The Gospel
According to Dwight
or
Jesus on
Fire Island
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and came to dwell in our
neighborhood. And out neighborhood
was not Waverly Place or West 16th Street or Amsterdam Avenue, our
neighborhood as most of us understood that term was the Fire Island Pines. That is where most of the important
events of our lives transpired, and that was where one summer Jesus, the Son of
God, made an appearance.
And it came to pass in those
days that there was a Pines real estate broker named Matthew who was sitting in
his office, and Jesus came to him and said, “Matthew, come follow me.” And Matthew immediately left his office
and followed this man wearing a white sarong.
And Jesus and Matthew walked
down to the beach. And there they
saw Simon, whom the Lord called Rocky (Jesus was not one for giving nicknames,
but when He did, they usually stuck), Andrew (who was never called ‘Andy’),
James (who was never called ‘Jim’) and Jon. And Jesus called to them, and said, “Come
follow me, and I will show you how beautiful the beach can be.” And immediately they picked up their
trash and deposited it in the trashcans provided and followed him.
At the Harbor, they came upon a
DJ named Dwight, who was unloading his music at the piers. Dwight was very excited, because he had
gotten his first job spinning at a party in the Pines, and this could be his Big
Break. Jesus called to him and
said, “Come follow me. For
the music you play is only as good as the sound system available to you. But I will teach you to play a music
that will be forever in the hearts of all who hear.” And Dwight left his music there on the
docks and followed Jesus.
And Jesus and his disciples came
upon Jude, a houseboy, returning from shopping at the Pines Pantry. And Jesus called to Jude and said, “Come
follow me, for my burden is light, and there’s hardly any laundry to do
at my house, and we there is a room prepared for you therein.” And Jude left the groceries he was
carrying there on Fire Island Boulevard and followed Jesus.
Thom and Philip were HIV
prevention educators who were passing out condoms. And Jesus said unto them, “Verily I say unto you, you
give the gift of life, but come and follow me and you will give the gift of
life everlasting.” And Thom
and Philip left their condoms and followed him.
And Jesus also that day called
Avery, a massage therapist, and Julie, Avery’s best friend, and Judas,
who was an instructor at the Pines Gym and was called ‘The Trainer.’
As Jesus and the disciples
traveled through the Pines, he would teach them in parables. They came upon a man who was tending
the garden outside the house that he rented. The man had planted hosta and impatiens, and ferns, and
hibiscus, and buddleia. And Jesus
spake unto the gardener saying, “Sir, why do you plant when you are only
a renter? And many of your plants
are only annuals and will die over the winter.”
“Jesus! Are you crazy?” replied the
gardener? “I live in a
studio apartment on West 12th Street and Greenwich. The only window in my studio looks out
on a brick wall. And it’s a
northern exposure. I live for
this. In October I start planning
my garden for the coming summer.”
And Jesus said to the disciples,
“Truly this man is a servant of the Kingdom of God. He works for beauty, and finds that
beauty is its own reward. No
matter that the beauty of the garden is only of a season, for the joy this man’s
garden brings him will last his whole life.”
And the disciples were sore
amazed, because Jesus spoke as one who really knew his gardening.
Jesus and the Twelve came upon
two men. One man was yelling at
the other saying, “For ten years I’ve put up with this, and I’ve
had it. I can’t turn my back
on you for five minutes and you drag home some drug addled tramp for a
quickie. It’s over. I want you on the next ferry and out of
my life.”
Jesus said to the man who was
being yelled at, “Who is the drug adddled tramp that this man speaks of?” The man being yelled at responded, “It
was just some guy that I met at the beach. Hal was supposed to be at
Bingo. I don’t know what I
do this all the time, but Jesus!
You should have seen the ass on this boy…”
And the man who had caught his
lover cheating said, “You see what I have to put up with? There’s no living with him?”
And Jesus rebuked the man who
had caught his lover cheating, saying, “Buddy, Chill.”
And Jesus looked at the man who
had been caught cheating and said to him, “Who is the love of your life?”
And the man caught cheating
cried out, “He is! I love
that man! I don’t know why I
do these things. I’d do
anything for him. I’d lay
down my life for him. I just wish
I could keep my dick in my pants where it belongs.”
