BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 22

ZELLA LaSTELLA-SALLIE

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD ENCAMPS ALL AROUND THOSE WHO FEAR HIM AND DELIVERS THEM. OH TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD. BLESSED IS THE PERSON WHO TRUSTS IN HIM. (Psalm 34:7, 8)

            It was right up there with the most emotional encounters I had ever witnessed. Inga stared absolutely dumfounded at her nine year old son. A son she hadn’t known existed. Her arctic blue eyes, a unique pair of windows to the soul I thought could never be duplicated, gazed into an identical pair of the boy.

            He had asked Inga if she was his mother. But Inga was so stunned, she was speechless. The silence as the two took each other in with awe made me feel compelled to break the quiet. I wanted to shout, ‘yes, Inga is your mother!’ But it wasn’t my place to do something. It was Inga’s right and privilege alone. Maybe the boy’s father. We hadn’t really known his story yet. Only his brief relationship with Inga many years ago.

            Thankfully my brain responded quickly. If I felt a compulsion to speak, what about my husband! A man known to speak before his brain gave him permission. I clasped a hand over Seven’s mouth just in time. Whatever he was about to say came out as a muffled “Wumph.”

            Finally Inga’s paralysis broke. With a desperate croak, she asked the boy, “Are you Benjamin?”

            “Yeah,” he replied quietly.

            “Yes, I believe I am your mother,” she croaked, then looked at Jackson as if for conformation.

            Jackson put a hand on Benjamin’s head, gently rubbing his dark brown, wavy hair that was another trait of Inga. Then he said, “She’s most definitely your mother, Son.”

            “Papa,” Benjamin began to tell Inga. “I mean my dad said that it wasn’t your fault that you have been… Absent. I’ve always wished I could meet you.”

            Benjamin took a tentative step forward. “Can I give you a hug?”

            Inga coughed out a sob but laughed as tears poured out of her eyes. “Yes, oh yes!”

            Inga’s usual attire was jeans, either a t-shirt or flannel shirt, and converse sneakers. But today she was wearing a black and white gingham dress with black and brown saddle shoes. Inga wasn’t all that used to dresses. As she knelt down to receive an embrace from her long lost son, her knees tangled in the garment, and she began to topple over.

            Seven, who was usually quickest with his tongue, proved he had fast reflexes elsewhere. Quick as a lick he grabbed Inga around the shoulders and steadied her just as the boy fell into his mother’s arms. As Inga applied several kisses to the boy’s head, a dam finally broke in my own eyes as a torrent of tears ran down my cheeks.

            Seven wiped at his eyes as well as I glanced at him. I knew what he was going to say before he said, “I’m not ashamed. Jesus Himself wept.”

            Despite a reputation for being brazen, Seven was a somewhat sensitive man. Although I loved this about him, and although he meant it when he declared Jesus wept, it still made him uncomfortable to shed tears even in front me, his beloved wife.

            I looked at Jackson. His head was bowed, but his eyes were raised as he took in the reunion of mother and son. One arm was crossed over his chest, and a hand was placed over his mouth. Tears were streaming down his cheeks as well.

            Who was this guy? Inga had described him as dark and brooding when she knew him years ago. She had even believed him to be a satanist who sacrificed his own baby to the devil. Yet that baby was now nine years old and ensconced in his birth mother’s arms, and he seemed to be relishing it as mother and son reunited.

            “I can’t believe this!” Inga said as she and her son separated from their embrace. Her hands gently clasped the young boys cheeks. “I’m sorry, I just want to look at you forever!”

            “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “I want to look at you too.”

            I could tell he was an exceptional young man. Despite the dark mystery behind Jackson Bronx, this boy was raised well. He was polite, bright and loving. Eventually we got to the elephant in the yard.

            “So, Jackson,” Inga said evenly. “I don’t know whether to knee you in the family jewels or hug you.”

            “How about the later?” he replied with a tentative smile.

            To my surprise Inga and Jackson hugged. Yet it didn’t hold anywhere near the warmth of her long embrace with Benjamin. It lasted two seconds tops. As they separated, Inga said, “Well, I guess you and I have some catching up to do.”

            “Yeah, I guess so,” he replied, looking at Inga with a similar amazement that mother and son had just exhibited toward each other.

