The following Tuesday was A.J.'s day off.
He and his Dad arranged to meet for a late lunch at Just Plain Pizza before heading over to the library.
“Your mom and I really liked P.J., son. Not only is she pretty on the outside, but she has a wonderful personality. I could tell she immediately felt at ease around us and seemed to fit right in. Even your sister mentioned how comfortable she seemed.”
“Yeah, it's hard to explain, but she and I felt as though we were meant to be together almost from the start. She called it being 'kindred spirits'. I've never met anyone like her, Dad.”
After devouring a crispy thin-crust pepperoni, mushroom, and red onion pizza, they walked over to the library.
When they approached the reference desk, A.J. could see the reference librarian had an annoyed look on her face.
“Back again, huh, young man? Well, you have company this time. That man who calls himself Noble is waiting for you. He said you would be bringing someone else. He's strange, that one. When he looks at you, it's like he's staring right into your soul. Gives me goosebumps.”
A.J. was surprised. “Was Noble really in there?”, he wondered. “How did he know I was bringing my dad with me?”
As he signed in, he had begun to understand that there was something special about Noble, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
A.J. opened the door to the archive room and he and his dad walked in. His dad was startled as he took in the room. It wasn't a large room, but once inside, one got the feeling that you could explore forever and never get to the end.
As they looked around they realized that Noble was not in sight. A.J. fully expected him to be seated at the table with an array of books spread out, but no one was sitting there.
So, he called out, “Mr. Noble, are you in here?”
“Back here”, a voice shot out from somewhere behind the rows of shelves.
A.J. and his dad circled around the end of the shelving units. They stared down each row until they came to the seventh one. There, about halfway down, sitting on the floor surrounded by books, was Noble.
Although they had exchanged notes enough that A.J. felt like he was beginning to know him, this was only the 2nd time they had met in person.
“Mr. Noble, I brought my Dad. When I finally found the courage to tell him of my quest to reach Transformatia, I thought he would try to dissuade me.
“But, I was shocked to see tears in his eyes and a sympathetic look on his face.
“Then he told me of his own quest long ago and how he ended up giving up because of the same monster I seem to be having trouble getting past – FEAR.”
Noble looked at A.J.'s dad for a moment with eyes displaying unfathomable compassion. His next words seemed to pierce even the thoughts of his heart.
“But, you are ready now.” It wasn't a question.
A.J.'s dad felt a profound calmness.
He simply replied, “Yes.”
As he looked at Noble, the memory of his last disastrous attempt to reach Transformatia stirred in his mind.
“You look very familiar. I met a man after my last attempt to reach Transformatia. I remember now, that he said his name was Love.
“I thought it was a strange name, but there was something about him that was attractive. He was manly, yet kind and showed a compassion that could almost be felt.
“He didn't ridicule me at all for quitting. He simply said, 'Remember, Perfect Love casts out fear. You will know when you are ready.'
“He told me that he would be around if I needed him, but I tucked all that away and never brought it out again. Until now.”
There was a sparkle in Noble's eyes and an amused look on his face. He did not directly respond to A.J.’s Dad.
Instead, he said, “It is always good to read and know about those who have gone before you and have paved the way. It gives a renewed sense of courage.
“Come with me to the table. I want to show you something.”
Noble opened the volume called The Book and turned to the section called The Letter to the Hebrews.
When he had found the place he wanted, he turned it so A.J. and his dad could read the words and said, “Read the first sentence of Chapter 12.”
“Go ahead, son”, A.J.'s dad said.
I focused and read out loud,
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us patiently run the race that is set before us.”
“What witnesses is it talking about?”, I asked.
“Well, I'm glad you asked that question”, Noble said. “Whenever you see the word, ‘wherefore’, it almost always refers to what was just before it. Why don't you and your father read that while I go and clean up the mess I left on the floor? And remember, as I told you before, I will never really leave you or abandon you. I'll be closer than you think.”
Dad and I looked at each other with puzzled faces at this last statement, but we decided to sit down and read the previous chapter.
“Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen . . .”.
After what seemed like an hour of reading and rereading that whole passage about faith and those who lived by it, we put the book away and went to find Noble.
When we got to where we had seen him earlier, all the books had been put back neatly, but he was nowhere in sight.
“He must have slipped out while we were absorbed with reading", Dad said.
When we got to the reference desk to turn the key in, I asked what time Noble had left.
She gave us a puzzled look. She said she had not seen him leave.
When she checked the register, there was his name with both check-in and check-out times recorded. But, this time, something was different. It was signed ‘Noble Love’.
Her puzzled look turned to alarm.
“I don’t understand”, she said. “Why would he sign his name differently?" I have been here the whole time”, she continued. “I never saw him leave.”
Dad and I were shocked by her words. Maybe she took a break and didn’t see him leave. Or maybe she was preoccupied when he came out.
As we walked home, Dad said, “It is very odd that neither we nor the reference lady saw him leave. And did you catch that he signed his name Noble Love? I’m telling you, as soon as I saw him today, I knew he was the same person I met along the road all those years ago.”
“How can that be? And why would he tell you his name was Love and then tell me his name was Noble, but now he’s combined the two? Unless he’s trying to tell us something. That name must mean something. It’s like he knew that we would be having this meeting today.”
“I don’t know, son. But, we can’t just let this go now. I don’t intend to be awakened from my slumber only to go back into hibernation. We can’t give up now.”
“I know, Dad. I’m not going to quit my quest to reach Transformatia. Not with you by my side.
But you have to admit, Our encounters with him from day one have been rather odd”.
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