ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 9

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

KEEP YOUR HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE, FOR OUT OF IT SPRING THE ISSUES OF LIFE (Proverbs 4:23)

            Vermillion watched with satisfaction as Jimmy and Lexi’s clothes came off. But as the couple climbed onto Jimmy’s bed, Jimmy’s phone on the nightstand rang. He reached for it, but Lexi stopped him by saying, “Don’t answer it.”

            She was right. Filled with lust and carnal passion, he had subconsciously extended his arm toward the device as it rang. But at eleven o’clock at night it was probably a drunk buddy looking for a ride. Or a friend telling him about some hot chick that was asking for him at the bar. But he already had a hottie, and she was in his room wearing only her birthday suit.

            After several rings, the answering machine answered the call. A female giggled and then said, “Hey there, it’s Lucifer. We see you.”

            Jimmy’s head whipped toward the phone so fast he could have gotten whiplash.

            “We like the picture on the wall of dogs playing cards,” the voice added and then giggled again.

            Jimmy’s eyes turned to the painting on the opposite wall of the window of canines playing poker. Then his mind returned to the Bible prophecy seminar a few hours earlier. One of the main focuses had been the rebellion in heaven instigated by Lucifer, an anointed cherub, who was then cast to the earth and became Satan. He also thought of Jenny, the young lady who had accompanied him to the meeting. He suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling that he was betraying her. Why?

            Lexi got up to shut the bedroom curtains. She shamelessly stood for a few seconds in front of the window before giving them privacy. “Sorry, my friends were just pranking me. They probably only spied on us for a minute and then went to the gas station down the block to call. We’ve done this to each other before. Now where were we… Hey, why are you getting dressed?”

            “This just ain’t right,” he replied.

            “It’s no big deal. Trust me, you have nothing to be ashamed of at all. Besides they probably saw us before, you know.”

            “It’s not that. This was sign. It had to be.”

            Vermillion nodded. “Slick move, Querida. How did I not see that coming?”

            “Because you were so focused on focusing them on carnal passion.”

            “It ain’t over till it’s over,” my opponent declared as he contemplated possible moves.

            “What do you mean it’s a sign?” Lexi demanded. “My friends were just playing peeping Toms and then called to gloat about it.”

            “I mean getting a call from someone calling themself Lucifer,” he said and then explained about the seminar he had attended earlier in the evening.

            “Oh please,” she whined. “That was just my friend Lucy Freya. Ya know, LucyFr. It’s just a nickname. Trust me, she’s not a fallen angel.”

            Then Lexi’s eyeballs looked at the ceiling. She giggled and said, “Well, maybe.”

            Lexi went to him and tried to wrap her arms around his neck. He gently yet firmly removed them. “I’m sorry, Lexi, I truly am.”

            “Like, come on, it was just a prank.”

            “It’s not just that. This may sound weird, but I’ve been reading some books about getting close to God the last couple months. Then this seminar I went to tonight. Something is happening. For the first time since I’ve been an adult, I didn’t have a drink on a Saturday night and now I, I…”

            “You what?”

            “I don’t feel like having sex.”

            “So, like why? Do you think I’m fat?”

            “No, no, no! Not at all. You’re stunning. Like I said, I’ve been getting to know about God.”

            “You’re right, you are weird. I thought you were so cool, like a modern James Dean,” she said as she began to get dressed. “A little advice. It ruins the mood to bring up God when you’re about to get it on.”

            “Yeah? Why is that?”

            “Because God and sex don’t mix.”

            “They do when you’re married,” he heard himself say and then frowned.

            Vermillion looked at me and I saw concern on his countenance. “I never thought I would hear Jimmy Stetson say a thing like that.”

            “The Holy Spirit is working, and he’s following.”

            “Well, I’ll just have to do something about that, Querida. For some reason he is drawn to that less than spectacular wench, Jenny Oakley. So I’ll tap into something prevalent in most males, like the tendency toward jealousy. I’ll divert the draw he feels with the fact that she is going to have another man’s baby. I’ll also have Larry brought up. Between the two, he will realize the little angel he knew in high school was actually a façade.”

            I silently thanked him for revealing his plan. However, you can’t trust a fallen being. We both watched as Jimmy took Lexi back to the pool party on his motorcycle. They weren’t nearly as enthralled with each other as with the first motorcycle ride. Lexi noticed her friends take notice as the pair pulled up on Jimmy’s motorcycle.

            As annoyed as Lexi was by Jimmy’s rejection, her friends would have no clue. As a matter of fact, due to their playing peeping Toms, they assumed the couple had paired in the most intimate fashion. Being aware of this, Lexi put on her sweetest smile, contradicting how she actually felt. “I hope we’re still friends.”

