HEAVY METAL MIRACLES

CHAPTER 2

Eli

BE SOBER, BE VIGILANT, BECAUSE YOUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL WALKS ABOUT LIKE A ROARING LION, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR (1 Peter 5:8)

            As I sat in one of Penny’s examination rooms, I felt like I should be putting on one of those gowns that leave you feeling cold and exposed as you patiently wait to get poked and prodded by medical staff. But this was a veterinarian clinic, and although many people thought of me as an animal, I was in fact human.

            My humanity also was becoming impatient when my instructions from Penny to ‘wait in here for a minute’ surpassed the twenty minute mark. When the wait hit twenty two minutes, I had entered into full impatience. I was beginning to rise when there was two raps on the door and Penny burst in. “Come on, we gotta go before Ariel gets back.”

            The white medical coat she had been wearing when I first arrived was gone. She was wearing a light blue flannel shirt, faded jeans, and cowboy boots. Her dark hair was cut into some type of pixie. About a month previously, I had cut my long black hair to something eerily similar to Penny’s. It was the first time since I was seventeen that I didn’t have hair well past my shoulders.

            Penny was as cute as I remembered, but now all grown up. Yet she still seemed every bit the Tomboy that she was as a teenager. Of course maybe that was due to finding her at work tending animals. But she wore no makeup and had no jewelry, and  her current wardrobe was more masculine than feminine.

            I followed her as she walked briskly through the clinic and out into the parking lot. She bit her thumb, looked around, and then declared, “Shoot!”

            “What?” I replied.

            “I don’t know what to do, or where to go,” she said, looking at me as if I might have an answer.

            “I don’t know what to tell you,” I said, showing her my palms. “All I know is you don’t want me to see Ariel just yet.”

            “Are you hungry?”

            “Sure.”

            “Follow me, there’s a great place just a few miles from here.”

            I got into my candy apple red 1969 Shelby Mustang convertible. She got into a gravel dust covered Toyota Tacoma. I think it was dark blue, maybe black. It didn’t occur to me to ask if we were taking a dirt road or something. Thankfully it was all highway as I followed her to a town called Shellsburg.

            We entered a cozy café that was very much country themed. Without waiting for a hostess, Penny led us to a booth. Not long after, a voluptuous blonde waitress, around fifty, and wearing a lot of makeup, put a menu in front of both of us. “Hi, Doc Penny.”

            Then she said to me, “And associate.”

            “Hey Roxy,” Penny greeted, and I smiled to myself. If ever a name fit a person’s look.

            She smirked at Penny, winked and walked away. Penny had a frozen expression for a few seconds, then groaned and put her face into her hands, saying, “What was I thinking?”

            “What’s wrong?”

            “Bringing you here.”

            “What’s wrong with me?” I asked. But I’ve traveled the world. I knew small towns. “I’m normal. I’m not decked out in leather, and wearing goth makeup.”

            “You’re anything but normal.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “Never mind,” she said, gazed at me for a few seconds, sighed. “I don’t have much of a social life. On the rare occasion I do go on something like a date, it’s usually in Cedar Rapids.”

            “Is this a date?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

            Her eyes widened, and she actually blushed. “No, no, no! But, you know, well, it could look like it. I thought it would just look like we were having a business meal… But then Roxy had to go and wink at me. Maybe it was just because you’re so… Never mind.”

            “Because I’m what?”

            “Never mind.”

            “Some host you are, insinuating that I’m hideous.”

            She snorted a laugh. “You were definitely hideous when you were in that creepy band.”

            “But not now?”

            “Let’s just stay away from this, okay?”

            There was a moment of awkward silence. Then I made it even worse. “So are you divorced?”

            Her reaction reminded me of the fifteen year old Penny, making me smile despite the awkward tension. She sneered and said in snotty tone. “No, I’ve never married. But why would you assume I was divorced?”

            “Well, you just said you don’t have much of a social life, and you mentioned occasionally going on dates. That coupled with your last name being Baldwin now, rather than Grobstick.”

