Chapter 7

It wasn’t often that David and Brie Draiman went to the market in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem together.  Usually Brie went alone because David- even five years after retiring- couldn’t walk down the street without being recognized and asked for an autograph.  He was a hero for many Jewish people.  They appreciated his ability to become a rock star and still “be a hazan”.  There were a few Temples in the area that wanted him to teach their young cantors.  David wanted no part of it. 

He’d sign autographs graciously and tell people that he was happy that his music or actions could help them in some way.  Brie was even as understanding as she could be- even when she was in a hurry to get back home- but there came times when he would have to tell people no because his wife wanted to move along.  There were times when the crowd would be so thick that Brie would leave him where he was so that he could attend to his fans; come back and the crowd was thicker than it was when she left.

After being back home in Jerusalem for a few days, they were running dangerously low on certain necessities in the house- like tea.  “David, baby, we’re running low on the necessities”, Brie told him.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Like sugar, vegetables, flour, meat, tea.”

“How are you doing on that sweetener your doctor told you to start using when he started making you test your blood sugar and take insulin?” he asked her, giving her a pointed look from where he sat on the couch.

She groaned and rolled her eyes.  “Did you have to remind me that he’s making me use Splenda?”

“So I take it that means you’re almost out.” He made the observation a statement.

“Yes”, she groaned again.

“Brie, you know that the doctor told you no more sugar.  Your sugar can’t be controlled by diet alone anymore.”  He got up and wrapped his arms around her.  “I know you hate it baby, and I hate it with you, but you have to do it so that I don’t lose you before your due time.  I don’t need you to lapse into a diabetic coma because you overloaded your pancreas with glucose.  Can you do me that favor and just follow the doctor’s orders?”

“I am, but that Splenda stuff doesn’t taste right, David.  They say that it supposed to taste like sugar, but they lie.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead in a kiss.  “They’re supposed to lie so that people will buy the product.  It’s marketing.”

“No, it’s false advertisement.”

“There’s no getting you to bend on this opinion of yours, is there?”

“No, but either way, I’m going to buy it and drink it and use it in my food.  Now, are you going with me or am I going alone so that we can avoid you being stopped in the middle of the market place and/ or the grocery store?”

“I’m going with you.  I’ll just have to tell the fans and people that stop us in the street/ store that I can’t sign autographs today.”

“I try to be understanding, David, I really do.  But, you’ve been retired for five years.  I’d think that you’ve signed every autograph in Jerusalem by now.”

“Don’t forget that I’ve been signing autographs in every other country that we’ve travelled to as well.”

“I understand that.  We haven’t visited the same country twice.  Every time we leave, we visit different cities you've visited in your career and they’re all excited to see you whether you’re recording or not.  We live here and it seems like it doesn’t matter what part of town we visit- someone wants your signature on an old poster or CD or download receipt that they kept because things like that are becoming valuable. If they could collect all four signatures, the memorabilia would be nearly priceless.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“I’ve listened to a few people when they’re gathered trying to get your autograph and I’ve done a little research of my own.  Did you know that my messenger bag that dates back to the ‘Indestructible’ cycle is worth about 5 or 6 hundred thousand dollars?”

“What?”

“That’s the last estimate on several Disturbed auction sites I’ve looked at.”

“What about t- shirts?”

“That all depends on how often the shirt was worn, how visible the signature is on the shirt; things like that.”

“Wow.  I didn’t know that our merchandise was that valuable.”

“You’d be surprised.  You should see some of the CD prices and how high those things climb at auction.”

“Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack. There are collections of all of your work- rare B sides included- that are going for several million dollars.”

All David could do was stare at her in shock for a few moments.  When he gathered his thoughts again, he blinked and cleared his throat.  “Why don’t we get things together and head to the market, love?  We need meat for dinner tonight, don’t we?”

She laughed and pulled herself away from him.  “Let me grab my purse, love, and we’ll go.  But, no signing autographs.”  She walked away and went to their bedroom to grab her purse and a pair of sandals.

“I won’t.”

“I mean it, David.  If I so much as see one pen in your hand to sign a-ny-thing other than the check to pay for the grocery bill and you and I will go round and round.  I’ll win.”

He laughed.  “You got it love, though I won’t be signing a check.  I’ll be signing for the credit card.”

“Either way, if you sign one autograph I’m going to kick your ass, David Michael.”