And Jesus looked at the man who
had caught his lover cheating and said, “I really don’t need to
mention your ongoing flirtation with Dieter who sits next to you at Bingo, do I?”
And the man who caught his lover
cheating said to his lover, “I had no idea you still felt that way about
me. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you.
And Jesus said to them, “The
love you have for each other is greater than any anonymous blowjob. It’s going to be a full moon
tonight. You two should take a
walk on the beach, and remember the night you met all those years ago at the
gallery opening, and how you looked at each other and both of you thought, “He’s
the one.”
And the men repented of their
quarrel, and did not quarrel again for another week.
One day, Jesus was walking with
Dwight and Philip and Avery. And
they came upon a Bitchy Queen. The
Bitchy Queen was as one possessed by a demon, and said unto Jesus, “Oh
please. Sarongs are so over.”
And Philip, who could dish the
dirt with the best of them, was about to give it back to the Bitchy Queen, when
Jesus stopped him, and he turned to the Bitchy Queen and said, “Do you
have any idea how you sound? How
do you think your housemates feel when you announce that there are no decent men
at the beach again this year? And why do you think no one wants to go
to Tea with you when all you do is complain about the music and the crowd and
the cocktails? People like you. Underneath it all, you’ve got a
good heart, and your friends see that, and they’re grateful. But you’re really getting on
their nerves lately. What’s
making you so angry lately?”
And the Bitchy Queen was stopped
cold and said, “Jesus! You
really know how to read a person, don’t you? Let me ask you this, Nature Boy. How do I know that all these people are really my friends,
or if they’re just hanging around me because I own a house out here and
they want invitations to come and stay?”
And Jesus said to the Bitchy
Queen, “Does it really matter?
You never used to wonder about that. As a matter of fact, when you bought the place, you thought
how wonderful it would be to spend your summers in the Pines surrounded by your
friends. Most of your friends
wouldn’t be able to do more than day trips if it wasn’t for
you. Don’t think they don’t
appreciate it, because they do.”
And the Bitchy Queen remembered
that indeed, when he bought the house, he thought how it would be so marvelous
to spend summers surrounded by all the people he loved, the only family he had
ever known. And for the rest of
the summer, the music seemed sweeter, and he never questioned the friendship of
his houseguests again.
The Parable of the Tan Lines
It was a day that was gray and
overcast, and it was a Saturday no less, and everyone hates that. Jesus and the disciples went down to
the beach after lunch to sit in the sun.
Simon, who was called Rocky, was wearing his tank top when they were
sitting on the beach.
Jesus said to Rocky, who was
intent on getting a great tan that summer with no tan lines, “Rocky, don’t
you think you’d better remove your shirt? You’re going to get an uneven tan.”
And Rocky said to Jesus, “Oh
Jesus, I wish I could get some tanning in today. But there’s no sun.”
Jesus said to Rocky, “Take
James’ SPF 40 sunblock and slather it on your left arm and your right
leg.”
But Rocky did no such thing, for
he knew that Jesus was right.
And Jesus taught the Twelve
saying, “The Kingdom of God is like the sun today. It is obscured by the clouds. But even though we cannot see it, it’s
with us still. Let those who want
to tan, tan. And let those who don’t
want to burn, cover themselves with sunblock. For the Kingdom of God will work its way into your heart
whether you are aware of it or not.”
And Jesus said to them, “The
time will come when you will seek the Son of Man, but you will see him not. But even though you cannot find him, he
will still be there with you, and you will feel the effects he has upon you
always.”
Later, the disciples understood that
Jesus was referring to His departure from the Pines.
There was a man who had a
virus. The man’s friends
came to Jesus, asking that Jesus heal the man. Jesus came to the man sitting on the deck of his house. Jesus asked the man why he was so sad.
“Oh Jesus,” said the
man, “Do you really want to know?
‘Sad’ doesn’t cover it. My viral load is skyrocketing, and I have no T cells
left. I’ve been through all
the therapies out there, and my doctor says I’m out of options. It’s just a matter of time.”