            “Of course,” Jimmy replied with his own smile, relieved in the change from her demeanor of hostility.

            “Great,” she said and then kissed him on the lips. She ran a hand through his wind tossed hair, squelching the desire to yank it. “Prove it by kissing me now.”

            He leaned in and complied. The she wiggled her fingers goodbye at him and sauntered off. He helped sell the little show for her friends as he lingered, watching her tan legs walk away from him. Between her soft lips and the sight of her movements, he felt a wave of arousal. Had he really kicked her out of his bed? What was happening to him?

            He started his motorcycle and drove away. Vermillion and I fought a battle in his head as he rode. I wanted him to go home and process his thoughts, analyses what he learned, and recall his conversation with Jenny. Then call her in the morning. Vermillion caused him to feel restless and discontented. So he ended up going to his favorite bar.

            Although he lit a cigarette before he entered, I made him feel a distaste for the haze of smoke that filled the room. The noise also grated his nerves compared to the peace he felt on the quiet deck at his home talking with Jenny.

            He noticed Marsha Beloit eye him seductively. He had bedded her a few times and knew he could tonight. She wasn’t as smoking hot as Lexi, but the name Lucifer wouldn’t pop up like it did with the girl he had just dropped off. But yet it just did! For I had put the realization there.

            Vermillion countered with arousal and fickleness. Marsha did look good in that little black cocktail dress. After all he could use sexual release after his time spent with Lexi. What was he thinking turning her down anyway? A man had needs. He was just being superstitious.

            No, I contradicted. A man has desires. Lexi looked hot in her bikini, Marsha looks sexy in the tight, tiny dress, but Jenny looked beautiful. The long, conservative dress, her hair back in a clip, and the small glimpse of a shapely leg as crossed it over the other. The tennis shoes with the little ruffle on her ankle socks compared with the three inch heels Marsha was wearing.

            “What can I get you, Jim?” Dale, one of the bartenders asked.

            “Oh, nothing Dale… I’m not feeling so good.”

            “Oh well, on to plan C,” Vermillion said with something humans would consider a shrug.

            He gave Jimmy the urge to drive by Jenny’s apartment. He felt so restless and discombobulated, he ignored my push to just go home. He noticed Jenny’s bedroom light was on. In 1990, cities were littered with pay phones, and there just so happened to be one across from Jenny’s apartment. He called.

            Jenny stared at her wall, trance like. Although she was as still as a mannequin, her mind was going a hundred miles an hour. But the jangle of the phone gave her a little shot of adrenaline. It was only a couple minutes before midnight; her phone rarely rang this late. “Hello?”

            “Hey, Jenny, it’s Jimmy. I was driving by and saw your light on.”

            Her brain processed this information. Jimmy? Her dream guy. A guy who just might be the father of the tiny baby in her womb. But he was also a serial womanizer, with her now being one of the notches on his belt. He was probably calling her postcoital after bedding that floozy who interrupted their amazing conversation.

            “Jenny, you there? Sorry to call so late, but like I said, I saw your light was on.”

            He knows my light is on! She looked out her window and toward the phone booth. Under the glow of the street light, she saw him. He waved.

            “Oh, Jimmy, hi.” Then keeping her emotions in check, she said evenly, “I thought you were with that girl that showed up at your place.”

            “No, I took her home.”

            After you had sex with her? She wanted to ask. “I see.”

            “I know it’s late, but can I come up? I’d really like to tell you something.”

            “Yeah, it’s no problem,” she replied, then hung up, and raced to the bathroom.

            Jenny quickly brushed her teeth and corralled her hair into a loose ponytail. There were a couple raps on the door. She ran on tippy toes, reached for the door handle and realized she forgot her robe. She raced back to her bedroom door where it hung. It wasn’t there!

            More raps on the door. Oh well, he saw her with much less than her old nighty with Garfield on the front. The Garfield nighty! How could she invite Jimmy in dressed her Garfield nighty? But she had no choice but to open the door. She had told him to come up, and he already had to knock twice. She watched his eyes lower and his lips spread into a grin. “Nice jammies.”

            She put her hands on her hips, smiled and playfully scolded, “You did show up unannounced.”

            “Hey, I called first.”

            “Yeah, right outside my apartment. Hang on a minute while I go change.”

            He grabbed her hand. “No, don’t. You look adorable.”

            She felt silly, but she did like his compliment. Before she knew what was happening, Jimmy gently yet firmly tugged until his other arm went around her waist and his lips were on hers. She tasted like minty tooth paste and he like spearmint Trident with a hint of cigarette smoke behind it. She relished their connection for several seconds before pushing away. “Jimmy, you didn’t come over for, what do they call it? A booty call?”

