ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 15

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

FOR HE (GOD) KNOWS THE SECRETS OF THE HEART (Psalm 44:21)

            “Human existence is so filled with ironies and contradictions,” Vermillion lamented, but with glee. Talk about contradiction. He then he quoted part of Romans 8:28 as a question. “Do you still believe all things work together for good?”

            The demonic realm knows scripture better than the brightest human being. That’s why the religious world is so fraught with error. Evil forces have expertly used false shepherds to twist scripture. I finished the part that he left off.  “To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Yes, I do believe.”

            He cackled. “Oh yeah? Which of these urchins is called to His purpose? Jimmy, who has never been more distracted by relationships with the opposite sex? Jenny, who has convinced herself that she is carrying Larry’s grandchild, not realizing he is deceiving her by omission of the truth? Or LucyFr, who was permanently damaged by her rapists?”

            “God is drawing Lucy and she is slowly following. He will heal her when she learns to submit to Him,” I interjected.

            “If, not when. She’s as wrapped up in her mixed feelings about Jimmy as she is about her desire for personal revival. Just look at her face right now. It’s so filled with anguish not even a minute after a whole hour of being enraptured by the Bible seminar.”

            Right as the meeting closed, Jimmy told Lucy he needed to talk to Jenny. But Jenny had bolted, ignoring his petition to talk. He chased after her as she jogged to her car. Lucy gave him the silent treatment as he took her home.

            “See you tomorrow?” he tried as she climbed off the back of his motorcycle.

            She ignored him and walked toward her front door. “Lucy, let’s talk.”

            She continued to ignore him as she reached for the door knob. “Lucy, please.”

            She paused, then turned and walked back to him with fold her arms in front of her. “What’s there to talk about? I’m done being played by you. I’ll take myself to the meeting tomorrow.”

            “Who’s playing who? You know Jenny is, um, sort of my girlfriend. I don’t mean to be a jerk, but you kissing me when she pulled up to my driveway the other day got me into a whole world of trouble.”

            “You kissed me!”

            “You asked me to!”

            “So it’s my fault you complied when you sort of had a girl friend?”

            He frowned at her saying ‘had’ instead of ‘have.’ “I suppose that is a fair point.”

            “I don’t mean to sound full of myself, but you didn’t exactly seem repulsed when you were kissing me.”

            “I wasn’t. It was quite nice.”

            “Well then, if you find yourself without a sort of girlfriend, maybe we could try it again.”

            Lucy turned to go into her home. Jimmy grabbed her hand and pulled Lucy into his arms. “You said yourself I ‘had’ a girlfriend rather than ‘have.’”

            Jimmy was about to put his mouth on hers when he saw how startled her lovely large eyes were. Then he noticed the slight tremor. He gently pushed her away. “Lucy, I’m sorry… I better go.”

            Then she grabbed his hand. “No, don’t. I know you’re not like that. I feel safe with you. It’s just that sudden move grabbing my hand caused a bit of a flash back. Will you hold me?”

            “Of course,” Jimmy said. He grinned at how his chin rested perfectly on top of her head. Her dark curls were soft, silky, and smelled like peach shampoo. His grin vanished when a gray Monte Carlo stopped and he saw the aghast face of Jenny staring at them. Not again! She shook her head and drove away. Jimmy didn’t even try to stop her.

            Although disappointed with Jimmy, Jenny wasn’t all that upset. She had felt immature when she blew off Jimmy’s request to speak after the meeting. She simply decided to swing by his place and nip in the bud whatever romantic inclinations they had going. She hoped to amicably shift their relationship to strictly friends.

            She already felt their romantic possibilities were breached after she found Jimmy’s face connected to Lucy’s. Then she herself severed them completely by sleeping with Larry. She didn’t even understand why she developed a snit toward Jimmy when she had now given herself over to Larry. Maybe because she felt Jimmy started it.

            But did he? After all he tried to give her a car! How humiliated he must have felt when she basically told him to keep it because Larry had given her a better one. Then to add insult to injury, she said I can’t spend time with you because I promised to make dinner for the guy who gave me a more desirable automobile.

            She put her car in reverse. When she stopped in front of the couple, they stood side by side with unreadable expressions. Dumbfounded? Guilty? Apprehensive? Probably all three. She mustered as friendly a voice as she could manage. “Jimmy, can I talk to you for a minute?”

            “Sure,” he said uneasily.

            “I’ll see you later,” Lucy said and quickly stepped toward her front door. But then she covertly stepped aside to eavesdrop.

            Jimmy bent toward Jenny’s open window. “It’s not what you think.”

            She wanted this break up to be amicable. Was such a brief fling even a break up? True, they did participate in the most intimate act two human beings could do. Casual sex was so sleezy. What she had with Larry was much deeper, wasn’t it?

            Now because of that night of reckless debauchery, she could not be one hundred percent sure that Larry was the grandfather of the child growing in her womb. How could she even know the odds of whether it was Jimmy’s or not? What was the chance it was his anyway? One percent? Five percent? Maybe ten?

            She forced a smile. “Oh, what do I think?”

            “I know how it looks, but Lucy has been through a difficult ordeal,” Jimmy told her, but then became careful. He promised Lucy not to reveal to anyone what happened to her. “I was just comforting her.”

            “That’s understandable,” Jenny replied sarcastically. “I’m sure that’s the manner you would comfort one of your buddies if they were troubled.”

            Jimmy stood erect. Man was that ever a fair point! He didn’t know what to say and had no excuse. She let him off the hook. “Look, Jimmy, let’s just be friends. The reality is we just aren’t suited for each other.”

            “What do you mean we’re not suited for each other? We were jellying just fine until Larry entered the picture.”

