CIX

KEEP YOUR TONGUE FROM EVIL, AND YOUR LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT

PSALM 34:13

SEVEN SALLIE

“What can you tell me about the nature of Felix and Oscar’s relationship?” FBI agent Nora Medora asked me.

“The nature of their relationship?” I asked with a puzzled frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Agent Medora had spent a few hours talking to Sevenia, my eighteen year old daughter, the day before yesterday. Then she went back to Missouri for a day, to the area Felix Floyd and Stacey Porter, his mistress, were killed in a traffic collision.

After my daughter and Nora’s conversation, both ladies seemed happy as clams. By the way, why would clams be happy? Where do so many odd, but popular sayings and slang come from? Anyhow, Nora returned and spoke with Oscar, who had been staying with Brock ever since he received a cryptic letter warning that ‘something wicked his way comes.’

Brock had called to tell me that whatever transpired in their conversation had Oscar extremely rattled. Yet Oscar refused to talk about it, but did reassure Brock that it wasn’t another diabolical warning. Brock also gave me a heads up that Agent Medora was on her way to see me.

“They’ve been best of friends since college,” I told her. “I don’t know what else you’re looking for. If they were drug dealers or something, I had no clue.”

“What about lovers?”

My jaw would have dropped to the floor if it didn’t take me so long to comprehend what she had just suggested.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Nora said with a little smirk.

“You have got to be kidding,” I said slowly.

Nora sighed. “Given the letter, and what Oscar has previously told us about Dalial. And given the fact that the driver of the semi that had crossed the center line and killed Felix Floyd and Stacey Porter used a false identity and then disappeared, this case has turned from a traffic accident into a homicide investigation.”

I felt a shiver go up my spine and prickle my neck hairs, yet I was able to ask. “What’s that have to do with… with what you suggested about the, um, nature of Felix and Osar’s  relationship?”

“Upon much further investigation with access to Felix’s personal belongings, we discovered that his affair had been with Stacey’s husband, not Stacey herself,” Nora explained.

“But Felix and Stacey were returning from a clandestine meeting when they were killed,” I insisted.

“The clandestine meeting between Felix and Stacey was not to have a sexual rendezvous,” Nora continued. “It was to discuss the rendezvouses Felix had been having with her husband. To make a long, twisted story short, when Stacey discovered the affair, she was livid. After she had a heated argument with her husband, she turned her wrath onto Felix. Thus the meeting between the two now deceased.”

Nora stared at me long and hard, as if I might have something to offer. I looked back at her stupidly as my brain whirled like a washer on spin cycle. Then she smiled sympathetically. “I know this is probably a lot to take in.”

“You can leave off the probably,” I replied, just above a mumble.

Nora gave me a minute to gather my thoughts. But trying to reel in my mind was like trying to gather feathers in the wind.

“Right now, her husband Doug is our prime suspect,” Nora said casually.

“Doug?” I responded. “Surely he wasn’t driving the semi.”

Nora looked at me like I was an idiot. “Not all murders are instigated by the physical killer, do you follow me?”

I nodded. “Nora, this is a lot to take in, ya know. But can we…”

“Go back to the nature of Oscar and Felix’s relationship?”

“Yeah that.”

“Well, we found some things in Felix’s belongings that suggested they were more than simply friends in college. When we questioned Oscar on it, he flatly denied it. When I suggested that lying to an investigator was similar to perjury in a court of law, he sang like a canary.”

“That just can’t be,” I said, frowning and shaking my head.

“Are you homophobic?” Nora asked with a stern tone.

“No, it’s just that, well, when the Seven Sallie Showdown took off and we achieved a certain level of fame, Oscar was with a different woman practically every night.”

Nora couldn’t hide a disgusted look at the thought of Oscar being a womanizer. I felt compelled to defend my old friend. “He wasn’t quite as, um, out of shape as he currently is now. Not that he was ever lean and fit by any means.”

“You mean like Felix?” she asked, and then she seemed to regret saying that for some reason. Then she paused and said, “I know this is a lot for you to take in, it must be quite surprising.”

I shrugged. It wasn’t the first time someone’s private life gave me a jolt. “Yeah, but no more so than my twin brother’s situation.”

