The Mormon Candidate - a Novel by Avraham Azrieli Page A
Authors: Avraham Azrieli
Tags: Mystery
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He had scribbled a note on the disk in his familiar, tidy handwriting:
Brother Zachariah,
God sympathize s w ith your righteous dilemma and good intentions .
However, y our heart knows th is: Lies + Disobedience = Sin.
The l ist must include ALL Medal of Honor recipients.
Joseph S. Morgan, IV
My body started trembling . Exposure as a fa llen Saint who had disobeyed and lied to his bishop was an offense that could lead to p unishment, or even a trial and excommunication, resulting in loss of m y family and all my friends , not to mention my eternal salvation .
On top of it , I realized the only way for Bishop Morgan to find out was from Palmyra . H er betrayal stunned me. Our m arriage had been sealed in the T emple, and like all Mormon wives, her personal salvation depended on serving her husband with complete loyalty and devotion. O nly I could bring her into the Celestial Kingdom in the afterlife .
One of my coworkers heard me groan and came into my cubicle to find me trembling. I told her it was a food allergy and ran off to the bathroom, where I indeed lost my breakfast in one of the stalls.
Back at my desk, I realized there was no one I could call to share what had just happened. Not only did it involve a secret assignment from the C hurch, but copying veterans’ personal information and passing it to outsiders was a federal crime . Even my elderly parents, who perhaps could be trusted to keep my secret and offer kind advice , were now living with one of my sisters in Utah and had too much riding on the divine prospects of what would happen at the approaching end of their mortal lives. They would be horrified at my failure and would tell me to repent and obey Bishop Morgan.
And worst of all, I could not consult with Palmyra . T he one person in the world whose loyalty to me had been certain, whose love had been total, and whose s upport had been unquestioning , was suddenly unavailable. How could my wife disclose to Bishop Morgan what I had shared with her in the confidence of our marriage ?
The answer was simple: My wife felt it was her duty to me . How could she stand by and let me destroy my spiritual future, lose the right to progress to exaltation and e ternal godhood ? How could she let me destroy her chance of salvation and afterlife glory, which depended on me through our seali ng in a celestial marriage ? By informing Bishop Morgan, Palmyra was sav ing me —and her self — from a spiritual catastrophe and eternal da mnation .
W as she wrong?
I couldn’t answer.
Was I right to disobey and lie to the B ishop to protect the Marine captain— a dead Gentile!— from posthumous baptism?
I couldn’t answer that either. What did I know about th e dark-eyed captain? Not even his name! Perhaps I was wrong about the strength of his Jewish faith, perhaps his soul would delight at the chance of accepting the True C hurch, achieving salvation , and progressing to the Celestial Kingdom of God ?
Chapter 23
In Ben’s mind, Zachariah’s talk of a floppy disk triggered a memory . He set down the i Phone and went back to look at the photos stored in the Can on’s memory . There were a few dozen snapshots he had taken of Porter’s meticulous search of the accident site, but the one Ben was looking for had been taken very quickly . The object Porter had found stashed in the back, under the dead victim’s belt, was about the size of a DVD case, thin and square. Ben had managed to snap a photo just as Porter was slipping the object i nto the pocket of his jacket. By zooming in on it, Ben could see something that resembl ed a floppy disk.
Shifting the focus to Porter’s face, his expression was inscrutable. Had he known of this floppy disk? Had he been conducting such a thorough search in order to find it? Or was he just collecting evidence? And if so, why put it in his pocket and not with the victim’s other belongings?
Ben realized t he ramifications of the story. The old floppy disk,
Brother Zachariah,
God sympathize s w ith your righteous dilemma and good intentions .
However, y our heart knows th is: Lies + Disobedience = Sin.
The l ist must include ALL Medal of Honor recipients.
Joseph S. Morgan, IV
My body started trembling . Exposure as a fa llen Saint who had disobeyed and lied to his bishop was an offense that could lead to p unishment, or even a trial and excommunication, resulting in loss of m y family and all my friends , not to mention my eternal salvation .
On top of it , I realized the only way for Bishop Morgan to find out was from Palmyra . H er betrayal stunned me. Our m arriage had been sealed in the T emple, and like all Mormon wives, her personal salvation depended on serving her husband with complete loyalty and devotion. O nly I could bring her into the Celestial Kingdom in the afterlife .
One of my coworkers heard me groan and came into my cubicle to find me trembling. I told her it was a food allergy and ran off to the bathroom, where I indeed lost my breakfast in one of the stalls.
Back at my desk, I realized there was no one I could call to share what had just happened. Not only did it involve a secret assignment from the C hurch, but copying veterans’ personal information and passing it to outsiders was a federal crime . Even my elderly parents, who perhaps could be trusted to keep my secret and offer kind advice , were now living with one of my sisters in Utah and had too much riding on the divine prospects of what would happen at the approaching end of their mortal lives. They would be horrified at my failure and would tell me to repent and obey Bishop Morgan.
And worst of all, I could not consult with Palmyra . T he one person in the world whose loyalty to me had been certain, whose love had been total, and whose s upport had been unquestioning , was suddenly unavailable. How could my wife disclose to Bishop Morgan what I had shared with her in the confidence of our marriage ?
The answer was simple: My wife felt it was her duty to me . How could she stand by and let me destroy my spiritual future, lose the right to progress to exaltation and e ternal godhood ? How could she let me destroy her chance of salvation and afterlife glory, which depended on me through our seali ng in a celestial marriage ? By informing Bishop Morgan, Palmyra was sav ing me —and her self — from a spiritual catastrophe and eternal da mnation .
W as she wrong?
I couldn’t answer.
Was I right to disobey and lie to the B ishop to protect the Marine captain— a dead Gentile!— from posthumous baptism?
I couldn’t answer that either. What did I know about th e dark-eyed captain? Not even his name! Perhaps I was wrong about the strength of his Jewish faith, perhaps his soul would delight at the chance of accepting the True C hurch, achieving salvation , and progressing to the Celestial Kingdom of God ?
Chapter 23
In Ben’s mind, Zachariah’s talk of a floppy disk triggered a memory . He set down the i Phone and went back to look at the photos stored in the Can on’s memory . There were a few dozen snapshots he had taken of Porter’s meticulous search of the accident site, but the one Ben was looking for had been taken very quickly . The object Porter had found stashed in the back, under the dead victim’s belt, was about the size of a DVD case, thin and square. Ben had managed to snap a photo just as Porter was slipping the object i nto the pocket of his jacket. By zooming in on it, Ben could see something that resembl ed a floppy disk.
Shifting the focus to Porter’s face, his expression was inscrutable. Had he known of this floppy disk? Had he been conducting such a thorough search in order to find it? Or was he just collecting evidence? And if so, why put it in his pocket and not with the victim’s other belongings?
Ben realized t he ramifications of the story. The old floppy disk,
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