And Jesus said to the man with
the virus, “Yes, you’re right. It’s just a matter of time. You’ve got to act fast. Go out tonight, and fall in love.”
“Just like that?”
said the man.
“Just like that,”
said Jesus. “You’ve
been around the block a few times.
You know what life is like when you’re in love. Head over heels in love. Every day lasts a lifetime.
“Listen to me,” said
Jesus, “Never turn your back on love. Especially not now, when you need it so bad. None of us knows how long we have. And true, you probably don’t have
as much time as a lot of people, but all the more reason to open up your heart.”
That night, the man with the
virus went out and met a man and fell in love. And the man he fell in love with loved him. And the man he fell in love with also
had the virus. And there was no
end to the love they found in each other.
Everyone in the Pines was
talking about Jesus, and the miracles he performed and the things that he
said. And, of course, the
sarong. And it came to pass that a
great crowd of people came to Jesus’ house and wanted to see them. And it got to be dinner time, and Jesus
said, “We should feed them.
What do we have in the house?”
And Jude said to Jesus, “All
we have is some leftover salmon from dinner last night, a few ears of corn, a
tomato or two, a jar of jalapeno peppers, and some crusts of bread. We hardly have enough to feed
ourselves, little less all those people.
I meant to go to the Pantry today but I had this great idea for where we
could hang that hammock so I did that and…”
And Jesus said to Jude, “Take
the salmon and the corn and the tomatoes and use the milk and prepare a nice
chowder. Help me dice these olives
and we’ll make bruschetta to serve with it using the crusts of
bread.
Julie and Jon remembered they
had brought out some blueberries, and they used some of the Half-and-Half that
Thom liked in his coffee and made a chilled soup that they spiked with some
Cointreau and garnished with orange zest.
Dwight found that although Jude
had thrown away the Mesclun, a lot of it was still good, so he picked through
the mesclun, and brought the mesclun that was good to Jesus. Jesus said unto Dwight, “That’s
great. Plate it and make a nice
vinaigrette. And don’t use
the cheap balsamic, that’s for grilling.”
When the disciples told the
crowd that dinner was on the way, many of them ran home and tried to find
something nice to bring. When the
table was ready, they had tri-colored seafood mousse, chicken satay, Thai
cucumber salad, some amazing chevre wrapped in roast beef, cornichons and lardoons,
grilled peaches stuffed with crabmeat and crème fraiche, salade nicoise,
and Chilean sea bass in a grapefruit seviche.
Avery fixed a plate for Dwight
so he could spin while people ate.
No one could remember such a fabulous dinner party. The food was great, the music was spot
on, and everybody was there. Nobody stuck to their diets that night,
but there was still plenty left over.
The disciples were amazed and
said, “Jesus! You really
know how to throw a party!”
Jesus replied, saying, “We
are all of us called to love one another as God loves us. And God will never turn us away. Remember that whenever you share a meal with friends, I am
there in the midst of you.
Hospitality is the virtue of the Pines, and if it were the virtue of the
whole world, then there would only be friendship where now there is so much
loneliness, hatred, and despair.
Do not let too much time go by without opening up your home and your
heart to people.”
Jesus was exhausted after
dinner, and he took a walk. The
disciples followed him. They went
to the meatrack, which was quiet that night since everyone was at the
party.
Andrew said to Jesus, “Lord,
this has been such a wonderful night.
I feel like we should pray or something. It’s been so long since I talked to God I’m not
sure how to do that. Teach me to
pray, Jesus.”
And Jesus said to him, “When
you pray, don’t waste your time imagining who you’re talking
to. For all things are in God, and
God is in all things. You might
like to think that God is a lot like your grandfather, and he is. But he’s also a lot like your
grandmother, and your mother, and your father. God is in all things, and everything is in God. So stop trying to pin God down.
“Think about all the
people who have hurt you. Think
about exactly what that person did to you and why it hurt. Then forgive that person, and look on
them with love. You’ll find
that the hurt goes away.
“Then, think about all the
people that you have hurt, in ways
big and small. Don’t beat
yourself up. That’s not what
this is about. Think of the person
you’ve hurt, and ask to be forgiven for hurting them. Look for something to love about each
of those people, and promise yourself that the next time you see each one of
them, you’ll think of that thing you love.
