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In 2020, the year 1441 in the Hijri calendar, America had its most unique candidate for President. Barak Obama and two successive presidents had already carried on the war against Muslims to the point that it spread even to within Australia, Indonesia, and southern Mexico. The presidential candidate went around the country of the United states and merely blamed the Muslims for the troubles afflicting the country. He even made many people feel guilty about being good to their Muslim neighbors, and before the election results were announced in his favor, American citizens had turned on just about any Muslim they could identify. He had done what Hitler had done; win an election based on hype and frustration of the people with their poverty. He had barely been sworn in when a small plane crashed onto the front lawn of the White House and some of the debris damaged the front of it. Of course, no pilot's body was found, not even bones, but it was immediately released that a Christian woman who had built the plane had just lost her children, converted to Islam and attacked the US. Of course, Americans, even Christians, thought it was suspicious, but they still shouted the slogan "Remember the Twin Towers" as they lynched some Muslims and even Sikh Hindus they mistook for Muslims. Arab Christians, Five Percenters, and many other non-Muslims mistakable for Muslims were also murdered. But this time, many of the Muslims were US citizens by birth and therefore felt they knew very well their enemies. Many African-American Muslims that did not apostatize were an immense aid to the Ummah in North America in its time of need. This time, resistance stopped the wholesale slaughter of them.
In the year 2028 after Christ, or 1450 after Hijrah, the Mujahideen had taken control of the southeastern coastlines of the US and their states. The southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf Coast States had been taken by Al-Mujahideen al Amreekan, or the The Mujahideen of the Americas. Yucatan and Chiapas in Mexico had also been placed under Shariah law. Eastern Texas, from San Antonio to its coast, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas had fallen to the Mujahideen of the Americas, or the MA. Due to this, many other Muslims from up North moved south, and many rural southern Christians, the Southern Baptists, resisted fiercely until the year 2024. After that, they merely stopped launching attacks and found that when they did not launch attacks, the MA did not attack the Southern Baptist Army. But the MA would not give up their control over the states they had. Tennessee would have been next, but many of the more active SBA members fled to there, and the MA leadership decided not to invade Tennessee until they were sure they could keep the territory once they conquered it. Many SBA members would attack locations close to the southern boundaries of Tennessee and then flee back to Tennessee, but as of 2028, the MA were normally following those who dared such back into Tennessee. Also, because the Southern Baptists of the MA-controlled states were content to not fight against the Muslims ruling, the SBA in Tennessee felt they were sellouts, so they fought each other during many of the SBA raids. Once non-Muslim communities signed a dhimm contract with the MA, the MA would protect them, even from other Christians that would attack them for signing peace contracts.
It was in this situation that Mikail Harris was called back from Black River, Jamaica to Mobile, Alabama. He was happy in Black River, having fled the Mobile area in his uncle's boat years before when the fighting broke out on the Gulf Coast. People had fought over basic supplies as some gangs from New Orleans began to loot in neighboring southern Mississippi, then many victims began to loot and steal from each other. The violence and chaos spread, and eventually Mikail's uncle and mother were killed for a turkey in their freezer. He was sure that whoever had killed them had known he was Muslim, even though they weren't. When he found the bodies, he buried them and then got his uncle's boat keys. With canned food, stolen gas, a compass, a flashlight, his passport, his mother's pistol, and some changes of clothes, he headed south for the tropics of the Yucatan peninsula. It had been in January, and cold at that time, so he was glad to have to sail merely two hundred miles south before the weather became more comfortable, and permanently.
When the fighting broke out there in the Yucatan Peninsula, he was one of the ones to pick up the gun along with the descendants of the Mayas who had accepted Islam and fought. With Mexico's central government having spied on the Muslims in neighboring Chiapas, and now not receiving the aid from the United States for whom they had been doing the spying, Mexico City had been only too happy to stop fighting them and let them rule their states of Chiapas, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo. One would ask how so few Muslims could rule so many Catholics, but Mikail had been very influential in this. In the tropics, for some odd reason, he was not afraid, and he had dared those who hated Islam to come against him on television. The courage had become contagious and spread, and so had the news of this. Indians of southern Mexico had stopped selling their resources for cheap to the powers in the center and the north of their country. "America has fallen already, I have seen it with my own eyes!" said Mikail on TV. "You have no assurance anymore except us. Peace with us or you'll desperately be asking America to save you when she cannot! Leave us alone, and we will not make you that desperate!" Cancun remained a tourist destination, but the proceeds went to Mexico indirectly this time, through trade, not through tax collection. Now, remember how Razor and Jungle in Jamaica had inspired so many non-Muslims with their stance against homosexuality that the Muslims were too popular to be stopped there. In the Caribbean, Islam was growing in leaps and bounds as even the non-Muslims were glad to pay the jizyah and not the income taxes of the kaffir governments. America was no longer strong enough to interfere with bribes and money. Israel was still sucking the aid money out of an already bankrupt US, which was fast becoming worth less and less each month. When the Mexican government stopped fighting against the Muslims in Chiapas and Yucatan, Mikail went to Jamaica to live with the Muslims in Eastern Jamaica, which was the "Muslim half of the island" at the time. That had been after two years of fighting, 2026. He had settled there and taught the people there a little about the basics of Islam, mainly about what Islam was not. His intention of helping them not make the mistakes of the American Muslims served the community well in Black River, where he guided tours of their swamps for a living. The crocodiles of the region attracted the tourists that kept him eating, and the Muslims kept him on his faith as he helped them, too.
Of course he was angry when he got a phone call from his old friend in Mobile. He had never known Razor or Jungle, nor that Jungle was from Mobile like he was. But he was aware that some Muslims had left the US before Obama was elected and that their deaths had galvanized Jamaica into Islam. From there, other islands were catching it, too. But Allah promises enemies, and the enemies had been there in the islands among the people's own families. He had no relatives in Black River to tell him to leave Islam or to practice it less, but the Muslims in Jamaica did. This led him to wonder what fitnah he would have to go through since he had left the most hostile environment he had ever felt to his Islam back in Alabama. Then Max called.
"How ironic this is for me," said Max after their salaams. "I dropped my two Muslim friends off 21 years ago at the airport and they went to Jamaica and made history. Never saw them alive again. Now here you go leaving Mobile in a flash, and I find out you're living a vacation life in Jamaica! 'Sup with that?"
"Man, I didn't know nothin' 'bout you droppin' off them brothers when they left America! I just got out of the way and came south where the weather was nicer. I couldn't survive the winters there in Mobile with all that violence and chaos. So I came south."
