TRICKY TRIANGLE

CHAPTER 14

Summer 1996

The child grew, becoming strong in spirit with the grace of God. She had love for Jesus  in her. Hailey May Storm was a happy, healthy, and obedient little girl. After her parents, the people she loved the most were her Uncle Eddie, her two brothers, and her niece, April Storm.

Her niece, being one month older than Hailey, became her best friend growing up. Her Uncle Eddie was like a third parent, even though he wasn’t actually her blood uncle. He was the fun one. He never told her it was time for bed or to clean her room. No, he showered her with gifts and rarely missed an event she participated in. What she didn’t know was that Uncle Eddie was her biological father.

Hailey was a mini me of her mother with the exception of her coloring. Dawn had dark brown hair sprinkled with white, and brown eyes. Dawn’s husband Hal had brown hair and hazel eyes. Hailey had blonde hair and blue eyes just like bio dad. Yet if anyone questioned Hailey’s parentage, they kept it to themselves.

There was something about Uncle Eddie that troubled Hailey. There frequently seemed to be a dark pall in his demeanor. Yet whenever they greeted each other or said goodbye, his smile was like a beam of sunlight breaking out of a gloomy day.

Their relationship was such that when Hailey went to Uncle Ed’s house across the street, she entered without knocking. One afternoon when she was ten, she discover him sleeping on the sofa. Only it wasn’t a peaceful sleep. He was trembling, moaning, groaning, and then grunting. Hailey perceived it was a nightmare and proceeded to gently wake him.

Before Hailey realized what was happening, Ed reared off the couch, grabbed Hailey’s shoulder, and hurled his fist at her face. She emitted a blood curdling shriek, and Ed’s knuckles stopped just an inch from her nose.

He stared at her dumfounded, releasing his grip on her shoulder. She rubbed the tender spot, gazing at him with a frightened expression. Beads of sweat bubbled on his forehead. His lower lip trembled and his eyes seemed to be electrified in their sockets. “Oh Hailey, my little girl, I… I’m so sorry. I… I thought you were an intruder, or something.”

Hailey wondered at him calling her his little girl, and it would resonate with her for years. Uncle Eddie usually called her Angel. Maybe little girl wasn’t that much different from being called his angel, yet it was. Little girl felt sort of like being called his daughter, and she knew she wasn’t an angel, even though she tried to be good.

With trembling fingers, Ed lit a cigarette. Hailey knew he smoked, but he rarely smoked in front of her, and never inside. He took a drag. As he blew out the smoke, he looked at Hailey, then at the cigarette, and then quickly snuffed it out. Clearly Uncle Eddie wasn’t himself. He must have been having a very bad nightmare. Hailey had had bad dreams before, but Uncle Eddie’s dream must have been beyond bad on an otherwise pleasant afternoon.

“Were you having a bad dream?” Hailey asked gently.

“I guess I was,” Ed said, and then forced a chuckle.

“I have bad dreams sometimes,” she acknowledged.

“Yes, Angel, I guess everyone does.”

“Yours seemed exceptionally bad.”

Eddie grinned at her use the word exceptionally. She often used big words now. His little girl was growing up, becoming as smart as a whip. “I suppose so.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Ed said abruptly, then regretted how sharp it sounded. He smiled. “I’m used to bad dreams, Honey.”

“How come?”

Ed shrugged. “I’ve had them quite a bit.”

“Mom says it’s good to talk to someone you trust when something troubles you.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, and looked away from her earnest gaze. “It’s just there’s some things a guy doesn’t want to talk about.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Sure I do, Angel. It’s just… well…”

“Just what?” She asked softly, taking his hands in hers.

He marveled at how wholesome and pure she was, despite being conceived in sin. She was plain, yet pretty, just like her mother. Her eyes were shaped like Dawn’s, but the color was his. He loved her as much, if not more than Wendy. But that’s comparing apples with oranges.

Wendy was his lover, his soulmate, his wife. Taken from him way too soon. But this young vibrant girl, his daughter, was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. To her, he was Uncle Eddie. But to him, she was everything.

