TRICKY TRIANGLE

EPILOGUE

BROCK STORM

“Thanks for meeting me,” greeted my cousin, Dr. Hailey Storm, when I joined her at a coffee shop.

“No problem,” I said with a hesitant smile.

She ordered a coffee that looked more like a milkshake, and I got a sparkling water. After we sat, she began to twist a napkin nervously. She repeated, “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem,” I replied a second time. “Is everything alright with your parents?”

“Funny you should ask,” she replied with a humorless chuckle. “I mean, they’re doing as well as we could hope. Mom’s rehab is progressing nicely, and Dad is maintaining.”

I knew her mom and dad, my Uncle Hal and Aunt Dawn, had recently taken up residence in a nursing home. Her mother had a severe stroke, while her father has Alzheimer’s.

“That’s good,” I smiled encouragingly. “So why is it funny I should ask then?”

“Well,” she said with a wince. “Now that we’re here, together, I don’t know how to put this.”

“Put what?”

“Brock, do you remember the summer of 2003?”

I felt myself tense. How do you forget having the hots for someone forbidden? How do forget that your cousin was your first love?

“Of course I do.”

“In particular, do you remember the last time we fished together?”

“How could I forget?” I replied, laughing without humor. Now I twisted nervously at a napkin.

“We sure started down a dangerous path back then, didn’t we?” she asked me earnestly.

“I suppose we did,” I replied. “But we came to our senses and got off that path.”

“What if we weren’t cousins?”

“Huh?” I frowned, not understanding what she was getting at.

“If we weren’t cousins, would you have wanted me?”

“Wanted you how?”

“You know,” she smiled shyly. “Would you have wanted us to be boyfriend, girlfriend?”

“Are you kidding? In a heartbeat.”

She stared at me with a solemn expression. “We’re not blood cousins.”

“Huh?” I responded dumbly.

“I was going through some old family photos,” she explained. “Some hidden family photos. They caused me to question my parentage. I confronted my mother, and she confirmed my suspicions.”

“So… You were adopted?”

She shook her head. “Do you remember Ed Parker?”

“Sure I do. He’s that family friend that you always called Uncle Eddie.”

“Right, well, turns out, he and my mom had a brief fling.”

Her gaze was somber as she let me do the concluding.

“So Uncle Eddie was actually Papa Eddie?”

She nodded.

“But you didn’t know?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t know what to say,” I replied. “I don’t even know what to think. The little bit I was around Uncle Hal and Ed, they seemed to get along just fine.”

“That’s the weird thing,” Hailey shrugged. “They truly did get along great. I suppose if Uncle Eddie was involved in my life, and there was animosity between he and my father, I might have suspected.”

“You still think of him as Uncle Eddie?”

“Of course. And dad is dad. But what about us?”

“What do mean?”

“Brock, you ruined me for other guys!”

This stunned me. I felt rebuked, but I didn’t know why. My cousin Hailey and I did have a major thing for each other. But we were young, naïve, and we didn’t have sex. So how could I have ruined her? We did kiss passionately for a few minutes, but it was reciprocal, and I was the one that put the brakes on. “Look, I don’t know what else to say but sorry, I…”

“No, Brock, that came out wrong,” she interrupted, covering a delicate hand over my rough hand. “What I meant is that all the guys I’ve dated, I subconsciously compared to you, and nobody has ever met up to the standard I set up in my mind.”

“Uh oh,” I grinned. “You seem to be getting into shrink stuff.”

“Sorry,” she laughed, removing her hand from mine. “What I’m saying, though, is an indirect compliment. Besides, it’s not just that. I have always been a bit of a workaholic. I guess the combination is why I’m in my mid-thirties, and not only single, but never even had a steady boyfriend.”

“Wow,” I replied, half to myself in amazement.

“Wow what?” Hailey inquired, a hint of paranoia in her eyes.

“Oh, I just didn’t know that,” I said. “I mean, I knew you never married. But I never would have guessed somebody as beautiful and smart as you never had a boyfriend.”

“Thanks,” she said with a sentimental smile and a shrug.

“If it’s any consolation, you did the same thing to me until I was in my thirties. But then I met Dee, and her beauty and character are on par with yours.”

Hailey smirked and shook her head.

“What?” I inquired.

“God is so good, and works in mysterious ways.”

“I agree, but could you be more specific?”

“I read the e-book ‘Knight-Storm’ by Johnathan Embers,” she replied. “I know Destiny is a former porn star, that barely graduated high school. I spent more than half a decade in college achieving a doctorate. Yet Destiny’s ministry to women has had a bigger impact than my little practice.”

“You don’t know that. You’re comparing apples with oranges.”

She shrugged. “You said you were in a similar situation to me until you met Destiny.”

“Yeah.”

“What about that FBI agent, Nora Medora? Weren’t you two an item for eight years?”

I winced. “Nora and I had a complex relationship. She and I were together before I found God. We were more like friends with benefits if you know what I mean.”

“I’m a psychologist,” she said with a playful grin. “I know what you mean. But my question is, did you love her?”

“I did, but it’s complicated. You know the old adage, if you want friends, show yourself friendly?”

“Sure.”

“Well, it’s like that. Nora has always been married to her job. And I’ve never known a woman so cold and emotionless. To be blunt, she’s not a very loving person so she was hard to love. Great cop, not a great lover.”

“So why were you with her so long?”

“It goes back to what we talked about a before. I wasn’t meeting women that compared to you, so I didn’t want a real relationship. But Nora was physically attractive, and we had an agreement to be exclusive with each other, in a purely physical relationship. That way we both had no worries about STD’s.”

