The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides [113]
“I came here to study,” the woman started up again. “At the New Bible Institute. I’m learning Koine. You know what Koine is?”
“That’s the language the New Testament was written in. Ancient demotic form of Greek.”
“Wow. Most people don’t know that. I’m impressed.” She leaned toward him and said in a quiet voice, “Are you a Christian?”
Mitchell hesitated to answer. The worst thing about religion was religious people.
“I’m Greek Orthodox,” he said finally.
“Well, that’s Christian.”
“The Patriarch will be pleased to know that.”
“You’ve got a good sense of humor, don’t you?” the woman said, not smiling for the first time. “You probably use that to skate over a lot of problems in your life.”
This provocation worked. Mitchell turned his head to look at her directly.
“The Orthodox Church is like the Catholic Church,” the woman said. “They’re Christian but they’re not always Bible-believing. They’ve got so much ritual going on, it sometimes distracts from the message.”
Mitchell decided it was time to make his move. He stood up. “Nice meeting you,” he said. “Good luck with the Koine.”
“Nice meeting you!” the woman said. “Can I ask you one question before you go?”
Mitchell waited. The fixity of her gaze was unnerving.
“Are you saved?”
Just say yes, Mitchell thought. Say yes and get going.
“That’s difficult to say,” he said.
Right away he realized his mistake. The woman stood up, her blue eyes lasering in on his. “No, it isn’t,” she said. “It’s not difficult, at all. You just ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and He will. That’s what I did. And it changed my life. I wasn’t always a Christian. I spent most of my life apart from God. Didn’t know Him. Didn’t care about Him. I wasn’t doing drugs or anything. I wasn’t running around all night. But there was this emptiness inside me. Because I was living for myself.”
To his surprise, Mitchell found himself listening to her. Not to her fundamentalist script about being saved or accepting the Lord. But to what she was saying about her own life.
“It’s a funny thing. You’re born in America. You grow up and what do they tell you? They tell you that you have a right to the pursuit of happiness. And that the way to be happy is to get a lot of nice stuff, right? I did all that. Had a house, a job, a boyfriend. But I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy because all I did every day was think about myself. I thought that the world revolved around me. But guess what? It doesn’t.”
This seemed sound enough, and genuine. Mitchell thought he might be able to agree here and be on his way.
But before he could do that, the woman said, “When we were standing in line, you were reading a letter. It was from your mother.”
Mitchell raised his chin. “How did you know that?”
“I just felt that right now.”
“You looked over my shoulder.”
“I did not!” she said, playfully slapping him. “Go on now. God just put it on my heart right now that you were reading a letter from your mother. But I want to tell you something. The Lord sent you a letter at American Express too. You know what it is? It’s me. I’m that letter. The Lord sent me without my even knowing it, so that I could end up behind you in line and tell you how the Lord loves you, how He died for you.”
Just then, near the elevators, Larry appeared.
“There’s my friend,” Mitchell said. “Nice talking with you.”
“Nice talking to you. Have a nice time in Greece and God Bless.”
He was halfway across the lobby when she tapped him on the shoulder again.
“I just wanted to give you this.”
In her hand was a pocket-size New Testament. Green, like a leaf.
“You take this and read the Gospels. Read about the good news of Jesus. And remember, it’s not complicated. It’s simple. The only thing that matters is that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and then you’ll have eternal life.”
To get away from her, to shut her up, Mitchell took the book and continued on out of the lobby.
“Where were you?” he said to Larry when he reached him. “I’ve been waiting for like an hour.”
Twenty