Roberta walked down the hallways of the radio station. It was Monday morning and the whole station was buzzing with preparations for the morning shifts. She was about an hour early for her own shift, but that was expected. She still had to do show prep and find a bible verse for the week. Being the messenger for the Lord was hard work and she wanted to get started on it as soon as possible.

“Hey, Bertie,” Henry, her program director said as she passed him by. She stopped her stride and returned his greeting.

“Praise the Lord, Henry,” she said. “How are you this morning?”

“Blessed, as usual. I see you’re ready to give out cookies for your weekly bible verse.”

She glanced at the tin under her arm. The faint smell of home baked cookies wafted up between them. “I sure am,” she said, then raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Do you know last week’s verse?”

“Um…” He paused and then smiled sheepishly. “Now you know us program directors get busy during the week.”

“Shame on you!” she said. “If The Almighty can create the heaven and earth for you and still have time to answer your prayers, you have time to memorize a little verse.”

“You’re right. I’ll memorize the one for this week to make it up to you.”

“You’d better. I’ve got chocolate chip this week.”

“Ah, my favorite! See you in an hour, Bertie.”

Roberta said her goodbyes and walked the rest of the way to her office. Her office was as quaint as her home was – the faint smell of vanilla from the potpourri on her desk filled the room, neatly framed bible verses on decorative paper hung delicately on the walls. Her desk was even neat and quaint with tiny statues of large eyed children praying, saucer eyes turned up to God. There were photographs of places she’d been with friends and members of her church. There was even a picture of her standing beside her minister, both smiling pleasantly, sitting behind her on the bookshelf, but no pictures of family members or of a husband or children. Just her family in Christ. And she was happy with it that way. The things on earth were irrelevant in the long run anyway, even the people in it.

A knock came at her door as she started writing out her preparations for her show.

“Yes?” she called out. Patrick Dohan, her operations director, peeked his head in and smiled at her.

“Praise the Lord, Bert,” he said.

“Praise the Lord.”

“I know you’re getting ready for your show, but if you have a minute…”

“Come on in Pat,” she said. As Patrick came in, a young man with dark hair and equally dark eyes followed him and closed the door behind them.

“Roberta Givens,” he said. “I’d like you to meet our newest addition to the WGOD family. This is Christian Davidson, the new board op. He’ll be working the afternoon shift on Tony’s show. I’m just introducing him to the staff.”

Roberta smiled wanly as she looked over her new coworker. The man was thin — terribly thin — and though he was dressed for a business environment, his entire ensemble was all black. Black hair, pale skin, black clothes, black eyes. He looked like one of those “gothic” teenagers that were so popular these days. But, it was little surprise. After all, this young man wasn’t the first stray sheep that wandered into their station. After all, WGOD was a ministry, yes, but it was a business first and foremost.

“Nice to meet you,” she said politely.

“It’s a pleasure,” Christian said. “I’ve been a listener of your show for years.”

Now this was a surprise. Roberta was caught speechless for a second. Through her obvious shock, she managed a genuine; “Oh, really?”

“Yes. Morning Prayer with Roberta is one of my favorite programs. You have a very comforting voice.”

Roberta chuckled, still unsure if he was serious or not. “Why…why, thank you, Christian.”

“He heard about your weekly verse thing that you do around the office,” said Patrick. “He wanted to know what he had to do to taste one of your award winning cookies.”

“Just learn the verse posted on the refrigerator door in the break room,” she said. “On Mondays I hand out cookies to everyone who remembered the verse from the week before. That reminds me, I’ve got to find a new verse for this week.”

“We’ll leave you to it, then,” Patrick said as he backed out of the room. “Have a good show.”

“It was a pleasure meeting you,” Christian said with a smile.

“Same here.” When they left, Roberta glanced up at the ceiling, the direction of her Lord and Savior. “Very funny,” she said.

In the next hour, Roberta finished her show prep and found a verse for her coworkers to memorize. As with every verse she found, she simply opened her leather bound bible and landed a single finger on the page. Whichever verse her finger touched was the verse of the day. She typed Monday’s verse up, printed it out and sent the memo out to each office and desk in the building stopping finally in the break room and putting the verse on the refrigerator door.