----------------

Jake was tossing and turning that night as he slept.  His mind couldn’t be still.  His dreams were strange.  Most nights, he could tell prophetic dreams from dreams that were normal.  This was not one of those times.  He was having what he saw to be an apocalyptic type dream.  Fire and brimstone, the end of the world; the war to end all wars.  He couldn’t make heads or tails of it.  He’d taught himself not to come out of his dreams gasping, but this was one of those strange ones that he couldn’t help it.  He shot up straight in the bed with an audible gasp.  He looked to his right to see if he’d awaken the beautiful woman he’d been calling his wife for ten years.  He hadn’t woken her so he crawled out of bed quietly and went into the bathroom of their master suite after wiping two fingers across his chest.  He had broken into a cold sweat.  He knew it was a cold sweat because he had a chill when he came to.

In through your nose, out through your nose, Jacob, he thought as he tried to slow his heart rate.  He’d washed his face and neck with a wash rag before looking into the mirror to calm down.  Don’t freak out.  You have no idea what it could mean.  It could just be a fucked up dream.  Then his mother’s dream came to mind.  He hadn’t shared what his mother had seen with any of his siblings.  A voice in the back of his mind whispered, you should call your mother, Jacob.  She’ll know what to tell you.  He moved back into the bedroom and picked up his cell phone from the bedside table.  As he made is way for the door there was a gentle knock.  He opened it and two of the eight of his siblings that were in the house were standing at his door.  “What’s up, ‘Miah?  Maddie?”

“We need to talk to you, Jake”, Maddie said.

“Now would be best”, Jeremiah added.

“About?”

“We’ll tell you as soon as Jona gets Matthew settled down from his nightmare”, Jeremiah said as he checked a message on his phone.  He took a deep breath and checked another message.  “Skyler and Kaylian are on their way over from their little house.  Kaylian’s going to take care of Mattie.  Jona, Skyler, and the three of us need to talk from what I understand.”

Jake sighed.  “Then let’s all wait on Skyler and Kaylian to arrive in the living room.”

Jacob, Madison, and Jeremiah all turned and headed down the hall toward the stairs.  The moment his feet hit the bottom floor of the two story mansion he bought from their father, Jeremiah’s in laws knocked on the door.  Jeremiah went to the door to let them in as Jake and Maddie sat down in the living room.  Kaylian Mason didn’t bother greeting any of the people in the house.  She just ran through the house toward the back door and the old guest house that Jeremiah and Jona called home with Jeremiah hot on her heels.  Skyler took a seat in one of the arm chairs.  “Sorry to wake everyone at this time of night”, he said.  The look in his eyes was one of worry.

“I was up anyway”, Jake said with a sigh.  “I was actually about to put in a call our parents.”

“You too?” Maddie asked. 

Jake just looked at her.  “I think you need to explain, Madison.”

“She will in a minute”, Jeremiah said as he helped Jona into a chair and sat on the arm if it.  “First, Mattie had a nightmare tonight that has me worried.”

“What did he see?” Skyler and Jake asked at the same time.  “Sorry, Jake.  He’s my grandson.  You understand.”

“He’s my nephew, so yeah.”  He looked back at Jeremiah.  “What did Matthew see?”

“Four horses with scary looking riders.  One was wearing black and made of bones.  One was wearing red and was dripping blood.  One was in yellow and had nasty looking crust in his eyes, dry lips, snot coming out of his nose.  The other was wearing brown and where his horse touched the grass wilted and died”, Jona said in a voice that was as calm as she could manage.

Jake and Maddie looked at her with wide eyes.  “Death, War, Pestilence, and Famine”, Maddie said softly.

“The Four Horsemen?”  Jake made the statement a question.  “Isn’t he a little young to be seeing the Four Horsemen in his dreams?”

“Apparently not”, Jeremiah said.  “I was seeing the war to end all in the dream I was having before I woke to my son screaming in fear.”

“I saw death and destruction everywhere I turned”, Maddie said.  “Colton is worried.  He said that he’s going to call his tribe’s shaman in the morning to see what he suggests.”

Jake looked at Skyler.  “Have you had any visions, Skyler?” he asked.

“Just a bunch of jumbled images that I can’t make sense of.  ‘The Lord is my Sheppard, I shall not want’”, Skyler said.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures?” Jake asked.

“You say that as though you’ve heard it before.”

Jake sighed and placed his elbows on his knees as he wiped his hands over his face.  “Fuck”, he said under his breath.

“Hold on a second here”, Jeremiah said.  “You said when I came in that you were about to call Mom and Dad.  Why?”

“To see if Mom could help me explain the dream I just had.  It looked Apocalyptic.  A bunch of shit I couldn’t understand.”

“Ok, so let me get this straight”, Maddie said.  “You had a fucked up dream, I had a fucked up dream, Jeremiah had a fucked up dream, Matthew had a fucked up dream, and you know the quote that Skyler heard in his vision?  Where do you know it from, Jake?”

