When He Calls Us Home | Chris Evans FF ✓

THE PHILOSOPHIES OF BUDDHISM

"DO you think Jasper, and this ex of Lillian's are in on it?" asked Chris from across the table.

At ten fifteen at night, Chris and Adeline sat on opposite sides of their orange table inside the dining car. Paper's from the folder were tossed down on the table, and along with them, the journalist's Apple laptop was opened. They both quickly made a pit stop to Adeline's hotel to collect a few things, her laptop being one of the items.

The journalist, staring at her computer's screen, lifted a chocolate eyebrow in acknowledgment to his question that which enlightened her mind to something new. She never considered Jasper and Drake working together, but now she was. "It sure seems that way," she responded without glancing up.

Striking silence ripped through them. Chris carefully looked over the file's contents with a countenance of lethal concentration, especially on Jasper, and Adeline tapped away on her computer. She searched up any news articles dating back to the abduction.

"So," began Chris, picking up a fry off a white plate full of the fried food. "Have you always been a crime writing journalist?" he asked. His innocent question brought a, you-said-the-terminology-wrong -but-I'll-let-it-slide-just-this-once, kind of smile to her mouth.

She laughed. "It's not always 'crime' per se that I write, just cases in general that I do on the side when the opportunity is there, and not that long actually. Probably," she said, thinking, then glanced at him, "two years."

His eyebrows rose in mild amazement. "Oh."

She smirked and casually went back to her work. "What, you were expecting longer?" She tore her eyes from the computer's screen to see Chris shrug. An expression she knew that read he suggested so. "Ha, I'm not that good at these things, clearly," she emphasized, more to herself as she stared into her screen and added, "If you haven't noticed."

"Actually," he started, and picked up another fry, "reading some of your other murder articles, I'd say you've been doing this longer if I hadn't known."

She contemplated him, and watched as he ate his food. "Really?" He nodded. She continued to send the movie star a questionable look, one that showed she disbelieved his genuine compliment before turning her attention back to her work. "Hmm, interesting," she muttered to herself.

Fifteen minutes went by as the two adults worked at the case, until Adeline decided to call Lance to see if he remained awake at such an hour. Sifting through her handbag for several minutes, she had given up and simply tossed essentials on the table to find her cellphone, and in doing so, had placed her small black Bible—no bigger than Chris' palm—on her laptop's keyboard. Oblivious of the other person who was with her, she found her phone and hadn't noticed Chris glancing over at the small, leather bound, black book that had the words Holy Bible scribbled across in silver letters.

Adeline dialed the detective's number, and waited. She bite her bottom lip and gazed out the window by their table in the diner. The weather shifted during there stay inside the dining car, and had begun to rain the moment they plopped their bottoms down in the deeply rich forest green seats, made out of leather.

The rain lightly battered the window, and the droplets gradually rolled down in a sad way that which matched her mood, when she couldn't reach Lance. She shut off her phone and snatched up a fry off her own plate, and put back what she took out of her bag. Taking a sip of her coffee, she resumed her search for any clues inside articles having to do with the abduction; completely, and truly, unaware of Chris' shift in demeanor.

The movie star coughed and slide his eyes back on Jasper's file. "So Jasper is the son to a lawyer and grade one teacher, and has an older brother," Chris commented. Adeline, still sucked into her own little bubble of work, hummed in responds. "It also says that his mother died in a car accident when the boys were in their teens, the father later died of a heart attack when each of his son's were in their twenties, and two years after Geoffrey goes missing. Both brothers are a year apart," he finished, and once more the journalist hummed her acknowledgment of what he confided to her.

The man eyed her. She was multitasking. Reading things online while listening to him explain a quick summary of Jasper's child history. But that wasn't the only thing he caught onto. He placed the papers down on the table, leaned back into the cushioned seat, and said with a smirk, "But you already knew all that, didn't you?"

One corner of her upper lip had twitched. She broke away from what she was reading and tried not to say too smugly, "I read the entire file several times." Chris knew he should have looked away, but he kept his scrutinizing eyes on her as she worked.

"I have to ask," he suddenly began, leaning his forearms on the table and interlocking his hands. "Are you a Christian?" He gazed at her, waiting for her to react to his simple question.

For a split second her heart thumped a little faster, and she immediately tore her eyes from her computer's screen, to the actor. "I am," she said confidently. "I'm a born again Christian. Why do you ask?"

"As you were looking through your bag, I saw you had a Bible," he said, motioning with his hand and finger to where she decided to place the little black book. "I just wondered."

Adeline didn't know whether to crawl in a hole, or be excited about the fact that he asked her if she was, who he thought she was. Usually she would happily witness to the lost, and especially right at this moment when Christopher had opened a door for her to do so, she could feel all her perkiness and energy were beginning to drain away for the day. But that should never become an excuse. We are to be ready in and out of season, she thought.

Keeping her eyes on his, she was astounded with herself for what was about to fly out of her mouth in the next second. "Are you an atheist?" She would later be kicking herself internally. Why to high heavens would I start off like that? she thought stupidly, already kick number one. And why here? Kick number two.

But why not here? And why not start off like that?

Chris shrugged, a blanket of seriousness covered his face, his eyes drowned in the feature. "Uh...I dunno know." She gave an unconvinced look that read, really? and he laughed. "Okay, maybe you could classify that I am. But I also have an interest in the philosophies of Buddhism."

So a big fat vague no, she thought miserably to herself. She should have expected such a responds out of him, for he was lost—darkness, a word to describe the unbelievers in the Bible, and still today. And when one is lost, they have no idea where they're going, or what to believe. Is it the right path, or the left one?

She opened her mouth, ready to fire back another odd question for him, but hadn't the chance to do so, for her phone rang. Adeline was about ready to shut off the device, when she saw Lance's name across the screen.