ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 6

CRICKET KARR AND THE ROCK STAR

CRICKET

EVEN IN LAUGHTER THE HEART MAY SORROW, AND THE END OF MIRTH MAY BE GRIEF (Proverbs 14:13)

  “Oh, it’s you,” Violetta said to Sully as a less than friendly greeting.

  “Nice to see you, too,” Sully replied as he sat on an upside down bucket.

  “Is it?”

  “Not really.”

  “Get off that bucket. I need to feed the horses,” Violetta ordered.

  “Get a different one.”

  “I want that one.”

  “Too bad.”

  Well this wasn’t starting off too well. They began to have a standoff as they both gave each other stink eye. Correction, half of it was a sit off.  “You pompous jerk,” Violetta finally barked. “Why don’t you go back across the road? You’re Jeremey’s guest, not ours.”

  Sully had told me he wanted to get along with Violetta, since they were going to be paired up as bridesmaid and groomsman at our cousin’s wedding. But it sure didn’t seem like he was helping himself. I curled and uncurled my toes in my New Balance sneakers. I silently prayed, ‘Lord what do I do?’

  “I’m going fishing,” I said, thinking of the Apostle Peter’s words in John 21:3.

  “What?” Violetta and Sully said at the same time. Then Violetta added, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “You’re supposed to say I’m going with you.”

  “When’s the last time you went fishing?” Violetta asked.

  I looked up at the rafters as I tried to recall. “Last summer with Grandpa.”

  “Is Mom running the flower shop today?”

  “No, but I got a few hours before we open.”

  “I need to feed the horses,” Violetta said as if it were an all-day endeavor rather than the approximately thirty minutes it actually took. “Now get off that bucket. It’s the one I like to use.”

  “I’m quite comfy,” Sully said with a little smirk. He seemed to be enjoying getting Violetta riled up, but I was cringing inwardly. He didn’t know one of Violetta’s biggest weaknesses was a quick temper, ESPECIALLY when in conflict with a macho man prone to cockiness.

  “I said get off!” My sister demanded and shoved his shoulder.

  “Make me,” Sully said, folding his arms.

  “Make you? What are we ten?” she replied fairly calm. This remark gave me momentary false hope.

  Sully stuck his tongue out at her, and she shoved him with two hands this time. “Get off!”

  “Children, it’s only a bucket,” I playfully scolded. “Violetta, I’m going to the tack room to get you another one.”

  “I want the one he’s sitting on. It has a mark, so I know how much grain to put in.”

  Sully laughed mockingly, causing her to really get her ire up. My mouth dropped in surprise when she tackled him. They rolled a couple times on the dirt floor. Now Violetta is a martial artist, specializing in Brazilian Jujitsu. In seconds she had him pinned. His eyes were wide as he said, “Wow, you’re strong.”

  “Yeah, well I wouldn’t test me any further.”

  Violetta’s eyes were like lazers boring into his as she sat on top of his belly. He held her gaze, but his eyebrows raised comically meek. He said, “This is weird, people typically adore me.”

  This was where I saw the icy hostility in Violetta begin to break just a little. I could see a smile try to curl upward from her pursed lips. I could also see by her clenched jaw and narrowed eyes that another part of her was resisting the merriment she was beginning to feel. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

  The barn door opened and Cousin Callie came in. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw a fierce-looking Violetta sitting atop Sully with his hands and arms pinned behind his head. Callie attempted to come to Sully’s rescue. “Vi, what are you doing?”

  She hooked Violetta under the arm pits and pulled her off of Sully. Violetta demanded through clenched teeth, “Let me go!”

  The two best of friends, who were also cousins, now began to grapple. Callie too had been a martial arts student. I tried to stop them. “Children, children!”

  The door opened and Callie’s older sister Cecielia entered. When she saw her sister and cousin rolling on the dirt floor and me looking like I was doing a funky dance around them, she became my tag team partner. C. C. was a year older than me and five years older than Violetta and Callie. Although a laid back hippie-like art teacher, she was also the oldest of the Karr cousins and grew up being our boss at family gatherings.