Something was happening that he dreaded, but was powerless to stop. Tears welled, and then dribbled out of his eyes. Hailey’s own eyes filled with tears, and her countenance was pure love. She croaked, “Please talk to me, Daddy.”

Ed felt as if he had been jabbed by an electric prod. Did she just call him Daddy?

“Did you just call me Daddy?”

“I guess so… Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. But why did you call me that?”

She shrugged because she didn’t know why herself. She tucked a strand of cornsilk hair behind an ear. “I guess because I’m concerned about you, and you called me your little girl.”

“I did, when?”

“Right after you realized I wasn’t an intruder.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Hailey giggled, and then said shyly. “You sort of, um, well, seem like a second father to me. You’ve played such a huge roll in my life, too. More than most uncles, and you aren’t even my, um, blood uncle. But I love you so much, Uncle Eddie.”

Eddie squeezed both of her hands, then pulled one away to pinch the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. He was so overcome with emotion. For so long he had battled PTSD alone. Only Wendy had known about his nightmares, but he never talked about them. They usually were kept at bay when he slept in shifts. No more than a couple hours sleep at a time. But with this afternoon nap that Hailey walked in on, he was having one in full force.

“I love you too, Angel,” he told her, his head still bowed, his eyes still clamped shut. He knew if he looked at her, he’d start bawling again.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk to me about your nightmares,” Hailey said gently. “It’s just, I want to understand your pain, and be there for you.”

“Thank you,” he croaked, looking at her, and opening his arms for a hug.

“Dad said you were in the Vietnam war,” Hailey said as their hug separated.

“That’s right.”

“Is that what your bad dreams are about?”

“Mostly.”

“Dad said you came home from the war early because you were injured.”

“Not much early, but yeah.”

“Is that what you dream about, how you got injured?”

“Sort of,” he nodded. He had a lot of bad war memories, but that day he earned a purple heart was the worst. Not because of his own injury, but because of the buddy killed right in front of him.

“Can you tell me what happened?” she asked softly.

“Our patrol walked into an ambush,” Ed heard himself say quietly. Why was he talking about this? He had never told anyone, not even Wendy! His wife, who had soothed many a flashback with her love and gentleness. Why was he telling this young girl, his lovely daughter. She was too young to hear of something so horrific. Yet she was so persistent in such an unobtrusive way.

“Were you shot?” she prodded gently.

“No,” he replied, breathing heavily. “A grenade exploded, and I was hit by some shrapnel in the leg. But that wasn’t the bad part. My buddy right in front of me, Jimmy Lansing.”

Eddie stopped talking and started panting as if he had just been sprinting. He stared intently at the floor in front of him.

“What happened to Jimmy?” Hailey persuaded gently, her young voice like that of his namesake for her, an angel.

In a trance like monotone, Ed answered her. “Right before we went on patrol, Jimmy was telling me that the first thing he was gonna do when his tour was up in just a couple weeks, was propose to his high school sweetheart. He was even writing her a letter to her as he told me. Then we were all told to move out, and Jimmy kissed the letter, saying ‘I’ll talk to you later, sweetheart.’

“Twenty minutes later, as we marched, there was an explosion. At the same time I felt something slam into my leg, Jimmy slammed into me and we fell backwards. His face was gone… There was just a bloody mass of bone and tissue in its place… It was… You can’t imagine…”

Ed felt Hailey’s slender arms go around him, and her cheek next to his. They both felt the moisture of their mingled tears. Ed felt a strange sense of relief at unburdening his soul. On the other hand, he worried that what Hailey’s young mind just heard might scar her.

He gently pushed her away, and gripped both of her shoulders. “Angel, I’m sorry, I should have never told you that. I don’t know why I…”

“Oh Uncle Eddie, don’t be,” Hailey told him, as she placed her soft hand on his cheek. “After all, I’m the one that talked you into it. I can’t tell you how honored it makes me feel that you shared that with me.”

Ed shrugged and nodded. An awkward silence ensued before Hailey asked. “Did you ever contact Jimmy’s girlfriend?”

“I did, when I was first discharged,” Ed said. “I felt I owed it to Jimmy. He basically died in my place. If he hadn’t been walking right in front of me, it would have been my head and chest that was ripped away. To be honest, and this is selfish, I’ve often thought he got the better end of the deal. He never knew what hit him, but I’ve known for the last thirty years.”