            “Baldwin is my mother’s maiden name. I took it not long after my dad left my mother for a girl not much older than Ariel. Plus, meaning no offense to extended family, I’ve never been crazy about the name Grobstick.”

            “Are you and your date ready to order, Pen?” Roxy asked as she seemed to suddenly reappear. She looked at me and winked.

            “This isn’t a date,” Penny corrected, trying to smile with innocent looking eyes.

            I found myself gazing at Penny. She was in fact beautiful. Her Tomboy appearance couldn’t hide her large doe like eyes and sensuous lips. What made her even more stunning was how natural it was without trying at all. A boy’s haircut, no makeup or jewelry, and a flannel shirt that was at least a size too big.

            Her large round brown eyes were intense as they gazed at Roxy. Her small nose crinkled a little with what I perceived was disgust.

            I tried to help her out by explaining. “We’re old friends from high school. I used to date her sister.”

            Penny glared at me with a tight smile, then back to Roxy as she pointed out the window. “I’m looking to buy his Mustang.”

            “But she probably can’t afford it.” I replied. “It’s not only a vintage Mustang, it’s a  Shelby.”

            Roxy shrugged as her smile faded. She was just trying to be playful, teasing Penny, but I think she perceived that she was causing trouble. “So what’ll you have?”

            “The usual,” Penny suggested.  It turned out to be a grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup, and a baked potato. I got a burger and fries.

            “Let’s cut to the chase,” Penny said. “I was out of line writing you like I did.”

            She bit her thumb and wore a concerned look as she was apparently looking for something to add.

            “What are you getting at?” I asked. “You don’t want me to meet my son and granddaughter now?”

            “No, I mean, not necessarily.”

            “Well what then?”

            “I need to feel Ariel out on the situation, and I don’t think she’ll be very happy with me.”

            “Didn’t you say my son wrote to me a few years ago?”

            She sneered. “Stop calling him your son! You didn’t raise him! You were just a sperm donor.”

            I was quite taken aback by her outburst, and it must have shown.

            “I’m sorry,” she said, touching my arm. Then she rubbed her temples and winced. “It’s just that it was already a long, stressful day; and then you just show up out of the blue.”

            “Well, I’m sorry, Penny,” I told her mildly. “Do you want me to turn around and go back to California? Cause I will, I don’t want to cause trouble.”

            “Is that what you want?” she asked with a frown.

            “No, I’m asking if that’s what you want? I was under the impression that meeting my… Ariel’s son was likely a favorable thing to be doing.”

            She sighed and looked at the table. “You see, Ethan writing to you six years ago was something I had helped him do. Ariel wasn’t happy with me then, so I suspect she would be even more unhappy now.”

            “Were you the one that told him about me in the first place?”

            “No, that’s why I figured Ariel wouldn’t mind him getting in touch with you.”

            “If she doesn’t want me in his life, then why did she even tell him about me?”

            “Her first husband wasn’t very good to Ethan… At all. As a matter of fact, verbal abuse turned into physical abuse. That was the main reason they divorced. But since she had two kids with him, the family was stuck with him in their lives. His ill treatment hurt Ethan’s self-esteem to the point that Ariel told him he wasn’t his real father, so he wanted to know who, and that’s when she reluctantly told him that you were his father.”

            “I think you mean sperm donor,” I said flatly.

            She eyed me cooly, yet a smile played at her lips. “Anyway, she regretted the cat getting out of the bag.”

            “Why?”

            “Why?” She asked with wide eyes, as if it were a stupid question. And it was, I knew what was coming next, just not word for word. “Mr. Hail Satan. Need I say anymore?”

            I waved a dismissive hand. “I didn’t take that stuff seriously.”

            “Is that right?” She asked skeptically, folding her arms as if in challenge.

            I looked out the window. I didn’t mean it to be, but my statement was a lie. True, I told myself I wasn’t serious when we ‘sold our souls for rock and roll.’ Even when we achieved success shortly after that fateful night when Izzy led us in a strange ritual. I believed our success had to do with my guitar playing, and our spooky stage gimmicks. I never would have went along with a satanic ceremony without being influenced by the other guys.

