CHAPTER 11

WILLA

My second visit to Cotton Creek Cove went fairly well. I had never felt comfortable in a churches, but I was truly blessed to have met Destiny Knight Storm and her Aunt Annabelle. In the near future I would benefit from their strength, wisdom, and experience. Our backgrounds were similar in that they were all adult entertainment, yet different in the details. Destiny mostly did porn, Annabelle was an exotic dancer, and I was in a form of prostitution after a brief foray in modeling.

Destiny’s honey blonde hair was in a French braid and her clear blue eyes radiated joy and peace. It was quite a contrast from the hard, sultry, and sexy look she displayed in the pictures I saw on the internet. Annabelle looked and acted more like she was Destiny’s mother rather than her aunt. I could tell they were very close.

Upon meeting Destiny’s husband, Brock, I felt a bit uneasy. There seemed to be something dangerous about him. I felt intimidated at first, and I was used to being the intimidator. But with his calm eyes and friendly, relaxed demeanor, he quickly set me at ease.

Dirk and Amy Easton also fascinated me. Dirk looked like a male model and reminded me of the iconic actor James Dean. Yet he seemed to be kind of reserved and even a little shy. Amy was an exotic beauty with a light sprinkling of freckles, long strawberry blonde hair, and multicolored eyes. She was a bubbly sweetheart that was a bit fiery and feisty.

I enjoyed the pastor’s sermon. He talked about the childhood of Jesus. He explained how easy it is to lose our hold on The Savior when we lose sight of him. He told of how when Jesus’ parents didn’t realize he wandered off to talk to the rabbis. One day and one moment of neglect required three days of anxious searching to find him again.

When the sermon concluded, and the congregation picked up hymn books, Destiny whispered to me, “I need to go to the restroom, Willa. Can I scoot past you?”

“Actually, I need to go, too,” I whispered back.

There was a little sitting area outside the restroom. As I waited for Destiny to exit, my eyes were caught by one of the several pictures on the walls. It was a painting of a beach scene at sunset. There was a poem entitled “Footprints” in the middle of the painting. I began to read about an anonymous person’s life journey. There were two sets of footprints representing the poet and Jesus. The person noticed that, at the most difficult times of their life, there was only one set of footprints. The person asked the Lord why He abandoned them when they needed Him most. That’s when the Lord told the person that He didn’t abandon them, but it was then that he carried them.

I fought back tears as I looked at another painting a few feet away. This one depicted a young man with a hammer in one hand and spikes in the other. He had a look of absolute anguish on his face as he was collapsing. Jesus was behind him, grasping and holding him up. I guessed the man was realizing his sins had crucified the Savior. The same Savior who carries us during our most trying times, leaving one set of footprints. I stared at Jesus’ arms holding up the man. Tears welled in my eyes.

“That’s me. He’s been holding me up my whole life,” I whispered, “and all I’ve done is dis him.”

“Me too,” Destiny whispered from behind me. I jumped. I had been so transfixed by the painting that I didn’t even hear her come up behind me. “Sorry,” Destiny giggled.

I wiped my eyes quickly while my nose dripped. I wasn’t used to feeling vulnerable. “This is embarrassing,” I said as my hands shook.

“No, it’s a beautiful thing watching someone come to the Savior,” Destiny said, as tears began to leak from her own eyes.

“Really?” I asked with regrettable coldness. My lower lip wouldn’t stop trembling. “Snot shooting out of a person’s nose is beautiful?”

“You’re causing joy in heaven right now.”

“Huh?” I questioned as I aimed a frown at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Jesus Himself said in Luke 15:10 that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents.”

We just gazed at each other as I feebly tried to get my mind around that concept. Was I repenting? I did quit my job as a prostitute. It didn’t even occur to me how I would be making a living in the future. I guess when you are discovering eternal life, making a temporal living was insignificant. God would provide away, just like for the birds of the air in Matthew 6:26.

 I spent the following week assessing my future and making amends with people I had wronged or with whom I’d had discord. My spiritual transition, although wonderful, at times felt foreign and odd, so I felt compelled for something familiar.

So I paid a visit to my cousin, Whitney. She lived in a condo downtown. When we were teenagers, we were like sisters. She was only five months older than me, and neither of us had any siblings. After my parents died, I moved from Colorado to live with Whitney and Aunt Wendy.