            But a tense silence ensued as the parents of Benjamin stared at each other. Then Inga defiantly crossed her arms. “I guess we could start by you explaining why you had me knocked out, stole my baby and had me dumped into the woods.”

            “I didn’t Inga, I swear!” Jackson replied, holding both hands up.

            “Well, I’m pretty sure I didn’t dream the most horrifying moment of my life. That being you taking our baby out of my arms, AND SAYING, he was to be a sacrifice to the master.”

            “It was a ruse.”

            “A ruse? Well, that was some kind of ruse, seeing how I woke up laying in dirt with ants crawling all over me.”

            “I’m so, so sorry, Inga! My plan back fired.”

            “I’d say!” Inga retorted. She was working up a lather, and I felt Seven’s hand go into mine. My husband was signaling us to silently pray.

            Inga bowed her head and pinched her nose. With forced calm she said, “Okay, what happened, happened. Why don’t you tell me about this so called ruse? Maybe you could also tell me who exactly the woman known as Jezzy is.”

            “Jezzy was my dad’s girlfriend. She and my dad were hard core satanists.”

            “So I assume you renounced satanism, seeing how you avoided the first plague?”

            “I grew up with the occult, Inga, I did. But I guess you could say my heart was never really into it. This may make you laugh, or as you mentioned before, knee me in the privates. But you and Benny transformed me.”

            Inga studied Jackson thoughtfully. There was a lump on her cheek, and she was literally biting her tongue as she absorbed his words.

            “Full disclosure,” he said boldly. “Do you remember when I came to stay at Uncle Bryson’s with my brother Barret?”

            “Of course I do.”

            “Well, one of us was supposed to, how do I put this? Steal you away.”

            “You mean kidnap!”

            “Not exactly. We were supposed to win your affections and convince you to come away with us.”

            “We?”

            “Which ever one of us you took to.”

            “That’s weird, because full disclosure, I liked your brother better, even though I thought you were cuter.”

            “I know, that’s why I got to you first.”

            “And why’s that, did the winner get a big reward?”

            “Not at all, it’s because I liked you and Barret didn’t. He thought you were a scrawny, nerdy, brat. But he was still interested just because he wanted the accolades. Then I screwed up by letting you seduce me.”

            “Me seduce you!” Inga barked with hands on hips.

            “Yeah, just by being your sweet and spicey self,” he said with a coy grin.

            Inga heatedly crossed her arms across her chest again. “What do mean by screwed up?”

            “You were supposed to be a virgin sacrifice.”

            “Why me?”

            “Your eyes. Both my dad and my uncle thought they were magical. My dad wanted to offer you as a sacrifice, but Uncle Bryson wanted to marry you. Even from the start I was trying to figure out a way to get you away from both of them.”

            “So, is your Uncle Bryson a Satanist?” she asked.

            “I’d say so, but he privately thought of himself as a Luciferian.”

            “What’s the difference?”

            “Well, not much. Satan was known as Lucifer before he was banished from heaven. The name means Light Bearer and Morning Star. That’s why my uncle was obsessed with ufology. The main difference between him and my dad is their approach. My dad is more blatant, more into the carnal, hedonistic side. Uncle Bryson is more into power and influence.”

            “I don’t understand you though,” she said. “You were so dark and creepy, even scary. But then when I got to know you, I thought you were really sweet, albeit mysterious.”

            “I guess the simplest analogy would be this,” he explained. “Think of a kid who went to a Christian parochial school but secretly rebelled against the family religion when not at home. He wore the uniform and played the part, even though he was secretly partying or looking at porn.”

            “So you dressed like a demonologist but wasn’t into, for lack of a better word, the theology.”

            “Yeah, that would be a good way to put it, I guess” he shrugged. “Look, I’ve discovered most Christians don’t even understand their own belief system and history, so how can somebody conjuring devils really understand theirs? Most Christians can’t even explain what the protestant reformation was all about.”

            “Wow, so if you were faking being an occultist back then, you deserved an Oscar.”

            “I’m not gonna lie. As a youth I thought the imagery was pretty cool. That’s probably one of the reasons Halloween is so popular. But I thought my dad’s rituals and beliefs and so forth were ridiculous.”

            “You say your dad and not your parents. Where was your mom?”