“’Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right’,” she heard from behind her. She turned and there stood Christian Davidson, his eyes narrowed and focused on the piece of paper on the refrigerator. “’Honor your father and mother-which is the first commandment with a promise-that is may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth…Ephesians, Chapter one through three.’”

“Christian,” she said. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I was already in here,” he said, smiling down at her. “I’m glad I was too. Now I get to memorize the verse.”

“It’s a little long. You might want to write it down when you have the chance.”

“No need,” he said. “Good day, Ms. Givens.” Then he turned and walked out of the break room. As the door closed behind him, Roberta shook off the strange air that he’d left in the room, then walked out herself to start her shift.

Her show went on without a problem. In fact, for once, everything seemed to be working perfectly. She almost wanted to miscue a tape or start a CD a little early to give herself some sense what had become so normal in the little DJ booth, but she’d learned a long time ago that when the Lord gave her such good tidings, the best thing to do was to give thanks.

When she returned to her office after the end of her shift, there was a message on her phone.

“Hi, Bertie.” It was her sister Winifred. It had been several years since she had heard from her. The two of them parted ways after she had found Christ. It was strange that she should be calling. She glanced up at the clock. It was nearly noon. Strange.

“I wanted to let you know that mom and dad are in town,” the message went on. “When you get off work, you need to come to my house this evening. Apparently, they’ve got something to tell us. Give me a call when you get this.”

Roberta sighed and hung up the phone after the message. She paused for a moment, then picked up the phone.

At dinner, Roberta looked across the table at her parents and sister. After Roberta had called Winifred back they decided that they should go out to dinner. Winifred seemed to think that under the circumstances, a meeting in a public place was probably best. Roberta agreed.

Roberta watched her parents carefully through dinner. They were holding hands almost constantly, letting go only to eat and then it was only for a few bites. With every passing moment, she got more and more worried. By the time everyone else had finished, she was picking at the remains on her plate as if something had moved under the lettuce pieces.

“Roberta,” her mother said finally. “You’ve barely touched your dinner. Aren’t you hungry?”

“I had a big lunch,” Roberta said politely.

“You know,” her mother said looking up at her husband. “We really should have called before we left Arizona. I think we took Bertie by surprise.”

Roberta held her weak smile. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said.

“So,” Winifred interrupted. “What’s this news you have to share with us?”

Again, they looked at each other as if silently conferring as to how this news should be said. It was her father that finally spoke up.

“Well,” he said. “We wanted to let the two of you know what our plans are for the future. As you know, your mother and I aren’t young anymore. In fact, we’re both coming to the reality that we may very well only have a few years left in our lives.”

“Oh, dad,” Winifred spoke up. “You and mom are only in your seventies. Don’t you think talking about dying is just a little bit premature?”

“Hear us out, Freddie,” their mother said gently. “We know that we might have plenty of years left, but just in case, we want to let you both know our wishes.”

“We’ve decided,” their father said, “that we don’t want to suffer in our final days. We both discussed it and we decided that when our time comes we want to die with as much dignity as possible.”

Roberta looked cautiously from one parent to another. “Okay,” she said. So, what are you suggesting?”

“We don’t want to be hook up to machines, for one thing,” her mother said. “We would rather not be kept alive by machines.”

“And should we come down with any illnesses that will cause us a great deal of pain, we want to be…well, we want the doctors to end our suffering.”

Roberta put down her fork and wiped her face, her eyes lowered painfully. “I don’t think I want to talk about this any longer,” she said.

“Please, Roberta,” her mother said. “This is a hard subject for us to bring up but we all have to discuss it. We want you children to honor our wishes-“

“You’re asking us to make it okay to put you both to death,” she said quietly, but angrily. “There is a reason why assisted suicide is illegal, you know. It’s wrong.”

“Roberta-“

“And what about your souls, mom? What will happen to your souls if we help you die?” She shook her head and stood up. “I won’t have any part of this. Freddie, you can condemn our parents to hell if you want to, but I won’t do it. I won’t help you die.”