Nora nodded. She knew about my brother. His murdered wife turned out to be transgender. She was so stunningly attractive, and her past was such a mystery, nobody had known she actually still had centrally located boy parts except my brother.

“So if what you’re saying is true about Oscar and Felix, why is it relevant to this Felix, Stacey, and Stacey’s husband triangle debacle?”

“It is true. Like I said, Oscar acknowledged it. But you are right, it’s not necessarily relevant to the case. We are just exploring all possibilities and turning over every rock.”

“I guess that’s why you’re talking to me too then?”

“It is.”

“I don’t mean to be a jerk,” I told her. “But it’s kind of tacky of you telling me about Oscar private sexual past. Knowing him, he probably wants to keep any fooling around with another guy stuff as secret as possible.”

“Well,” Nora said with a little smile. “I guess you’d know about tacky.”

“Hey,” I began, making an attempt to be lighthearted with this awkward conversation. “That was uncalled for, even though it was called for.”

“You’re right, it was uncalled for,” she replied.

“I was just teasing you, Nora.”

“No,” Nora responded abruptly as she shook her head and held up her hand in a stop sign. “Your daughter was the last piece of the puzzle that convinced me you guys are the real deal.”

“Huh?” The man renowned for his quick wit replied.

“You, Brock, and Destiny,” she said with something like sentimental awe. “I’ve examined all of  your lives. All of you were utter reprobates before what you call conversion.”

“Please tell me how you really feel, Nora.”

“I just did,” she said and then smirked.

“But I must defend my daughter’s honor.”

“I meant except her,” Nora said raising her arm, her index finger pointing up. “I’ve never met a teenager quite like her. I can’t understand how you are her father.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets and hung my head. “That was uncalled for.”

“I was joking with that last part, Seven.”

“I know,” I said glumly, as Nora looked puzzled. “But it wasn’t funny, it was hurtful.”

I then put my hands in my face and my shoulders trembled slightly as I giggled. If it was  inappropriate because of the nature of her visit, I apologize. But humor was the way I tended to cope with tension.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Nora mumbled. Now my shoulders shook with laughter. “Look, Seven, I’m sorry. I’m not very good at joking.”

“No hard feelings,” I said, lifting my head quickly with a cheerful smile and offering my hand to shake. Her jaw clinched, and I realized I wasn’t always good at joking either. She took my hand as if to shake, and I went to my knees in pain as my hand and wrist contorted in a painful position.

She looked down into my face chuckling. “I may not be good at joking, but I am pretty good at martial arts.”

“Amen, sister,” I replied with both a grimace and a surrendering grin. “Amen!”

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(THE LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS Part II)

The Savior’s coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfilment. They joyfully welcomed their first-born son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer. But the fulfilment of the promise tarried.

The principles of God’s government and the plan of redemption must be clearly defined. The lessons from the Old Testament must be fully set before men.

The prophecy of Daniel pictured the glory of His reign over an empire which should succeed all earthly kingdoms; and said the prophet , “It shall stand forever.” (Daniel 2:44).

The fulness of the time had come. Humanity, becoming more degraded through ages of transgression, called for the coming of the Redeemer.

The principle that man can save himself by his owns works lay at the foundation of every heathen religion; it had now become the principle of the Jewish religion. Satan had implanted this principle. Wherever it is held, humanity has no barrier against sin.

Through every age, through every hour, the love of God has been exercised toward our fallen race. Notwithstanding the perversity of men, the signals of mercy have been continually exhibited.

None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin. He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will. He came to lift us up from the dust, to reshape the marred character after the pattern of His divine character, and to make it beautiful with His own glory.

The King of glory stooped low to take humanity. Rude and forbidding were His earthly surroundings. His glory was veiled, that the majesty of His outward form might not become an object of attraction.

He shunned all outward display. Riches, worldly honor, and human greatness can never save a soul from death! Jesus proposed that no attraction of an earthly nature should call men to His side.

Heaven and earth are no wider apart today than when shepherds listened to the angels’ song.

The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme. In it is hidden “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” (Romans 11:33)

It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when man stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin.

He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us an example of a sinless life.

Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners.

Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life’s peril in      common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss.

The heart of every human parent yearns after their child. They look into the face of their little child, and tremble at the thought of life’s peril. To meet an even bitter conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones.

“Here in is love.” Wonder oh heavens! And be astonished oh earth!