  C. C. clapped her hands a couple times, and horse bodies came to attention along with my sister and her sister. When she ordered the two women to stop, they obeyed immediately. After sorting out the situation, she gave another order. “Vi, tell Sully you’re sorry.”

  Like a five year-old being scolded for taking a toy from someone, Violetta looked at her feet and said, “Sorry.”

  “Sorry for what and to who, Vi?” C. C. said, not satisfied with Violetta’s apology.

  “Sorry for tackling you,” she said, then looked at him and said his name rather snarky, “Sully.”

  “You should be,” Sully replied with mock indignation. “But I’ll take the high road and forgive you.”

  “Mr. Sage,” Cecelia now addressed Sully. A smile played at her lips. Although she had a bossy side, and I’m sure she kept her high school students in line, she was also fun loving and detected that the skirmish just broken up was likely not all that serious.

  “Ma’am?” Sully responded.

  “You should apologize to Violetta as well,” Cecelia suggested. “It sounds like you were provoking her.”

  “Sorry.”

  Cecelia sighed and said, “For what and to who?”

  “Sorry for provoking you, Violetta.”

  “Now you two shake,” Cecelia ordered.

  Violetta actually offered her hand first. But Sully smiled warmly and opened his arms. “We can even do better than that. How about a hug?”

  Violetta’s eyes narrowed and she took a step back. Cecelia suggested, “That’s a nice gesture, Vi. Now give the fella a hug.”

  My lips parted in surprise as I watched Violetta step into Sully’s embrace. Although Violetta had a general dislike, bordering on hatred for a certain type of male, she had in fact dated a few guys. However, just to be clear, they were guys that were not her type. But I had never seen her participate in something resembling physical affection, as in a hug with a man she was not related to.

  I felt a twinge of something as I watched their arms go around each other. I don’t think it was jealousy. But Sully was a great looking guy. He reminded me of a feral version of Ashton Kutcher. He also had a charm and cool about him that had probably developed over countless performances as a musician.

  When I observed the two step toward each other, I thought it would be a two second pat-pat on the back. But again to my surprise, Violetta’s arms looped around his neck. Sully’s hands clasped around the small of her back. They did make a gorgeous couple.

  Believe it or not, I was never jealous that Violetta was prettier than me. I was actually pleased that I had the same parents as someone so lovely. Besides, it’s hard to resent a person who you know would not only give you the shirt off her back, but lay down her life for yours.

  The harmonious feelings between the previously bickering pair wouldn’t last. An eruption was on the horizon of peacefulness. Sully, a few inches taller than Violetta, bent his head and kissed her cheek. She pushed away from him. “What’d ya think you’re doing?”

  “Making peace,” he said with a smirk.

  I think it was the smirk that motivated Violetta with her next spontaneous move. Behind the grin was, dare I say it, a demeanor of cockiness. With both hands she shove him hard in the chest as she bellowed, “Creep!”

  Sully stumbled backwards and tripped over the bucket he had been sitting on. He fell hard on his rearend. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I think I felt the reverberation. Even Violetta’s lovely large blue green eyes widened, and a hand went to her mouth.

  “Violetta!” Cecelia scolded. “Help him up.”

  Violetta offered her hand and Sully took it. But instead of allowing her to assist him, he yanked her down and she landed on top of him. Laughing gleefully, and beginning to roll her backside to the floor, he declared, “Who pins who now?”

  Sully was over six feet tall and probably approaching two hundred pounds. He appeared surprisingly fit for someone who seemed to be a self-indulgent rock star. Violetta was five foot nine and maybe one forty soaking wet. But she was strong and knew self-defense. She rolled along with Sully rather than resist him, then rolled halfway around again and she pinned him again. But this time she began to twist one of his wrists in an unnatural position. His vocal emission went something like this, “Ow, ow, ow!”