“Bertie, let’s discuss this.”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” she said and left the restaurant.

When she got out to her car, her face was burning angrily. To ask of her such a thing…why were her parents so dead set against the path of God? It was nothing less than blasphemy and she would have no part of it. Suddenly she remembered why she had no pictures of her parents and sister on her desk at work. The three of them seemed determined to stay out of God’s light. She would not honor this wish.

The Devil, she concluded. Satan and his lies had once again contaminated her family. She shook her head and smirked smartly. He would not fool her. Her faith was too strong.

By the end of the week, the restaurant incident was forgotten and Roberta had successfully avoided her parents until they were finally on a plane back to Arizona. By Monday, she was back in the swing of the week.

So, just as every week before and every week after, she walked into work on Monday morning with a tin filled with cookies, coconut raisin this time. She ran into Henry once more and once more, he’d conveniently forgotten the bible verse. In truth, she never expected too many of her coworkers to get the long bible verses, so she never made too many cookies those weeks.

She was in her office not more than a few minutes when the door opened slowly and the pale head of Christian Davidson peeked in. “May I come in, Miss Givens?” he asked.

“Praise the Lord, Christian,” she said. “Come on in.”

Christian came in and stood in front of her desk, a small knowing smile tickling his lips.

“What can I do for you?” she asked.

Christian cleared his throat and recited; “’Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and Mother-which is the first commandment with a promise-that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth.’”

For a moment, Roberta was so stunned that she just stared up at him open-mouthed. “Very good,” she said after a moment. She opened the tin and offered the cookies to him. He took one off of the top and took a bite of it immediately.

“Thank you,” he said through a mouthful of cookie.

“You’re welcome. I’m impressed that you took the time to memorize this verse. It was pretty long.”

“Well, to be honest, I knew it a long time ago, more or less.”

“Ah. Well, the next one won’t be so easy,” she said. “You just wait.”

“I doubt you’ll be able to stump me,” he said. Then just as strangely as he had come in, he left without another word.

Roberta looked for the next verse after her show prep and came up with it fairly quickly. She typed it up like she always had and sent it out in memos and when she found herself in the break room putting it on the refrigerator, there was Christian, reading over her shoulder just as he had the previous week.

“’Let your conduct be without covetousness,” he said, “and be content with such things as you have. For He himself has said; I will never leave you, nor forsake you…Hebrew Chapter 13, verse 5.’”

She smiled and they exchanged pleasantries for a moment, then he went on his way. Again, she was fairly certain that he had not been in the room when she came in, even though he insisted he had.

On her way back to her office, she heard loud talking and laughter in the next office. She poked her head in and there sat her very pregnant coworker, Judy, smiling and talking with another coworker.

“Praise the Lord,” she greeted. Both women turned their attention to her and returned the greeting. “I could hear you two all the way down the hall.”

“Sorry, Roberta,” Judy said. “I just got some really good news, that’s all.”

“She got a raise,” her coworker Ann said. “Can you believe it? She’s only been the traffic director for a month and they already gave her a raise!”

Roberta smiled stiffly. “That’s great!” she said. “I’m so happy for you. Could you guys keep it down though, I’ve got some work to finish next door.”

“Oh, no problem, Roberta,” Ann said. “I was just leaving anyway.”

Roberta held her stiff smile until she was back in her office. A raise? Judy had barely been there long enough to get two full paychecks and she got a raise? It had been nearly six months since Roberta had even been reviewed for a raise. What kind of tripe was this?

She got up and walked to Patrick’s office.

“Bertie, what can I do for you?” Patrick said with a smile.

His desk was cluttered with papers and framed pictures of his family all around him. The office was no bigger than her own, but if felt smaller. There were tons of crayon drawings all over the walls along with calendars and important notices. It looked as though a nik-nak drawer had exploded in this tiny room.

She ignored the mess and went on with her thoughts. “I just wanted to talk to you about why I haven’t gotten a raise,” she said. “I mean, it’s been six months and I haven’t even been reviewed.”

Patrick rifled through the papers on his desk for a moment, then referred to the calendar on the wall behind him. “Ah, yes,” he said. “You’re due for a review on Friday. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“Yes, but Judy Deng got her raise already,” she insisted. “She hasn’t been here but a month and…well I think that’s a little unfair.”

Patrick regarded her for a moment. “I don’t know if you realize this, Bertie, but Ms. Deng is very pregnant. In six months, she’ll be on maternity leave. She’s been doing very well as traffic director, so we decided that she should have her raise a little early that’s all.”

Roberta stood gaping at him for a moment, then rolled her eyes. “Is that even legal?” she stammered. “I mean…you can’t just give her a raise just because she’s pregnant. That’s not fair to the rest of us.”

“And it would be fair to wait until she gets back from maternity leave?”

“You shouldn’t have hired a woman who was six months pregnant in the first place.”

“Roberta!” Patrick glared at her, shock behind his eyes. “What is your problem, here? If you’ve got a problem with us helping out a fellow coworker, I strongly suggest you talk to the general manager about it. Don’t come in here tearing my head off because we decided to actually do something right by one of our employees.”

“Patrick, I didn’t mean-“

“I don’t care what you meant,” he snapped. “You have no right to come in here and dictate who should and should not get a raise and for whatever reasons. I think you should be more worried about your own cash flow instead of worrying about everyone else’s.”

Roberta’s face grew hot with embarrassment. What was she doing? Why did she care so much? “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I…I didn’t mean to come down so hard on you. It won’t happen again.”

“I should hope not.” Patrick sighed and sat back in his chair. “Bertie, you’re one of the best DJs we’ve got going here. I’d hate to see any kind of rivalry between you and another coworker over something as silly as this.”

“I swear, it won’t happen again. I just…I guess I’m just having a strange week. “That’s all.”

When she got back to her office, she sat down at her desk and marveled at her childish behavior. What had gotten into her?

It was then that she saw a copy of the memo that she’d sent out before her broadcast that morning. The bible verse from the book of “Hebrews” glared back at her like an accusatory finger.

“’Be content with such things as you have’,” she read aloud. “Oh, how could I be so stupid!”

And the week went by without another thought to her indiscretion. Patrick and Henry did the six month review and thankfully, Patrick never mentioned the incident.

The next Monday, she came in with oatmeal walnut cookies and before she could get settled in her office, Christian Davidson was there, poking his head in and reciting the verse from last week. When he was done, he took a cookie and regarded her for a long moment while chewing on it thoughtfully.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked.

She looked up at him wearily. She hadn’t purposely been thinking about the past two weeks, but somehow both weeks had crept back into her consciousness and she felt as though she had been just terrible. Now, here she was, sitting in her office, beginning the third week with the eerie Christian Davidson looking down at her with coal black eyes.

“No…” she said. “I suppose not. Just a bad couple of weeks.”

Christian raised one dark eyebrow. “I didn’t think Christians had bad weeks.”

She shook her head weakly. “The devil is just having his way with me that’s all.”

He stopped chewing and frowned. “How do you mean?”

“I haven’t exactly been myself, you know? Lord God, I will never know what the devil gets out of terrorizing the good Christians. Just another soul for him, right?”

Christian took a seat in the chair on the far end of the office. “How do you know if it was the devil that brought you such bad luck,” he said. “I mean, you can’t blame that which you cannot see, right?”

“Don’t fool yourself, Christian,” she said. “Satan is always trying to undermine the good work of God’s people. The happier we are, the more he has to disrupt it.”

Christian’s face had gotten darker as she spoke but she barely noticed. Her eyes were busily gathering her papers for her show prep.

“Can I ask you a question?” he said. She glanced up at him.

“Go ahead.”

“Why is it that when something good happens to you, you thank God and when something bad happens, you say it’s the devil? Do you actually think that all-powerful sentient beings are so bored with their vast existences that they would bother themselves with the troubles of each and every individual person on this planet?”

She was glaring at him now and he glared back at her, black eyes challenging her. “What?” she said.

“I mean, seriously, I will never understand why you so-called Christians talk humbly of your god and then march around this planet as though you are “holier than thou”. Just who do you humans think you are?”

At that the door swung closed and the room suddenly became very cold. Fear seized Roberta as Christian took another bite of the cookie. “I swear I don’t know why we ever wasted our time on your creation.”

She sucked in a lungful of cold air and started chanting. “I rebuke you Satan,” she said, her voice was weak and creaking as though she hadn’t spoken in a month. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together frantically. “I rebuke you. Get thee behind me, Satan. I rebuke-“

“Oh, stop it,” Christian said and a wave of energy hit her, forcing her hands open and her head up. She looked at him fearfully, tears stinging her eyes.

“I am no more this “Satan” than you are,” he said. “You know, when we gave you flesh piles that complex brain of yours, we were hoping that you might learn to use it a little better. Instead you build idols and stupid religions to explain the things that you don’t understand. You haven’t progressed anymore since the stone ages.”

Roberta was held still, more by shock than any magical force that might be holding her. She gathered her courage and swallowed hard. “Get thee behind me, evil spirit-Ah!” The wave of energy hit her again and more tears fell from her face.

“I said to stop that,” Christian said, finishing the cookie. He got up and leaned across her desk, looking her face to face. She whimpered helplessly.

“Let’s get something straight,” he growled. “There is no Satan. Satan is a fictitious character that you idiots made up so that you could have someone to blame for your own mistakes in judgment. If there is any evil on this planet or beyond, you and your kind are solely responsible for it.”

He stood back and started pacing the office like a caged tiger. Roberta felt frozen, trapped by this entity that had somehow chosen her for whatever sinister reasons. He turned back to her, black eyes seeming to hold flames behind them.

“I have been here on this planet for thousands of years,” he said. “I have defended you, all of you! We tried to show you the light with miracles and speaking to those who would listen, but you all just kept screwing it up. Over and over and over again! Do you know how much, I, personally, have endured just to save your sorry hides?”

Roberta stared flabbergasted, Christian’s words slowly seeping into her brain as he ranted.

“I, alone, stood up for your race when it was decided that you were beyond help. It was decided that we should just start over again, just wipe the slate clean and begin again with beings free of that whole free will thing we gave you. I was a strong advocate of it. I pleaded the benefits of free will to them. I even volunteered to take human form and lead you on the right paths myself…and though some of you listened…” He stopped, the fire in eyes suddenly exhausted. He ran tired hands over a suddenly weary face.

“You…” Roberta stammered. She glared at him. Black hair, black eyes pale skin…not Him. Can’t be Him. Not Him! “You’re not-“

“I can’t believe what you did in my name,” he said. “We never wanted you to worship us. You took my words, the message that I was trying to give to all of you and you warped it to fit your own twisted morals. I went through more physical pain than I ever have in all of the centuries that I have existed for you…” His voice was breaking and tears welled up in his eyes. He wiped at the tears and his cold face softened.

“All that I have done to protect you,” he said. “And you have done nothing but pervert my message. Twist it to fit your own needs.” He looked up at her with sincere, pleading. “They will not listen now. The end has come just as we knew it might.”

“If…” she started, but fear seized her again. She pushed it back and her body shivered cruelly. “If you are…if you are Him…I don’t understand…”

“Of course you don’t,” he said. “And when I leave here, you will go to your coworkers to tell them of the miracle that you’ve seen and they will only tell you that it was “Lord of Flies” spewing lies out at you. You will no more believe than you ancestors did so long ago.”

“God…” she said desperately. “God will protect us. His grace will-“

“God turned his back on you a long time ago,” he said wearily. “And you never even knew it.”

“What was the message?” she asked. “If you tell me…then maybe I can make a difference.” Christian glared at her with eyes like a tired father’s.

“Please,” she begged. “We cannot all be lost.”

And then, with a smile that chilled her to the bone. “Not all of you, no,” he said. “Just you “believers”. Ironic, isn’t it?” And with that he disappeared. He just faded from her sight as if he were never there at all. Her door opened slowly and the room returned back to normal.

Roberta sat back in her chair, stunned and saddened. Just the believers, he’d said. Ironic isn’t it?

Roberta leaned into her hands and started to cry.