The Vision, pp. 311-324<\/strong><\/p>\n So, here we are at the TLP, in the middle of a Bible study. Remember, Asher\u2019s brother Levi has come, and has brought his militia to start packing up the compound to move it, due to terrorist threats\u2014but no one at the Bible study knows about that yet, and it\u2019s a good thing, too.<\/p>\n As the Bible study winds down, Yancey stands and announces that everyone has unwittingly come to his wedding. The doors open, and Julie walks in wearing white. Bobbie Jo has changed into an evening gown because she\u2019s singing. At Julie\u2019s wedding. Which is now. Dusty is slated to sing as well.<\/p>\n Dusty stepped up behind Yancey and began to sing Yancey\u2019s marriage vows, which were a series of Bible verses put to music. After each verse, Dusty waited for Yancey and Julie to answer with the proper, I do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I feel like this is something that Debi either saw happen once, or thought would be cool. It does not sound like something Yancey would cook up. Or Julie, either.<\/p>\n Lusty McLustFace<\/strong><\/p>\n Bobbie Jo sings, but she\u2019s distracted, because Levi has come back.<\/p>\n She unabashedly stared toward the back of the room where Levi now stood. Longing was written on her face. Cheyenne looked over her shoulder. Levi no longer looked like a hardened soldier \u2026 he looked like a man. His stare was primeval. Cheyenne felt heat rising in her face. She chided herself. Why am I blushing? I\u2019m not the one acting like \u2026 like .. that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Levi isn\u2019t even a soldier. He\u2019s a volcanologist. What exactly is a \u201cprimeval\u201d stare? And why couldn\u2019t Bobbie Jo hold it together long enough to get through singing at her best friend\u2019s wedding? She and Julie and Cheyenne are supposed to be the inseparable Trio, and here she is making a scene at Julie\u2019s wedding. Gosh damn, I get the feeling Bobbie Jo doesn\u2019t get to see men. Like, ever.<\/p>\n Girl needed to get a flat in the city and spend some time at bars. Or somewhere. Anywhere has got to be better than living on an armed compound in in the hills of east Tennessee.<\/p>\n Oh no. Oh no what is this. Cheyenne. What.<\/p>\n What had Asher told her a few months back about Levi?\u00a0Oh, yeah, now I remember.\u00a0<\/em>Asher had been flushed as if embarrassed. He had also been so tickled that the girls had trouble understanding what he was saying. He told them that Levi had always said that he was waiting for an Amazon woman, a girl that was tough, big, and luscious. As of yet, he had not found such a creature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n JFC. This is such a WEIRD BOOK.<\/p>\n Well if Levi thinks he\u2019s found his Amazon woman, he\u2019s got another thing coming, because Bobbie Jo isn\u2019t about to marry someone who isn\u2019t a Christian, and Levi isn\u2019t about to convert. So they can each put their eyes back in their pockets and knock this off already.<\/p>\n Ever since Bobbie Jo had been thirteen years old she had been singing at weddings. Cheyenne, always bugging her friend about her extra ten pounds, had a standing tease at every wedding. Now the thought of this silly tease seemed ominous.\u00a0It ain\u2019t done \u2019till the fat lady sings.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I \u2026 can\u2019t \u2026 what does that \u2026 what.<\/p>\n What about this seems ominous? I\u2019m so confused. Also, don\u2019t be that friend. The way Debi writes Bobbie Jo is so odd. She\u2019s gorgeous and makes every guy\u2019s jaw drop, but all her lady friends are like \u201cstop eating that extra cookie Bobbie Jo, you need to lose weight.\u201d Like \u2026 what?<\/p>\n No One Talks to Julie<\/strong><\/p>\n But then we get this:<\/p>\n Levi was no longer held captive by Bobbie Jo. Cheyenne saw Levi\u2019s strong jaw tightening, his eyes flash with an absolute knowledge as he stared at Yancey. Fear caused her hands to tremble as she silently cried out to God, \u201cOh, God, help Julie. Help us all.\u201d<\/p>\n Cheyenne\u2019s silent battle raged. Why hadn\u2019t Julie sought counsel?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t know, maybe because everyone here treats everyone else like crap? Bobbie Jo is a bully, and Cheyenne isn\u2019t the picture of innocence either. Everyone knew Julie wanted to get married and felt she was getting on in years, but no one offered a solution. Who did she have to latch onto but Yancey? And also, Malachi and Cheyenne let Yancey hang out with the inner circle, and no one told Julie about his iffy past history, so how was she supposed to know he was a persona non grata?