THE SON OF ELI 2: LIKE A GOD

CHAPTER 2: THE BROWNS

They stared at him with a strange mixture of hope and fear.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said calmly. "I noticed you were in a spot of bother and dropped in to lend a hand."

They looked at each other briefly, and then the young woman stepped towards him. Her mother's hand shot out instinctively to hold her back, but she dropped her hand again.

The girl was wearing a large, material skirt with a flared hem. Her feet were in large, faded boots. She had an old flannel shirt that had been nice once but was now faded, patched and without much colour. Her dry hair was braided into four straight stick-like protrusions on her head. She looked generally unkempt, but her skin was clear and clean, with eyelashes and eyebrows that were long and beautiful. She had sensuous lips and eyes that sparkled. She was not a breath-taking beauty like Jo, but she was so pretty in a young, fresh kind of way.

"Are you an angel?" she asked, her voice low and intrigued.

"No," Eli said with a smile.

"But… you dropped from the sky."

The three of them glanced at the sky then and looked at Eli with incomprehension. "I saw you dropping from the sky, without a parachute, or plane."

Eli looked up the beach and sighed.

"Sun might have blinded you," he said. "I came from across the beach and jumped from the grass. I'm a good jumper."

"And a very amazing fighter," she said warmly. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Kate Brown. My father, Solomon. And my mom, Elsie."

Eli, not used to social courtesies, only nodded.

"Nice," he said. "Goodbye then."

He moved towards the grass, but Kate quickly moved in front of him and barred his way.

"Oh, please, wait!" she said earnestly. "Won't you tell us your name, at least?"

"I'm the son of King Eli of the Kingdom of Eden," he said. "I don't know what my name actually is, but my friends called me Eli."

"Kingdom of Eden?" Solomon Brown said with sudden surprise. "That's such a long way from here! Oh, sorry! Were you a student that got stranded after the Meltdown?"

Eli shrugged.

"Something like that," he said quickly. "But, really, I must leave now."

"Oh, but where are you headed?" Kate asked, and she sounded desperate. "We're going towards the valley. There was a small group of us camped near the old beach resort, about twenty of us in the community. We got overrun by the Searots, and we got scattered. We decided to meet at the Second Battalion valley. There is supposed to be an abandoned army camp over there, relatively safe."

"Then, you must continue your journey."

"Please," Elsie Brown spoke for the first time. "Our little son, Zion, was playing in a neighbour's camper when the attack happened. He is just seven years old, and we don't know if he made it, sir. We've been running for four days now, mostly without water and food. The Second Battalion valley is not far from here. Could you please go with us, sir, and help us locate Zion?"

Eli could feel their anguish, and he sighed softly.

His kind heart was kindled towards their plight. Helping them find their son would mean digressing from his path because the Second Battalion valley, embedded in his memory from the maps and geography books he had read, was due east, and a bit off his way.

"I will accompany you to the Battalion, but I won't stay," he said quickly. "I have to be on the move."

"Oh, yes, yes, oh, sir, thank you!" Kate said and threw her arms around Eli's shoulder. She felt like a dwarf around his amazing height and breath. He was like a giant, and he was so unbearably handsome. She was beginning to have faith in him already, and her troubled heart that had never stopped pounding knew a little peace with the prospect that this young man would be with them till their destination end.

"You wouldn't happen to have any food around, would you, Eli?" Solomon asked suddenly.

"No, I'm sorry," Eli said and stepped back from Kate. "But, there are lots of coconuts up there. I plucked some to eat. Can pluck some for you, if you want."

"Oh, yes, please, please, do!" Elsie cried with such animated frenzy that her family members laughed, but Eli only smiled.

He led the way up the embankment, across the grassy land to the coconut trees. He saw the way the Browns were staring longingly at the tropical fruits. They looked at him expectantly.

"Okay, let me get some for you," he said and began to climb one of the tall trees. Halfway up the tree, he glanced down and saw them looking up at him with their mouths wide open – all three of them – and shock was drawn vividly on their faces, so complete that it approached fear.

He raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" he asked, wondering if they could see some danger that he could not. "Is everything all right?"

"You're walking along the tree!" Kate spluttered finally.

"Climbing it," Eli said.

He had not wanted to alarm them, so he had not jumped right from the ground to the top of the tree, but it seemed his way of climbing was even spooking them more.

"But… you're not using your hands and feet to climb! You're practically walking along the tree!"

"Oh!" Eli said, confused for a moment. "It is a technique I learnt back home."

He knew his lie was clumsy, but there was nothing else to say that would be more believable. He leaned forward and placed his hands too on the back of the coconut, then climbed up.

He held a bunch and simply dragged their root branch from the tree, then he dropped from the top of the tree and landed nimbly on his feet.

Again, they looked at him with stunned expressions, and then Kate smiled uneasily.

"You're one amazing guy, Eli," she said.

Solomon, overcome by hunger, looked around frantically.

"We don't have any sharp edge to cut through to the nut," he said desperately. "If we can find a rock, we can bash them on it to get to the juice."

For a moment, Eli hesitated.

"You know a way to peel the nuts, don't you?" Elsie asked softly, her eyes alight and suddenly shaded with a dawning truth.

"Well, yes, but there's every possibility that will also unnerve you."

"No," Kate said and suddenly put a hand on Eli's arm. "We're starving, and need help. We already know you're… you're, well, an exceptional man."

He looked at them critically for a moment before picking up one of the green fruits. He pulled the skin aside with two tugs, then poked a hole in it with his finger.

He handed it to Kate.

She stared at him, her eyes wide and a little scared, and her hands shook, but she took it from him and drank thirstily. He repeated the actions for her parents, and when the fruits were empty, he ripped them apart with his bare hands, and they began to eat.

They were hungry and thirsty, and soon the bunch of fruits were all eaten.

Elsie Brown, licking her fingers, stared at Eli who was leaning against the tree with his arms crossed on his chest.

"You're quite different from normal men," she said in a voice that was not steady. "You're bigger, with clearer skin, almost amazing skin texture. You're too handsome to be a mere human, bigger and taller, more developed than other men. You dropped from the sky, walked on the tree, used your bare hands to rip the nuts. I've always been a religious woman, sir. And nothing you can say will convince me that you're not an angel. Yes, you're an angel, sent down to us from God to guide our ways. That's what it is, and there's no use denying it."

"No, woman, no!" Eli cried, appalled by her calm demeanour and total conviction in her assumptions. "I am a mere mortal. Do not think that of me."

She looked at him, and tears bubbled in her eyes, then she suddenly took one of his hands and kissed the back.

"Our angel, special angel from God!"

Eli could only stare at her, perplexed.

And, to make matters worse, he noticed a look in the eyes of Kate that he did not like at all.