2
That night Joan couldn't sleep. At lunchtime, she'd called the police on her cell phone, trying to disguise her voice by making it sound deeper.
She'd told the desk sergeant, "There is going to be an attempt to bomb the Temple Beth El Synagogue tonight."
Then she'd hung up.
She hoped that had been enough. She'd forgotten to tell them that the exact time would be 11:48 PM. She'd spent the rest of the day, hoping the Lord would come to her, in one of His many forms. She wanted Him to let her know that in spite of her momentary lapse, what she'd told them was enough.
He had not shown up.
She lay in bed, under the covers, listening to the sounds of the City that she was able to hear through her window that was shut. She knew that the Temple Beth El was so far away, that if a bomb went off there, she'd never be able to hear it. She just couldn't get to sleep, knowing what might happen.
She wanted to hear something from the Lord, but He still hadn't come to her.
She thought, Maybe He wants to hear from me.
So she prayed, "Lord, I've done all I could. I've got a big test coming up in the morning, and I have to get to sleep. Please put whatever profound lesson you want me to learn on hold, and just let me sleep now."
Joan immediately felt drowsy.
She thought, Thank you Lord.
Then she was asleep, and she was dreaming.
In her dream, she saw herself standing in the living room of a strange house, among a group of around three dozen teenage girls, who she didn't know. A blonde woman in her early twenties was addressing them.
The speaker stood with a small group of people, also in their early twenties. One of them was a girl around Joan's age, who looked like she could be the speaker's sister. The Englishman with the glasses, who Joan had seen on the TV, was also with them.
The blonde woman addressed them all saying, "I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil, and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either."
Some of the teenage girls looked away from her.
"But this isn't about wishes." She went on. "This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, not when its army is ready. Now!
"Tomorrow morning I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth, and I'm finishing this once and for all. Right now you're asking yourself, 'What makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one?'
"It's true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice.
"What if you could have that power...now?
"'In every generation, one slayer is born'. Because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago, made up that rule. They were powerful men.
"This woman..." She pointed to a red haired companion of hers, who looked very uneasy. "...is more powerful than all of them combined."
The redhead looked very nervous, with a forced smile on her face.
"So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power.
"Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer, will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power will have the power... can stand up, will stand up. Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"
Then the dream changed, Joan was still among the people who'd been in the living room, but they were now under ground, inside a cave, standing on a ledge high above a massive cavern.
An army of hideous creatures, who looked like deformed, muscular, thuggish cavemen with fangs, was rising up along the side of the cavern, rushing toward the people on the ledge, who were all armed with swords, clubs and spears.
Joan heard a familiar voice say with total confidence, "These guys are dust."
The girl who'd said that was Grace Polk.
Then the thuggish army and the slayers fought. The blonde leader fought them off with unnaturally powerful kicks and punches, as did the other girls, including Grace.
Grace jumped, and kicked a caveman thug down. She punched another thug in the face, knocking him down.
She'd shouted, "I could get used to this!"
Then in the midst of the battle, a caveman thug grabbed Grace with two powerful arms. At that moment in the dream, Joan became Grace. The thug lifted her off the floor, as she flailed about with a sword. He put his cold mouth against her neck, and his long sharp fangs began to penetrate.
Joan/Grace thought, "He's killing me!"
She slashed the edge of her sword into the thug's skull. A large amount of his blood splashed against her face. A good part of it went into her open mouth, and she involuntarily gulped it down.
Then Joan woke up, sweating but safe in her own bed, in her own home.
I've never had a nightmare like that before, she thought. I actually prayed to get some sleep. If that was a vision from the Lord, I don't want another one, and I don't want to know its meaning.
She looked at the digital clock, on the nightstand beside her bed. The time was 11:48 PM.
From outside the window, she heard the distant sounds of police and fire sirens, coming from what might be the direction of Temple Beth El.
Has the bomb gone off? She wondered. I won't know 'til I hear it on the morning news. I won't be able to get back to sleep 'til I know, and after that nightmare, I don't want to go back to sleep.
Within five minutes, Joan was sleeping. She did not dream again that night.
In the morning she woke up rested and ready for the day ahead.
During breakfast, the Local News reported that an attempted firebombing of the Temple Beth El had failed the night before. A would-be bomber had tripped on the curb outside the Synagogue and dropped the Molotov Cocktail he'd been carrying.
The bomb had gone off, causing severe harm only to the bomber.
According to the Police, a woman had called in an anonymous tip the day before; so they'd had the Synagogue under surveillance when the incident occurred.
A Police Spokesman said, "If we hadn't been there when the bomb went off, we wouldn't have been able to call in an ambulance, and the perpetrator would now be dead, instead of in the hospital."
When Joan arrived at School and went to her locker, the Almighty again came over to her, in the Scottish School Custodian form.
She told Him, "Thank you for protecting the Synagogue Lord, and the bomber too."
"Thank you for praying Joan." He told her, "This is only the beginning of your fight against evil."
"What's next Lord?"
"'Be strong in the Lord' Joan." He quoted Scripture. "'and in His mighty power. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Resist the Devil, he will flee from you. Put on the full armor of God, so you can resist all the attacks of the evil one, and take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.'"
"'Put on the full armor of God'?" she repeated. "But that's what Joan of Arc did. I know what happened to her, and I'm thinking 'Fire hurts'.
"She took up a sword of steel." God told Joan, "I want you to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and trust me."
Then the Scottish Custodian form of God was no longer beside her.
She thought, The sword of the Spirit, is the Word of God? God's Power is in His Word!
That night, Joan opened her Bible and began to read, trying to memorize every passage she could find, about battling demonic forces.