ANGELS AT WAR

CHAPTER 23

ARCHANGEL QUERIDA

BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER, TENDERHEARTED, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, EVEN AS GOD IN CHRIST FORGAVE YOU. (Ephesians 4:32)

            Vermillion approached me as I watched Jenny and Jimmy exchange a brief hug. “What are you up to?”

            “What do you mean?” I asked as I refrained from giggling. The merriment I felt wasn’t in any way trying to gloat over my adversary. I was pleased because the arrangement I assisted on  worked out better than I hoped.

            “I know you impressed Jimmy to go to that night club. Isn’t that against your principles?”

            “It wasn’t for the sake of self-indulgence. Jimmy hasn’t had an adult beverage in more than a quarter century. He simply went with some business associates to support their friend in his new band. He stayed for the first set and now he’s leaving.”

            “I don’t get it. You knew Jenny was going to be there with her latest fling.”

            “Jimmy wasn’t all that jealous. It’s been four years since Jenny moved out.”

            “I notice you qualified it with ‘all that.’

            “I know you had the green eyed monster give him a slap. But I followed up with feelings of fondness for her.”

            “Why?” Vermillion snorted sarcastically. “She’s become nothing but a whore, only she doesn’t get paid. Why she’s gotten down to her birthday suit with as many partners as Jimmy did as a swinging single playboy. Only she’s done it while legally married.”

            “That’s why I had her cross paths with Jimmy. Deep inside she wants the stability and peace she once had with him.”

            My opponent looked surprised, then irritated. “Do you really think this encounter is gonna initiate a reunion? You gotta be kidding. They only spoke for a couple minutes.”

            “It wasn’t the duration of the brief conversation, but the spirit.”

            “Bah,” Vermillion replied and then laughed spitefully. “Her date had his hand on the small of her back the entire time. Other than when the man she’s gonna go to bed with tonight shook her HUSBAND’s hand.”

            “She initiated the hug.”

            “Only because Jimmy brokered peace between Jenny and their son the other week. But you noticed that didn’t stop her from meeting a guy online.”

            “We’ll see,” I replied as we both watched Jimmy leave. Jenny watched the familiar gait of her husband until he disappeared through the door. She bit her lip as she noticed he had lost weight and was looking rather fit. She had a surge of remorse over ruining things between her and Jimmy.

            Jenny had been surprised when a familiar voice said, “Hey there, Grandma.”

            She looked to her right and into the beaming face of her husband. The twinkle in his eyes she remembered even from their high school days caused a grin to grow onto her own face. “Hey yourself, Grandpa.”

            Two weeks earlier their son Jason had called her to tell her that he and his wife were expecting their first child. It was the first time they had spoken since her infidelity had come to light. The birth of two children by their daughter had somewhat repaired the breach between them. However, Kelsey not once had asked her to babysit.

            “Thank you for Jason,” she said sweetly, and that’s when they shared a brief hug. “He told me you put him up to calling me.”

            “It’s nothing,” Jimmy shrugged.

            “No, it’s something, something pretty special,” she  replied. Then she glanced at her date. “Oh, Jim, this is Tim. Tim, this is my ex-husband, Jim.”

            “Nice to meet you, Jim,” Tim lied.

            Jimmy, not wanting to lie, repeated his wife’s paramour’s name as pleasantly as he could muster. “Tim.”

            The next day Jenny picked up her phone a half a dozen times as she thought of Jimmy. Then it came to her mind that Jimmy approached her last night, so she should make the first move now. She texted. ‘It was nice to see you last night. It’s been a while.’

            ‘Good to see you, too!’

            His exclamation point inspired her to shoot another text. ‘You look well.’

            ‘So do you.’

            She waited a few minutes, not wanting their dialogue to end. ‘Thanks for not refuting me calling you my ex-husband.’

            After she hit send, she scolded herself. What a stupid thing to say!

            ‘What’s to refute you are my ex?’ he replied.

            ‘Technically we’re still married.’

            ‘I haven’t shared a bed with you in almost a half-decade. I think that constitutes us as ex’s.’

            She typed, ‘Would you like to change that?’

