THE SEX REBEL OF JESUSLAND, mini-chapter 73

73. FAME AND POWER

They were walking down Broadway.

“How does it feel to be famous?” Eve asked Adam.

Adam’s program was discussed all over the media: by the blogs, by the print media, on the radio, in the news. Was Jeremiah the new Jesus, or His messenger, born of an angel?

“At the end of the day there may be some inconvenience to celebrity. But it will be useful.”

Adam had changed, exhibiting a fierce self-confidence. He glowed with a touch of that Esther and Ezra aura. He had been on the road with Jeremiah Luther. Something of the prophet had rubbed off on him.

“How will you focus on using it?” asked Eve. It was interesting to hear Adam, this erstwhile fossil academic, talk about celebrity. He was like a peacock spreading its tail for the first time; blinded by the unexpectedly luminous colors.

“Let me tell you what I’ve suddenly discovered. Celebrity for celebrity’s sake is empty. That’s nothing. That’s the fifteen minutes of fame declared by that decadent 20th century painter. The point being there is only one thing that celebrity is good for.”

“And what is that?”

“Power. I have to put my celebrity to use. I must gain power. Access.”

“Indeed. But what do you want to use your power for?”

The sidewalk was obstructed by a Spontaneous Prayer Circle. These days you could hardly walk a block without bumping into one. Eve heard one of them mutter something about “saving that good man for the presidency.”

“They’re praying for Joshua Grant,” said Eve.

“You want to join them?” asked Adam.

“I spent my lunch hour with my own Prayer Group already.”

They stepped into the street to get round the Prayer Circle, and continued walking. Eve picked up the thread of their conversation. “So what do you want to use your power for?”

Adam was at a loss. “I don’t know. I have to think of something. But I know I can do something with power. Power gives me something. I want to prevail at something. Punish someone.”

Eve thought it ironic. She knew exactly why she wanted power. She wanted to reorder the behavior of the entire society; plan the very essence of what it was to live as a human being in the USUG.

And now Adam had a taste of power, and he didn’t know what to do with it. He had power but he was powerless until he had a mission. She had a mission, but she was powerless until she had power.

“What do you mean, punish someone?” she asked.

“That Proctor. He tried to get me in front of a Patriot Board. I’d like to crush him like a bug.”

“You should use your power to help people.”

“I’ll use my power for revenge.”

“That doesn’t sound very Christian.” His face had an ugly cast to it: hurt and villainous.

“On the contrary, it is,” he said. “Whatever is abominable, must be cast out. The damned separated from the saved.”

“I cannot agree with you regarding this,” she said. “Power must be used compassionately.” It seemed to her almost a difference of gender: the male wanting to use power for revenge, the female wanting to help.

“Proctor tried to get me. I’ll get him. An eye for an eye.”

“Proctor is an important man. He invented my job. If he hadn’t devised Aversion Sex Therapy, my field and my career wouldn’t have existed.”

Not that she didn’t have her own feelings about Doc Proc. He was the one who wouldn’t give Rachel a chance, despite her plea on Rachel’s behalf. But revenge was not a mission. It was just a bad reaction. The dark side of Adam.

She was powerless, but at least she had a mission.

“Eve, you don’t have the right to tell me what I want to do with my enemies. I’m the man in this relationship. I tell you what to do, you don’t tell me what to do.”

“Adam, I’m not one of your Christian floozies you can mess around like dirt.”

“I’m not one of your sissy homosexuals you can shock into submission, Eve.”