Eli Read Online Free PDF Page A

weren’t spaceships,” the blond explained.
    “More like people. Big, glowing people, filling the whole sky.”
    “Like angels or something,” her boyfriend agreed. “Really blew our minds.”
    Conrad nodded. “Did they say something?”
    “Yeah,” the boy answered. “We were out on the beach, groovin’ with the sunset, when this big, glowing giant, he’s like suddenly standing in front of us.”

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    “Giant?” Conrad repeated.
    The blond nodded. “And we’re like really scared, big time.”
    Her boyfriend agreed. “Bad scene.”
    “Then what happened?”
    “Then he starts speaking,” the boyfriend said. “He tells us not to be afraid and that he’s bringing good news for everyone in the world.”
    “Good news?”
    “Yeah. He says that here, right here at this motel, some sort of ruler is being born and he’s gonna save us. Said we’d recognize him ’cause he’d be wrapped up in a bunch of bath towels.”
    Conrad frowned. “Did he have a name? Did he give this ruler a name?”
    The boyfriend shrugged. “Don’t remember. But suddenly, the whole sky, it like lights up with thousands, maybe a million of these glowing guys. And they all start saying, ‘Glory to God, glory to God . . . and to those that please him, major peace.’”
    The story was starting to have an eerie ring of familiarity.
    “And then what?” Conrad asked.
    “Then nothing.” The boy shrugged. “Then they were gone.”
    The girl nodded. “Pretty trippy, huh?”
    “Here we are,” the kid with the Afro announced.
    The group slowed to a stop outside the very last door in the back. It was marked: Employees Only. The kid with the Afro reached out and gave a knock. Nothing. He tried again.
    A moment later the door cracked open. A young man in his early twenties stuck out his head.
    “We’ve, uh . . .” The kid in the Afro cleared his throat.
    “We’ve come to see the baby.”
    The young man peered at him suspiciously, then to the group behind him. He looked worn, tired, and very frightened. “Who told you?” he asked.

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    “The, uh . . . um . . .” The kid was hard-pressed to find the words. “The glowing guys down at the beach. They said that he was here.”
    A girl’s voice came faintly from inside. Conrad couldn’t make out what she said, but a moment later the young man opened the door wider. He took a half step outside and glanced around the parking lot to make sure there were no others. When he was satisfied, he stepped back and pushed the door wider.
    Silently, almost reverently, the young people shuffled in, Conrad bringing up the rear.
    And there, under the flickering light of a fluorescent bulb, was a young girl, about the same age as the blond. She lay on a cot wedged between several dirty laundry carts and a beat-up washer and dryer. Her raven hair was damp and plastered against her face, and she looked even more exhausted than the young man. But, despite the exhaustion, her deep sap-phire eyes held a look of triumph, an indefinable peace.
    Because there in her arms, wrapped in worn bath towels, was her newborn baby boy.

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    C H A P T E R
    T W O
    CONRAD FOUGHT HIS WAY THROUGH THE EMPTY BLACKNESS. EVERYthing was gone. The city, the laundry room. Nothing was there. Only darkness. And the murmur of voices—distant conversations, past and present, snippets of sound. He tried clinging to them, using them to pull himself out of the void.
    “Has he had any purposeful movement since surgery?”
    The sound of screaming tires filled his head. So loud he winced.
    “What was that?” the voice asked.
    “Where?”
    “His eyes.”
    “Probably nystagmus.”
    The voice grew louder, closer. “Mr. Davis, can you hear me? Mr. Dav—”
    The air horn of a truck blasted again, drowning out the voice.
    “—can you hear me at all?”
    Conrad tried to answer, mustering all of his strength and will. But it was futile.