“Uncle Eddie, you can find peace in God,” Hailey said softly.

“Can I?” he snorted sarcastically. “Where has He been all these years then?”

“He’s right here, but He doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Revelation 3:20 tells us He knocks on the door of our hearts, but it’s up to us to let Him in.”

Ed forced a smile, and nodded. If it was anyone else, he would have spewed sarcasm.

“Can I pray with you, Uncle Eddie?”

If it was anyone else, he would have said no. But he smiled and nodded. Hailey knelt in front of him and took her hands in his. As she prayed, something stirred in Ed. All his doubts, all his cynicism, all his guilt. And why the guilt if he didn’t believe in God?

This angel right in front of him was the best evidence of God working in his life. And yet she was a product of his worst guilt by sleeping with his best friend’s wife. The only guilt that outweighed that was surviving the war when so many others didn’t. He left his own thoughts and tuned into what she was saying.

“As bad as that was, Father,” he heard Hailey saying. “We know that you can relate to our sufferings, and are always there for us. You sweat great drops of blood in anguish over the sins of the world. You suffered the most horrible of all deaths on the cross, and you would have done it for us personally, if we were the only person, the only sinner on the planet…”

Ed was suddenly returned to the thoughts and feelings of his youth when he had felt close to God. This young girl’s words broke through his barrier and made him realize that Jesus was the only hope, the only light in this dark world, in his dark world.

Hailey was momentarily disappointed when she felt Ed rise from the sofa. Then she was elated when she discovered him kneeling in reverence with her. She was thrilled when Uncle Ed himself spoke up himself and asked God back into his life. She felt humbled when he thanked God for her, calling her his angel.

“You’re quite the little counselor,” Ed said when they rose from their knees. He ruffled her hair with his hand.

“Thanks,” she replied with a quick shrug and a shy smile.

“You ought to be a psychiatrist or psychologist,” he said with a chuckle. “Dr. Hailey May Storm.”

“Maybe,” she giggled, turning shyly away from his proud gaze.

Later, after she left, Ed anxiously pulled a cigarette from the pack and lit it. It felt like a cat was clawing at the inside of his chest. He took a deep drag, and then he had an intense round of smoker’s cough. When he pulled his hand away from covering his mouth, there were sprinkles of blood. Again.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #27)

The Touch of Faith (See Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56)

Jairus, an elder of the Jews came to Jesus in great distress, and cast himself at his feet.

Jesus set out at once with the ruler for his home. Though the disciples had seen so many of His works of mercy, they were surprised at His compliance with the entreaty of the haughty rabbi. Yet they accompanied their Master, and the people followed, eager and expectant.

The ruler’s house was not very far, but Jesus and His companions advanced slowly, for the crowd pressed Him on every side. The anxious father was impatient of delay. But Jesus, pitying the people, stopped now and then to relieve some suffering one, or to comfort a troubled heart.

Jairus pressed closer to the Savior, and together they hurried to the ruler’s home. Jesus requiring everyone to leave the house, took with Him the father and mother of the young girl. He also took the three disciples, Peter, James, and John. Together, they entered the chamber of death.

Jesus approached the bedside, and taking the child’s hand in His own, He said, “Damsel, I say unto you, arise.”

On the way to the ruler’s house, there was a poor woman in the crowd who for 12 years had suffered from a disease that made her life a burden. She had spent all her money on physicians and remedies, only to be pronounced incurable. But her hopes revived when she heard of the cures that Christ performed.

She said to herself as he was passing. “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be made whole.”

In the moment she touched it, she knew that she was healed. In that one touch was consecrated the faith of her life, and instantly her pain and feebleness gave place to the vigor of perfect health.

The Savior could distinguish the touch of faith from the casual contact of the careless throng.

It was not simply through the outward contact with Him, but through the faith which took hold on His divine power, that the cure was wrought.

In spiritual things, to talk of religion in a casual way, and to pray without soul hunger and living faith avails nothing. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual ascent to the truth. It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him!

The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Savior, which appropriates His merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power.

Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality.