in the background. You're tuned to CNN
just like Mother. You put them in the water, all of them."
"Lee, do you actually think I had something to do with that Korean Air Lines jet?"
"All I want to know from you is, are prepared for the consequences of nuclear war? Because the Communists won't let you baptize them. They're not Christian, and they won't put up with it. They'll send the missiles. I've studied the effects of nuclear war. I know about nuclear winter. I know what it will be like for the common people. But you're too smart to be trapped. Nobody can trap you."
Whatever precipice Lee had been walking along all these months, Step realized, he was definitely over the edge now.
"Lee, there isn't going to be nuclear war."
Lee laughed. "Did you think you could just lie to me and I'd go away? No, I'm not going to forget you. I'm stuck to you like glue. When you get on that submarine, I'm going to be with you."
"Lee, are you at home right now?"
"God is in me now, Step. I'm not even using the phone, what do you think of tha t?"
"Well I'm using the phone," said Step.
"I don't need telephones when God is in me. I can see you right now. I can see your whole family."
"Where are you?"
"I'm everywhere. I'm in everything. I am love, Step. I am that I am." He giggled. "Moses never did understand what I meant by that."
"Lee, get ahold of yourself."
"All of those people under the water, like Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. You want to be Moses? Parting the water, drowning people? Well, you can be my prophet if you want to. But you'd better pray first. You'd better offer a sacrifice."
Lee's words had long since gone from strange to disturbing. "Where are you, Lee?"
"You can't find me," said Lee. "Nobody can, because I'm invisible."
"Why did you call me?"
"Because you're the only one who has the power to say no to me."
"Not even your mother?"
"Shh." Suddenly he was whispering. "Don't tell her. Promise."
"I can't promise that, Lee. You need help."
"No, you need help!" Lee sounded very angry, now, but he was still speaking in a fairly low voice. "You need a lot of help, because I'm going to stop you before you put everybody under the water. I will not allow you to destroy the world again."
"Lee, I'm just a guy you go home teaching with."
"I know that," said Lee, derisively. "Do you think I don't know who you are? You must be crazy if you think you can hide from me."
"I'm hanging up now, Lee."
"Don't leave without me." Lee suddenly sounded frightened, desperate. "Let me have a place on the submarine! I won't eat much."
"Good-bye, Lee."
"Do you really have to go?"
"Yes."
"OK." Now he sounded cheerful. "Nice talking to you. Ta-ta for now!"
Step set the receiver back on the hook. "DeAnne, I need Dr. Weeks's number."
Before he finished saying it, she handed him a note card with the number written on it. "Her home phone?" he asked.
"I looked it up," said DeAnne. "I had a feeling you'd be using it."
When he got her on the phone, Dr. Weeks did not sound at all surprised to learn that Lee had called. "He said he was invisible," Step explained. "He said that he was talking to me without using a phone."
"Well, he was using the phone," said Dr. Weeks.
"Yes, I know that." He covered the receiver and whispered to DeAnne, "She thinks I'm crazy." Then to Dr.
Weeks he said, "Listen, something's wrong with Lee and I wanted you to know, that's all. He's really upset and he's talking about being God and he thinks I shot down flight 007."
"Apparently you've become a power figure to him," said Dr. Weeks. "These fixations never last and he means no harm."
"So you've got things under control?"
"He palms his pills, you see," said Dr. Weeks. "But eventually he has to sleep."
"He's on medication?"
"I don't discuss matters like this with nonprofessionals," said Dr. Weeks.
"Fine," said Step. "Just keep your son from calling nonprofessionals and you won't have to discuss it with them."
"Thank you for your concern," said Dr. Weeks. "I'll handle things now. Good-bye."
That was that.
"What did she say?" asked DeAnne.
"I guess she's handling it." But he thought of the delusions that Lee was creating about him and his family, and he wondered if Dr. Weeks really had anything under control at all.
Step was in the grocery store when an insistent voice started calling out, "Brother Fletcher! Brother