"And never came back, I see. Not that I blame you. I just want to know if you'd be interested in coming back here for a particular reason."
"For how long?"
"As long as it takes. Let me bring you up to speed first. The MA here just got Alabama's state capital up in Montgomery and Jackson right next door in Mississippi."
"And the feds can't do anything about it?"
"Not if the politicians in DC want to keep the troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan. If they pull troops back here to deal with this, then it's complete victory in the east and we'd just go back there. So, no the feds aren't capable at this time. Only the SBA is fighting back, and they're scared to come too far south in with their weapons. They leave Tennessee with those weapons and they're toast, they know it."
"What do you need me to do?"
"You used to tell me about some people that used to make it hard on Muslims when you were living here. I know it's Mobile, never really the capital of American Islam and all, but even in the early 2020s you'd tell me of some people who gave Muslims a rough time. So we just need you to circulate and find as many as you can."
"And when I find some?"
"We'll hold a trial, you'll testify, and the judge will decide based on Shariah law. You also have to identify any apostates you may know. Any of them that re-accepted Islam before you catch them in Mobile itself are off the hook, but if you catch them and they haven't yet, then you're to arrest them and bring them in, too."
"You think I can find some of them after being away?"
"Yeah, man, you could name some of them and we could find them, but then we'd have to prove that they're not Muslim right now , and we'd still want you in to testify here in court about what you know of them. So since you'd be here, you may as well help us identify who among the enemies and apostates is now Muslim or is not Muslim, and then we'll take it to trial from there."
"Can you get me a ticket to Suriname after this?" Suriname had become the only undisputed Islamic jurisdiction in the Americas.
"If not, I'll ask for a ticket to somewhere else that costs the same."
"Thank you, but I'll pass."
Mikail was still on a flight to New Orleans despite his hatred of the land he had left. As the plane descended over the marshland of southern Louisiana, he felt the dread of going back to a place he had not seen since discovering his mom's and uncle's bodies with bullet wounds.
"Religion?" asked the customs officer when he went though the customs office. It was surprising for him to see this, but the customs officer was actually wearing a state trooper uniform. This was the first evidence he had seen of America's actual upsetting.
"Muslim," he answered proudly. "The officer stamped his passport accordingly and handed it back to him. "Welcome back home, Mr. Harris," he said.
"I just left home," Mikail added politely. "But thank you the same."
He exchanged his Jamaican dollars for greenbacks and stepped out of the terminal and looked for Max. Max was wearing a white thobe and turban, but then so were many who were there at the airport.
"How did you know I was coming back?" Mikail asked, surprised. "I was in mid-air and got your text message, and here I thought I was surprising you!"
"I called your tour guide business and was about to go and visit you there, but the youngster told me you had some business back here. Finding out which flight you were on was easy. After all, I am with the government here."
"What exactly are you?"
"Ummah Security, I got Alabama and Mississippi. I had the Gulf Coast until the state capitals were taken for Islam. Man, this is so familiar!" he exclaimed to change the subject. "Reminds me of picking up Jungle from the airport years ago. Hard to believe..." Mikail tuned Max out while Max reminisced about those days. He hadn't become Muslim until after their deaths in Jamaica, but still had fond memories of them. "Did you ever see their graves?" he asked Mikail, snapping him out of his daydream.
"Never did. Never knew much about them until you told me their names on the phone. Matter of fact, I heard their names before when I was there, but I never knew they were the same two you told me about before."
"Well, you'd have liked them. They hated cold weather just like you do."
"Speaking of which, how cold is it out there now?"
"For you, probably uncomfortable. You ain't had a winter in how long now?"
"Since I left. The last cold I felt was on the way to Mexico. By the time I got there, it was nice. I could notice a difference in how high the sun got in the sky in just two days," Mikail answered as he got out his jacket from his luggage. "It was like going to another world, and this is the reverse of it. Damn America!"
"You'll be on your way out before you know it," Max assured him. "But thank you for agreeing to come back and help us."
Mikail had a lot of change to take in. He had left a disbelieving America, unsure of its future, cocky in the face of Islamic reprimands for its arrogance with other nations. There were no signs of gambling or casinos on the highway in Louisiana or in Mississippi like there had been when he left. The casinos in those states had been converted into banks and hotels because of the vaults normally constructed in them. The Mississippi Gulf Coast was still barley populated, which was partly why it fell quickly to the MA. A port was under construction in Biloxi so that the MA could have another avenue of trade with the rest of the Americas. The military bases there had been abandoned early on.
After three hours of driving, Max took him to his house in Mobile. "You wanna see your old place at all?" he asked Mikail as Mikail unpacked a few clothes.
"No, too painful. It might as well not be there anymore, it's not the same." Mikail was ready to hurry up and get the ones he knew were enemies to Muslims. Most of the ones he knew were enemies of Islam from before there was even an issue of Islam being the dominant system anywhere in the Americas.
The first one he caught was actually a woman. She even had a child at the time he caught her. She was a classmate of his in high school, and she had once insulted Muhammad and even Allah. She had accused Muhammad of a serious crime and referred to Allah as being related to the swine species. Mikail became Muslim much later on, but he never forgot this because he knew that what she said was completely untrue. He had attempted to tell her that those things weren't true, that she had Islam confused with other religions, but Dana's answer was, "All of those religions are Islam to me. They're backwards and the men tell women what to do! I like what I know, and I don't know nothin' but bad about them people over there!"
"Dana Thistle, you're under arrest for blasphemy," Mikail said to her when he saw her in the grocery store the day after he arrived. He and Max had gone to get some fish to fry when he saw her in the cereal aisle. She protested and even tried to resist arrest for a second, until Max showed her his badge and said threatened to lock her up with the men if she resisted. "I will be testifying against you in a court of Islamic Shariah law, and you're entitled to an attorney, but you will be on trial for your life," he told her as soon as he had her in handcuffs.
"Let go of my mommy!" said the little boy with her, starting to cry.
"No," answered Mikail neutrally. "I have to arrest her under the law, I'm not allowed another option."
"Under Muslim law?" she asked.
"Yes," Max replied.
"For what?"
"I said blasphemy. I remember you saying something about Muhammad and then about Allah, and those are capital offenses under the Shariah. Now, you can repent for what you said about Allah if you want to become Muslim, but for what you said about Muhammad, he's not alive to forgive. We have to prosecute," Mikail explained.
"What did I say? How long ago was that? Don't I know you from high school? Wasn't that the last time I even saw you?"
"You're correct," he said as they led her outside. "You're absolutely right."
