Penny Wise and the League of St. Claire

Chapter 3

Jordan met Penny in the playground the next day. She was dressed in a faded pink tee and tan shorts and he had on a white tee and jeans. Both were wearing tennis shoes.

“I see that you are not avoiding me, Jordan,” she said with a teasing smirk.

“You have to admit that what you and your friends told me sounds rather farfetched. How could five kids challenge a powerful evil force?”

“We’ve been chosen, Jordan. God has chartered us with the task of destroying the Antichrist.”

“I’m curious,” he said, looking serious. “How do you . . . we plan to fight the Antichrist?”

“We have been given powers,” she said. “And, you have too. You must discover your powers.”

Jordan smiled. “The only power I have is the gift of a good memory. I could overwhelm this evil one you talk of with a plethora of amusing limericks.”

Penny giggled, but she turned serious. “Let’s explore the woods and the solitude that it provides.”

Jordan went with her to the wooded area that borders the railroad tracks. A large gray steam engine pulling boxcars streamed past, its wheels creating a click-clack sound that continued for several minutes. The steam from the locomotive billowed up and streamed back for several yards.

“Not much solitude here,” Jordan said, shaking his head.

“They only occasionally come through here,” Penny said. “I was referring to the absence of prying ears.”

“Yeah, I’ve trudged through these woods quite often just to be alone; although, one must be alert for copperheads.”

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heels,” she said.

“Genesis 3:15,” he said. “That’s God’s promise that Christ will come to redeem the sins of mankind.”

“But, we are left with the coming of the Beast,” she said.

“Some think that the Beast is already with us,” he said.

“They are mistaken. Revelation clearly states that the Beast will come at the time of the apocalypse, and despite the fact that the world currently faces a global war, this is not the time.”

“I see. You seem confident about this.”

Penny’s expression suddenly changed to surprise, which Jordan thought to be about his statement.

But it wasn’t.

A loud bang followed by a series of scraping metal sounds filled the air.

“What was that?” Jordan asked, looking around.

“Come,” Penny said before she took off down a hill to the playground.

Jordan ran after her to Arch Avenue near the tunnel under the railroad tracks. The dingy tunnel dripped water from a moss covered ceiling and it felt ten degrees cooler, encouraging most walkers to hurry, but they didn’t care. They were running.

When Penny and Jordan emerged from the opposite side of the tunnel they found a crowd gathering at what appeared to be a terrible accident. A 36 Ford Sedan had been T-boned by a two ton truck and had been bent into a U-shaped mangled mess. The truck driver was shaken up but otherwise okay, but the people in the wrecked car were obviously dead. People were shouting and running around in a futile attempt to rescue the victims in the car, but the car had been crushed too severely to get them out. Two police cars and an ambulance were hurrying to the scene with sirens blaring.

“This is awful!” Jordan cried. “Those poor people!”

“They are doomed, Jordan,” Penny said in sullen manner. “Unless you save them.”

Jordan turned to her with his face twisted with shock. “How?” he cried. “It’s too late.”

“Time is an illusion, Jordan. The future determines the past. Use your power to change this.”

Jordan was both excited and disgusted. He wanted to puke but he concentrated on the accident scene instead. Suddenly, the siren noises, the yelling and the traffic sounds stopped and it was eerily silent. Nothing moved. Then, as if an invisible hand were pulling the wreck apart, the truck slowly backed away from the car and as it did, the car slowly bent back to its rightful shape. This happened without sound, without anyone realizing what was happening because the spectators were acting like department store dummies being manipulated by invisible workers. They slowly moved away, seemingly walking or running backwards. The truck backed off to the side road from where it had come and then began to move toward the intersection without any signs that it would honor the stop sign. The car, which had moved back to the main road, began to move toward the intersection and the fateful collision.

Jordan ran toward the car and shouted. “Stop! Watch out! Stop!” He emphatically pointed at the truck that was careening through the intersection.

The driver of the car came to a screeching stop just as the truck raced through the intersection without stopping. For what seemed like an eternity, the car driver stared at Jordan in awe. They remained with eyes locked for an inexorable moment in time before the driver went back to proceeding to wherever he was headed.

Jordan cried and Penny put a consoling hand on his shoulder. “See, I knew you would discover your power.”

He turned to stare at her with fearful confusion etched on his hansom face. “Are you implying that I did this?”

“Yes, Jordan. We all have the power to manipulate time. You just had to discover yours.”

He shook his head. “No! That’s impossible. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“We all went though this,” Penny said. “You have many more powers that have been given to you by God. You must learn to use them properly. We can help you in this task.”

At this point Jordan was both confused and frightened. He had considered Penny and her league to be a fantasy union created by a small group of enlightened teens for escapist amusement, but now he wasn’t so sure. Was he dealing with something more sinister? Was she implying that they were super heroes like those that are portrayed in comic books? That is totally insane!