            “He divorced my mom when I was very young. I don’t even remember meeting her until I was a teenager. Long story short, he got her addicted to drugs and then in the divorce had her condemned as an unfit mother. Aunt Holly here is my mother’s aunt. In other words my grandmother’s sister. It was she who helped me escape here to Minnesota with Benny.”

            “Help you escape with Benny,” Inga repeated quietly, yet with a hint of anger.

            Jackson perceived the underlying hostility beneath Inga’s words and explained. “The guy that knocked you out and put you in the woods, Brandon, was a buddy of mine. It was me that got him in with my dad as a bodyguard. Anyway, Jezzy wanted you dead. She thought he killed you and disposed of your body. But like I said, Brandon was a buddy, and he owed me.

            “He knocked you out with a little chloroform and then gave you a mild tranquilizer. The plan was for me to sneak out a back door at a certain point in their ritual, ceremony, whatever you want to call it. I had a car waiting for me, another friend of mine driving. He had Benny and was waiting on the other side of the woods.

            “God as my witness, I intended to carry you the quarter mile through the woods and have you escape with me. The plan was for us to start a new life right here in northern Minnesota. Far away from where my dad’s cult or my uncle’s cult could find us. I couldn’t reveal the plan to you because you were watched like a hawk. There were cameras and listening devises everywhere.”

            Inga was hugging herself. I could tell by her countenance that she was overwhelmed. But the grace of God combined with years of being homeless had made her mentally tough. She stoically told Jackson, “Your uncle almost found me.”

            He looked astonished. “When? Where?”

            “Many months ago in Cedar Rapids. I was unwise and told a friend in the homeless community my story. I figured after all those years and distance it didn’t matter. But she betrayed me and told Bryson where I was for a payoff. He sent a couple goons. But an old friend from the cult and a federal agent who was undercover in the cult got us word in return. Thankfully I had met the Sallie’s here, and Seven’s cousin along with a retired police officer friend helped us capture them. If it wasn’t for meeting the Sallie’s, I’m sure they would have got me.”

            I couldn’t keep silent. I turned my gaze onto Jackson and said, “The main reason they were captured, is Inga bravely set herself up as a decoy.”

            “Believe it or not,” Inga added humbly.

            “Oh, I believe it,” Jackson said, gazing fondly at Inga. “That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with her. Like I said, sweet and spicey.”

            Inga’s return gaze was neutral. “So did you try to find me when you discovered that I wasn’t in the woods where you thought I should be? I hitch hiked for about an hour you know.”

            “We did. But to be honest we didn’t have much time. We only had a small window before they discovered Benny and I were gone. I did hire private detectives to try to find you, but they came up with pretty much nothing.”

            Inga shrugged. “I disappeared into the homeless community. For a long time I never stayed in one place very long.”

            “At first I thought Brandon double crossed me,” Jackson said. “But then the private eyes I hired said the police described you as coming to them for help. I got the impression they thought you were an out of your mind addict.”

            “Did they seem to care when my story was corroborated?” Inga asked with a frown.

            “One of the gum shoes said a sergeant seemed troubled and concerned. But whether they followed up by questioning those at my father’s mansion, I don’t know. I was on the run and in their minds, betrayed them. So I had no way of knowing.”

            Inga looked at Benjamin, who was studying her carefully. Inga took his hand. “I’ve missed you. Or maybe I should say I’ve missed knowing you. But I thought…You were… Can I have another hug?”

            Benjamin nodded, smiled shyly, and fulfilled her wish. After another round of hugs and tears, Inga faced Jackson. “Well, it looks like you’ve done a fine job raising Benjamin.”

            “I did what I could, but I need to defer that compliment to my Aunt Holly,” he declared waving a hand toward the older woman. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”

            “Thank you, Ms. Holly,” Inga said. Then she hugged herself and bit her lip.

            “It’s been my pleasure,” Holly replied meekly.

            “I did everything I could to find you, Inga, please believe me,” Jackson said.

            She smiled tentatively. “Actually I do tend to believe you.”

            “I would like to know how you found me,” he said with a cautious smile. “I mean, I’ve changed my name, we live off the grid. How on earth did you ever find me out here?”

            Inga gave a matter of fact shrug and said, “An angel told me.”