"So, you're getting me for something I said in high school?"
"Yes, we are. You were physically and mentally an adult then. You were responsible for what you did and said."
Max called for police to come take her, and the irony was that even though the police were non-Muslim, they had to take her to the county jail, anyway. Islam was the law of the land there and if they refused, they lost their jobs and would not find any other jobs soon. To feed their families, they had to take a fellow Christian in to the county jail.
The second one Mikail arrested was at a former liquor store in a neighborhood. Gas stations could no longer sell alcohol anymore, but Christians were allowed to traffic in it amongst themselves and Jews only. In neighborhoods, some of them still sold it out of their convenience stores. Trey Daniels always had been a drunkard since he had become an adult, and was a drunkard when he met Mikail. Mikail had just become a Muslim, and was working for a networking company with Trey. Trey once came to him and said, "Allah's on the phone for you, line 2. No, for real, he said his name's Allah, and he asked for you. Look at line 2, it's holding for you. See for yourself."
"What kind of joke is this? Do you understand..."
Trey had cut him off defensively and said, "I don't know why he called himself Allah, but he's holding for you," then went back to his desk. When Mikail picked up the line and identified himself, a dog began to bark on the other line. Then a man came on the line and laughingly asked Mikail if he had any spare bomb-making materials to lend him. Trey fell out of his chair laughing.
Everyone knew Trey was a heavy drinker, and that he lived close by. All Mikail had to was wait around the liquor store closest to where that office had been. As it turned out, when he fell asleep in the rental car, he was awakened by a knocking on his window. "Hey, man, is that Mikail? Awesome!" It was Trey, looking disheveled and homeless. When Mikail opened the door, he could smell the liquor on Trey. "Man, I was gonna ask for some change, as you can see I'm on hard times, and then I said to myself that looks like Mikail!"
"Trey, you're under arrest for blasphemy under the Islamic Shariah law," Mikail informed him while pulling out the handcuffs and slapping them on his wrist. He was reaching for the other hand to cuff that wrist, when Trey attempted to move it away.
"Man, you better let me go, mother-" Snap! Mikail immediately reached up and twisted his neck to kill him for not submitting to arrest. He had no idea that it was just how Razor had killed a wuslim decades before to protect another Muslim, Jungle. Trey never finished his epithet before his medulla oblongata was severed and his neck broken.
"Allahu akbar!" said Mikail under his breath before he pulled out his phone to call Max and the police. He had never killed before, but his hands were only shaking because of the cold, not because of the kill.
"Was there any way you could have brought him in alive?" asked Max afterwards.
"Not without a weapon. He knew I don't have the same martial arts training he has and that's why he resisted arrest."
"Well, your badge ad gun should be delivered to me tomorrow, so let's wait until the day after before you make any more arrests, all right?"
"You mean if they don't arrive tomorrow?"
"Exactly," Max confirmed.
Mikail knew exactly who that would be. Ty Richardson had never given Muslims a moment's rest in his last two years of high school. Part of the reason that Mikail had become Muslim was because he saw how people followed Ty and how those very same followers would not take good advice from teachers or from Mikail himself. Women seemed to think Ty was handsome, but many men were handsome to them, so that did not explain even just that popularity of his. Men also respected him, but it made even less sense than the women because none of the men were in love with him. It seemed that people just gravitated towards him despite that he was a run-of-the-mill high school kid. His ability to dance was in fact quite a talent, but nothing else. At that age, neither Ty, Mikail, nor anyone else knew the term "cute kid syndrome" which Ty had. His confidence because of his childhood was what people picked up on. But in anyone else, it would have been considered arrogance. And there was Mikail's good friend, Kay-sho, who had also become Muslim before Mikail. People initially were interested in why he had become Muslim, and he told them a little bit when they asked him, until one afternoon on the bus home when Ty had started to disparage his choice of faith. Kay-sho had always been popular in the school and the neighborhood, but when the students had a choice between following behind Ty or Kay-sho, they pretty much all began to laugh at Kay-sho along with Ty. This to Mikail had been a sign. If they disliked Islam, then it must have been a better choice than what they believed. The only remaining question was whether or not it was the truth. Kay-sho gave Mikail a copy of the Qur'an translated into English and he read it. From there, he was absolutely floored. It was in the summer that he read it, and before he had even declared himself a Muslim, he told Ty, "Man, Kay-sho was right! You ought to read what he read and see why he believes it!"
"Kay-sho ain't s--t! All that stuff means is no p___y and no pork chops! Don't come at me with that s__t again or I'll knock you out! I mean it, nigga! I will beat yo' a__ and knock you out!"
"I hope you die of AIDS, Ty," replied Mikail real calmly before he turned to leave. That had only been the beginning. Ty was wanted now because of his comments against Allah and Muhammad and even against other prophets from his own Old Testament.
Two days after Mikail killed Trey, Mikail and Max were called into the courthouse for Mikail to sign for his badge and his gun with Max signing that he witnessed it. "You understand this is for your protection and then for the protection of others in your line of duty?" asked the clerk.
"I understand," answered Mikail. When he signed, he saw a field he had to fill out under his name and signature. RELIGION: With a smile on his lips, he wrote in clear print MUSLIM TILL THE TRUMPET BLOWS. HAMDULILLAH!
He and Max stepped out into the relative warmth of the southern Alabama winter afternoon and as he hung his badge around his neck. "Where's your next stop?" asked Max.
"A substation. I need to get someone's address. Actually two of them."
"Anyone I know?"
"Do you know the Richardson family in our neighborhood and the Souders? I'm looking for both of their sons."
"Kay-sho Souders?! I thought he was Muslim!" Max was shocked to hear his name.
"He is, I just wanted to be able to inform of the other arrest I might make, Ty Richardson. It might do his heart some good."
"I don't know Ty that well, but I know his dad and I can say that nothing stands out about him."
"Well, the dad isn't the one wanted for blasphemy against Allah and prophets. It's the son."
"Well, if he actually did it, then locate him and bring him in. But get witnesses if you can do so, though."
"Absolutely," answered Mikail while holstering his weapon. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
"And you can find the Souders at the same house. Kay-sho doesn't live there but he's usually at their house in the evenings or he's at the masjid closest to us. Wide Bottom was taken over and converted into a masjid and that's where the Muslims in our neighborhood go."
"The strip club?"
"Used to be."
"Man, I bet the owner was happy about that, huh?"
"He's not happy about anything now. He died fighting the mujahideen when they came in."
"To the Muslims go the spoils, huh?"
