CHAPTER 49

CHAPTER 49

DAVID HERINGER

WHILE DAVID'S FAME grew around the world, he was fascinated by the new London. It was completely different from New York. The English people were a much more discreet people, they did not take fame very seriously, they gave privacy to their idols.

David hated that term, idol, remembering that in the Old Testament this is how the scribes used that term for the gods who took the place of God within His people.

David felt that he was just a person known and loved for his talent, despite the fact that he hadn't touched a guitar for over a thousand years, he didn't even know if that instrument was still used.

David visited the old Buckinhan Palace. Its ruins persisted over time. It was like the Colosseum in Rome.

Good times, those when he'd paid tribute to the queen, and even gotten a kiss. real her...

But that was all a part of the past now, just as this palace was a part of a glorious past, as David's past was glorious with Ivy.

It was all really past, the future was dark on all sides. Unfortunately, it's hard to see a light amidst the rubble of a world that wanted to have a future and ended up making the same mistakes as the past.

As Shakespeare would say:

O brave new world! — But admiration was the last thing he had at that moment for the future.

Staying in London was like reliving the past, and the past couldn't go back anymore, as time always runs forward, even if it's second after second.

David wanted to enjoy his stay in London and enjoy some shows, not that crap music that was playing in New York. No... that was real music, with real musicians, the talent versus the pressure of showing your talent in front of thousands of people, it was a Beatles cover band concert.

Beatles?

At the same moment, what John Lennon had said on a television program came to his mind:

We are better known than Jesus Christ

David never thought he would take that phrase seriously in his life, the Liverpool quartet died, but their music lived on on London radio for over a thousand years.

At that moment David cried.

He cried for being so weak and feeling useless.

What would your father do at that moment?

At the very least, his father would stand on a bench in some square and preach God's love for humanity.

How many times has he seen his father do this?

But also, how many times did David see his father labeled an idiot, worthless, broke old man.

How many sarcastic smiles had David seen on people's faces mocking his father and he couldn't do anything?

Since his father held him down countless times so he wouldn't go after those people who didn't know what it's like to live for someone...

They're too proud for that...

— Love your neighbor, son — said his father — bother them with love, that's what Jesus did with people, weapons kill, ignorance ruins, but love lifts man...

David realized that he, too, was too proud to even talk about himself, let alone the luxury of talking about a God he had never been intimate with. A God he had run away from all his life, and now, without realizing it, he was approaching even without understanding how it happened.

David shouted in the middle of that square looking at the sky:

— What do you want me to do? Tell me...

At that moment a dirty boy came out from behind a bush and said humbly to David:

— Could you buy me a snack... please? — His eyes shone with despair — I was abandoned by my mother and I'm starving.

David was speechless, it wasn't that boy he was talking to — or trying to talk to — but it was as David's mother had said in the letter:

Sometimes God speaks in a way that we cannot understand...

He knew that was a sign — very strange, by the way — but it was already a sign.

DAVID NOT JUST PAID A SNACK, but bought that boy a house and left provisions for him until he returned from his journey.

The boy didn't understand any of that, after all, an hour ago, he was starving, he didn't have money for anything, and now he was living like a millionaire.

David made that boy promise that he would study and be somebody in life. He also made the boy promise that he would forgive his mother, after all, that woman was not to blame for not knowing the word mercy, but David was willing to form a first disciple.

The boy's name was Adam. He didn't have a last name — at least he hadn't remembered it.

— What is forgiveness, David?

— Forgiveness is you loving a person even if they don't deserve it.

— But what is love?

— What am I doing for you?

— Helping me.

— This is a form of love, helping others, over time you learn, but I'm doing more than just helping you, I'm showing you what you should do with someone when they need you, can you understand?

— I think so, should I buy a snack when they need help?

David laughed at the boy's innocence.

— If he needs a snack, that's exactly what he should do, but the issue isn't the act of paying for the snack that is love, it's the feeling of wanting to buy a snack for someone who needs it who makes love, you know. now?

— I think so...

ADAM SAID THAT HE LIVED AWAY from the cops, he was the only person in the world who could do that, or at least he was the only person in the whole world they let him do it, maybe for fun.

