Hypocrites
By
Michael Muhammad
Michael Muhammad
Copyright 2010 Michael Muhammad
Discover other titles by Michael Muhammad at Smashwords
“Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Thy Name, the righteous shall compass me about, for thou shall deal bountiful with me.”
PSALMS 142:7
Everything David owned sat in the shoe box at the foot of his bunk. He learned early on in life to travel light. As a little boy he moved more times than he cared to think about and once again, it was time for him to move. This time, he was leaving prison.
David's mother died when he was very young and he never knew his father. None of his other family members could deal with the strong willed boy so they shipped him off to the state home for boys. As a result he was shipped dozens of times to as many different foster homes in his young life and in most cases, he would never be able to take the things that had been “loaned” to him or they would always "get lost". So David would never allow himself to get attached to things.
David's attachment to people was about the same. No one got close to him. The only person David ever trusted was his mother and she promised that she would never leave him alone. So when she died he vowed to never trust another soul again, especially women. A life of mistrust void of love makes a man hard on the outside and cold on the inside. David grew to be one of the hardest men to ever walk the streets.
David had not seen the streets in over ten years. How had the world changed since he first went to prison? Would he be able to adapt? Would he be able to stay out this time? All of these questions raced through his mind as he sat at the edge of his bunk waiting to finally be free.
Glancing up at his reflection in the stainless steel mirror on the wall in his cell he knew one thing for sure. He would die before ever coming back to this hell that he has called home for the past ten years.
9,000 MILES AWAY
“For every one who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him.
LEVITICUS 20:9
Absalom grew restless sitting in the hospital waiting room. He hated waiting. He had very little patience and he wanted every thing right now. As fast as he could think of it, he wanted it. And for the most part he got what he wanted. His father would warn him over and over that his need to acquire patience was ever important as his need to eat. And if he didn’t learn patience he would never be a great leader.
But Absalom hated his father. And now, he sat there waiting for his father to die so he could be King. Great or not, he would be the leader of a country his father had built with his own hands. He would neither need patience or a great war to accomplish it. All he needed was a few more days. As the doctor put it, “He has but a little time left". The thought brought a smile to Absalom.
Absalom would be done with his father once and for all. He could finally live and rule the country as he himself saw fit. Absalom was one of the King’s oldest children and in his own mind, the next in line to take over once his father was “out of the way”. He could have easily been a model or major super star. He possessed extra ordinary beauty and the people loved to look at him.
Beauty can at times be a blessing or a curse. With Absalom it was a deadly tumor. A dark spot on his heart that spread through his entire being. He was so blinded by his own beauty he thought that his beauty alone made him God’s choice to be the next King. And naturally a better leader than his father who he was much better looking than. He never considered his father to be one of the greatest men who ever lived.
In the very next room, Absalom’s father, the King, lay in his hospital bed hooked up to dozens of tubes and monitors. The King stared at the blank spot on the ceiling seeing the future of his country. He sighed nearly coming to tears. He loved his people. But some times bad things had to happen in order for the best things to take place.
The King knew he was dying. Every man must taste of death. He knew this and accepted it. But the doctors were wrong. He commanded his body and soul. He would leave when he was ready. He was not ready. He had unfinished business to take care of. The doctors told him at the most he would have a few days. With a straight face he lowered his head and they would leave his room.
Many had tried to kill the King since he began his mission. He has survived nearly fifty assassination attempts during his thirty five year rule of the Kingdom. He worked out religiously and only ate the finest of fruits and vegetables which were grown at a secret location under the direct supervision of his closest friends and family members.
The water he drinks is drawn from a hidden well deep at the bottom of his palace. This water, once taken from the well by one of his own daughters, went through a purifying process so rigorous that it often took days to get the water to a level they felt safe in giving it to him. The King had many powerful enemies but he was a wise man loved by his family. And his whole family had one purpose in life. To keep him alive.
Except for Absalom. The King shook his head at the thought of it. How could a son like that come from his loins? The King knew early on that Absalom was not fit to be King over his land. At that time he didn’t possess any psychic powers or the like, but a very Wise Man once told him that he would soon have many children.
“You will have daughters who will worship the ground you walk on as holy.
You will have three sons. Two of your sons will die at the hands of their brother. One of which, will also try to kill you while the other will become one of the greatest kings to ever rule in the history of kings".