Kay-sho was at the masjid late that afternoon, and was about to go to his parents' house when Mikail saw him and called to him. "Allahu akbar! Is that Mikail?" said Kay-sho in surprise.
"And you must be Kay-sho's younger brother he never told us about, huh?" teased Mikail.
"Aw, man, I know I look older than I used to."
"Barely a week older. You look like you been doing all right!"
"Hamdulillah! I am. Both of my kids are healthy and well-behaved, and my parents are still doing well, but they don't move as fast as they used to. I'm on my way to them now."
"Well, I don't want to hold you up, then. But know I'm glad to see you, and I am working on something that may be good news to you."
"What's that?"
"Ty."
Kay-sho thought for a minute and furrowed his brow. Then he replied, "I know there are Muslims in Thailand, but most of them actually speak Malay, not Thai. I'm afraid I'm lost."
"Man, I don't mean Thailand or their language, I mean T-Y. Ty Richardson. You know, Mr. Enemy of Islam and the Muslims? Remember when you first became Muslim? How he had everybody laughing at you like you were still wearing diapers at 16?"
"Yeah, but somebody was going to do it if not him."
"Well, he insulted Allah and the prophets repeatedly after that incident. You notice how everyone left you alone after that argument with him on the bus? Well, it went downhill from there until he insulted them. Now that the Shariah is in place, I'm here to make an example out of him. I just don't know where to find him right now, and once I locate him he'll be in custody, insha'Allah."
"He did insult them to me, too, repeatedly. Next thing I knew, we were graduated and off to college. He went to FAMU and I went to Alabama State, so I've only seen him twice since then. I didn't know that he could be arrested for those things he said until recently when the MA won and put the Shariah in place, but I forgot about him when that happened. You know, I just wasn't thinking about Ty."
"Yeah, I know. But I was called back from Jamaica for this purpose, though. Made one arrest and one kill already and I just got into town!"
"Kill, you say?"
"Yeah, someone resisted arrest and I immediately took no chances. He was facing the death penalty."
"Blasphemy charges?"
"Exactly."
"That's been getting a lot of people lately. You can scare so many Christians by just calling one of them by name before they see you, and they'll start tryin' to defend themselves before you can say you met them somewhere else."
"You think many of them are committing blasphemy or they've done it before?"
"Yes, I do, but the ones who haven't are also afraid of being falsely accused. A lot of them still haven't learned that there are trials for this and they can get acquitted for lack of evidence just like before."
Kay-sho knew how to find Ty, but not where. He informed Mikail that Ty was a pastor of a church on Government Street. It was not a big church, but because of Ty's popularity all of his life, it was well-known. A medium-sized church building was fine, but Ty was going to expand his church over time, even if he did not wish to. His membership was growing by the quarter, and he was thriving. There was no sign of it dying down. Had it not been for many people accepting Islam ever since the MA's ascent and victory, then his membership would have been growing even more quickly. Kay-sho knew this much, but he did not know even the address or on which part of Government Street was the church. He did not know what it looked like, not even the color of the building. That it was medium-sized and on Government Street was all he knew to tell Mikail. "And yes," he told Mikail. "I'd like to be there when you make the arrest. How does Sunday sound? We know he'll be at the church then, and I'm off of work."
"Are you off Saturday, too?"
"Yes, but their service will be on Sunday."
"Preachers are usually in their offices the day before. Either at
home or in the church office making last-minute preparations. So I'll
wait until Saturday. But you cannot let anyone know I'm back in town
arresting people that I know committed blasphemy out loud. If that
gets around, I have to go pick him up beforehand. It's only two days
from now, though, so it ought to be easy to hide this for that time
being.
"Yeah, gladly. And for now, see your parents and tell them my greetings, hear?"
"For what? You can't come see them yourself?"
"Oh, if it's okay, then of course I can. I'll follow you!"
FRIDAY
Mikail placed a palm-fiber on his mother's grave and another on his uncle's. He had buried them in somewhat shallow graves close to where she had lived and to where he had found their bodies. Behind what used to be her backyard, they now lay, just at the edge of the woods. "I'm only addressing you because I'm here at the grave and it's believed that you can hear me because of that. After I buried you, I found one of your killers, and he wouldn't give up the other one. So if it makes a difference at all, take comfort knowing that I really made him pay, twice for each of you. I burned him a little bit and asked him to give up the other one one last time. He wouldn't, so I burned him alive, then when I could see some of his muscle tissue, I cut his abdominal muscles apart and burned his intestines. I left him in that postilion, and I wondered why he just stopped screaming, even though he was clearly alive and in pain. Wasn't till later I figured out that his diaphragm muscle had burned and he was unable to breathe, much less scream. But he suffered, hard. I later burned the rest of him and scattered his ashes and did away with his bones. I made sure there was nothing left of him.
"But in my beliefs, nothing will ease your suffering at this point. I told you both about Islam and you couldn't give up what you had inherited. I just hope that your suffering in the grave will stop until these palm-fibers dry up. It's been real. I have to go to my Friday prayers now. I'm sorry, I couldn't get you to come with me, Uncle. Long Live Allah's Shariah on earth." He walked off as the crows of the North American winter skies cawed nastily overhead in the pine trees.
SATURDAY
In our time, it would have been unseasonably warm, but in 2028, it was a normal day for late winter in Mobile, Alabama. It was actually warmer there than it would have been at the same of day in the same time of year as Black River. But Mikail could adjust to heat, it was the cold of the previous days to which he could not adjust. So he readily agreed when Kay-sho said "Nice day, no?"
"Yes, sir! Nice day to catch fish."
"I get your meaning," Kay-sho grinned. "But I wanted to tell you something at my parents' house the other day. I ain't mention it 'cause I ain't want my parents to know your business without your permission, though."
"Sounds important. As long as it ain't no kind of confession, I'm listenin'."
"Mikail, Ty has a following, and truth be told, he's more popular now than he used to be when we were teens."
"So is he dangerous?"
"I think so, that's why I brought my pistol with me. If I don't have to use it, I won't. But his followers are calling for a Christian democracy to be restored, only this time without the secularism in the government. No more separation of church and state. They're a little bit militant. They may take this as political, and fight like it."
Mikail thought deeply for a moment, so deeply that he almost didn't answer when Kay-sho pointed out that they were approaching the church according to their directions. When he finally heard Kay-sho through his concentration, he made up his mind and told Kay-sho, "I'm sorry about that. I just had to make up my mind about something very important, and it took a lot of concentration."
