A SAINT IN SIN CITY

MARCELLA KNIGHT-STORM-SALLIE

CHAPTER 6

A WORD FITLY SPOKEN IS LIKE APPLES OF GOLD IN SETTINGS OF SILVER (Proverbs 25:11)

I had been so delighted when Saul had come to our fellowship, and so disappointed when he stormed off mad, leaving me alone at Cotton Creek. His departure left me with my own unhappy disposition. My first instinct was to confirm in my mind that I was unworthy of a decent man’s love. That my jaded past, coupled with the primitive Godliness I now lived by, was too much for him to handle.

I say primitive Godliness because even modern preachers seem to disregard Biblical truths. Even a moral, upstanding young man like Saul seemed to discount the ten commandment law of God. The one part of the Bible that our loving Heavenly Father wrote with his own finger. I suppose I should say that it is the fourth command that he, as well as most Evangelical Christians, have a problem with.

Yes, we are absolutely saved by grace. But for me and my church family, we keep the Sabbath out of love for our Lord. It is a delight (See Isaiah 58:13, 14). But my encounter with Saul still made me wonder why I understood this, and not others with a better education. Who was I? I was an eighteen year old woman with a lot of baggage. But it was my thirst and hunger for God’s word that had greatly reduced all of my luggage to just a carry on. Or did it?

I sat at the beautiful creek side and skimmed the cool, crisp water surface with my toes. I marveled at how fickle we humans are. I had repeatedly told myself I would need to go through life solo when it came to romance. So why did the prospect of losing Saul hurt so much? It tended to frighten me at how little we know ourselves.

But it calmed me when I let God take up the slack. When I prayed, God almost always spoke to me in His Holy Word, the Bible. But sometimes it was through a friend. Bonnie Barrow had come up on me so quietly, I jolted when she greeted me.

“I’m sorry, Honey,” she cooed. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“That’s okay,” I giggled. “I was so deep in thought, I wouldn’t have noticed you if you had bells on your toes.”

“It’s funny you should say that,” she said with a warm smile. “The night my Donald and I sort of became a couple, I was literally wearing bells on my toes.”

My mouth gaped open, and I stared at her in confusion. She smiled warmly, and her lovely green eyes sparkled. Bonnie was in her seventies, and her once long red haired was combined with white, giving it a lovely snowy rust color. She kicked off her pumps and put her delicate feet in the cool water next to mine. She chuckled at my expression. “Do you want me to explain?”

“You bet I do,” I laughed. “I didn’t know bells on toes was something that guys found appealing.”

“I doubt that they do. Bells on my toes just happened to be there the first time Don and I kissed.”

“Do tell,” I replied, already feeling my spirits lift. “But what do you mean by sort of becoming a couple?”

“Well, for starters, I was thirty six years old, and he had just turned nineteen.”

Did I hear that right? My mouth gaped open at bells on her toes, but now it fell open with this age difference. Although Don Barrow was fit for his age, with his thin white hair, I assumed he was also in his seventies. I insinuated such. “So, he’s in his early sixties?”

“He’s fifty eight, and I’m seventy five.”

“Wow,” I responded.

She arched an eye at me. “Would you be so surprised if it were reversed?”

“Actually, no. Why is that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but that’s why it took me well over a year to accept his desire to marry me.”

“I always assumed that your four children were all his,” I told her. “Were you, maybe, married before?”

“I was married before, for sixteen years,” she answered. “But just to be clear, Don is the biological father of all four.”

“Wow, so you had kids into forties?”

“Yes, I was forty two when our youngest was born.”

“So tell me about the bells on toes then. How in the world did that lead to romance, and four kids?”

“It didn’t,” she laughed. “They just happened to be there.”

“Please explain,” I replied, laughing.

“Don and I met when he was seventeen,” she began. “He was in between his junior and senior year of high school. He got an afternoon delivery job at the bearing company where I worked as a secretary and bookkeeper. So we got know each other pretty well over the next year and a half. Oh my, he was a handsome young man. Not only good looking, with curly blonde hair, but smart, as well as athletic.

“I used to think time and again, if only I was half my age. I had no idea at all that he fancied me. I was a late bloomer, so I was kind of a nerd in high school. But as a thirtysomething woman, I guess I was sort of pretty, and a little sexy in a librarian sort of way.”

“I’d say very pretty,” I told her.

“Thank you, Dear.”

She shook her head, smiled whimsically, and circled a toe in the water. “So where do the bells on toes come into the picture?” I asked.

“Fast forward a year and a half,” she continued. “That December was an eventful one in my otherwise simple life up to that point. Don had left our company to become a machinist at one of the factories he delivered to. My divorce was finalized after sixteen years of marriage.”

“Why did you get divorced?” I interrupted. “If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“I think the root cause was my ex-husband was infertile, and he knew I dreamed of having lots of kids. But I rolled with the punches that were thrown us and suggested we adopt. But he kept putting it off, and gradually became more and more distant. Long story short, he left me for another woman.

“So that December when our divorce was official, I became quite bitter. I was also strangely relieved to be free of a man I once loved, but who ended up treating me, not just poorly, but was verbally abusive by times. So, newly divorced. Company Christmas party. My party animal co-worker talks me into dressing as a sexy elf with her. Our sales manager dressed as Santa. Little green dress, red Santa hat, green and red striped tights, and, you guessed it, green pointy shoes with bells on the toes.”