It has been almost seven months since the King buried Mustapha. Mustapha was his baby boy. The youngest of all his children. Mustapha was loved by everyone. One day, the King thought, Mustapha would grow to be the greatest of kings. It had been nearly forty years since the Wise Man made the prophecy about his future sons. Foolish at the time, the King thought the Wise Man had been off. The King had only two sons. So he had to be wrong. But when the King fell violently ill at the beginning of the year, it was on his death bed when the words of the wise man came back to him.
The King ordered extra security on all of his children and grandchildren. The safety of his other children was not his main concern. As a way of not festering any hidden envy and jealousy amongst his children, he claimed to worry for the safety of all just to protect one, Mustapha. But even he, in all of his wisdom and power, could not avert what was meant to be. Mustapha was killed in an explosion three days after the King had fallen ill.
“Have you tried My Servant Job? A Perfect and Upright Man. There is none like him in the earth. One that fears God and turneth away from evil.”
JOB 1:8
The explosion, the death of Mustapha, and the sixty others who were present was currently being investigated. The investigation, led by Absalom, thus far had turned up nothing. Not one single suspect. The King fought hard to hold his temper in check as he watched reporters praise Absalom for his tireless work in tracking down the murderers of his brother, the kings son. The King knew better. He knew who killed his son. He also knew who tried to kill him this time. What he didn’t know he was about to find out. “Who and Where is my other son?”
Silas loved everything about Ava. At 25, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met in his life. At five five she was small in the eyes of most, but the size of her heart rivaled that of any woman he had ever met. With a dark carmel skin and beatiful brown eyes, she had hair that came down to her shoulders which sometimes she wore curly, sometimes she wore straight. Not only was she beautiful, she was a soldier like him, for the King. That, he truly loved. They were part of the kings top secret elite Crescent. They were soldiers who answered only to the King. No one even knew the Crescent existed except the King himself. He handpicked them at an early age of six years old and began training them all himself.
Espionage, treason, corruption, all of these events were common in the different agencies of the kingdom but not in the Crescent. It was non existent. The Kings enemies could not penetrate that which does not appear to be there. If you did have the rare experience to come face to face with the Crescent on a mission from the King that was probably the last person you ever saw in your life.
The Crescent's creed was quick thinking, fast moving, right down to the modern times. On this day they moved with an even greater sense of urgency than ever before. Their King had summoned them. "At once," was his orders. In all of her years working for the King, which was all of her life, she had never been "summoned" by him directly over the phone with such urgency.
"He must be losing his mind," Ava thought to herself. She would never say it aloud and she felt bad for thinking it so greatly was her loyalty to him. The King is not at the palace. He is at a hospital with no secure lines, why did he call me himself? Maybe he is dying at this very second, and there is one last mission I must complete for him. Whatever it is I will do it. I will die for you my King. She checked her weapon.
It was not that the King never calls Ava. They talked every day. But never about Crescent business over any phone, period. She is like a daughter to him. Her father served side by side with the King during the revolution nearly fifty years ago. Her father and the King had been best friends. After taking over the corrupt government that was systematically killing their people they freed everyone enslaved by the Enemy.
After the King freed the people from the brutal bondage of the enemy, the newly freed people needed a leader. One who would never sell them out or betray them. This kind of man could not be elected at that time. The enemies corrupt puppet government had just been overthrown and while most of the corrupt officials were killed. a few got away. Even among the newly freed men and women there were still spies. Every time you have any change in life, there are always those who are not sure if the change is permanent. The enemy always finds those doubters and they are eventually turned into spies.
The soldiers decided amongst themselves who would rule at that time. It was an unanimous decision. There was only one man who everyone trusted completely, the King. Had it not been for the King’s vision and His burning desire to see his people free, he would have never picked up a weapon against his own master. When the King was only sixteen years old, on the exact date and time the Wise Man appointed, the young slave entered the estate of the man who owned him, and murdered him.
The thought of that made Ava want to vomit. One human being owning another as property. To brutally beat another human being with whips and chains for the sheer pleasure of causing pain to another human being. Even a man as great as the King. The King never talked about the pain and torture he endured under the evil slave master. The look on his face said it all.
Ava's father was the first man to be freed by the King. He lived on the estate near where the King killed his own master. At the time her father was so full of fear of his own master that even after the King killed his own master right in front of him he was afraid to leave with the King. He told Ava that the King held the weapon to his throat and told him he would die a slave or be free, today. He chose life.
After the King freed Ava's father he taught him to fight, taught him to be fearless, and together, side by side, they built an army and took over the land that was once theirs.