“Then, say to God, ‘Lord,
please let me always be as happy as I am right now. No more and no less.
And Lord, please let me always be as beautiful as I am now. No more and no less.”
Andrew raised his hand.
Jesus said, “Yes,
Andrew. You have a question about
that?”
And Andrew said to Jesus, “Well,
what if I’m praying and I’m not happy? Or what if I’m praying and I had a really rough night
last night and I’m not beautiful?” Do I really want to pray that if I’m not happy or
beautiful?”
Jesus replied, “Good
question, Andrew. I’m glad
you asked that. First off, figure
out what’s keeping you from being happy. What could it be?
You’ve got friends.
You’ve got the sunshine.
You have the beach. You
have so many wonderful parties like tonight’s party to look forward
to. You’ve got me. And you’ll always have all of
those things. How could you not be
happy? And beautiful? Andrew, you will always be beautiful. I see the beauty in you, and so does
everyone else here, and it’s never gonna fade.”
Before Jesus could continue, the
crowd had come looking for him.
They found him in the Meatrack, and they gathered around Jesus, and
asked that he teach them. The
Meatrack was dark. They couldn’t
see Jesus, but they could hear them.
And Jesus preached a sermon to them, saying:
Blessed is the Body. Blessed is the blood that courses through our veins and blessed is the air that fills our lungs. Blessed are the hairy parts and the smooth parts, the hard parts and the soft parts. Blessed is the body that feels the warmth of the sun in the summertime and the bit e of the cold in the wintertime.
Blessed
are the bodies of others. The heft
of them. The brute physicality of
them. The salty taste of sweat. The good feeling of skin on skin. Blessed are lips that kiss ours and
fingers that caress. Blessed are
the young bodies and the old bodies, the fat bodies and the bony bodies, the
hairy bodies and the smooth bodies.
Blessed
is the need we have to be touched and held tasted and slapped and kissed by
others, blessed is this hunger we have for the touch of another. It is a beautiful part of God’s
plan that we all have this need for the bodies of others, a need so strong that
without it we would die, because in getting this need met, we meet their needs,
too.
When Jesus had said this, he vanished. And they all looked for him in the Meatrack, but they didn’t find him. But they did find each other.
Late one afternoon, Rocky,
Andrew, James, and Jon went to the beach.
The sky became overcast, and Jon said, “It looks like it’s
going to storm. We better head
back.”
But no sooner had they begun to
pick up their blankets, towels, and magazines when the wind picked up and it
started to rain. By the time they
reached the boards, it was pouring.
They ran and took cover under the entrance of a house.
While they were huddled there,
hoping the storm would blow over, Rocky saw Jesus coming towards them. Rocky said, “Jesus! You’ll get soaked.”
Jesus rebuked Rocky saying, “Don’t
you get it? Are you that thick?”
Jesus came to where the
disciples were and held out his hand to Rocky. Rocky took Jesus’ hand, and Jesus pulled Rocky out
into the rain with him. Rocky
said, “Oh Lord! My hair!”
Jesus laughed at Rocky, and
said, “Rocky! C’mon,
Buddy! This is great! It’s a warm summer rain! It feels wonderful!”
Rocky took a deep breath and
realized that it did feel wonderful.
The other disciples came out into the rain, too. “Oh my God!” said James, “I
love this!” James hugged
Jesus, and Jesus hugged James. All
the disciples got into the act.
There they all were, getting soaking wet while they hugged and kissed
and said how great if felt. As
they walked down the pat, Jon said, “Hey Jesus! Since you like getting wet so much…” and Jon
shook the trunk of a tree when Jesus was right under the branches. Jesus was doused by the water coming
off the branches. Jesus was really wet now.
Jesus, having some fun at Rocky’s expense, yelled, “Oh! My hair!” They all laughed. Even Rocky
laughed.
Back home, they got out of their
wet clothes, Jude made them some hot chocolate, and they sat around wrapped in
blankets talking.