 I stepped briskly out of an elevator and onto the fourth floor of Whitney’s condo but stopped suddenly in my tracks. Whitney was just outside her door in a liplock with Dirk Easton! He was one half of the cute pregnant couple from Cotton Creek Cove, and he was kissing my cousin! I couldn’t believe it! Dirk even admitted that they had previously dated. After the kiss, the pair disappeared inside Whitney’s condo.

I turned around and pushed the elevator button. I wanted no part of any drama. But then my blood began to boil. I knew my cousin. She was a serial dater to be sure, but she would want no part of a married guy. How could she not know he was married? Plus, what kind of creep could cheat on that sweet, cute pregnant girl? My legs churned toward my cousin’s door. I pushed her doorbell so hard I nearly broke a nail.

“Willa Tree!” Whitney declared as her eyes widened, and her eyebrows shot up. Whitney began calling me Willa Tree ever since we were seventeen and standing under a, you guessed it, Willow tree.

“Whit’s Mc Grits!” I enthused back before we hugged.

“Come in, come in,” Whitney pleaded with a big grin.

“What have you been up to?” Whitney wanted to know. “I can’t believe we live in the same town and rarely see each other anymore.”

“I know,” I shrugged, suddenly feeling uneasy.

“Come meet my latest boy toy,” Whitney whispered into my ear.

“I’d love too,” I smirked, even as I felt a growing dread.

The leech actually smiled at me as we moved toward him. How could he not remember me? Was it vain of me to think that?

“Why hello, Mr. Easton,” I said as I crossed my arms.

“You know him?” Whitney asked with a puzzled frown.

Dirk’s grin left his face as he realized he was caught. But as I got closer, something didn’t seem right. His hair was slightly darker than I remembered from the other day and styled differently. Maybe he got a haircut.

“Yes, we’ve met,” I smirked. “Haven’t we Dirk?”

The creep actually started to cackle. It slowly occurred to me that my detective skills were not very sharp.

“I think you’ve met my brother, not me,” Mr. Easton informed me.

My face fell as I heard my cousin begin to laugh and slap her thigh. “You thought Devin was Dirk!”

“Devin?” I stammered, looking back at Whitney’s boyfriend.

“Apparently, you know my brother, Dirk,” Devin said.

“Um, yeah I’ve met him,” I admitted. “Are you two twins or something?”

“No, I’m actually a few years older,” Devin replied as he pulled the sleeves of his long-sleeved T- shirt halfway up his forearms, revealing considerable tattooing. Dirk had no visible tattoos that I had noticed.

“Wow, you could have fooled me,” I tried not to mumble.

“Could have?” Whitney teased with a giggle. “It looks like it completely fooled you!”

“Okay, it totally did,” I admitted with a grin. “The thing is, Dirk mentioned that you two were an item in the past when I met him several days ago. So, can you blame me for getting confused?”

“She’s right,” Devin said. “Little D and I have gotten that our whole adult life. It didn’t happen as much when he was a half a foot shorter than me growing up.”

“So how did you two meet?” I asked, pointing back and forth between Whitney and Devin.

“I saw Devin in the grocery store and thought he was Dirk,” Whitney explained, then laughed again. “Just like you did. We really hit it off, and here we are… By the way, how did you meet Dirk?”

“At the church he goes to.”

“Were you attending a wedding or something?”

“No, a regular church service. I’m thinking of, you know, going there every week. Maybe even becoming a member if they’ll have me.”

Whitney’s jaw dropped and she looked at me as if I sprouted a second head. There was a moment of awkward silence that was broken by Devin. “Friendly, upstanding people at my brother’s church, I’ll give ‘em that.”

“You’ve been there?” I asked.

Devin nodded. “I’ve been to Dirk’s church a couple of times. I just didn’t fit in.”

“Maybe you just didn’t give it a chance,” I said. “Besides, it’s much more than just going to church.”

“Devie is right,” Whitney moaned. “I’ve been there too. It’s pretty lame.”

“You’ve been there, too?” I frowned at my cousin.

“Once,” she sighed. “Dev talked me into going with him. But he I won’t go again. Plus, I could tell I wouldn’t get along with that cute little nerdy girl Dirk knocked up.”