"I'm ready to die, too, Mikail. That's why I came today. I wasn't very helpful in combat for the MA, but I tried. My emir asked me to stick to border patrol because I was anxious to help but just couldn't run fast enough for long enough. It was how I found out I had asthma. But when you told me about this, I saw another chance to at least help do one more thing to advance the cause of Islam. One more arrest for blasphemy, and this time it's a high-profile arrest. You have no backup, and no one knows you're going after him except me. I actually want you to stand back if they attempt to resist-"
"They?" asked Mikail, surprised. "It's Saturday, who would they be?"
"Whoever is an officer in his organization or movement. If he prepares his sermons on Saturdays, then he's probably going to have bodyguards or at least other associates close to him in there with him."
"Yeah, we'll have to be careful and be prepared. Are you sure you're willing to die, though? I don't want to be the reason you get killed."
"You know better than that. If it's not in that church, it will be somewhere else, but the time will be the exact same no matter what. It won't be because of you, it will be because of Allah. It's just an arrest, anyway. But be it an arrest or a gunfight, we win or we die."
"We win or we die, I like that saying. Can I use that?" asked Mikail as he steered the car into the parking lot.
"Yeah, man, I ain't got no copyright."
"Is that him?" asked Mikail as he parked. "I ain't seen him since graduation day, so I might get it wrong."
"I think so. Let's see," answered Kay-sho. They were all business now, and Mikail pulled his badge out from under his regular clothes. The man in question had just gone into the church building. They immediately followed him in as Kay-sho drew his own pistol. Once inside, the sanctuary was empty, so they re-holstered their pistols and walked down the aisle to the back and towards a door that said indicated restrooms and an office. They both looked around at the stained glass which created an otherworldly effect as the sun poured in through it.
"Police! Is anyone in here?" asked Mikail.
As they were going to enter the doorway, the sign of which indicated offices and restrooms, a heavy man came out. "Yes, brothers, how can I help you?" Before Mikail could see the face, he recognized the voice. It wasn't Ty, it was Dylan Teague, Ty's good friend. He'd always been a flunky more than a comrade to Ty, but he was more aggressive towards anyone to whom Ty had been rude, just to prove a point. When he saw Mikail and Kay-sho look back at him, his face took on a negative expression and he turned to run. Kay-sho and Mikail took off after him. Then, suddenly Mikail thought about something different and turned right around and ran back out side. As soon as he heard a door open in the back, he crouched behind a car and waited. Sure enough, Dylan came around the shaded side of the building, the northern side, and ran towards his car until he heard Mikail say "Freeze! One false move and you're dead!"
Kay-sho came around the same side behind Dylan and when Dylan turned to try run again, he turned to face the barrel of Kay-sho's gun. "Man, it wasn't us!" exclaimed Kay-sho defensively. "We ain't had nothin' to do with that! It was Hog shot them dead, bro! We ain't do that!"
"Hog?! Who the hell is Hog and who did he shoot?" asked Mikail.
"Hog, man!" repeated Dylan, as if saying Hog's nickname would make them know who he was. "The one you killed already, you crook! You tell Kay-sho about that already?" he challenged.
"What's his real name if you're so sure I killed him?" asked Mikail, unfazed by the bombshell, eyes narrowing cleverly.
"Torrence! Didn't you check his ID before you roasted him?"
Mikail realized that Dylan was guessing as to him killing Torrence, or Hog as he was so appropriately nicknamed. The irony of it! But it was Torrence he had killed. He had checked the ID before he roasted him, all puns intended. But Dylan had told on himself making the guess as to why no one saw Hog alive again. Mikail's eyes narrowed. "If Hog a one who done me mudda and uncle, den how de bloodclot you know seh 'im a dweet? " he asked in Jamaican English. "Mus be you and Ty dair wid im to see im shoot dem!"
"Man, we know what he did so I know why he ain't been seen in years! But we ain't do nothin' to nobody! It was him!"
"But you run 'way like a coward when you see we inna de church jus' now!" said Kay-sho in the same Jamaican English, surprising Mikail. "Yuh forgot seh me fadda come from Jamaica when him a youth," he said in response to Mikail's look of surprise.
"Yeah, me forget," Mikail nodded, looking back at Dylan, whom he then threw against the wall of the church. "Don't lie to me," he told Dylan sternly. "Why were you and Ty even there with Hog to begin with?"
"It was cold and we were hungry. We knew she had a turkey in her freezer," said Dylan. "Hog wanted it, not us. Like I said, it was him."
As angry as Mikail was and as much as he wanted revenge, he thought of something slick to get the truth out of Dylan. "Look, man. I didn't kill Hog. You know what happened?"
"No," Dylan admitted.
"Well, I did confront him because I saw his shoe print in the mud where I found my mom and uncle. I knew he knew you, but I ain't know he ran with you all as adults when the jihad started. But I found him and when he saw me, got away. I went to Jamaica thinking that's where he was, and I just came back here to arrest him. I have him in the back of our car now, and you're riding to the station with him. He won't be handcuffed. If you rat him out, I'll tell him you ratted him out. If it went down differently, tell me now and I'll tell him that's what you told us. One way or another, I'll tell him what you told me, then put you in the back seat of the car with him."
Dylan pleaded and begged, then tried to run off. Kay-sho swung his pistol and connected to his head, knocking him off of his feet backwards as his head's momentum was broken and his feet attempted to keep running. "You're not getting away today," said Kay-sho. "Now what happened?"
"It was Ty, man!" sobbed Dylan, embarrassed and terrified looking up at them with their guns. "Man, I'm sorry, I just went along for the turkey, we were hungry. We knew she'd probably keep a turkey because she used to buy them from my aunt. She had bought the last one my aunt had for sale, and when my aunt told us that's why she ain't had no mo' birds, Ty was like 'Well, let's get them then. Michelle ain't gone do s--t!'"
"Michelle?" asked Mikail, perplexed.
"Yeah, man, Ty would call you Michelle sometimes. So he got your mom's new address and went to her house and shot them," Dylan sobbed some more.
"And you were with them," declared Mikail.
"No, I just sat in the car because I didn't know he was gonna shoot nobody. I thought, he was actually going to buy the turkey from her!"
"That's don't jibe with him saying 'Michelle ain't gone do nothin', though," Kay-sho challenged. "You know what was going on."
"Yeah, I think so, too, Dylan. See, the thing that I can't forgive is this; you all could have robbed anyone, but instead you all came to my mom and killed her and my uncle, just because Ty thought I was afraid of him. That alone was reason for y'all to do that? You thought I was scared? Beg me to spare you!" Mikail commanded.