Not everyone liked Jesus. There were four people (no need to name
names) who thought that even though Jesus thought he was all that, he wasn’t. But one of these was Nicodemus, who
wondered to himself if Jesus really was all that.
One night, Nicodemus came over
to Jesus’ house. All the
disciples were out and only Jesus was home.
Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Everybody
seems to think you’re all that.
All of my friends say that you definitely are not all that.”
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “And
what do you think?”
“Jesus!” said
Nicodemus, “Now that I’m sitting here talking to you like this, I
have to admit that you’re all that.”
Nicodemus continued, “So
what’s the answer? What does
it all mean, Jesus?”
Jesus looked at Nicodemus and
said to him, “Nicodemus, don’t be afraid.”
Nicodemus said, “What? That’s it? That’s all there is to it?”
Jesus said again, “Nicodemus,
don’t be afraid.”
Nicodemus said, “But I… I mean…”
And Jesus said, “No,
listen to me, Nicodemus. Don’t
be afraid. You don’t have to
be afraid anymore. There’s
nothing and no one for you to be afraid of. Don’t you see?
Everything is good. There’s
nothing to be afraid of. Don’t
be afraid.”
“I…” Nicodemus
began, “I don’t need to be afraid anymore…”
“That’s right,”
said Jesus, “Now you’re getting it.”
“Jesus!” said
Nicodemus, “You’re right!
I don’t have to be afraid anymore. I’m not afraid!”
Nicodemus started to laugh, and
then he started to cry. For the
first time in his life, he wasn’t afraid.
“I’m not
afraid! I’m not afraid
anymore!” said Nicodemus.
“Nicodemus,” said
Jesus.
“Yeah?” said
Nicodemus.
“Nicodemus,” said
Jesus, “You are definitely all that.”
One day, Jesus said to Dwight,
Rocky, and Jon, “Let’s go down to the beach.”
Dwight, Rocky, and Jon really
didn’t feel like going, but they went anyway. They sat on the beach, while Jesus went in the water. Soon, it seemed like there were two older
men in the water talking to Jesus.
But they couldn’t be sure.
Then, Jesus and the two men came
out of the water and walked up the beach.
“Jesus! You’re a hot man!” blurted
Dwight. The other disciples
agreed. Suddenly, they couldn’t
take their eyes off Jesus. “Yeah,”
said Rocky, “You’re… like… beautiful.”
Jesus smiled, and the two men he
was with smiled. “You’re beautiful, too, Dwight<” said
Jesus, “And so are you, Rocky.
And you are beautiful, too, Jon.
When we’re here, on the beach, hearing the waves roll in, naked
under the sun… That’s when we’re always beautiful. We are beautiful children of God.”
“You are so right!”
said Jon, “And your friends are pretty beautiful, too,” said Rocky.
Jesus introduced his friends,
Abe and Isaac, to Dwight, Rocky, and Jon.
All five men stood there, naked under the sun, smiling and laughing and
talking, and thinking that the other four were the most beautiful men he’d
ever seen in his life.
The disciples were talking with each other. Jesus heard them and asked, “What are you talking about?”
Thom answered Jesus, saying, “Lord,
we were saying that the price you have to pay for a share is just
ridiculous. Nobody can afford
it. It’s ridiculous.”
But Matthew said, “But
people do manage to pay the rents.
It’s not like there’s a lot of vacancies. In fact, there’s always a waiting
list. What do you say, how much
should someone pay for a share?”
Jesus said unto the Twelve, “You
should figure out how much you can afford to spend and then double it. Or triple it. And that’s how much you should spend on your share.”
The disciples were sore
confused, and then Julie said, “Jesus! What are you saying?
That someone should go into debt just to have a share in the Pines?”
And Jesus said, “That’s
exactly what I’m saying.
What is the price of attaining the Kingdom of God? It can’t be too high. In fact, if it were low, if it were
only a few copper coins, then in those early weekends in June, you would say, “It’s
too cold, and it’s probably going to rain. I’ll go out to the Pines next weekend. And then, you would decide to stay in
the City for Pride. And then, there
would come the invitations from people who have houses upstate that you would
want to accept. And there would be
weddings and parties and great DJs and weekends when you really were too busy
at work, and the whole summer would go by and you would never make the trip out
to the island. But if you maxed
out your credit cards to afford a share on Fire Island, then you better believe
you’re going to get out here every blessed chance you get.
