Call Me Josh Chapter 18
They are at a hospital. He feels lead to go there. They walk through the pediatric ward. He isn’t sure what he is to do. It doesn’t worry him. His Father will tell him. Suddenly, they hear a wail. He follows it. A woman stands beside the bed of a young man. Two things he knows immediately. The first, that she is his mom and he her only child. The second that he has just died. A third comes to him as he enters the room, leaving his friends outside, that he can help and that he should.
“Young man, you can’t be in here.” The doctor says.
“It is okay. Everything will be okay.” He replies as he approaches the bedside. “Don’t cry.” He tells the mom. She stares at him as though he has two heads. He touches the young man. Warmth returns to his skin and he sits up. The doctor catches the mom as she stumbles back against him. “here’s your son.” With a smile, he leaves them.
“Wait! Young man, who are you?”
“Call me Josh.” He replies as he joins his friends.
From then on, they are mobbed whenever they go out. The story of the son he returned to his mom, was everywhere. Social media and regular media is filled with it.
“This young man, simply known as Josh, preformed a miracle in Bethlehem General Hospital in Bethlehem Pennsylvania yesterday. Farquhar Abdul was dead. His doctors leave no doubt about that. He passed from cancer after a year of treatment. Now, the sixteen year old is fully healthy and cancer free. His body doesn’t even show the effects of the chemo used to treat his lymphoma. A simple touch and he was literally raised to life. The only word this reporter can use is miracle.”
“Joshua, they are talking about you, aren’t they?” Mary asks.
“Yes mama. I must be about my Father’s work.”
“It is time already?” She has known this day was coming. He is just her baby still. He understands her thoughts and places his arm around her.
“It is. I will always be your son but I am also His.” She nods against his chest. When did he grow so tall?
“You will be careful?” He knows exactly where this is heading and can’t promise her that.
“I will go where He leads.”
She recalls suddenly what the woman had told her in the grocery store when her son had preformed his first miracle. “Your heart will break.” With a shudder, she presses closer to him, holding him tight as long as she can.
“It is a trick. It has to be. Some sort of scheme.” An expert reports on another network. “You can’t raise the dead.”
Joshua ignores it all. None of it bothers him. It is expected. It will get worse. Much worse. Wherever he goes, people approach him.
“My daughter is addicted to fentanyl. Can you help her?” A woman asks. He looks deep in her eyes.
“Do you believe I can?” He asks her.
“I do.” He smiles.
“Go in peace. Your daughter won’t be troubled anymore.” She falls down at his feet.
“Thank you!” He lifts her to her feet.
“You’re welcome. Just stay away from sin, you and your daughter.”
Soup kitchens that are struggling to feed all that come to them, are full of supplies when he enters them. “Bless you Josh.” The director says. “You are a good man.”
“Why call me good? None is good outside of God. You are welcome. You are doing good work.” He nods to his friends, “We are honored to help.”
They spend the afternoon feeding those who come through the line. One man stops in front of Joshua. “You can help me.”
“How?” Joshua knows his need but it will help the man to express it.
“I want to get rid of the hate in my heart.” He softly says. Joshua smiles at him.
“Forgive yourself and forgive them that hurt you.” He says, touching his hand. “Can you do that?”
The old man leads out a deep breath. His stiff posture relaxes and his eyes fill with tears. “I can. I have.”
“Then God has forgiven you. Go in peace.”
“Thank you young man! Thank you so much.” He leaves the line dancing around the room. His joy is contagious and the room is soon full of laughter.
“How do you explain it then?” The commentator asks.
“It is a scheme. Just wait. You will soon see him asking for money for his ‘miracles’.”
“Why can’t they be true?”
The other man rolls his eyes. “Because miracles don’t really happen.”
He wonders the back alleys, his eyes wild with madness. Diagnosed with a list of mental illnesses, his true issue is hidden. That is until Joshua and his friends find him.
“I wouldn’t Josh. They say he is as strong as several man and has hospitalized several.” Matt warns.
“Don’t worry. He won’t hurt me. Watch but stay back.” The guys put the girls behind them and watch, anxiously, as he approaches the madman.
“What do you want with us, Joshua? It isn’t yet our time to be bound.”
“Us?” Maria whispers to her sister.
“What is your name?” He commands. They have never heard him sound so commanding.
“Legion, for we are many. Please don’t bind us.”
“You must leave him and most not enter another person. You cannot!” His voice raises into a shout, “Now leave him!” The man slumps against the wall of the building behind him. A second later, he stands straight. His eyes have lost their crazed look.
“I am free. Their, their gone.” His voice is completely different, calm and a whole tenor lower. His eyes though, they are really what shows the change. No longer wide with craziness, they rest peaceful in his face. “They left.”
Joshua smiles. “They won’t return either.” He walks over and pats the man on his arm. “You are well and truly free.”
The others slowly approach. “Welcome back to the land of sanity.” Simon says.
“He wasn’t insane Simon. He was possessed.”
“I was. I thought I would never be free but, “ He turns back towards Joshua, “You were able to command them to leave. God bless you.”
“God bless you. Go and live the life they tried to take.” The man hugs him tight. He then turns and hurries away, shouting the praises of Joshua.
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