Short Stories
Josh Begin had been working at the firm for ten years and had just made partner. Carter, Saddat and Begin . It was a running gag around the city but unlike the original triumverate, times around the firm were seldom peaceful. But his designs for what would be the largest suspension bridge on the North American continent had made him a real celebrity in the engineering world and it hadn’t hurt his bank account either. So when Moses Carter told Josh he had nominated him for the Waterman Award, it was a real insult.
Sure, it would have been an honor for some high strung grad student or a promising first year rookie, but Josh was a star. A young star that had just been slapped back to reality by the son of the founder of, what was arguably, the best engineering firm on the East coast. That lime green flourescent folder slid right by his prize model of the Charleston project and it made him want to puke. There it lay, addressed to: The National Science Foundation • 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22230, USA. Josh picked up the brochure that had fallen out on his desk and read.
“Congress established the Alan T. Waterman Award in August 1975 to mark the 25th Anniversary of the National Science Foundation and to honor its first Director. The annual award recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the National Science Foundation. In addition to a medal, the awardee receives a grant of $500,000 over a three year period for scientific research or advanced study in the mathematical, physical, medical, biological, engineering, social, or other sciences at the institution of the recipient's choice.
Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and must be 35 years of age or younger or not more than 7 years beyond receipt of the Ph.D. degree by December 31 of the year in which they are nominated. Candidates should have demonstrated exceptional individual achievements in scientific or engineering research of sufficient quality to place them at the forefront of their peers. Criteria include originality, innovation, and significant impact on the field.”
Thirty-five! In six months, Josh could have dodged this bullet. Moses, sensing his disappointment, tried to cheer him up. “Josh,” I know this seems like a step back considering your new found fame. But that’s why I gave it to you.” Josh couldn’t believe his ears. Cut back -- at the height of his glory? “Look Josh,” Moses continued, “A lot of people work hard because they’d love to be famous. But the creativity, innovation, and genius that tend to produce fame usually come out of people who simply love the work.” He paused, hoping for a sign of understanding. Josh just stared at the folder. “I don’t want you to lose your love for the work Josh. That’s all.” “Yeah. Whatever.” Josh had heard all he wanted to.
As he was leaving, Moses told Josh that this year’s challenge was to address the cataclysmic extremes that years of damage to the Ozone by air born pollutants could potentially create. “What if suddenly there were no air to breathe?” Could Josh come up with a form of liquid inhalant that would not only provide needed Oxygen but potentially reduce, if not reverse, the damage of the carcenogens and pathogens that we have been breathing all our lives? Josh immediately remembered his bible study lesson from last week about God establishing a firmament in the midst of the waters and thereby dividing the waters from the waters. It was then that he thought to himself; “If we ever make it out of the galaxy, we had better carry S.C.U.B.A. gear.” He looked at the file and then past it to his precious model and finally his eyes met Moses’ as he turned for the door. He paused for Josh’s parting comment. “If people could breathe water Moses, there would be no bridges.” Moses laughed as Josh looked for comfort in the model on his desk.
Almost overnight, there were only six weeks left before contest entries were due. Josh had been dragging his feet, to say the least. And then the agents arrived. Josh had never believed the MIB hype until that moment. Never before had he seen such humorless stares. These were jaws of granite. Rocks that repelled rip tides. They terrified Miriam, the poor receptionist. Josh thought she was too perky any way. And then, in what seemed like nanoseconds, they exited Moses’ office with a sense of life and death urgency. And they whisked Josh and Moses off to a “secure location,” leaving the water cooler crowd drooling over the fate of the firm.
Josh had heard whispers of IRS investigations and CIA probes. And the terror alert seemed in constant motion from yellow to orange to other specious spheres on the spectrum. Everyone knew that Josh’s wife had worked in the North Tower and that a last minute excursion to the Hamptons had helped them escape the grief that so many others still bore from that horrid day. But, Josh could never have imagined what the agents were about to tell him as they entered a “secure room” in NSA headquarters -- just steps from ground zero.
“This is not a contest. This -- is not a contest.” The words rushed through his mind for the remainder of the day, drowning every other thought. Fear boiled every drop of the water that dominated his body as he and Becky found a seat near the back of this week’s bible study. The pastor started slowly, with a brief recap of last week. “As you will recall, I talked last week about God establishing a firmament in the midst of the waters and thereby dividing the waters from the waters.” Josh was certain that he remembered better than anyone. “Well, this week, I want to continue on that theme -- Water: The great divide.”
As despondent as he had been, Josh couldn’t help being drawn in by this “divine coincidence.” “Water,” Pastor Miles, continued, “has always been a substance of separation. It was water that cleansed the earth of sin during Noah’s flood and by water, according to 1 Peter 3:20, eight souls were saved. Their baptism in the Red Sea cleansed the children of Israel from the plagues of Egypt and separated them from four hundred years of hard bondage. Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine, just days before he told Nicodemus that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And then he admonished John to humbly suffer the exaltation of baptizing the Son of God in the same Jordan that delivered his forefathers to the land of promise. All this as he made his way to Samaria to exchange drinks with the woman at the well. Jesus washed away blindness, calmed raging seas, and even walked on this mystery substance.
Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? I challenge you as God challenged Job. The rain and the snow are obedient servants that will not return to their Lord void. And just like them, God never asks a man to do anything beyond his ability. It was their obedience in the face of impossible circumstance, because they feared God, that Noah, Moses, Joshua, John, and a host of others, were washed into the miraculous. Truly, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
Josh could not believe his ears. Was God speaking just to him? Surely no one else had been asked to engineer a liquid miracle that would save humanity that day? His mind was racing, anticipating the possibilities. Rivers of truth were rushing out of the living well within him. Noah built a boat. Yeah! Noah built that boat. A very commonplace activity, unless you’ve never seen rain before. And John had baptized hundreds, if not thousands, before Jesus arrived. And Peter -- Peter had spent his life getting out of his boat and walking. Pastor Miles was right. God hadn’t asked any of these men to do one thing they hadn’t done before. He just added water. The water of uncertainty. The water of humility. The water of impossibility. But because they feared God more than they feared their circumstances, these men discovered possibilities they could never have seen otherwise.
Now the word was really flowing in Josh. “If any man lack wisdom.” All Josh had to do was ask. God knew how to solve this problem. “I will show you great and mighty things which you know not.” His dad had always said, “you don’t need to know everything, you just need to know how to find anything.” Josh had always loved Proverbs 8:12 and even wanted to name his kids Wisdom and Prudence, but Becky wouldn’t have it. She couldn’t see the beauty of grandkids that had witty inventions. But Josh was beginning to see that in the midst of this crisis, Jesus was trying to take him somewhere.
“Come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other side.” Suddenly Josh realized that Jesus knew the end from the beginning. And more importantly, he knew that God was not going to let anything happen to him. Ozone or no Ozone, God had a plan. If it were not so, Jesus would have told him. He was determined not to be a faithless disciple. He was going to stop this storm. These waters had come to separate him from his God. But Josh knew that Jesus had a plan. Josh knew that God knew the thoughts he thought toward him, thoughts of peace and not of evil to bring him to an expected end. And Josh Begin was going to walk on these waters and come to that expected end. After all, Moses hadn’t asked him to do anything he hadn’t done before. He was an engineer. And it was time to start engineering.
Josh began to glorify God. Before he knew it, he was standing up with both hands raised. A flood of worship poured out of him and a wave of praise swept across the bible study. Pastor Miles could no longer teach. He didn’t want to. Tears were flowing. It was precious water that would soon bring forth a harvest of souls that none of them could imagine. But for now, Josh knew what to do. He had to stop dragging his feet. He had to apply himself diligently to the task at hand. He couldn’t avoid it. The deluge was coming straight at him and an unsuspecting world was relying on him. No. They were relying on his ability to rely on God. Josh was getting a glimpse of glory. The confident praise of the saints had washed away his fear. The clouds of uncertainty seemed to lose their payloads through his tear ducts.
And then Josh Begin had a devine idea. “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Josh couldn’t believe how simple it was. John the Baptist got it and leaped -- in his mother’s womb. Now it made sense. We were born of the water. For nine months, all of us were breathing fetal fluid -- in our mothers’ wombs.
The fear and it’s lethargy were gone. For the next six weeks, Josh worked like a man posessed. He was delegating authority like never before. Research teams. Phone calls. Diagrams. Prototypes. One more week and he had to make a presentation to the agents. Security was ridiculous, but his nerves were strangely calm. That notwithstanding, time was running out. When the day finally came, Josh made the presentation with his whole heart. He knew that the Spirit of God had spoken and through his gift, had delivered the answer.
The agents could not believe their ears. This was so simple, yet so profound. They gathered the data carefully. Every file, including that accursed flourescent lime green one that had started it all, was placed in sealed brief cases. And in an instant, they were gone. But gone where? Josh couldn’t get that address out of his mind. He had glimpsed it just as they were packing the files. The National Science Foundation • 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22230, USA. Something wasn’t right. But he didn’t have time to think about it now. Moses had missed the meeting. He had been rushed to the hospital the night before and his wife sounded worried.
Moses Carter had the strangest smile on his face as Josh walked in that stark white hospital room. There were tubes of various fluids flowing in and out of his body and he was on a respirator. No one knew he was sick! Now, he lay here, obviously dying. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocanosis. Who ever heard of a disease with twenty six syllables? Brown lung.
Moses’ grand dad had owned a textile manufacturing plant. Years on the floor had filled his young lungs with fibers that had finally taken their toll. Josh leaned in as Moses beckoned him and he couldn’t believe his ears. “There is no government crisis. It was a contest all along.” What! Josh could feel the rage welling up in him. “What a waste of time!” The weeks he had wasted on this dumb contest, he could have spent with Moses. But before he could express his anger, Moses slipped away. Evaporated, like a raindrop returning, having accomplished his mission.
Just then, the doctor came into the room. And he was carrying that accursed lime green flourescent folder. “Are you Josh?” “Yes.” Josh answered, unable to disguise his confusion. “Your findings are amazing.” The doctor’s eyes seemed glued to the files. “If we had had these six weeks ago, we might have been able to save him.” Josh was devistated but now he understood. “The nutrient enhanced liquid inhalant could have been used to flush Moses lungs and help to restore his beleaquered air sacs.” They both said it together. “He asked me to give you this,” the doctor said, handing Josh an envelope. “This is going to save a lot of lives,” he added as he left, eyes still glued to the file.
Josh could hardly hold back the tears as he read Moses’ note. “Josh. If you’re reading this, I’m gone. Sorry I tricked you, but you needed the motivation. And besides, I got the idea from you.” Josh couldn’t believe what he was reading. “Remember,” the note continued, “you said:” Josh mouthed the words as he read them. “If men could breathe water, there would be no bridges.”
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