David taught Adam what it was like to love your neighbor as yourself, the boy laughed, but preferred to respect it, since that man took him off the street and was wanting to give him a future — which not even his own mother had wanted to give..

His mother — David's — always said that the best way to talk about God to someone:

It was to talk about love, and show love, since God is love...

It's easy, there's no secret...

That was just the first step.

David was beginning to learn that being a Christian wasn't about being ashamed of God's love, it was about showing that love, even if people didn't want to, but at least he had done his part.

DAVID DECIDED TO LEAVE to Paris.

After he helped little Adam, he consulted a lawyer to ask that Adam be placed as his adopted son.

The lawyer thought that was crazy, after all, for over three hundred years no one had adopted a child.

David said he would pay ten times as much as any client if he could, and like every successful and ambitious lawyer, he achieved the impossible.

David's first thought was:

God really exists and he was starting a good work, he didn't send any angel, he didn't open the sea, he didn't resurrect any dead, but he worked a miracle in that world...

David made an act of love work, it was already something to be celebrated.

DAVID LEFT THE BOY in the care of a friend — whom he had just met, paid her triple what she was paid at her old job, and still gave her a spectacularly beautiful home — just to take care of a boy who had heard the strangest prayer that God had already heard.

David kissed the boy's cheek like his father did — who found that act of love strange, but he liked it, after all, he had never felt something as good as affection.

As David was leaving, the boy came crying to hug him and said he loved him too. Even though I don't know the real meaning of this love. But if there was anything that would be, without a doubt it was love, true and perfect love.

David decided to take Adam with him, it would be a good travel partner, especially someone he could disciple, teach who God was, or at least learn together, what God wanted from their lives.

David bought two tickets to Paris.

As the train was going to take a while to leave, David decided to show Adam the hologram. He was amazed, he had never seen anything like it.

Carlisle Burke greeted David warmly.

The sensor indicated that they were in London.

Burke's hologram congratulated David, who had followed the steps correctly, also asked him not to despair in Paris, as he would finally find the first great answer he was looking for.

Despair me in Paris?

Neither he, much less Adam, understood what that really meant.

David asked for more information, but the only thing Burke's hologram said was that he already had the answer in his hands.

At that moment David remembered the little note on the back of the letter he had received from his parents...

That he was supposed to tear up the bible to find the answers...

THE TRIP WAS CALM. David told about his tours around the world, what each city was like, its population, but the trip was too short for so many adventures, which made Adam too curious for more stories.

When they arrived in Paris, nothing fit:

Where are the lights?

Where's the Eiffel Tower?

Where is the Arc de Triomphe?

This wasn't Paris, it was a village full of old wreckage, it was a place that only knew how to make bread and sweets in general...

Bread?

What would that bring answers in your life?

ADAM WAS ANXIOUS TO START a new life full of adventures like the life of his praetor, he liked the story of the apostle Paul and his travels, Adam studied everything that David went through, and at night he started having dreams.

David didn't know what to think anymore...

Why did the boy have dreams while he felt nothing? Not a word from the Almighty, not a dream, nothing... Absolutely nothing...

David was wondering why all that, the more he thought about it, the more he clashed with the letter his mother wrote:

Do not question God!

How not to question? No one stops questioning what they don't understand. How could he follow a path without knowing where he has to go?

He remembered the story of Abraham, who had also been called, but Abraham did not question God.

David always spoke to God in his prayers:

— I'm not Abraham... I'm David... David Heringer...

Without realizing it, he had a fit of rage for not hearing anything from God at all, he was furious, screaming to himself.

People looked at him and signaled that he was crazy.

That's when David tore the cover of his bible and from there fell a holographic disc that fit perfectly inside the disc he received in America.

David calmed down and when he was alone in his room he put the disk in the other.

Burke's hologram smiled, looking satisfied with that and said he knew it would happen soon, he just didn't think it would be so fast.

David was already impatient and he wanted the answers and he wanted them right away...

chosen bullshit...

David wanted to know the truth...

What a joke was that Dr. Had Burke been up to no good against him?

David would never have imagined the news he would receive:

— Ivy is alive, David…she is alive…

David never expected that answer, finally he had the dream that Adam had last night.

It was all madness, that's right...

If you notice, he spoke to himself:

— Ivy...my dear Ivy...alive?