            “So everybody thought that her husband was the boy’s father?”

            “Yes, and you can call him Ethan.”

            “Even you didn’t know that… Ethan was my… biological son.”

            “I suspected, but Ariel began seeing Dan not long after you left town.”

            “Wait a minute. Dan. As in Dan Smothers?”

            Penny nodded.

            “She married Dan Smothers! That big idiot that strutted around like he was Hulk Hogan.”

            “One and the same.”

            “And she had kids with him?”

            “Two daughters that he treats like gold. Two little angels that can’t do anything wrong. Yet Ethan couldn’t do anything right in his eyes. He treated him like garbage.”

            “So what is this about some altercation between Ethan and his two stepdads. So apparently Ariel remarried?”

            “She did. To a good man, a decent man who was good to all of her kids.”

            “So what happened in this altercation?”

            “Hannah, Ariel’s oldest daughter was drunk at a bar on her twenty first birthday. One bar tender called Ethan and Doug. Doug is Ariel’s second husband. And another bar tender called Dan.”

            “Let me guess, Dan was drunk.”

            “Yes, but still coordinated enough to be violent. Hannah slid off of her barstool and tried to run. Ethan grabbed her arm to stop her. Dan yelled for him to let go of her while at the same time sucker punching him in the side of the head. The blow not only knocked him out, his head bounced off of the floor. He ended up in a coma for three days. So Doug charged Dan even though he’s easily a hundred pounds lighter. Dan flung him like a rag doll, and the corner of the bar severed his spine. He’s paralyzed from the neck down.”

            “So what happened to Dan? Is he in jail?”

            “He’s free on bond until his trial on multiple assault charges.”

            “So what’s Dan’s attitude, is he remorseful?”

            Penny shrugged and snorted sarcastically. “Oh he’s sorry all right. But how much of his repentance is regretful over the injuries he caused, and how much is sorrow for being in trouble, only God knows.”

            “That’s right, only God knows,” I said as our eyes locked.

            We stared at each other for a long moment. Then as if reading my mind, she attempted to clarify. “It’ just a figure of speech.”

            “Is that all?”

            “Yes, that’s all.”

            “You don’t believe in God?”

            She snorted a sarcastic laugh again. I got the feeling she had done this a lot throughout her life. “Do you believe in the devil?”

            “Yes I do,” I replied, looking her right in the eyes.

            She returned my gaze with a look defiance. “You just told me a minute ago that you didn’t take your band’s satanic imagery seriously.”

            “I didn’t. Some of my bandmates did, though. In the end, I saw demon possession up close and personal. It’s real, and it’s nothing to mess with.”

            Her sarcastic frivolity was gone. She eyed me carefully before asking, “Do you believe in God?”

            “Yes, I do.”

            Her sarcastic attitude began to inch back with a little smirk that played at the corner of her mouth. “So is Eli Endor, lead guitarist for ‘The Sons of Molech’ a born again Christian?”

            I wanted a smoke in the worst way as I inhaled the smell of coffee and fried foods, and I sighed. “I can’t claim that at this point. But I want to be.”

            “So what’s holding you back?”

            “It’s complicated.”

            Penny actually looked sympathetic before she said, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

            “So you’re still a Christian then?”

            “I’m agnostic.”

            “But you grew up in a religious household.”

            “So did you.”

            “Hardly. My mother raised me. I just had to spend a little over a year with my hypocrite father until I graduated high school.”

            “What happened to your mom?”

            “She was into witchcraft and herbology. She got caught selling a plant known as marijuana. She did two years in prison, so I got sent to live with my dad. I almost dropped out of school to focus on music. But I was smart enough to realize that there were a lot of talented musicians that never made it past the club scene.”

            “A woman’s voice other than Penny’s said, “Elijah?”

            I looked into the lovely face of Ariel, formerly Grobstick, formerly Smothers. I didn’t know her current married name at that point.

            Ariel looked like she had just seen a ghost, and Penny looked like she just witnessed a bad accident.