The King named Ava. When she was born, he was there. She was born on the same day as one of his daughters. One of Ava's fathers greatest desire would be that she would be named by the King. The King so loved her father that his any wish would be granted. Ava was not a name that the King would have ever come up with on his own. Although he has not seen the Wise Man in over fifty years, they still communicated through other means.
The wise man taught the King for three and a half years, day and night, when he was still a slave. He knew the sound of the Wise Man's voice as a man knows his own voice. And he would hear Him often. But with Ava it was just a name written on the mirror of the hospital restroom wall, AVA. He knew at once who wrote it, and thus we have Ava.
She learned how to talk, walk, play, and all of the normal things children pick up at a normal pace. By age six she knew what she was born to do, serve the King. At age six, months past her sixth birthday the King began training her along with the rest of the Crescent.
The entire Crescent is nothing more than the children of the King’s closest friends which number into the thousands. He freed an entire country of twenty million people. He could very well have over twenty million in the Crescent. But he chose only nineteen hundred. Nineteen is the number of the Wise Man.
Ava grew up as any girl would grow up in the country. Because her father fought side by side with the King, he was named Minister of Defense and he served faithfully until his assassination nearly ten years ago. Ava normally worked at the King’s palace as the King’s secretarial assistant, as a cover of course and to this very day she holds that position.
The King loves and trusts all of his daughters and he never treated Ava any less than he would any of his daughters. But the King never trusted Absalom. He still found ways to love him, but the trust was not there. He never told Ava this, but she picked it up as well as the rest of his daughters. You don’t spend that kind of time around one that wise and be a fool.
Absalom the exception. Ava always thought Absalom played a major part in Mustapha’s death. It was her, who the King called to protect him. She was on her way to his apartment when she saw the smoke billowing from his building. Ava was the one who had to tell the King that his favorite son was dead. She never got over this. She still feels she let the King down.
As much as the King knew of the events that had to and will take place, he never told Ava Mustapha’s murder was not her fault. He knows her pain, he knows her loyalty, and he knows her love for him. But certain triggers work better than others. One day she will discover the truth. He will make sure of it. But for now, he must use her emotion, her passion, her love for him, to find his other son.
The King called Ava himself. She didn’t think he knew how to use a phone, but then again, he is the wisest man she had ever met in her life. He can’t be going crazy. “At once" was what he said. That meant right now, ten minutes ago to Ava.
Silas marveled at how the timing of the King’s call was most perfect. It was during the country’s pray/break time. Throughout the whole of the country, at certain times of the day, a call went out over loudspeakers announcing the call to pray/break. Five times a day, these calls rang out over the entire country. No matter what your religion, your profession, no matter where you were, you stopped doing anything. Businesses allowed employees to stop and pray or just take a break.
Islam was the major religion in the land before the enemy came and enslaved the people nearly four hundred years prior. They had discovered massive deposits of diamonds and gold in the land and they had to have it. They also had to have workers to go into the earth and retrieve it.
Islam means complete submission to the Will of God. When a person submits his or her will to do the will of God, they are called Muslims. The occupiers came and nearly crushed the religion from the people’s spirit and minds replacing it with another religion that they made up. They created a religion that promised a Heaven after you died if you obeyed your master.
After the great revolution only a handful of the millions of people remembered the religion of Islam. But with the help of the Wise Man, Islam was re-established. Of course many did not believe or accept Islam. Some gave up on God all together. But the King was all so wise and all so just.
The Muslim must pray at least five times a day. The King understood everyone should pray regardless of what they believed. So instead of forcing Islam on anybody, he just made it mandatory that each and every citizen of the land take time out to pray or take a break.
Many wars had been fought over religion. Many families had been destroyed over religion, or the lack of knowledge thereof. The King’s people were completely destroyed and divided during the four hundred years they were enslaved. The last thing he wanted to do was divide the people any more with religion.
The King spoke over fourteen languages fluently and he studied every religion on the planet. The more he studied the religions of the earth, he learned that they all came from the same source. God. He never thought one religion better than the other. One religion for one people while a different religion, in a different language, for another people. He likened it to cook books. There are cookbooks written in English and cookbooks written in Russian. If the Russian uses the cookbook, and cooks, he gets the same results as the one being used in America, in the English version. It was even reported that he knew the languages of the birds. Ava had seen him on many occasions communicating with the birds. Birds loved him, and so did she.