            “So you figured me being reunited with an old friend gave you license to start kissing with that cute little Betty Boop?”

            “Reunited with an old friend you did stuff with,” Jimmy said, using air quotes for ‘did stuff with.’

            “And that’s why we should just be friends,” Jenny replied calmly. “Okay?

            “I can’t believe you turned out to be the most complicated woman I was ever involved with. In high school you were so simple and unpretentious. Now you’re pregnant and it could be mine, but probably not. I buy you a car, but the friend you did stuff with gave you a better one. I don’t know, this whole situation is just…”

            “I know. And I really do appreciate all you did for me. But I think it is in both of our best interests to go our separate ways.”

            “What about the baby?”

            “Jimmy, it’s only a slim chance it’s yours. If it turns out to be yours, I will be completely cooperative with you being involved in his or her life if you want to be.”

            “Fair enough.”

            “Friends?” She offered her hand with a smile.

            “Friends.” He forced a smile back as they shook.

            “Don’t you love chaos in personal lives, Querida?” Vermillion asked as we watched the seen unfold from the invisible spirit realm.

            He knew very well that I didn’t. So he asked, “Aren’t you gonna try to throw up a road block with the passion over here and the drama over there?”

            “Freewill, Vermillion. You know more often than not, things need to play out.”

            Vermillion was going to set up a devastating scenario for Jenny, but it would ultimately be for her own good. I was more worried for Jimmy and Lucy. Lucy was vulnerable and very drawn to Jimmy. Jimmy was, well, amorous and very attracted to Lucy. I also foresaw that they were gonna participate in mind numbing substances again.

            Although he and Lucy were being drawn by the Holy Spirit, they were both new to deep spirituality and living out Bible truth. They both had sinful issues and habits to break. But that is why I love the hymn ‘Just as I Am.’

            Come to Jesus just as you are, with all your faults. He died to save sinners! You have to begin somewhere, and the foot of the cross is the perfect place. Follow the Spirit of God and He will clean up your life, no matter what sins have you shackled. This is what the book of Revelation is admonishing when it calls for believers to become overcomers. Walking in grace day by day, and learning to behold Jesus to become a changed person.

            Lucy and Jimmy took a step forward at the Bible meeting that evening. But then took a  step back when Lucy produced a slim white cylinder from her purse. “I’m home alone. Do you want to come in and  help me dispose of this?”

            Jimmy thought better of smoking it with her. The Bible meetings were getting through to him about personal reform. But as Lucy looked at him with her big round brown eyes with gold flecks, he thought that she really did resemble Betty Boop and changed his mind.

            When most of it was gone, Lucy started laughing. “Did your girlfriend really call me Betty Boop?” she asked.

            “Former girlfriend,” he corrected. “Yes, she did.”

            She frowned, but giggled. “I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.”

            “I’d say compliment. Betty Boop is probably the most attractive cartoon woman ever. But Daphne from Scooby Doo could give her a run for her money.”

            They both giggled some more, then Lucy bit her lip. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

            She went to her room and put on a short tight dress with high heels. Then she grabbed a comb and parted her black curls down the middle. She went back out to the living room. Jimmy’s face became serious. He stood in awe for several seconds before he stepped toward her.

            Over at Larry’s house, more indiscretion was taking place. He still wasn’t home from Des Moines. But Jenny had swung by her place and picked up some lingerie. She put it on and went to Larry’s bed and waited to surprise him. But the surprise was to be on her.

            Not even ten minutes after she dressed provocatively, she heard a key in the front door. She heard noises in the kitchen, then the microwave binged. She lost patience and went to surprise him in the kitchen. She saw a body stooped over rummaging in the refrigerator. “Hey big fella, I’ve been waiting for you.”

            The person jumped, startled, and turned toward Jenny. It was Devin! “What are you doing here?”

            “What am I doing here, what are you doing here?” Devin demanded. “And dressed like that!”

            “I… Um… Was waiting for your D… I was waiting for Larry.”

            “You were waiting for my dad dressed like that? Are you and my dad…”

            Jenny bit her lip as she blushed three shades of red.

            “Unbelievable! You and my dad!”

            Jenny became defiant. “He’s stepping up and being man. He’s gonna be a father to the baby you wanted me to abort.”

            “Is he now?” Devin seemed to mock. “That’s interesting. So did he tell you that I’m not the father of your baby?”

            Jenny frowned. “You do know I didn’t get an abortion.”

            “Whether you did or didn’t is irrelevant. I’m not the father.”

            “Devin, you don’t understand, there’s only a slim chance the baby is the other guy’s. You know, given the timing of my monthly cycle.”

            “I’m afraid you don’t understand. I had a vasectomy before you and I ever, how should I put it? Co-mingled.”

            “I don’t understand.”

            “After my dad set us up, I wanted to make sure I didn’t have kids. So he got me an appointment with a doctor friend of his since it is unacceptable for a childless guy to get snipped.”

            “So why did you offer to pay for an abortion even though it wasn’t yours?”

            He shrugged. “A payoff I guess, so you would keep my sexuality a secret.”

            “I’m getting out of here!” Jenny declared.

            “Don’t go on my account.”

            “Why are you here anyway?”

            “My condo got painted today, and Larry said I could spend the night.”

            Jenny went to the bedroom, scrambled out of her lingerie and got dressed. She opened the front door to flee but stopped in her tracks. Both she and Larry looked at each other with surprise on their faces. Devin walked up behind them chewing on a burrito he had heated in the microwave. Larry looked from Jenny to his son, and then back to Jenny. “I thought you had to work tonight.”

            Her eyes narrowed, and her jaw clenched and unclenched. “And I thought Devin was the father of my child.”