She scrunched her cute little nose in disgust. It occurred to me, and not for the first time, that my initial attraction to Destiny was because she looked so similar to Hailey. She said with a little laugh. “I guess that was TMI.”

“But you’re a shrink, surely you’ve heard worse?”

She shrugged. “I have, but not from the lips of my dream guy.”

The hairs on my neck prickled, because I could relate to how she felt, and we were cousins. Yet, now it seemed we weren’t. Yet we still were. Life is complex!

“Can I ask you a TMI question?” I asked.

“Okay,” Hailey drawled hesitantly.

“You’re a committed Christian, yet you haven’t married. So, have you ever, you know, had sex?”

She shook her head.

I nodded. “I have another question. That summer day in the fishing boat. If I would have pursued rather than dissuaded, what would you have done?”

“I’d like to think I would have stopped us, but I honestly don’t know. I was a teenage girl with wild emotions, and obsessed with a guy I wanted to please.”

I felt an inappropriate twinge, and the need to get to the heart of the matter. “Hailey, what is it that you want from me today? I don’t mean to sound crass, but I’m happily married, so, as fond as I am of you, us not being blood cousins is irrelevant.”

“Oh, I know,” she said with wide eyes. “I guess by wanting to get together, I wanted complete closure with what happened between you and me. I mean, I thought I had closure years ago, but this whole parentage thing opened it back up. I guess I was just curious how you felt about the whole thing, and I wanted to pick your brain a little.”

“Yeah, well, it’s hard to say,” I replied. “I was such a different person twenty years ago. I honestly don’t know how I would have responded. My best guess is that I probably would have pursued sex with you, and went from there. Yet you just said you might have stopped that direction.”

She smiled sadly. “It’s been said that an unexamined life isn’t worth living. Yet sometimes when you examine it, you come up with even more unknowns.”

“Are you angry with your parents?”

“I was at first, but I understand my Mom’s reasons for wanting to keep it a secret. I don’t approve of the deceptive aspect, though. But that’s her choice, her sin.”

“But you were the one most directly affected.”

She shrugged. “Actually, I feel like Uncle Eddie was most affected. He knew the truth and loved me immensely, yet he had to distance himself from his true identity as my father.”

“I’d like to know how Uncle Hal not only forgave, but then allowed Ed to be such a huge part of your families lives. I mean were they truly best friends, or were they just amazing actors?”

“They were genuine friends. Trust me, I grew up with them.”

“Was there any family strife I wasn’t aware of?”

“No, I mean there were typical trials, but overall I grew up in an atmosphere of love and laughter.”

“That’s amazing, you ought to write a book.”

“Not me.”

“I have an idea, why not have your cousin Seven tell it on his podcast?”

“He’s your cousin too,” Hailey laughed.

“I don’t like to admit that,” I chuckled.

“Brock!” Hailey scolded.

“No, no, I’m kidding. I love our cousin, I just haven’t always liked him.”

Hailey laughed. “I tell you what. I’ll share this story with him if our little love story can be part of it.”

I felt my toes curl. But I knew by our conversation, that the what if of ‘us’ was a big struggle for her after she discovered her parent’s deception. But to me whether we would have or wouldn’t have pursued a relationship was irrelevant. We can’t go back in time, and besides, I’m deeply in love with my wife and wouldn’t even want to.

But whereas Hailey is a very reflective person, I’ve never been much of a rearview mirror type of guy. So for my cousin who I now simply loved as a sister in Christ, I said ‘Yes.’

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #29)

Come Rest Awhile (See Matthew 1, 2, 13, Mark 6:30-32, Luke 9:7-10)

On returning from their missionary tour, the apostles gathered themselves together with Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves… And rest a while.”

While the disciples had been absent on their missionary tour, Jesus had visited other towns and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. It was about this time that He received tidings of John the Baptist’s death.

This event brought vividly before Him the end to which His own steps were tending. The shadows were gathering thickly about His path. Priests and rabbis were watching to compass His death, spies hung upon His steps, and on every hand plots for His ruin were multiplying.

With saddened hearts the disciples of John had carried away his mutilated body to its burial. Then they went and told Jesus. These disciples had been envious of Christ when He seemed to be drawing the people away from John. They had sided with the pharisees in accusing Him when he sat with the publicans at Matthew’s feast. They had doubted His divine mission because He did not rescue the Baptist from death. But now that their teacher was dead, and they longed for consolation in their great sorrow, and for guidance as to their future work, they came to Jesus, and united their interests with His. They too needed a season of quiet for communion with the Savior.

The rest which Christ and His disciples took was not self-indulgent rest. The time they spent in retirement was not devoted to pleasure seeking. They talked together regarding the work of God, and the possibility of bringing greater efficiency to the work.

Like the disciples, we are in danger of losing sight of our dependence on God, and seeking to make a savior of our activity. We need to look constantly to Jesus, realizing that it is His power which does the work.

No other life was so crowded with labor and responsibility as was that of Jesus; yet how often He was found in prayer! How constant was His communion with God!

In a world of sin Jesus endured struggles and torture of soul. In communion with God He could unburden the sorrows that were crushing Him. Here He found comfort and joy. In Christ the cry of humanity reached the Father of infinite pity.

Through continual communion He received life from God, that He might impart life to the world. His experience is to be ours.

The silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. Here alone can true rest be found.

Amid the hurrying bustle and the strain of life’s intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that reach people’s hearts.