            “No, no, of course not,” he defended.

            Is that because you already had sex with that girl Lexi who showed up at your place? She wondered. But instead she asked, “So what did you need to talk to me about that couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

            “Actually, it is tomorrow now,” Jimmy replied with a grin as a clock chimed midnight. Then his face grew serious. “Something’s happening to me, Jen. It’s like I’m running from myself, but it’s also kind of a good thing. To be honest, Lexi did want to sleep with me. Then after I dropped her off, I went to the bar to get a beer. But I didn’t feel like one. I have not gone without having an adult beverage on a Saturday night since I was in high school.”

            Jenny didn’t know what to tell him. Her life was in upheaval as well. At least his was mostly positive, although he did seem troubled and perplexed. As for Jenny, this was definitely the most trying month of her life. First, a second break up with Devin. A one night stand with Jimmy. Pregnant and not knowing who is the father. Ostracized by her church. Disappointing her mother. Then she gets her first bright spot with Jimmy tonight, and that blonde bombshell showed up, seemingly steeling him away.

            She hated feeling jealous as she drove away. Ironically it was in Jimmy’s pickup truck. The reality was that Jimmy was not a one woman man, and she knew it. Then when she got  home, there was a message from Larry on her answering machine. She wavered as to whether to call him back or not.

            Vermillion cackled. “It’s playing out rather nicely, don’t you think?”

            “We’ll see.”

            “Nice job though, getting Jimmy to run from his two biggest idols tonight.”

            I ignored him, which I often did.

            “Yeah, he’s running from himself alright, and right in to the arms of the green eyed monster,” Vermillion continued maliciously. “You just wait. Jimmy’s used to being in lust, not love. He’s used to leaving women, not wanting to possess them.”

            Jimmy was just about to do something he had never done before. That was to tell a woman that he loved her. I had it right on the tip of his tongue when Vermillion gave Jimmy a recollection from the seminar. “Hey, I forgot to ask you. When you were coming back from the restroom right before the meeting started, you stopped and talked to a guy for a minute. Who was that?”

            Jenny flinched inwardly. “His name is Larry Vargus. I used baby sit his kids.”

            Jenny hoped he would leave it at that. The last thing she wanted to do right now was explain her complex relationship with Larry. What was Larry doing at that seminar anyway?

            “Oh I good. I thought he might have been some old perv trying to hit on you.”

            Jenny hoped she wasn’t blushing, because he wasn’t far from the truth. She sought to change the subject. “You said there was something you wanted to tell me.”

            Jimmy looked a little stricken as he gazed at her. He had kind of goofy expression on his face. She giggled. “What’s that look for?”

            “I love you, Jenny,” he blurted. She looked as stunned as if he had slapped her. Not knowing what else to do with the foreign emotions swirling in his own head, he knelt and softly kissed her belly through the thin material of her nightgown. When he arose, he continued, “I’m gonna take care of you and the baby, so don’t worry your pretty little head.”

            “I love you too, Jimmy,” she responded and then threw her arms around him, sobbing into his neck.

            “Hey, hey,” he soothed as he embraced her. “This is a time of rejoicing.”

            “They’re partly happy tears,” she said with a laugh and a sniff.

            “Why only partly?”

            “You know why. There’s a good chance this baby isn’t yours.”

            “But it’s yours, and that will make it mine since the other guy isn’t interested.”

            A million thoughts flashed through Jenny’s mind. What if this was just a whim of his? Can a leopard change his spots? Can a philanderer change his ways? What exactly did he mean by take care of her and the baby? Financially? Marriage? Simply involved in his or her life? What if Devin becomes interested? But then best of all, he said he loves her! But how could that be? This guy who could have practically any girl he wants.

            “Jenny, I never had a chance to ask tonight. Will you go back to the meeting with me tomorrow? I want to find out about hellfire.”

            Jenny morphed into the moment. She felt light hearted, feeling both loved and loving. She felt hopeful. If Jimmy found God, his words about taking care of her would likely be sincere. She herself needed to return to God. She often wondered if she ever had him in the first place. She joked, “According to my church, it’s a pretty hot place.”

            “According to the speaker, he insinuated it’s more like an event rather than a place. I want to find out what he meant.”

            “Of course I’ll go,” she said happily.

            He hugged her again and she relished the feeling. Was she becoming Jimmy Stetson’s girlfriend? Might she even become his fiancée and then his wife? She metaphorically pinched herself to see if she might be dreaming. This woke her up and she bit her lower lip with a concern.

            What if Larry is at the Bible meeting again and it opens up a can of worms? Why did she have to call Larry back, confide her woes, and then get sentimental? Why couldn’t she leave sleeping dogs lay?