Travel in any motor vehicle was strictly prohibited during pray/break time. Those who didn’t pray meditated. Or sat down to think. Silence was very welcome at this time. And cars, planes, etc were too noisy. If you did see a car at this time, it was a government vehicle. Not even the police could drive during this time. Crime in the kings country was non existent. There were many terrorists’ attacks by enemies, but zero crime. If you were attacked during pray/break time, you prayed that you lived till the break was over, because there wouldn’t be any vehicles on the road to pick you up. Thus making Ava's trip to the hospital ever fast.
As the car pulled up to the hospital five armed royal guardsmen approached with weapons. There was a slight rise in Ava's body temperature due to her anger which she quickly regretted. The King taught her better. The rise was not due to her fear, but more so her anger. She could have quickly killed all five of the King’s guardsmen by herself. "Why so few"? She thought. This is the King of one of the greatest countries on the planet. And only five guardsmen come out to the car.
Of course the usual precautions were taken. A five mile radius around the hospital was set up. They went through the checkpoint to even get near the hospital. But you can never have enough security for one of the greatest men who ever lived. Ava got out of the car and all of the guardsmen knew her. They didn’t check her for weapons. This too, pissed her off.
The King warned Ava that a person could turn hypocrite overnight. Not her, she would tell him. The King would give examples of when a wife would go to sleep in love with her husband and wake up in the morning not loving him. The husband loves his wife to death one moment, the next he cant stand her. The company man who loves his company one day, the next he hates his boss and is trying to sabotage the very company he claims he loves. The preacher who preaches God one week, the next he hates God.
In all of these instances the King would say, the wife never really loved the husband, the husband the wife, the employee his company, or the preacher God. They all pretended to love. They said from their lips what was not in their hearts and when certain pressures, situations, stresses were applied, what was really in the hearts of these individuals always comes out. There would be no place to hide their hypocrisy. Ava knew the lesson the King was trying to impart to her was true. But, not her she thought. She would never be a hypocrite to her leader, teacher, and guide.
They checked Silas, who was posing as her driver and never got out of the car. Silas is one of the bravest, greatest warriors Ava had ever seen in battle which is why she loved being paired with him. She was not worried about him even as he had no weapons. He is a weapon of mass destruction.
Silas's father too was one of the first few saved by the King. Silas was considered one of the Elite of the Kings Crescent. While it was never spoken about, Silas's secret function was that of “Killer Hunter”. When anybody from the Kingdom is killed unjustly anywhere in the earth, Silas was dispatched to the area to investigate and report. If the report came back positive for foul play, He would be ordered to execute the Kings judgment on the perpetrators of the crime.
A plane crashed once in Italy killing all four hundred passengers on board. Six of which, were residents of the Kingdom. The King dispatched Silas to investigate and he discovered that while the six passengers were not the targets of the sabotaged plane, they did in fact die because of foul play. The King issued his judgment and over the period of two weeks every single person involved in the planning, execution, and cover up of the plane crash disappeared.
Ava brought her gun into the hospital for one selfish reason. To shoot Absalom if the order to kill him was given by the King. The King would never give such an order but a girl can only hope right? She was in love with Mustapha. At only eighteen he was more of a man than any man she had ever met. She would marry him one day if the King permitted. But that day never came. If she told the King how she felt about Mustapha, he may still be alive. If she would have told Mustapha, he might still be alive.
ATLANTA
David hated good byes. He had too many of them growing up. He'd seen too many of them switching foster homes. Out of boredom one day, David looked up the word "foster". He was referred to as a "foster" child his whole life. He wanted to know what the word meant. The only definition that made sense was "To bring up, to nurture".
In every home David lived, he was always the darkest of the children. His complexion is black. A black so dark that they would mock him for being "blurple" a mixture of black and purple. He hated his complexion his whole life because he was taught to. In every home he ever lived they mocked his skin color. He got the worst treatment. He was beaten without mercy, ridiculed, scorned, mocked, on a daily basis. He was made to believe that his color was a badge of dishonor.
When he was sixteen he was molested. He was beaten so badly that they thought he was going to die. He lay in a coma for six weeks. Or so they thought. He wasn’t really in a coma, he needed time to heal. No matter how bad you hated little black boys, you were not crazy enough to walk into a hospital and kill one.
When he “came out” of his pretend coma, he pretended to not remember anything. The man who brutalized David thought he got away with it. That was the first time David killed a man. A few days later they found the charred remains of a missing senator from a neighboring state. David's foster mother at the time was a prostitute. Most of his foster homes consisted of drug dealers, addicts, felons, murderers, etc. "To bring up, to nurture".