<\/p>\n These people are awful.<\/p>\n When Cheyenne and Asher start exchanging their own longing glances, Hope looks at her daughter and mouths the words \u201clove potion number nine\u201d (which are apparently from \u201can old 60s song\u201d). This wedding is the busiest wedding I\u2019ve ever seen. Are they\u00a0trying\u00a0<\/em>to mess up Julie\u2019s moment?<\/p>\n Oh, my dear Asher! You\u2019re lucky Mom has other things to keep her busy. If she ever had the time to devote herself\u00a0to a special brew for you, you\u2019d never know what hit you!\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n A tiny giggle escaped the emotionally wrung out girl.\u00a0Mom could make a dead man laugh.\u00a0<\/em>Cheyenne didn\u2019t know, but in a few short days that was exactly what Hope would do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This book is about to end, and this is never revisited. But frankly, this makes me even more upset about Magdalene\u2019s death. Did no one try the potion that\u00a0literally raises the dead\u00a0<\/i>on her?<\/p>\n Okay, moving right along\u2026<\/p>\n NASA Is On the Case<\/strong><\/p>\n Asher\u2019s loud voice rattled the fun out of those sitting before him, \u201cWait, before you all go.\u201d<\/p>\n He stepped forward. With urgency he explained, \u201cMy brother is privy to NASA surveillance of terrorist activities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That sound I just made is the same sound Michael Hobbes makes when Sarah Marshall reads him something absolutely ridiculous, and if you don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about you should definitely try the You\u2019re Wrong About podcast, because it\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n NASA surveillance?? WHAT.<\/p>\n I am assuming Debi meant NSA.<\/p>\n Levi steps forward and informed everyone that their graphic novel Bible in Arabic is converting so many people that \u201ceven some militant Muslim are now laying down their arms due to their newfound belief in your Jesus.\u201d He says Islam is under so much threat that \u201ctheir leadership\u201d is calling on Muslims to kill their relatives on sight if they\u2019re found with a graphic novel Bible.<\/p>\n \u201cIslam is a violent religion. Now Islam has a new enemy that terror has failed to subdue\u2014your brand of the Christian religion. In fact, it seems the more the leaders forbid their people to read your book, the more the people want to know what\u2019s in it. The violent leaderships is losing their hold on the Muslim people. Those people are beginning to realize that their leadership does not care about them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That was some serious mishmash.<\/p>\n There is no one single \u201cleadership\u201d of a diverse religion that is shared by almost a third of the global population. This is nuts. Religions don\u2019t work this way. There is no \u201cone\u201d leader.<\/p>\n Conversions don\u2019t work this way either.<\/p>\n \u201cSome in the U.S. government do not like the instability you\u2019ve created, especially now as the economy is failing worldwide. Others think it\u2019s a godsend. Israel will not look a gift course in the mouth. If it works, it works to their favor, even if it\u2019s Christian. We Jews like to pay our debts. Furthermore, it\u2019s to our advantage that this movement keeps going. In the last sixty-five years, Christianity has proven to be a friend of Israel. Islam has always made itself our enemy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No wait. What.<\/p>\n I\u2019m pretty sure Islam has historically been more tolerant of Judaism than Christianity has. We\u2019re talking a thousand years ago, five hundred years ago. And the Holocaust was not carried out by Muslims\u2014it was perpetrated on the Jews by Christians. But then, Debi does have Levi say \u201cin the last sixty-five years,\u201d so I assume she is at least aware of that. And it\u2019s also true that nearby Muslim-majority nations did wage numerous wars against Israel after its founding as nation after WWII.<\/p>\n I think what\u2019s bothering me is that everything Levi says reads like a fundamentalist Christian guessing at what a Real Jewish Person would say. Would someone like Levi actually say \u201cWe Jews like to pay our debts\u201d? It\u2019s weird! Also, Levi isn\u2019t even an Israeli Jew! He\u2019s American!<\/p>\n This Book Has Been All Peace and Harmony<\/strong><\/p>\n Malachi is incredulous:<\/p>\n Malachi looked around, still struggling to believe this was really happening. \u201cDo you really think it necessary to follow through with all that now?