Sunday, January 11, 2015

Yesu finished his five hour, late night shift working the kitchen at O'Harley's at 2 AM and left the restaurant with a subtle smile on his face. Unlike the rest of his co-workers, who groaned and slouched over while working the night shift, Yesu actually enjoyed it. He felt more peaceful at night. Especially on nights like this where it was unusually warm for winter. Warm, humid nights reminded him of his childhood in Sepo, North Korea, where he would sleep in the hammock on the screened porch of his parent's house and the sounds of the tree frogs would lull him to sleep. What Yesu missed most about North Korea was his Uma or his mother. His Uma was a very religious woman and would read the Bible and teach him the ways of Christianity in secret even though religion was very strictly controlled by the North Korean government.

He loved his Uma dearly, but thought of her more as a foster mother. Yesu's real mother was the Virgin Mary, he believed it with every ounce of his being. From the time that he was a young boy and his mother was just starting to teach him about the Bible, Yesu felt a strange and overpowering sense of nostalgia for the stories being told in the new testament and an uncontainable connection to Mary. The type of connection only a child has to their mother, an internal and unexplainable one that is controlled by only the forces of nature. The more Yesu read and learned about Jesus, the more he believed he was him reincarnated. Yesu was born Kwan Myongo but had secretly called himself Yesu, meaning Jesus in Korean, since he was seven years old. The boundaries of religion under the Democratic People's Republic government in North Korea were suffocating Yesu. He wanted to embrace his true identity to its fullest extent and carry out his prophecy, which is why he smuggled himself out of heavily restricted Korea and into America when he was 25 on a cargo ship carrying potatoes. Quickly after arriving in "the land of the free," Yesu realized that fulfilling your potential was much harder in this country than it appeared to be in all the stories he heard. People thought he was utterly deranged for believing he was Jesus and wouldn't give him the time of day. He yearned to fix broken people, bring meaning and light to their lives like God wanted him to. The people of America certainly needed it. They were a godless group who chased after money and status like a pack of vicious, hungry animals. After years of failing to get through to anyone, Yesu realized something. The people rarely came to Jesus, Jesus had to come to the people to make them realize the errors of their ways. What Yesu saw next would be the perfect opportunity to do this.

As he started walking down Boulevard Ave. towards Main Street, Yesu heard groaning noises coming from the alley way between O'Harley's and the YMCA. He peered around the corner of the alley and saw the shadow of a person huddled over in the fetal position and a dark figure running in the opposite direction. Simultaneously, a bright light came flashing from above and Yesu looked up into the sky. Dazzling beams of light shot through the sky and filled the darkness. It was a meteor shower. It was a sign from the father. He was saying "Go. Go chase after him." Yesu thought no longer and quickly ran after the mysterious person. The burglar swung around the corner of the YMCA and as Yesu did the same about 15 seconds later, the man was already at the top of a massive chain linked fence that cut off the alley from the street. As the man hopped to the ground and ran down the street, Yesu angrily kicked a bag of trash. Issues with his hip prevented him from being able to climb the fence. Yesu wish he was as fast and powerful as the meteor shower. If he was, he would easily have been able to take that criminal down, knock him out, bring him back to apartment 413 and put him in the barred room with all the others.  

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