"All right, I'll beg, please spare me!" implored Dylan. He began to slowly and safely roll over onto his stomach and grovel. "Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!" he cried desperately. He had not taken much prompting to disgrace himself like this. It was consistent with the Dylan Mikail remembered from years before.
"This is a far cry from how you regarded us when we didn't have guns," said Mikail. "The key to repentance is that you do it when there is still a risk of some sacrifice for doing it. Not when you have been caught before you repented." After this, Mikail's tone changed to one of neutral explanation. "In our concept of repentance and the end of time, there is a day when repentance closes. When the sun rises from the west. The Book of Revelations in your Bible doesn't speak of this at all, but Muhammad said it would happen one day, and since no other religion looks for this specific sign, that is the one that will prove Islam correct even more than Jesus' return and he himself saying so. Even after Jesus has returned and cleared it up, it would require some faith to believe in him, so Allah will accept those who heed the call and submit. Even when the night lasts as long as three nights right before the sun comes back up, repentance is open and you can accept Islam. But once it comes up from the west, everyone will accept Islam and it won't benefit the new converts at the time. At all.
"So here we are today, you begging me to spare you now that I've caught you."
"But you caught me in a church? That has to count for something, huh?" begged Dylan, grasping at straws.
"Our religions are related, but you're still pleading the blood of an innocent prophet, The Messiah, to save you, and even then, you're only doing it after I've caught you. Truth is, I can't let you off the hook. You know why?"
"No," said Dylan, despondently.
"Because we didn't come to arrest you. We have to ask Ty some questions about an old case. Is he here?" asked Mikail, winking at Kay-sho and re-holstering his weapon. Kay-sho followed the lead and re-holstered his, too. "My mom and my uncle are alive, they weren't home when you all broke in. They left with me for Mexico and came back for their stuff later. They actually left the turkey in the fridge for my other uncle who watched the house till we got back," Mikail lied. "So all is okay. Please stand up and take us to Ty. We're even now for the way you treated us before."
Dylan arose to his feet and cried more tears, this time of relief. "Why did you do that?" he asked madly, but still overjoyed.
"I just told you. Matter of fact, the only reason you're a Christian now is because Kay-sho became Muslim and then Ty started dogging it. Don't think we're happy about that," said Mikail with baraa as Dylan began to walk them back into the church through the back door.
"Hey, Bishop Ty!" Dylan called out once he was in the building and they walked in behind him. "Guess who's with me! Two guys you ain't seen in years!" As he said this, Mikail slipped Kay-sho a pair of handcuffs on the sly.
When Ty came out and laid eyes on the two Muslims, now wearing kufis and one wearing a badge, he was visibly rattled, but not terrified like what Dylan had been. When Ty stepped to them and extended his hand, he barely got one word of welcome out before Mikail had that hand in cuffs and his pistol pointed at his ribs. "Put the other cuffs on the other wrist yourself. Both of you are under arrest!" He heard the sound of Dylan also being cuffed.
"Man, it was Hog did that!" said Ty in protest. "I swear it was him!" Had Mikail not had a weapon on Ty, he'd have rolled his eyes in disgust. Same old song in less than a ten minute stretch of time.
"Put the cuff on, or you're resisting arrest, Ty. Put the chain on yourself. Shackle yourself. Remove a measure of your own freedom. Act to the opposite of what you want right now!" commanded Mikail.
"I thought you said they were alive and all was well!" protested Dylan as the cuffs were placed on his hands by Kay-sho. Ty then placed the other wrist in the handcuff, giving Mikail a look of disgust.
"I lied. Sorry about that, it's unbecoming of a Muslim police officer, but the fact is it was necessary to get Ty out here and in cuffs. Don't make any mistake about it, you're both under arrest and you will go to jail right now under the Shariah law." Next, Mikail read them their rights under the Shariah. "You'll get a trial unless you try to escape and force the guards to kill you in the process. You will not be forced to confess. Even if you confess, you'll do so before a judge before you're convicted and you'll be given representation if you request it. Contrary to the previous, unjust American federal courts of evil and disbelief in Allah, the Shariah court will not deny you these rights even if the procedures change, nor punish you for any crime for which you are not duly convicted. You will not be convicted for any crimes unproven by proof, evidence, testimony, or confession. You will be allowed to oppose any witnesses against you. You will not be treated preferentially, nor will you be persecuted. The Shariah court will not knowingly deny you justice in any way, shape, or form. You will be tried according to Islamic Shariah law. May Allah show us the truth of your case. Have you comprehended the rights explained to you under the law?"
At first Ty wouldn't answer, he just glowered at Mikail and Kay-sho. Dylan nodded his head yes to the question. When Mikail repeated the question to Ty, he then nodded and said out loud "Yeah, I understand, I just don't believe you."
"You think you'll be oppressed under Shariah law, like you oppressed us Muslims before the Shariah was brought here? You don't know just how fairly you'll be treated."
"America would have never done this! Lock me up, a man of God, a man of His only begotten son, for a murder he didn't do! Dylan, whatever they say they have nothing except his hatred and revenge! You sit tight, and I'll get you out even if it's before I get out!"
"Man, you don't understand, do you? The charges you're facing are serious, and Dylan already said what you don't want him to say! It's too late! I KNOW YOU KILLED MY MOM AND UNCLE!"
"You told?" asked Ty to Dylan to ascertain.
"They told me !" said Dylan. "You just told on Hog, but they got Hog in the back of their car and they're takin' us all in, man! Hog ain't in handcuffs, and we're ridin' with him! We're dead!"
"You might be," said Ty. "Not me. He ain't touchin' me."
"Oh yeah, he will. See, the way he'll know both of you ratted him out is that we'll have you in handcuffs. He knows if we arrest you for murder, it's because you ratted him out and that's how I know it was all of y'all. I knew he had help when I found the bodies, but you know what? He wouldn't give you up. Don't worry, he's actually not in the car, he escaped years ago when I saw him. You all confessed on your own," said Mikail with a smirk.
"So he's not gonna be in the car?" asked Ty.
"Nope, just you two. You and your tattletale friend here. I doubt either of you will ever get out of jail to be honest. I think this morning was your last sunrise as free men."
"Man, come on, Mikail, just let me out of these cuffs so I can take Dylan here out, the little rat!"
"I thought you were a preacher, Ty!" taunted Mikail. "What happened to your ordination?"
"Man, I'm just a man. A betrayed man at that!"
"You're less forgiving than I am, Ty. You killed my mom and uncle over a turkey! A TURKEY! JUST BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT I WOULDN'T GET YOU FOR IT! And you're still alive now! But you can't let him live for telling on you!"