“Give all you have, and
then double that,” said Jesus, and you will be rewarded a hundred fold
for your sacrifice.”
That night, Jesus and the
disciples went to Tea because Dwight was spinning. But the vibe at Tea was really bad. Everyone seemed really down. Philip said to Jesus, “Jesus! This place is dead. Let’s leave.”
But Jesus went into the DJ booth
and took up the mike, and Jesus said to the people, “Yo Party
People! Check out the pecs on that
bartender! Anyone who thinks that Dimitri
the bartender isn’t an incredibly hot man should go. Should leave right now.”
No one moved, but everyone
turned to hear what Jesus was saying.
And Jesus continued. He pointed to an older man with a large
beer gut. “Behold this
Daddy, this lover of life! This
man of strength and character!
Anyone who doesn’t think this is one of the hottest daddies you’ve
ever seen in your life should go.”
And again, no one moved, as
though they had been turned to stone.
And Jesus saw the Man with the
Virus who he had healed, who was there with the man he loved, and Jesus pointed
to them and said, “Look at those two! Look how hot they are for each other! Everyone who doesn’t think that
there’s no greater love in the world than what they have should leave
right now. Just head right out
that door.”
Like stones, the crowd stood
around without moving.
And Jesus saw a boy with an
amazing ass, and said, “Anybody who doesn’t want a chance to take
this boy home should leave right now.”
No one left. But many of the people at Tea were now
starting to move to the music.
Jesus saw this and said, “Yo! How about those Mad Phat Beats that the
DJ is laying down! Everybody who
doesn’t think that the DJ is laying down Mad Phat beats, you should head
for the door.”
“Let those who have ears
hear and let those who have eyes see!” shouted Jesus, “There is no
better music, there are no hotter men, there is no better crowd, and there is
no greater love than there is in this place, this sacred place, this holy
place. The Kingdom of God is
within you, and within all of us!
Let’s party like we mean it!
Everyone who doesn’t love life, head for the door!”
And a mighty roar went up from
the crowd. And all the people at
Tea grooved to the music, and cruised, and fell in love, and couldn’t
believe all the beautiful men who were at Tea, and how great the music was and
how they had to get that DJ for their next party, and they all prayed that for
the rest of their lives they would never be happier than they were at this
moment, and that they would never be more beautiful.
And a cheer went up from the
crowd, saying, “Hail Jesus!
King of the Pines!
After the Triumphant Tea, Jesus
and the disciples went back to their house. Avery and James and Andrew had found a cookbook that morning
called “The Sublime Joy of Baking Bread” and had not gone to the
beach that day, but had spent the day baking bread. Jesus suggested that they share the loaf of bread that
Avery, James, and Andrew had baked, and that they open up a nice bottle of
wine. So Jesus and the Twelve sat
on the deck by the pool, and Jesus took the bread and said, “The time is
almost come for the Son of Man to be taken away from the Pines. This wonderful bread that we are sharing
is like my body. Tonight we are
celebrating the greatest miracle of all, the miracle of friendship. Whenever friends break bread together,
I will be there with them.
And Jesus took the glass of
wine, and said, “And this wine is like the lifeblood of our time
together. This is the love that
has flowed among us this summer.
Love that couldn’t be contained, but was pouring out, washing over
us, carrying us away.”
“All of us have become one
in the sharing of bread and wine.
Our longings and our pain and our insecurities and doubts and fears are
shared among us, and thus become shared burdens, and not more than any one of
us could bear alone. We have each
other, always.
“And the time is coming
that I will leave you and go away from here. When I go, a part of me will die. It will break my heart.
“After I am gone, you must
take this good news, this message of life, into all the world. Each of you must be for others what I
have been for you. Here in the
Pines, we have sunlight, and love and laughter, friendship and music and meals
taken together. But this can be a cold and lonely world, and your mission will
be to bring the Pines to wherever you are, no matter how far you are from the
Pines.”
