Callisto by Torsten Krol

been in touch with our ministry and expressed her deep concern about you, Dean, concerning recent developments in your life. Maybe I should say your interior life, by which I mean in your heart and your soul, Dean. I’m sure you know what I’m referring to.”
    I shook my head. Dean never said a word to me about his heart or his soul. What he talked about mainly while we were drinking down my bottle of Captain Morgan was how lousy our dads were and it’s a shame our moms had died young in my case and run off with another guy, that’s what happened to Dean’s mom and he never heard from her again. Even her sister, that’s Aunt Bree, she never heard either, which is a shame when family breaks apart that way.
    â€œYou can’t guess what I’m referring to, Dean?”
    â€œNossir, he never mentioned it. She, I mean.”
    â€œThen I’ll spell it out loud and clear. Your aunt has expressed deep concern to us at the ministry . . .you’re familiar with our organization, the Born Again Foundation?”
    That had a familiar ring to it, then I remembered it’s something on TV late at night when it’s mainly religious shows and infomercials about skin care products. Once or twice I have seen that show with the old guy with the slicked-back hair and the stabbing fingers when he gets all worked up preaching . . .what was his name again?
    â€œPreacher Bob,” I said, remembering.
    â€œThat’s what folks like to call him,” says Chet. “Of course, around the office, if I might use that term, we call him just plain Bob, that’s how he likes it, informal and without pretension. Robert Jerome Ministries is the official title of our overall organization, but we don’t need to get into that kind of detail today, Dean. What we’re here to discuss is you.”
    â€œWhy?” I really wanted to know why a big name TV personality with his own Bible college near Topeka and his own network show that millions of people watched, I bet, what he wanted with me. With Dean, that is. It was a real mystery.
    â€œNow, Dean, you must have some notion of what it is I’m referring to. I think maybe you’re being just a little bit disingenuous here.”
    Nobody ever called me a genius before, and it made me suspicious that he’s trying to pump up my self-esteem so’s he can sell me something. I know for a fact I am not a genius, so now I’m suspicious as hell, even if he’s still smiling at me. I didn’t say a thing, just smiled back, waiting for him to say whyhe thinks I’m so smart. Thinks Dean is so smart, I mean, which Dean never struck me as being even very clever, never mind at the genius level.
    â€œDean, I’ll speak directly to the problem. Mrs Wayne has written to us about your decision to reject the faith of your fathers and embrace . . .the religion of Islam.”
    I stared at him. What was he talking about? Dean never spoke a word to me about being an Islamite. They don’t look anything like Dean, with his
Bad to the Bone
T-shirt, and they don’t drink liquor either, everyone knows that, but Dean did and I don’t mean sipping. It made no sense at all. I couldn’t think what to say, it’s so ridiculous, but Chet was watching my face, waiting for a response. After he left I was going to wake Dean up and question him big time about all this.
    â€œAre you still considering this radical and dangerous act, Dean? I can think of nothing more certain to condemn your soul, your
immortal soul
, Dean, to punishment so extreme it pains me to think about it happening to a young man like yourself with so much of life before you. Think carefully now.”
    I was doing that, thinking at top speed, and it come back to me how Dean said he didn’t eat pigmeat, which is something everyone knows the Islamites do because pigs are unholy creatures or something religious like that. So it was true what Chet was