The Savior

Part 18

Adam looked at the opposite page where there was a full spread for Genesee Pleasure Boats. He closed the paper with a sense of relief. The scientists said there was no threat to the Earth from the asteroid. On the front page he glanced again at the story of Archbishop Califano visiting Saint Joseph’s and remembered how Ron Levine had said he was expected there.

Adam Zelf was not a religious person. His parents had emigrated to the Untied States from Holland, had Adam and after he graduated from high school and enrolled at Worthington’s Business School, they went back to Holland. After graduating from the business school he went to work as a bookkeeper for Zebb and Fischer, and never went to church. But, after all that had happened to him over the past few days, he thought it likely that he would be expected at Saint Joseph’s for some strange reason.

He glanced over again at the pile of money and was thinking about where he could hide it when the phone rang.

“Hello.”

“Adam Zelf?”

“Yes.”

“We know what you are going to do.”

“What?” but the caller hung up. For the first time in his life Adam thought of disconnecting his phone. But he didn’t. He went back to the pile of money, put it back into the bag and hurriedly stashed it in his closet,

Now he was hungry. He went to the refrigerator and opened it. In the freezer he found some fish cakes and frozen corn. He took them out and started the stove to heat them up.

Curiosity took him back to the table where the book was. He looked at it again. “The Returning” by Richard Tepler. He opened it and on the front page was an inscription “To Adam Zelf, may all praise and honor be bestowed upon you for what you have done. With gratitude, Richard Tepler”


(To be continued.)