THE GOSPEL OF TRAVIS - Chapter Ten

A MEAL WITH THE DEVIL
The demon held out his gnarly and deformed claw to Travis. And though Travis worried going with a demon may not be such a good idea and though he recoiled at the thought of touching such a likely unclean appendage, the promise of free food was too great to turn down and so he carefully took hold.

Instantly, Travis found himself standing in a lush garden with a fabulously carved fountain. Around him were trees, their branches loaded down with ripe fruit of every variety.

Beelzebul said, “Behold, Travis: fruit of all shapes and sizes and varieties from all nations under the sun. Help yourself to their treasures.”

“I had my heart set on dried fish,” said Travis.

“Come, man. I have apples and quinces and persimmons. Pomegranates. The fruits of the very trees of knowledge, laid before you on a platter. Are you not enticed to eat of it?”

“Really could use some protein, though.”

Beelzebul stared at Travis. “There are live fish in the fountain. Would you like a freshly roasted fish? Really, there are pears, citrons. Honestly. Any fruit you could imagine. Have you tried dragon fruit? They look terrifying but I’ve been told they are actually quite delicious.”

“The drying process really concentrates that fishy flavor,” said Travis. “There’s too much sweetness in fruit.”

The demon sighed and then snapped his fingers. Where once there had been an empty spot on the table, suddenly a plate of dried fish appeared.

Delighted, Travis began to pick the desiccated fish flesh from the bones. Though the demon shuddered, yet did he let Travis continue to eat for the witnessing of Travis eating, with his overactive tongue, was indeed something of a spectacle.

THE TEMPTATION OF TRAVIS
As Travis took bite after greasy bite of his fish, he asked the demon, “What question or purpose do you have in store for me that you would steal me away from my teacher and bring me to such a garden?”

And Beelzebul said, “Behold, I can bestow wealth and privilege upon whosoever I choose, for this power has been handed down to me. It would be as simple as snapping my fingers, much as I did with the fish plate. Imagine me doing that, but with something not gross. Like a pile of coins, for instance. Anything you might desire could be yours. All I ask in return is that you bow before me and worship me as your master.”

Travis licked the fish grease from his lips and said, “How much wealth and privilege are we talking?”

In the blink of Travis’s eye, he suddenly saw that they stood atop the highest mountain in the world. The winds were cold and ceaseless, and Travis worried that a strong gale may push him from the cliff.

But Beelzebul calmed the winds with his hands, and once the breeze had died down the demon pointed towards the greatest kingdoms in all of history, with all of their magnificence glimmering in the resplendent light of the sun.

“All of this could be yours and more,” said the demon, “if you only forsake the Son of God and follow. Help me turn your fellow Apostles away from him and you will have treasure the likes of which your mortal mind cannot yet conceive.”

Travis considered. As a man of business, he weighed the arguments for and against betraying his maker. The offer the demon had made was indeed quite lucrative. He thought and thought.

And when he had teased out his options to the best of his shrewd mind’s ability, Travis said, “No, demon.

“For I have witnessed the Lord cast you out with little more than a flick of his wrist. Your offers are hollow; you are nothing but a deceiver, for it is clear you hold not even that power you claim to possess.

“What fool would turn their eyes away from the power of Jesus the Nazorean? If there are fortunes to be made, if there are kingdoms to rule, if there is power to be hoarded and wielded, it is clear to me now more than ever that those riches should be made by profiting off of Jesus!

“I am a merchandiser by trade. I go where the winds of opportunity take me. And I know that the opportunity is with him. People may open their minds to you and your wicked enticements but they open their hearts to the teacher, which is worth many times what you offer. With time and thought, I could have a fortune ten score the one you offer me here and a kingdom ten score the size of all these kingdoms tied together.

“There, next to Jesus, is the place to make my fortune, not here on this barren, windy, lonely mountain next to you.

“No offense,” Travis said. “It’s just good business.”

At that, Beelzebul gave Travis a funny look - not anger nor disappointment. It was perhaps not a sneer but a grin.

With a quick snap of the demon’s fingers, Travis was back on the shores of the Galilee in Capernaum, alone.

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