“Actually, they were married before he knocked, I mean, before Amy became pregnant,” I told her.

“Whatever,” Whitney snorted.

Was Whit always this cold and witchy, or was I just now tuning into it? A Lady Gaga song began playing on her phone. Whitney turned away from Devin and me as she spoke into it. A minute later she spoke excitedly at us.

“I gotta go, super-hot story!” she enthused. Whitney was an up-and-coming local television reporter. As a matter of fact, that’s how she had met Dirk before they started dating. She interviewed him after he became a local, and briefly a national hero after he had courageously, and forcefully interrupted four thugs who were about to gang rape a young woman. That woman was now his young, pregnant wife.

“Hey, you’re my ride home,” Devin complained.

“Shoot,” Whitney blurted, then glanced anxiously at me. “Can you give Dev a ride home?”

“Yeah, I can give him a ride,” I offered.

Devin turned casual hazel eyes on me and smirked. It occurred to me right then that she and I used to do battle for male attention when we were silly teenage girls. No guy ever came between us. As a matter of fact, we used to test them. If one of us started seeing a guy, usually it was her. I would come on them to see if they would cheat. More often than not they were willing. Then the fun began! For Whit and me, not them.

Whitney’s bright blue eyes relaxed, and she smiled at me with something like conspiracy appearing on her lovely face. Was she wanting to play our game again? No way, I wasn’t a silly teenager anymore. But I was a damaged, broken woman in her mid-twenties.  

I had yet to learn the reality of Ephesians chapter six. By that I mean the putting on of the whole armor of God. But Devin was about to unwittingly show me how vulnerable I was. I had yet to learn the Biblical counsel of watching and praying.

“Can I use the little boy’s room before you leave?” Devin asked.

“Of course,” Whitney replied with strange enthusiasm over a restroom request. “That’d be great.”

“Huh?” Devin frowned.

“Sorry,” Whitney giggled. “I’m just excited about my sudden assignment.”

Whitney watched Devin walk to the bathroom. As soon as the door closed, she took both of her hands in mine.

“Willa, you couldn’t have timed this visit more perfectly. Are you seeing anyone?” she whispered.

“You mean, like a guy?” I frowned.

“Yeah. Do you have a serious boyfriend or anything?”

“No.” I replied. Right after I said no, Billy Bob flashed into my mind. Why?

“You gotta help me out! And we can play our old game in the process.”

“What do you mean?”

She glanced at the bathroom door and then back to me.

“This could be a win-win for all involved,” Whitney whispered excitedly.

“What are you talking about, we’re not teenagers anymore.”

“Shh,” she put a finger on her lips and glanced at the bathroom again.

“I got a job offer a few days ago from a Seattle station,” she told me.

“Wow! Are you gonna take it?”

“Cousin, I already took it,” she cooed.

“Congratulations,” I said with a growing sense of dread. “But what are you getting at with me and Dirk, I mean Devin?”

The toilet flushed and she glanced at the bathroom door again and grasped my arm. “I haven’t broken up with Devin yet,” she whispered. “I was going to tonight, but it would be so much easier if you flirted with him, and he took the bait. Then just like we used to do, let him know he was being played.”

“Whitney, no,” I sighed.

“Willa, please?” she hissed. “It’s gonna be awkward giving him the heave-ho. He left the cougar he’d been living with to be exclusive with me.”

“What do you mean by cougar?”

“You know what I mean,” she said, rolling her eyes at my apparent naivety. “He was shacked up with some rich witch that was like twenty years older than him. Can you say gross?”

“How long have you and Devin been an item?”

“Like five or six months, I guess.”

“Wow, is that some type of longevity record for you with a guy?”

“Of course not,” she said as she put her hands on her hips and looked at the ceiling. “Actually, I think it might be.”

“So, you really were monogamous with him?”

“For the most part,” she grinned. “I didn’t get the Seattle job on reporting talent alone.”

I had avoided Whitney as much as I could the last few years because I was secretly ashamed about my profession. Turned out she was also a prostitute; we just operated from different formats.

“Plus, you know I have a strong sex drive,” she whispered. “And the last couple months, he’s been so lame. I think he drinks too much, and it tends to give him bedroom issues, if ya know what I mean.”

“I’m surprised you’ve stayed with him.”

