Curious, I thought to myself. Why did Joshua spell the word friend wrong? Was he trying to tip me off to something about this guru? Maybe his name was FREND ? I paced the room, trying to see the answer to Joshua’s riddle. Or had he just misspelled the word; he never could spell.

I jumped. The door was opening, a female voice shouted, “Hey, Josh. It’s me.”

She stepped inside, curious, slightly guarded, “Who are you?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

“I asked you first.”

“Okay, fine. I’m Nathaniel.”

“He’s mentioned you before. What are you doing here? Where’s Josh?”

“That’s a good question,” I agreed. “Seen him lately?”

“Actually, no. But we’re like that, you know? Sometimes we’ll go weeks without talking and then, like, pick up right where we left off.”

“Does frend have any significance to you? F-R-E-N-D? “

“Like W. H. C. Frend, the guy who wrote his favorite book?”

I opened The Early Church only to find it had been re-bound. The new contents: how to infiltrate the New Life cult.