Divine Road Trip

Sometimes, the voices in my head tell me stories. Then, they want me to share the stories. With Epiphany just past, I’m going to tell you about a band, and their divine road trip. This is dedicated to Mikel, another musician with a big heart…

• • •

Hi, all. Name’s Rohdi. I’m the crew chief for The Wyse. You’ve heard of them, right? No? Well, they’re a pretty big deal in Chaldea. A lot like your Beatles were, back in the Sixties. They’ve gone through a few phases in their musical career. They started out calling themselves The Kings, but the real kings around here weren’t too cool about that. So they changed their name to The Wyse Trio. A few years back, they were “evolving their sound,” as they put it, and shortened their name to The Wyse.

Let me introduce the band:

• On drums, the incomparable Thazz.
• Rhythm or bass guitar, Core.
• And Parr on lead guitar.

They’re seriously impulsive, but they’re great people to work with. And to work for. They’d be filthy stinking rich by now, if they weren’t always helping someone out or playing benefit concerts. They always buy a block of tickets and give them to a local orphanage when they perform. I still remember that time one group of orphans told them they wanted to grow up to be just like The Wyse, and they gave the kids four guitars and a drum set on the spot. Like I said, great guys. Maybe that’s why things happened the way they did.

We’d just wrapped up the Autumn Tour, up the Euphrates and down the Tigris. Sold out all but one show, and the band bought those tickets and gave them to poor kids. Anyway, we got home to find my house had burned to the ground. I think I left the coffee maker plugged in or something. But they paid to rebuild my house, and told me to stay with them until it was ready.

The rest of the crew had gone home to reacquaint themselves with their families, and the band (and I) were just chilling at home. Core was fiddling with some lyrics, trying to get things to fit. Parr was picking out a tune. Thazz had decided to take up astronomy, and was peering through a telescope—

“Whoa!” Thazz yelled, jumping back.

“Had a bat fly by again?” Parr teased. Core looked up, saw nothing on fire, and went back to his lyrics.

“Dudes,” Thazz gushed, “a new star just totally flared up while I was checking out the sky! Thought I was gonna get blinded. Check it out!”

We all gathered around the window, Core finally deciding to join us. Sure enough, there was a blazing star hanging low in the sky, bright enough to cast shadows.

“Some kind of sign,” said Core. Maybe he was still working on his lyrics, but the others picked up on it right away.

“Yeah!” Thazz agreed, and grabbed his book. “Let’s see… a new star, this time of night… uh. Whoa. It says that means the king has been born over that way.”

“The King?” Parr repeated. “You mean… Elvis?”

“Even bigger than Elvis, man,” Thazz shot back. “This King is supposed to be the greatest of them all!”

“The lights go up, the music starts,” said Core.

“That’s right,” Parr agreed.

“Road trip!” Thazz pumped a fist.

“Uh, guys,” I muttered. “We just finished a tour. Half the crew are on vacation, and the others won’t be happy about going back on the road.”

“That’s okay,” said Parr. “Even if this king is God’s own son, he won’t appreciate the light show. We’ll do an unplugged concert.”

“You’ll still need someone to pack, and…” I stopped, realizing I’d just stepped in it.

“That’s what you’re here for!” Parr exclaimed.

“The signs are aligned, we see that it’s time,” Core added.

• • •

It’s not a matter of loading the instruments onto the camels and following a star, you know. There was a lot of nothing between here and where we were going, so I had to load up the camping gear. Not to mention food. Some inns out there… you don’t want to know. Fortunately, the guys like camping out on occasion. Thazz says he can feel the earth’s rhythm when we pitch a tent outside of whatever town we’re playing that night. This time, though, we’d be roughing it more than usual. It was just me, instead of a whole crew.

The second night out, we decided to camp. The guys surprised me by pitching in, and we had everything set up in record time. There’s something about being out under the stars, Parr and Core playing softly, blending their music with Nature’s soundtrack. Thazz makes a mean pot of chili, and it smelled great. A feast for the senses.

So it was a pleasant trip out, overall. The guys were excited about a chance to play in Judea, especially for royalty. We arrived in Jerusalem, and it was up to me to arrange an audience with the king.

I wound up stepping in it again, but it wasn’t my fault. Really. I asked them, “Where is the newborn King? My masters have seen his star, and have come to pay him homage.” First, I got a big “huh?” Then… you would have thought I’d lobbed a hornets’ nest into the palace.

Next thing I knew, we were being led into the throne room. I didn’t like that dude, sitting on the throne, first thing. The guys were too busy tuning their instruments to notice.

“So,” the king greeted us, “you guys are…”

“The Wyse,” Core replied. “We saw the newborn king’s star, and—”

“Oh, yeah, yeah. The Wyse. I’m a huge fan. I’ve got all your albums. So when did you see the star?”

• • •

The guys were stoked when we left the palace.

“So, he’s in Bethlehem,” said Thazz. “That’s cool. At least Herod gave us directions.”

“Pretty cool of him, to help us out like that, when the king isn’t even his own kid,” Core added.

“Yeah,” said Parr. “Seems like a cool dude overall.”

“Uh, guys?” I asked. “He said he has all your albums, so why didn’t he ask you to autograph them?”

The guys all looked at each other for a long time. “Whoa,” Thazz said at last. “You mean he’s a fraud?”

“That’s the way it plays,” said Parr. “What do you think we should do, Rhodi?”

“Do what we came to do,” I replied. “I just don’t trust him.”

We were almost to Bethlehem, when we ran across a pack of shepherds singing and dancing. Of course, the guys thought that was cool, and we stopped to watch.

“Hey, shepherds!” Thazz called out when they took a break. “Why this jubilee?”

“We have seen the Messiah!” one of them shouted. “A zillion angels came down and told us all about it!”

“Cool!” Parr replied. “So you know where he is? We want to see him, too.”

“Yeah, we’ll take you to him.” And a couple of shepherds led us the last mile, like we were their sheep.

• • •

The shepherds told us the King had been born in a stable, and that was totally mind-blowing. I never got a straight answer out of anyone why they stuck around in Bethlehem, long after they could have gone back home, but maybe that wasn’t the important thing. For all I know, maybe God kept them around so the guys could find them.

We found ourselves gathered around a cradle where a baby watched us with eyes both curious and wise. I could tell the guys were captivated, and… I’ll admit it. So was I.

“Hey, your Majesty,” said Core. “We came to play you some music. Is that okay?”

I swear, the baby smiled at them. Like the guys needed any encouragement. Core said the lyrics just came to him:

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright.

Yeah, you’ve heard that one.

The guys ended up giving his parents all their trade goods. Gold, frankincense, myrrh. The way they saw it, they’d have to get outta Dodge in a hurry, what with that Herod dude looking for them. As for us, Thazz had a dream where someone told him to bypass Jerusalem. So we went home, changed somehow by what we had seen.

The guys are still ready—more ready—to help anyone out who needs it, but they’re not so impulsive anymore. They sort of live up to their name, now. As for me, I think about that baby and all the things he’ll go through before he takes his rightful throne.

You could say we’ve had an epiphany.