The overhead light in David’s cell started blinking. Since it was daytime he barely noticed it. The door on his cell buzzed open, he reached for his box and left his cell for the last time never looking back. He would be leaving prison. A place he called home for the past ten years of his life. The walk down the corridor was the longest he could have remembered. There was no one to say goodbye too. Everyone was on the yard. Outside time for inmates.
They either feared him or loved him in Prison. He had no friends. He kept to himself reading books. He worked out during most of his free time. On the streets they called him Prince. In the pen they called him the same. The process he endured to get out of prison was pretty much a blur. His mind was focused on the outside. What he would do, what would happen to him. As he walked out of the last maze of prison fences there was a steel barrel to his right for trash. As he walked by it he dumped the shoe box in it and climbed onto the bus waiting to take him back to Atlanta.
The entire ride back to Atlanta David was nervous constantly looking over his shoulder. Although he had spent most of his life in prison for selling drugs, there were many crimes that he never got caught for. It was his fear that one of those crimes would come back to haunt him. He was sure that the bus driver would slam on the brakes, turn around, and take him back. Something he did, something that he thought he got away with would come back and bite him. But the bus never turned around.
A few hours later he was walking around downtown Atlanta. With the box long gone all he had on him was an expired drivers license and six hundred dollars. His life savings from his nearly free labor in prison. Ten years of working sun up to sun down and not spending a dime David managed to save six hundred dollars. Back in his day, of being one of the biggest drug dealers in the city, he would spend that on a meal.
Power is more addictive than any drug on the face of the earth. Once you taste it, you always want it. In his days of selling drugs David had power on the streets. In prison he was one of the most powerful inmates the prison system ever encountered. And he barely spoke at all. Now he was out with no money, no power, and a decision to make. I got to get a job, he thought to himself.
7,000 MILES AWAY
In their opinion, the Royal Guard had the hospital locked down tight. Ava saw so many holes in the security she wanted to scream. But what does she know about security being some secretarial assistant? As she got off the elevator on the top floor, A floor solely dedicated to the King, she was greeted by Absalom. He smiled and bowed slightly before her. She hated him, he hated her. She hated him for killing the love of her life. He hated her because she didn’t want him. If he was half the man as his father, she too would worship the ground he walked on. But he was not interested in that. His idea of living was conquest. He could not conquer her, yet. And that frustrated him. She could not kill him, yet. And that frustrated her.
"You would skip prayer to visit my father at this hour, how would God feel about this blatant idolatry?" Absalom said with a grin that would scare the pope. She slightly bowed her head, "with all do respect your highness," really wanting to say old heinous one, "we are taught to obey those in authority over us unless it conflicts with our religion. I answered the call of one of the greatest kings God has ever had mercy to bestow on us. I prayed in the car on the way. No Idolatry here". And with that, she went right by him as he tried to comprehend the words she spoke.
Ten guards stood at the door of the King's suite and no one searched her. God was she pissed. Every one including family members were to be searched for weapons before seeing the King. No exceptions. Hypocrites overnight.
When she entered the massive suite what she saw would even impress the President of the United States. Along the walls stood at least sixty fully armed Royal Guardsmen. Lined side by side. Looking around the whole of the room she could not see any spaces left of the wall. Very impressive indeed. Maybe for the media. She knew better. A corrupt doctor or nurse could come in and stick a needle in his arm and that would be it.
Well not exactly. Of course the nurse or doctor in question would be immediately destroyed. His family, down to the last root of DNA would be destroyed. But her King would be dead. She could not have that. None of the guards even looked at her. They were all watching, but none looked. She liked that.
There was a distinct difference between the Royal Guard and the Crescent. A difference no one knew except the King. For the Elite Crescent were all chosen and trained by him thus removing all doubts about traitors or incompetence. The Guard did not know the Crescent existed.
The King knew it the moment Ava walked in the room. He didn’t have to look at her. She was there, she always smelled good. Her smell got there before her and lingered after she left. The King could have had as many wives as he saw fit. But he never did that.
He met Clara just before the war. They were both still slaves. He knew then, the first day he saw her, that he had to free her or he would never be with her. The occupiers didn’t usually start raping the girls until they were thirteen or fourteen. Clara was twelve when he first saw her and she was this skinny little thing looking much younger than she really was. It was exactly two years after he first met the Wise Man. The day, which the Wise Man told him of two years earlier, that he would meet Clara and he would have to murder her master if he ever wanted to be with her. It was the love of Clara that was part of the reason he freed an entire nation.