We both laughed. “So if Don left the company, how does he figure in with this outfit and the bells on the toes?” I asked.

“He left on good terms and was invited,” she said. “And I immediately could tell something shifted in our relationship. Between him leaving, the spiked punch, and my divorce, we became shamefully flirtatious with each other. Let me be clear though. I haven’t touched alcohol since that night, and even before that I rarely drank.

“So at one point, I pulled Don aside privately, and held mistletoe over my head. I asked him if he would mind being my first kiss now that my divorce was final. He was surprised at first, but then eagerly complied. Yada, yada, yada, I invited him back to my place.

“It was one of the most fun nights of my life, followed by one of the worst mornings. I still don’t understand why something that felt so good mere hours earlier, felt so bad just hours later. I guess that’s why sin is called the mystery of iniquity.”

“Are you talking about a hang over from the punch, or fornicating with Don?” I asked.

“Both,” she replied with a laugh. “He tried calling in the days following and left messages, but I never responded. In part because he still lived with his parents. But his last message came on New Year’s eve. He told me about a night club he was going to with friends. He said if I didn’t meet him there, he would stop bothering me. Drinking age back then was nineteen rather than twenty one.”

“Did you go?” I asked.

“Nope,” she said definitively. “As fond of Don as I was, I was sickened by the thought that I was old enough to be his mother. I actually went to school with his parents. We didn’t really know each other, but they were only one grade ahead of me. They actually married and had Don when they were right out of high school. Ultimately I think that gave them understanding for our situation.

“Anyway, Don didn’t call me again. Right when I thought I was starting to move on from my mistake with him, I discovered that I was pregnant. You want to talk about morning sickness. I was actually more sick over the situation. Thirty six years old, and pregnant out of wedlock by a guy barely out of high school.

“I decided to move. My company had an opening two hours away in Des Moines. I jumped at the chance to get away. I don’t know if it was the getting away, or the fact that I always wanted lots of kids, but  after leaving town, I actually became excited about the prospect of having my own baby. But I was oblivious to just how difficult being a single mother was going to be.

“I also couldn’t shake the conviction that Don had a right to know he was going to be a father. As much as I dreaded it, I called his house. Paranoia is a funny thing. People don’t usually know your stuff as much you build it up in your head. Don’s dad simply informed me that Don was living in an apartment and gave me his number.

“So I called Don. He was happy to hear from me. I had intended to just tell him about our baby over the phone, but then felt that the news I was about to give him was best done in person. He agreed to meet me at his apartment that weekend. To my surprise, once the shock wore off, he was actually excited, and asked me to marry him.

“I flatly turned him down, and told him because of our age difference, there was no way I would ever marry him. But I did fall prey to his intimate advances. He began driving to Des Moines twice a week. On Wednesdays he would go to Lamaze classes with me, and then he came again on the weekend just to spend time with me.

“Don was there for the birth of our baby girl. When my maternity leave was over, I had found an excellent daycare for my child with a co-worker’s grandmother. Don religiously came every weekend. Although I had found being a mostly single mother tedious, Don and I were careless, and when little Abby was only five months old, I became pregnant with her brother.

“I was mortified at first. Don was excited, and once again asked me to marry him, and move back to Cedar Rapids. At first, I wanted nothing to do with that. The church I had grown up in had shunned me, and my own family had given me the cold shoulder. But Don convinced me to meet his parents, and let them meet their granddaughter. They couldn’t have been nicer, and more accepting of our unusual relationship.

“Then there was a second element. Don had gotten to know a UPS driver through his work. I think you know him, Jake Weston.”

“Of course,” I replied happily. “Jake and his wife Mary Gold are pillars of the church.”

“Right, well, he invited Don to this church,” she continued. “Only it was located in downtown Cedar Rapids at the time, instead of out here in the countryside. Long story short. As passionate a lover as Don was, he told me he would no longer be fornicating with me outside of marriage. He held true to his word, and this impressed me. It also made me miss him, even when he was with me, as strange as that may sound.

“God works in mysterious ways, Marcella. An opportunity came for me to transfer back to Cedar Rapids, and I took it as a sign. I also felt accepted by his family and his church, even though my own had rejected me. So I joined his family through marriage, and his church through baptism. And, we decided to keep making babies as long as my biological clock kept ticking.”

“Wow,” I responded. “Did you ever make peace with your family?”

“Yes and no,” she shrugged. “We did make peace I suppose, but things were never the same. My parents and brother are all deceased now anyway.”

We were silent for a minute before she spoke again. “I’ve witnessed a lot of romance in my life, Honey. I don’t know this young man Saul very well. But from what I’ve seen, he reminds me a lot of my Donald. So I just wanted to come down and tell you a tale of impossible love. Whether he is troubled by the plain Bible truth we here at Cotton Creek live by, or whether he is bothered by your past. My instinct tells me he will come around.”

“You promise?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

She looked earnestly at me for a long moment before replying, “No.”

Despite myself, I laughed. Then she smiled and put her arm around me, and gave me an affectionate squeeze. My eyes filled with grateful tears. I was so thankful for my church family. No matter what happened with Saul, I was loved from multiple directions.