Dylan was cowering behind Kay-sho, but as Mikail said this, Kay-sho then grabbed him roughly and pushed him back into the view, so he could watch the action and Dylan simultaneously. "You ain't goin' nowhere, slickster!"
"Man, I told you, it was Hog did that! Dylan's just being weak like that!"
"Ah, yes, Hog. Of course. The one who got away and we'll never catch, huh? Blame it on him." Then Mikail changed his tune and said, "I guess I'll grant our request." He drew his gun and held it to Ty's head. "On your knees and lean forward!" he commanded. He then keyed one cuff loose and commanded Ty, "Re-cuff your other hand to the front and let me see it! Any sudden moves are deadly at this point."
"Man, please don't!" begged Dylan. "I ain't tell on you, Ty, they told me what they believed! That's all! Then they let me go and said it was all a joke and that his mom and uncle were still alive and they just had to ask you about an old case and---"
"And you believed 'em?" asked Ty. "You fell for that and you saw them die!? You that dumb, huh? You just led them in here right to me! Mikail, can I do my thing on this nigga now, please , before you take me in?"
"He saw 'em die, huh?" said Mikail, making Ty realize what he had just confessed out loud. "Then it was either you or Hog who actually shot them. And it might as well have been both. So yes, kill this nigga before you go to jail for the rest of your life. You will never touch your wife again, anyway, so make it worth it! Hop to it!" As he said this, Kay-sho pushed Dylan towards Ty and then trained his gun on both of them. Ty quickly began to hit Dylan brutally, as hard as he could with both hands cuffed together, then he kicked Dylan down. Once Dylan was down, Ty used his cuffs to choke Dylan to death from behind, pinning Dylan still with his weight until the helpless flunkie stopped struggling and had been limp for at least a minute. Ty was in a rage, so much so that when Kay-sho told him that Dylan was now dead, he was still choking the cadaver.
When Ty finally rose up from the body of his former friend and the puddle of urine from his evacuated bladder, he then took in a deep breath and started crying silently. "What if I become Muslim?" he asked. "Wouldn't that erase everything? I'll give all of this up, the church and everything."
"Ty, it would erase everything except one thing. Even the murders, for which I'd still get you myself personally. But it won't erase the blasphemy against Muhammad. And frankly, you slandered him just because it was Kay-sho and me that believed in him. Just that alone made you curse him like you did. You did this in front of the entire floor of the school! You can become Muslim, and I'll still take you in for that. Especially since you're trying to bargain with it."
"And what's the punishment for that?"
"Death."
"So, I'm gonna die no matter what?"
"As far I can see, yes you will. Both Kay-sho and I heard you and we'll testify against you. You'll be convicted on that alone, and you'll be beheaded and buried, and your wealth given to poor Muslims or used to build a road or something like that. You want hope, get a good lawyer."
"But you didn't come to arrest me for what I said about Muhammad, you came after me for murder!"
"I never knew you killed my mom and uncle until Dylan tried to run when he saw us. You just killed the one you have to thank for the murder charge. But we came to arrest you for a charge that was more serious even than that. You insulted Allah by calling Him a desert nomad idol and said that He outlawed pork because He wanted all the pork chops for Himself. You insulted Muhammad by calling him a child molester, a rapist, a barbarian, a racist, and another type of sexual deviant I will not repeat until your trial. Then, you have committed three acts of murder and one act of concealing a crime."
"Three?"
"Unless you can resurrect Dylan here, it's three."
"Yeah, and what if I tell the Shariah court you let it happen? Then what?"
"As I said, no one is convicted of what is not proven. You won't be alive long enough to testify against me in any trial of my own. Besides, anyone that tries to escape from charges like these is considered okay to kill. What we call 'halal for the slaughter'. Why you killed him for us instead of us having to kill him is up to you, but we appreciate it. I guess being told on will drive a blasphemy suspect to that sort of thing, won't it?"
"I get it. You niggas are mad because of a personal grudge and this is your time to get even. Without those badges and guns, I'd mop this church with both you at one time. Take me out of these cuffs and I'll show you!"
"I'm here to help make an arrest," answered Kay-sho. "If you insist on a fight, that can happen while you're in custody, before you're executed. But I'm not risking you escaping for a charge as serious as blasphemy. And something else, too, you dirty little bitch. Mikail has been a really good guy about you killin' his mom and uncle, but I'm not. See, I also was there at times you insulted Allah and insulted Muhammad. Denying it to me would be just outright lying. But then to make matters worse, you turned and killed his mom and uncle over a damned turkey! You wouldn't have done that if they had been someone else's kin folks and not his." Kay-sho began to rant. "When I told people about Islam, you were the opposition! You were not just another high school kid whose popularity went too far to your head! You were our Pharaoh, our Nimrod, our King Herrod, and our Pharisee! What little influence you had, you used to make it hard to accept Islam, and I don't care what the context was! High school, preschool, or graduate school! It don't make a difference! However little influence you have, you used it to make it hard for people to accept Islam without fear! So we're gonna make sure that you die for it, and anyone else who did the same and we know about it, we'll kill them, too!"
"For what? They were the ones weak enough to care about what I said. I just gave my opinion!"
"Number one; you knew they would listen to your opinion. Number two; the bottom line is your opinion was wrong. Number three; you knew it was wrong yourself! Number four; you killed two of your own Christians a few years ago just for being related to a Muslim you weren't scared of! You are an enemy to all Muslims, and because we didn't kill you years ago, you're now a blasphemer! Mikail is civilized, an upright Muslim who wants to bring you in alive to face trial and a legal execution. Me, I'm different. I've lived here all along, so I know what you're made of. I know not to trust you with your own life! I know you're going to try to have your people get even with Mikail! I know your followers are dumb enough to try it if you live to pass on that message!"
"My sheep are not dumb. They've been made intelligent with Christ! You're not dumb, either, but you're blinded by darkness without Him!"
"You just called them your sheep, so you must think they're dumb yourself, and the fact is they follow you just because of some high school popularity that really shouldn't matter to them as adults. That's all it is, Ty! Nothin' more," said Mikail. "It's a small town, and it has bred small minds. If they didn't have small minds, they wouldn't follow you or listen to you or put money in your collection plate."
"So you're jealous?" asked Ty.
"Oh no. This isn't about jealousy," said Kay-sho. "This is about evil not becoming strong. You're evil, and an entire small town of small minds has made you strong. Now the Shariah is in place and we have the ability, so we're removing you because we know of you. But I'm inclined to kill you now and be done with it. You're lucky Mikail is in charge."
