HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

PART 2

CHAPTER 10

NANCY

LOOKING STEADFASTLY AT HIM, SAW HIS FACE AS THE FACE OF AN ANGEL (Acts 6:15)

            “Addie!” Nancy barked as her heart felt like it would pound right out of her chest. “What do you think you are doing?”

            Addie had a gun pointed at Drew’s head and demanded that he renounce his faith. He refused. She touched the pistol to his forehead. “I’m not telling you again.”

            “Then I’ll say this, because I will never betray my Lord. Father forgive her for what she is about to do.”

            Nancy’s mouth fell open in disbelief. She was about to come out of her skin with adrenaline. Yet the person with a gun held to his head looked as tranquil as someone watching a beautiful sunset while he sat on his porch sipping Yogi brand Relaxed Mind herbal tea.

            Addie emitted a half screech, half groan as she dropped to her knees, clutching her head. Her gun clattered next to her and Drew casually picked it up. It was an old twenty two revolver. As Addie’s body shook with sobs, Nancy marched to the kitchen table with clenched jaw and retrieved her phone.

            “Wait, Nancy,” Drew petitioned. “Don’t call the police, it’s not loaded.”

            Once again Nancy’s mouth gaped open in disbelief. But this time her eyebrows furrowed in anger rather than arched in amazement. “She had a gun pointed at your head, Andrew Arlo Aldo… And made threats!”

            “Like I said, it wasn’t loaded,” Drew said with a little smile at her using his entire legal name.

            “That’s beside the point! Nobody can go about with a gun making threats without facing consequences.”

            “Go ahead, call the police,” Addie choked as she rolled onto her back and put an arm over her eyes. Her tone was part hostile and part desperation. “My life is over anyway.”

            “I can’t believe what you just did!” Nancy said with gritted teeth, her thumb hovering over the send button. “Tell me why, Addie, why?”

            “You know why,” Addie replied as she sat up and hugged her knees. Her face was red, her cheeks were wet with tears, her upper lip was wet with snot, and her chin was wet with saliva. “I love you.”

            “I love you too,” Nancy told her with surprising gentleness. “But not in the way you want me to.”

            “Why did you lead me on then?” Addie asked with a pleading voice.

            “I didn’t mean to. Both times when we started to take things further, I told you I just wasn’t comfortable.”

            Further from what, I wondered. Then felt my toes curl as I felt like I was eves dropping on a very personal dispute. But how could I leave until this gun issue was resolved?

            “Yeah, so I give you plenty of space and time, and you reward me by doing the tongue tango with your friend Diego.” Addie did air quotes when saying ‘your friend.’ “Do you know how much that hurt? Not only knowing about it, but walking in on it?”

            “I told you I had too much to drink, just like when you and I…” Nancy eyed me guiltily. “Look, I’m sorry I hurt you. But if that’s why you pointed the gun at Drew’s head, I’m the one you should have done it to instead.”

            “He’s the one filling your head with all of the Bible nonsense,” Addie said angrily, pointing a finger at me this time instead of a gun. “He’s the one making you all lovesick, when I had you first. I thought he was a fake, Mr. Holier than Thou, and I needed to prove it to you.”

            Nancy eyed me guiltily again, only this time a blush was added. Despite her embarrassment, she spoke with surprising tenderness. “Drew’s no fake, he’s the real deal. I guess you did prove that to me.”

            “You seem to be right,” Addie responded, glancing at me with an embarrassed look. “I’m sorry, Drew. I’ve never felt like a bigger fool in my entire life.”

            “When I said Father forgive you, I meant it,” I reassured her.

            “You asked your… God to forgive me, but do you?”

            “Absolutely,” I replied, handing her a tissue for her soggy face.

            She raised it up as if in display, I guess suggesting, ‘look he’s even handing me a tissue.’ She began to whimper as she put it to use. Nancy took a step toward her as if to provide comfort. But she stopped, pursed her lips, and crossed her arms.

            Nancy agreed to not call the authorities. Addie apologized profusely and adamantly insisted that she would never ever do something like that again under any circumstance. It seems she acquired the gun via her mother’s nightstand. She also made sure the chambers were empty and had checked it thrice to be sure.

            Although seeming a little on the reluctant side, Nancy forgave her as well. However, she insisted that she could no longer share living quarters with Addie, effective immediately. Since her mother had moved back to California after Nancy graduated from high school, I invited her to my family’s home.