            Her thumb hovered over send. Then she shook her head, deleted it and typed instead, ‘How come you never filed for divorce?’

            Instead of answering her question, he posed his own. ‘Jenny do you want to go have lunch? Call me old fashioned but I prefer a face to face conversation.’

            ‘Sure I’d like that!’

            After they agreed on a time and place, Jenny hurriedly shoved her sexy skirts and dresses aside in her closet, digging out an old denim skirt that fell just below her knees. She put on a conservative long sleeve black blouse with lace trim, black tights with black boots that reminisced the 1800’s. She applied subtle makeup and secured her shoulder length hair with blonde highlights with a hair clip.

            A half hour later Jimmy’s breath caught when he saw Jenny get out of her car in the Olive Garden parking lot. She looked like the woman who accompanied him to church hundreds of times during the first two decades of their marriage. It was a far cry from the hot to trot attire she wore on her date the previous night of leggings that were painted on and enough make up to decorate a clown.

            Rather than going in right away, they stood by Jenny’s car and talked. Jimmy asked with a sly smile. “I hope your boyfriend doesn’t mind you having dinner with your ex.”

            She snorted. “He’s hardly my boyfriend.”

            “How long have you been seeing each other?”

            “Just since last night, but never again.”

            Jimmy couldn’t help feeling pleased that her date didn’t go well. “Where did you meet?”

            Jenny felt her face flush. “On a dating sight.”

            “So what went wrong?”

            “Let’s just say we had a chemistry problem,” she replied quickly and then sought to change the subject. “So Jimmy, you didn’t answer my text when I asked why you haven’t divorced me.”

            He shrugged. “Why haven’t you filed for divorce?”

            She shrugged. “To be honest, I figured the longer we stayed married, the more money I’d get when you did file. You’re rather astute at business… Now your turn. Why haven’t you divorced me?”

            “I always hoped you would repent and return to me.”

            Jenny was stunned as she stared wide eyed at him “You would have taken me back after all I have done?”

            “Yes.”

            “Why?”

            “I love you.”

            “You love the woman that betrayed you and made a spectacle of herself on the internet?”

            “I love the woman, not the behavior.”

            “But how?”

            “You’re the mother of my children, the grandmother of my grandchildren. We had a good life, a happy marriage before you went astray.”

            “I don’t even know how it happened,” she said and then laughed without humor. “I asked myself a hundred times, how did I get in this cycle? Now I’m, I don’t know, stuck. I’ve tried reading my Bible, but I only end up feeling lost and ashamed and end up putting it back on the shelf.”

            “He that began a good work will in you will complete it until that day of Jesus Christ,” Jimmy told her, quoting Philippians 1:6.

            “Then why do I feel so empty?”

            “I suppose you haven’t fully repented and surrendered yourself to Christ.”

            “I’ve tried,” she said and then frowned. “Well, sort of.”

            Jimmy smiled kindly and gently said, “Sort of isn’t a full commitment. Jesus said take up your cross and follow Me.”

            “Yeah,” she said with a sad smile and looked at her husband with longing. “I wish I could go back and stop myself before I got started down this road of rebellion.”

            Jimmy took hold of his wife’s hand. “You might not be able to go back and change the beginning. But you can start where you are and change the ending.”

            Jenny put her hands in her face and wept. Jimmy began to do circles on her back. As the tears began to subside, she went into his arms and quietly asked, “Can I change the ending with you?”

            “Absolutely.”

            “So you forgive me?”

            “One hundred percent.”

            “So if you forgive me, does God?”

            “One hundred percent. God tells you so in 1 John 2:1. If anyone sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

            By the grace of God, Jenny indeed changed her ending. She repented, was rebaptized, and she and Jimmy renewed their wedding vows. She also retained the good graces of her children. Thus making for one of her and Jimmy’s favorite activities going forward as grandparenting together.

(Writer’s note: Dear Reader, I am posting early because I will be unable to write this weekend as well as the following week. The Lord willing, my next post will be Sunday evening August 22 with something fresh. I’m still deciding on three different stories, most likely with Querida once again. Thank you for your interest! May God Bless!)