“Well, he’s actually very loving and nurturing,” she shrugged. “Besides, he’s just so gorgeous. So how about it, Willa? One more time for old times’ sake?”

“I don’t know Whit. I don’t think…”

“I’ll take that as a yes!”

The bathroom door rattled, and we both jumped a little. Whitney and I tried too hard to look casual, and it made us both look like the cat that ate the canary.

“What’s with you two?” Devin asked with a paranoid smirk.

“Nothing,” Whitney and I said at the same time. Then she and I looked at each other and laughed.

“Come on,” Devin said, as he placed his hands on his hips. “What’s going on?”

“Look, I gotta run,” Whitney said as she kissed my cheek and then gave Devin a peck on the lips. “Be sure to lock the door behind you. Bye!”

Devin and I stood in awkward silence for a long moment as we both tried to get our heads around what just happened. Fifteen minutes ago I was innocently making my way to my cousin’s condo to play some catch up with my teenage bestie. Now I was standing alone with her boyfriend with instructions to end their relationship. Life can sure be a strange trip.

“So, um,” I began uneasily.

“Sorry about that,” Devin said quietly. “I had a feeling she was gonna dump me. The way she went about it took me off guard, though.”

“She’s not gonna dump you,” I said the lie before I realized what I was saying. “I mean…”

I looked at him dumbfounded, and he smirked.

“You mean what?” he challenged. “I might have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.”

“She’s taking a job in Seattle,” I blurted. I was NOT going to play our old game.

Devin didn’t even flinch. He just nodded. “Alright then. You don’t need to give me a ride home, I can call my brother.”

“Honestly, Devin, I don’t mind,” I told him. “I was hoping to spend some time with Whitney, so it’s not like I have anything going on right now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure, I’m sure.”

We locked Whitney’s condo as instructed and made our way to my dark blue Dodge Charger. Devin paused before he got in. “Hang on a second,” he said as he pulled out a little wooden one hitter case from his pocket. He pulled a little metal tube that was half the size of a cigarette. He began pushing what I assumed was marijuana into the end.

“Hey, no dope in my car,” I said, not even trying to keep my voice low. “I guess you will have to call your brother after all.”

“Relax,” he told me as he prepared to light the end. “It’s just tobacco.” He lit the end and inhaled deeply. A stream of smoke streamed from his lips.

“Okay,” he said and lowered himself into my car.

“That was a first,” I said after we closed the doors.

“How’s that?” he replied with raised eyebrows.

“I’ve seen a one hitter used countless times,” I told him. “I even used one myself for a few years. But I’ve never seen anyone smoke tobacco with one. Only weed.”

“I’ve been trying to quit smoking,” he said. “Taking one drag at a time takes the edge off.”

 Devin pointed me in the direction of his home. Only when we arrived there, it wasn’t his home. It was a shop where he and his brother kept equipment to do tree work.

“Do you live here?” I asked with a frown.

“Sort of,” he sighed. “I mostly have been spending the night with Whitney.”

“Were you two really getting pretty serious?” I inquired.

“I don’t know,” he replied, waving a hand. “I sort of figured we might be ships passing in the night. I just didn’t think it would end so abruptly. She’s gorgeous and talented, so I always knew she’d move on at some point. I just thought she would have discussed any job prospects she had with me. I thought we were friends. Anyway, thanks for the ride.”

I found myself oddly curious about this brother of Dirk Easton. Mainly it was because he didn’t hit on me or act like a pig. I had gathered that Devin and Dirk were close. Maybe Devin was more similar in character to Dirk than most people thought. Plus, Whitney had said he was loving and nurturing. Maybe I was too quick at judging him.

“Devin,” I heard myself say, “do you want to hang out a bit?”

Something told me I was walking onto dangerous ground. But in the two times I had now been to church, I had heard talk about witnessing. Yes, I would witness to Devin! I would tell him how my life was changing. I would tell him he should give his brother’s church another try… And we could maybe go together.

But I wasn’t converted yet. There was war going on in my soul that I didn’t understand. The years of sexuality I exposed myself to didn’t go away instantly. The taste for mood altering substances lingered. So, when the good-looking guy. Correction, great looking guy I just asked to hang out with smiled and said yes. Well, I smiled back like the fool I was as I walked into a lion’s den.