all I could come up with. It happened back when communities were separated from each other because of race, beliefs or whatever else."

"Ohhh....the Crusaders," Kris said quietly. "Of course they would leave that information up."

"It's true though," Sierra commented. "The Crusaders had the symbol of the cross when they were killing Muslims and Jews. But that's not what it was originally meant for."

"They carried their crosses," Kris said. "But not in the way Jesus meant."

"Jesus....?"

"The cross is the symbol for Christians," Kris said.

"Why?" I asked.

Sierra tapped her finger on the big black book. "This. Read it. You'll find out."

Who has time to read a book this huge? I thought. The book itself was small, but the pages were thin as I flipped through it and I could see there were a ton. It was obvious that these girls were religious, and I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go with this. I had what I'd come for and there was really no reason for me to stay longer.

Then there was that feeling again—that crazy desire to want to know more.

"Come on, we're modern kids," Kris said with a laugh. "A book is a lot harder to hide from the enforcers than something like this," she slipped a small device out of her pocket—one of those fingernail sized mini-projectors that could store tons of information. "Same thing," she said as she passed it over the table to me. "Just smaller."

****

The Bible. It was all I could think about on the way home. Every time I passed an enforcer my stomach sunk a little more, and it didn't matter how many times I told myself there was nothing to worry about.

It was getting dark when I finally reached the steps of the small house Trish and I shared. I could already smell something tempting coming from inside. Without really thinking about it, I breathed a sigh of relief as I walked in.