            My parents lived on a forty acre ranch that had plenty of timber on rolling hills. Thus their five bedroom home was built on a hill. The unique structure’s basement was a bit deeper than your average cellar and walked out onto a sloping back yard. From the front, the home looked like a one story ranch. Whereas from the back it was three stories high.

            Since Mom and Dad already had guests, we had to put up Nancy in a small, but cozy fifth bedroom in the basement. I offered her my bedroom, but she insisted that she wanted to stay tucked away from everybody else. That was my impression, not necessarily hers.

            My bedroom was directly above the room Nancy had retired to. At around two thirty in the morning I awoke and went to the bathroom. Upon settling back into bed, I heard a low murmur of voices coming through the furnace ducts. One voice was deeper than the other. Was I hearing things? My adrenaline spiked a bit, especially with what happened the previous evening. It concerned me that someone might have broken in downstairs.

            I made my way to the basement and checked the sliding glass door. It was locked with no sign of forced entry. I eased over to the bedroom door and heard Nancy talking in low tones to someone. Was she on her phone? What was the deeper voice I heard upstairs? Although too faint to make out the words, it certainly seemed male.

            Standing outside the door, I could hear what Nancy was saying in low tones. “You wouldn’t believe it. Drew had this out of control lunatic pointing a gun at his head, but he just looked so incredibly calm.”

            I heard the deep murmur of a male voice; I was certain this time. Yet I couldn’t make out what he said. Knowing the layout of the room, the head of the bed was right by the door. I envisioned Nancy sitting cross legged and leaning against the head. The other person was obviously sitting in the chair that was against the back wall. That’s why I heard her but couldn’t make out the other person.

            But who could it possibly be? My first thought would have been my brother Jerry, but he was on a weekend camping trip fifty miles away. Could it be a deep voiced female? Was it Addie? Yet Nancy seemed very rattled by her actions; even declaring multiple times on the ride to my parent’s place that she thought she knew Addie.

            “You should have seen his face,” Nancy continued. “It was like, um, well, angelic. It was almost like he wanted to die. I never ever thought of Drew as suicidal, just the opposite. But, like, do you think he could be… Maybe just a little?”

            Low deep murmur.

            “Yeah, your right, it’s his incredibly strong faith.”

            This person knows me! My dad? Uncle Eli? Just to be clear, Eli Alderson isn’t my biological uncle, just my dad’s closest male friend. Although I had many friends, I didn’t think of any being close enough to show up in the middle of the night. Plus most of my friends didn’t like Nancy.

            Low murmur, then Nancy declaring. “I don’t understand my feelings for Drew. I mean I love him so much. And after last night there’s not a person I admire more in the whole world, but you know what’s really weird? When we kissed a couple weeks ago, it was both wonderful, and… Oh, I can’t say.”

            Low murmur, then Nancy actually giggled. She was the least giggly girl I had ever known. “Well, after we kissed for a minute, it was like… It was like… Oh, I don’t know, it was just… Like kissing my brother. But I don’t have a brother so how would I even know?”

            I felt a wave of disappointment. She didn’t like kissing me? Although I didn’t think it felt like kissing my sister, our extended lip lock did seem to lack something. But I had never kissed a girl before, in a romantic sense. Plus it seemed like finding a dead body tainted the experience somehow. Low murmur, another giggle. Nancy giggling? Do we really know anybody? Who was this making her giggle anyway?

            Low murmur.

            More giggles from Nancy. What was going on? “No kissing you was definitely not like kissing my brother.”

            Diego! It had to be Diego! But why would she invite him into my parent’s home?

            Low murmur.

            “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, I’m not sleepy after all that happened last night.”

            Low murmur.

            “I understand. But you don’t need to apologize…. I kind of liked it.”

            Low murmur, more giggles from Nancy. “It wasn’t unpleasant, but what about Drew?”

            Low murmur.

            “You’re right. As much as I admire him and think he’s cute, we’re just not right for each other… But you and me? Come on.”

            I heard shuffling feet. Then the squeak of mattress springs. Shuffling and then the smacking shmucking sound of what? Lips on lips and then some? Then yet more giggling from Nancy. “Maybe you better go.”

            “Maybe you’re right,” my brother Jerry said.

            What!