The King knew early on that Ava would be important to him. He didn't know how, but the Wise Man also predicted of her. "And she will grow to be one of your greatest helpers and the greatest helper to your nation. You keep her close", the Wise Man told the King many years before. The King looked over at Ava. She stood at attention. He slowly raised his hand bringing her at ease, a little. She took a step forward and bowed, grabbing his hand kissing it. "Leave us", he spoke barely above a whisper that still nearly shook the room. The soldiers snapped to attention and filed out one by one. "Please sit". She pulled up a chair and sat close by the King’s side.
The Queen had just buried her amazing son Mustapha a few months ago and now her husband appeared to be on his deathbed. If that wasn’t enough most of her close family and friends hated her only living son Absalom, the heir to the throne. Clara was clearly having a hard time. She had learned early on how to deal with the stress and sacrifices of being the queen. Prayer. She spent most of her time in deep meditation and prayer. She studied more than any university student with a full load. The acquisition of knowledge was her objective, to help her husband. She spread that knowledge to her daughters, who in turn, helped her husband.
Clara read the Bible in its entirety, once a week. She had been doing so for at least fifty years. The same with the Torah and Holy Quran. She immersed herself in all revealed scriptures of God and never made any distinction between any of them.
Clara too, was taught by the Wise Man. He taught her many things, of which the most important, the proper way to eat to live. He warned her that her husband had the hardest job of any man that ever lived. Which meant she as his wife, would have a hard job. He told her that she would serve as a model of all that the King would teach the kingdom and eventually the world. He warned her that he should never catch her falling short in her duties to her husband and to Him.
Clara served her husband faithfully and had never deviated from one word that the Wise Man taught her. She was never sick in the entire time she sat with her husband on the throne. But the most remarkable aspect of her life and her daughters that confounded the scholars and scientist of this world was these women never aged. Some of the women were as old as eighty years old and they didn’t look a day over thirty.
The Queen, the exception. She looked sixteen. Many scientists would come from around the world to see this woman and her daughters. The women who never aged. What the wise man taught her was too simple for even the top nutritionist on the planet to understand. But as the scriptures repeated over and over again, the wisdom of God would be revealed unto the fools of the world, not the wise.
Clara was a very simple woman. What the Wise Man taught her was so simple, that it required very little understanding initially. What she didn’t understand she obeyed anyway until understanding came. So when being interviewed once the scientist asked what was her secret to her youth, she humbly smiled and said she studied the Scriptures. Frustrated they would leave accusing her of hiding the secret.
Some would actually go so far as to have the scriptures scrutinized by a computer thousands of times hoping the computer would pick up the secret contained in the scriptures of everlasting life. Unto the fools of the world would God reveal his secrets. The Wise Man forbid Clara from ever engaging in gossip, backbiting, and slander. These devices destroy the soul, the mind, and eventually the body. Every word that came from Clara’s mouth was the word of God. And every word one spoke to her would be digested and she would easily find you in scripture.
ATLANTA
Ten years in prison has a numbing effect on an individual. It is not that the individual is not connected to his feelings. It just happens that way. Over time the individual learns that his emotions, his feelings, cannot change his reality. It is only will and desire. Emotions feed the will only but a little, then they eventually fade away. As was with David. Not only had he suppressed all of his emotions, but most of his natural desires. If you did not have absolute control over your desire for sex in prison, you ended up desiring anything that would feed that desire.
David took it many steps further. He learned early on that those in power over him in the prisons would use any thing that they could to better control the prisoners. Whether it is food, clothing, sex, money, even visitation from friends and relatives. If they could control you with it, they would. Not David. No man controlled him. He ate one meal every three days. He sold the rest.
In the beginning of this unusual way of eating, he lost a lot of weight. In time he gained it all back to where he stood a chiseled five feet ten, hundred and eighty pounds of pure muscle. He gave up meat and junk foods. He learned his desire for sex was greatly diminished and much easier to control when he stopped eating flesh and dairy products, He ate only fish, fruits, and vegetables.
Most of what could be poisoned by chemicals to test out on the prisoners was poisoned. Eating only natural foods and eating them once every three days gave his body time to rid itself of any poisons that were left in his body that got in his food somehow. Besides the fish it was hard to poison an apple. Although he could not see it himself, in the ten years he spent in prison he looked the same as the day he walked in. He didn't age one day. He actually looked younger. At nearly 35 years of age he could easily be mistaken for an eighteen year old.