\u201d<\/p>\n These people were unlike any Levi had encountered. In Israel, people jumped for cover first and hoped to live long enough to ask questions later. This was frustrating. He realized he would have to exercise a bit more finesse to capture their trust. He made a mental effort to shake off his military mindset and think in terms of people who, as a rule, lived in total peace and harmony.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n WTF?<\/p>\n Not that many pages ago, someone slammed a door and everyone jumped for cover so quickly that folding chairs collapsed. Debi told us that everyone is on edge after Omar\u2019s house was burned down and Magdalene was shot and killed, which came only months after the Super Center bombing in which Cheyenne was almost killed, not to mention the burning of flats of books in the TLP warehouses before security was increased and the threats on the Herb Den\u2014not to mention Dan being murdered.<\/p>\n These are not people who have lived in total peace and harmony. This book is almost consistent in its inconsistency.<\/p>\n Militant Muslim terrorists have planned another 9\/11 attack. It will be a series of coordinated attacks against Christian targets, all to take place on September 11th.<\/p>\n A stunned Malachi answered, \u201cAgainst us?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If Malachi\u2019s books really were creating this much of an uproar, you\u2019d think he\u2019d at least have been asked to be on Oprah. This book feels so disjointed. If they were actually creating this level of uproar oversees, I\u2019d have expected the state department to be in some sort of contact with them, if only to make sure certain things are coordinated (for example, releasing this book in a new language has the potential to upset whole new geographic areas, something the state department would likely want to be abreast of).<\/p>\n \u201cI never thought it would come to this,\u201d the Old Gent said, \u201cbut we should do as the man says.\u201d<\/p>\n Levi grinned with relief. \u201cTrust me. Having spent several years in Israel, I\u2019ve become a master of survival.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Everything is fine.<\/p>\n I wish we knew more about Levi. How did he come to spend several years in Israel, after growing up in the U.S.? It\u2019s not that<\/em> abnormal, it would just be nice to know more about what motivates this U.S. government volcanologist who has spent the last several years studying Yellowstone.<\/p>\n See? You forgot he\u2019s a U.S. government volcanologist who studies Yellowstone in the midst of all of his \u201cmy time in Israel\u201d and \u201csoldier\u201d persona, didn\u2019t you? It\u2019s like Levi is two completely different characters shoved together into one body for god knows what reason. But it\u2019s a hot body. Apparently.<\/p>\n A hot virgin body. Somehow.<\/p>\n The End<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyone scatters to pack and carry out their orders. Cheyenne runs for the last of the brew, and the special leaves etc. Levi says that anyone just here for the Bible study and not actually part of the TLP operation should go on a long vacation. Which is cool. I guess.<\/p>\n Here are the very last paragraphs in the whole book:<\/p>\n \u201cDaddy! Daddy! Are we going somewhere?\u201d Young Tina ran to Omar, who scooped his daughter up into his arms.<\/p>\n Omar\u2019s questioning eyes met Levi\u2019s.<\/p>\n There was a shift in the mood, a relaxing of hte warrior\u2019s stance. Trust and respect showed in Levi\u2019s eyes. \u201cAre you familiar with the story of Gideon? How God chose his army?\u201d<\/p>\n Omar gave the slightest nod. \u201cJudges, chapter seven, verse six and seven.\u201d<\/p>\n Levi acknowledged Omar\u2019s quick familiarity with Old Testament Scriptures. \u201cWell, let\u2019s just say this is the final elimination before the battle.\u201d Now his tone took on more force. \u201cThere will be a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n Omar\u2019s eyes never wavered; his voice was firm. \u201cCount me in. I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wait what? What battle? I thought the point was to create a hideout in the caves and wait out Yellowstone. Wait, are we talking about a figurative battle? Regardless, this really is the end of the book. Everyone is running around collecting whatever\u2019s most important in preparation for being relocated (into the caves?) by Levi\u2019s militia of government operatives and scientists.<\/p>\n Next week, I\u2019ll cover the epilogue and share some general overall thoughts about this book. I\u2019ll also include a surprise: a recipe for Debi\u2019s magical healing berry brew. No, really!<\/p>\n