“It’s not important right now, Maddie.  What is important is that we get to the bottom of this so that Jeremiah and Jona can put little Matthew at ease.”

“Where have you heard it before, Jacob?” Maddie insisted.

He growled under his breath.  “The last time I talked to Dad.  Mom was asleep, but she had a dream that contained that verse.  It was actually Psalms 23: 1 and 4.  ‘Yea, and though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me’.  She had seen a bunch of jumbled images that she couldn’t make sense of.”

Everyone in the room exchanged a look.  “CALL MOM”, Maddie and Jeremiah said in unison.  “CALL YOUR MOTHER”, Skyler said at the same time.  Jake just picked up his phone and made the phone call.

---------------

They had managed to get in and out of the grocery store and the market district with next to no problems.  The only issue was that the cashier at the store had a visible Disturbed tattoo that he wanted signed.  David told the boy that he had to talk to Brie about it.  Brie looked at the boy and her husband then told him that he was to be the only one.

One their way home Brie’s phone buzzed.  She pulled it out of her purse as it played some new Reckless Disregard song that she was using as her ring tone for all of her children at that moment.  She saw Jacob’s number on the Caller ID, and she looked at David.  “It’s Jake.”

David checked his watch.  “It’s 1:30 in the morning there.  What is he doing calling at that time of night?”

“One way to find out”, she said as she answered the phone and put on the speaker.  “Yeah, Jake?”

“Mom, we have a situation here and we need your advice”, Jake said calmly.  She could hear in his tone that he was stressed and trying not to let it show.

“What’s wrong son?”

“Are you and Dad sitting still?” Maddie asked.

“No, we’re driving down the road toward home.  We just left the market.  Why?”

“Call me back after you two get home and get your groceries put away.  I need your undivided attention for this”, Jake said.

David and Brie exchanged a brief glance.  “Jacob Micah, answer your mother”, David said in a stern tone.

“I’d love to, Dad, but you two need to be sitting still and not having to worry about putting food away before it spoils.  Get home, put your groceries away, and then call me back.  We’ll all still be up, trust me.  I think the only one that will have gone back to be will be Jona once Kaylian has Matt calmed and back to sleep.”

“What happened to Matthew?” Brie snapped.

“All in due time, Mom”, she heard Jeremiah said.  “I’ll explain when you call back.”

“I don’t like the sound of this, kids.  Do your father and I need to jump on a plane and come home?” Brie asked impatiently.

“I don’t think that’s necessary”, Jake said.  “We just need your help interpreting some dreams and visions.”

“Can’t Skyler help you all in the morning?”

“I’m at just as big a loss as your children are, Brie”, Skyler said.

She sighed.  “Ok, give us about fifteen minutes.  We’re about five from the house and it will take ten minutes between the two of us to put everything away.  If you haven’t heard back in about thirty minutes, call back.  Either way, the next time you all hear my voice, I want answers from any one whose last name is or has at one time been Draiman.  Do I make myself crystal fucking clear?”  The tone in her voice said that she was not to be questioned on this and that her orders would be obeyed or else.

“Yes, Mom”, Jake said.  “We will explain everything the next time we speak.”  He hung up.

Brie put her phone back in her purse and looked at her husband.  “David, something’s not right at home.  I can feel it.”

“You want to know what I think?”

“What do you think hon?”

“I think that there is something huge coming for our kids and there’s not too much we can do to stop it.  I mean, we might not be living in the US anymore, but I still try to keep my finger on the pulse of things back home.  There’s a Utopian party in the race toward the Oval Office.”

“What?”

“Yeah.  Backed by an organization that calls themselves the People in Support of a Utopian Society.”

“You have got to be kidding me.  The Utopians are trying to take over again?”

“Yeah.  And they’re getting close from what it seems.”

“That’s not good news, David.  I’d like to hear some good news.”

“I don’t know about that, love, but I do know that as much as Jake’s been calling the last few days, something is after them and we may need to head back to the States to guide them through it.”

---------------

Once their food was put away and the kitchen straightened up, David and Brie called their second oldest son back.  “Now, start talking someone”, Brie said as she set her phone on the glass coffee table in front of the couch.  David was sat back and comfortable as his fingertips unconsciously traced up and down his wife’s spine.

“Mom, it appears that everyone has had some strange dreams or visions tonight.  And that includes young Matthew”, Jake said.  This time, the stress in his voice was showing through.

“Hold on”, David said calmly.  “Jacob, why don’t we start from the top?  What was Matthew’s dream?”

“In essence, Dad, he had a dream about the Four Horsemen.”

“The Four Horsemen?  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?” Brie asked.

“Yes ma’am”, Jeremiah responded.

Brie looked over her shoulder to her husband as his hand on her back became very still all of the sudden.  He sat up and was suddenly very interested in the conversation rather than half assed listening.  “Ok.  Jeremiah, what did you see?”

Jeremiah explained his dream in detail.  Then they asked Maddie what she saw and she told them in detail as well.  Jake soon followed with his details.  Then Skyler told them what he could of his vision.  Brie looked over at David.  “Where does Skyler’s vision sound familiar from?”

“You the other night.”  David sighed.  “Kids, I’ve been keeping an eye on the political climate there in the States.  I know what’s going on in the Presidential race.  I’ll tell you all now that I’m not happy about it.  Based on everything I’ve heard and everything you’re mother has told me of her dreams, I have a feeling that something big is coming.  Bigger than anyone of you alone and that includes all of you that don’t have dreams.  I caution all of you that do see things not to tell the others unless or until you feel that they are all ready to hear the truth.  Try not to alarm anyone.  Stick with the plans that you all have already set forth.  Pull the kids from school and have them tutored there at the house.  Maddie, you and a couple of your brothers need to teach those who don’t know how to handle a firearm.  I suggest that Miranda, Isaiah and Elijah learn as well.  They’re more than old enough- especially Miranda and Isaiah.  Logan should be there and I hope that Justin was smart and went down with James.  That’s two more rifles if you need them.  Skyler how’s your aim?”

“Still sharp, David”, Skyler responded.

“Good, would you mind assisting in teaching those of my kids that don’t know how to shoot how to do so?”

“No.  Which of your kids knows how to shoot?”

“All of the boys, Maddie, and Makayla that are there.  Jessykah does as well, but she’s here rather than out there.”

“Got it.  Is there anything else you need from me?”

“Not at the moment.  Right now, we’re waiting until Jessykah has her daughter before we make ourselves available to do too much travelling.  At the first sign of trouble, give us a call and we’ll be there as soon as the plane can touch down.”

“You got it.  First sign that you’re needed, David, I’ll make Jake here call you.”

“Dad, you want us to call you even if Jessi hasn’t had the baby?” Maddie asked.

“Yes.  I’m sure that Jessi will understand, though we’re both sure that she will pop any time now.”

“You got it, Dad”, Jacob said.

“Meanwhile, I want daily updates before you go to bed, Jacob.  And I want them on everything.  Politics, how the kids are taking confinement, how you’re all handling things, dreams, visions- the whole nine yards.”

“You got it Dad.  Should I inform Jordan of this order?”

“No, but tell her that if I hear of her leaving the house on her own that she will be in hot water with me.”

“You got it, Dad.  Anything else?”

“Nope.  Not that I can think of.”  He looked at his wife.  “Anything from you?”

“No, I think you’ve about covered it.”  She spoke to her children on the phone.  “You kids try to get some sleep.  I’m sure that your significant others are lonely in those beds.”

“They are.  Oh, Mom, Dad, Colton was talking about calling his tribal shaman in the morning.  What do you say to that?”

“Maybe the shaman can make heads or tails of your dreams and give you something more than we can.  I’m just as confused as all of you are”, Brie said with a sigh.  “Let Colton make the call and see what the shaman says.”

“Ok.  Will do.  I’m sure you two want to get something to eat soon”, Jake said.

“Yeah, and I need to test my sugar and take my insulin.”

“I still can’t believe that”, Jake sighed.  “Well, we’ll let you go so that you two can do what you have to do.  Let us know when Jessi has the baby, please.”

“Will do, Jake.  Good night you guys.” And Brie ended the conversation with the touch of a button on her touch screen phone.  She looked at her husband with a sigh.  “So, how long do you think it will be until we’re making a trip out to Colorado to prevent the war to end all wars?”

“I don’t know.  I’m hoping it won’t have to happen, but you and I both know how Jordan is”, David said as he sat back on the couch.

“The holidays are going to suck, David.  We both know it.”  She sat back with him and curled up against his side.

“I know, love.  I give it until Thanksgiving before Jordan does something stupid and we have to coordinate some sort of rescue attempt”, he said with a chuckle.

David had no idea just how accurate his attempt at a joke was.  But, he wasn’t going to get much of a chance to think about it because his phone started ringing.  It was his son in law, David Adam.  “Hello?” he said when he pressed the phone to his ear.

“Dad, Jessi just went into labor.  We on our way to the hospital now”, his son in law said.

“Alrighty then, Adam.  Mom and I will meet you guys there.”  He looked at his wife.  “It’s that time.  We get to greet another grandchild’s entrance into the world.”