Ten years of doing anything every day over and over again becomes concrete habit. Now as he walked the streets of Atlanta, he had two more days before his next meal. Although he was not hungry everywhere he looked there were advertisements to eat or drink something. He knew he had to be strong. This would not be the first test of his will.
The Palace looked bad. The parking lot had not been paved in years and grass grew where cars should be parked. A rusted cast iron gate surrounded the entire parking lot and the building looked as if it had been closed for years. Ten years ago The Palace was the premiere night club for the underworld of Atlanta. It was known around the country as the place to go in Atlanta. And David owned it at that time.
It was his first venture outside of the drug trafficking industry. He had spent so many nights and an insane amount of money going to clubs over the years that he wanted one of his own. Many of his biggest clients were the top pro sports athletes, top hip hop artists, some of the top stars in Hollywood. They would all flock to Atlanta to get away and the Palace became their playground. David was the King of the palace. But they all called him "the Prince". Now it lay in ruins.
Nothing really surprised David anymore, he had seen it all. He remembered the very night he was arrested right here at his palace. They came in with the swat team and dragged him out in chains in front of all of his so called friends. They watched in total shock as he was placed in the back of a police car and taken away. None of these so called friends, celebrities, came to his trial. Not one of them came to visit him in prison or even wrote him. Behind bars he was useless to them. He turned from the Palace and kept on walking.
6,000 MILES AWAY
Absalom trusted no one but Luther. Luther was his faithful assistant. He was the only one who understood him. Absalom didn't even have to think about it too long and Luther was found getting exactly what he wanted. Absalom wanted to be King. Luther would be sure that it would happen. Absalom was sure of it. He may not have understood all of Luther’s ways. But they worked.
Sure Absalom loved his brother Mustapha. But Luther was right. If Mustapha had lived, he would always be one more Absalom would have to watch over his shoulder. One more wanting his place, as he wanted his fathers place. Luther took care of everything. He always does. He even somehow managed to take care of “him,” as Absalom so lovingly referred to his father.
In a few more days Absalom thought. He would surely appoint Luther to some lofty position. A position of great power. And Luther would sit close by his side as one of his trusted advisers. His only adviser.
Luther exited the elevator like a cool breeze causing Absalom to nearly jump out of his seat to see him. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was the prince and who the assistant. Luther was flanked by four of the kings Royal Guard. No one but the King’s immediate family afforded such security. Luther was not a part of the family. He was not even a part of their people. He was a spy for the enemy. And his only purpose in life was to deliver the country back into the hands of his country that had enslaved them only fifty years ago. Luther was black, which provided him some level of cover from his true intentions. But the eyes and the heart speak volumes.
Luther was able to get into the country at an early age with two other agents of the enemy posing as his parents. He too looked young for his age, and at seventeen, when he entered the country under the guise of political refuge, he pretended to be twelve. Small for his age, he pulled it off without a hitch. His parents, or so called parents, would set up a home for him, raise him like their own, and then he would enter into the army, rise through the ranks, and then facilitate a way to take control from within. That was the plan Luther’s foster parents received. They didn't know little more than six months after they arrived they would be killed by Luther.
He made it look like a fiery crash. Then something so unexpected happened that not even the great enemy could have planned it any better. Seeing this great tragedy on the news about this family just arriving in his country with the parents killed in a so called accident by one of his countries service vehicles, the King sent for the boy. Opened the palace to this young boy and allowed him to attend school with his own children. It was then, when Absalom met his best friend, confidant, and assistant. A new plan was then hatched.
Luther embraced Absalom in the customary greeting, kissing each side of his cheek. This was the way of the Muslim. Luther hated doing it, but for all appearances he loved Islam and he loved being a Muslim. Whenever he was out in public or could be seen by anyone, he was the best Muslim. He too tried to memorize the Holy Quran as the Queen had done. Deep down in his heart he hated everything about the Kingdom and its people. Including Islam, Christianity, and whatever else they were worshipping. Most of the religions the people were worshipping had probably been totally made up by the enemy anyway. Most of which was based off of the enemies satanic worship and idolatry.