When they had finished the bread
and the wine, Jesus went out onto the deck. He asked Rocky, Philip and Julie to come with him. Jesus prayed, saying, “Father, I
don’t want to leave this place and these people. You didn’t tell me it was going
to be like this. ‘A summer
at the beach,’ you said.
This was so much more than a summer at the beach. I didn’t know that there would be
so much love here.
“But summer is over. And the time has come. Not your will but mine.”
Jesus found that Rocky, Philip,
and Julie had fallen asleep. When
he woke them and said, “C’mon, let’s go inside,” Rocky
was ashamed and said, “Jesus!
I was awake! I swear! I just had my eyes closed.”
And Jesus said, “Rock, you
shouldn’t like about things like that. But that’s you.
Before too much time passes, you will deny how glorious this was. Someone back in the City will ask you, ‘So
how was Fire Island?’ and you’ll say, ‘Oh, you know, it was
nice.’ But don’t be
too hard on yourself about this, Rocky.
Some things can’t be explained, you just have to experience it.”
The next morning, Jon and Rocky
were having breakfast, and Philip came out and said, “Jesus is gone. His room is empty.” Jon and Rocky went to Jesus’
room, and found that indeed it was empty.
The disciples were very upset.
“How could he leave without saying goodbye?” Then Judas came back from his morning
run.
“Judas,” said Jon, “Jesus
is gone!”
“I know,” said
Judas, “I helped him pack before I went out for my run.”
Rocky rebuked Judas and said, “How
could you! You didn’t wake
us?”
Judas answered him and said, “Well
last night he told us he was going away.
What did you think that was all about?”
“Oh, right,” said
Rocky.
Thom, who hadn’t had
coffee yet and so wasn’t good for much, said, “No way. I can’t believe that. I bet he just went over to Mary and
Martha’s house for breakfast.
I won’t believe he’s left until we search every inch of the
Pines.”
But then, in came Julie with
Jesus’ friends Mary and Martha.
When they told Julie and Mary and Martha what had happened, Julie replied,
“I know. I got up this
morning, and found that the door of Jesus’ room was open, but there was
no one inside. I thought he might
be at Mary and Martha’s having breakfast, so I ran over there. He wasn’t so the three of us went
down to the dock. And there was
Jesus, getting on the Ferry. So we
all took the Ferry across the bay with him to Sayville.”
“It was so cool,”
said Martha. We met his
mother. She was waiting for him in
Sayville. She’s really
nice. But so young! Not much older than he is really.”
All of the disciples were
hungry, but nobody felt like making brunch. So they all went down to the harbor and went to the
restaurant, sitting together on the Upper Deck. None of them were speaking. They were all sort of pushing their frittatas around on
their plates, looking across the Great South Bay towards Sayville.
And then a sweet breeze blew up
off the bay.
And the breeze touched all of
them. They looked at each other,
smiling.
And Rocky said, “Screw
this.”
And Dwight said, “Exactly. What has he been telling us all
summer? We have each other. We have this place, one of the most beautiful
places in the world.”
Julie chimed in, saying, “And
just like he said, I almost feel like he never left us. Like he’s still here.”
“You know what we need to
do?” asked James, “We need to have a party. Tonight.”
“Oh yeah!” said
Philip, “We have got to have a
party!”
Jon said, “We need a
theme. We’ve got to have a
theme.”
“Let’s have a sarong
party!” said Jude, “He’d love that.”
“Absolutely!” Judas
agreed, “A sarong party.
That’s perfect.”
“We need to invite
everybody. No one not invited,”
said Matthew.
“If we write out the
invitations this morning, we can drop them in mailboxes this afternoon, and
that should give people plenty of time to get sarongs,” said Thom.
“With all twelve of us
working on this, we can pull this off,” said James.
“Let’s go to the
beach,” said Andrew. “I’ll
run back to the house and get every scrap of paper I can find and something to
write with, and we can sit on the beach while we write out the invitations.”
“I have bunches of card
stock that I use to advertise massage therapy services. It’s in my room. We can use that,” said
Avery.
The party was great. Even though Jesus wasn’t there,
everybody swore that Jesus was there.