"No, I don't think I'll intervene in this case," answered Mikail, shaking his head. "I got to use the restroom, and I can't do that and watch you, too, Ty. So I'm gonna leave you to my man Kay-sho. He has carte blanche 'till I get back. Matter of fact, I'm gonna be a while, guys," Mikail taunted. "So you two got time to get re-acquainted. Hey, Ty, you got toilet tissue in the restroom?"
Ty just cut his eyes at Mikail, who was calmly walking towards the restroom. As Mikail walked towards that back room, he knocked down a crucifix that stood on a pedestal. "That ain't Jesus," he said. "You think an instrument of death is befitting for a messiah or God! I ought to pee on it just on general principle, but I'm not allowed to expose myself in front of you. So I'll take this to the restroom with me. Think of it as me peeing on an electric chair in today's terms." he taunted some more.
While Mikail was finishing in the restroom, washing himself for the next prayer, he heard a gunshot. He flinched a little, then finished washing up with a smile. "What a satisfying sound," he said to himself. When he came back out to the sanctuary, he saw Ty laying face down on the stage, the pulpit podium also toppled over in a different direction. When Mikail leaned over and looked at Ty's head, the skull was shattered and the brain tissue was visible. "He try to escape?" Mikail asked Kay-sho.
"He did. Tried to throw that crucifix at me. I told him to leave it down and sit back down, but he insisted on raising it again. Told him one mo' 'gain to put it down again and leave it. I didn't realize that he had picked the lock on his handcuff until it popped off and he threw the cross at me. I just leaned my head forward and shot him to death before he could do anything else."
"Look how he was trying to escape, though," said Ty to Kay-sho without looking up. "Look how the blood is not pooling past this point here." Kay-sho walked up and saw that the blood from Ty's skull was stopping at a line, despite how the blood was still pooling out. "What's under there?"
They discovered a tunnel right behind where the pulpit would have been, and then Mikail called the kill in. Ty had known that he was wanted, and had built a tunnel to escape should he be in church when the Muslims came for him. A similar tunnel was found in his home that same day when the police searched it. While awaiting the arrival of other police and Max at the church, Mikail said to the cadaver of Ty, "I actually killed Hog, too. And do you now see that the promise of Allah is true? I bet it hurts now more than being shot in the head, huh? Don't worry. If Allah gives me paradise, I'll toss you scraps from the balcony as you burn. I'm sure they'll... um....enhance your experience in the oven. Hey, Ty, I got a question for you. Actually it's two. Spicy, medium, or mild? White or dark meat?" Kay-sho began to laugh with Mikail at the pathetic body of the small-town junior version of Abu Jahl.
This time when Max asked why Mikail did not bring in the suspect alive for the second time in a row, he answered, "Kay-sho was the one that had to shoot him for trying to escape. He was going for a tunnel under his carpet. You'll see it when you get here." He and Kay-sho had consistent stories, and they were cleared of any wrongdoing. But the message was sent out. Blasphemy would not be tolerated. Kay-sho was the one who explained that Dylan had confessed to killing Mikail's relatives, for which Ty set upon him and choked him while they tried to separate them. When Dylan was dead, Ty then submitted to being handcuffed while Mikail went to the restroom to stay away from Ty and ask another officer to come and collect Ty for the sake of objectivity, while Kay-sho held him in cuffs at gunpoint. Because Ty picked the lock on his cuff and threw the cross at Kay-sho, he was shot to death as he tried to lunge behind the pulpit.
When this got out to the press, the Christians were afraid to even harm each other, for they knew not which Christians were related to Muslims, and when a Christian wanted to be sure of his or her safety, he or she would let it be known that some relatives were Muslims. Many more Christians actually became Muslims and felt relieved that their Christians relatives were even more safe than before. More importantly, the Christians learned that to insult God or insult Muhammad did not provoke the Muslims to insult their Christ or their concept of the Father. It brought death, even to Muslims who did so. It drove home to them the point that what is sacred was not only sacred in name, but in practice. Christians felt compelled to respect these Muslims who would not tolerate that Suleyman or Dawud should be insulted, while they had been insulting them for millennia.
Ty's death had been taken harshly by the congregation of his church, but not the Christian community at large. The tunnels he had built showed that he knew he was guilty and was prepared to flee from justice. But many had followed him, and large was his congregation. This raised the question among the Christians at large, why was such a low character followed? It was because Christians had lost an objective means by which to select or assess leadership. They had been following the charismatic preachers among them, or those whose popularity was previously well established for irreligious reasons to begin with. Another pastor said to his congregation on television shortly thereafter, "We been following just anybody that can scream and preach and shout the best. We've been following whoever's famous and then becomes saved. At least the Muslims follow the ones who been taught their religion and their laws. They ain't got to be superficial about what degrees their leaders have and they ain't got to be on the opposite end, just following anybody like we do. They got that problem licked, and they ain't even got a clergy like what we got! We need to be more like them! It even says so in the Bible, but you find them being more like what we supposed to be in the Bible than we ourselves are! That's why Bishop Ty Richardson's death shook his followers so bad. They followed behind him just because he could preach and shout and because he was well-known in his childhood. Wasn't no reason to follow him other than that."
Mikail saw this on television, as he was sitting at the gate of the New Orleans airport awaiting his flight back to Montego Bay. He smiled at this as the flight attendant began to announce the boarding. On the flight back, his neighbor asked him, "I don't know about you, buddy, but I'm from the Gulf Coast area, and it's really changed since the MA won power there. Truth is, most of it's been good! I've been pleasantly surprised, I got to admit. But it takes discipline to live there."
"I know. I grew up there, too."
"So it's home, huh? Why are you leaving out now? Vacation?" he said in his southern drawl.
"No," answered Mikail. And after a little thought, he continued, "It used to be home, but not anymore. These days it's just my bathroom. Now that I've finished with the toilet, I'm going to my new home."
Two weeks later, the sky was lighting and he was washing up in his uncle's boat for fajr prayer. When he finished praying, he saw that within earshot of him was another boat. At first, he was a bit taken aback as he had heard no approach. "Salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah. This is the Coastal Defense of the Islamic Jurisdiction of Suriname. Would you please state your name, sir?" came an accented voice across the water to him.
"Wa leikum salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu," answered Mikail, standing up and saluting the soldier on the nearby boat. "Mikail Harris, reporting for duty, sir. Ready to execute the drug runners you catch."
"Yep, that's why you're here, isn't it? Mus' be to fill in for the executioner that retired, huh?"
"What else would Max recommend me for?"
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