  I squinted my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly. Violetta was smiling, then giggling. But Callie grabbed her left arm, Cecelia grabbed her right arm and hoisted her off poor Sully. When the dust settled and was brushed off as well as possible, Cecelia tried making peace once again. This time she held a fly swatter and waved it back and forth. “You two shake hands and only shake hands. Any deviation will garner a slap with this bug terminator. Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sully said. Violetta nodded.

  As they shook, Sully said in a very debonair manner, “I do apologize for provoking you, Miss Karr.”

  “And I apologize for getting a little violent.”

  Sully chuckled. “If that was a little, I better not ever provoke you to a lot. Cricket called you a pistol, but I’d say you’re more like an assault rifle.”

  Violetta frowned so I piped up. “I believe that was a compliment, Vi.”

  “It was,” Sully confirmed. But then sort of disqualified his statement saying, “For the most part.”

  The four of us Karr women all pitched in and had the half dozen horses fed and watered in under ten minutes or so. When we finished, I didn’t see Sully in the barn. He wasn’t outside either.

  Querida, via visiting me in my dream, had instructed me to share God’s love with Sully. But I had barely got started when Violetta, and then the other two Karr sisters, interrupted us. I was about to begin a search for Sully when my sister grabbed my arm. In a low, secretive tone she said, “Cricket, come here.”

  “What for? I need to find Sully.”

  She frowned. “What for?”

  I shrugged. “I want to talk to him about God.”

  “Him? God?”

  “Yes, so please be quick. What do you want?”

  “Come over here,” she instructed, leading me over by the corner of the horse barn. “Come close. Now sniff.”

  She began to flap her arms like she was doing the chicken dance. “Vi, what are you doing?”

  “Sniff,” she ordered. “Do I stink?”

  Reluctantly I did as requested. “Not really.”

  “Not really? That’s not a NO.”

  “Well, you don’t smell good. You went for a run, and then tried to beat up Sully in a horse barn. You’re all sweaty. Do you expect to smell like you just stepped out of the shower?”

  “I didn’t try to beat him up. We just had a playful skirmish. Now how bad do I stink?”

  My brain momentarily got stuck on the word playful before the word skirmish. Why playful skirmish instead of just stand alone skirmish? Why was she concerned with body odor?

  “Cricket, how bad?” She inquired impatiently.

  “You smell… Earthy.”

  “Earthy? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you went for a horse ride, then a run, and then rolled around on a dirt floor. Trust me, he was probably preoccupied with your skirmish. I don’t think he noticed any possible B.O.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “PROBABLY, you don’t THINK, any POSSIBLE. You’re not giving me a definitive answer.”

  “Vi, what’s the big deal? You don’t like him anyway.”

  She bit her lip, nodded, then said, “Alright, thanks, I’ll talk to you later.”

  I grabbed her hand. “Vi, I was just inches from your fanning armpits, and I didn’t think, ewe gross, that reeks… It was just earthy.”

  She smiled and gave my hand an affectionate squeeze. “Thanks.”

  She turned to catch up to the other Karr sisters. They were working on another barn, preparing it to host Callie and Jeremey’s wedding. I looked around for Sully, and noticed Grandma was still on the porch. “Grandma, did you see where Sully went?”

  She frowned. “Who?”

  “The strange young man.”

  “Oh him. First he went over to Jeremey’s for a couple of minutes, then he went that way, toward the river.”

  The family farm was bordered on the east side by a river. There was a low maintenance road between a corn field and some woods that led to the water. It was about a half a mile or so mile from the house. I pursued.

  I saw Sully standing on a bank of the river with his back to me. I stopped and gave pause with what I noticed in his hand. It was a gun! I began to step toward him again and prepared to call out. Then he began to lift the gun up toward his head!

  “Sully, NO!” I bellowed as adrenaline surged through me.