Luther was absolutely in love with evil and wickedness. There was no depth of how filthy and lowdown his thoughts would take him. He hated anything of righteousness and good. And he would over time teach Absalom to hate it as well. Luther took pride in getting the kings son drunk and exposing him to every drug known to man. His ultimate goal was black mail. Get Absalom to do every evil deed against the laws of Islam, the laws of Christianity, the laws of the Kingdom, all of which, were the same. Then record these events, which he had been doing for years, and once Absalom became King, Luther would control him with his past. The way of the enemy.
"Peace be unto you my Lord" Luther greeted Absalom with a smile that would melt ice from across the street. Luther always had a way with Absalom. A way that was understood by no one. Although gossiping and rumors were strictly prohibited in the land, one could not help but think.
"How are you my Lord"? Luther asked, but he had already known the answer, his spies were everywhere. “She is here!" A disgusted Absalom whispered looking towards the room with disdain in his tone. Luther made an attempt to walk closer towards the door but the Royal guard shifted slightly to let him know that another step closer would be dealt with swiftly and with brutal force. Luther got the point, he stopped. Ava would have been proud. "Don’t worry my lord, come with me". With that, they turned and headed towards the elevator.
The King never spoke in haste. The Wise Man had taught him long ago to always think five times before he spoke. He was quick to do nothing when it came to important matters. He looked intently into Ava's eyes as she held his hand like a daughter to a father. Then the declaration, “I have never been unfaithful to my wife."
The statement required no comment from Ava. Her King never lies, He only speaks the truth. What she just heard was only the foundation of what he really had to tell her. Ava learned this of her King long ago. When he spoke, he set up his message with a foundation of truths and facts so strong that when he imparted the wisdom he wanted you to have, you could do nothing but submit to the truth he spoke. She too picked up this habit of truth.
"I met Clara as I began my mission to free our people. After your father, I freed her and her family. Before word broke out of what I had done in taking over the several palaces I knew I had to gather arms for the army. There was a considerable amount of money and jewels hoarded in the few palaces I had taken. The Wise Man helped me discover this. I took the money and fled to America. The greatest arms dealer on the planet. The Wise Man told me that it would be there in America that I would get all I need to make this country great and powerful again. At that time I thought He meant the weapons I would buy. I know now that I was wrong.”
“I was only there for three days." The King looked away from Ava, staring intently out the window as the sun lay across his face like a blanket. He had a look of a man in love when he continued. "I knew on my return I would marry Clara. But While I was there. In America I met a woman. She worked in a small restaurant . I never saw her again after that. I never knew, until now, that she bore me a son".
Ava's face didn't change, she didn't flinch, although this news, shook her whole world. She had many questions, but she dared not interrupt for she knew he would answer many of them before he finished. "I don’t know where he is, what he looks like, or if he is even still alive. But I want you to go and search for him at once. Your flight leaves in an hour". He reached under his pillow and handed her a file. "This is all I know of her. She died a long time ago. I will not leave until you find my son, and bring him to me". She bowed her head, “Yes sir".
Absalom looked as if he had seen a ghost. Luther was speechless. The limo was completely silent. Luther reached over and pressed a button ending the connection. What they heard, through the small speaker, coming from the kings room would surely destroy everything they had planned up to this point.
"Another son!" Absalom screamed. "Another son! Is this why my father never loved me. Is this why?" Luther looked out of the window. He wanted to put a bullet in Absalom’s head at that exact moment. He had grown tired of his whining and complaining. Now he had to deal with another son. He was starting to regret not taking the Farrakhan assignment.
Besides, who could have known? The enemy had the best intelligence agency in the world. They had satellites all over the earth pointed down on all the peoples of this planet listening so they knew everything. But they didn't know this. There was actually a lot they did not know about the King.
Absalom would have to wait. He had to find this other son. "To the palace at once", Luther said to the driver. And with that, the motorcade left the hospital.
When the King told Ava her flight left in an hour, she didn't understand how she would make that flight when the airport was more than an hour and a half from the hospital. But she never doubted her King. Instead of leaving by the car she came in, she was quickly escorted to the hospital roof where the King had a chopper waiting. Silas was already on board. When she boarded the chopper Silas knew at once that they were going on the most important mission of their lives. As the chopper took off Silas looked down on the city, wondering if he would ever see it again.
ATLANTA
There comes a time in a mans life when what seems logical, realistic, the smart thing to do made no sense at all. When there is something deep down inside that screams at you, "I know you don’t understand, but do it any way." David was at this point. David had six hundred dollars and no place to live. Where he would get more money from eluded him at the moment but he knew how to survive. The first thing he needed to do was set up a base, a place to live and launch the rest of his life from.